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9th April – Busy Wednesday

Lots of members turned out to play and 4 private gliders rigged.  Despite a 90 degree cross wind and the subsequent poor launches (1,200ish was what I was seeing from the back seat of a K13) thermals far from guaranteed, quite a few decent soaring flights were had.  At one point in the afternoon all 7 gliders were airborne and the launch point empty.  Chris K set the time to beat flying his Cirus for 50 minutes, which Colin B bettered by 8 minutes flying his LS3-17 but Rob J, in his Cirus, clocked up 1:13.  Mind, it wasn’t easy, Colin had to take 3 launches to get one decent length flight.  Alan P decided to have a rest from short circuits in his Olly and handed over to Alan B to add a new type to his log book.  He obviously hadn’t been told the Olly was just doing circuits as he flew for 38 minutes.  On handing it back to Alan P normality (i.e. a short flight) was restored.

Meanwhile at the top end of the field the phantom grass cutter was attacking some of the vigorous spring grass.
20 members flew, including Alex R one of our new junior members taking advantage of half term.  Almost 10 hours flown off 37 launches.

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Wednesday 26th

Many hands …..!

We  also did a lot of soaring in a variety of conditions from ridge, to rain to thermal.

And congratulations to Jonty who was lured to the airfield following our encounter at the Gibbet (me in The Vega and he suspended under a green canopy). It turned out to be a good decision as he then flew his first solo in a glider.

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Task week / soaring week / open week, an exped at home 11th August

This year we are going to hold a combined task and soaring week beginning 11th August (tasks will be set from 9th-17th August).

The aim is to make it simple and fun – there will be multiple tasks per day for the range of experience on the day set by me and you wont need any complicated gubbins to record the tasks or have to memorise overly complex rules. In fact I intend to do all scoring in the pub and the results may change with consumption of IPA.

For those wishing to do local soaring that is fine but the field wont necessarily be supervised so you will need at least a bronze and xc endorsement unless you make a private arrangement with an instructor. The same applies for pre-solo, make a private arrangement with an instructor.

Ken has kindly volunteered to winch drive all week.

I guess we’ll visit the pub and have a BBQ or two after the glorious soaring weather that we’ll have.
So save the date and watch out for more updates.

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Saturday

A bright sunny day and the forecast had changed overnight to something a little more promising. Only 4 people on the airfield but annual checks on the winch guillotine were completed and the field set up anyway.

JPC up first flight at 10:15, 1900′ winch launch and some weak but turbulent thermals. Chris was talked into rigging B1.
Second flight for JPC, strong narrow thermals to 2500 rapidly building to 5 knots to 3000′ Spun down after B1 established.
Third flight B1, soaring flight and the Vega came out to play. Cloudbase now 3500′. You get the idea…

We ended up with seven people on the airfield, all flew and all had soaring flights of varying duration many of about an hour. Everyone even laid off on the launch. Chris takes the prize though with just under two hours before his toes froze.

A heavy shower stopped play at about 2pm but all the toys were packed away in super quick time to avoid getting wet with the vega landing and being pushed into the hanger just as the showers hit. All in all a very good day. Probably the best of the weekend.