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

Return to Winter (Sunday 28th)

A day that had everyone going back to their cars to find more layers.  The forecast clear sky for the start of the day did not materialise so it was a day for seeing who could break into double digits with their flight.  Mark P was first with 10 minutes but his crown was immediately stolen by Rob J with 11 minutes who then got pipped by Paul P with 12.  Paul's record looked safe as we returned to single digit flight times but we did not allow for the Trevor Effect.  He pulled a 26 minute flight out of thin air.  Last flight of the day was equally unexpected as James W started circling off the top of the launch to return 22 minutes later from 2,400.

The other high spot (different kind of high) was Jon S taking his first solo.  Well, first solo in something without an engine and inflight services.

Sunshine and showers (27th April)

A day that was forecast to go either way went the wrong way... Tha'ts not to say things didn't get fun (climbs up the edges of cbs) nor that good training couldn't be had before the frequency of showers got too great.

More on Saturday

A day when the DI couldn't win with picking ends.  What little wind there was came from the east sometime with a bit of north sometimes with some south making it no-win with our north-south field.  Having changed ends a hiking group appeared somewhat off the bridleway.  Although they refused our offers of transport to the other end of the field they were happy to accept our suggested detour that would enable us to launch with minimal delay.  Unfortunately, their ability to follow instructions did not match their willingness.  So long delay as they trudged their way - who knows if they ever found their way to their final destination.
Meanwhile, away from the frustrations on the ground those airborne were finding thermals in the blue.  With no headwind to help (and sometimes a touch of tail wind) launch heights were modest and getting away took a little luck and determination.  When Trevor needs a second launch you know it's not easy.  A group of 3 kites helped me avoid just doing a circuit.  They kindly lead me to a 5 knotter.  Later on time to return home so flew back from Andover pausing only to circle a glider in a field a few times and then full steam ahead.  Back at Rivar pulled up straight into an unmarked thermal.  Since it was blue I decided to be helpful and mark it for the gliders about to launch.  The lift just got better and better until I was seeing 8.5 on the averager.  At 5,500 it dawned on me I'd have to replan my circuit.  No problem - went to the north of the M4 for my high key point.
Despite the hour of launching lost 31 launches were clocked up and the average flight time was over 1 hour (just).  24 members flew and 7 private gliders rigged. After we packed the hangar a visitor from the Park landed to claim all 3 legs of his Silver in one flight.
That glider in the field?  The previous blog entry reveals it wasn't the prince of land-outs.  It was one of ours - all I will say that there wasn't a hazard in the field until after he landed.

Saturday 20th April.

Cracking little flight; Rivar- Lyneham- Abingdon Bridge and back.

Sunday 7th April

Looking at the top cover and change in conditions from Saturday you would have been forgiven for thinking that Sunday was not going to offer much in the way of soaring..........how wrong you were!

As Nigel needed to be signed off to go on his BI course we took a couple of launches in the Puchacz expecting to fly circuits as the previous flights had been less than 10 mins. Our first flight lasted 17 minutes and the second a whole 40 minutes! The lift was so good (4-6 kts) Nigel took the one thermal to 4,000 ft and finished off his BI training..........well done Nigel :-)

Flying JPC Rod Harris managed a solo flight of 40 minutes, Mark Patterson got 1 hr 2 mins also in JPC but Graham Tanner flying with Jim Clarke in the Puchacz flew the longest with 1 hr 7 mins.

Oh and Jon Scott was introduced to the wonderful world of cable breaks by Jim!

Phil

Saturday 6th April

With miserable March disappearing over the horizon Saturday morning dawned promising a  change in fortunes and the good soaring conditions which were forecasted a few days beforehand didn't let us down.

The change in the weather brought many members out of hibernation and the parking area was full by late morning.

First flight to test out JPC after it's ARC renewal was at 9:30 the launch taking me to 2,100 ft with cloudbase at 2,800 ft. As the day progressed the lift and cloudbase increased to such an extent that we had to put a limit on soaring as it was quite possible to stay up for quite some time. 


With all the club gliders in the air at once this was the scene at the launch point.. 


With good launches and strong climbs to excess of 4,500 ft we managed 42 launches with 18 flights managing a flight of over 1 hour.

 Chris Bessent and Nigel Burt took the Puchacz on its first XC flight of the season to Lyneham and back surprising us all by returning by air :-) Jim Clarke took the Nimbus for a run round Devizes, Didcot and Oxford, Richard Dann took the LS3 away for a few hours and Darren McKillop took me and JPC (almost) to the M4 junction at Hungerford at a reassuring (but unnecessary!) 4,800 ft :-)

Finally congratulations must go to John Goodwin who was sent solo by Carol

Phil

Miserable March

The Easter weekend rescued March from being our worst month in 6 years (my stats don't go back further than that).  It was narrowly better than our previous worst March for number of launches (by 2) but far worse for flying hours of 17.5 compare to previous worst of 22 hours (all other years have been between 60 and 90 hours).  Hardly surprising with no flying between the 6th and the 27th.  With only 5 flying days in the month that's the lowest of any month in the past 6 years - matched only by (you guessed it) January this year.
Enough of this gloom - fingers crossed for an Awesome April.

Easter Monday

After a couple of good days we weren't expecting too much but the Lasham weather guru had forecast thermals by 10:00 BST.  With 8/8 cover and low it then dawned us what the date was - April Fools Day!  The few of us there admired Alan P's Olly, had lunch and then took the Puchacz down to throw at the sky.  1,500' in a 80 degree cross-wind and still 100' or so below cloud came as a pleasant surprise.  Certainly plenty of height for the annual checks that a couple of folks were wanting.  Some scraps of lift around but nothing substantial enough to soar in and substantial lift would have been needed to compensate for the drift.  As the afternoon progressed the wind picked up and landings got more lively.  After 8 launches we'd had enough and packed the toys away.

Easter Treat

After a string of damp weekends the forecast for the Easter weekend was dry at last. Everyone was complaining that it was bitterly cold, however there is an upside to cold spring days as a little sun on the ground can generate some really good good thermals.

Saturday was largely overcast so only a few people managed to get into usable lift. Easter meant that a number of members were away on family duties but we still managed over 20 flights on the day.

Easter Sunday dawned with clear skys and the start of British Summer Time giving an incentive to get to the airfield early. The combination of sun on cold ground did exactly what was expected and two of our new members were treated to some extended soaring practice with the vario showing 8 kts up and the altimeter reaching 4400' above site. Unfortunately the overcast returned in the afternoon making getting established more difficult.

Nice to have a bank holiday weekend without the usual rain. great to have some super thermals.

Saturday 30th March

Saturday turned out to be a bit of a mixed bag.

Most of the 28 flights were less than 10 mins but if you were fortunate to launch at the right time extended flights were possible.
Carol and I found some lift to the south west of the airfield and squeezed out a reasonable 1 hr 6 mins but Jim flying the Nimbus made use of the convergence to reach 3800 ft and stayed airborne for a creditable 1 hr 36 mins.
Later on Carol and Chris in the Janus made use of the same convergence line as Jim and flew from Vernham Dean to just north of Whitchurch climbing to 3800 ft without turning.

Lets hope this is the start of the soaring season!


Phil



1st day of Spring

PAH - another non-flying day