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Wednesday 30 June

An unpromising start was followed by excellent soaring. Big clouds produced large areas of weak lift. A search often found four knot averages, with cores of seven knots, to over 4,000 ft.

James has been camping at Rivar Hill and we hope to see his Pirat flying soon.

The Vega acceptance flights should be carried out at the weekend.
The Puchacz, trim tab cable and tailplane release, repair should be completed soon.

Next weekend Tim, Chris & Steve will be representing us in the Inter Club League at North Hill. I will try to post the results here as they become available.

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Weekend 26th – 27th June

The great British summer seems to be here with a vengeance for a change with high temperatures and some good soaring all weekend.

Saturday was a busy day with the club fleet enjoying extended soaring until it eventually went blue late in the afternoon. Prior to this cloud base reached 5000′ QFE with some strong climbs around. The private Puch, Janus and Nimbus were all rigged. Carol in the Janus flew RIV – LAS – CAL – RIV for 193km@69 kph and Pete in the Nimbus RIV – LA6 – ISL – WLY – DEV – RIV for 218km@76kph. A Nimbus 3 from Lasham dropped in late in the day and was given a typical Shalbourne welcome and taken to the pub until the retrieve crew arrived.
Sunday was quieter but conditions were again excellent and it was soarable from 11am until well after the hangar doors closed. Cloud base reached over 4000′ QFE and the club fleet enjoyed extended soaring all day. Cockpit temperatures were high (25degC+) but the lift was reliable if not overly strong. Jim in the Nimbus flew RIV – RUS – DID – LBN – RIV for 255km@75kph (landing at 15:30!) and the private Puch also and enjoyed an extended flight. Much more fun than watching England getting thrashed by Germany!
There were also two new faces on the field and several bronze legs and silver heights flown over the weekend details to follow when the loggers are downloaded.
ps thanks to everyone who helped look after Barney the cocker spaniel while his owner flew
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Early flying on Saturday

5 of us managed to get a flight in between 7am and 8am on Saturday.

Chris Bessent and myself flew a couple of solo aerobatic flights followed by Paul Prentice, James Walters and James Hunneman flying more sedate but just as enjoyable ones. With a nice Northerly blow we were launching the Puchacz to 1800ft or more.

Later on Carol and myself in the Janus flew RIV, BLA, BUL, RIV with mostly a 23kt headwind and Chris flew RIV, DEV, MAR, RIV. Piccy is of James Walters in the K8 above the Janus.

Phil