Thursday 30th July

The forecast was for a good soarable day, but there was a build up of quite heavy looking cumulus by 09:00, but enthusiasm was still there with a long two-seater flying list and many private owners rigging. At first the wind was further north and stronger than expected but it was still quite soarable. Unfortunately, the gusty crosswind and curlover restricted the ambitions of the early solo pilots.

Progress through the two-seater list progressed slowly, and thanks to Paul C for flying the trial lessons followed by more training flights, by lunchtime the wind backed and reduced a little, and the sky started looking much better. The private owners launched en-masse and set off on various tasks. Mark C was kept very busy in the Pawnee.

During the afternoon conditions got better and better with cloudbases up to 4000ft and 6 knot climbs and it remained soarable late into the evening, when the group for ATC cadets  took over.

The BGA ladder shows a lot of visitors to Devon, with Peter Sm's Flarm receiver now operational at Hewish near Crewkerne giving much better coverage on Spot the gliders.
Snapshot of the TV after some of the action (Mark C)
Our own pilots enjoyed the conditions although undersetting tasks, Pete St 230 Discus completed a 200kms with a follow on 100kms. Eric in G29 did 154kms.........
G29  with Wimbleball Lake (Eric)

........Tom in DG1 flew 85km  Nigel in FAJ toured the M5 turnpoints,  Liam went to the seaside in K6 HEB.........

HEB at the seaside (Liam)
........and even the Eagle with JB and Malcolm V got to Taunton and back. Robert seemed to enjoy himself in  DKU Astir. Wooly and John B explored Exmoor in K21,  Jeff T in 380 Mosquito was last to land on this good day - J&P



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Wednesday 29th July

An epic day and a long flying list, there was lift from the first launch at 10:00 by 10:15 we had three gliders soaring, as usual Mike Fitz and JSt took the first launch and disappeared for an hour.
As the day progressed the cloudbase reached 3,000 ft with unbroken cloud streets stretching as far as Barnstaple in the strong northwest wind. 
 
Chris W under a cloud street (John St)

Joe S, Nigel, Mark L, flew their own gliders and the K6 HEB was well used all having long soaring flights. The rain did not arrive but showers could be seen in a line along the front of the Blackdowns.
Streets and showers (John St)
 Well done to Peter B for going solo in the DG505 and having a good soaring flight in it, John Sil and JSt were kept busy all day and had to be called down on occasion, Eric looked after the visitors, Pete W was tuggie.

We handed over to Henry with his Met Office visitors at just after 18:00 after calling the two K21s down that were still flying. - JSt
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Saturday 25th July

After 36mm of rain on Friday, the Saturday forecast was quite promising, and the two-seater list was rather long by 8:30am. There was a bright blue sky and white puffy clouds in streets to the north. But the wind was a little stronger and further to the north than expected, which restricted the early solo flying in the morning. There was also a lot of sink particularly on the approach.  After lunch the conditions improved significantly with the wind reducing and backing and it became really soarable - as long as you found the first thermal off the winch. 
Pete St 230 Discus, JB  in Ventus and Eric in G29 all chased each other round the Club 100 at very good speeds.
Lovely clear air  from G29 (Eric)

In the afternoon, Ian changed the plugs in the Pawnee and it started easily again. Thanks to Pete H and John Si for flying the trial lessons. 

Four 2-seaters parked up (Jill)
It was also a shame that we had to park 4 two-seaters as we didn't have any spare instructors in the middle of the day. With some help from JB and Pete H we managed to complete the flying list by 18:00.
James at The Park (Stu)

Congratulations to James F for completing his Cross-country endorsement after flying his nav test to the Park in VG with Stu. - J&P



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Long Mynd - Thursday 23 to Saturday 25 July - Great flights come to those who stay


Thursday

Thursday was forecast to be the best day of the week but even the weather brief at 10:00 disagreed with what was happening outside the window. It turned out to be rather overcast. Later in the day a line of organised convection kept people aloft but with the penalty of wet wings.
  • Chris flew the Mynd's K23
  • James flew 'his' ASW 20
  • Steve W in his Discus
  • Karen then Martin B with Simon in the DG505
  • Paul L in SF27
  • Andrew L in K6
  • Mark in (James') ASW 20
  • Paul S in Cirrus
  • Henry in Cirrus
James taking the lazy route to the club house

Gaggle of duvets
The valley floor

Friday

It was wet, very wet. Looking at the NH weather station, it showed 36 mm of rain, it wasn't too much different at the Mynd. After a sight-seeing trip to Shrewsbury, Mark, Simon and most of the group decided to use the bad weather to escape and earn brownie points back home this weekend.
The NH group in Shrewsbury

Saturday

After a quick briefing in the hangar, a head count revealed only four NH members remained, Paul S, Paul L, Henry and Nick H.

