Wednesday 24th

Colin B had sent out an email telling folks not to be put off by the rain in the morning as soaring would follow - and soaring there was (well, unless you were the HAX boys taking a K13 for a series of circuits).  Paul B set the days time to beat on the 4th launch of the day with 1:08 in the K8.  That was topped by Jonty H with 1:10 (again in the K8).  Jonty was looking to get the spot landing entry on his post solo card signed off by landing in line with the launch point.  The assembled gentlemen enjoying the sunshine in the lee of the caravan debated as to whether his landing back at the empty launch point qualified as a spot landing as he must have been all of half a meter short - these boys can be hard to impress.

Looking for gliders at an empty launch point

Bill C took the honours for longest flight in the Vega with 54 minutes.  Longest K13 flight was Rowland with 44 minutes, gaining a bronze leg on his 5th (or there abouts) solo flight.  King of the castle was claimed by Paul Mc who topped out at 3,400' in the Vega.
Footnote: I suppose it's not really fair to pick out the HAX boys as you had to be a bit lucky with the timing of your launch.  Only 8 of the 23 launches managed more than 20 minutes.  I also have to appologise to Jonty H as I stripped him of his longest flight honours.  I only took the K8 as it seemed rude to leave it sitting when there was spare cable sitting next to it.  Mind, it took 900' of the 2,000' launch to find my first (weak) climb.

Sunday 21st

What a difference a change of air overnight makes.  Saturday those who turned played the "is that a pylon I can see" game through the murk.  Sunday, great vis and decent wind from the north with just a touch of east boding well for the ridge.  Unfortunately (?) the ridge lift got mucked up by the thermals.  Lots of members appeared needing the attention of an instructor - without Richard D's help I would never have got through the list.  Lots of trial lessons too, which kept Peter E busy.  The entire club fleet had a good airing.
Stewart R from The Park turned up with his Ventus being drawn by the favourable forecast.  After 3 hours he returned with tales of a couple of low scrapes on his way back from Oxford.  Phil M and Carol P disappeared in their Janus for a couple of hours but I didn't hear where they got to.  Bill C had a decent flight in his K6 but the private Puchacz seemed to have the knack of launching into the sink between the thermals.
Almost 19 hours flown off 45 launches and 29 people flew.  A busy and excellent day.  Thanks to all who helped out (special thanks to Chris K who did most of the winching despite felling ropey and did training of new winch drivers).

Radio Telephony Course

Just in case the Blog gets to places that Yahoo Groups does not reach. The first session of the FRTO Licence course starts on Wednesday at 18:30 in the club house.

Whether wanting to qualify as a certified radio operator,

qualified but need a refresher,

or just interested in how to use the field radio correctly,

 this course is for you!

All for only a fiver (to cover costs - any surplus to club funds). Don't worry if you can't make the start time, just turn up asap.

Wednesday 17th

Third Wednesday in a row where we've been "blessed" with an easterly crosswind.  Only difference this time was the touch of northerly and a lot more of it. The challenge of the day (other than dealing with a lively cross wind) was to get into a double digit flight time.  Sitting in the back seat with Jonty H flying, he declared he would do a gentle turn onto his high key.  The vario chirped and Jonty got stuck in.  Wrestling broken lift and drift he eventually got to 1,200' at which point the "hot spot" we kept returning to went cold (a chilly 4 down).  I did comment that if that was a "gentle" turn I would appreciate plenty of warning for a steep turn.  Nobody else came close to Jonty's 23 minutes but there were another 5 (of the 26) that achieved double digits.
Interestingly (?) we did one more launch and 2 more minutes than Sunday and 15 people flew on both days.

Sunday 14th

Rob S had organised a photography group to fly alongside normal club operations and the following note was received from the group's organiser Paul (link to the photos will be added once received).

I just wanted to say a big thank you to you and everybody else who helped make last weekend’s gliding and photography day one of the best events we have had this year. Everybody really loved the flying, despite some initial apprehensions, and we were made so welcome that ii felt like were out with old friends. So please pass my thanks to everybody from the club who helped look after us.
I am trying to get a selection of photos and videos together from the day, and will try an set up an album somewhere (probably on facebook) for you to access. I will send you details when this is done.
Once again, many thanks to all at the gliding club from all of us in the photography club.

