Saturday 29th December

More rain again today! The annual inspection on KEK is taking a lot of time. JB has been working long and hard.- Andrew L

JB poilishing

Top surface of the wing - you can see the lights in it

 

Wednesday 26th December - Boxing Day

Flying still not possible, but JB has been getting on with the hard waxing of KEK, and some of us gathered for the Boxing Day Bring and share leftovers do.

Sunday 23rd December

Well, with about 70 mm of rain in the last week, the field was rather soft and muddy, so following a call to action on Google groups, time was spent on the ground equipment hangar doors. Peter Sm. and team set about adjusting the top wheels to ensure a smoother run when opening and closing doors. There was a little reminiscing about the old green curtains and the rope to tie the curtains down, but all were agreed that the new doors were a great engineering improvement. Thanks Peter.
Not to be outdone, and with a ladder ready,  John St and Pete W set about lubricating the glider hangar doors.

Flying looks a little unlikely on Boxing Day (given another days rain tomorrow), but we will still be having the Bring and Share Leftovers Buffet starting at lunchtime - all invited.

Wednesday 19th December

With the rain lashing down outside, Richard F, Dave C, Tom S, Ian H, William P and JB spent a very successful day at the rubbing down the wings and Fuselage of the K21 KEK in preparation for Hard Waxing.  It's was a messy old business - water and gel residue all over the place! After about half an hour Richard was going around checking that all the heaters were turned off - "It's hot work this!"  he said.

Everyone worked really hard all day and by 5pm all that hard work was beginning to show and KEK was gleaming. It will be left for a few days to dry out completely while Ian M and Andrew L carry out maintenance work for the Annual Inspection, then it will get a final Hard-Wax and polish.

As the day shift knocked off Andrew L arrived for the night shift. First job to remove the wheel - caked in sheep's sh!t and smelling pretty ripe too! I tried telling him the old saying "Where there's muck there's money" but I could see that he wasn't convinced!
When I left he was preparing the wing tips for re-spraying - What a hero! He'd already done a day's work - got home, had tea and driven up to the club to get stuck in for the evening! What a guy! What a team! What a Club!

Happy Christmas and Roll on the Summer!
jb

Sunday 16th December

Forecast was for a bright sunny day, fresh south westerly wind and an occasional shower, but the moisture in the ground delayed the start due to misting canopies. Eventually the sun's rays warmed up the airframes and we were able to launch.

But only for a while as the one and only shower developed earlier than expected causing an early lunch. After dinner, we continued with winch and aerotows on a rather soggy airfield.

Henry and Paul continued training for BI, Rick converted to the Junior, and Guy completed his 3 year Instructor check.

Rick converts to the Junior

 The launches were high and several gliders found some weak wave to extend their flights.

Wave clouds were shortlived

Saturday 15th December

After a week of cold frozen surfaces, the rain on Friday had turned the top 2" into a bit of a quagmire, but as usual the airfield had started draining quite well and it was pronounced an aerotow-only day. The first launch to 3000ft with Stu and Jack found some gentle wave after a couple of loops. We then had to stop for a fairly heavy rain shower and dark black clouds. After lunch, Chris C showed Phil some perfect loops (as you would expect from an ex-fast jet pilot). The third aerotow had to be abandoned as the canopies would not clear in the cooling humid air.

Thursday 13th December

Today, with the wind forecast and actual, a fresh easterly, we made the long walk to the western end, and yes it was cold - feels like temperature was below freezing. The cloud at 1500ft showed some occasional glimmers of sunshine, and then before lunch  suddenly all the cloud disappeared giving us a lovely sunny day, but still bitterly cold. Shortest circuit was Mark C in the Junior - 4 mins,  and longest was Ray D and John Si in K21 at 9 mins. 

Malcolm converts to Junior

Malcolm V converted to the Junior and liked it so much we couldn't get him out of it.

After lunch the wings had to all be cleared of ice from the cold soak. Not long after that, the expected bank of cloud suddenly appeared in the west and quickly moved in covering the sun. After that the canopies were misting up and we had to call it a day.

Wednesday 12th December

With a S/E wind forecast and bitterly cold wind we were looking for an excuse for not flying from the N/W corner, as luck would have it there was a brisk Southerly wind with a tiny bit of West in it which stayed with us all day.  

 The green romper-suit brigade was well in evidence except for Dave C who has a blue one, the South ridge was working after a fashion and several flights were getting on for 30min the top spot was taken by Joe S this week with Richard F & JSt who had a 400ft climb in a thermal a very close second,  not counting Mr & Mrs CFI who flew to Mendip and back in the Rotax Falke.

Last flight of the day

 Everyone flew and we washed the gliders......

Antiques still work if they are looked after..,Vince and K13 also in the picture..

