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

Sunday and I didn't fly (22/4)

Alas I had a poorly stomach, I could have flown if I were thirty seconds away from a loo, which is quite difficult in a glider.
Still, all was not lost as I put this together as a promotional video which  hopefully give people who've not experienced gliding a glimpse of why we are all addicted to it.
Let me know what you think.
Chris (PP) B

As classic as last Sunday... (22/4)

...which as you know was a classic example of a windy but storming 500k day. I too have a tale to tell from that day and I'll digress from today's post to tell it here - I got a cold over Easter that was very slow in departing, but by Sunday I thought my ears were up to it. Took off, and similar to Chris, lobbed off to the Downs for a run to Lewes and back. It's so pretty on a nice day, the south coast - rolling hills, turquoise sparkling sea with cute sailing boats on, that sort of stuff, although this is the first time I've rund the Downs on a ridge day and so spent significantly more time looking at grass(= rolling hills, of course) rather more closely than usual. Back to Butser, and after a low point invonveniently close to the Southampton airspace, found a good run back past Lasham where I climbed to cloudbase... and found that my ears weren't ok at all. Had to give up and land, and couldn't hear anything much at all for an hour. Still, at least my electrical and hydraulic systems (geddit) worked correctly, even if the pneumatics was a bit dodgy!

 So, back to today. As I stood on an empty airfield surveying the glorious scenery in warm sunshine, I wondered if we'd have another day like yesterday when it seems everyone decided the weather was rubbish. Wrong - Ayala passed at 4500' having had up to 8kts. I'd received a sick note from Chris PP Bessent, get well soon Chris, but slightly ahead of 'E'Team No3 Graham came Selvam, keen to take advantage of the day and add to his 15 or so launches, then Rod. A small flurry-ette of further arrivals helped us get things going, but it was a slow start to the day - always a problem when showers are forecast.

Note to newer members (and everyone else) - if there's ever a day when showers are forecast, get there early in order to maximise flying ahead of the showers. As I say, today was another classic day. Unfortunately it was a classic showers-come-in-and-ruin-the-day-completely day. Have you noticed how big showers seem to sit pretty still for a while, not really coming your way, and then when you turn your back they gallop up at lightning speed (how mized a metaphor was that??) And so it came to pass. Not, however, before Selvam and Keith both took me soaring in the K13, thus offering a masterclass to the K8 which failed to stick. And Richard, having been baulked of flying on his duty day yesterday, unleashed his inner meanie on James H through the medium of annual checks.

Then, just as we were really enjoying ourselves, rain stopped play. Ah, 'E'Team weather...

yet more about sunday....

I write this sat on the banks of the Elbe, 80p pint of Urquell in hand looking up at the remains of the days 5000ft cu. Mountains rise majestically in the distance and the bar maid is quite simply gor... Sadly I haven't been flying, the hotel isn't communism's finest (i have been issued my single bar of carbolic soap by the stern receptionist) and Steti is all an eastern bloc industrial town conjures in your imagination - the paper mill blocks the views of the river. It does have wireless so I will write about Sunday to pass the drinking of the last of the first pint!

The day had spreadout, the forecast had said it would. But I was over Abingdon at 2500 and needed some more for final glide. I drifted ever closer in the 20kt tailwind towards a scraggy bit of cu beneath the grey. It boosted me onto glide and I set off for home.

It was an interesting day getting here, 5kts to 6000ft was tempered by a strong wind, thankfully the mighty nimbo has legs enough to make up for talent deficiency and the first leg up to Finmere had gone ok - some long glides using energy lines but at the tp it was looking grey. I glid in, rounded it and looked south - the lift looked a long way away towards Oxford. I set off at best glide. When i got there (the lift that was a long way away) I had picked a field and was wheel down on a downwind leg, but I got a knot and scrapped back up. Boosted by the now tailwind tp2 at Bullington Cross was easy with the best lift and greatest cloudbase. I turned north and set of for tp3 between Oxford and Bicester (Isley), of course the spreadout was heading remorselessly south and now this TP was all grey doom, again I glid in but this time running past it to the only promising cloud. It was snowing but working well and I climbed up and glid south to Abingdon.

The wireless has died so I'll post this later on!

Sunday......a little more :-)

Sunday provided those who turned up with some very good climbs. Flights above 4000ft were the norm with some quite good climbs.
Pete Smith flew RIV,FIM,BUL,ISL,RIV for 300.5k in the Nimbus but I only managed 140K before failing electrics, freezing temperatures, the strong desire to have a pee and deteriorating conditions around Bicester tempted me to fly back to Rivar.

