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

Sunday 27th Didcot's demise

Richard (who was kept busy soaring lots of two seaters all day) suggested with a telephoto lens we could survey the carnage at didcot. As I didnt have mine I decided to fly there instead, thing was i couldnt find the place and kept overshooting, ending up flying RIV-BRACKLEY-BURLINGTON-ISLIP-RIV 303. It was very good outside of the high cover and still good under it although i was a little more circumspect.


Saturday 26th

A good day was anticipated and 6 private gliders rigged.  However, they sat on the ground for the first 3 hours as club gliders mostly doing circuits.  The exception was Nigel B who was the only one to soar (not once but twice).  Then Paul P launched in the club K8 and just kept going up and up.
Paul P's progress attracting interest
That provided the trigger for the private gliders to launch.  Lots of soaring for the next 3 hours.  Carol P and Phil M claimed longest flight honours with 3:19.  Having been once round the Wantage/Devizes/Rivar triangle they decided to do it a second time but faster.  Climbs to 5,600' were on offer and some tasty streets available.
We were pleased to welcome Ben P who turned up for a Trial Lesson and joined on the spot.  Nigel gave him a taste of soaring which included seeing his home in Hungerford from the Puchacz.
It was the last chance to see an old familiar friend on the horizon - Didcot cooling towers.  In the early hours of Sunday 3 of the towers were demolished.

Wednesday 23rd

We had read the Lasham forecast, including Jon G who had taken the day off work based on what it promised - which ended with "Should be good for a fast 400-500km+. If it streets as well it will be epic!".  I'm guessing the Duo Discus that appeared low nearby deploying the iron thermal would have taken issue with that summary.  Fortunately, the engine was started well away from the village.
There was a fair wind blowing NNE so maybe the ridge would deliver until the trigger temperature was reached.  Not so, circuits were the order of the day until at 14:00 Bill O launched into a better looking sky and stuck for over an hour.  This prompted a flurry of activity but only the occasional launch got some soaring.  For those who did manage to connect, climbs to 3,900' were available and for everyone, pockets of sink of 8 down could be encountered.  Of the 36 launches only 4 managed over an hour (Rob J top dog with 1:13) and another 4 of over 20 minutes.
The folks who packed the toys away were invited to the pub to help celebrate Colin B's significant birthday.

Footnote:  Having started this entry with a dig at the forecast I feel it only fair to say that the Lasham Weather God normally is remarkably accurate most of the time.  We benefit from not being far away and so being able to take advantage of these forecasts.
Sunday 20th July 2014

Having finally worked out how to operate a calendar I arrived to find that the club was already operating, (thanks Phil and Richard for stepping in and getting things going whilst I slumbered on in blissful ignorance of the fact that I was on duty!), I leaped into the back of a K13 and had a great day's soaring. Anyone who thought that the forecast was not good needs to read the Lasham forecasts more carefully because things went pretty much as it predicted with soaring conditions and moist air for most of the day and the drier air appearing some time after 15:00 giving higher cloudbase and trips to Marlborough in a K13. Selvam arrived back announcing that there were no more thermals at around 17:00 so we decided to put things away (well no one had any real enthusiasm for much more soaring anyway). I decided that we'd prove Selvam wrong so the last 4 cables produced 3 soaring flights and a training Launch Failure, last landing somewhat after 18:00. Much fun was had by all and I look forward to the head-cam view of Ken's loop :)

Wednesday 16th

There were those who looked at the forecast and decided that it wouldn't be very good until the afternoon.  Then there were those, like Fluffy Harris, who saw there was a glider, a cable and some sky waiting - jumped into the K8 and returned almost an hour later.  Everyone who launched in the first 2 hours got plenty of soaring in (well, except when yours truly had made "special" arrangements with the winch driver).  Then the top cover, which had drifted over, cut off our thermals.  For the next 2 hours not much was on offer but a couple of folks managed to scratch out almost half an hour each.  The following half hour it got better and followed by and hour and a half of circuits.  One final half hour window in which those of us who launched worked hard at the weak thermals on offer and then back to circuits to round off the day.  I saw 2,000' a few times but never managed any better and I only heard of one person managing to go beyond that.
A busy day with 33 launches and 20 folks flying.  Chris K took longest flight honours with over an hour in HAX.  Good news was that the brake lever had (finally) arrived from Germany which Andrew B promptly fitted and JMX made it back on line.

