maybe it was to do with these:
Ka8 instrument panel
Here's what ours looks like:
and here's the view out of the window:
and here's a barogram
maybe it was to do with these:
Pity I was all by myself
maybe it was to do with these:
The Early Bird?
Arriving fashionably late on the airfield on Wednesday I was pleasantly surprised to see that the midweek crew almost had the field set up and HAX trailer was parked at in the rigging area. 'Just as well you got started early' says I 'cos it'll all be over by one o' clock'. HAX was hastily rigged and by 11 o'clock the entire club fleet was on the line, by which time the sky looked like this:
By midday Selvam and I were looking down at a deserted launch point.
By half past twelve the sky was beginning to look like this:
at which point the five gliders that had been soaring for an hour or so all landed for lunch. By this time the afternoon shift had arrived, so Stephen and I spent the rest of the day inflicting some serious 'bung pulling'.
There may be a moral here somewhere....
By midday Selvam and I were looking down at a deserted launch point.
By half past twelve the sky was beginning to look like this:
at which point the five gliders that had been soaring for an hour or so all landed for lunch. By this time the afternoon shift had arrived, so Stephen and I spent the rest of the day inflicting some serious 'bung pulling'.
There may be a moral here somewhere....
Non flying.
This year hasn't exactly been great for gliding, especially when one is busy at work and only get the weekends at best to utilise for gliding.
Usually my glider repairs are undertaken on the winter months when it's cold and nasty. Recently it's been cold and nasty so over the last few weeks I decided to undertake some remedial repairs and improvements to the belly and wingtips of my LS7.
This is what happened:
First you take one of these:
In this particular case I was lucky to have an Andy Brind brain which I picked.
He told me what I should do with this:
The problem was the wing tips were a little tatty and the belly of the fuselage was cracked through the gel coat and had a few score marks where it had landed in the odd flinty field or 17 times....
Next thanks to Andy 'The Brain' I ended up with a lot of advice and one of these:
Next you take a pair of these:
With a lot of this:
As well as this:
Eventually you end up with this:
.jpg)
Which I found upsetting and rather worrying.
At this point you need a little luck and the help of the Spray Fairy, they're quite shy creatures, can you see the little fellow?
I managed to coax him in with a little help from:
Low and behold:
I trapping him with one of these:
And he weaved his magic:
And I ended up with:
Now all I have to do is polish it back and go fly!
Thanks Andy and Phil!
Usually my glider repairs are undertaken on the winter months when it's cold and nasty. Recently it's been cold and nasty so over the last few weeks I decided to undertake some remedial repairs and improvements to the belly and wingtips of my LS7.
This is what happened:
First you take one of these:
He told me what I should do with this:
Next thanks to Andy 'The Brain' I ended up with a lot of advice and one of these:
.jpg)
At this point you need a little luck and the help of the Spray Fairy, they're quite shy creatures, can you see the little fellow?
Now all I have to do is polish it back and go fly!
Thanks Andy and Phil!
Monday night is gliding night (24th june 13)
Its not often that there's a blog entry about our summertime weeknight activities... Most of the time a slick crew of members turns out to support the club by flying organised groups of visitors until the sunsets.
Monday was very similar to this pattern with a group of Walsh Common scouts turning up to have some airborne fun, however the slick crew turned out to be not only slick but also unusually large in number so we wheeled the k8 down to the launch point, Alan P taking off and spending 17 mins flying around in something before landing and letting other 3 members have some daylight. Even the CFI couldn't match that after we had dragged him kicking and screaming to the glider (not).
Monday was very similar to this pattern with a group of Walsh Common scouts turning up to have some airborne fun, however the slick crew turned out to be not only slick but also unusually large in number so we wheeled the k8 down to the launch point, Alan P taking off and spending 17 mins flying around in something before landing and letting other 3 members have some daylight. Even the CFI couldn't match that after we had dragged him kicking and screaming to the glider (not).
