Sounds like a good day was had by many at Shalbourne yesterday; I was flying our syndicate Duo 620 in the Regionals A group – 328k down to Midhurst, up to Calne, down to Wincanton, up to Malmesbury, and back to Lasham. All this in a 25kt westerly… and yes, the sea air did come in and make the west end of Pewsey Vale difficult, and ditto down to Wincanton and double ditto back to Malmesbury. After that we had the wind behind us so the lack of Cu was not quite so worrying?!? What felt like a nightmare flight turned out to be 2nd on the day – and if I’d had any idea it was still a race, I wouldn’t have overcooked the final glide so much… Anyway, doubtless you’ll hear and see more from Pete and Chris about their doings yesterday. Today was a lovely quiet morning, if somewhat overcast – excellent for training and for clocking up solos without a howling gusty cross-wind, however only James H, Graham and I – and a cheery swallow or two – were there to enjoy it. A bit of post-flight analysis on what happened yesterday and why Graham found it difficult to centre the thermals, and how I very nearly collected an airspace penalty were followed, once we’d imbibed enough tea, by a discussion on potential first gliders and then a scrub. Hasta la vista!
Regional Competition. Lasham.
Pete and I have been at Lasham for the 2012 Regional Comp.
Unfortunately it’s been wet, overcast and mostly non-flyable. Yesterday, Monday, saw us all grid with Pete flying a DG505 with James Ewence in the A class, while I was behind waiting in the B class.
We waited, had tea, waited and eventually got to the grid and waited. First they scrubbed the Nationals. They lobbed the Regional A group into a rather bleak and grey sky at a little past 17:00 hrs BST. This was after a heavy downpour which soaked all.
Eventually the A group made a start but under such a terrible sky it was inevitable that they were not going to all make it back. [Pete:my version below!]
Pete and James did terrific stuff but landed out near their first turn point.
[Pete: We launched at 17.04 and the air was thermic just to the north of the field, but the start just to the south wasnt, that wasnt much of an issue though and we head off north picking up some sort of convergence line running from aldermaston to hungerford and climbing well under it, trouble was the the tp was in dead air (this WAS an issue). We glid to a patch of brightness hoping to pick something up and sneak round the back – wrong plan! We should have just glid into the tp and out again directly. Having called ken from 1000ft, we landed in what looked like a strip but wasnt, at least 10km past the turn at six thirty, 5 gliders got round!]
It would seem Pete has joined the sign post club.
I received this on my phone about 20:30 hrs.
[Pete: we had thought we had landed at a strip, it wasnt so we decided to open Abingdon International Airport ]
Ken Hansell has been camped out helping all of us and earning his keep with the retrieve yesterday. (Not that he’s getting a sausage for helping but we do appreciate it!). [Pete: please note sausages keep being offered and declined]
Today Tuesday has been scrubbed and it doesn’t look good until Saturday now. We will see!
Chris
Monday 4th June
With the Jubilee celebrations in full swing members attention must have been focused elsewhere but those who did come out to fly were rewarded with some surprisingly good soaring.
First launch was at 11:00 and the last at 18:17 and despite a brief spell of flat conditions mid afternoon we managed some 28 launches clocking up nearly 8 1/2 hrs of soaring. If you allow for the period of yellow bung pulling (must stop doing that!) the flight times were not bad at all.
Carol won the honors with an impressive 56 mins in the Puchacz getting to 3000ft over Hungerford with Richard Greenaway a close second with 52 mins in the K8.
Congratulations must go to Mark Patterson for re-soloing after more than a two year lay off and for getting back in to the K8………well done Mark!
Other notable happenings were Nigel Burt starting his BI training and Richard Greenaway being signed off by Trevor to drive the winch…..no excuse now Richard!
We did keep a good look out for the comp pilots from Lasham who were initially set to route nearby but it seems the conditions were not so good over that way. We only managed to spot a solitary big winged thingy passing overhead on its way towards Marlborough as we were packing the hanger at 18:30 so maybe the expected task had changed. [Pete: Per Chris’ post above all classes but the regionals A were scrubbed. All 100 gliders were set to go but a shower came through and whilst we waited for the air behind to cycle time marched on. With not enough day left to launch the 15m class nations (they have a minimum task length of 160km) they could only get the regionals A away with a hope. A couple of open class guys launched to get some flying in, i think you saw a Nimbus 4DM which had self launched and had got up to Lyneham before returning (with some help from Mr Rotax)]
Phil
Sunday 27th at the club
It’s days like this that one wishes we had the option of (occasionally) taking an aerotow or turning the field through 90 degrees. With the easterly wind launch heights were modest leaving insufficient time to find the lift. Only 1 person managed launch directly into a thermal and so was able to wander around at 4,000 to 5,000 around the countryside in the Vega. We did see lots of gliders passing overhead at great heights – grrrrrr.
The day started blue (with a NE wind) but the good stuff appeared from the south and the wind veered to the East. Mid afternoon the blue crept in from the south, the wind also moved to the south and we changed ends. With the dead sky came a couple of Lashamites unable to make it back home. With those 2 pilots plus some refugees from Wyvern and a couple of unbooked TLs appearing the visitors outnumbered the club members. Very pleased to welcome the Wyvern chaps who’s help at keeping things running and putting the toys away was much appreciated.
I took a launch shortly before 18:00 and much to my surprise managed to deliver a full 30 minute TL in what looked like dead air by gently milking the almost imperceptible lift.
Many thanks to the few club members who turn out and kept us flying with a special thanks to Nigel and Trevor for their long stints on the winch and Jim C who delivered 13 instructional flights.