Shalbourne Gliding – OLD WEBSITE
A friendly gliding club in Wiltshire
I was up in Lancashire when the text arrived declaring a scrub due to heavy rain – so I took a picture from the kitchen door looking across the Ribble Valley – towards the Bowland Forest gliding club.
Heading north we passed within 10 miles of gliding clubs Bowland Forest, Even Valley and Dumfries & Galloway. The sky looked inviting at all of them but I wasn’t able to pop into any of them.
Makes a change for the weather to be better in the North than the South
Low cloudbase did not bode well for welcoming our visitors from the Hungerford Aircrew Association but there was optimism that things would improve. A leisurely start to the day and plenty of chatting with no one exhibiting any keenness to be the first to find out what cloudbase actually was. Martin S was the first to crack and was rewarded with a 1,400′ launch – mind, the cloudbase was just under 1,000′. We launched into a gap in the clouds and circled around in the clear air until an exit appeared. Cloudbase did improve and we were getting launches up to 2,000′ but all just circuits.
Liz flew 3 of our visitors and the others decided to come back another day. With little prospect of the day improving in line with the forecast Liz headed off – that was the cue the weather needed to improve. At 15:30 the “window” opened as Peter E lead the way with 21 minutes followed by Trevor G (36 minutes), Rowland P (33 minutes) and James W (41 minutes). After 16:00 we were back to circuits. The high launches at least provided me with the opportunity to do some of the fun exercises and tick boxes on progress cards.
…when launches to over 2,000′ (2 up in a K13) are available off the winch?
With a lively north wind we got to play on the ridge. The “we” was a surprisingly small number of folks. Phil M was late (well, late for him) arriving at the field at 9:30 but still managed to be the first there – he was concerned he’d got his days mixed up and should have been at work. Slowly others drifted in until we had enough to operate. Phil M and Carol P rigged their Janus and were first to launch and worked the ridge for 25 minutes. The ridge lift was not entirely consistent and the”sweet spots” were in different places in different flights but most manage to take advantage of at least some ridge lift. The time of the first launch stood as the target for a couple of hours until Martin S clocked up 27 minutes on his first taste of ridge flying. The Janus boys took their freebie launch to try and recapture the soaring supremo of the day title but returned after 19 minutes. On the last flight in the Vega Steve B made a valiant attempt with 26 minutes.
22 launches with just 12 of us having fun on the ridge.
“So low” at the start of the day as cloud base got lower; “solo” at the end of the day.
The day started with an easterly and sunshine but very, very murky. The cloud rapidly filled in, the murk increased and the cloud base lowered with each launch. When it got to 800 we declared a lunch break waiting (with little confidence) of things improving. Chomping on lunch (and the Swiss role provided by Adrian N) we watched the brighter patch to the south approach.
After 14:00 it even got thermic – weak lift over a very limited height range but lift resulting in a number of half hour(ish) flights. After about an hour climbs to 2,000′ were available. Shortly after 16:00 the soaring window closed. By then we had a gently southerly and good vis. Ideal conditions for a first solo. After a couple of “fun” flights (well, fun for the instructor at least) Nick J (leading light of the Southampton student group) took his first solo. Anticipation of first solo was prolonged as it was found the cable pulled back after the previous simulated launch failure had overrun so there was a wait for the other cable to be pulled out. Congratulations Nick.
All that needed to be done was put the toys away and attend to the mess at the winch – an opportunity for a masterclass in cable untangling by a Winch Master. Alan S and Adrian N did a magnificent job in sorting it out with only cutting the cable at an existing join.