Paul tasked and completed Talgarth and back for 128 km
Henry tasked and completed Nympsfield and Lower Clopton for 244 km

The day was forecast to be epic and turned out to be the best day of the holiday.
The river Severn
Amazing streets on the way back to the Mynd
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Thursday 23rd July

It was rather a slow start with a total veil of high cloud, but there were a few launches before lunch. After lunch, with some 'scraggy' clouds formed, circuits were extended and Nigel managed 46 minutes in DG300. Rob consolidated his solo flying and Paul was back in a Junior.
 
Chris W flew Harvey and Julian on trial lessons, and was a bit miffed by being upstaged as Julian said his kit car was a a GT40.
The heavy showers went north and missed the airfield, but there were a few patches of drizzle and we had to pack up early. - J&P
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Long Mynd - Wednesday 22 July - The Mynd delivers again

There were showers forecast late morning, so we decided to go for coffee in Church Stretton.

The afternoon was forecast to be epic and it didn't disappoint.

A hat-trick of 5 hour flights; Pete Bennett (5h59), Andrew Logan, Paul Little

Mark Wallace got cleared to fly the K23 and stayed aloft for 2h30 and had a "lovely time" and Mark C had a long flight with Nick.
On glide towards the Mynd


Martin Bennett was introduced to ridge soaring with an element of excitement for good measure.

Recent new member Karen flew for over an hour in the K13 with Simon L.

Tomorrow looks set to be the best day of the week... [Ed: It wasn't]

In the evening, Sir Chris Coville laid on a banquet of pizza, cake and wine to which 15 NH members descended and consumed all that was available.
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Long Mynd - Tuesday 21 July - Showers

With showers forecast, a quick met-flight in the DG found the approaching rain.

There were a couple of check flights, Paul Little shared the ridge with Mark C in the DG. The day was complete with nearly two hours flown in the DG505.

Let's see what tomorrow brings, it's looking good!

Part 2 of the Bennetts arrived en-masse bringing with them a small tent city.
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Wednesday 22nd July

A day with two halves, the morning started bright but soon over-developed with a southwesterly wind and showers which  held us up for about 15min. After the rain had stopped,  the wind veered to northwest and strengthened and it became very thermic.
There was a flurry of glider rigging and even Nigel stopped polishing  his glider and put it on line, Pete St Discus, Jeff T Mosquito, Nick H DG300, and Dave C Pilatus B4 all had long soaring flights.
Pete W was busy all day with aero-tows, thanks to Eric and Peter Sm for doing the Trial lessons all of them having good soaring flights.
The two K21s, a K13 and the Junior were kept in the air all day and all who flew had good long flights, Peter Sm flew his younger sister for her first glider flight - 
 
Peter takes his sister for a flight (John St)
 landed smiling from ear to ear! - JSt

News from Long Mynd

After a lot of model flying, the weather changed and congratulations to Pete B on his 5 hours in the K6 completing his Silver.
Family Bennett celebrating (Simon L)
There must be some more news from Long Mynd...
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Sunday 19th July

The pessimistic weather forecast for the day meant that the flying list was very short.

Whilst the launch point was set up in the North East of the field daily inspections were completed on the K21s which were then soon being walked across and flying was under way for the day well before 10:00am.

The morning saw mainly extended circuits with a lack of any real lift, apart from odd pockets on the West ridge, so the opportunity was taken to practice some launch failures until lunchtime.