Wednesday 19th
So this is summer? That would explain why the weather prevented us from flying the previous Wednesday and weekend. This Wednesday didn't promise much but at least we were able to break the bounds of Mother Earth - if only for a few minutes. That was until the sun broke through and Paul P proved it was possible to break the double digit barrier with his 21 minute flight. Over the following 2 hours about half the launches got some soaring with an empty launch point for a while. Justin B demonstrated his scratching skills as he clawed his way up from 1,000' to 2,700' - the first 300' taking lots of patience and tenacity. The exercise to see how much ground we could cover for a given height was blown when we arrived at Hungerford having lost very little height passing through large areas of weak lift. Bill C took longest flight honours with 1:15 in the Vega. "Normal" service was then resumed and it was back to circuit bashing.
We were pleased to welcome two members of the Southampton Uni gliding group and the son of a former member who last flew at the club in the days that Ralph Jones was a member (many moons ago). They helped keep Bob B and myself fully occupied in the back seat.
We were pleased to welcome two members of the Southampton Uni gliding group and the son of a former member who last flew at the club in the days that Ralph Jones was a member (many moons ago). They helped keep Bob B and myself fully occupied in the back seat.
Sunday (9th June) confusion
The weather guru wasnt sure and had us all confused over what advection was - its simple really 
durr!
Anyway despite that we went flying using the standard technique of throwing gliders skyward until they stuck. Variously different pilots added velco
, pritstick(TM) 
, treacle 
and drying weetabix 
to the upper surfaces of their wings until Phil and Carol tried a Cumulus cloud 
- this seemed to do the trick! After that most people got a soaring flight, though those practicing circuits also got a few of those...
In addition a guy came to watch for a while: the chap used to be a member of the club and was in the Pirat syndicate but then he moved to Canada in 1986. You may remember him – his name is Colin Aldridge.
durr!
Anyway despite that we went flying using the standard technique of throwing gliders skyward until they stuck. Variously different pilots added velco
, pritstick(TM) , treacle and drying weetabix - this seemed to do the trick! After that most people got a soaring flight, though those practicing circuits also got a few of those...In addition a guy came to watch for a while: the chap used to be a member of the club and was in the Pirat syndicate but then he moved to Canada in 1986. You may remember him – his name is Colin Aldridge.
Wednesday 5th
What the forecasters promised the weather failed to deliver but it was good to see the sun (even if the wind was surprisingly cold). The forecast was responsible for persuading 5 gliders to be rigged. Once rigged they waited and waited for the promised thermals and in the end just flew anyway. When Trevor G and Bob B only get short flights it tells you it isn't easily. Only 6 of the 33 flights managed 40 or more minutes. Modesty prevents me from mentioning who was the only person to manage more than an hour (with 1:24) but then I had an incentive - being airborne is a great way to escape hay fever.
Quite a number of Lasham gliders scrapping around near us. Two dropped in and reported that there were lots of landouts.
Quite a number of Lasham gliders scrapping around near us. Two dropped in and reported that there were lots of landouts.
The beginning of June.
What a glorious weekend; the gliders were out in force and so were the dandelions and with a high cloud base there was plenty of flying to be had.
Sunday saw John Parker, Tony Chapman, Jon Scott and Justin Butler, all new members as well as the trial lesson Vanessa have some great flying. This with the regular members who turned up, rigged and flew meant there was an alarming lack of gliders on the ground.
Tim kindly test flew the Ka8 and he carefully checked everything on the glider, then checked the parachute. All was fine and we watched the glider being put through its paces. We still have a Ka8 everyone can fly.
Phil and Carol took off to Burdlip then over the Bicester. Sunday and I nursed sun stroke from Saturday.
I hadn't noticed the sun was quite so strong and even though I drank plenty I just didn't have a strong enough sunscreen on.
It was lovely to see the Swales make it's appearance and like the swallows who also appear from nowhere it took to the sky and disappeared for hours.
Quite a nice weekend as it happened.
Sunday saw John Parker, Tony Chapman, Jon Scott and Justin Butler, all new members as well as the trial lesson Vanessa have some great flying. This with the regular members who turned up, rigged and flew meant there was an alarming lack of gliders on the ground.
Tim kindly test flew the Ka8 and he carefully checked everything on the glider, then checked the parachute. All was fine and we watched the glider being put through its paces. We still have a Ka8 everyone can fly.
Phil and Carol took off to Burdlip then over the Bicester. Sunday and I nursed sun stroke from Saturday.
I hadn't noticed the sun was quite so strong and even though I drank plenty I just didn't have a strong enough sunscreen on.
