Shalbourne Gliding – OLD WEBSITE
A friendly gliding club in Wiltshire
The low cloud failed to lift before the rain arrived – at 14:00 exactly on the time forecast. The few of us there helped Colin get the reserve winch back online and both winches under the shelter. This involved returning the old hoist to Dingly Dell (apparently from where we originally acquired it). This involved towing it with ballast over the rear wheels to reduce the chances of it tipping over.
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| Multi-tasking: driving and posing |
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| More Multi-tasking: Driving and taking a picture |
Colin B had sent out an email telling folks not to be put off by the rain in the morning as soaring would follow – and soaring there was (well, unless you were the HAX boys taking a K13 for a series of circuits). Paul B set the days time to beat on the 4th launch of the day with 1:08 in the K8. That was topped by Jonty H with 1:10 (again in the K8). Jonty was looking to get the spot landing entry on his post solo card signed off by landing in line with the launch point. The assembled gentlemen enjoying the sunshine in the lee of the caravan debated as to whether his landing back at the empty launch point qualified as a spot landing as he must have been all of half a meter short – these boys can be hard to impress.
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| Looking for gliders at an empty launch point |
Bill C took the honours for longest flight in the Vega with 54 minutes. Longest K13 flight was Rowland with 44 minutes, gaining a bronze leg on his 5th (or there abouts) solo flight. King of the castle was claimed by Paul Mc who topped out at 3,400′ in the Vega.
Footnote: I suppose it’s not really fair to pick out the HAX boys as you had to be a bit lucky with the timing of your launch. Only 8 of the 23 launches managed more than 20 minutes. I also have to appologise to Jonty H as I stripped him of his longest flight honours. I only took the K8 as it seemed rude to leave it sitting when there was spare cable sitting next to it. Mind, it took 900′ of the 2,000′ launch to find my first (weak) climb.
Third Wednesday in a row where we’ve been “blessed” with an easterly crosswind. Only difference this time was the touch of northerly and a lot more of it. The challenge of the day (other than dealing with a lively cross wind) was to get into a double digit flight time. Sitting in the back seat with Jonty H flying, he declared he would do a gentle turn onto his high key. The vario chirped and Jonty got stuck in. Wrestling broken lift and drift he eventually got to 1,200′ at which point the “hot spot” we kept returning to went cold (a chilly 4 down). I did comment that if that was a “gentle” turn I would appreciate plenty of warning for a steep turn. Nobody else came close to Jonty’s 23 minutes but there were another 5 (of the 26) that achieved double digits.
Interestingly (?) we did one more launch and 2 more minutes than Sunday and 15 people flew on both days.
Another Wednesday, another day with a 90 degree cross wind from the east. This time Colin had promised soaring and soaring we got. What we didn’t get was great vis. It was one of those days when the higher you climbed the smaller area you could see.
Apparently the day started with a bit of a double act preparing the winch. It was decided to replace two joins close to each other with just a single join. Joins replaced and it was found that the drums had been left engage so there was lots of loose cable on the other drum. In sorting that cable fell off the other drum and the quickest way to sort the tangle was to cut out the new join (I was asked to recount that tale by one of the participants).
Flying did get started shortly before midday and the first 8 flights all enjoyed some soaring (between 26 minutes and 1:56). Next 7 launches were just circuits and after that most were soaring flights. After having one of the 7 circuits, off my second launch I made straight for a likely looking cloud over Ham. The reading on the averager just kept getting better and from 2,000′ to 4,000′ (cloud base) it never went below 6 and peaked at 7. After that the averager never got much above 2 up.
Longest flight honours went to Paul McG with 2:04 in the Vega. With 35 launches we were somewhat behind Sunday’s exceptional number of launches but the flying time was more than double that of Sunday’s. If you exclude the longest flight on each day then Wednesday’s flying time was 3 time that of Sunday’s.
It was also a day for a small gathering of folks who were members many moons ago. Tony P rejoined after a lapse of about 25 years. Adam C visited after a similar period away. He was recently in Poland at the World championships as New Zealand’s team captain and now taking time to visit old friends in the UK. Adam and Colin had fun when Adam went as ballast in the Puchacz when Colin decided that the quickest way to get the Pauchacz to the back of the grid (as nobody was waiting to fly it at that time) was to launch and throw it about. Adam got his own back in a K13 when he headed for the only cloud on offer competition pilot style. The other person with a long gap between being a member was Jonty who flew at the club before Tony or Adam’s time – but that was done sitting on his father’s lap.
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| Adam C back “home” at Rivar Hill |