With a brisk SW wind the only thing stopping us from getting high launches was the cloud base which stubbornly lurked at around 1600ft. However during one all too brief clear(er) bit Jim McCormick and I in a K13 managed to get a launch to 2200ft!
With such a reasonable breeze there was definitely some wave influence but using it for any real effect was hard to say the least, that was until Chris B took the last launch of the day.
With a lowering cloud base Chris took a launch and contacted the wave which kept him hovering over the winch at 1600ft (cloud base) for 22 minutes. As you can imagine he kept on repeating to all around that he had had the longest flight of the day :-)
Not sure how many flights were flown but we were well into the second page. With one 1/2 day course and plenty of instructional flights all those who who turned up certainly enjoyed the day.
Phil
Saturday 29th
An exceptional day for the back-end of September with climb rates of 6+ knots reported up to 3,700' (QFE). Just a pity there were so few members there to enjoy what the day had to offer.
With 4 gliders being rigged and so few folks around first launch wasn't until 11:30 when Bob B (duty instructor) decided that if no one needed his services he would take a launch into a largely blue sky. Bob stayed up so James H took the club Vega and he didn't immediately return. This was enough to tempt the private gliders on-line. I took the next launch (LS3-17 in 15M guise) and struggled gaining a few hundred feet before returning to launch height (1,100' thanks to the crosswind) or less several times before getting away. Later in the afternoon there were some magnificent looking cloud streets but there were also some extended areas of strong sink that kept folks on their toes. Of the 20 launches 8 enjoyed flights of more than an hour. Last launch was at 15:30 - still plenty of good sky left in the day but we'd run out of people to fly.
Meanwhile at the other end of the field Alan P was checking whether his reconstructed Olly wing might hold together in flight.
With 4 gliders being rigged and so few folks around first launch wasn't until 11:30 when Bob B (duty instructor) decided that if no one needed his services he would take a launch into a largely blue sky. Bob stayed up so James H took the club Vega and he didn't immediately return. This was enough to tempt the private gliders on-line. I took the next launch (LS3-17 in 15M guise) and struggled gaining a few hundred feet before returning to launch height (1,100' thanks to the crosswind) or less several times before getting away. Later in the afternoon there were some magnificent looking cloud streets but there were also some extended areas of strong sink that kept folks on their toes. Of the 20 launches 8 enjoyed flights of more than an hour. Last launch was at 15:30 - still plenty of good sky left in the day but we'd run out of people to fly.
Meanwhile at the other end of the field Alan P was checking whether his reconstructed Olly wing might hold together in flight.
Bob took this picture and commented "Here is the better photo of Alan's
bending test of his Olympia wing using 445 pounds of sand. Obviously
successful! The wing was bending very little. The drooping angle
was due to the fixing to the winch slipping very slightly".
Caffeine Addictions
It seams some pilots have a serious tea habit that is affecting their gliding. As DCFI I feel duty bound to offer a solution...
It even says it is an air pot!
It even says it is an air pot!
Wednesday 19/9 epic day......not!
After leaving a good energy line to turn Devizes we looked back towards Rivar only to see that the area of reasonable looking clouds we left had somehow turned to clag within a matter of minutes. After 10k in sink we were left with too little height to get back to Rivar so diverted to Upavon with only enough height for a quick 360 before landing next to the launch point.
According to Uncle Roy even their DG1000 was only getting 6 minute circuits so we did not feel too bad!
Thanks to Paul and Rob for retrieving us and to Roy and Eve Gaunt for a great cup of tea :-)
Phil
P.s I hear you had a cup of tea at Upavon with Carol a while back Chris! Can you see a common theme going on here?
According to Uncle Roy even their DG1000 was only getting 6 minute circuits so we did not feel too bad!
Thanks to Paul and Rob for retrieving us and to Roy and Eve Gaunt for a great cup of tea :-)
Phil
P.s I hear you had a cup of tea at Upavon with Carol a while back Chris! Can you see a common theme going on here?
Wednesday 19/9/2012. A promised epic day
Question:
What does this http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?daddr=RAF+Upavon
and this, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mug_of_Tea.JPG
plus this, http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/thumb_a_lift
involving this.....