It was lovely to see the Swales make it's appearance and like the swallows who also appear from nowhere it took to the sky and disappeared for hours.
Quite a nice weekend as it happened.
Monday 27th May
I suppose it is not very often that we get 3 consecutive days of flying on a bank holiday weekend but this time we did.
The southerly wind started off reasonably light but as soon as the Puchacz was pulled on line it started to increase........
With a trial lesson booked for 11 am we focused on getting Nigel though his BI acceptance flights, after many cable breaks and other checks these were completed just in time.
As you can see Nigel quickly settled into his new role and promptly took his first victim (sorry punter!) soaring. After a first flight of 8 minutes he then took advantage of the soarable conditions to fly for 20 minutes more.
Despite the wind increasing to around 20 knots it was very smooth with very few gusts and with reasonable thermals some extended flights were achieved, I think Bob managed 30 mins or so.
We only took the Puchacz flying today but it seems JPC wanted to go flying as well!
Thanks to Colin for the photos.
Phil
The southerly wind started off reasonably light but as soon as the Puchacz was pulled on line it started to increase........
With a trial lesson booked for 11 am we focused on getting Nigel though his BI acceptance flights, after many cable breaks and other checks these were completed just in time.
As you can see Nigel quickly settled into his new role and promptly took his first victim (sorry punter!) soaring. After a first flight of 8 minutes he then took advantage of the soarable conditions to fly for 20 minutes more.
Despite the wind increasing to around 20 knots it was very smooth with very few gusts and with reasonable thermals some extended flights were achieved, I think Bob managed 30 mins or so.
We only took the Puchacz flying today but it seems JPC wanted to go flying as well!
Thanks to Colin for the photos.
Phil
Sunday 26th not your usual bank holiday weather
My task was to The Mynd (a great gliding club on top of a huge mound of Shropshire earth) and back. Off the wire and straight into a building climb so I started the task vertically followed by a reasonable run to the Cotswold edge. Looking ahead I could see it was blue to the north east of my track line but i thought with a slight bend i would be able to follow the Cu but crossing the Severn it was obvious that the fluffy white magic had run out. I though about heading to the Black Mountains, where I had heard on the radio that the cloud base was 6000ft+ but then I remembered the dragons and the £7 toll charge for a retrieve and so I went for a bimble, first to malmesbury and then to the edge of the fluffy white things in the west country (sea air I figure) at Frome, from then I stormed down the Vale of Pewsey and then went on to see my sailing club which is under stupidly low and complicated airspace at Reading. All told it made for a lazy but enjoyable 300km flight.
The club class at Lasham tasked the same way and with a stern comp director and task setter they had no choice but to press-on. Most got round at horrifically fast speeds so it must have been working in the blue too...
The club class at Lasham tasked the same way and with a stern comp director and task setter they had no choice but to press-on. Most got round at horrifically fast speeds so it must have been working in the blue too...
Saturday 25th
Another Bank Holiday with good weather - the weather system really does seem to have broken down. I arrived at the airfield at 9:00 to find it had been Bessented - winch and caravan set-up and B1 rigged awaiting it's master's return from work. Lots of fluffy white things in the sky looking like it was probably already working up there. Turned out it wasn't as easy to get away as it looked with about a third of the launches just doing circuits. Even with that miss rate the average flight time was 52 minutes (Jim C's 4:04 and Alan H's 4:00 making significant contributions the average). Over at the Gibbet there were more multi-coloured duvets floating about than I can ever remember seeing there. More than one pilot returned with tales of running through sink to a tasty looking cloud only to find it occupied by some of these duvets having escaped from the ridge - well that was their excuse for not getting away. Lots of gliders passing through too. One failed to pass and arrived downwind and down hill (turbo tucked away). Guess they do things differently at Lasham.
Peter E was kept busy with winching for the first hour and then flying a TL and a half day course. I spent over three and a half hours in the back seat. 33 launches, 23 folks flew and clocked up almost 29 hours of flying.
Wednesday 22nd
I wasn't able to join "the boys" this week but it wasn't much of a soaring day. From looking at the logs I see that Paul P early on (2nd launch) set the standard to beat on the first launch with 19 minutes. It wasn't until two and a half hours later (and a dozen launches) that this was bettered by Bill C with 29 minutes and a couple of launches later Alan H pipped Bill by a couple of minutes. Paul P then played a tactical game and regained his crown on the last launch with 32 minutes.
and not forgetting...
