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yet more about sunday….

I write this sat on the banks of the Elbe, 80p pint of Urquell in hand looking up at the remains of the days 5000ft cu. Mountains rise majestically in the distance and the bar maid is quite simply gor… Sadly I haven’t been flying, the hotel isn’t communism’s finest (i have been issued my single bar of carbolic soap by the stern receptionist) and Steti is all an eastern bloc industrial town conjures in your imagination – the paper mill blocks the views of the river. It does have wireless so I will write about Sunday to pass the drinking of the last of the first pint!

The day had spreadout, the forecast had said it would. But I was over Abingdon at 2500 and needed some more for final glide. I drifted ever closer in the 20kt tailwind towards a scraggy bit of cu beneath the grey. It boosted me onto glide and I set off for home.

It was an interesting day getting here, 5kts to 6000ft was tempered by a strong wind, thankfully the mighty nimbo has legs enough to make up for talent deficiency and the first leg up to Finmere had gone ok – some long glides using energy lines but at the tp it was looking grey. I glid in, rounded it and looked south – the lift looked a long way away towards Oxford. I set off at best glide. When i got there (the lift that was a long way away) I had picked a field and was wheel down on a downwind leg, but I got a knot and scrapped back up. Boosted by the now tailwind tp2 at Bullington Cross was easy with the best lift and greatest cloudbase. I turned north and set of for tp3 between Oxford and Bicester (Isley), of course the spreadout was heading remorselessly south and now this TP was all grey doom, again I glid in but this time running past it to the only promising cloud. It was snowing but working well and I climbed up and glid south to Abingdon.

The wireless has died so I’ll post this later on!

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Sunday……a little more :-)

Sunday provided those who turned up with some very good climbs. Flights above 4000ft were the norm with some quite good climbs.
Pete Smith flew RIV,FIM,BUL,ISL,RIV for 300.5k in the Nimbus but I only managed 140K before failing electrics, freezing temperatures, the strong desire to have a pee and deteriorating conditions around Bicester tempted me to fly back to Rivar.

Once back at Rivar I had a flight with Helen Forrest in the Puchacz and straight off the launch we contacted a strong thermal which took us all the way to cloudbase at 5300ft. For the last 2000ft of the climb Helen was flying the Puchacz herself which really made her day, in the end we only came down because it was so cold!

Great day but sooo cold!

Phil

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Sunday. (15/4) And this little piggy went wee wee all the way home.

What a day of promises and hopes. RASP looked as though it was the best day of the year, which for many it was.

I decided to pop down to Lasham and get a high aerotow to allow me a quick drop down to Butser hill on the west end of the Southdowns. My cunning plan was to fly the ridge to Lewes and back to Butser, then to make my way towards Gloucester and (hopefully) beyond.

I watered up filling the wings with about a hundred and fifty pounds of water, updated my ClearNav with current airspace and waypoints on the grid at Lasham (thanks Nigel M for the use of your memory stick) and took a glide down to the Southdowns. I remembered to keep Basingstoke somewhere behind me so I knew I was off in the right sort of direction. In no time at all I got to Butser and flew down the ridge crossing Steyning and on towards Lewes. It was peaceful and I didn’t see another glider- for a while. On my way back towards Butser I couldn’t see anything other than gliders! They were everywhere, below me, above, by the side of me; I didn’t order this when I took off.

Once clear of the Southdowns and heading back towards Rivar which I’d put in as a waypoint, and trying to keep well clear of Southampton airspace I found the conditions great, strong thermals but also strong sink. I pushed into a 20 knot headwind, albeit with a battery that died within a couple of hours of being switched on; I shut down all but essential stuff and made my way across the countryside eventually getting to Hungerford where they sky wasn’t at all what I’d expected.

At this point, and having drank a lot of water I decided to have a mid air crisis and on relieving myself found I wasn’t at all relieved as my ‘plumbing’ system had gone horribly wrong. At height the temperature was just above freezing (don’t worry well get back to the plumbing saga), so my feet were like blocks of ice, my vent for the cockpit was firmly shut and I was faffing about with the electrics trying to make sense of what’d gone wrong. It was not a moment for good karma in the cockpit.

Now, after my incontinence break I was rather damp around my mid-drift and getting colder by the minute.

Rivar hill was beckoning, it would have been so easy to let down into the field, probably to be welcomed by my good friends and flying buddies with a degree of sympathy and understanding of my unbelievable misfortune and series of unfortunate events.
Ok, so the truth, and I’d expect nothing less, would be everyone falling about calling me ‘Chrissy Pissy Pants’, which is what I was. They almost certainly wouldn’t have been able to help me push the glider to the launch point due to laughing so I kept with the half knot thermal and decided to drift back to Lasham where I could land in a far corner of the field and creep surreptitiously to my car, there to sit for a while with the heating on and my arse pressed into the dashboard.

I got back to Lasham, landed in a far flung corner warmed up in my car and retrieved my glider.

After a chat with Liz and others I drove back to Rivar to finish my day off smelling like an orthopaedic chair in an OAP’s home.
It was great!

Great day out and four hours flying, oh and an unexpected boil wash with extra fabreeze!
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Wednesday = Funday

After launching the first 3 gliders there was a trip to the hangar to collect the remaining 2 club gliders.  First flight was 54 minutes so a good start to the day.  Showers could be seen all around the airfield.  Fortunately only one dumped on us – the hail pounded down and sardines was played in the caravan, the 3 gliders airborne managed to avoid the shower.  Folks returned with tales of 10 up (and 10 down).  The vis was excellent.  The 2,500′ cloudbase at the start of the day rose to 4,000′ in the afternoon.  Peter E reported a climb to 5,000′ up the side of a cloud – that was on the longest flight of the day (over 2 hours).  Prior to that he’d had flights of 10 minutes(ish) so perseverance (and his free launch) paid off.  Most members got a decent soaring flight.  Last launch of the day abandoned when the sky started to growl.
30 launches and 14 hours flown and donuts enjoyed.