September the month that keeps on giving
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!
Saturday 19th May
Big blue hole surrounding Rivar Hill for most of the day. Naff all wind so not a lot of height off the launch within which to find that first essential climb. Despite this more than half the flights were more than 30 minutes with half of those being 2 or more hours. 9 private gliders rigged and one dropped in from Lasham.
Phil & Carol and Chris B ran around a 100km triangle. Steve B clocked up around 200km which included narrowly avoiding landing out landing near Harwell. Others went on walkabout following the energy. Several folks reported climbs to just over 5,000 feet. Second launch of the day was Alex J in the Vega which he returned 5 hours and 11 minutes later, having been to Aston Down and up to 5.000′. All three silver legs in one flight – congratulations Alex! Though he did manage to escape before the pub opened. 37:13 off 34 launches – quite a result.
Just in case no one flying on Sunday adds to the blog a quick summary from the log. 15:29 off 17 launches. Trevor G taking longest flight honours with 3:10 and Chris B not far being with 2:47.
As a result of the cracking weekend the hours flown this month is the second best number of hours we have seen for May in 10 years – and there’s still 4 potential flying days available.