Tue 16 September - Portmoak

 Nothing better for a glider pilot than waking up to a sunny day with great weather forecasts. The morning briefing also reinforced that, though adding that more than 25 gliders would be in the local airspace at the same time. 

 

The sun on JZK (Stu Procter)

Flying on the Bishop hill was not for the faint of heart. The lift was steady, but you had to constantly be watching for other gliders. Gradually, gliders moved out from the hill, but the surprise was when both thermals and wave developed to augment the ridge lift. 

 

Wave over Loch Leven (Simon Minson)

We'll start with the big winners of the day: Andy Williams (FUN) achieved his gold height, 

 

Congratulations to Andy Williams Gold Height

while Simon Minson (SM), Andy Davey, (JB), Guy Adams (CEC) and Ron Johns/Chris Wool (711) all had impressive wave flights. Pete Startup (230), Stu Procter, James and Emma Flory (JZK), Mark Wallis and I all had fun flying the Portmoak ridge and the thermals which took us even higher. - Tom Sides

Mon 15 September - Portmoak

 The sky was looking much more hopeful as we headed to the club this morning. Still lowish clouds, but the forecast said they would lift until rain returned early afternoon. Most importantly, solid wind from the west made it almost certain the Bishop would be working. 

Lowish clouds (Tom Sides)

Not many SGC members at the club, but there were enough to help the North Hill group (now joined by Andy Williams  in FUN) . We set up a launch grid, with Simon Minson and  James Flory first off to finish James' site checks. 

Clouds above the Bishop (Tom Sides)

 I took the next cable with Ron in 711 finding not only ridge flying but some light wave in front of the hill.  Pete Startup was up next for an hour-plus flight of hill bashing, joined by Andy Davey in JB. 

Having too much fun (Stu Procter)

 

Stu Procter and James took JZK up while Simon flew his own glider. Guy Adams had over 1/2 hour in CEC and Andy Williams flew a bit over 20 minutes before the rain forced everyone down. 

 

Enjoyable day (Tom Sides)

A really enjoyable day. Or maybe it just seems so when you're flying at a great site.- Tom Sides

Sun 14 September - Portmoak

The group has grown a bit larger with the addition of Guy Adams, but a lackluster morning briefing announced light winds from the south (NOT what one wants to have at Portmoak), so a general decision was made to pass on circuit bashing flights and instead go for an extended walk. 

 

Non-flying day (Simon Minson)

Jules Minson won the distance award with a 16 mile loop of Loch Leven, while James Flory and family headed north to hike across and visit a proper rugged Scottish landscape. The rest of the group hiked some 4 miles around the Loch to a local farm shop for lunch, and then back to the gliding field. No flying today, but enjoyable company. 

 

Andy's Birthday (Simon Minson)

We headed to Kinross for a group dinner, where the highlight certainly was a group celebration of Andy Davey's birthday.  

 

The Muirs Inn (Simon Minson)

Better weather and optimism is forecast for Monday. - Tom Sides

Sat 13 September - Portmoak

 Optimism was generally high that, despite the forecast of heavy showers, we'd be able to fly the Bishop. As it turned out, the wind never did quite make the expected turn from SSW to westerly, and its speed occasionally dropped below what was needed to stay on the ridge. The result was many short flights and circuits, with only one extended ridge flight. That was made by Simon Minson, who found enough lift to stay up for over an hour. 

 

Stu admiring the green grass and blue sky (Tom Sides)

We kept JZK busy with Stu Procter taking Tom Sides on a refresher flight, and then conducting a site check flight with James Flory, a new boy to Scottish ridge flying. Stu continued by giving Emma Flory a F&F flight. After a very heavy shower passed through, Tom and Chris Wool took an abbreviated flight followed by James and Stu making an even shorter circuit flight. 

 

The Bishop is hiding  (Tom Sides)

Andy Davey was able to coax his glider to stay up for almost 20 minutes, but surprise of the day was that Pete Startup was only able to remain airborne for 12 minutes, again a rain shower forcing him down. 

So a day dodging showers and making the best of what ridge lift there was. But it's great to be back in Scotland and the friendly Portmoak members. - Tom Sides

Sat 13 September

The weather forecast must have put members off - but they missed a really good day. The field was set up and one K21 and one Junior taken to the launch point with only just enough members  present to run the field. 

Plenty of thermals at North Hill (John Borland)

 

Steve Westlake had Milo and Toby on the instruction list and the solo list had seven pilots to fly. The wind was variously SW, W then NW with a fairly strong gradient which did give very good launch heights.

From the start, the flights were all extended to some degree during the morning. A heavy shower arrived in time to call for lunch. The sky was a little reluctant to give lift after the rain but by 14:00 the thermals had got going and it became difficult to come down.

 

Blue skies after the showers (John Borland)

 The totals for the day were 9 solo flights 10 dual from 15 winch launches and four aerotows. One booked Trial flight and one walk-in power pilot keen to get reacquainted with gliders. 

A good team effort to get the most out of the day and all kit safely put to bed by 16:30. Thanks to Steve for running the day and Alan Rappaport for standing in as tuggie. There were plenty of opportunities for more people to fly today.  - John Borland (Longest flight)  

Fri 12 September - Portmoak

 Several early birds traveled up on Thursday and took advantage of some mixed weather conditions to test the Bishop ridge. Pete Startup (230) managed 2 1/2 hours, Ron Johns and Chris Wool (711) a bit over 2 hours and Andy Davey (JB) was just short of 2 hours. Mid-day showers put a pause to the morning flights, but smiles abounded. 

