Category: Flying Reports

A thoroughly enjoyable day yesterday as we managed to get in 53 flights totalling over 32 hours!

Many private gliders were rigged and lobbed skywards with varying degrees of success as conditions were a little challenging at times.

Amongst the highlights were Chris K and Rob J having just over an hour in JMX, Steve O having 2:24 taking in Andover and Newbury in the LS3, Trevor having 2:46 in his Jantar and Chris B having 1:38 in the LS7.

My first flight (ever) with Gillian Brind saw her comfortably taking the Puchacz and me up to 3,700ft only breaking off the climb when the view outside got err… a bit cloudy 🙂

Thanks to all who helped get the field set up so quickly and to those who kept the launch rate going at such a good rate and in doing so helped  everyone to cram those 53 flights in.

Lovely day, not bad for September 🙂

 

The good bits – lots of launches, not a westerly, lots of cake.  The bad bits – bugger all lift.  If only Thursday had come a day early.

Bob B started things off on a hopeful note with 13 minutes in the K8.  After that it was all single digit flight times with 3 notable exceptions.  Bob with David N crept into double digits (10 minutes) but that was after Bob finding several boxes to tick on David’s progress card in the spinning section.  Stan O squeezed 11 minutes in the K8 but undisputed soaring king for the day was Trevor G with 25 minutes in the Vega.  Selam rigged his ASW15 and declared himself content with just doing circuits (like the rest of us).

It appeared the Tony P had been inspired by the return of The Great British Bake Off treating us to banana bread and Victoria sponge.  Adrian N lined up a chocolate swiss roll.  With 40 launches it at least was a good day for the club’s coffers.

I did get accused of bringing Wednesday’s westerly’s to a Sunday.  At least I didn’t bring the rain as Richard had done the day before.  Arrived at the club to 8/8 cloud cover (the early birds said it had been raining when they arrived) which looked to be quite low. Faced with a lively cross-wind and a low cloud base what did we decide to do?  Why, pull the toys out of course.  By the time we were ready to launch the sky was lighter (but still 8/8ths) I did a weather check and at 1,400′ was well clear of cloud base.  The plan to test for turbulence over the trees on approach were scuppered as I ran into relentless sink near the high key point and landed reciprocal.  The sink hole over our landlords farm resulted in a few other reciprocal landing during the day.
First off was Nick who found a bit of weak lift which kept us at the same height for about 4 turns resulting in a 7 minute flight.  That stood as the flight time to beat for about 3 and a half hours before Selvam clocked up a record breaking 8 minutes.  Half an hour later John D assertively took the crown with an unbeatable 11 minute flight.
Hardly good flying conditions but we made a good day out of it with the 3 pre-solo folks improving their skills and each getting 4 launches.  Graham made the most of the day on the ground setting up our own FLARM receiving station which will feed into the Open Glider Network.

Last day of the flying week and the 3 rigged private gliders fettled and packed away – that’s how good it looked.  Paul B was first solo pilot on the list and declared he would bide his time (having been caught out taking the first launch only to watch others soar later).
The Neary family were out in force and first on the instruction list.  Anica took the first launch and was rewarded with a launch to 1,400′ (not bad for a SWS) followed by a climb to 1,700′.  It wasn’t long before Paul B had a change of plan and took to the skies in the K8.  Even Phil and Carol, in their Janus, took a break from fettling to launch.  After a short flight the Janus returned to its trailer but the K8 remained airborne for just shy of the hour. After that short flights were the order of the day with a couple of breaks to let the rain pass through.
Not many “old hands” in attendance but a strong showing of new members and visitors.  The result was 69% of the 26 launches had me in the back seat – probably the highest percentage flown by a DI on a day (with the exception of course weeks).  With Phil’s help we ended up with 81% of the flights being instructional.  After 17:00 (the time at which Phil turned into a Pumpkin – well, he might have if he didn’t get home on time) we managed to reduced the time between some launches down to 11 minutes by sending 2 vehicles to do the retrieve – one to collect the glider the other to collect me and deliver me to the back seat of the other K13.
I think it’s fair to say that we certainly made the most of uninspiring weather.  We did so thanks to the help from the few “old hands” (some of whom did not fly – out of choice I hasten to add), Phil helping out in the back seat and (star of the day) Ken H who winched all day (other than a break to pack up his tent).  Not forgetting to thank Adrian N for the swiss roll and tarts.