Once back at Rivar I had a flight with Helen Forrest in the Puchacz and straight off the launch we contacted a strong thermal which took us all the way to cloudbase at 5300ft. For the last 2000ft of the climb Helen was flying the Puchacz herself which really made her day, in the end we only came down because it was so cold!

Great day but sooo cold!


Phil

Sunday. (15/4) And this little piggy went wee wee all the way home.

What a day of promises and hopes. RASP looked as though it was the best day of the year, which for many it was.

I decided to pop down to Lasham and get a high aerotow to allow me a quick drop down to Butser hill on the west end of the Southdowns. My cunning plan was to fly the ridge to Lewes and back to Butser, then to make my way towards Gloucester and (hopefully) beyond.

I watered up filling the wings with about a hundred and fifty pounds of water, updated my ClearNav with current airspace and waypoints on the grid at Lasham (thanks Nigel M for the use of your memory stick) and took a glide down to the Southdowns. I remembered to keep Basingstoke somewhere behind me so I knew I was off in the right sort of direction. In no time at all I got to Butser and flew down the ridge crossing Steyning and on towards Lewes. It was peaceful and I didn’t see another glider- for a while. On my way back towards Butser I couldn’t see anything other than gliders! They were everywhere, below me, above, by the side of me; I didn’t order this when I took off.

Once clear of the Southdowns and heading back towards Rivar which I’d put in as a waypoint, and trying to keep well clear of Southampton airspace I found the conditions great, strong thermals but also strong sink. I pushed into a 20 knot headwind, albeit with a battery that died within a couple of hours of being switched on; I shut down all but essential stuff and made my way across the countryside eventually getting to Hungerford where they sky wasn’t at all what I’d expected.

At this point, and having drank a lot of water I decided to have a mid air crisis and on relieving myself found I wasn’t at all relieved as my ‘plumbing’ system had gone horribly wrong. At height the temperature was just above freezing (don’t worry well get back to the plumbing saga), so my feet were like blocks of ice, my vent for the cockpit was firmly shut and I was faffing about with the electrics trying to make sense of what’d gone wrong. It was not a moment for good karma in the cockpit.

Now, after my incontinence break I was rather damp around my mid-drift and getting colder by the minute.

Rivar hill was beckoning, it would have been so easy to let down into the field, probably to be welcomed by my good friends and flying buddies with a degree of sympathy and understanding of my unbelievable misfortune and series of unfortunate events.

Ok, so the truth, and I’d expect nothing less, would be everyone falling about calling me ‘Chrissy Pissy Pants’, which is what I was. They almost certainly wouldn’t have been able to help me push the glider to the launch point due to laughing so I kept with the half knot thermal and decided to drift back to Lasham where I could land in a far corner of the field and creep surreptitiously to my car, there to sit for a while with the heating on and my arse pressed into the dashboard.

I got back to Lasham, landed in a far flung corner warmed up in my car and retrieved my glider.

After a chat with Liz and others I drove back to Rivar to finish my day off smelling like an orthopaedic chair in an OAP’s home.

It was great!



Great day out and four hours flying, oh and an unexpected boil wash with extra fabreeze!

Wednesday = Funday

After launching the first 3 gliders there was a trip to the hangar to collect the remaining 2 club gliders.  First flight was 54 minutes so a good start to the day.  Showers could be seen all around the airfield.  Fortunately only one dumped on us - the hail pounded down and sardines was played in the caravan, the 3 gliders airborne managed to avoid the shower.  Folks returned with tales of 10 up (and 10 down).  The vis was excellent.  The 2,500' cloudbase at the start of the day rose to 4,000' in the afternoon.  Peter E reported a climb to 5,000' up the side of a cloud - that was on the longest flight of the day (over 2 hours).  Prior to that he'd had flights of 10 minutes(ish) so perseverance (and his free launch) paid off.  Most members got a decent soaring flight.  Last launch of the day abandoned when the sky started to growl.
30 launches and 14 hours flown and donuts enjoyed.

Saturday 7th

A day when sensible folks would stay at home and restock brownie points - fortunately, we had enough members not that sensible (or members of the duty team) so we were able to fly.  We started with a "guess the height of cloudbase" competiton - turned out to be better than anyone guessed at just over 1200'.  While some of us were flying (well, launching and coasting back to earth) John T and Steve B made progress on the new launch point caravan.

