Saturday 15th Nov
..will be known for all time as the mid-November day when it was too hot to have a jumper on...
The early morning fog and cloud lifted/dispersed - or at least split so there was some space between... The sun shone through the broken strata of cloud and with virtually no wind - lightest of southeasterlies - it was warm and pleasant. And SOOOOO pretty - although you had to be careful as, in defiance of all logic, a bank of cloud built up on the approach which meant circuits could be interesting - or indeed impossible. Even Steve Barber was flummoxed as to how a lee ridge appeared to be throwing up ororgraphic, but those who flew can attest that it did it all day. At heights between 200' and 700'. If you have a suggestion as to what it was about, do share it. I don't know about anyone else, but I had a great time!
Re: Remembrance Sunday (9th)
Pete's image has a particular poignance for me. I flew my Silver Distance from Shalbourne to Tarrant Rushton in 1974. At that time nearing the end of its life as an active airfield. Now all that is left are the traces of runways on the ploughed fields.
Pete's picture shows Horsa and Hamilcar gliders about to be towed by Halifax bombers, six of the former being dispatched to the legendary operation at Pegasus Bridge.
Saturday 1st November.....soaring season over?.........Nah!
Someone forgot to tell the weather that it was November and therefore there shouldn't be any thermals around apart from the warm clothing type!
Needless to say the Janus was duly rigged and launched into a sort of promising sky. Cloudbase was 1700ft and there were patches of broken lift which kept us aloft for around 20 minutes before a prolonged area of sink brought us back down again.
A while later the air mass had changed for the better and after releasing at 1600ft we sped to a likely looking cloud street over Fosbury and was rewarded with good lift which took us to cloudbase at around 3200ft. By running up and down the street we stayed airborne for around 1hr 20 mins during which time we encountered areas of good lift and strong sink (-8 knots in places!).
Another cracking day at Shalbourne but looking at the forecast for the rest of the week the weather has finally caught on to the fact that it is November after all :-)
Phil
Needless to say the Janus was duly rigged and launched into a sort of promising sky. Cloudbase was 1700ft and there were patches of broken lift which kept us aloft for around 20 minutes before a prolonged area of sink brought us back down again.
A while later the air mass had changed for the better and after releasing at 1600ft we sped to a likely looking cloud street over Fosbury and was rewarded with good lift which took us to cloudbase at around 3200ft. By running up and down the street we stayed airborne for around 1hr 20 mins during which time we encountered areas of good lift and strong sink (-8 knots in places!).
Another cracking day at Shalbourne but looking at the forecast for the rest of the week the weather has finally caught on to the fact that it is November after all :-)
Phil
Tailend of October
Decided lack of blog entries so I'll just do a brief summary of the days remaining in October.
Wednesday 22nd
Not a very promising looking day but second launch had Ken H with a double digit flight time (just). It was Bill O who set the time to beat with 29 minutes in the Puchacz and no one got near that. Mind, out of the 28 launches there were 7 of them in the 10 to 20 minute band.
Saturday 25th
Duty instructor Bob B was kept busy in the back seat of 10 of the 28 launches of the day. Rob J claiming "soaring god for a day" award with 15 minutes. Always good to welcome a pilot from another club - this time it was a visitor from Booker.
Sunday 26th
Looking at the log it appears to have been the day for annual checks. All, bar 2, of the 23 flights had Phil M or Carol P in the back seat. The 2 solo flights were both flown by Nigel B and were the only ones to get into double digits (15 and 16 minutes).
Wednesday 29th
Low cloud so no flying. After eating donuts (one of the benefits of Wednesday flying) boredom resulted in Peter M deciding to demonstrate the self-parking gizmo on his car. A sheet of ply was propped up against the barbeque to simulate one car and Bill C (rather bravely the rest of us thought) offered his car to act as the second car. A few loops around occurred before Peter's car could be persuaded to have a go but we finally got to see the car parallel parking while Peter waved hi hands in the air.
Wednesday 22nd
Not a very promising looking day but second launch had Ken H with a double digit flight time (just). It was Bill O who set the time to beat with 29 minutes in the Puchacz and no one got near that. Mind, out of the 28 launches there were 7 of them in the 10 to 20 minute band.
Saturday 25th
Duty instructor Bob B was kept busy in the back seat of 10 of the 28 launches of the day. Rob J claiming "soaring god for a day" award with 15 minutes. Always good to welcome a pilot from another club - this time it was a visitor from Booker.
Sunday 26th
Looking at the log it appears to have been the day for annual checks. All, bar 2, of the 23 flights had Phil M or Carol P in the back seat. The 2 solo flights were both flown by Nigel B and were the only ones to get into double digits (15 and 16 minutes).
Wednesday 29th
Low cloud so no flying. After eating donuts (one of the benefits of Wednesday flying) boredom resulted in Peter M deciding to demonstrate the self-parking gizmo on his car. A sheet of ply was propped up against the barbeque to simulate one car and Bill C (rather bravely the rest of us thought) offered his car to act as the second car. A few loops around occurred before Peter's car could be persuaded to have a go but we finally got to see the car parallel parking while Peter waved hi hands in the air.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)