... of a good afternoon. Don't complain about the weather mucking up the flying if you don't turn up for an afternoon when the sky is looking glourious. Yes, the day didn't start very promising and it is a bit breezy but it was forecast to improve in the afternoon and it did.
Not enough members turned out to operate the field, so our American visiting pilot was not able to sample the delights of a winch launch.
Bit of mowing done around the clubhouse - only another 69 acres left to do.
Wed 20th - a good day ahead?
Good forecast. Go to the airfield and rig. Sky full of good-looking cu. Launch straight into a 6kt thermal to 3000ft. Great, it's a romper, let's do a 100k for starters: ChilBoltoN - LASham - HUNgerford. Er... getting low and not even at Andover, sky that way not so good any more, but looks better towards LASham, so let's do LASham-DIDcot instead. Got low again but climbed away and made LASham OK, but turned round to look North, and West - sky had really gone bad again. Looking doubtful I could get home, best hope was back towards Andover. It did work, but only just - land-out averted, fortunately. Meanwhile Chris and Chris were doing a lead-and-follow round LYNham and WELford, but apparently that wasn't a romp either, though Trevor reported good conditions Lambourn way later.
There were also several local soaring flights of an hour or more, in total about 20hrs soaring and 400km by the dozen or so members available. So all-in-all it was a good day, if not the absolute romp promised.
There were also several local soaring flights of an hour or more, in total about 20hrs soaring and 400km by the dozen or so members available. So all-in-all it was a good day, if not the absolute romp promised.
Sunday 17th Part Duex
Rigged, followed Pete (above me). Followed Pete more (still above me). Got low at Cheively, slight poop on how low I was with no lift, asked Peter to call if he found a climb (still above me) scratched and got high enough to get back to Rivar landed and changed underpants. Big job done...
It would seem the first thermal was a freebie, the rest you had to work for. Still it was flying, just not far. Rivar-Cheively, Newbury, Hungerford, Rivar. Depressingly small.
I did have my daughter, son in law, as well as Grace and Daisy turn up at the airfield. to wish me a happy fathers day. Priceless.
It would seem the first thermal was a freebie, the rest you had to work for. Still it was flying, just not far. Rivar-Cheively, Newbury, Hungerford, Rivar. Depressingly small.
Sunday 17th
Pulled kit out, rigged, begged map, watched a couple of launches, pulled on line, climbed off the wire, blasted down a street towards chievely, fell off street at chievely, below glide for home, begged back up, blasted down street to Rivar, scratched in the rain with club 2 seaters, went to another street, climbed, headed off down the vale, climbed at PEW, next cloud at DEV, glide, scratched, then stonked (muppet), set off to wantage, scratched north of Malborough, then stonked (muppet), glide round Wantage, home down street, quick top up, finish, wheel down, landed, derigged. Done.
Saturday 16th
AA Milne's Owl might have described today as "blustery", and surely it was. But no houses fell down. The Puchacz syndicate took bits out of the inside of the wings and then put them back in. Just for good measure they cut some holes and then immediately repaired them.
Chris and I did some plumbing, no not a new Italian tiled customer restroom at the clock shop, but inside a wing - we're gliderpilots see...
Phil and Carol polished the Janus - CFI quote "I find polishing 20m wings reasonably relaxing."
Well funny you should say that...
Chris and I did some plumbing, no not a new Italian tiled customer restroom at the clock shop, but inside a wing - we're gliderpilots see...
Phil and Carol polished the Janus - CFI quote "I find polishing 20m wings reasonably relaxing."
Well funny you should say that...
Wed 13th - a pleasant surprise
At 10.30 I was sitting at the computer looking out of the south-facing window at an overcast sky (as forecast) thinking, "no hurry today". Finished what I was doing, put a few tools in the car for an odd-jobs day at the club, drove round the corner where I got a view to the north... "Look at that sky!!!" Blue peppered with little cu. Turned back home, grabbed the parachute and chart and headed quickly to the club, met a few other members with similar stories, got rigged and flew. OK, so I messed up and got low with only just enough height to scrape back home, whereupon Peter took the glider and did it right. As did several other people, with several flights around the hour; Paul got the hour he needs towards his next endorsement. It wasn't especially easy and at least one of our pilots was saved by a passing Duo (was that you Liz?) which had also got a bit low and was just getting away again, but it was vastly better than we expected, a real fillip in a gloomy spell of unseasonable wind and rain. Another case of "if the forecast is poor, go to the airfield and rig...."