New winch chassis has arrived!



Today Rod Harris and myself collected the newly fabricated chassis from Newbury which will be used to mount the Tost winch from the old bus chassis.

With the help of James H we managed to manhandle it off Pete Ellison's trailer and into the garage. Next stage is to give it a good coat of primer before being given a top coat prior to assembly. I think James has the painting in hand but if you feel like helping please get in touch with James first.

When this job is complete we will no longer have to worry about maintaining a prime mover for our back up winch which is a great step forward.

Thanks to Rod for the use of his Sprinter, Pete for the use of his trailer and also to James for designing the chassis.

Phil

Good Friday? Sure was!



With the promise of a good day's gliding and with the help of the early birds and the Puch's new one man tow out gear the first launch took to the skies at 9.50.


At 10:10 Jim McCormick and I managed a 34 minute soaring flight and for the next 4 hours extended flights were the norm with 5 flights having in excess of an hour.


Paul Prentice flew a short soaring flight in the Puch and upon landing commented that the ridge was working so well he managed to fly in zero sink for quite some time before realising he had not turned on the vario!


Two XC flights were flown, Chris B in his LS7 loaded with water flew Devizes, Newbury and Nigel Burt (aided by Paul P) flew a more modest, but no doubt just as enjoyable, Hungerford, Great Bedwyn flight in JPC.


We also had a visit from Upavon's DG1000 turbo. The two pilots phoned up first to ask if they could come over and sit in the Vega as they were looking for a glider that the could fit into as both being well over 6 feet tall glider selection was something of an issue.


Some time later the DG landed and the pilots duely tried the Vega for size. At this point I blagged a flight for one of us in the DG and after much arm twisting (OK so Rod jumped at the chance really) Rod was soon in the front seat with Upavon's Alex Watt in the back. After a while showing Alex how to soar our ridge Rod finally brought the DG back.





A short while later the DG took a launch and after moving off a suitable distance started up the turbo and disappeared back off to Upavon.


All in all a realy nice day's flying and with 37 launches i'm sure our treasurer is happy as well :-)




Phil

Google street view

Sweet!

Easter flying.

Well, it's Easter, the schools are out, some are thinking of a short holiday and some of flying. Typically the forecast looks like its a bit of a mixed bag and, for the little knowledge I have of weather, it looks vaguely soarable on Friday in the south with a fairly early start but with lower cloud pushing down from the north by around midday. Probably still soarable underneath for a while but looking rubbish by 3pm.

Wind of 330/ 11 knots on the ground and 335/ 15 knots at height will help with decent launches, and the ridge will either help keep you aloft or kick off a thermal or two. Also worth keeping an eye out for paragliders if you are mucking about with the ridge, especially Coombe Gibbett end just don't trust them to stay there.
Not worth watering the gliders but worth getting them out.

Phil has promised a big easter egg to the best cross country flight, which could be distance, speed or best place to land-out.







Wednesday 19th

Forecast not at all encouraging but a sufficient number of "Wednesday boys" turned out anyway.  It felt as if we had returned to January but sometimes you just have to get your bum off the ground.  Steve B brought on-line the new caravan that he and John Turk have been working on.  Steve set the longest flight target early on - only 12 minutes but no one else was able to match it - well not until the last flight of the day which had the benefit of a 2,000' launch .

Sunday 1st April. April Fool?

We got off to a good start with some early soaring under little cu, which fooled everyone into thinking it was going to be a cracking day.  But after a bit the cu disappeared and soaring got harder, with quite a few relights needed.  Pete said it was rubbish, and could only stand it for 3hrs.  A couple of gliders from somewhere else came by calling out good climbs, but they were obviously only baiting us as they only ever did a couple of turns then moved on.  But towards the end of the day, Steve (recently converted to the Vega) got over an hour in it,  and Graham did as Liz had ordered yesterday and got a bronze leg with over an hour in the Ka8 just back from Annual.

Saturday 31 March. Tea needed drinking.

Let's see now:
Mon weather: CAVOK (cloud and visibility OK)
Tue weather: CAVOK
Wed weather: CAVOK
Thu weather: CAVOK
Fri weather: CAVOK
Sat weather: 8/8 stratus at 400ft
Sun forecast: CAVOK

Any guesses whose duty day it was today?  Anyway, Graham dutifully turned up to support his instructor, and was sent away so he could come back tomorrow and get at least one leg of his bronze badge.
Did he succeed?? You'll have to read tomorrow's blog.