Friday 31st July

News from Nympsfield
Not quite as bad as I had forecast yesterday - there was a brisk Southerly which meant aerotowing only today, but the high cover which was expected to kill the day early didn't actually reach here until later than expected.

Sid didn't set a specific task but left it open for "free enterprise" undeclared tasks just to get people flying. The conditions cycled quite a lot so it was difficult(impossible) in parts but very good in others.
Pete in 230 managed 130km of scratching routing via Yate and Faringdon and finding some very good climbs in Oxfordshire. Unfortunately Matt got one of the bad bits of the cyclic conditions, as did a few others, and landed back. Local pundit Alison Mulder won the day with a flight NYM-BAD-BIR-DID-NYM which was ..........................well,a heck of a lot further!

Not the best week as x-country task weeks go but an enjoyable week away with some x-country,ridge running and local soaring over some different scenery.


Images courtesy of Jon Baldock,JEE.
Fingers crossed for kinder weather next year. - Pete S

News from the Mynd
Wave was around so Eric and Kaye launched the Duo Discus XT, started the engine and tried to find the wave. Ian and Steve tried to find the wave, however failed without having an engine. Mark and Simon found a little bit of weak wave and stayed up for 30 minute. Paul and Jimbob flew the Junior around trying to keep it airborne but only managed extended circuits. Jimbob also converted into the K23. - Jimbob

Thursday 30th July

The very wet cold front cleared overnight, leaving another showery airstream until lunchtime when the sky turned into white puffy clouds base 4000'QNH.

There was some soaring in the rain before lunch and then after dinner - steady 6-8 knot climbs, although the strong westerly wind meant everyone stayed local. Three new members from the Open weekend are now regular Thursday flyers and enjoyed the good soaring. Another group from Devon Youth Service enjoyed the pleasant evening conditions.

News from Nympsfield
Only one person got away from the field on task (fallback O/R Didcot), before a barrage of heavy showers put a stop to that idea. Later in the afternoon after the showers eventually stopped some good local soaring was had and a few went down the ridge to Bath in the brisk South Westerley wind.
711 crossed the river to the dark side.
Brisk Southerly wind tomorrow(probably rubbish), Saturday - rain(definitely rubbish)
See you soon. -Pete S

News from The Mynd
What a fantastic day! The day was just like Monday. 25kt wind coming from the West and thermals peaking to 3000ft QFE. The day started very rough so we all needed check flights to make sure we could fly solo.
Henry converted to a new type and flew the Mynd's K23, he kept this airborne for around 3 hours. Ian flew his Kestrel for 8hrs and 40mins all the way around Wales and back! Paul managed to solo at the Mynd and flew the Junior (KHA) for 1hr 30mins.
There was a total of 35 hours flown today! What a venue!
We've already booked the accommodation for next year as we're trying to make it a regular thing. Watch this space for further Mynd info. - Jimbob

Wednesday 29th July

Persistant and heavy rain all day at all sites of interest.

Being on holiday the Long Mynd detachment went to the RAF Museum at Cosford and looked at a few planes. Then the front came through clearing the sky and giving us a good evening to fly the models.
Tomorrow looks a lot better! - Jimbob

Tuesday 28th July

News from Nympsfield
Sadly Nympsfield was a task free zone today due to poor weather. A rough SW wind would have made flying interesting in the morning had we been able to launch but difficult circumstances including failed ground equipment (punctured tyre and failed Land Rover clutch) meant that first launch of the ASK21 was delayed till 1400hrs. - extract from BGGC blog

News from the Mynd

Nothing like yesterday at all. South westerly at 15kts all day which meant only circuits were flown. The DG-505 was used a lot by our members today doing cable breaks and just normal circuit training/practice. - Jimbob

International Competitions - "Team GB" is again doing very well in both current competitions, the European's in Lithuania and the Woman's World's in Hungary, in the Club and Standard classes. See www.pociunai.lt and www.wwgc2009.hu

