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We got a bit worried…

…when we saw Alan flying past the airfield at 1,500ft 4hr 30mins into his 5 hour attempt. We shouldn’t have as he landed an hour later to claim Silver duration. This was especially odd as it was a 6000ft (AMSL) cloudbase kind of day. We had thought Alan might have airbraked down just to make it a bit more exciting, he assures us he didn’t.  In fact it was a great gliding day, in fact it wasnt a 1,000km task day, but only just – http://www.bgaladder.co.uk/dscore.asp?FlightID=54073

at Shalbourne Jim, Phil’n’Carol and Chris set off xc up north taking the first cables as soon as the Cu arrived at Riv, we were stuck in a blue hole as beautiful clouds developed all around. Richard, Trevor & Steve rigged to enjoy local soaring and James and Paul rigged the Pirat for the first time since its overhaul.

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JMX returned after its annual inspection, Andy and I taking it for an airtest, to fully explore the flight envelope you will understand some soaring was required…

If i wasnt in the back seat, i certainly would have been in one of those gliders… Andrew later used one to claim Silver Height.glid_02024

We weren’t the only ones to soar, the duvets were having a good time and the field next to airfield was being cut for silage – the Kites seemed to enjoy that!

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John returns

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25th May-Open Day

With 55 flights flown during the day our instructors and gliders were kept quite busy. First flight was at 8:48am and the last took off at 17:58 landing some 12 mins later.

By the end of the day we had flown 28 trial lessons, 2 members guests and we also had a visit from Clive Harder (ex member and BI at Shalbourne) who a had a flight with Pete Smith, about time you re-joined Clive!

Rod Harris volunteered to drive the winch all day and apart from a short break for a cup of tea was firmly rooted in the cab, thanks Rod  🙂

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Rods eye view of a launch, can you guess the time!

Apart from the numerous happy visitors there were  some notable flights by club members, Bill Orson had 35 mins in the K8 only to be trumped by John Douglass who, during his first flight in a K8, had 46 mins ………well done John but you really should have done the hour!

However Trevor took top honours with 46 mins in EGF followed later on with 50 mins again in EGF, no surprises there!

Many thanks to all who flew the visitors and thanks also to everyone who helped out on the ground as I’m sure that everyone enjoyed themselves.

Roll on next year!

 

 

 

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Sunday 24th May

With the launching being from the northern end of the airfield we managed to get in about 13 launches before needing to stop to allow Ringo to start to gather up the grass cuttings which caused the cancellation of flying yesterday.
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Cloudbase was only 700-800ft so circuits were the order of the day. By managing to launch into a rare clear bit, Nigel and I found ourselves with sufficient height to spin JPC and in doing so managed to sign off Nigel’s BI rating for another year.
Due to the grass cuttings Steve Gaze had to frequently remove the build up of grass from the paying in rollers……see below.
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Before we left we made sure that the winch and all vehicles were refuelled ready for tomorrow’s open day and with Ringo’s bailing contractor due on the airfield at 3pm the southern end of the airfield should be ok for flying tomorrow.

Phil

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Wednesday 20th May

The good news was that the wheel box clogging cut grass had been cleared from the north end of the field.  The bad news was that grass at the south end wasn’t cut and the wind was from the north west.  Fortunately, not too long to stop us flying.

Everything was set-up fairly early but a delay in getting started as Andrew B and Bill C figured out why the Flarm had stopped working in the Puchacz and it started to rain.  Once the rain cleared it didn’t look exactly inviting but we launched anyway and much to our surprise (and delight) Charles Mc found a thermal and took us to cloudbase at 3,000′.  Racing along under the cloud (sometimes with some brake) we discovered the lift covered a large area.  Chris K took the second launch in the K8, borrowed our thermal and went on to set the target duration of the day of 1:04.  It looked as if that might be beaten when Rob J appeared to still have plenty of height in the K13 as the clock approached the hour.  However, he was logged back after 1:03 – it just so happens that Chris K logged him down (no rivalry between syndicate partners?).  Alan B was sitting next to Chris at the time and certified that the correct landing time was logged 🙂

Not every launch resulted in a soaring flight but all barr 2 had some reasonable soaring.  “King of the Castle” honours was shared by Rob J, Rod H and Steve B who all found the 4,000′ cloudbase later on in the afternoon.