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Thursday 20th July

 

Moving midweek flying from Wednesday is always a bit of a lottery.  Turnout on any other day can be a bit limited.  This week was no different but it was clear we would not have flown on Wednesday (cloud base reported as 100′ to 200′).  Thursday started not in the least bit promising but Bob B insisted that cloudbase would be 5,000′ in the afternoon.  With relatively few folks who busied themselves on jobs around the place we didn’t get flying until about 13:30.  Although the sky was looking promising by that time it came with a rather lively 90 degree crosswind (westerly).  With only one person on the instruction list (and he was at the other end of the airfield) I took the Puchacz to move it out of the way.  Having confirmed cloudbase was indeed 5,000′ I drifted back to earth, pausing only to mark a thermal for the recently launched K13 (my efforts were ignored but it resulted in me gaining a thousand feet in the 3 or 4 circles I completed).

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Look carefully and you will see the cable parachute and Paul B

It was a day for nabbing a thermal quickly after launch and making sure that climb rate exceeded drift rate.  Only 13 launches but 5 of those were of a decent length.  Turns out all of those were flown by instructors (Bob B, Colin B Ken R and yours truly).  Ken R impressively beat his way into wind and got to Marlborough.  Easy in a Duo Discus do I hear you say?  Ah, but he was flying the slightly less performant K8.  Paul B and Martin S got to inspect the crops when the cable broke on one launch and drifted into the adjacent field.

With Tony P away recovering from his hip operation (best wishes for a speedy recovery from all of us) no home baking on offer but there were sausage rolls from Waitrose.

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PS the hangar floor looks magnificent although there are now foot prints spoiling the shinny black surface

 

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More on Wednesday 12th

The expectation was for an exceptional day.  Phil M and Chris B had the winch out before most of us arrived as they had a 500km in mind.  As the cloud cover wasn’t clearing as forecast we set to and cleared out (and rearranged) the stuff in the wings of the hangar ready for the hangar new floor.  It was almost 13:00 by the time it was worth throwing gliders at the sky but nothing was sticking.  Phil and Chris launched at 14:30 but up until then it had just been circuits.

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Eventually a tasty street
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Resulting in an empty launch point

Our 3 newly qualified solo pilots all got some solos in.  Of the 32 launches only 9 were of a decent length (i.e. more than 30 minutes) including Phil & Chris with just over 4 hours.  Seemed like the best part of the day was the backend – Marin S in the K13, Trevor G in the K8 and Steve B in the Vega all cut short their soaring flights and landed at about 19:15 (presumably to avoid having to pack the hangar by themselves)

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The morning after the night before

There was a time not so long ago when someone going solo was a rare event and I think it must be virtually unknown for three to have happened in one day on the same airfield and with the same instructor. Add to this a bunch of Silver and Bronze achievements and you have something truly phenomenal. (I hope someone will write it up in S&G).

So, in spite of a promising sky the next day had about it the ambience of Glastonbury the morning after the final set (who is Ed Sheeran anyway?).

Hangover

That was a shame, as the sky looked good for a fast 300k. The ever present RD was duty dog and the prospect of no less than two one-day courses to deliver had necessitated the presence of ever obliging Stephen O to assist. However the munificent Ken P volunteered to shoulder the burden, leaving Stephen unexpectedly left free to fly EEF which had been conveniently left rigged overnight. So having completed the instructor shuffle, Stephen finally got launched at around midday, hastily followed by Phil M and Chris B both of whom sped off in the direction of Wells.

Stephen, having worn out all the 3kt thermals, and with a wedding to organise, graciously returned EEF an hour and a half later for me to eke out what was left. Anything worth heading for now being in Fairford’s temporary class D airspace, I was left to hang on to the scraggy bits around the edge.

But then I guess anything must be better than organising a wedding.

And thanks again to long suffering Peter E who spent the day closeted in the vehicle container welding the tow bar back onto the Pajero.

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Saturday 8th July, what a corker!

Saturday 8th July will probably go down in club history due to the sheer number of achievements.

It wasn’t the 41 launches, neither was it the 29:45 hours flown, no it was a culmination of:

3 first solos by Adrian, Bob and Martin 🙂

1 x 5 hour silver duration flight by Selvam with 5:08 🙂

1 x 2 hour bronze leg flight, by Alex with 2:16 🙂

2 x Silver height claims, by Alex and Selvam  🙂

and finally but, not least, 1 x 50k silver distance attempt by John 🙂

The Three Amigos show their happy faces! I think Adrian is smiling but it may just be wind……

3 amigos

John was “just practising” when he landed out at Oaksey Park.

I must say if you are going to pick a field you will not do better than this one, shame it wasn’t about 4k further away from  Rivar!

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This was after the LS7 was pushed clear of the runway
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Looking along the manicured grass runway towards the clubhouse
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John and Paul on the veranda
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Very nice set up at Oaksey Park

So a nice airfield and a very nice pub nearby..

Oh nearly forgot, thanks to Pete Ellison who kindly took charge of a half day course for me and thanks also to Richard who supervised the putting away of the toys whilst I was retrieving John.