Shalbourne Gliding

Weekend 26th - 27th June

The great British summer seems to be here with a vengeance for a change with high temperatures and some good soaring all weekend.

Saturday was a busy day with the club fleet enjoying extended soaring until it eventually went blue late in the afternoon. Prior to this cloud base reached 5000' QFE with some strong climbs around. The private Puch, Janus and Nimbus were all rigged. Carol in the Janus flew RIV - LAS - CAL - RIV for 193km@69 kph and Pete in the Nimbus RIV - LA6 - ISL - WLY - DEV - RIV for 218km@76kph. A Nimbus 3 from Lasham dropped in late in the day and was given a typical Shalbourne welcome and taken to the pub until the retrieve crew arrived.

Sunday was quieter but conditions were again excellent and it was soarable from 11am until well after the hangar doors closed. Cloud base reached over 4000' QFE and the club fleet enjoyed extended soaring all day. Cockpit temperatures were high (25degC+) but the lift was reliable if not overly strong. Jim in the Nimbus flew RIV - RUS - DID - LBN - RIV for 255km@75kph (landing at 15:30!) and the private Puch also and enjoyed an extended flight. Much more fun than watching England getting thrashed by Germany!

There were also two new faces on the field and several bronze legs and silver heights flown over the weekend details to follow when the loggers are downloaded.

ps thanks to everyone who helped look after Barney the cocker spaniel while his owner flew

Early flying on Saturday

5 of us managed to get a flight in between 7am and 8am on Saturday.

Chris Bessent and myself flew a couple of solo aerobatic flights followed by Paul Prentice, James Walters and James Hunneman flying more sedate but just as enjoyable ones. With a nice Northerly blow we were launching the Puchacz to 1800ft or more.

Later on Carol and myself in the Janus flew RIV, BLA, BUL, RIV with mostly a 23kt headwind and Chris flew RIV, DEV, MAR, RIV. Piccy is of James Walters in the K8 above the Janus.

Phil

Thursday Evening

A really satisfying trial lesson evening flying the Newbury MS Society.

Crop Circles

Behind the Jibbet

Near Witton windmill

Sunday 13th June

After sneaking a flight in the LS3 (it was my duty day after all), when Colin kindly offered to fly the day course chappie for me, I was launched into a good thermal which took me to 3200ft.
By hopping across the cloud streets I managed RIV,NES,LAS,RIV in just under the hour to give me an average xc speed of 82kph.

Saturday 12th June

A day that just kept getting better, well with thick overcast skies as we set the airfield up it was just as well. The Nimbus, Pegase, Libelle, '15, Skylark and Janus rigged. I did about 200km after abandoning the original task at Cirencester as it looked flat ahead. Chris and Liz did RIV-Swindon and back without turning later in the day, it was later in the day as earlier Chris landed out.

Sunday 6th June

A very quiet day, perhaps due to the earlier forecasts, but one with soaring opportunities throughout. The crosswind provided a tailwind component that followed us all day despite changing ends at half time but most people ended up with flights in the half hour range. Plenty of instructing and solo flying capacity was available and the repaired Skybrid ran perfectly on both drums.

On the hill down to Fosbury is this interesting piece of hedgerow…

The web of the Ermine Yponomeuta moths (google), unless corrected.

Sunday 30th and Monday 31st May

After the persistant rain of Saturday...

Sunday brought strong climbs and 5500ft QNH cloudbase, but only me in 737 and Chris in FRP rigged and flew, the others maybe put off by the 20kt winds aloft... Cirrus came over during the afternoon so I abandoned my task and headed to the brighter north instead, ending up with around 200km - Chris flew the Reader's Digest version.

Monday had been promissed as a cracker but one of you angered the soaring gods and the day broke overcast and the morning forecasts equally gloomy. It didn't get a whole heap better... Jim in 737 and myself 'n' Phil in 383 managed half an hour and other scratching took place. Prior to this Phil signed Jim off as a Half Wit instructor.

Bank Holidays and Weather

What is it with British bank holidays and rain?

Its already damp at the club and all the weather forecasts say its going to get very wet this morning. However, our resident weather expert expects a clearance around 14:00.

There are already a number of members at the club taking care of a number of maintenance tasks and we have a plan to swap the worn out cable on the bus winch when the rain stops.

We may get a chance to fly this afternoon. I've swapped with Liz as Duty Instructor so I'll be there.

Sunday and Monday look a lot better so hopefully we'll get at least two days flying out of the long weekend.