Shalbourne Gliding – OLD WEBSITE
A friendly gliding club in Wiltshire
It was thermic all day, mostly. Good in the morning, then a weak front went through at about 2 after which it was scratchy but thermic. A brisk northerly gave good launch heights.
Selvam took the opportunity to fly his new ASW-15.
Phil and Carol loaded up the Janus with Oxygen for the Sutton Bank trip (that’s kyboshed wave flights then!) and Andrew was adding blingy lights to his trailer.
The grey sky looked unwelcoming, with low clouds scudding across an amorphous vault in the brisk east wind. So those present set to, ever hopeful, washing gliders and cleaning canopies. But when airliners inbound for London were seen beneath a high overcast it emerged that there was at least some clear air. The weather check flight launched to 1400 ft through an opportune gap, leaving the winch cable dangling from the cloud deck. Conditions above cloud were smooth and clear and flying between the ‘cotton wool’ one encountered broad tracts of wave-like smooth lift. The strong crosswind made it more interesting, holding station close to the airfield whilst planning the best route back to the circuit between the clouds.
And so flying proceeded with check flights for all but the most seasoned aviators in these unusual and challenging conditions. I think it is fair to say that much was learned about keeping clear of cloud and cross wind landings in a strong wind gradient, but most particularly by the driver who demonstrated an accomplished slow roll with the cable trailer.
With patches of mid morning blue sky peeking through the mist and the forecasters promise of blue thermals to 3000 ft later in the day, a few of us put away the coffee flasks and rigged, but without too much conviction. Although Jim G had cried off instructing on account of an attack of shingles he put in a brave appearance, supervising the airfield and doing anything that didn’t involve sitting down. Having shingles is a real pain in the a**e, but even more so if they happen to be on your a**e. Get well soon Jim!
Any kind of soaring is welcome in early October, so after Paul P had defied gravity for more than half an hour in the Ka8, there was a rush to get airborne. Those who did discovering widespread lift beneath dark patches in the murk. The promised blueness never yielded anything but sink and mid afternoon cloud base was somewhere above 2500 ft, but the upper visibility was too poor to discover exactly where it was. Nonetheless visibility at lower levels remained quite good, so safe aviating was possible. Star of the day was Peter Ellison who held the flying instruction together, delivering a half day course and several trial lessons, before disappearing in the ASW15 only to reappear after 5 pm as the airfield was being shut down.
Motorway Junction at Hungerford North
Hungerford from Hungerford North – it’s out there somewhere.
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