Category: Uncategorised

For once the airfield was clear of the mist and murk that was affecting the surrounding countryside and we were able to fly out over the clouds.

After a flight with Carol I fitted my cheap compact camera into its mount and attached it to the tip of JPC for a flight over the clouds with Colin. A much shortened version is attached here.

Pete Ellison and Steve Barber took advantage of the good conditions (ok they were press ganged into doing them!) and completed their annual checks. Jim McCormick needed very little encouragement in practising his landings and we flew a couple of trial lessons.

Thanks to Ken Reid who volunteered(?) to man the winch for quite some time before taking the K8 off for a flight.

All in all a very good day and surprisingly mild for his time of year. Flights were certainly not long but flying over the cloud was magic!

Phil

After no flying on Saturday (low cloud) good turnout on Sunday.  The northerly wind onto our ridge inspired the private Puchacz and the LS3 to be rigged.  We also had visits from piolts from 3 other clubs.  From Lasham were Ayala and Mike T (admittedly just popped in to say hello on their way to Southern Sailplanes) but the chaps from Talgarth and Weston-on-the-Green did fly.  There was ridge lift but not consistent enough (well not for most of us) as it was disrupted by thermals but the thermals weren’t really strong enough to be useful.  Half the flights managed between 10 and 30 minutes but 2 others went beyond half an hour – Trevor G with 39 minutes and Colin B with 56 minutes.  Typically, Colin stated the only reason he landed was that he was getting hungry.  I didn’t hear any reports of launch heights but I saw 1,900′ on a TL flown in a K13.
We only flew for just over 5 hours but clocked up an impressive 44 launches (most launches in an autumn/winter months in the last 5 years – which is as far back as easily accessible records go).  Well done the B team (and the folks who helped keep things moving – especially Chris K and Peter E who did most (all?) the winching between them)

Arrived at the airfield to find it a hive of activity – Andy B + helpers rigging JMX; Colin B and Ken H working on the generator set-up; James H on the Vega trailer.  More wind about than we’d ideally like (again!) so no rush to get the toys out.  With JMX rigged it was decided to test fly it and check the conditions.  First flight established that 40 knots into wind made naff all progress over the ground.  Second test flight was need to check the rear instruments so Chris K joined me as talking ballast.  Managed to find a modest thermal in which we gained 100′ (vario tested both ways) and drifted us into a nice position for the circuit.  On finals coming through the wind gradient saw 15 knots wiped off our speed – fortunately we had 70 knots to start with.  Winch then put away and hangar packed.