Monday 27th July

News from Nympsfield
Forecast for today was SSW winds of 20kts+ and wind broken thermals to around 3,000' asl.
Sid decided not to set a cross country task so Nympsfield ridge maestro Trevor Stuart gave a lecture on the ins and outs of the Bath ridge run, with a planned lead and follow with him leading plus 3 newbies trailing. Matt in 477,Pete in 230 and a local set off on the usual adrenalin producing flight.
A second lap had to be scrubbed because the wind went too far South and the ridge all but stopped working - shame, but we managed a little bit of local soaring.
Phil in 711 did the run with another local pundit in the back seat to show him the way and enjoyed the flight. - Pete S

News from the Mynd
What a fantastic day it turned out to be! The morning was grey with lots of showers. Briefing was at 0900HRS and the duty instructor told us about the field layout etc...
We all had our check flights with Mark and Simon in the DG-505 and one of the Mynd's K21.
Steve, Ian, Andrew, John and Martin all flew their private gliders and all had decent flights!
The wind is coming from the West at 25kts. We're on a very short launch run where the height of the launch is 300ft! As soon as you launch and release you're up to 1000ft before you know it! Cloud base reached 3000ft QNH with thermals peaking to 6-8kts+!
A very good day here for all of us as we've all had decent flights. - Jimbob

Sunday 26th July

It rained!

News from Nympsfield
Rain,rain,rain - lots of tea drunk.
Simon and Jim have arrived to collect the DG and are off to the Mynd after a cuppa.
Matt won the paper dart comp - I reckon he spends a lot of time on long sectors in his 747 making them and perfecting his design, although he denies it!
Here's hoping for a ridge day tomorrow. - Pete S

News from the Mynd
John and Henry arrived early to get their checks out of the way so they're now ready to fly solo.
On Sunday the rest of the gang arrived; Mark and Dave were towing the Junior while Simon and Jimbob collected the DG from Nympsfield and took that up. Martin is with his Ventus. Ian is with his Kestral. Andrew is with his K6. Eric and Kaye are with their Duo Discus and LS7. Steve with his Discus and Roy with his LS7.
Rain all day on Sunday so a lot of model flying, drinking, and pool playing was done! -Jimbob

Saturday 25th July

A few members have gone to Sid's Task Week at Nympsfield and a large detachment with the DG505, a Junior and several private gliders have left for a Club Expedition to the Long Mynd. Those members who were left had a pleasant gently thermic day. Nothing epic, just a nice day culminating in a very enjoyable birthday barbeque for Cheryl and Steph attended by thirty or so family and friends.

News from Nympsfield
With a forecast of spreadout to the South and East and a sea breeze incursion up the Severn valley in the afternoon(sound familiar?) , Sid set a task of 241km, Buckingham - Newbury and back.
The forecast was pretty much spot on. Pete in 230 got round but slower than a tethered tortoise after struggling under spreadout at Newbury and then making a meal of the into wind leg home, blaming the increasing wind and the sea air - well that was his excuses anyway!
Matt in 477 on the other hand, went round quite quickly until Cricklade on the final leg when he decided to ignore 230 and several other gliders scratching in a weak thermal and go for the next(and last before the sea air) cloud.Sadly it didn't work and he ended up landing out 20km short at the small airfield of Oaksey Park and got an aerotow retrieve.
John Bugbee flying off the back of the grid as a non-comp, decided he wouldn't bother with the fantastic conditions in Oxfordshire and dropped into Enstone for a cup of tea and a bun! Pete and Matt did the retrieve and found a fantastic fish and chip shop in Chipping Norton with a glider trailer sized lay-by right outside - bonus!
Phil and Gill took off last and sailed round the task with ease in just over 3 hours wondering why all the fuss - damn those big wings (and a little bit of skill)! - Pete S

Thursday 23rd July

Same showery airflow as the last few days. Today started bright blue and scattered cumulus, which rapidly got bigger and wetter, finally washing us all out of the sky at lunch time. But before this we had 6-8 knot thermals to 3000' QFE. The afternoon was blighted by occasional, not too heavy, showers - but just too heavy to slow the launch rate. The really big clouds and heavy storms being in a line 4-5 miles to our north.