 ....and put them to bed at 4.30pm leaving the ground nice and icy for the Thursday chaps. -  JSt.

Sunday 9th December

Low cloud and sometimes heavy drizzle delayed the start, and with only a few members present following the very busy day yesterday, two K21s were launched into the scuddy orographic scene, but the ridge was working with a gusty north westerly wind. After lunch, some good looking (but unreachable) wave clouds appeared for a while.

Lenticulars to the north east

JB and Pete had a session with Simon M for Instructor revalidations.

Saturday 8th December

Another lovely sunny winter's day gliding, with a frosty start and a light north westerly wind.  Both Paul S and Pete St  flew the DG505 solo for the first time today having both been checked out to do so some while ago. Mark E passed his Bronze exam. We welcomed  a visitor from Needwood Forest Gliding Club - Dave Bowden who may be joining us next year. 

In the evening, there was a good turn out with 38 members  enjoying Maria's Carvery Supper prior to 65 members attending the AGM. 

Chairman Peter, Treasurer Peter and Secretary John retired from the Committee having served their term, to be replaced by Lisa, Texas Tom, and Jonathan respectively. Andrew becomes vice-chairman, and there are three new Committee members James, Tim and Jill. As always there were lots of speeches, thanking and clapping.

Trophies were awarded as follows:

The Rose Bowl for the Club ladder to Pete St.

The Kelsey Plate longest cross-country flight to Steve W.

Tim Parsons Trophy  for earliest 300kms to Mark C.

Norman Whyte Shield for best progress to Mark E.

Francis Bustard Trophy for best height gain to Liam.

Dave Fewings Trophy for  best 2-seater flight to Ron & Guy.

Ken Andrews Trophy for best flight in wooden glider to Nick H.

Wily Old Bird for no reason in particular to JB.

Brian Masters Trophy for Winner of Task week to Martin W.

Les' Tankard for best contribution by a Junior member to Liam.

Instructor of the Year voted online by members to Pete H.

After the formal proceedings, Matt skyped from Hong Kong to check that we were behaving ourselves, having been watching proceedings on the webcam.

Thursday 6th December

Today dawned cold but cloudy and the forecast was for rain later on an incoming warm front. The kit was readied and taken to the launch point but the overnight cold soak on the canopies produced continuous misting in the cold moist air. A coffee break was called whilst further warmth was applied to the canopies. During the coffee break a little exercise on estimating speed of movement of fronts from the geostrophic wind scale on a synoptic chart was undertaken. 

By mid-morning, we managed to get going  and found that despite calm conditions at the launch point there was a significant westerly wind above 200ft allowing good 1800ft launches to be achieved.

In the afternoon, it went all smooth over Broadhembury in reduced sink extending flight times to 15 minutes. The rain held off until the hangar doors were closed, although it did get rather grey just before dusk.

Guess who?

Ray, not wishing to be outdone by the green romper suit brigade sported a fetching blue suit which he tried to hide inside his DSGC anorak.

Note the local airspace map in the kneepad pocket.

Reminder to Club Members - AGM on Saturday 19:30pm.

Wednesday 5th December

A good forecast brought out plenty of members but the weather first thing was terrible with low cloud, rain, a freezing NNE wind, and a very wet field.

Three wise man in warm green suits

  It started to clear about 10.00am so the two K21s were pulled out and walked up to the S/W corner, the launches were difficult with the strong and backing crosswind.

 At lunch time the wind had backed enough for us to change ends, as soon as we did the launches improved and with the wind eventually ending westerly, the ridge started to work with the help of a little weak wave, the last six flights all had flights of around 30min.

 We stopped flying  about 4.15pm, when the gliders had ice on the wings, in the end we all had a really good day for early December. - JSt

Sunday 2nd December

A small but keen group of members enjoyed some flights in the sunshine and "pleasantly warmer than expected" weather. Club Chairman Peter Sm had some 'fun' in the back seat of a K21 working hard on his BI flying with Simon L. Some Quarterly Members took advantage of their membership and several Club members took the opportunity to maintain their flying currency in the very calm conditions.

After an enforced lunch break due to a heavy rain shower, a couple of flights later and that was it for the day as the forecast rain settled in for the rest of the day. - MS

Saturday 1st December

What a lovely winters day, pity the orographic cloud at 600ft above the west ridge slowed the launching down in the morning. There was also a brief gusty shower which enabled a timely break for lunch,  but apart from that, the sun was shining, there was a gentle north westerly breeze,  the ridge was working with some sort of weak wave in the valley.

Phil G in the B4 took the prize for the longest flight - just over half an hour. 

Flying continued after lunch but was brought to an early end when the sun dropped below the cloud and the extra moisture from the earlier shower started condensing out on the wings and canopies (inside and out).