Club exped to Portmoak Tuesday 29th

As the locals predicted Tuesday was going to be a ridge day. With a light SW wind we were a little pessimistic  of how it would perform but at least with Cu forming overhead we had the option of having a thermal flight if nothing else.  

As  usual the gliders which were left rigged overnight were readied for flight and we towed them over to the eastern launch run which was a novelty as the last two days flying were launching from the west. This direction is amazing as at the top of the launch you are over the loch.

View of Bishop from the launch point.

 If you look closely you will see the Vega bottom right being flown by Nigel and in the top left is the Puchacz with Rod and Paul.

Nigel enjoying his first ridge flight in the Vega, the launch point is just around the corner of Bishop in line with St Serf island (in distance).

Below is a view from the same spot a little higher (and closer) than Nigel was at.

Colin, a member at Challock, showed us the workings of the jet sustainer fitted to his Shark.

The noise from this really is something prompting the CFI to ask him to start it up further away7 from the airfield next time...............I want one!

The ridge at Portmoak is truly amazing to run along and it is clear from the smiles that everyone thought this was the highlight of the week. Nigel, Jon and Wavey all had ridge flights over an hour, Paul and Rod in the Puch and Carol and I in the Janus clocked up around 3 hours apiece.

All in  all a very good day and a lot of fun was had by all and I know that some of you have seen us flying in real time on the internet.

Today (Wednesday) is a non flying day but we hope to get into lee-wave tomorrow afternoon.

Club exped to Portmoak

The first two days were not flyable due to low cloud but on Sunday Carol and I managed to get every ones site checks done so it was time for Nigel, Jon and James to give the Vega a go.
With the easterly wind soaring times were in single figures but its fair to say that the circuit out over Loch Leven was different to what we are used to at Shalbourne, a video will be posted when I get back.

Despite the short flight times everyone is thoroughly enjoying the experience of flying here. The locals are very friendly and helpful, we are effectively a club within a club and have access to a tug when we need one.....only have to ask and a tuggy comes to site to launch us!

Also they say if it gets busy they will arrange for us to have our own launch run and winch.........can't get better than that!

Paul had an aerotow check with Carol in the Puchacz and was cleared for solo aero-towing as was James Walters who had a check in a K21 with one of the Portmoak instructors.

 Even though easterly winds are not ideal Carol and I took a 2,000ft tow to explore the Lee Wave that had set up a short distance from the west face of the Bishop. Steady 2 knot climbs gave good views of the scenery below until suddenly the gap started to close in. Despite descending quickly the last few hundred feet was done in cloud so both of us gained our cloud flying rating :-)

As you can see  Rod and Maureen visited one of the many local whiskey distilleries and Rod could not resist buying some.......................... have a look at the label!

According to the locals today (Tuesday) is promising to be a good day so hopefully I will be able to report some longer flights. 

St George's Day

Driving through Hungerford on the way to the club I began to wonder if I'd stumbled on an EDL rally until I realised it was St George's Day - George Cross flags every where.  Hive of activity when I got to the club including the toilets being cleaned.  I promised Chris not to let on who did it in case his wife reads the blog.
Then it was time to fit in some flying - the steady wind down the strip promised some great launches.  Unfortunately the 1,300' cloudbase never gave us a chance to find out what might have been possible.  It didn't take long before there was no one else waiting to fly and the hangar was packed as the rain settled in.
Updating my logbook just now I discovered that I clocked up my 5,000th launch - 7 minutes solo in the Puchacz was not exactly a special flight to mark the occasion.

Unnamed Saturday

Or is it? I'm sure it's got a name, I'll have to Google that...

Anyway smith shut up about such inconsequential drivel...

The unnamed Saturday was actually quite good, the same airmass as the oh so good Friday giving strong climbs, yes the spreadout made finding a climb close to a lottery or maybe the subject of a future masterclass... But it was good fun!

EDIT Holy Saturday

Good Friday

And "good" it was.  I promised cracking launches plus thermals popping and the C team delivered - almost 27 hours off 32 launches.  I saw lift of 7 knots (on the averager) and visited cloudbase at 4,500', maybe others topped those.
Good turnout of private gliders rigged - Nimbus, Cirrus, LS3, LS7, Duo Discus and Jantar.  Only 3 on the instructor's list though and each of them got in over a hour of flying.

Great Bedwyn from a check flight

Longest flight honours (time and distance) went to Pete Smith who visited Northampton South, Chieveley and Calvert Rail Junction to clock up 320km.  The sky kept delivering all day - it took Paul P half an hour to hangar fly the Puchaz and Andrew B (yes, he flys as well as fixes gliders) took 40 minutes to hangar fly the K13 (resorting to spin and stall exercises and deliberately flying through lift).

