Sun 11th May

 A tricky day with some rain at lunch time, but the wind / low cloud couldn't decide, so just 10 flights today.

Simulator room was just a bit darker than yesterday (Tom Sides)

 

In the afternoon, Pete Harmer instructed in the Simulator, with Sally Hender finding it really useful stick time for her first training exercises, interspersed with Rob Hender taking Pete on a cross-country out and return to Mudford Gate and including a practice field landing. 

In the evening,  James Smart took to the radio test  machine again - well done to Ashley Thomas who passed his FRTOL with James. - J&P

Sat 10th May

 Just like buses - another 300k day for Pete Startup, 

NH2 - Wantage - NH2 306kms

230 "Went a bit blue with sea air after the Mendips heading back into Devon but with the high climbs it wasn't a problem. Great conditions today. " - Pete Startup

NH2 - Trowbridge - NH2 179kms

JDP - "A short task due to getting back for a working evening, aiming for in excess of 100kph, but sadly a low bit on the Somerset levels meant just 98.2kph" - Dan Hender

A super sky  (Paul Gunner)

 Meanwhile, back at North Hill, many Instructors, a full Flying List, lots of local soaring and training and check flights - 34 winch launches and 8 aerotows. 

And Sally Hender normally found in Launch Control has started flying training. 

Sally starts flying training (Tom Sides)

 In the evening,   well done to Dave Perriam  who passed his FRTOL test with James Smart.  - J&P

Fri 9th May

 A cross-country day at last and first 300kms of the season from North Hill, and some pics from SM.

North Hill grid (Simon Minson)

  NH2 - CHILBOLTON - CLYFFE PYPARD - NH2 302kms

 230 "Got high, stayed high, just bimbled along and loved it! With SM for company.
And many thanks to Alan for coming out at very short notice to tow us." - Pete Startup

SM "Late start in south west, 302K a good run once past Shaftsbury, with cloudbase between 5-6000ft!
A big thanks to Alan for flying the tug, all in all a great day out with the boys. - Simon Minson 

Final leg 112kms to go (Simon Minson)

NH2 - SALISBURY CATHEDRAL - NHL 213kms

711 Out and Return  to Salisbury -Ron & Dan Johns

DD3 "Conditions were good to Salisbury but we turned back at Salisbury South as we thought it was getting a bit too late to do the full 302km task. Sadlly the anticipated sea breeze front failed us on the way home and with no climb west of Yeovil we resorted to the iron thermal at Watchford Farm to guarantee a stress free return. Nevertheless it was an enjoyable flight and great to experience climbs to 6000 ft around Salisbury. " - JB & NJ

CUL - MARLBOROUGH - NHL 254kms

V5 " A fallback task from a 500kms,  Good day out with 230,711,W7,SM,DD3 " Rich Roberts

Thurs 8th May

 RASP indicated a good day, cloudy to start and brighter in the afternoon. That is exactly what transpired. The surprisingly cold start to the day was a bit of a shock, but the regular members knew better and had 'emergency' spare warm clothes at hand for yet another day at the west end. 

The sun needs to heat the ground (Mark Layton)

In an already overdeveloped sky there was lift to be had from the offset with a few flights approaching an hour and had to be called down. This brought a flurry of private gliders into the throng. Finding thermals were a bit of a hit and miss affair with some luckier than others and noone ventured too far from North Hill apart from Pete Startup in 230 who headed over to Tiverton. 

 

Launching at the west end again (Mark Layton)

After a quick lunch break, including a two minute silence for the 80th VE anniversary, the sky brightened up as forecast with a welcome rise in ambient air temperature. Most enjoyed soaring flights of some kind, with others doing back-seat flying training for mutual flying plus the normal array of cable failure checks sending gliders to different area's of the airfield. 

Front of the queue (Mark Layton)

 Mike Sloggett along with Chris Wool worked through the flying list and thankfully managed to get everyone flown by 1700. CFI Mark was back on tug pilot duty flying the EuroFox and finding the seat as comfy as ever before his mini lay off.  

A productive day all round with some fun added for good measure! - Mark Layton

Wed 7th May

The run of fine weather continues for the Club, with the chilly North easterly wind providing convection for the skilled and the lucky, whenever gaps in the high cloud permitted some heating of the ground.

