Not exactly a promising day with complete cloud cover and a south-easterly. Not many folks in attendance with some of the regulars at Sutton Bank and of those there Colin B was getting the club trailer into a usable state and the HAX boys were busy fettling. We threw a K13 into the air for a weather check and I was able to report cloud base at 1,600′ – which just happened the be launch height. After a couple of hours the cloud base got lower and it was time to put the toys away – besides there’s a limit to how many 5 or 6 minute flights one wants to take. A modest 11 launches.
Sunday 31st August
Good soaring conditions along with a light WNW wind gave us plenty of extended flights and produced many in excess of an hour.
Chris B in his LS7 set off to the west getting as far as Westbury Chimney before the approaching sea breeze stopped him from venturing any further. Unfortunately Chris managed to get back which was a shame as I was looking forward to making use of my fully charged video camera so that I could take revenge for him filming Carol and I’s land out at Urchfont the previous weekend 🙁
Despite a flight time of 3:08 this was not the longest flight of the day as Trevor, flying his Jantar, clocked up a very respectable 3:38 on his flight to Swindon……..almost landing out I hear.
Cirrus pilots Rob Jarvis and Chris Keating flew HAX for 2:15 and 1:24 respectively whilst Paul Prentice, Steve Gaze and James Walters had over the hour each in the K8 and Vega.
Uncharacteristically some of the shortest flights of the day were flown by Liz but as I was putting her through her 5 yearly instructor checks and I was suffering from a bout of yellow bungitis I suppose Liz could be forgiven 🙂 Glad to say that after the customary exercises a signature in her logbook was duly applied. I would like to point out that the offer of an XC flight in the Duo Turbo next weekend did not affect the outcome at all!
Between the first flight at 10:47 (only cut short when the winch started moving towards the launching Puchacz) and the last at 18:19 we clocked up an quite reasonable 38 launches totalling about 21 hours 45 minutes.
All in all a very enjoyable day.
Saved by the Comps – a Rather Bendy 100K
As recounted in Chris’s ribald tale, Saturday met promised much but delivered somewhat less. I launched just before Phil and Carol and climbed away, bemused by the ‘ground fumbles’ thwarting their attempts to get airborne. By the time they launched I was at 3500 QFE and heading west – so just for once didn’t have the frustration of chasing a mystically buoyant Janus disappearing into the distance. The nominated task was round the Danger Area, but the sky didn’t look like it would it would permit such an endeavour (at least not in an LS3 with me flying it at half past one in the afternoon). A top up at Burbage found me going like the clappers to keep out of a cloud street and shooting past Pewsey with little loss of height. The sky ahead said ‘proceed at your peril’, but a couple of ‘kamikaze kids’ from Lasham who I had been watching diving earthwards into the distance suddenly zoomed up over Devizes. So, the sky being less threatening behind than in front, the possibility of a stock 100k presented itself.
So in and out of Devizes and straight into a rain shower. To the north east, Marlborough was invisible under a deluge, so the only option was back the way I had come. Unfortunately the cloud street that had delivered me with such dispatch was now drifting over the Danger Area, so the return trip saw me scraping along the red line under the overcast in what little good air there was left behind. At Upavon just enough height for a straight glide back into Rivar. Then glory be! – a hang glider thermalling in a small pool of sunshine. Arriving just beneath him each climbing turn pushed me too close for comfort, so there followed an asymmetric gavotte requiring much effort but yielding little in return. Then right on cue another couple of kamikazes pulled up in a thermal close by; so join them and back up to the comfort zone. By now there were three deluges in sight, east, west and south and all the time a wall of of water creeping towards Wantage. But having chickened out once, I owed it to reliable old EEFy not to wimp back into Rivar without at least a bit of effort.
A line of cumulus had developed towards Newbury and a gaggle appeared over Vernham Dean. While there’s life there’s hope! So top up with the gaggle and head north ahead of the storm. The ‘old reliable’ thermal at Hungerford provided impetus to keep going and a solitary Cu under the overcast near Brightwalton delivered a welcome 4kt. Then a race against the rain to get to Wantage and stay dry, a final distant thermalling glider leading me home for tea.
I have to record my gratitude to the Lasham young bloods who marked most of the thermals on this most unusual flight and condolences to those who suffered the Icarian fate in the fields below. Their contribution to my enjoyment was immeasurable. (Even if they scared the bejazus out of me every time they set my Flarm flashing scarlet!)
Sutton Bank Slingsby week
from http://www.ygc.co.uk/wordpress/
Sunday 24th. A light WNW’ly that slowly backed into the WSW as a ridge of high pressure moved in provided good soaring conditions that made for an excellent start to Slingsby and Vintage Rally week, the resultant demand at the launch point being satisfied by the operation of 3 tugs and yielding a 21st century record for ATs from Sutton Bank in a day, 70 being flown. At least one of the The Slingsby/Vintage week visitors had obviously come straight from a tropical holiday as the following photo shows
but, more appropriately dressed he and his compatriots were soon spending their air time exploring the local area. Some ventured overhead the former Slingsby works at Kirbymoorside, while some went further east to Pickering, north to the Tontine and/or west to Thirsk and Topcliffe, personally contributing to the 41 flights by private owners as well as the 40 flights that exceeded an hour and even the 16 that exceeded 3 hours… [snip]