Sunday 19th Oct - The Winchdrivers are revolting...
Well! The day started - as forecast by the Met Office - with a howling crosswind. It was - as forecast by me - also thermic with great-looking streets showing evidence of wave influence. First launch with John proved it nicely soarable and indeed other soaring flights followed. However - also as forecast - the wind picked up and got gustier during the day, and in spite of our best efforts laying off as well as swapping the 'flying' cable chutes for the small ones, we were unable to keep the falling cables reliably clear of the electric fence. After the hard-working winch crew had retrieved one not terribly well laid-off cable from the trees and kit in Dingley Dell, and at who knows what personal cost had retied the sheep fence a few times (being unable to find the power source and turn it off!), they staged a revolt - a deputation came up to the control van and said it couldn't continue. So, for the first time I've known it in a westerly, crosswind limits made us scrub the day. Mike - who was sat in the glider ready for his first flight when we scrubbed - and Tony are at the top of the list for next time!
Saturday 11th October
Cloudbase on Saturday was initially a bit low and with the forecast of rain by mid afternoon many thought we were a bit daft to rig the Janus.
We took our first launch just as what appeared to be an very low but active street was passing diagonally over the winch and released along the downwind edge of it at around 1400ft. With one wing tip in the side of the cloud we cruised up and down the street in zero until eventually we hit sink and had to land but not until we had clocked up around 13 minutes.
Our second flight was a lot shorter as we had to abort the launch due to low cloud.
But our Third flight was a bit different...............
Cloudbase was starting to rise and soon after release we contacted a thermal which after some serious scratching took us to cloudbase at around 1500ft.
During the flight Cloudbase rose significantly and the lift became more predictable meaning we could take in Andover and Newbury even reaching the dizzy heights of 3,000ft! During the flight we noticed a cloud street has set up over the hill to the south of the airfield and by flying along underneath it climbed without turning with 4.8kts showing on the averager travelling a distance of some 5k towards Thruxton.
It just goes to show that even in October conditions can be far better than forecasted and both of us were quite pleased with our 2hrs 20mins :-)
Phil
We took our first launch just as what appeared to be an very low but active street was passing diagonally over the winch and released along the downwind edge of it at around 1400ft. With one wing tip in the side of the cloud we cruised up and down the street in zero until eventually we hit sink and had to land but not until we had clocked up around 13 minutes.
Our second flight was a lot shorter as we had to abort the launch due to low cloud.
But our Third flight was a bit different...............
Cloudbase was starting to rise and soon after release we contacted a thermal which after some serious scratching took us to cloudbase at around 1500ft.
During the flight Cloudbase rose significantly and the lift became more predictable meaning we could take in Andover and Newbury even reaching the dizzy heights of 3,000ft! During the flight we noticed a cloud street has set up over the hill to the south of the airfield and by flying along underneath it climbed without turning with 4.8kts showing on the averager travelling a distance of some 5k towards Thruxton.
It just goes to show that even in October conditions can be far better than forecasted and both of us were quite pleased with our 2hrs 20mins :-)
Phil
Wednesday 15th
The low cloud failed to lift before the rain arrived - at 14:00 exactly on the time forecast. The few of us there helped Colin get the reserve winch back online and both winches under the shelter. This involved returning the old hoist to Dingly Dell (apparently from where we originally acquired it). This involved towing it with ballast over the rear wheels to reduce the chances of it tipping over.
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| Multi-tasking: driving and posing |
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| More Multi-tasking: Driving and taking a picture |
Sunday Extra
Here's the evidence of being above the cloud and the fog in the distance.
There was a lot of circuit bashing with no one breaking into double digit flying time until launch 25 (4 hours after the first launch) when Selvam clocked up 13 minutes. Couple of launches later Rod matched it and a couple of launches after that Trevor squeezed an additional 2 minutes from somewhere.
There was a lot of circuit bashing with no one breaking into double digit flying time until launch 25 (4 hours after the first launch) when Selvam clocked up 13 minutes. Couple of launches later Rod matched it and a couple of launches after that Trevor squeezed an additional 2 minutes from somewhere.
Sunday 12th October
As often happens when fog fills the
valleys, Rivar Hill kept its head above the clouds. The sun never quite broke through but visibility was 'CAVOK' with inbound Heathrow
traffic in clear view below featureless top cover. Despite early canopy
misting and Alan P's best efforts to obscure the entire airfield with
bonfire smog, flying commenced in the late a.m.
The airfield had been well attended
from an early hour, but the absence of a duty team presented Richard D
with the unenviable challenge of running it with little
experienced backup. So, resourceful as ever, RD sends an SOS to
Stephen O who then conjures up the requisite crew in short order. And
so it came to pass that electronic jungle drums brought forth a
surfeit of helpers, with four instructors ensuring that everyone
who needed back seat assistance got it with a minimum of delay. Even
so, steady demand kept three two-seaters busy until late afternoon.
It started to rain as the hangar curtains were drawn. Thanks to everyone who answered the call.