The familiar view of Portmoak (Stu Procter)

After an EARLY start from North Hill, Stu Procter, Simon  Minson and Tom Sides arrived on site at 3pm, and with the combined help of the aforementioned early flyers, rigged the club DG505. 

 

...and the Bishop (Simon Minson)

Stu and Simon were anxious to gain some time on the ridge and managed a late afternoon 25 minutes before a threatening shower encouraged a prudent decision to land and put away JZK for the night. James Flory and family arrived safely, having stopped several times to recharge their car battery. No flight today, but tomorrow looks encouraging. - TS

Thurs 11 September

 I think the majority of those who turned up probably thought that with the prospect of the advancing rain in the strong gusty south westerly wind there was little chance of flying today. Then Duty Instructor Mike Sloggett burst through the clubhouse door announcing that he has seen little sign of any rain on the trip up from Plymouth and the wind was not yet as forecast. The aircraft and ground equipment was quickly DI'd enabling the first two flights to be at reduced cost. Mike's plan was to get everyone in the air with at least one flight before deciding on Plan B. 

Shadows are getting longer (Mark Layton)

The gusty yellow card conditions required careful planning on the launch as well as the bumpy approach with plenty of height and speed required on finals. The strong thermals were to be had in amongst the gusty which made things interesting. Shaun Dayman managed to dodge a few rain clouds and bagged the longest flight of the day with 34 minutes before airbraking down due the advancing rain. His only regret was not being able to get his phone out of his pocket to take photos of the spectacular rainbows in the stormy sky (that's his story anyway). The rain showers proceeded by strong gusty conditions appeared at regular intervals, sometimes almost biblical! 

 

Sunny at times (Mark Layton)

After everyone had flown and having wiped down the rain covered gliders for the umpteen time with only the prospect of circuits it was decided to call an end to the day at mid afternoon.  

 

Storms passing by to the south (David Clements)

Whilst the remaining few were still flying those who had already flown derigged the Perkoz to the workshop for an inspection of the airbrake controls as requested by the BGA Technical Officer, the Junior FZF was rigged after having a new canopy fitted and the DG505 was derigged for it private hire trip to Portmoak. 

 

Checking the Bumblebee trailer (Mark Layton)

Also the Bumblebee tug was being test fitted in its new trailer for its forthcoming holiday in North Wales and Scotland. - Mark Layton

 

Fri 5 September - Course Week

The final day of the course started with some blue sky, clouds but a tad windy. The two K21’s were readied along with the Perkoz and moved to the launch point with the first flights off just after 10:00am. The tasks for each of us was as follows.  I continued to polish the launch, circuit, approach and landing.   Elise Turpin was getting to grips with the launch,  trimming and circuits as well as attempting to thermal. 
By Duncan Bardney's own admission, he was mainly trying not to crash but leant a good lesson that three Buzzards are the ones to follow when looking for thermals.

 

September Course

Paul Warren, like myself following a long period away from gliding, was also perfecting the launch, circuit and landing  in addition he practiced a high level cable brake to good effect. 
Rob Adams (following a very long break away from gliding for a few years having previously been at Silver standard), continued to make superb progress and the old skills were soon remembered after the week long course.    

 

Nice sky (Andrew Chisholm)

Glenn Turpin offered to take some course members up flying the Perkoz so giving us a ‘third’ instructor after lunch and they experienced a different gliders handling characteristics. 

Not so nice sky (Andrew Chishom)

The weather for the day did hold though a few light showers passed close by but ominous black clouds were building by the end. The final flight of the day in the K21 with Duncan under instruction from Steve Westlake trying to beat the approaching rain suffered an actual low level cable break.  So that concluded the course! 

 A big thank you goes to our flying instructors Peter Field, Steve Westlake and all the course helpers. Their work meant the course ran smoothly on the flyable days and on the non flying day when lectures along with simulator work, they were on hand to be ready incase the weather changed for the good. - Andrew C Chisholm (first-time blogger)

Thurs 4 September - Course Week

 The day has been much better than forecast with good thermals to a cloud base of 2500ft, some streeting and the ridge working some of the time. The westerly veered slightly north in the afternoon and a few light showers drifted through. 

Launching into a moody sky (Rob Adams)

Due to bad weather over the last few days all course members felt practising various circuit scenarios and spin recovery was very useful and all agreed they felt more confident today and made good progress. - Rob Adams - New member and first time blogger 

 

Gaggles (Rob Adams)

Pete Startup was one of the private owners who struggled upwind and almost made it to Knowstone and got  blown back to North Hill, but most were happy to stay local in the really strong turbulent lift. And a busy day with 39 winch launches and 3 aerotows.

Wed 3 September - Course Week

Most of the day was spent in the DSGC simulator due to the weather conditions, however it gave me and many others a much better grasp of how the controls work as well as the use of the rudders. 

More Simulator time (Karen King)

Our instructors gave us informative lectures throughout the day which was a massive help when flying was an option. Elise Turpin - New member and first time blogger.