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Task Week Day 3

Initially the weather looked good for a few 50k attempts but things soon changed for the worse.

Never the less James Hunneman in the Pirat and Rob Jarvis in the Cirrus took the bait and soon set off, conditions were not that brilliant but they pressed on. Rob decided that it was just too hard so quite rightly came back but James had got too far away to safely get back so pushed on but eventually the sink won the day and James had to pick a field.


The stubble field that James landed in was perfect apart from one thing………….it had just been spread with manure.

Still being an ex glider pilot the farmer was happy for James to be there and complemented him on his field selection. The condition of the field has prompted us to add something to the field check list.
Size, slope, shape, stock, surface, shite!

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Task Week Day 2

After yesterdays multiple flights today’s conditions were no where near as good but that didn’t mean that we did not go XC. Colin very kindly just flew a circuit in the LS3 and then let me have a go as Carol and Geoff Seaman had the Janus. Jim launched first having loaded the Nimbus up with 4 barrels of water and set off like a scalded cat in the direction of Newbury. Carol and Geoff kindly waited for me join them after I had spent about 10 minutes at 800ft over Shalbourne before climbing away. Bullington Cross was supposed to be our first TP but poor conditions around Whitchurch made me turn back and head back towards the club. Carol made the TP and headed onwards in the direction of Didcot finally turning Oxford South and enjoying(?) a marginal final glide back.
Jim and I made it just past Didcot before deteriorating conditions made us turn back. With Jim calling out where the good lift was under a very dark street I managed to get back to Rivar.

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Task week day 1

The week started off well with the Nimbus. Ls3 and Janus all getting round multiple 100k+ flights. Jim set off for RIV, LA5, DID, RIV with Colin, Carol and I in hot pursuit. Initially climbs to over 4000ft were common but approaching Basingstoke it went blue all the way to LAS and beyond. Loads of gliders waiting for a launch but not many getting away. A run in the blue out to LAS and back to Basingstoke took us down to 2000ft with organised thermals slightly lacking.

Over Aldermaston we climbed to 5000ft and headed off to DID which was reached reasonably quickly. The return leg to RIV as filled with sink and despite being 1000ft over glide we still found ourselves at 1500ft over Hungerford looking level with the airfield. Not enough height for a circuit so straight in for 127K 🙂

A quick rest then off again, a stonking climb straight off the launch took us to 5000ft so a quick run to SNO, WAN, KSB, RIV was declared for 107k. Over KSB we climbed to 6600ft just to be sure we did not repeat the previous flight and headed back to RIV which we reached still at 4000ft.

Not sure where the others went for their second flight so will have to update later.

Lets see what today brings.

Phil
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Jenny from the block (weekend of 30/31 July)

on Saturday Richard announced his retirement from gliding, after all once you have flown with a celebrity as famous as J-Lo what else can you achieve… (for our older members she is a popular music recording artist often found on the wireless dial somewhere between Radio 3 and classic FM).

Meanwhile, setting off under overcast skys I headed out to the north east to find brighter conditions and good, if not a little low thermals. A couple of laps up and down the country to Buckingham (in Buckinghamshire, if you don’t know where that is) gave me a flight of 285km. I even managed to find Winslow…

Under the overcast skies at home much soaring was still taking place.

Sunday rounded off a soarable weekend, albeit a little blue and windy. Colin managed to find “The Wave” just north of the ridge and worked it for a while. Others contented themselves with thermals, not least Phil flying about a 1000 trial lessons – all went home happy! The challenging conditions meant we welcomed a couple of outlandees from Bicester.

(PS Richard hasnt really retired, apparently the J Lo in the log was a different one, oh well!)