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Sunday 29th September

Similar to clouds seen today in a strong easterly breeze. (Pic courtesy of Cliff Mass
http://cliffmass.blogspot.co.uk/2010/02/why-was-my-flight-so-bumpy.html)

Patches of lift interspersed by areas of severe sink suggested wave activity. Cloud base c1800 – tops 2500ish. Inset shows wind shear at Larkhill at about the same time. Apparently this is Kelvin-Helmholtz instability, rotary motion of air close to cloud tops caused by the interaction between different atmospheric streamlines (like wind causes waves on the sea). Interesting, but totally useless – longest flight 17 mins.

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Weds 18th Sept – equinox weather

An early weather check into a solitary blue hole resulted in confinement down to 800ft blowing sideways at a hell of a lick. (We should get land yachts for days like this.) So with no flying in immediate prospect we paused for lunch. Then, from the south-east corner the eye was drawn to a bright glow and a pall of smoke at the top of the field. Further investigation revealed a manic figure tearing the guts out of the old launch control caravan and feeding them into a pyre. This in turn ignited a cord of wood hidden in the undergrowth and evicted the myriad little furry things living therein. See what happens when you let a fireman loose with a box of matches?
An hour later Paul Bryant (was) volunteered to test cloud base in the Ka8. Success! Stephen Ottner soared the Puchacz for a while and then rushed off to his dentist. (Into the teeth of the wind?) By 15:00 we were climbing to > 3000ft whilst being blown sideways at 25 kts, making long glides to nowhere in particular and having lots of crosswind landing practice.
But at this time of year we’re grateful for whatever we can get.
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Saturday 14th – rain didn’t stop play!

The day started off quite sunny but soon after we got the field set up and the toys were out it clouded over and threatened to rain 🙁

After some discussion about how high (low) cloudbase was a quick lob to find out was in order and with no willing volunteer available I made John Scott sit in the front of JPC.

Most, including me, thought it to be about 600 ft so we were all surprised when it turned out to be 1100 ft! But this was to be short lived as by scraping the bottom of the cloud we made it leak which made us stop for a bit.

Our resident Met man assured us that by 2pm it would clear and as we had an afternoon of trial lessons booked we decamped to Rods camper for a chin wag.

Sure enough at the appointed time the drizzle stopped and soon many club gliders were being launched into a clearing and surprisingly thermic sky.

The people who had won flights from the Pewsey Carnival along with the group from Newbury had a very enjoyable afternoon flying which kept all three 2 seaters busy. With a northerly breeze launch heights were quite reasonable and extended flights were possible. I think by 6pm we had flown about 18 TL’s and also got in a fair bit of club flying.

Thanks to Steve Ottner and Pete Ellison for helping me with the flying, Rod and Steve B for taking turns driving the winch and to everyone else who made the afternoon’s flying possible.

Now who was it that managed to get the longest flight of the day with 27 minutes in the K8?…………..no can’t remember 🙂

Phil

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Wednesday 11th Sept – behind the scenes

Having half unpacked the hangar, observed the gathering orographic clag and decided that despite all the enthusiasm the weather wasn’t going to play ball, we reluctantly put the toys away. Undeterred, Ken Hansell turned his hand to fixing a starting problem on the new Trooper. It took a mere ten minutes to change the battery and only another half an hour dismantling the bodywork to retrieve a lost socket.

Meanwhile a small group had gathered around half a ton of assorted metal artefacts in the hangar. Following much heaving, head scratching and moments of pure enlightenment and having deciding it could never be made to fly, there finally emerged a gantry crane.

Break for lunch.

Someone muses ‘something’s wrong, Colin normally has some jobs for us’. Reflective pause… Steve Barber mutters something about taking the kitchen equipment out of the bus. Next thing we know cookers, microwave ovens, toasters and stainless steel units are moving in all directions. Meanwhile Paul Bryant demonstrates his macramé skills morphing a plastic dustbin and a 25 litre tub into a hoist cosy while Steve Barber waves a multimeter threateningly at the solar battery charger which seems to be all Amps and no Volts.

Not bad for a no-fly day. Rain stopped play at 15:00 hrs.