Sunday 28th in Norfolk
Holiday time and an opportunity to slope off and visit the local gliding club. This time it was the Norfolk GC at the massive WW2 airfield at Tibbenham. What luxury, the classic A set of hard core runways, several hangars and a substantial club house complete with mains supplies, briefing room, bar and bacon butties (other refreshments were available).
The practice is not to use the cross runway (the horizontal line of the A) because its condition is not too great (looked fine to the casual observer). This meant we had a 90 degree cross wind and with the launch point at the runway intersection, the result was launches of only around 1,000. Lots of runway behind the launch point meant it was very easy to land behind the launch point (in fact effort had to be made to get back to the launch point). Launching was from the grass alongside the runway and landing on the hard runway. Some folks landed into wind on the grass alongside the cross runway. Interestingly (to me at least) only radio was used for launching. The launch point vehicle had lights but apparently rarely used.
At the end of the day almost all those who had been flying lent a hand to derig the K21 ready to be sent off for its ARC.
Many thanks to the members of Norfolk GC who made me most welcome and offered me the chance to sample the delights of facilities at Tibenham - next time hopefully there will be more in the way of thermal activity. It's not very often one gets the chance to move from a K21 to a T21.
The practice is not to use the cross runway (the horizontal line of the A) because its condition is not too great (looked fine to the casual observer). This meant we had a 90 degree cross wind and with the launch point at the runway intersection, the result was launches of only around 1,000. Lots of runway behind the launch point meant it was very easy to land behind the launch point (in fact effort had to be made to get back to the launch point). Launching was from the grass alongside the runway and landing on the hard runway. Some folks landed into wind on the grass alongside the cross runway. Interestingly (to me at least) only radio was used for launching. The launch point vehicle had lights but apparently rarely used.
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| Launch point |
A fairly quiet day so it wasn't long before I was able to go for a site check with Andy the DI in their K21. Prior to my flight only short circuits were being flown. I found some weak lift and scratched away gaining a whole 50' at one point but only managed 14 minutes. The Vega that took the next launch and joined us and was less wimpy than I was about the drift and took the longest flight of the day (by a very large margin) of just over 1 hour. Slightly higher launch of 1,100' in the club's Astir but only a couple of turns in zero within reach. Then it was time to blag a ride in the privately owned T21.
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| Launch point seen from a T21 - end of the day with 2 gliders being towed to the hangar |
Many thanks to the members of Norfolk GC who made me most welcome and offered me the chance to sample the delights of facilities at Tibenham - next time hopefully there will be more in the way of thermal activity. It's not very often one gets the chance to move from a K21 to a T21.
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| The T21 is called "The Barge" by it's owners so just in case it lands on one of the broads |
Saturday 27th September
A modest turnout but another very enjoyable days flying at Shalbourne, by close of play we had flown a reasonable 31 flights.
It was one of those days were some where treated to extended flights whereas others could only do circuits, all in the timing.
Not that these conditions worried Tim or me as we were having great fun (well I was!) doing his 5 year instructor checks. On one flight we did manage to contact good lift which took us to 3,400ft which enabled us to spin and spiral dive to our hearts content which meant that Tim was duly signed off again.
But we weren't the only ones to stay up, Steve Gaze got top honours with 1:15 in the K8 and despite a valiant effort Paul P managed a creditable 1:09 (also in the K8). Alan P was next with 1:07 flying his Oly.
Charles McCallin took me back up to 3,400ft in JPC and with all that height we got plenty of exercises signed off in his progress card during our 48 mins aloft.
Congratulations go to Graham Tanner for completing his XC endorsement at Bicester recently, he only turned up so that I could sign his forms but he took little persuading in taking a flight in Puchacz!
Thanks to Nigel B for helping with the trial lessons and to Richard D for also lending a hand.
Oh and after its 100 hours check the Puchacz was tested and returned to service after the customary looping and VNE stuff by yours truly.
Phil
It was one of those days were some where treated to extended flights whereas others could only do circuits, all in the timing.
Not that these conditions worried Tim or me as we were having great fun (well I was!) doing his 5 year instructor checks. On one flight we did manage to contact good lift which took us to 3,400ft which enabled us to spin and spiral dive to our hearts content which meant that Tim was duly signed off again.
But we weren't the only ones to stay up, Steve Gaze got top honours with 1:15 in the K8 and despite a valiant effort Paul P managed a creditable 1:09 (also in the K8). Alan P was next with 1:07 flying his Oly.
Charles McCallin took me back up to 3,400ft in JPC and with all that height we got plenty of exercises signed off in his progress card during our 48 mins aloft.
Congratulations go to Graham Tanner for completing his XC endorsement at Bicester recently, he only turned up so that I could sign his forms but he took little persuading in taking a flight in Puchacz!
Thanks to Nigel B for helping with the trial lessons and to Richard D for also lending a hand.
Oh and after its 100 hours check the Puchacz was tested and returned to service after the customary looping and VNE stuff by yours truly.
Phil
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