With few members available to keep the flying going throughout the lunchtime period  and with an uninspiring sky the decision was made to stop for lunch.
Uninspiring sky
During which time the sky started to look more and more interesting and by the time flying started after lunch it was clear that the members present could look forward to a much better afternoon thermals wise.
Sun on the ground
With cloudbase steadily increasing and lots of potential clouds under which to search for lift it was then an afternoon of continuing soaring flights albeit that as ever the first climb off the winch launch was key - as the afternoon progressed the thermals had become good enough that the gliders had to be 'encouraged' to come down by either use of air brakes or flying through the strong sink - also evident.

A good afternoon worth waiting for. - Mike Sl
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Saturday 18th July

Another long flying list, and some weather that didn't really perform as forecast..... Thanks to all the extra instructors for helping Phil and Steve get through the massive two-seater list. The weather was light winds sometimes westerly and then with some south in it. The cloudbase was not particularly high but the clouds looked quite well formed initially, but some strange sea air which wasn't forming proper convergences moved across the airfield. 
Pete St in Discus 230 and James in ASW20 ENW both managed to scrape around the Club 100 but "difficult" was the common theme.
Congratulations to Oscar who converted to K6 under the eagle eye of JB.  And a big thank you to Stu and William for getting the oil cooler work on the Pawnee fixed in less than a week whilst Ian was away.  - J&P
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Friday 17th July

For the third time of asking, we found a flyable Friday for the group from UTC Aerospace, accompanied by Matt W and Tim P. 17 work colleagues enjoyed their first flights and several had second flights with loops. Unfortunately an unforecast trough line arrived just before we completed the second turns which was rather disappointing. - J&P
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Thursday 16th July

Another day when some patience was needed.... the kit was prepared and walked to the end of the field for the easterly wind, and then some low cloud rolled in and seemed rather reluctant to lift, but after an early lunch, flying started.
Due to the late start, we had to restrict training to 2 flights each, but there were brief moments when it was pleasantly soarable (albeit to rather low levels) and with a strengthening southerly crosswind restricting the very early solos to dual flights.

The views from the west end as always were fabulous and commented on by many of our new members and visitors, and we were keeping a wary eye on the sea fog which started running up the Exe estuary and all along the coast.
We managed to got everybody flown before handing over to the evening helpers and changing ends.

The evening group of former member Nicky Summerfield enjoyed some extended flights on the south ridge/wave? and a barbeque. - J&P
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Wednesday 15th July


We had a large turnout despite the forecast, some members waited for the promised clearance which arrived after an early lunch. The front was a little tardy to clear south, but for the few members who patiently waited, there was some flying in the afternoon.
We started flying at just after 3.00pm after walking the gliders to the S/W corner, there was little in the way of lift but we got through the small flying list, before handing the gliders over to Pete H, Eric & Stu for the evening session, earlier Liam & Peter B were seen practicing their "patter" in a K21. -JSt

Exeter Rotary Club
In the evening, a group from Exeter Rotary Club returned to North Hill  and enjoyed the same still air and lovely views over Devon countryside. - J&P

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Saturday 11th July

A bright morning brought plenty of early activity and a healthy flying list to tackle. It was great to see many members at the club early and eager to go. DIs were done and the first launch was well before the 10am threshold with David H and Peter Sm. Lift was difficult to find to start with,  under a sky which had quickly closed in, but circuits were put to good training use.  

Simon L was quick to follow with Andreas and then BI acceptance flights with James F followed by a card check for Mark W.  Simulated launch failures and circuits were initially the order of the day but slowly the flight times extended with many good soaring flights. Paul S flew a trial lesson by way of winch launches as Stuart P had been obliged to declare the Pawnee unserviceable.  

Several private gliders flew and enjoyed soaring flights, the Eagle predictably frightening the lesser order.
James F first go at practising BI  patter
Martin B enjoyed a long solo flight in HCX, and James F took Martin B for a first flight to practise his BI patter. Mia had two extended flights with ridge and thermal lift. Michael K relished a strong climb to 2,400 ft on the last instruction flight of the day, and the bug has bitten again.
Plenty of lift past 1800 (Henry)
Matt W and Tom the money had one of the late flights in the DG505, outdone by Henry snatching the last cable and predictably staying aloft until the other gliders were put to bed (I did come back down to help! HF). The hangar doors finally closed shortly before 7pm.