..Phil the Parachute Packer (how did Pete miss this alliteration opportunity) appeared after flying to make sure we know how to put on our parachutes correctly. Sounds easy - hm. Get it wrong and descend lopsided (resulting in the turning) or fall out of the harness (result somewhat more uncomfortable). Many thanks to Phil.
The airfield was sporting its first haircut of the year (well, partial haircut) which resulted in an unexpected problem. After landing and coming swiftly to a standstill, Paul P checked the wheel box to find it bunged up. Poking around with a screw driver had little effect so the wheel was taken out and this is what was found (the grass, not Nigel or Colin's legs).
The airfield was sporting its first haircut of the year (well, partial haircut) which resulted in an unexpected problem. After landing and coming swiftly to a standstill, Paul P checked the wheel box to find it bunged up. Poking around with a screw driver had little effect so the wheel was taken out and this is what was found (the grass, not Nigel or Colin's legs).
Saturday 18 may
Saturday started bright and ended bright. In the middle it was less bright. During the less bright part it was occasionally brighter than the times when it was most least bright. (Claire pour me another glass...)
During the first period of brightness Jim and the ls3 lot decided to rig and Alan brought his skylark out the hangar, so what is it about our hangar at the moment we have skylarks but no swifts or are they swallows and a kestrel in the wol box! Anyway because they had rigged in the bright bit when it got less bright they could take off and soar under the clouds causing the lack of bright. Jim managed to stay away from the most least bright parts and soar for 2 1/2 hours with a wander around but not much sense of cross country. Alan managed to injure his Skylark and so more of his favourite pastime of glider fixing awaits him.
Steve the Soaring Statistician (is that alliteration or does the definitive article prevent that? However Polish and Russian do not use articles so it works nicely as "Steve Statystyk Szybownictwo" or "Стив статистик Скользя") reports:
During the first period of brightness Jim and the ls3 lot decided to rig and Alan brought his skylark out the hangar, so what is it about our hangar at the moment we have skylarks but no swifts or are they swallows and a kestrel in the wol box! Anyway because they had rigged in the bright bit when it got less bright they could take off and soar under the clouds causing the lack of bright. Jim managed to stay away from the most least bright parts and soar for 2 1/2 hours with a wander around but not much sense of cross country. Alan managed to injure his Skylark and so more of his favourite pastime of glider fixing awaits him.
Steve the Soaring Statistician (is that alliteration or does the definitive article prevent that? However Polish and Russian do not use articles so it works nicely as "Steve Statystyk Szybownictwo" or "Стив статистик Скользя") reports:
30 launches and 10:22 flown.
Longest flight – Jim 2:29
4 other flights of over 50 minutes
14 folks flew
Highest flown that I heard was Richard to 3,700
Sometimes the wind is confused, sometimes Jim is confused.
Sometimes the wind is confused, sometimes Jim is confused.
Alliteration allows "Peter Piper Picked a Peck of Pickled Peppers" so I think articles are allowed, but then if we are pickling peppers then we might as well be Polish anyway.
A welcome visitor?
Originally posted by Colin
Thursday 16th
Good call from Colin to move Wednesday to Thursday. Unfortunately, it meant I was not able to be there so I'm just reporting from what I've seen in the log.
Paul P proved there was some soaring to be had with 29 minutes off the first launch but it was over 2 hours and a dozen launches later before anyone else managed to do anything much better than a circuit. That was Ken R's second attempt in HZD (ASW 15) in which he took second longest flight of the day honours with 1:11. From that point on most flights were longer than basic circuits. The longest flight? Peter E - once more in HZD.
10:46 flown off 30 launches - somewhat better than the 9 launches over the whole of the previous weekend.
Paul P proved there was some soaring to be had with 29 minutes off the first launch but it was over 2 hours and a dozen launches later before anyone else managed to do anything much better than a circuit. That was Ken R's second attempt in HZD (ASW 15) in which he took second longest flight of the day honours with 1:11. From that point on most flights were longer than basic circuits. The longest flight? Peter E - once more in HZD.
10:46 flown off 30 launches - somewhat better than the 9 launches over the whole of the previous weekend.
