Category: Flying Reports

Having completed the first quarter of the 2016/17 flying year and moving into the New Year it seems like a good time to see how the year is shaping up – well at least on the stats front. Comparisons are made against the stats since 2007/08.

Good news is that this year is shaping up very well. We’ve just completed the best December we’ve seen both in terms of launches and times. 169 launches (compared to a previous average of 103) and over 23 hours flown (compared to a previous average of less than 15 hours). A marked contrast to December last year which had the joint least number of launches (65) and least flying time (8 hours). November last year was the worst for launches with a mere 64 launches, compared to 225 this year. October for both last year and this year were pretty good and amongst the best. The first few months (5 in fact) of last year were particularly poor, as most of us probably recall. In fact the YTD number of launches at the end of December this year is more than the number of launches last year achieved by the end of February.

The second quarter got off to a good start. The first two days of January produced more launches and more than double the flying time for all of January last year.  Ok, so it rapidly went downhill from there with the thieving toerags breaking in and stealing what can have only been of small value to them but of significant cost, disruption and extra work for those members who pitched in to sort thing out.  No flying in the following week and just one day this weekend (14th/15th).  Looking at the logs it looked like the one day was a good day with SUGC  back after the Christmas break.

The wind sock was showing more west than the forecast so we resigned ourselves to a day of circuits.  First launch proved that assumption to be false as Martin S found scraps of weak lift along the ridge.  After that most flights managed double digits with Tony P/Peter E setting the bar at 20 minutes.  Following that a few 18 and 19 minute flights were recorded.  With Tony on the log it was commented that it seemed unlikely anyone would match Tony’s flight time.

Colin B towed the Vega to the launch point and headed skyward.  After half an hour folks started to scan the sky for signs of the Vega.  There was even discussion about the state of the Vega trailer.  Quarter of an hour later Colin reappeared in the circuit with a 47 minute flight under his belt.  He reported he only returned because of deteriorating visibility (the low sun combined with a grubby canopy).  He popped of the ridge at one point to sample a favourite thermal source (large agricultural building north of the ridge towards the gibbet) to pick up a 3 knot average thermal up to cloud base – remarkable!

27 launches (1,900′ in the K8 and 1,700′ in the K13) of which half were double digit flight times.

Copied from Liz’s Facebook entry for Tuesday 2nd January:

New Year’s Eve – the fog cleared to reveal low cloud.  Still, flying on 3 of the four festive flying days was a pretty good outcome.