Wednesday 10th

Another Wednesday, another day with a 90 degree cross wind from the east.  This time Colin had promised soaring and soaring we got.  What we didn't get was great vis.  It was one of those days when the higher you climbed the smaller area you could see.
Apparently the day started with a bit of a double act preparing the winch.  It was decided to replace two joins close to each other with just a single join.  Joins replaced and it was found that the drums had been left engage so there was lots of loose cable on the other drum.  In sorting that cable fell off the other drum and the quickest way to sort the tangle was to cut out the new join (I was asked to recount that tale by one of the participants).
Flying did get started shortly before midday and the first 8 flights all enjoyed some soaring (between 26 minutes and 1:56).  Next 7 launches were just circuits and after that most were soaring flights.  After having one of the 7 circuits, off my second launch I made straight for a likely looking cloud over Ham.  The reading on the averager just kept getting better and from 2,000' to 4,000' (cloud base) it never went below 6 and peaked at 7.  After that the averager never got much above 2 up.
Longest flight honours went to Paul McG with 2:04 in the Vega.  With 35 launches we were somewhat behind Sunday's exceptional number of launches but the flying time was more than double that of Sunday's.  If you exclude the longest flight on each day then Wednesday's flying time was 3 time that of Sunday's.
It was also a day for a small gathering of folks who were members many moons ago.  Tony P rejoined after a lapse of about 25 years.  Adam C visited after a similar period away.  He was recently in Poland at the World championships as New Zealand's team captain and now taking time to visit old friends in the UK.  Adam and Colin had fun when Adam went as ballast in the Puchacz when Colin decided that the quickest way to get the Pauchacz to the back of the grid (as nobody was waiting to fly it at that time) was to launch and throw it about.  Adam got his own back in a K13 when he headed for the only cloud on offer competition pilot style.  The other person with a long gap between being a member was Jonty who flew at the club before Tony or Adam's time - but that was done sitting on his father's lap.

Adam C back "home" at Rivar Hill

Sunday 7th September 2014

Not what you would call a great soaring day but certainly flyable and very well attended. I know I make a lot of noise about the lack of enthusiasm some times but on Sunday there couldn't easily have had more enthusiasm from more members. The parking area on the field looked like the M25 on a bad day and the flying list was as long as I have seen it for a long time. There were several pre-booked TLs and more turned up on spec. No one left without  a flight, Nigel did a sterling job and I managed to fit in one extra for someone who was getting ready to leave due to a longish wait. Stephen O helped with the flying list and check flights and everyone flew although there wasn't much soaring (unless you count Colin in the LS3 at 3 hours plus). Final tally was 50 launches and the Plough was well and truly open by the time we had packed up. Stephen had a little look at the stats and apparently we manage 50+ launches on one day each year, however, if this level of enthusiasm can be maintained we could manage it again this year. Thanks to all who stayed and worked so hard to keep the field running smoothly and well done Selvam for getting cleared for solo winching.

Special blog header

for one day only to commemorate all Colin's and others hard work on manufacturing the pitched trailer cover and ensuring we have a serviceable 2 seater trailer now and for the future.

Wednesday 3rd

A slow start, even for a Wednesday, yielded some extended flights for those patient enough to wait for the morning mist to clear. Alternate patches of sunshine and overcast limited soaring time and out of three gliders that were rigged two managed and hour or so. The exception was EEF which steadfastly deigned not to soar in such poor conditions, sulking around the circuit instead. Nonetheless we managed to fill two log sheets and do some useful stuff, most useful of which was Rowland going solo, well done! (Especially for providing a good excuse for an evening tipple.)

Many thanks to Peter E and Stephen for helping out with TLs and other stuff. It would have been difficult to manage otherwise.

And by the way:

"The ASW 15 had just entered the full climb of a winch launch when its pilot saw the helicopter approaching. The Board highly commended him for his lookout; presence of mind and subsequent actions."

Thus recorded the UK Airprox Board on the prompt action taken by Steve Barber in avoiding a collision with an overflying helicopter.