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schempp-Hirth_Janus mean??
Still valliant effort Carol and Phil, at least you turned Devizes. Hope you have a photo.....
What does this http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?daddr=RAF+Upavon
and this, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mug_of_Tea.JPG
plus this, http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/thumb_a_lift
involving this.....
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schempp-Hirth_Janus mean??
Still valliant effort Carol and Phil, at least you turned Devizes. Hope you have a photo.....
Sunday 16th September
Selvam took full use of the available instructor capacity but somehow mostly failed to reach the top of the wire which was a shame as it offered 1800ft launches while there was also a little soaring under the stratus with James and Claire managing 20mins plus each and oh we did a trial lesson and isnt punctuation overrated.
Sunday (also) 15th September.
Saturday 15th
What a great day!
Despite an almost promising sky it was not really a great day for flying XC so most of us made do by staying within easy reach of the airfield but not Ken Reid who proved us right by landing the K8 at Alton Barnes! Luckily Jim and Chris B were on hand to go and retrieve him.....by the way anyone seen the K8 trailer board?
Whilst sharing a thermal with Chris K in his Cirrus I took this video on my phone as Paul gallantly tried to keep up with him :-)
Finally congratulations go to Jon Garner who after passing his bronze theory test the other week successfully flew the flight tests today and has now completed his bronze badge so just needs to get his XC endorsement..........well done Jon.
Phil
Despite an almost promising sky it was not really a great day for flying XC so most of us made do by staying within easy reach of the airfield but not Ken Reid who proved us right by landing the K8 at Alton Barnes! Luckily Jim and Chris B were on hand to go and retrieve him.....by the way anyone seen the K8 trailer board?
Whilst sharing a thermal with Chris K in his Cirrus I took this video on my phone as Paul gallantly tried to keep up with him :-)
Finally congratulations go to Jon Garner who after passing his bronze theory test the other week successfully flew the flight tests today and has now completed his bronze badge so just needs to get his XC endorsement..........well done Jon.
Phil
Saturday 8th
Sunny day with a light southerly and some pretty clouds but the only person able to manage more than 13 minutes was Ken R with 58 minutes of scrapping with the K8. Busy day for the CFI with more instructor checks and flying both his gliders. Thanks are due to Rob J and the Richards (G and D) for winching and enabling us to clock up 36 launches.
Wednesday 5th
North wind and enough of it to hold the promise of ridge flying but the thermals messed that up. And what thermals - small and rough. Climbs to 2,900' in the morning but only to 2,500' later in the day. Vistor from Talgarth with his Ventus joined the "Wednesday boys" and enjoyed one (of 6) of the hour plus flights. Trevor G did his usual - drive the winch, rig later than everyone else and take the longest flight (3 hours on this occassion). Another dozen half hour plus flights helped bring the days total flying to 19 hours of f32 launches.
Saturday 1 Sept
Well, I wasn't on duty today, and so it didn't rain. Note that wasn't me who set up the rota that put E team on Bank Holiday Monday, a combination pretty well guaranteed to ruin the weather! Today I was there in my capacity as P2 doing instructor renewals flying with the Boss whose day it was. As indeed was Professor Dann.
We duly started the day with cable breaks on the grounds that it didn't matter that the low cloud hadn't yet burnt off; this had the excellent effect of making a weak sun come out. There then ensued a cat-and-mouse game between CFI and instructor-under-renewal to see who could catch the other out.
The CFI will ALWAYS win this game for a number of reasons. Firstly, he is the boss, very close to God/gods and always right. Secondly, he can always claim that any error you pick up was Bloggs and well done for spotting it (no, really, it was...). Thirdly, he can pull the bung on you just before you were going to pull the bung on him. Fourthly, he is the boss, see point 1.
If this were not the case, then how would he manage to put a 'sucker's thermal' just where we were about to enter the circuit - which was drifting us away from the site at around the same rate as we were climbing. And coming and going to try to tempt you to centre downwind just a little further... We did in the end manage to soar away high enough to complete the briefed exercises but it was a marathon scrape!
So both I and Richard were duly renewed and can continue to terrorise the rest of you; but the real achievement of the day goes to Jon who passed his Bronze paper with flying colours. Well done Jon!
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