Author: StephenO

Surely it couldn’t be a Bank Holiday weekend – 3 day of sunny weather forecast.  However, with the high pressure parking up this didn’t necessary bode well for soaring.  If yellow was the colour of the day on Thursday, Saturday’s (5th May) was blue.  Lots of gliders rigged but all lurked behind the launch grid until things started to pop.  First to break ranks were Phil & Carol in their Janus at 12:20 who bumbled around in the blue for almost 2 hours.  Jon D similarly flew for just shy of 2 hours in his LS7 but it was Steve B that demonstrated perseverance with 2:21 in his ASW15.  Where any of these folks got to (or any of the other private gliders) I didn’t hear.  Hopefully they will add a comment to let us know.  About a third of the 39 launches enjoyed an extended flight (i.e. more than about 30 minutes).

A really busy day with lots of TLs and 3 from the Southampton Uni group.  I wouldn’t have been able to get through the list without Nigel B turning out to occupy a back seat.  A total of 27 folks flew.  Special mention should be made of Chris K who spent a considerable time on the winch training new winch drivers.  Some folks had time constraints which meant they had to leave early but had turned up early.  Others drifted off after they had flown/derigged.  Towards the end of the day we were left with a skeleton crew to complete flying and pack the toys away (almost half of the remaining folks being Brinds).  A big thanks to all the members who pitched in and helped us get the most out of the day.

Having received Sunday’s log I will just add a note about Sunday as I doubt if anyone will blog it.  Hot & blue.  Just 6 short flights and apparently there was no enthusiasm for changing ends so the toys got put away.

Well, strictly speaking our first usual flying day in May was a washout.  However, “Wednesday” is an elastic concept to the midweek flyers so by taking “Wednesday” one day later we were able to enjoy climbs to over 4,000′, staying airborne for up to a couple of hours.  Very much a yellow day.

The sun encouraged a flurry of rigging with a pair of K6’s, a pair of ASW15’s plus a DG and a Jantar.  Martin S discovered that a K6 is not the most comfortable of gliders in which to do a 2 hour flight.  Despite changing ends we clocked up almost 19 hours off 30 launches (and despite an outbreak of bung pulling from the back seat).

The month wrapped up with a no-fly Saturday due to low cloud.  Sunday started with low cloud but the ever hopeful Sunday crew waited for the cloud to lift.  It did and they clocked up 59 minutes in 5 launches.

And so ended the another record breaking month.  The 3rd (of 4) months with the lowest amount of time flown for the same month in previous months.  Good news (?) is that it wasn’t the lowest number of launches for April. Oh for some decent weather.

Time for a caption competition.  Add a comment with your suggested caption.

Forecast was showers and blustery winds for the afternoon – at least “April showers” is normal weather for the time of year.  Timing somewhat out as within a couple of miles from leaving homes I encountered my first shower.  Arrived at the club shortly after a heavy shower had passed through there.  Given the uncertainty of the weather we cracked on with jobs.  One group got on with unpacking and checking all pieces there for the meccano kit that makes the new winch shelter, another group derigged the poor battered Puchacz and Trevor fettling the new launch point vehicle.

No more showers so we pulled out the winch, Puchacz and K13.  Away from the hangar/clubhouse area it was decidedly blustery so I did a weather check.  Good launch to 1,500′ in the Puchacz despite the almost due west wind.  The edge of a shower had got to the airfield by the time I came in to land – one of the more lively landings that I have experienced.  Took the Puchacz straight back to the hangar.  On chatting with Ken R he observed that the conditions were noticeably worse just after my launch.  As there was a cable and glider at the launch point I invited him to provide a second opinion.  Observing his landing it was clear that things had calmed down (enough).  So, we carried on flying but with the restriction of either myself or Ken in the back seat providing extra ballast.

The lift was broken, and rather rough low down, but it was streeting so we did get some soaring in with Rowland P (+Ken) taking longest and highest honours with 30 minutes and 2,800′.  Several folks made comments about it being an “interesting” day.  My rating for the day was the next step up the scale “challenging” (the next level on the scale being “why are we doing this?”)