Saturday 30th

Another day with a very modest turnout.  The stiff 90 degree cross-wind and the forecast of a better day on Sunday probably explained why only 7 folks flew on Saturday but 20 flew on Sunday.  Number of launches (and number of folks flying) was the same as Wednesday but this time cloud base was 3,700'.  The cross wind meant modest launch height and therefore there wasn't much time to find a reasonable climb (i.e. climb rate>drift rate).  Rowland very kindly took most of the short flights and the rest of us had some reasonable soaring.  I claimed longest flight time with 56 minutes - which included a little help from the western ridge, the first time I have ever found anything there.

Wednesday 27th

Not exactly a promising day with complete cloud cover and a south-easterly.  Not many folks in attendance with some of the regulars at Sutton Bank and of those there Colin B was getting the club trailer into a usable state and the HAX boys were busy fettling.  We threw a K13 into the air for a weather check and I was able to report cloud base at 1,600' - which just happened the be launch height.  After a couple of hours the cloud base got lower and it was time to put the toys away - besides there's a limit to how many 5 or 6 minute flights one wants to take.  A modest 11 launches.

Sunday 31st August

Good soaring conditions along with a light WNW wind gave us plenty of extended flights and produced many in excess of an hour.

Chris B in his LS7 set off to the west getting as far as Westbury Chimney before the approaching sea breeze stopped him from venturing any further. Unfortunately Chris managed to get back which was a shame as I was looking forward to making use of my fully charged video camera so that I could take revenge for him filming Carol and I's land out at Urchfont the previous weekend :-(

Despite a flight time of 3:08 this was not the longest flight of the day as Trevor, flying his Jantar, clocked up a very respectable 3:38 on his flight to Swindon........almost landing out I hear.

Cirrus pilots Rob Jarvis and Chris Keating flew HAX for 2:15 and 1:24 respectively whilst Paul Prentice, Steve Gaze and James Walters had over the hour each in the K8 and Vega.

Uncharacteristically some of the shortest flights of the day were flown by Liz but as I was putting her through her 5 yearly instructor checks and I was suffering from a bout of yellow bungitis I suppose Liz could be forgiven :-) Glad to say that after the customary exercises a signature in her logbook was duly applied. I would like to point out that the offer of an XC flight in the Duo Turbo next weekend did not affect the outcome at all!

Between the first flight at 10:47 (only cut short when the winch started moving towards the launching Puchacz) and the last at 18:19 we clocked up an quite reasonable 38 launches totalling about 21 hours 45 minutes.

All in all a very enjoyable day.

Saved by the Comps – a Rather Bendy 100K

As recounted in Chris's ribald tale, Saturday met promised much but delivered somewhat less. I launched just before Phil and Carol and climbed away, bemused by the 'ground fumbles' thwarting their attempts to get airborne. By the time they launched I was at 3500 QFE and heading west – so just for once didn't have the frustration of chasing a mystically buoyant Janus disappearing into the distance. The nominated task was round the Danger Area, but the sky didn't look like it would it would permit such an endeavour (at least not in an LS3 with me flying it at half past one in the afternoon). A top up at Burbage found me going like the clappers to keep out of a cloud street and shooting past Pewsey with little loss of height. The sky ahead said 'proceed at your peril', but a couple of 'kamikaze kids' from Lasham who I had been watching diving earthwards into the distance suddenly zoomed up over Devizes. So, the sky being less threatening behind than in front, the possibility of a stock 100k presented itself.

So in and out of Devizes and straight into a rain shower. To the north east, Marlborough was invisible under a deluge, so the only option was back the way I had come. Unfortunately the cloud street that had delivered me with such dispatch was now drifting over the Danger Area, so the return trip saw me scraping along the red line under the overcast in what little good air there was left behind. At Upavon just enough height for a straight glide back into Rivar. Then glory be! - a hang glider thermalling in a small pool of sunshine. Arriving just beneath him each climbing turn pushed me too close for comfort, so there followed an asymmetric gavotte requiring much effort but yielding little in return. Then right on cue another couple of kamikazes pulled up in a thermal close by; so join them and back up to the comfort zone. By now there were three deluges in sight, east, west and south and all the time a wall of of water creeping towards Wantage. But having chickened out once, I owed it to reliable old EEFy not to wimp back into Rivar without at least a bit of effort.

A line of cumulus had developed towards Newbury and a gaggle appeared over Vernham Dean. While there's life there's hope! So top up with the gaggle and head north ahead of the storm. The 'old reliable' thermal at Hungerford provided impetus to keep going and a solitary Cu under the overcast near Brightwalton delivered a welcome 4kt. Then a race against the rain to get to Wantage and stay dry, a final distant thermalling glider leading me home for tea.