Thursday 10th

A very pleasant evening on which to welcome the MS Society who came along for a Trial Lesson Evening.  A smaller group than planned as the warm weather took its toll on a couple of those with MS.  The folks (both those with MS and their supporters) enjoyed the great views and even some soaring (Chris B seemed reluctant to land after the launch he took at 19:08 - returning after 22 minutes).

Wednesday 9th

If you like a bit of rough this was the day for you.  After a weather check flight Colin declared it a "bronze and beyond" day for flying solo.  Enough of a north wind to tickle the ridge but thermic activity meant the ridge would not be able to be relied upon.  There was a large element of luck whether you caught a thermal or copped some of the 6 down.  About 1 in 3 managed to ret some soaring (i.e. over 20 minutes).  The stars of the day were Ken R who had 2 flights in the club's Vega of over an hour each and Trevor G with almost 3 hours in his Jantar.

Visitor's Video

A couple of weeks ago a couple turned for half day courses.  One of them was armed with a GoPro camera and took this video.

A few stills from last Sunday's aero's

 Seems my video software as a useful screen capture setting!


 
 

Club Clothing

Has your club clothing shrunk in the wash?
Is it covered in rings of grease from rigging?
Have you had it since 1985? 
Is it covered in winch transmission fluid?

All embroidered with club logo. (this is navy blue and yellow)


If you dont want to search how about one of the standards below:

    Red long sleeved rugby shirt £23
or Beany Hat £10
or Navy blue Softshell jacket £52
or Maroon t-shirt (long or short sleeve) £10 (also for some members hi-vis yellow!!)
or Rigging Apron Mocha £12
or Fleece, Forest Green £18

(prices approx depending on quantity we order)

email me with your order petejdsmith (at) gmail.com dont forget to include size and any colour options.

Sunday 6th July

Luckily the forecasted showers in the afternoon failed to materialise so we managed to get a full day of gliding in.

With the westerly cross wind launch heights were not fantastic but we were still able to get some soaring in.

All in all we had 32 flights, the longest flight was a meagre 28 minutes with the next longest flight of around 18 minutes, modesty prevents me from saying who did those!

Colin mended the leaking exhaust manifold on the Skybrid winch in double quick time which gave Jim McCormick and I a chance to test the reserve winch before the Skybrid was returned back to service.

Tony Chapman unselfishly volunteered to be ballast and the link to the  resulting video is below.


All in all a very pleasant days flying.

Phil 

Wednesday 2nd July

With a promising looking day forecast there was a flurry of rigging activity, including those "on a mission".  Justin B for Silver distance, Steve B for Gold triangle and Colin B for lots of kms.
First a short check flight and then the next instructional flight turned into a modest triangle taking in Burbage and Hungerford.  As the day progressed the cloud base increased from less than 3,000' to over 5,000 (just).  A third of the flights were 50 minutes or more (Steve B's 3:59 qualifies as "more")..  Whilst some folks were lucky enough to get a couple of the longer flights others only got short circuits.  Naff all wind resulted in modest launch heights and no chance to escape a sink hole if that's what you were launched into.  Even Fluffy Harris couldn't keep the K7 airborne for long (unlike Sunday when the Olly responded to his magic touch).
After a 3 hours in the back seat Colin had returned and offered to trade places.  I sat at the launch point at 16:30 in the LS3, looking at a not so promising sky and thinking maybe it wasn't such a great idea.  1,100' launch but found some weak lift which eventually (about 20 minutes) got me to 4,000'.  Shortly after found something to take to 5,000'.  After that it was a romp off to Newbury then Andover (left Andover at 4,000 and arrived back at RIV at the same height without stopping to turn anywhere) then off to M4 north of Hungerford for my high key.  Paul P launched a few minutes after me and also managed to scrape away and soar the K8 for an hour.  Unexpected bonus at the end of the day.
As to the "men on a mission"?  Justin landed at Aston Down to claim his Silver distance.  Steve and Colin abandoned their tasks but covered a fair amount of ground.  Hopefully they will add their accounts to this blog.

