The occurrences and happenings at Shalbourne Soaring Society. A gliding club near Andover, Newbury and Hungerford.

Sunday 30th - not officially 'Nice'

I thought that I was on a roll on duty days - after our last duty being soarable all day. Perhaps my problem was swapping with Tim but he promised he'd booked the weather. Today I was (happily) surprised to find myself not the first person to turn up through the drizzle when I arrived at 9 am - James Hunneman was there already. Martin Hoskins and Rob Jarvis arrived subsequently. The low cloud and drizzle amplified to rain and then sank back into cloud and drizzle again.

But be assured - days like these are not days to miss - you can learn a huge amount on the ground even if you don't fly. We amused and enlightened ourselves with some trace analysis until 11.30 or so and then in the absence of anyone else to do any groundschool with, we abandoned the day and went home. Hasta la vista, comrades!

Saturday 29th

Yet another windy day but with it being pretty much southerly, no nasty lumpy bits on the approach.  Starting finals from 500' just the one hedgerow back it was easy to land opposite the launch point!  There were thermals but they were mainly being ripped apart by the wind but there were a few significant climbs reported.  Some weak wave also found.  Chris K reported the highest launch of the day (2,100' in a K13) and Peter E took the longest flight honours at 16 minutes.  Half the flights managed double digit duration.

Sunday 16th - visiting Challock

On holiday in Kent so snuck off to visit the nearest gliding club.  Warm (for the time of year) sunny day with little prospect of soaring.  No difficulty finding the club and after signing in at the office made my way to the busy launch point.  Despite it being so busy was made welcome - apparently a visitor from another club is something of a novelty.  Had my site check in one off their K21's and then took to the sky in their Junior on the last launch before the break for lunch (struck me as an odd thing to do).  My reward for flying into the lunch break was some modest soaring - 23 minutes which, I believe, was the longest flight of the day. After lunch out came a T21 which then attrached a queue of people wanting to experience the wind in their face.
Challock has big club facitilies but with the friendliness of a small club.  Not an obvious expedition destination (airspace ceilings, not far from the coast) but well worth a visit if you are in the area.
One final observation - the lauch point organisation was excellent, thanks mainly to the member of the duty team who managed the flying list and kept things moving without delay.

A quick gliding competition.

While looking for High Definition videos of gliding I found this on You Tube.
Three questions:
1. What is the pilots START height registered on his altimeter when he begins to cross the lake
2. What does the altimeter read once he's landed

3. What colour might his underpants be.......

Sunday 16th - officially 'Nice'

Evening all,

and as I collapse with my sherry after a hard day's instructing, I look back on the day and it definitely falls into the classification for 'Nice'. As I drove north out of Andover this morning I came up out of the fog, and, bar a small wadge of cloud that went through around 10-ish, it's been sunny all day. And thermic.

As you may have seen from this morning's e-post I was having a bit of a sense of humour failure when I was still on my own at just before 10am. Sunday lie-ins is one thing, but... However a flurry-ette of members arrived just in time to have the field operational in time for our 11am trial lessons.

Cloud was kicking up from first launch, but it took recent solo pilot Graham to prove that it was properly soarable on his 4th solo - Very Well Done Graham!!! While I was checking Graham out, Pete E was giving Andrew, a half-day course pilot, as much flying as could realistically be expected plus a bit, then dealing with our later trial lessons. I then flew with Jim and Evelyn both of whom took advantage of the soaring conditions and made good progress. Meanwhile an old member from the Ralph Jones days came and was escorted down memory lane by Richard.

We finally managed to wrest the K8 off Rod at the end of the day when the thermals wore out, at which point, much to his surprise, I stuck Graham into the K8 for a very nicely flown conversion flight. As you can see from his expression, I'm not sure whether he really liked it... Again, well done Graham!

Nuff said,

Liz

wave, WAVE, WAAAAAAAVVVEEEEE

I thought the weekend just gone was going to be a complete loss as far as any gliding was concerned. I had a delivery in Shropshire which was going to take up Sunday and I had planned to work on Saturday. As it happened I managed to make something of it.

I decided to charge my batteries, hitch up the glider and go somewhere in dragon territory.
After my delivery I ended in Denbigh, unhitched the glider, said hi to Kevin who was very helpful and booked into a Travelodge in Halkyn.

Bedbugs aside and damp from something horrible leaking in the bathroom, the accommodation was adequate but I’ve have been better camping in my car. The next morning I headed back to glide at Llweny Parc.



There weren’t that many people there but those who were I found warm and welcoming. I rigged and took the second launch early(ish) and found the air buoyant and interesting. I soon found an area of lift and turning into wind I started a weak climb in rotor to about 2000 feet. From then on it was a secession of climbs to 10208 feet. I remembered to push forward on each climb and keep a decent speed which needed to be in excess of 63 knots to keep in a static position relative to the ground.
I eventually got to a height where, had I been brave and turned on my artificial horizon I could have carried on climbing. I wasn’t that brave.

It was fantastic and I had views the Irish Sea and the coast from Prestayn to Colwyn Bay. The wind farm set in the sea was spectacular.

It wasn’t like XC, a much more different type of beast and one which made me nervous and somewhat anxious but I kept a good look at the clouds far below me and watched for signs of the blue hole closing. I could see the weather was changing and a higher cloud cover made any further climbs not something I was willing to take on. Smiling I opened the airbrakes and descended down to high key at Llweny. A high circuit and steep approach through turbulent rotor saw the glider land shorter than I’d planned but it was a landing!

It really is one to try again but with some of the members Shalbourne.

Long weekend at Sutton Bank

Carol, Rod, Chris and myself have just got back from a great long weekend at Sutton bank.


The ridge was not working but we still manged to get in sime extended flights and during the three days we flew we had the longst flights of the day. Carol and I even got into some weak SE evening wave which kept us at 1500 ft for 1hr 35 minutes. I last flew at Sutton Bank back in 1997 and the site is just as good and the locals are very friendly.


Looks like we will be returning for another long weekend later this year or for a longer stay next spring. If you fancy coming along let me know.

Phil

What a Day of Supprises

Well what a Day Saturday was.

Busy day with loads going on and lots of trial lessons and members going up.

Followed by a visitor dropping in for a cup of tea

And to top it all some DI deciding I was to go Solo....


Thanks Steve