A really good club flying day enjoyed by all the members present. - Peter Sm

News from Competition Enterprise

Final day - So today they set the task ever decreasing circles. Having been lent a new battery, I launched early and released straight into wave and climbed to 5000 ft and was so happy! I then pushed on to a different bar and ended up at 6000 ft and the smile was even bigger, I kept pushing and eventualy got up to 10,500 ft. 
 
K6 in wave (Liam)
After dealing with the vertigo, I flew 100 km without turning to climb, leaving me at a low point. The plan was to climb away again and get gold height but I was tired, achey and my new urination system had a slight issue (I wet myself) so I landed early to get ready for the party. Such a fun flight!  - Liam
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Friday 10th July - Course week

The early promise of a calm, sunny day with some solo flying failed to materialise. Although the sunshine remained, the wind strengthened to a stiff southerly with a slight easterly component. The latter made for challenging flying with severe turbulence on the approach at the west end of the field, and practically nothing in the way of lift. 
As the morning progressed our fickle southerly, as unpredictable as ever, gradually swung round by a few degrees to give itself a westerly component. This resulted in a change of ends after lunch. 
A little more comfortable, but as the skies clouded over, the lift was still elusive. However, aided by our intrepid instructors, throughout the day, we managed a good number of dual flights - our skills were tested to the limit, as no doubt were our instructors’ nerves. Definitely a challenging day! 
Overall, in spite of the unpredictable weather during the week, we agreed that it had been an outstandingly successful course with many goals achieved in the limited time available for flying. Thanks must go to the instructors, Martin and Stuart, and to the helpers David, Alan and James; all of whom, despite busy lives, generously gave of their time. It was greatly appreciated by all the course participants. 
 
July Course (Jill)
One of the abiding memories for all of us will be the friendly atmosphere that developed between us. - WWF

Enthused by the prospect of a southerly wind and a tug pilot, Matt and James rigged M5 and ENW and prepared for a trip to the seaside. James took the short straw and launched first, having arrived overhead the cliffs........
Overhead Beer (James)
......he gently let down to 1200ft to find the wind was just a little light and east to make the full run work, so he settled for a south easterly facing hill for a couple of hours. 
James ENW over the sea - (James)

Meanwhile Matt had set off, but turned back as he decided that the short run would be too tricky for them both to stay airborne and set off with the trailer instead.
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Thursday 9th July

At last a perfect sunny day, with puffy clouds and a light westerly wind. The flying list for the club members was pretty long, and there were also several private gliders out. Course and Club shared out the gliders, and had the usual staggered lunch break to maximise the flying. 

A successful day for Course and Club: Rob R first solo (club), 
Pete congratulates Rob (Hans)
and Chris W first solo (course): congratulations to both. 
Stu congratulates Chris (Pete B)
  Another first for the course was a conversion to the Junior by Paul K, 
Paul converts to Junior
 and the added bonus of a re-conversion by Wendy W-F. 
 
Wendy flies the Junior again (Pete B)
The other course members continued their intensive training, doing a series of cable breaks, circuits and soaring. Enormous progress by all which was extremely pleasing. All in all, a frantically busy and successful day: huge thanks must go to the course instructors and the helpers for their seemingly inexhaustible energy. Jill H manned the launch point for most of the day, which enabled smooth co-ordination of Course and Club flying. So, especial thanks to Jill for her efficiency and patience. All in all, a good haul of achievements for Course and Club!  Sunshine forecast for tomorrow, which promises another full day of flying. - WWF

News from Sid's Task week at Nympsfield

A good day at Nympsfield, Matt and Pete both completed 500 km flights NYM Cambridge Bicester Graffam Water NYM-  Congratulations to Pete St in 230 for completing his first Diamond distance. 
(This follows a good ridge day yesterday for them both -  227 km and  Matt also got to 13,000 ft in wave- just low cloud at NHL!) -J&P
The Severn snakes under a cloud
Captain Slow and Tom with Diamond Chariot 230

News from Competition Enterprise

So, after a reasonable start on the epic day, about 100 km in the battery dies... Ok not brilliant but back to mechanical vario and feel, after giving up folding my map in the cockpit and having to rip sections off the southern one I kinda had an idea where to go. At this point I was at about 3000 ft and pretty happy.
After a little while I began to smell burning thinking that it was just the air around me but after realising that the battery had gone began worrying about an electrical fire so I landed. 
 
