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Club exped – last report

As I write this most members who came up to Portmoak are now back down south.  Trevor and I are towing the remaining gliders back later today but so just time for a quick update covering the last few days of flying.
On Thursday the rain finally stopped around 5.30 and with the local evening flying group cancelled it was down to Shalbourne to run the airfield. With the aid of the professional winch driver and the rest of us manning the launch point Nigel took the Vega up for a 8 minute circuit swiftly followed by James who contacted a patch of lift which enabled him to stay up for 10 mins.
After the early low cloud cleared Friday turned out to be a reasonable day
  and both Nigel and Paul both had their first flight in a Junior. Nigel remarked that with Paul flying it should be called a Senior!

All in all a great week and I’m sure we will be back 🙂

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Club exped to Portmoak Tuesday 29th

As the locals predicted Tuesday was going to be a ridge day. With a light SW wind we were a little pessimistic  of how it would perform but at least with Cu forming overhead we had the option of having a thermal flight if nothing else.  
As  usual the gliders which were left rigged overnight were readied for flight and we towed them over to the eastern launch run which was a novelty as the last two days flying were launching from the west. This direction is amazing as at the top of the launch you are over the loch.
View of Bishop from the launch point.

 If you look closely you will see the Vega bottom right being flown by Nigel and in the top left is the Puchacz with Rod and Paul.

Nigel enjoying his first ridge flight in the Vega, the launch point is just around the corner of Bishop in line with St Serf island (in distance).

Below is a view from the same spot a little higher (and closer) than Nigel was at.

Colin, a member at Challock, showed us the workings of the jet sustainer fitted to his Shark.
The noise from this really is something prompting the CFI to ask him to start it up further away7 from the airfield next time……………I want one!
The ridge at Portmoak is truly amazing to run along and it is clear from the smiles that everyone thought this was the highlight of the week. Nigel, Jon and Wavey all had ridge flights over an hour, Paul and Rod in the Puch and Carol and I in the Janus clocked up around 3 hours apiece.
All in  all a very good day and a lot of fun was had by all and I know that some of you have seen us flying in real time on the internet.
Today (Wednesday) is a non flying day but we hope to get into lee-wave tomorrow afternoon.

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Club exped to Portmoak

The first two days were not flyable due to low cloud but on Sunday Carol and I managed to get every ones site checks done so it was time for Nigel, Jon and James to give the Vega a go.
With the easterly wind soaring times were in single figures but its fair to say that the circuit out over Loch Leven was different to what we are used to at Shalbourne, a video will be posted when I get back.

Despite the short flight times everyone is thoroughly enjoying the experience of flying here. The locals are very friendly and helpful, we are effectively a club within a club and have access to a tug when we need one…..only have to ask and a tuggy comes to site to launch us!

Also they say if it gets busy they will arrange for us to have our own launch run and winch………can’t get better than that!

Paul had an aerotow check with Carol in the Puchacz and was cleared for solo aero-towing as was James Walters who had a check in a K21 with one of the Portmoak instructors.

 Even though easterly winds are not ideal Carol and I took a 2,000ft tow to explore the Lee Wave that had set up a short distance from the west face of the Bishop. Steady 2 knot climbs gave good views of the scenery below until suddenly the gap started to close in. Despite descending quickly the last few hundred feet was done in cloud so both of us gained our cloud flying rating 🙂

As you can see  Rod and Maureen visited one of the many local whiskey distilleries and Rod could not resist buying some…………………….. have a look at the label!

According to the locals today (Tuesday) is promising to be a good day so hopefully I will be able to report some longer flights. 
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Sutton Bank October 2013 part two

Just as the locals predicted Thursday was indeed a good ridge day at SB.

The day started off bright and mild but with not quite enough wind to make the ridge work the first flights by the locals were not that long.

Not to be put off Chris and I took the Janus for a flight and after thermalling down from our 2,000ft aerotow began working the ridge, after an hour we landed to give Carol and Rod a go.

As Carol and Rod were flying I noticed that the SB motor-glider was ridge soaring as well and was making good use of the lift.

It soon became clear that not only was the motor-glider ridge soaring but that also it was doing so with the engine switched off! After half an hour’s ridge soaring they gave up and came into land probably due to the fact that with the engine turned off it was not costing anything and the treasurer had noticed!

After an hour or so Carol and Rod landed and after a brief delay for lunch Carol and I took it up for another hour, Chris taking his LS7 ridge soaring for almost an hour as well.

So out of the 7 days we were there we had one day of wave and one day of ridge/thermal clocking up about 4 hours airtime each but as usual the flying, banter and the friendly locals made it all worth while…….roll on next year 🙂

Phil