Wednesday 2nd - Silver Distance day

Not exactly the day that the 'met' promised. Cu from horizon to horizon, but top cover gradually increasing throughout the day. En route climbs below 3000ft were painfully slow and by the time the rate perked up you were in the murk at 4500ft. Access to anything north of Oxford having been blocked by a couple of dozen odd folk jumping out of serviceable aeroplanes and to the East the skies cleared for the occasional Royal gin party at Wimbledon, the only way to go was West.

Nevertheless a few of us rigged; Steve B declaring a 300k triangle (Kingston Bagpuize, Taunton) and me 200k (Gloucester, Frome). Meanwhile Justin B had decided to take his Pirat to Aston Down for Silver Distance, proving to be the only one of us capable of actually completing a task on the day.  The sky went blank for me at Gloucester and I guess the same happened to Steve when he got to Frome. So we both scampered back as the western skies turned to milk.

Reading Stephens account of local soaring conditions it appears we should have gone N, S or E - any direction but West!

However I did achieve the modest distinction of visiting Aston Down three times in one day, twice in the air and once with a trailer. Well done Justin.

Sunday 29th

First launch, straight into a thermal and off to Hungerford.  Tony C mentions that this is the furthest he's flown from the club, I comment that it's all too easy.  Off to Conholt House for a bit of sight seeing to discover it wasn't completely easy peasey - we didn't quite get there.  Some great lift on offer but it cycled a couple of times so some folks ended up with not much more than circuits.  Alan P being one in his Olly.  He then offered Rod H the opportunity to fly his hot ship and Rod soared away.  Our 2 visitors who landed out will testify that it wasn't all plain sailing.  The ASH25 did land close to the toilet block and there were reports of the P2 dashing from the glider - so maybe lack of lift wasn't the reason for their landout.
Rod trying to figure out how to stop the Olly from soaring
Carol and Phil took the Janus visiting homes - their own (Thatcham and Andover), Paul P's (Ramsbury) and a few others.  They managed to fly around the dead patches to stay airborne for 2:41 - and we thought they had called in for tea (or pea) as the Janus boys have been known to.

Plenty of folks needing the services of an instructor.  The way I found to get a break was to send Andrew P solo.  Not a first solo but the last one was 32 years ago.  He was even considerate enough to give me a decent break - 51 minutes.
Andrew seems to have left something behind (an instructor)
Surprisingly few solo pilots appeared so we were very grateful to Rod H and Graham T who did long stints on the winch and Trevor G who took over for the last part of the day and didn't fly.  Without Colin B pitching in to help out in the backseat some folks would have left disappointed.  Thanks also to the folks that hung in to the end to make sure everyone got to fly.  

Wenesday 25th

Good looking cu to south and to the north (out of reach) but we had a pretty sky on offer.  Nobody rushing to rig and launch with little prospect of soaring.  First off the block was Colin and Jonty who defied expectations and stayed airborne for 20 minutes.  From then it just got better and better.  The K8 appeared back online and Bill C proved it hadn't forgot how to soar.  Three private gliders rigged (HZD, EEF and FOT), launched and stayed airborne.  Lots of gliders to running around so a good lookout was essential.  Having run around the countryside with 5.5 knot climbs available (on the average) and climbs up to 4,800, I returned from Andover at 100 knots to swap with Colin.  After a low scrape he invented, and tested, a new mini-triangle for the club (small task for those not wanting [or permitted] to fly out of gliding range).
Bonus of the day was getting to see the fruits of Peter E's and William's labour - his restored Riley Sprite before he heads off for a Riley rally in Le Mans.
No glider pilots car is complete without a tow hitch