Star comment of the day was from the ten year old son of a visitor - "Are we in an old peoples' home?". Our reply was "You should have been here yesterday".

There were three trial lessons through the afternoon, returning visitors from last week, and an Evening Group from the Devon Youth Service. All enjoyed themselves.

Wednesday 22nd July

We are in a persistant cloudy, showery south westerly airstream. Today opened with very low cloud and therefore a late start to the flying. Once that lifted it was thermic to low heights, and then what gaps there were filled in. At the end of the day the clouds broke again and it was beautifully soarable into the evening.

John Street has swine flu, he strongly advises against catching it!

John Sillett completed his BI acceptance checks with JB, welcome to the happy band.

A small evening group from EDF Energy had the best of the day.

Sunday 19th July

Strong, boistrous westerly winds and heavy showers. However the enthusiastic amongst us did manage to fly, putting in half adozen launches between each band of rain.

ICL was again scrubbed at Mendip, so previous results stand.

Saturday 18th July

Dry in the morning, under a grey sky with cloudbase at 1500'QFE and a gentle westerly wind. General training and local soaring until the persistent rain set in early afternoon.
A (winch launch only) Air Cadet came to sample an aerotow, Claire is hoping to solo with us through the summer. Later Trial Lessons were postponed because of the rain.

The Inter Club League at Mendip Club was scrubbed mid-morning for the day, let's hope for a better day tomorrow.

Thursday 16th July

From the forecast we did expect to get at least a morning's flying, but the low cloud and rain was four hours early and set in for the day at about ten o'clock. So the tea pot was kept warm through the spinning theory, aided by experiences from Ian who did his first spinning last week. Then a look at the excellent BGA Safe Winch Launching web pages.

We entertained the Trial Lesson candidate and his friends to a chat about gliding and a tour of the hangar, and probably sold three more Trial Lessons. Some local walkers brought three friends from New Zealand for a Clubhouse lunch, hoping to see some activity. No luck there but they also got a guided walk through the hangar.

A productive Instructor's meeting occupied the whole evening.

Wednesday 15th July

It was actually soarable today!

OK, so it was a bit desperate with only feeble thermals to about 2,000' and the odd spot of drizzle but more than we expected looking at the sky this mornng.

All the available Club gliders were in use and 3 or 4 private gliders were out.

It looks like the weather will have stayed ok for the evening group.

Sunday 12th July

The day started out grey and the cloudbase was low, the first flight was dodging in and out of the low cloud restricting the amount of gliders airborne to one. Once the cloud broke and lifted we commenced flying as normal. The day progressed into a very nice local soaring day - at about 11am it started to pop and gliders were staying up for 15/20 minutes. After lunch it really started to go and the thermals broke to around 4000ft QFE, despite the rainy convergence not far to the south, throughout the afternoon. This continued until around 7pm where the same faces stayed to actually pack the stuff away!

Well done to John Sillett on getting his BI! He spent the weekend in the classroom and the K13 doing all his flight tests and now needs to have a flight with the CFI JB to make sure he is happy with everything. Many thanks to Tony Parker, the BI Coach from Aston Down. - Jimbob

Friday 10th July Course Review

With ages ranging from 16 to 83, the second course of the year was an example of how truly inclusive the sport of gliding can be. The weather was varied, with a prevailing north westerly wind, and the changing cloud cover patterns that usually accompany it. Gliding was possible every day, and some reasonable soaring on the first four days. Ray Rimes re-soloed and converted to the Junior, and Mark Wallis achieved a first solo! - well done both. The other members made excellent progress, and all hope to continue flying. Thanks to instructors, designated ground crew and other club members who took the time to help around the launch point. - Wendy

Thursday 9th July

Strong and gusty northerly wind, which somehow kept the west facing ridge sort of working and broken thermals low down, but once above 1500'ish they were OK. Spreadout kept cycling.

A lot of new members arrived for training, Thursday regulars wanting spin and aerotow checks now that the Pawnee is back, and solo pilots flying Club and private gliders. Quite a busy Club day alongside the course.

The Evening Group, from Cruwys Morchard and Met Office, arrived just in time for the sky to open up to give a glorious evening with 50Km+ visibility from the top of the launch, and gentle 1-2 knot lift everywhere.

