Category: Flying Reports

The lack of a post does not mean lack of flying – just lack of making the effort to provide an update.  12th April saw us moving to ‘step x’ of governmensts roadmap (forgive me but I’ve lost track of which step we are on) – anyway, it was the one that enabled us to start instruction again.  Thus it was that Wednesday the 14th saw Bob B and myself being kept busy in the back seat.  the following Saturday (17th) was an excellent soaring day including Jim C off for a jaunt to the west country (and back!) .

Wednesday 29th was a special day when James H wheeled out the ‘other’  winch to give it a test.  Bob B braved the first cable in the Vega but forgot to return for over an hour to report how the launch was.  I took the second cable and can report an excellent launch.  It was also the start of the Wednesday evening sessions so we managed to clock up 49 launches on that day.

And so, into May.  A month to look forward to as things warm up, the days warm up and all is right with the world.  Hm, not so this year, overnight frosts, snow and lots of wind and rain.  The result being that of 3 weekends so far, only the first was flyable.   We did fair better midweek but the 5th proved fairly challenging.  As to “all right with the world” the least said the better.  Fingers crossed the the Indian take-away doesn’t take us into reverse.

 

It’s been a long wait to be able to get our bums back in the air.  Instructors got a chance to fly in February thanks to the realisation from the CAA and Department of Transport that in practice instructors would be needed on the “other side”.  With the first lockdown relaxation at the end of March outdoor sports were permitted so we were able to get flying again but solo only.  Wednesday 31st March saw most of the eligible solo pilots at the club full of anticipation.  The weather co-operated by providing  a gentle breeze down the runway and not much in the way of thermals.   “Whot, no thermals – how’s that good?” do I hear you exclaim?  It meant we were able to concentrate on the tricky bits (launch and landing) and gets lots of launches in.  We crammed in an impressive 45 launches.  All short flights, unless you were flying a K6 or were Bob B in the Vega. Ken R spent an hour trying to get back to launch height.  All the club gliders were flying that day (thanks Andy B) plus private K6 and Swallow rigged.

On Good Friday there was a modest 18 launches.  Mostly short flights but Tim R managed 41 minutes.  Easter Saturday an even more modest 8 launches.  No flying Easter Sunday but Easter Monday was a cracker with reports of climbs to 6,700′ and climbs of 10 knots showing on the averager.  27 launches of which 6 were an hour or more.

On to Wednesday the 7th with a north westerly wind.  Enough to make it flippin’ cold but not enough to tickle the ridge.  Not even a glimpse of sun to clear things up a little.  Despite this there was lots of soaring on offer with cloudbase at 4,200′.  I don’t think my toes have ever been as cold as they were during my flight in HCF.  How Jim C endured two and a half hours in EFF is a mystery to me.  32 launches and almost 16 hours flown.

… for when Lockdown Mk III eases sufficiently for the club to re-open by ensuring we have instructors who are current.  The CAA and Department For Transport decreed that it is allowed for instructors to fly solo in order to keep current  So, on Saturday 27th March a baker’s dozen of instructors (should that be a coven?) turned up to do just that.  They all managed to remember how to take off and land safely.  Some even figured out what to do in between those events and thermaled to cloud base at 2,700′.  The first 2 launches attracted the pre-10am launch discount.  By mid-afternoon no one wanted the Vega so I forced myself to hangar fly it.  After an hour I managed to find the hangar.  Despite the field being operated by instructors everything ran smoothly and we clocked up 40 launches.  Maybe that was due to Bob S and Paul P who came along to winch even though they weren’t able to fly.  A huge thanks to Bob and Paul.  Also to Martin H, Bob S and Martin S who did the annual checks on the winch the week before on a very cold day.

The following day there was more flying (13 launches) and the following Saturday (17 launches).  On that Saturday Chris B rigged and stayed airborne for 2 hours 45 minutes.  Fingers crossed the plan to allow outdoor sports to restart doesn’t change and we are able restart on Wednesday the 31st.

 

PS we now have 16 instructors current.

Wednesday 17th December was the last flying we managed to do before flying was put on hold once more.  In theory there were some days (well, maybe one) that we could have flown after that but a combination of weather and most instructors being in Tier 4 clobbered that.

For a mid-December day it was pretty good with 13 members flying to clock up 21 launches and 3 hours of flying time.  Bob B had a great launch as you can see from the altimeter.

to get a view above the cloud

and also capture a picture of a circular rainbow

I just end with the latest in what every glider pilot needs these days.