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Sutton Bank day one

 

First day of flying at Sutton Bank today with many hours flown.

With cumulus in abundance and a 10kt  NNE wind we aerotowed  off 02. Cloud base was a reasonable 3500ft and there was good lift available

Rod gave Nigel  a site check in EUF and had just short of the hour. Chris encountered strong sink and had to take a relight after 15 mins , his second flight lasting well in excess of an hour.

Carol and I  had over two hours  and explored good lift over Thirsk and the surrounding areas.  Nigel then took the Vega for a couple of  flights very much enjoying his  first  aero tows in a single  seater.

A bit later in the afternoon Graham arrived and had a couple of  flights with Rod and was introduced to  aero towing and the delights of flying here at SB. During  the flight  Chris and I  flew alongside  them and took a few photos….. more later.

At the end of the day Rod found a nice spot to park the Puchacz!

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Seems this is the first glider to use the new hanger!

So a very good day at Sutton Bank and today  looks like more of the same.

Phil

 

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What, another TV crew?

Yup, this time the Beeb looking to fill one of their 90 second “what is the person in the street thinking about the forthcoming election “.  This time the “the street” was “the glider” and the person was yours truly.  Once again Phil’s camera mounts for the Puchacz were pressed into service (and much admired).  In addition to the GoPro camera’s attached to and in the glider there were two full sized cameras on the ground, another GoPro sitting in the grass directly ahead of the Puchacz and the journalist wore “Pivothead” camera (looks like a pair of sunglasses but delivers full HD recording).  After the flying shots it was time for the interview bit – with any luck they will fill the 90 seconds with flying shots and minimise the drivel spoken in the interview.
BBC Interview
A great big thank you to Ken R for keeping the instructional flights going while I played at “media tart” and to the “Wednesday boys” for putting up with the distractions and disruption (again).  Good news is that Sky haven’t realised they are missing out so that’s probably it for another 30 years.  Chris (the BBC journalist) called me on the following day, very enthusiastic about the material they recorded and big thanks to the club and its members.

On to the important stuff (flying).  Easterly with just a touch of north didn’t make for an easy day.  Totally blue with a clear inversion line – there were those wondering if Bill C and Ken R knew something we didn’t as they had rigged their Duo.  Turns out they did.  They launched after 14:00 and from that point soaring flights were on offer.  Broken lift, lots of drift but soaring nonetheless.  That was, until the hangar flights from 16:30 on.  The thermals then became consistent and strong.  Tony P flew me in the Puchacz and over Shalbourne he rapidly climbed to 3,300′ – which gave us plenty of height for spinning exercises.

Bill and Ken took longest flight honours with an hour and a half.  26 launches with 9.5 hours of flying.  A good day.

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Saturday 18th

With  a moderate Easterly breeze and blue skies the thermals got going quite early.

In fact during my weather check flight I had to curtail the climb in a 5 knot thermal so that I could start instructing, didn’t feel quite right pulling the brakes in such good lift 🙁

As the day went on the lift became more consistent and extended flights and good climbs were the order of the day. During one such  flight with Jeremy in the Puchacz we contacted a thermal at around 900ft and climbed at between 5 and 8 knots to 3500ft. The thermal was quite rough which made Jeremy work hard at keeping centred.

After about 40 mins of flying all that coffee I had drunk earlier needed to come out and with Jeremy saying he wanted a P2 (been wanting to say that for ages!) we got down quite quickly.

One feature of the Easterly breeze was that the conditions were ideal to practise landing between the caravan and main gate as the photo of Carol and Mark in JPC below shows.

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Earlier, whilst putting Chris B through his BI checks, we came directly in across the airfield from just in front of the caravan, the headwind graphically showing that ground speed is reduced as we came to a halt only one or two hundred yards or so into the airfield. All in all an approach that I haven’t had a chance to do until now but one that Chris handled very well so was signed off for another year.

Not sure who had the longest flight but I think Colin, Pete and Chris all managed to stay up for around 1.5 hours each.

 

Phil

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Lights, Camera, Action!

Film Crew

The sun came out to welcome Bert back to the airfield – but this time with a TV crew accompanying him.  In the middle of April we got a day normally experienced in the middle of summer (mid 20’s, sunny, inversion, no cloud).
Film Crew
Bert is about to be one of the stars of a programme for ITV1 called “100 year old drivers ride again” (imaginatively named follow up to “100 year old drivers“).  When they found out he is also a member of the gliding club they wanted to film him in action.  The crew from the production company RDF Television (Harry – Director, Ben – video, Martin – sound) arrived ahead of Bert to prepare the Puchacz by installing 4 cameras (Go Pros).  One on the wing and one on the tail (thanks to Phil’s purpose made mounts) and 2 in the cockpit (fore and aft) plus a recorder secured  behind the rear seat.  Then Bert and I were wired for sound – just hope I didn’t make any Gordon Brown type comments.  Bert is rather frail so getting into the glider was a bit of a trial but his mind and reactions are as sharp as ever.  We didn’t manage to find any thermals so just 2 short flights plus we had a cable break during the ground run.  Once off the launch Bert demonstrated that he hasn’t forgotten how to fly.

While all that was going on Bob B and Peter E were attending to normal club flying.  With 4 trial lessons turning up on spec plus a couple of folks needing the attention of an instructor, they were kept busy.  One of the TL folks had been at the club the previous Wednesday and this time she brought along donuts and her friends.  Bill C was the day’s soaring god with just over an hour.  Those who launched within an hour of his launch were also treated to soaring flights.  Outside of the hour window it was only Chris K who managed to defy gravity (in that case for 30 minutes)