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Just to add to Phil’s observation’s;

I pulled off in cloud, just able to see the ground at 1650 feet, put the nose forward to clear the cloud, did a couple of turns then spent a few seconds thinking, “hang on, I still at 1650 feet!” I tapped the panel next to the altimeter, sure enough it didn’t move, thought ‘OOO goodie’ and kept in the same area of lift. It wasn’t thermal, definitely weak wave then after some considerable time fumbled for my phone. There was Phil’s number but unfortunately I didn’t have a signal. ‘drat and double drat’. Phone away and I thought, ‘They sure are going to be pleased with me for flying such a long time!’
Eventually the wave either moved a little or I did and after quite a long time, how long was it Phil? I turned the flight into a circuit, came in to the north end of the field and landed.

At least I now know I can fly a glider while grinning like an idiot. I laughed all the way down.
Also I was right, the people on the ground were SOOO pleased for me!

With a brisk SW wind the only thing stopping us from getting high launches was the cloud base which stubbornly lurked at around 1600ft.  However during one all too brief clear(er) bit Jim McCormick and I in a K13 managed to get a launch to 2200ft!
With such a reasonable breeze there was definitely some wave influence but using it for any real effect was hard to say the least, that was until Chris B took the last launch of the day.
With a lowering cloud base Chris took a launch and contacted the wave which kept him hovering over the winch at 1600ft (cloud base) for 22 minutes. As you can imagine he kept on repeating to all around that he had had the longest flight of the day 🙂

Not sure how many flights were flown but we were well into the second page. With one 1/2 day course and plenty of instructional flights all those who who turned up certainly enjoyed the day.

Phil

An exceptional day for the back-end of September with climb rates of 6+ knots reported up to 3,700′ (QFE).  Just a pity there were so few members there to enjoy what the day had to offer.
With 4 gliders being rigged and so few folks around first launch wasn’t until 11:30 when Bob B (duty instructor) decided that if no one needed his services he would take a launch into a largely blue sky.  Bob stayed up so James H took the club Vega and he didn’t immediately return.  This was enough to tempt the private gliders on-line.  I took the next launch (LS3-17 in 15M guise) and struggled gaining a few hundred feet before returning to launch height (1,100′ thanks to the crosswind) or less several times before getting away.  Later in the afternoon there were some magnificent looking cloud streets but there were also some extended areas of strong sink that kept folks on their toes.  Of the 20 launches 8 enjoyed flights of more than an hour.  Last launch was at 15:30 – still plenty of good sky left in the day but we’d run out of people to fly.
Meanwhile at the other end of the field Alan P was checking whether his reconstructed Olly wing might hold together in flight.

 

It seams some pilots have a serious tea habit that is affecting their gliding. As DCFI I feel duty bound to offer a solution…

It even says it is an air pot!