Flying Reports Archives - Page 80 of 99 - Shalbourne Gliding

16th August 201520th August 2015

Sunday 16th August

Arrived on the airfield to find the lads well into DI’ing everything that moved. I was equally impressed to discover canopy cleaning back in fashion. Then a bit of a lull as eyes cast aloft found unbroken strato cu with little promise of early soaring. CFI volunteered a quick tempter but then promptly retreated to the brownie point exchange. Those who followed managed little more than circuits until the stroke of midday when sufficient sunlight broke through the overcast to permit soaring.

With every club glider on the line and relatively few pilots, those who did connect with the capricious lift took full advantage of the scarce commodity with some long flights, taking refuge at cloud base where Sean K glued the Ka8 and spent an hour or so gazing down on passing traffic inbound to Lasham. Meanwhile Chris B and Steve G set off west in the Puchacz for a couple of hours on a fruitful cross country tutorial.

Two ‘hangar flights’ at around 5 p.m which promptly found their way up to the 5000ft cloud base proved, once again – ‘it ain’t over ’til it’s over’. And concerning which, thanks to Phil for not exhausting the Puchacz’s supply of spins and loops.

16th August 2015

Sunday 9th

Following Super Saturday only the die-hards and those not allowed out to play on Saturday were around. A select few but enough to clock up 26 launches (2 more than the previous day) and 14 hours of flying (half that of the previous day) certainly better than would have been expected given the weather forecast. The day started very grey and none of us were quite sure what to make of the clouds with their undulating base.

Everybody there was off-checks, so nothing to keep the duty instructor (yours truly, yet again) entertained. Selvam took pity on me and requested some flights with his altimeter covered. First flight was routine but the second proved to be much more interesting 🙂 Fourth launch of the day James W seem to have got stuck which prompted more folks to throw themselves at the sky. Nigel B had kindly come along to help out with the 3 TLs booked in but then more turned up so it gave me something to do also. Mostly it was a matter of launch and remember to return after 30 minutes.

Longest flight of the day was James W with 1:56 (on his second flight in the K8). The day ended with Gillian B flying with me – she may only fly a couple of times a year but certainly hasn’t forgotten how to scratch height from weak end-of-day thermals.

15th August 2015

Saturday 15th August

The conditions were not always soarable but we managed a creditable 40 take offs and 45 landings!

Before you cast aspersions on some of our members landings I must point out that because conditions deteriorated for a while some competitors of a comp being held at Lasham were forced to land at Rivar 🙂

Top honours were shared by Pete and Bob who each had 1:10 in the Vega…….separate flights obviously. There were many extended soaring flights and some good climbs were available for the lucky few. Sean converted to the K8 and Chris Keating was signed off to fly with friends and family.

Yours truly contacted a 5 knot thermal which took me all the way to a 4000ft cloudbase which was quite fortuitous as it gave me plenty of excuses to scrub the height off by spinning, looping and generally having fun test flying the Puchacz 🙂 Thanks to all who helped to return the Puchacz to flying status.

All in all another cracking day at Shalbourne!

Phil

14th August 201514th August 2015

Saturday 8th August

With Jim Gavin on duty flying commenced just before 11am with Sean having a couple of check flights. During the second one Sean ignored P1’s call of “THERMAL” ! and flew into sink to deliberately cut the flight short. A rather bewildered Jim let Sean go solo only to see sneaky Sean climb away (and away!!!) into the blue yonder returning some 63mins later! This prompted John Douglas to jump into the K8 and disappear for 2hrs 25mins thus completing a bronze leg…….well done both of you!

Carol and I set a task of RIV-CIR-DEV-FAR-RIV for 170k which we completed during our flight of 2hrs 48 mins, Steve B and Chris B flew their ASW15 and LS7 respectively around RIV-DEV-WAN-RIV for just over 100k, Steve flew for 2hrs 21 and Chris 1hr 40. Steve Gaze flying his LS4 had the longest flight at 3hrs 33 but I’m not sure of where he went. James Hunneman flying the Pirat had 1hr 55 taking in Bourne Park, Welford and Membury (I think!).

Other notable flights include Andrew Peacock with 2hr 05, Jon Garner with 1hr 29, Trevor with 1hr 13 and Darren with 1hr 07 .

Highlights of the day (excuse the pun!) were Sean gaining his Silver height during his second solo flight of the day (and only 3rd solo) in JMX and John Douglas who (subject to getting the logger calibrated) also may have got his Silver height as well 🙂 John saw Sean climbing away, retrieved the K8 from the hanger and took a launch!

Oh and we had a visitor from the Park in the shape of Phil Drake who landed his K6 at Shalbourne after completing his Silver distance….well done Phil!