Sutton Bank Expedition
Well we are all now back from our week at Sutton Bank and I'm sure a great time was had by all.
We are always at the mercy of the weather, even more so on a club expedition but in the end we were able to fly on 6 out of the 7 days we were there. Indeed after the first few days we had flown ridge, wave and thermal flights.
Due to reasonable SW or WSW winds we had 3 days where the ridge was working well, the last day (Friday) was especially good with strong climbs to cloud base (which was only 1700 ft) meaning that we could ridge soar quite a distance from the site. Pushing forward from the ridge we all encountered good lift and by following the energy line were able to reach Thirsk which is 5k or so out.
Monday started off as a light ridge day but later on wave developed a short distance from the club and everyone started taking aerotows to try and contact it. Somehow Carol and I leapfrogged the queue (not our fault honest!) and launched before Pete and Chris in the Puchacz. We managed to contact wave after taking a 2,800 ft tow and climbed up to around 5,000 ft before the wave collapsed and we had to made a quick descent. Unfortunately the Puchacz missed out on getting into wave as they reached it just as it collapsed and ended up being dumped by the tug at 2,000 ft (cloudbase) some way from the club. Luckily they managed to get back OK but I think it was marginal!
On Tuesday Carol and I made use of some good climbs to fly out towards York. We had intended to fly with Chris towards Pocklington but a mix up in communications meant that we set off without him. Just south of York it all went blue and as other gliders were reporting challenging conditions ahead we diverted to Rufforth (photo above) before moving unto Ripon. We did try to go on to Barnard Castle where Chris had headed but we started to get low so tip toed back to Dishforth in search of lift and after gaining enough height made a run back to Sutton bank. Meanwhile Rod and Paul had a cracking flight in the Puchacz having pulled off tow at 1,500 ft in strong lift and climbed off the clock to 5,000 ft! We eventually met up with them over Dishforth some 18 k out from Sutton Bank.
Finally Paul commented that he was only happy if he could see the Sutton Bank White Horse as that was the only landmark he knew........................................................So we made him a special hat!
.....................................now everywhere he looks he can see the white horse!
As usual we were made very welcome by the Yorkshire Gliding Club and can't wait to go back up there again.
A short video of the week is available here: http://youtu.be/A8dSfca_yX8
Phil
We are always at the mercy of the weather, even more so on a club expedition but in the end we were able to fly on 6 out of the 7 days we were there. Indeed after the first few days we had flown ridge, wave and thermal flights.
 |
| Pete Ellison on tow. |
Due to reasonable SW or WSW winds we had 3 days where the ridge was working well, the last day (Friday) was especially good with strong climbs to cloud base (which was only 1700 ft) meaning that we could ridge soar quite a distance from the site. Pushing forward from the ridge we all encountered good lift and by following the energy line were able to reach Thirsk which is 5k or so out.
Monday started off as a light ridge day but later on wave developed a short distance from the club and everyone started taking aerotows to try and contact it. Somehow Carol and I leapfrogged the queue (not our fault honest!) and launched before Pete and Chris in the Puchacz. We managed to contact wave after taking a 2,800 ft tow and climbed up to around 5,000 ft before the wave collapsed and we had to made a quick descent. Unfortunately the Puchacz missed out on getting into wave as they reached it just as it collapsed and ended up being dumped by the tug at 2,000 ft (cloudbase) some way from the club. Luckily they managed to get back OK but I think it was marginal!
On Tuesday Carol and I made use of some good climbs to fly out towards York. We had intended to fly with Chris towards Pocklington but a mix up in communications meant that we set off without him. Just south of York it all went blue and as other gliders were reporting challenging conditions ahead we diverted to Rufforth (photo above) before moving unto Ripon. We did try to go on to Barnard Castle where Chris had headed but we started to get low so tip toed back to Dishforth in search of lift and after gaining enough height made a run back to Sutton bank. Meanwhile Rod and Paul had a cracking flight in the Puchacz having pulled off tow at 1,500 ft in strong lift and climbed off the clock to 5,000 ft! We eventually met up with them over Dishforth some 18 k out from Sutton Bank.
Also whilst up there we met up with Annette (Purcell) who was visiting SB with her partner Graham, those of you who have been at the club for a while will remember Annette. She now instructs at Lasham and Talgarth and hopes to visit Shalbourne in the near future to meet up with old friends.
