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Shalbourne take on the inter club league


The Oxford Inter Club League was held at Bicester gliding club and Shalbourne’s keenest XC pilots put in a fantastic performance.

Day 1 was a head to head between Shalbourne and Bicester pilots. Strong winds made conditions challenging but both Alex J. and Tim R. made it most of the way around their intermediate and pundit tasks. Even though Alex covered the longest distance in the task, he closely missed out on first place after handicaps were taken into account. Tim secured first place in his class that day, beating competition from the (famous) Jon Gatfield and his ASG 29e.

Cloud cover on day 2 made for challenging soaring conditions. Andrew P. competed in novice task, I (Nickolay J.) was in the intermediate class and Chris B. and Laurie C. fancied the pundit class. Both Andrew and I scored points in our classes with me taking first place by choosing to carry on with the task while most of the other competitors chose to turn back for home after the second turn point.

Day 3 was probably the trickiest day. Although I wasn’t there, Chris has put a valiant effort and scoring second place in the pundit class, while Andrew took first place in the novice class.

The final results were Bicester 16pts, Shalbourne 14pts and Oxford 2pts. Thoroughly worth the short trip to Bicester and big thanks to Laurie who captained and organised the shalbourne team and Miles and everyone else who organised the competition at Bicester.

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Shalbourne’s Youngest Visit Denbigh (again)

Alex, Beanie, Matt and I (Nick) headed up north for what was a spectacular weekend of ridge, wave and even thermal flying for Round 2 of the junior winter series. On Friday, Alex had by far the best flight of the day out of the four of us. Him and Ed reached 5000ft in the late afternoon wave and stayed there for a couple of hours in 620, while Beanie and Matt bashed the circuit in the remaining non-engined gliders.

Day 2 was my turn to have fun! Somehow, (big thanks to Lucy and Alex) I bagged myself a seat in the Arcus with Rod. We took Denbigh’s ridge all the way south and then headed to lake Bala in thermals. After coming back, we surfed the ridge in anticipation for wave. Although we found none, we did cover all of it several times while carefully observing the hooligans that were beating it down below.

Day 3 was Benie’s and Matt’s turn to experience the ridge. They both got descent flights lasting well over an hour and not far off ground too (videos to come soon). Matt’s P1 was clearly having way too much fun, as he was refusing to come back down even after being called on the radio.

All in all, a great trip! Good weather, great scenery and fantastic atmosphere. Huge thanks for everyone who helped organise (Lucy especially), volunteered time/gliders and helped to make it another fantastic weekend. Next is round 3 in Nypsfield.

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SUGC at Juniors Round 1

We certainly kicked off Juniors round one with a bang! Myself (Nick), Alex, Stan, Matt, Fin, Beanie, Marie, Pete and Jim all headed up to Sutton Bank on friday for what looked like a really good weekend. Saturday was the day when the real magic happened. Alex got to 10,000ft in a DG1001 and managed to squeeze in a first flight in a Discus, while we (Nick and Jim) surfed the 15 or so km of the southerly ridge in the Janus. The others all did 2 flights each, except for Finn who only managed the one, sadly because the afternoon flying coincided with his nap time.

We all rounded off the day with a bonfire, a spectacular fireworks display, some drinks and midnight humus and pitas. With the poor weather on sunday, we packed up and headed back south.

Huge thanks to Pete and Claire for making the Janus available and to Jim (and Pete again) for taking turns to fly us lot and the others there. Tim (+620 syndicate) also deserve special thanks for doing much the same. Overall, another superb Junior weekend and we will certainly be making an appearance at Denbigh for Round 2!

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Cutting it close…

There was no shortage of adventurous pilots getting ready for cross-country flying on Sunday. I (Nick J) had my eyes set on the silver endurance and distance, and planned a measly 50K (66km to be exact) to Bicester and back.

After launching into the blue above Shalbourne, I was lucky to get away from a cloud well north of the ridge. It would have been a rather embarrassing retrieve from a field had it not gone my way. From then on, it was slow progress to Bicester. The first two legs (Rivar-Didcot-Bicester) took nearly 2 hours, but the way back was easier. With the higher cloud base and favourable wind direction, I made good progress on the final leg.

When back at Shalbourne, I had 2hrs left to go of the 5hrs. I had some fun thermaling with K8 and a friendly Stephen O in the LS3 for some close formation flying. With 1 hour left to go, desperation began to set in. Luckily, I found a thermal 6-8km south of airfield, which I clung on for dear life. 40 minutes in, I notice that it was slowly drifting south. With the fear of drifting into the Thruxton’s ATZ (which on later inspection I was nowhere near), I left my trusty thermal in search for something better. Alas I could find nothing, landing at 16:57 – 4h 59min according to the log keeper and 5hs 00min according to GPS log file. Now it is up to the discretion of the BGA. If I do make the silver endurance, I must express my gratitude to the newly added wheel fairing in the Vega, which I am sure made all the difference. 😉

The others seemed to have much less luck, returning home early before completing their ambitious tasks. I briefly ran into Pete and Claire on my return leg, but later found out they had come home after struggling upwind. We also had the pleasure of welcoming John G, who found his way here all the way from Banbury Gliding Club. Rumour has it, he struggled to get it up, his turbo that is! Overall, what a brilliant day!