If you like a bit of rough this was the day for you. After a weather check flight Colin declared it a “bronze and beyond” day for flying solo. Enough of a north wind to tickle the ridge but thermic activity meant the ridge would not be able to be relied upon. There was a large element of luck whether you caught a thermal or copped some of the 6 down. About 1 in 3 managed to ret some soaring (i.e. over 20 minutes). The stars of the day were Ken R who had 2 flights in the club’s Vega of over an hour each and Trevor G with almost 3 hours in his Jantar.
Wednesday 2nd July
With a promising looking day forecast there was a flurry of rigging activity, including those “on a mission”. Justin B for Silver distance, Steve B for Gold triangle and Colin B for lots of kms.
First a short check flight and then the next instructional flight turned into a modest triangle taking in Burbage and Hungerford. As the day progressed the cloud base increased from less than 3,000′ to over 5,000 (just). A third of the flights were 50 minutes or more (Steve B’s 3:59 qualifies as “more”).. Whilst some folks were lucky enough to get a couple of the longer flights others only got short circuits. Naff all wind resulted in modest launch heights and no chance to escape a sink hole if that’s what you were launched into. Even Fluffy Harris couldn’t keep the K7 airborne for long (unlike Sunday when the Olly responded to his magic touch).
After a 3 hours in the back seat Colin had returned and offered to trade places. I sat at the launch point at 16:30 in the LS3, looking at a not so promising sky and thinking maybe it wasn’t such a great idea. 1,100′ launch but found some weak lift which eventually (about 20 minutes) got me to 4,000′. Shortly after found something to take to 5,000′. After that it was a romp off to Newbury then Andover (left Andover at 4,000 and arrived back at RIV at the same height without stopping to turn anywhere) then off to M4 north of Hungerford for my high key. Paul P launched a few minutes after me and also managed to scrape away and soar the K8 for an hour. Unexpected bonus at the end of the day.
As to the “men on a mission”? Justin landed at Aston Down to claim his Silver distance. Steve and Colin abandoned their tasks but covered a fair amount of ground. Hopefully they will add their accounts to this blog.
Wednesday 2nd – Silver Distance day
Not exactly the day that the ‘met’ promised. Cu from horizon to horizon, but top cover gradually increasing throughout the day. En route climbs below 3000ft were painfully slow and by the time the rate perked up you were in the murk at 4500ft. Access to anything north of Oxford having been blocked by a couple of dozen odd folk jumping out of serviceable aeroplanes and to the East the skies cleared for the occasional Royal gin party at Wimbledon, the only way to go was West.
Nevertheless a few of us rigged; Steve B declaring a 300k triangle (Kingston Bagpuize, Taunton) and me 200k (Gloucester, Frome). Meanwhile Justin B had decided to take his Pirat to Aston Down for Silver Distance, proving to be the only one of us capable of actually completing a task on the day. The sky went blank for me at Gloucester and I guess the same happened to Steve when he got to Frome. So we both scampered back as the western skies turned to milk.
Reading Stephens account of local soaring conditions it appears we should have gone N, S or E – any direction but West!
However I did achieve the modest distinction of visiting Aston Down three times in one day, twice in the air and once with a trailer. Well done Justin.
Wednesday 11th June
How could I know when I arrived on the airfield the the grass, which seems to be growing at an inch a day, would cause us so much grief. I decided it would not be a good idea to risk flying the Vega with its low wings so the dozen or so people who turned up were somewhat limited for choice as the Ka8 was in dock for its ARC and I had sabotaged the newly restored JMX. So I got to working my way down the training list while the others shared the Puchacz. Rob and Chris K rigged the Cirrus and with a lot of harmony and understanding it worked out quite well. UNTIL…
We found we were missing two items – to wit: one Puchacz and one Ken Hansell
It turned out that Ken had gone off the lush Rivar pastures and was looking for somewhere to land which more befitted his discerning taste.
So it came to pass that Steve B, Paul P, Roland, me and Darren set about finding enough bits to make a Puchacz trailer and then set forth to Herridge near Collingbourne Kingston. It was at this point that I realised just how much grief the long grass was going to cause us. Had it been shorter Ken would have been flying the Vega – how much easier to retrieve.
On our arrival we found that Ken had parked the Puch in the middle of a hundred acre billiard table.
Ken had sought out one of the best kept lawns in Wiltshire, home to no less than our gracious Queen’s ex racehorse trainer – the inimitable Richard Hannon. http://www.richardhannonracing.co.uk/
And so the Puch was derigged and trailered, we returned it to our humble hangar and joined Ken for a generous gift of fish and chips and ale and relaxed in the setting sun. Unfortunately by the time we were finished nobody was in a fit state to rig a glider, so regrettably that had to be left for the weekend.