Finally Paul commented that he was only happy if he could see the Sutton Bank White Horse as that was the only landmark he knew........................................................So we made him a special hat!
.....................................now everywhere he looks he can see the white horse!
As usual we were made very welcome by the Yorkshire Gliding Club and can't wait to go back up there again.
A short video of the week is available here: http://youtu.be/A8dSfca_yX8
Phil
Sutton Bank Exped
Well what can I say!
The reason for a lack of a report is simply down to the fact that we have been getting rather a lot of flying in since we got here. On Saturday the ridge was working and many had flights of over two hours.On Sunday some of us contacted wave and climbed to just 5000 ft before the wave collapsed and we had to make a speedy descent before we lost sight of the ground. Monday was thermic and mostly blue but we still managed over two hours of local soaring each.
Today fluffy white clouds appeared so Carol and I flew a small task of Sutton Bank, York, Ripon and back climbing to 5000 ft over Rufforth.
As I write Chris is still flying last heard of near Barnard Castle, we have warmed up the retrieve just in case!
More later.........................oh is that my mobile?
Phil
The reason for a lack of a report is simply down to the fact that we have been getting rather a lot of flying in since we got here. On Saturday the ridge was working and many had flights of over two hours.On Sunday some of us contacted wave and climbed to just 5000 ft before the wave collapsed and we had to make a speedy descent before we lost sight of the ground. Monday was thermic and mostly blue but we still managed over two hours of local soaring each.
Today fluffy white clouds appeared so Carol and I flew a small task of Sutton Bank, York, Ripon and back climbing to 5000 ft over Rufforth.
As I write Chris is still flying last heard of near Barnard Castle, we have warmed up the retrieve just in case!
More later.........................oh is that my mobile?
Phil
not your usual bank holiday monday...
It was sunny for a start with those fluffy white things in the sky!
Whilst I set a task that seemed to be all about Oxford, 323km in total, at rivar they all enjoyed the sun.
A day to put the top down and enjoy the spring sunshine - so Bill did... flying his t21
Whilst I set a task that seemed to be all about Oxford, 323km in total, at rivar they all enjoyed the sun.
A day to put the top down and enjoy the spring sunshine - so Bill did... flying his t21
It's mine - all mine!
Since joining the syndicate Richard has become rather possessive when it's his turn to fly.
5 May... a passing fancy
So today I told the rest of the Compette that my one objective for the day was not to get lower than 700' above Shalbourne which is broadly what's happened the last couple of times I've gone past - although I hasten to point out that as ever it proved thermic and I got away.
Well, as those who were around today will know it was pretty much 8/8 most of the day - but we set a Compette task regardless - LAS/CBN/YTT/RIV/LAW/LFW - and indeed it proved possible to get round. I however took a calculated risk to go via RIV very low into a thermal and missed the bubble. As I rolled to a halt, the landrover drew up alongside, towed me back to the launch point offering the first cable.. I declined saying "no no, after you Mark (and you're grounded forever if you don't mark a thermal)" - which he duly did and I got away slowly and pootled gently back through the gloom to Lasham.
Proves what's possible even on a duff day! Have fun tomorrow - forecast is excellent and I fancy I WILL successfully pass RIV...
Mayday mayday - summer's coming
... well,spring anyway; it's mayday. So called because summer doesn't come in smoothly, but springs to and fro between extremes. Today we had a cracking good day, with climbs to over 5000ft and most flights of extended duration, over three hours in at least one case. The best Paul McG found on his check flight was 4kt ... sink, but then made up for it by getting his two hours :) ...sadly, it's no longer a badge requirement :( , but well done anyway.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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 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
Wednesday 27th
3 weeks of no flying activity must be some kind of a record but today the lean period came to an end. Too much east in the wind to get the ridge working, bitterly cold but cloud base around 2,000' and we could fly. Then there was the bonus of some soaring. Bob B was the first to discover there was something there when he returned in the Vega with tales of a 50' gain in height. Inspired by this I jumped into the K8 launched to 1,750 and gracefully descended to 1,250' at which point there was a beep. Not easy but I managed to match Bob's gain of height, some more determined flying doubled that and eventually back up to launch height and on to 1,900'. 24 launches in total, 2 over half an hour and another 9 made double digits.
