Wednesday 27th
3 weeks of no flying activity must be some kind of a record but today the lean period came to an end. Too much east in the wind to get the ridge working, bitterly cold but cloud base around 2,000' and we could fly. Then there was the bonus of some soaring. Bob B was the first to discover there was something there when he returned in the Vega with tales of a 50' gain in height. Inspired by this I jumped into the K8 launched to 1,750 and gracefully descended to 1,250' at which point there was a beep. Not easy but I managed to match Bob's gain of height, some more determined flying doubled that and eventually back up to launch height and on to 1,900'. 24 launches in total, 2 over half an hour and another 9 made double digits.
Sir Ranulph Fiennes turns back from expedition to summit Rivar Hill
24 march 2013. Today Sir Ranulph Fiennes abandoned his attempt to be the first man to summit rivar hill, unsupported and without recourse to either supplementary oxygen or a jumper.
Local pilots who were there fettling a Libelle reported conditions as being somewhat wintery with the mercury at -2c and the wind sock standing horizontal, well it would have if we'd been daft enough to raise it.
Local pilots who were there fettling a Libelle reported conditions as being somewhat wintery with the mercury at -2c and the wind sock standing horizontal, well it would have if we'd been daft enough to raise it.
Non flying, but trailer tidying.
Apart from working, which I seem to do a lot these days the weather has been poor and I missed the opportunity to fly on Thursday, great as it was.
I've been working on my trailer and glider getting it ready for the cross country season. This consists of replacing all the bits of tape and wire that were holding various parts together which had been done on the hoof as last year progressed. This seems to be the format for each year I fly.
To do my repairs and maintenance I moved my glider down to a friends house where I plugged in a small greenhouse heater as well as a dehumidifier.
I also placed two data loggers, one in the trailer with heater and dehumidifier and the other in his unheated garage 6 feet away and they record relative humidity, dew point and temperature.
From the results, which are only over a period of 8 days it would seem quite a good idea to do the same at the end of each season.
The main difference, for those who are interested is that the relative humidity, or as I like to call it (the B%*&*&+$ Osmosis in my wings, dammit), is one average 71.5% in the garage while inside the trailer its 59.9%. The temperature in the garage averaged 3.90 degrees C while the trailer was a balmy 4.89 degrees.
So the conclusion, if there is one, is that it's wet and damp inside your trailer if left alone. It's also cold and possibly lonely.
The sharp peaks in the second chart are (I believe) where the dehumidifier turns on and off.
I may keep the logger in the trailer with a control in a shaded area through the summer to see just how much we back the poor things.
From: My study, warmer and dryer than the horrible view out of the window!
I've been working on my trailer and glider getting it ready for the cross country season. This consists of replacing all the bits of tape and wire that were holding various parts together which had been done on the hoof as last year progressed. This seems to be the format for each year I fly.
To do my repairs and maintenance I moved my glider down to a friends house where I plugged in a small greenhouse heater as well as a dehumidifier.
I also placed two data loggers, one in the trailer with heater and dehumidifier and the other in his unheated garage 6 feet away and they record relative humidity, dew point and temperature.
From the results, which are only over a period of 8 days it would seem quite a good idea to do the same at the end of each season.
So the conclusion, if there is one, is that it's wet and damp inside your trailer if left alone. It's also cold and possibly lonely.
The sharp peaks in the second chart are (I believe) where the dehumidifier turns on and off.
I may keep the logger in the trailer with a control in a shaded area through the summer to see just how much we back the poor things.
From: My study, warmer and dryer than the horrible view out of the window!
Saturday 9th
When the Met Office said "low cloud" that meant barely above the trees. Sufficient for us to derig JPC and get it into the workshop.
I see there's no blog entries for the previous weekend or Wednesday but there was flying on each of these days clocking up 58 launches and 6:26 flying time
I see there's no blog entries for the previous weekend or Wednesday but there was flying on each of these days clocking up 58 launches and 6:26 flying time
Fab Feb
After the worst January on record* February was a lot kinder. Only 20 launches more than the average for the month but for flying time it was 3 times the average, almost double the best previous time for the month.
The start of our flying year is October so we are almost half way through the "year". Given the rubbish winter it's quite surprising to see the year-to-date stats aren't too bad. Number of launches modest but better (just) than 3 other years, Total flying time is a different story - a new record.
Just to put those numbers into perspective: the first five months of the year account for 27% of launches and only 15% of flying time.
* Comparisons made over 6 years as those are the stats I have readily to hand
The start of our flying year is October so we are almost half way through the "year". Given the rubbish winter it's quite surprising to see the year-to-date stats aren't too bad. Number of launches modest but better (just) than 3 other years, Total flying time is a different story - a new record.
Just to put those numbers into perspective: the first five months of the year account for 27% of launches and only 15% of flying time.
* Comparisons made over 6 years as those are the stats I have readily to hand
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