Wednesday 16th

Colin returned from the weather check reporting "lift everywhere" and having to side-slip along the downwind leg.  The advice to his syndicate partner - "it's worth rigging". LS3 rigged and the word from Colin in the back seat was "sorry, it's as if there's been a complete change of air".  Alan P had been airborne for some time so something must be working.  Straight off the launch into a reasonable thermal which stopped dead at 2,000' by the inversion.  No matter, plenty more where that came from, or so I thought.  Nothing found to impede my inevitable descent to Mother Earth.  Launch number 2 turned into an epic scratch - half an hour off only 2 thermals, each providing a gain in height of 500', gives an idea of just how feeble the climb rate was.  All good character forming stuff I suppose.  Mine was the second longest flight of the day, beaten by Alan P with over an hour in his Skylark.  How he managed that length of time is a mystery (especially, it was suggested, given the soaring ability demonstrated on the previous couple of flying days - one wag observed that maybe he should stick to yellow aircraft and avoid blue) but impressive.
The day ended prematurely when the intermittent problem on with the winch was no longer intermittent and the starter motor gave up.

Easter

Airfield is open all 4 days #shalglide

Sunday 13th

Thirteen is considered unlucky but only for those people who didnt turn up at the airfield today with a total of 39 flights and over 20 hours of soaring time logged this was our busiest day since August last year.

The good forecast brought out quite a few private owners who were busy trying to remember how to fly their hot ships after a winters slumber, the Janus, Nimbus, Ls3, Oly, Pirat and Jantar all taking to the skies for extended soaring flights and short cross countries. The club gliders were also kept fully utilised with Daniel and Pablo up first in the Puchacz for check flights before Daniel took to the skies in the K8 and decided not to come back, twice, clocking up two flights of over an hour to double his solo hours to date and get his first Bronze leg. Mean while Pablo kept the launch point uncluttered soaring the Puchacz solo for the fist time while Phil put Justin through his paces for his Bronze flying test. Stuart obviously also appreciates a tidy launch point as he disappeared off in the club Vega and Alan proved that the surest way to catch a thermal is to decide to hangar fly and went soaring in the Oly on his fourth attempt. Unfortunately Richard brought the Ls3 back for his syndicate partner who had already absconded in a spare seat in the Janus so the airfield didn't remain tidy for long.

Conditions remained soarable until late in the day so I was able to sneak off for an hour in the Nimbus to remember what 50:1 is really like while Pete checked Graham out befrore his type conversion to the Vega ending a long day of good soaring and numerous personal achievements.

It looks like the soaring season is here.

Saturday 12/04 and Sunday 13/04

I was duty Saturday, it was grey and overcast and quite windy, but it was soarable. With no-one willing to fly with me I took the Vega, having noticed a brightening - it was quite tricky and cycling but i managed 38mins, Nigel and Stephen coming close with their soaring efforts.

On Sunday I rigged 737 along side EEF, the pirat, the olly, FOT and 383 and launched into a much better looking sky for, in formula 1 parlance, a systems check and installation lap. It was working ok up to about 3000ft so I set off north for a wander. There I found the thermals much more broken (wave from wales?) and struggled to get back, fortunately the nimbo was good for the task.

Congratulations to Graham Tanner for converting to the Vega and to Justin for completing his bronze checks.

9th April - Busy Wednesday

Lots of members turned out to play and 4 private gliders rigged.  Despite a 90 degree cross wind and the subsequent poor launches (1,200ish was what I was seeing from the back seat of a K13) thermals far from guaranteed, quite a few decent soaring flights were had.  At one point in the afternoon all 7 gliders were airborne and the launch point empty.  Chris K set the time to beat flying his Cirus for 50 minutes, which Colin B bettered by 8 minutes flying his LS3-17 but Rob J, in his Cirus, clocked up 1:13.  Mind, it wasn't easy, Colin had to take 3 launches to get one decent length flight.  Alan P decided to have a rest from short circuits in his Olly and handed over to Alan B to add a new type to his log book.  He obviously hadn't been told the Olly was just doing circuits as he flew for 38 minutes.  On handing it back to Alan P normality (i.e. a short flight) was restored.

Meanwhile at the top end of the field the phantom grass cutter was attacking some of the vigorous spring grass.
20 members flew, including Alex R one of our new junior members taking advantage of half term.  Almost 10 hours flown off 37 launches.