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

Wednesday 2nd - Silver Distance day

Not exactly the day that the 'met' promised. Cu from horizon to horizon, but top cover gradually increasing throughout the day. En route climbs below 3000ft were painfully slow and by the time the rate perked up you were in the murk at 4500ft. Access to anything north of Oxford having been blocked by a couple of dozen odd folk jumping out of serviceable aeroplanes and to the East the skies cleared for the occasional Royal gin party at Wimbledon, the only way to go was West.

Nevertheless a few of us rigged; Steve B declaring a 300k triangle (Kingston Bagpuize, Taunton) and me 200k (Gloucester, Frome). Meanwhile Justin B had decided to take his Pirat to Aston Down for Silver Distance, proving to be the only one of us capable of actually completing a task on the day.  The sky went blank for me at Gloucester and I guess the same happened to Steve when he got to Frome. So we both scampered back as the western skies turned to milk.

Reading Stephens account of local soaring conditions it appears we should have gone N, S or E - any direction but West!

However I did achieve the modest distinction of visiting Aston Down three times in one day, twice in the air and once with a trailer. Well done Justin.
described to you by on

5 comments:

  1. Stephen Ottner3 July 2014 at 14:08

    Silver heights were also available

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    Replies
    1. Charlie Bravo3 July 2014 at 14:28

      OK - no need to rub it in

      Delete
    2. Unknown3 July 2014 at 17:27

      A massive thank you to Colin for the spontaneous retrieve (and to Stephen for the offer) without whom I would still be at Aston Down scouring Parkers used cars for 'old bangers with a tow bar'
      Justin

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  2. Pete3 July 2014 at 20:50

    Well done justin

    I am more and more convinced that Somerset is unsoarable

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  3. SteveB4 July 2014 at 20:48

    Well, it’s not a howidunit, more a howibluit. I declared KingSton Bagpuize – WEllinGton for a tad over 310km. I launched in sink to a meagre 1000ft, but the corresponding lift was at the top of the launch so I soared away. But subsequent climbs weren’t as good as I hoped. The second leg was 148km, and going southwest seemed quite hard, although post-flight analysis suggested it was only about 8kt headwind. After a couple of long struggles from lower than I wanted to be, it was obvious half-way down the leg that I was very late. With top cover thickening so you couldn’t assess the cu even from their shadows, and not wanting to make anyone fetch me from the other end of Somerset (like when I landed at Leicester, still sorry Phil), I gave up at Frome and came home for just 175km. Bit of a damp squib, sadly.

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