Category: Midweek

This time  the “weather gods” did not smile on Wednesday.  Any other day of the week would have been a far better day to fly.  We were subject to a low cloud base (1,200′ and less at times) with a vicious crosswind.  Lessor aviators would have sat in the clubhouse drinking tea and complaining about the weather but not our hardy “Wednesday boys”.  Mind, there were fewer in attendance than usual.

Joint honours for longest flight of the day being taken by Tony P and Ken H.  At 10 minutes though they weren’t exactly “long”.  Instead of easing through the day the wind got more challenging in the afternoon.  It was then debatable whether we should continue with the Trial Lesson Evening that was booked in.  We waited a while before Nigel B and I took test flights and concluded the conditions had eased (less wind, higher cloud base) and we would press on.  Half the group had cycled from Newbury (and beyond) and went away with big smiles on their face and the hill heading down this time.  The organiser took the last flight and was rewarded with one of those rare opportunities of being launched above scattered cloud to be then able to look down on them and gently descend through the gaps in between.

Paul B took the first launch in the K8 and stayed airborne while others did circuits.  His 1:04 flight became the time to beat but no one got close to that until Charles McC clocked up an impressive 1:05.  Climbing faster in that first thermal than drifting west was not easy but even so about half the 22 launches managed to do so.  That included Peter E providing his grandson with a couple of flights as a post-exams reward.   Jeremy K thought taking a launch late afternoon would be a good move as the wind would abate.  Unfortunately, it didn’t and the last few flights of the day were decidedly lumpy.

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.

The photo shows the launch point for much of the day.  No shortage of gliders with 4 club gliders in operation and 4 private gliders rigged – they were all busy flying.  A largely blue day, plenty of cloud in the distance when we did get the occasional hint of cloud it rarely worked.  Despite that climbs to 5,800′ (Trevor G) and climb rates of 7 on the average (Bob B) were reported.  Trevor did his usual stint on the winch followed by rigging after everyone else then not launching until 14:00 and taking longest flight honours with 3 hours 18 minutes.  Couple of other flights of over 2 hours and 8 over an hour (out of the total of 31 flights).  Most launches were followed by soaring Alan P in his Olly leading the field in this category.  However on his 3rd (free) launch he did stay airborne for 1 hour 21 minutes – but only after Charles Mc marked a thermal for him close to the airfield.

With a total of over 27 hours flown it made it the most hours in a day since last August.  All that soaring plus donuts – does it get any better than this?