Sir Ranulph Fiennes turns back from expedition to summit Rivar Hill
24 march 2013. Today Sir Ranulph Fiennes abandoned his attempt to be the first man to summit rivar hill, unsupported and without recourse to either supplementary oxygen or a jumper.
Local pilots who were there fettling a Libelle reported conditions as being somewhat wintery with the mercury at -2c and the wind sock standing horizontal, well it would have if we'd been daft enough to raise it.
Local pilots who were there fettling a Libelle reported conditions as being somewhat wintery with the mercury at -2c and the wind sock standing horizontal, well it would have if we'd been daft enough to raise it.
Non flying, but trailer tidying.
Apart from working, which I seem to do a lot these days the weather has been poor and I missed the opportunity to fly on Thursday, great as it was.
I've been working on my trailer and glider getting it ready for the cross country season. This consists of replacing all the bits of tape and wire that were holding various parts together which had been done on the hoof as last year progressed. This seems to be the format for each year I fly.
To do my repairs and maintenance I moved my glider down to a friends house where I plugged in a small greenhouse heater as well as a dehumidifier.
I also placed two data loggers, one in the trailer with heater and dehumidifier and the other in his unheated garage 6 feet away and they record relative humidity, dew point and temperature.
From the results, which are only over a period of 8 days it would seem quite a good idea to do the same at the end of each season.
The main difference, for those who are interested is that the relative humidity, or as I like to call it (the B%*&*&+$ Osmosis in my wings, dammit), is one average 71.5% in the garage while inside the trailer its 59.9%. The temperature in the garage averaged 3.90 degrees C while the trailer was a balmy 4.89 degrees.
So the conclusion, if there is one, is that it's wet and damp inside your trailer if left alone. It's also cold and possibly lonely.
The sharp peaks in the second chart are (I believe) where the dehumidifier turns on and off.
I may keep the logger in the trailer with a control in a shaded area through the summer to see just how much we back the poor things.
From: My study, warmer and dryer than the horrible view out of the window!
I've been working on my trailer and glider getting it ready for the cross country season. This consists of replacing all the bits of tape and wire that were holding various parts together which had been done on the hoof as last year progressed. This seems to be the format for each year I fly.
To do my repairs and maintenance I moved my glider down to a friends house where I plugged in a small greenhouse heater as well as a dehumidifier.
I also placed two data loggers, one in the trailer with heater and dehumidifier and the other in his unheated garage 6 feet away and they record relative humidity, dew point and temperature.
From the results, which are only over a period of 8 days it would seem quite a good idea to do the same at the end of each season.
So the conclusion, if there is one, is that it's wet and damp inside your trailer if left alone. It's also cold and possibly lonely.
The sharp peaks in the second chart are (I believe) where the dehumidifier turns on and off.
I may keep the logger in the trailer with a control in a shaded area through the summer to see just how much we back the poor things.
From: My study, warmer and dryer than the horrible view out of the window!
Saturday 9th
When the Met Office said "low cloud" that meant barely above the trees. Sufficient for us to derig JPC and get it into the workshop.
I see there's no blog entries for the previous weekend or Wednesday but there was flying on each of these days clocking up 58 launches and 6:26 flying time
I see there's no blog entries for the previous weekend or Wednesday but there was flying on each of these days clocking up 58 launches and 6:26 flying time
Fab Feb
After the worst January on record* February was a lot kinder. Only 20 launches more than the average for the month but for flying time it was 3 times the average, almost double the best previous time for the month.
The start of our flying year is October so we are almost half way through the "year". Given the rubbish winter it's quite surprising to see the year-to-date stats aren't too bad. Number of launches modest but better (just) than 3 other years, Total flying time is a different story - a new record.
Just to put those numbers into perspective: the first five months of the year account for 27% of launches and only 15% of flying time.
* Comparisons made over 6 years as those are the stats I have readily to hand
The start of our flying year is October so we are almost half way through the "year". Given the rubbish winter it's quite surprising to see the year-to-date stats aren't too bad. Number of launches modest but better (just) than 3 other years, Total flying time is a different story - a new record.
Just to put those numbers into perspective: the first five months of the year account for 27% of launches and only 15% of flying time.
* Comparisons made over 6 years as those are the stats I have readily to hand
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