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Saturday saw all kinds of busyness, Roland set the new Disco up as an airfield vehicle which I promptly borrowed all day thinking there was plenty. I was wrong, sorry about that, cake fine me thinks! Selvam, washed, waxed, chamois dried, t-cut, buffed and variously detailed his trailer or something similar because it certainly was gleaming. Martin weighed the Cirrus once he found the right bolt for the tailplane, Colin cleaned the clubhouse, Carol and Phil mended 383’s trailer. Jeremy brought KDU back from its winter holiday somewhere warm.

Claire and I rigged and with Andy completed the British ARC on N and then on the basis of its French ARC flew it for the first time in the UK. In a promising sky I failed to make it climb but Claire seemed to manage OK for 30 minutes or so.

 

Jim G was duty dog and with help of Nigel and those that turned out to fly kept the Pooches whizzing round the sky all day.

 

As ever when mentioning names I’m sure I’ve forgotten someone significant – sorry.

Another great day at Shalbourne yesterday.

40 flights flown, a few soaring flights to be had, instructor training underway, second Puchacz flight tested and put into service, one new member, annual checks completed, JMX derigged and stored in the new Puchacz trailer, another tow out vehicle on its way, and plenty of happy members.

Thanks to Martin Hoskins for the photos.

Phil

We rigged EUF today and placed it into service – enjoy! And derigged JMX ready for someone to buy it – sad really as its a great glider that’s served the club well for 20+ years.

It seems an age since the ridge worked all the way to Kingsclere, but maybe the same rare conditions present on that freezing snowy day repeated themselves on Wednesday.

Here are the Larkhill sounding forecasts for 10:00 hrs and 14:00 hrs:

The gradient of the environmental lapse rate ended up inclining between the dry adiabatic lapse rate and the saturated adiabatic lapse rate, indicating that the air mass was ‘conditionally unstable’. So with the upward impetus of the ridge, the air on the valley floor, too cool to rise with its own buoyancy, became just sufficiently unstable to sustain flight.

See Tom Bradbury’s ‘Meteorology and Flight’ page 40 and http://www.ddsc.org.au/documents/weather/DDSC%20Meteorology%20Basics%20Rev%201.pdf page 50.