I have to record my gratitude to the Lasham young bloods who marked most of the thermals on this most unusual flight and condolences to those who suffered the Icarian fate in the fields below. Their contribution to my enjoyment was immeasurable. (Even if they scared the bejazus out of me every time they set my Flarm flashing scarlet!)

Sutton Bank Slingsby week

from http://www.ygc.co.uk/wordpress/

Sunday 24th.  A light WNW’ly that slowly backed into the WSW as a ridge of high pressure moved in provided good soaring conditions that made for an excellent  start to  Slingsby and Vintage Rally week, the resultant demand at the launch point being satisfied by the operation of 3 tugs and yielding a 21st century record for ATs from Sutton Bank in a day, 70 being flown.  At least one  of the The Slingsby/Vintage week visitors had obviously come straight from  a tropical holiday as the following photo shows

but, more appropriately dressed he and his compatriots were soon spending  their air time exploring the local area.  Some ventured overhead the former Slingsby works at Kirbymoorside, while some went further east to Pickering, north to the Tontine and/or west to Thirsk and Topcliffe, personally contributing to the 41 flights by private owners as well as the  40 flights that exceeded an hour and even the 16 that exceeded 3 hours... [snip]

I was tim who wasnt steve whilst nigel was peter (sunday 24th august)

I think everyone else who turned up was themselves and pretty much every flight stuck apart from the first 2 and Nigel in the K8, but no shame in that, he only flew it because he'd flown and soared the entire fleet upto that point and felt it would be rude not to aviate in dha.

Chris managed to defeat the karma of the previous post and didnt land out and Tony learnt why we lookout all the time and especially behind the upper wing before coming out of a turn, having shared a gaggle climb with a bunch of junior champs pilots.

Phil & Carol have an adventure

Heading Westerly in a Westerly...Lambourn, Melksham and back.

Having watched Carol & Phil landing back, reciprocal, having found a world of sink on their short foray I wondered at Pete's decision to take a launch. He took off in 737; I followed a few minutes later on the second wire in B1 thinking it was a nice day for a circuit.
As it happened there was lift; he was thermalling in better air (as well as thermalling better) than me with a 3.5 knot average climb compared to my 2 knot. Fifteen minutes later and 4k higher Pete struck out on the task, first TP Lambourn, not too far but with challenging conditions it made the leg difficult.
I decided to  top up a little at Hungerford, Pete blasted on turning Lambourn, only stopping halfway between Lambourn and Marlborough after the TP. The wind was about 25 km/h and any progress toward Melksham was painfully slow.

Stopping was counter-productive as the gain in height was quickly outweighed by the distance pushed back in anything other than the strongest of thermals.
I climbed again near Ogbourne St George but was blown back 4km. By the time I got to the same point on task I had only gained a measly 400 feet and Pete was 12km ahead and only 400 feet lower.

Our track took us both independently through Marlborough and to the South of our line but the sky looked better as did the clouds.

As we headed West we both aimed at Devizes which always seems to offer and produce a free ‘get out of jail’ card. Pete took a few turns and headed for Melksham. I took a couple of weak climbs that I shouldn't have, but being down to 1900 QFE I was starting to worry about finding any lift. By this time the wind had increased to 35 km/h and Pete was nearly 10km ahead but in the weeds at 1200 QFE. Still, the saving grace for both was that Keevil were throwing gliders into the sky so a safe landing there was now an option.

Pete got a small climb over Melksham, turned the TP and headed downwind and back to Rivar. He pulled ahead and was 11km in front, I stopped for a top-up at Devizes where I got enough to think about a final glide with 30km to go. Pete topped up at Manningford, 17km out, 1600 feet QFE.

By East Grafton we were neck and neck, Pete running in at 160km/h while I was edging towards him at 180km/h, 800 feet and 5km to go.

I passed Pete just 3km out, he was higher (well 800 feet higher than me) to my right. I only just nipping past him, by the time I got to the airfield I was 400 above it. I turned in and landed.(final turn 10/10, >300 feet. Circuit 1/10.

I was lucky, Pete wasn't trying….

Chris.