Wednesday 8th July

A strong 15kt north westerly kept the ridge working well all day, and brought the decent thermals through at a reasonable pace. Cloudbase reached 4500'QNH, but 20+kt winds at height and obvious wave interference progress upwind was a bit tricky. There were plenty of long soaring flights but no cross-countries.

With all this soaring today's Club flying did not really interfere too much with the course. At times the entire fleet and several private owners were airborne together. JB has returned from his holidays and was immediated put to work running John and Lisa through their BI training.

The day concluded with another Evening Group, having extended trial lessons on the ridge and remaining thermals.

Monday 6th July - Course Week

This year's second course week, with Robin and Stu instructing and Dave, Wendy and Don helping. Course members are a good mix of real ab-initios, existing members part way through training and just post solo.

Monday - it rained, but we flew between the showers.
Tuesday - a little better, and we flew all day.
Wednesday - much better, and we flew a lot more.
Thursday - weather not quite as good, but we flew again. Ray re-soloed.
Friday - the forecast rain stayed away to allow more flying.

Sunday 5th July

The day started with a very gentle south westerly breeze, but soon picked up to become Yellow Card all day. We started launching from the north east corner of the field with Steve Westlake and myself having the first flight of the day, this was around 0945 and it was already becoming thermic. A few trial lessons were flown round the day. It was good seeing the Pawnee busy as well, Mark Courtney and Dave Weeks wanted to challenge the Quantocks as it was a south westerly and by this time was blowing quite a bit. John Street however thought they were very optimistic and said the wind needed more south in it. However they launched and had over an hour on the hills before landing out in a field by the Wellington Monument. Joe Drury was with Pete Warren in the K13 doing spinning and aerotow training and is now solo aerotow! Well done Joe! Showers came and went as the day went on but overall a good day out! - Jimbob

Brits are 4&10, 1&3, 1,2&5 after seven days, in the three classes of the European Gliding Championships at Nitra in Slovakia. See www.pribinacup.sk/egc200

Thursday 2nd July

Forecast for incoming thundery cold front stayed just to the west of us for the morning allowing - 4 launches - change ends - 4 launches - rain - so 8 launches better than nothing!

A good crowd of new members and trial lessons enjoyed the day. Unfortunately the evening group had to be cancelled because after the rain it fogged out!

Wednesday 1st July

First, two bits of good news!

1. The tug is back in service after it's extended lay off and was kept busy all day
2. The winch settings for several gliders have been altered which will improve launches and cut down dramatically the number of weak links we were going through - I am particularly pleased with this developement!

VERY hot today and not very thermic to boot - probably due to the light Southerly drift of cooler (relative!) sea air which prevented us reaching the required trigger temperature for thermals to start.

Lisa was the only private glider to rig - went off in the Ventus but even a couple of turbo burns couldn't keep her up for long.

John Street and Mike Fitz covered the training requirements with quite a few launches being done. Top marks to these 2 guys for back-seating in the heat today.
Joe Scaife and Tim Johns finished their Bronze C spinning exercises, thanks to G-DSGC. Keith Jarvis re-soloed.

Considering the surface wind was so light, it came as a bit of a surprise when yours truly jumped into the Junior around 5pm for my weekly circuit, only to find some very weak wave on the South ridge, just enough to float up and down for over an hour at 900' to 1100' - very nice,thank you!

Colin Uncles took the strimmer along the coast to Lyme Regis sight-seeing (what a lovely day to do that), and then Joe Drury went off in it on a navex with Si Minson to the Park (for cross country endorsement) so he will know his way there when he does Silver distance, which I've got a funny feeling won't be too far off!

Pete Harmer went off in the Rotax Falke (more sight-seeing) to Teignmouth & Seaton.

The evening group from Environment Agency had ideal conditions for their flying and I'm sure they will have enjoyed it. Stuart P, Muggs and Si Min did the flying and Team Clive on ground support. Barbeque finished off the day wafting smoke through the committee meeting.

Weekend looks ok and COOLER!