Peter Startup and Wyn Davies topped the list with over 2h each, and Chris Warnes and Richard Roberts both over 1:40. 

Congratulations to Richard Lean (Peter Smith)

Finally, your humble scribe was lucky to become DSGC's newest solo pilot, being sent off under the watchful eye of Peter Smith, 34 years after my previous glider solo.
Thanks to everyone in the club who has helped me along the way so far. - Richard Lean

Sun 4th May

 With a call out last night advising of no instructor for the majority of the day, there were only six hopeful names on the two-seater list. Thanks to Ian Mitchell for  offering to run the field, and JB arrived at about 10.30am having missed all last night's messages, which meant hopes were raised as he agreed to instruct instead of flying DD3 as planned, - thank you both. The airfield was then set up, with aerotow only, due to lack of experienced members to run the winch,  (Tuggie Robert Lee was pleased about that!) This also meant the three booked trial flights could be flown by Shaun Dayman, all of whom thoroughly enjoyed their flights. 

The Pundits line up on the grid (Sally Hender)

 Flying began at 12pm, with the new Junior members flying first, staying at the club the night before to get to the top of the list is a good idea it seems!
Private owners, Pete Startup (230), Simon Minson (SM) and Dan Hender (JDP) set off just after lunch on the Club task…. Out and Return to Salisbury 212kms. 

JDP arriving back (Sally Hender)

"JDP - What a day, not as good as it looked, it was hard work. Good run out to Salisbury, then a hard leg back, with limited sun on the ground. Overall difficult flight but managed 75kph" - Dan Hender

"230 - Floundered from the off in the brisk wind, got low at SAL. Hideous really.................not what I'd planned! With SM and JDP." - Pete Startup

"SM - fell back to this 200k club task, from our declared 300 ! Not a easy day, still a great day out with Pete and Dan" - Simon Minson

Other owners took the opportunity for local soaring: Phil and Gill Morrison (DD3), Barbie Fairclough (DFK), Paul Medlock (JDD) and Alan Rappaport (FWH) .. after helping with the tug duty. 

 

Tug Duty (Jack Sewell)

Ian Mitchell arrived to help instructing mid-afternoon, and James Flory also popped across, and after getting clearance from Mrs F, stepped in and helped instruct (and tug too!). JB was then able to take his opportunity to fly DD3 with Phil Morrison. 

 

Keen Junior members learning the ropes ( Jack Sewell)

Overall, from what seemed like an unlikely day to succeed, we managed to fly everyone on the list. A big thank you to Gordon Hutchinson and Rob Hender who did an exceptional job running the airfield, neither of whom actually flew, thank you. - Sally Hender

Sat 3rd May

 Today looked to be another good opportunity to get some more flying in.  The kit was all out and checked by the 9:20am as requested.

James Flory carried out the morning briefing as he was kindly filling in the Duty Instructor role due to illness.  The busy clubhouse then partially emptied and flying commenced at the west end of the airfield. It was great to see many newer faces on site today.

As it was my first full duty as DSGC launch marshal, I was keen to do my best and help to get everyone flown. However at times it felt like this - But Blindfolded!

juggling everything 

…..But with a mix of training, check flights, card renewals, and spinning, it kept everyone busy. 

We were grateful that Peter Smith supported James with some extra capacity for more instructional flights during the day, a super effort by all.

Lots of visitors today (Mark Courtney)

Dan Hender, Tom Sides and Stuart Procter flew the visitors today, as well as some friends and family flights. All seemed to have a good time. Thanks guys. 

Ellis Goodland - first taste of gliding (Lisa Humphries)

The new Junior members started training on the ground tasks at the west end, while at the east end, a big thanks goes to Gordon Hutchinson for super-long winching stints in order to allow even more training. Two more winch drivers signed off.
Hopefully the more people we get signed off on all the tasks, the more we will all collectively gain. Good progress today, keep it up.  

 Special mention to Joel Roulson, as he managed to do stints in Launch control and then the winch, as well as flying the Junior for 45min, and also to James for instructing all day. Great work thanks.

Good to see Mark C at the club again, as the CFI , he put in a stint in the K21 with Simon Leeson flying back seat, and then was seen flying the tug!  Great news. 