Task week scores

I have finally managed to devise a scoring system:

24, 18, 16, 14, 12, 10, 8, 6, 4, 2 to the top pilots on each day. days are sorted on XC ladder points and then soaring time >10mins. Soaring time only gets half points.

sat1 - 9Aug14
P1	P2	Glider	Takeoff	Flight Time	Points
Phil Morgan	Carol Pike	EOW	13:03	03:43	24
Chris Bessent		FYW	13:06	00:00	18
Pete Smith		737	12:31	04:06	16
Jim Clarke	John Douglass	JPC	14:55	01:22	7
Stephen Ottner		EEF	15:27	01:11	6
Mark Patterson		EGF	12:47	01:07	5
Jim Clarke	Paul Bradley	JPC	12:49	00:57	4
Richard Dann		EEF	14:07	00:54	3
Stephen Ottner	Mike Garner	HCF	13:48	00:49	2
Stephen Ottner	Jodie Bradley	HCF	12:35	00:41	1
Claire Willson		JNG	13:29	00:41	1
weds - 13Aug14
P1	P2	Glider	Takeoff	Flight Time	Points
Pete Smith		737	15:54	00:45	12
Phil Morgan	Carol Pike	EOW	13:29	00:14	9
Alan Holden		JDR	15:33	00:12	8
fri - 15Aug 14
P1	P2	Glider	Takeoff	Flight Time	Points
Claire Willson		JNG	14:46	00:18	12
sat2 - 16Aug14
P1	P2	Glider	Takeoff	Flight Time	Points
Chris Bessent		FYW	12:26	02:09	24
Pete Smith		737	12:31	02:31	18
Alan Holden		JDB	12:40	02:00	8
Stephen Ottner		EEF	16:08	01:45	7
Colin Baines		EEF	12:52	01:35	6
Carol Pike	Phil Morgan	EOW	13:36	01:23	5
Nigel Burt	Jeremy Knight	HCF	12:44	01:16	4
Steve Barber		HZD	13:25	01:12	3
Ken Reid		EGF	15:15	01:10	2
Richard Dann	Alex Rawlins	JMX	15:53	00:48	1

so the total points is....

P1	TOTAL
Pete Smith	46
Chris Bessent	42
383	38
Alan Holden	16
Claire Willson	13
Stephen Ottner	13
Colin Baines	6
Mark Patterson	5
Jeremy Knight	4
Richard Dann	3
Steve Barber	3
Ken Reid	2
Mike Garner	2
Alex Rawlins	1
Jodie Bradley	1

isnt that a surprise ;-) (but as they say in the exam hall RTFQ)

by XC points

Pilot	Glider	Points
Chris Bessant	B1	1185
Pete Smith	737	1070
Carol/Phil	383	650

STOP PRESS - Due to new European rules a winner cannot be declared as that is elitest and unharmonised and so the amended results are as follows

Pilot	Position
Alan Holden	=1 Certificate of attendance
Alex Rawlins	=1 Certificate of attendance
Ben Purton	=1 Certificate of attendance
Carol Pike	=1 Certificate of attendance
Chris Bessent	2nd Must try harder
Claire Willson	=1 Certificate of attendance
Colin Baines	=1 Certificate of attendance
James Walters	=1 Certificate of attendance
Jeremy Knight	=1 Certificate of attendance
Jim Clarke	=1 Certificate of attendance
Jodie Bradley	=1 Certificate of attendance
Justin Butler	=1 Certificate of attendance
Ken Reid	=1 Certificate of attendance
Mark Patterson	=1 Certificate of attendance
Mike Garner	=1 Certificate of attendance
Nigel Burt	=1 Certificate of attendance
Paul Bradley	=1 Certificate of attendance
Paul Prentice	=1 Certificate of attendance
Pete Smith	=1 Certificate of attendance
Peter Ellison	=1 Certificate of attendance
Phil Morgan	=1 Certificate of attendance
Richard Dann	=1 Certificate of attendance
Rob Jarvis	=1 Certificate of attendance
Rowland Pantling	=1 Certificate of attendance
Selvam Mudaliar	=1 Certificate of attendance
Stephen Ottner	=1 Certificate of attendance
Steve Barber	=1 Certificate of attendance
Steve Gaze	=1 Certificate of attendance
Stuart Thackray	=1 Certificate of attendance
Trevor Greenwood	=1 Certificate of attendance