Saturday 9th. Almost forgot.
I've had many request to post another landout sign.....
Also it was very picturesque.
Although I'd misjudged the grass, thinking it was grazing I found out two feet from landing it was silage/ set aside.
No harm done and we were very careful to drive around the endge of the field and to disturb the field as little as possilbe.
Also it was very picturesque.
Although I'd misjudged the grass, thinking it was grazing I found out two feet from landing it was silage/ set aside.
No harm done and we were very careful to drive around the endge of the field and to disturb the field as little as possilbe.
Saturday 9th June, Lasham Regionals
Well the Lasham comp is now over. Some of the pilots flew 2
of the 9 days while us mortals flew only 1 day, yesterday.
I got up early about 05:30, looked out of the window to see
Wave clouds all over the place. Drat I thought, it was sure to muck up any
thermal activity.
We set our sailplanes on the grid, got a task; (the A group)
Lasham, Midhurst, Calne, Didcot and back to Lasham.
Midhurst wasn’t too bad but turning back was a hard long
slog and getting back near Lasham at 1200 QFE made me magnetise towards the landing
strip to the east of the field.
As it happened I scraped away and was joined by many other gliders
having similar ‘niggles’.
I gathered up my thoughts and concentrated on getting
towards Calne. First I got to Kingsclere Mast, found another weak thermal and
got a little higher leaving the mast behind, punching forward I found another
weak climb and punched forward leaving the Kingsclere mast behind. Groundhog Day
came to mind but on the third attempt I got to Rivar where I had another low
save.
A change of direction and tempo was called for so slowing a
little I took a more conservative course and made my way towards Marlborough
I landed, headed towards the farm, made my apologies and was
greeted by very friendly farm staff at the stables.
I got retrieved by my friend Steve and we were back at
Lasham by 19:30.
A great day but many landouts.
Saturday 9th June
With the wet and blustery conditions of the last few days behind us Saturday was a refreshing change. We still had 15 to 20 knots of almost dead westerly flow to deal with but after placing a few limitations regarding levels of experience for solo and a briefing about flying too far downwind during the circuit etc we got off to a good start.
Initially cloudbase was around 2500ft but quickly rose to over 4500ft as the day progressed. Good climbs were reported and many extended flights were flown. Due to the cross wind launch heights were understandably reduced but if you were lucky to be launched within easy reach of a good area of lift then you could extend your flight quite easily, time it wrong and a quick circuit was the result.We even managed to deliver a 30min trial lesson!
As the day progressed the sky became filled with comp pilots from Lasham, no doubt grateful for our fleet of thermal markers. Jim McCormick and I in the Puchacz had 6 of them sharing one of our climbs!
All in all plenty of soaring flights were flown and those not quite solo were treated to cross wind landings.
Thanks to Steve Ottner and Richard Dann for helping me instruct when a developing cold threatened to curtail my flying.
Phil
Initially cloudbase was around 2500ft but quickly rose to over 4500ft as the day progressed. Good climbs were reported and many extended flights were flown. Due to the cross wind launch heights were understandably reduced but if you were lucky to be launched within easy reach of a good area of lift then you could extend your flight quite easily, time it wrong and a quick circuit was the result.We even managed to deliver a 30min trial lesson!
As the day progressed the sky became filled with comp pilots from Lasham, no doubt grateful for our fleet of thermal markers. Jim McCormick and I in the Puchacz had 6 of them sharing one of our climbs!
All in all plenty of soaring flights were flown and those not quite solo were treated to cross wind landings.
Thanks to Steve Ottner and Richard Dann for helping me instruct when a developing cold threatened to curtail my flying.
Phil
Sunday 10th
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 ]
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
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!
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
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