CFI back in the air (Rich Roberts)

 
So what about soaring opportunities? Depending on the time you launched it was either very good locally or you found nothing but down.
Josh Howlett having resoloed on Thursday, then followed up completing his 1st 1hour flight.

A day that was hard work in the air trying to soar, and a busy day on the ground trying to get into the groove and make the logistics all gel. A demanding day, but we got there….lets do it all again.

- Rich Roberts (ed: and a big thank you to Rich on his first DLM duty and he did it all day without flying - magnificent job!)

Fri 2nd May

 The last day of the  Club Open Week looked like it was going to be the best day of the week. It had potential with a high RASP star rating but it didn't really deliver what was expected. On the plus side, there were some clouds, but on the down side the viz was initially poor, so longer than usual waiting times between launches were called for. Fortunately, some hardly noticed the difference!

Despite the favourable forecast there was only a handful of members present at the morning briefing which resulted in decision to aerotow-only for the day. The first flight launched from the east end for a change but it was quickly changed to the west end due to the tail wind.

 

Waiting for aerotows (Mark Layton)

Mike Sloggett, James Flory and Andy Pincombe had to share the limited number of training flights (Andy mainly, as Mike had to leave early and James flew the EuroFox most of the day sharing a few tows with Robert Lee). The rest of the crew wanted to fly their own gliders  Pete Startup 230, Dave Perriam DG1, Shaun Dayman JDD, Ashley Thomas 877, Mark Layton 477 and Chris Woodward HKB. Some had more success than others, the thermals were difficult to find let alone keep in for any length of time. 

 

After another hot day (yes it is still the first days of May after all) everyone seemed quite glad when we finished and packed everything away at 16:30 before retreating to the clubhouse for cold drinks.

A huge thanks goes to Mike who drove up from Plymouth everyday to keep the Open Week running whilst being assisted by various other instructors. - Mark Layton

Thur 1st May

It was one of those days when it was probably better going to the beach or sitting in a pub garden with a nice cold beer! But alas there were a large number of members at the morning briefing (expertly presented by Shaun Dayman as part of his instructor training) that thought going gliding would be a far better option.

The persistent south easterly weather system this week did not produce much, as predicted today. Circuits were what we expected and that was what we got. Even the aerotows didn't fair much better. Mike Sloggett assisted by James Flory worked through the very long two-seater list with various training requests. 

Congratulations to Josh Howlett (Mike Sloggett)

 Congratulations to Josh Howlett who was put through his paces with launch failures sending him to different locations around the airfield before completing his first solo at North Hill, and promptly followed it up with a second. This was some 20 years after his previous gliding at Nympsfield. 

A short grid  and short flights (David Clements)

DG1 (Dave Perriam), 877 (Ashley Thomas), FUN (Andy Williams) and FAJ (John Borland) all flew their own gliders, but unfortunately the flight times were still all relatively short. 

Great shot (David Clements)

 
As packing-up time approached the R151 cub arrived to allow a new syndicate member to get signed off for towing. Various members obliged and carried on into the evening.

A busy day with plenty of launches making the most of hot conditions left everyone happy to have flown. - Mark Layton

April 2025 - Portmoak

With only two gliders Cirrus, CEC  with Guy Adams and Mark  Wallis and ASH 711  with Ron and Dan  Johns,  the North Hill contingent was a rather thin ! But so far we have flown 4 days with a great potential for Friday. Portmoak offering such a fabulous mixture of wave, ridge and volcanic thermals on Wednesday with a 6000ft cloudbase. 

Majestic ASH25 711 (Dan Johns)

 

The club has been amazing helping us to get launched everyday even though now no professionals are employed. Ron even took an aerotow behind the smaller engine EuroFox 120 hp . In no wind and 27 degrees . I can honestly say I recognised every tree and swan around the Loch, but it does mean with a headwind it would be fine ish ! 

Scottish Hills (Dan Johns)

Mark had his first land out at Balado, which has upped his confidence ( if anyone has a used electronic gizmo he needs it ! ) We have another visit in September - let me know if members want to tag along. It’s a fabulous place to learn with a huge easy airfield and two amazing mountains to soar. - Ron Johns