Another nice field (Liam)

 There are no visible signs of burning but the battery connector was ridiculously hot... Days like this don't come around often and I'm spending the rest of it miserable in a field...-Liam
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Wednesday 8th July

Abysmal weather all day, with low cloud and drizzle persisting until late afternoon. The morning was spent with more chalk and talk: spins and stalls. The afternoon in a much more light-hearted vein: Paul K set up the gliding simulator. It soon became apparent that James F and Paul K were our resident experts, with the rest of us struggling. A gaggle of instructors gathered in the corner, and seemed, well, reluctant to try their hand - wonder why?? 
Keepers Cottage this evening for the Course Supper. Hoping for better weather tomorrow and Friday. - WWF

In the evening, the third of Henry's Met Office groups enjoyed a lovely evening flying after the horrid weather for most of the day. The flights were extended with a mixture of thermal, ridge and possible wave. - J&P 

News from Competition Enterprise


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Tuesday 7th July - Course week

Well, it was a good flying day. Shreds of low cloud slowly dissipated leaving the airfield free of showers, and with the general visibility improving rapidly. The stiff westerly wind constantly veered and backed by a few degrees, but during the morning was benign enough to allow one very recent solo pilot, Paul K to consolidate - again being cleared for a couple of solo flights. Another re-solo was Wendy. The pre-solo course members had instructional flights of varying lengths. A break for lunch, and a return to flying with expectations of weather conditions being much the same. Alas, the wind strength had increased significantly, which limited all flying to dual. There was plenty of lift, and although it took perseverance to stay airborne our expert instructors, of course, came up trumps. Several long soaring flights giving course members plenty of opportunities to improve their flying skills. Tomorrow's forecast looks like a return to theory in the classroom, but with luck a clearance in the afternoon may allow us to take to the air again.  - WWF

News from Competition Enterprise

Day 4 The task setters were very lazy and set the same task as yesterday. The wind was a 20 knot WSW and there was prospects of all sorts of lift after the rain.
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Monday 6th July - Course week

It was drizzling out of a low cloud base, and there was a howling southerly bringing damp cold air to North Hill when the course assembled. The drizzle turned into steady rain as the morning progressed. Instructors Martin and Stu kicked off with a thorough briefing and then entertained the troops with a series of high quality talks on such diverse subjects as instruments, winch launches and air space. During the latter, one particularly keen course member asked whom he should call if he accidentally entered the airway!! A prize is on offer for the first correct answer. Neither Martin nor Stu could provide one! Much hopeful peering at the grey sky and the continuing horizontal rain led to the conclusion that the most comfortable place at North Hill remained the interior of the club house, especially as by now it was lunch time. More hopeful, or rather hopeless, peering followed. So  it was back to more theory, this time with a multi media demo of aero tows and the Club’s Flarm presentation. The simulations with which this ended produced a few worried frowns, but Martin reassured his listeners with a resounding finishing line: DON’T PANIC!! By now, it was abundantly clear that the gliders would have to remain in the hangar for the rest of the day. All departed, promising each other that tomorrow would be a good flying day. - WWF

News from Competition Enterprise
Day 3. The task essentially meant flying to a point north or south of SUT and then flying the opposite direction to another point and repeating a few times. There was a warm front coming through around 3/4 o'clock so launching started earlyish.
I believe the forecast wind was for a WSW so I had decided to go north first a few k and then head across wind to east Anglia where the weather was forecast to be amazing. After turning 5k north of SUT it became very evident that the wind was a lot stronger than I had anticipated and pushing south was incredibly hard so I gave up with my plan and dashed down wind towards Middlesbrough until I ran out of land but I turned the sea which gave me an extra 50 bonus points. 
ran out of land.... (Liam)
The run home into wind at this point looked reasonable and the climbs were good but with every direction possible into land facing a very strong wind the sky the push was impossible with an average ground speed of 5kph I decided not to risk landing out on the moors and so stopped pushing to find a nice field... 
Nice field.. flat sky (Liam)
A very memorable flight with some amazing scenery made better by the fact an Arcus turboed overhead of me, and the fact that my retrieve crews car keys were in my pocket.... Liam
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Sunday 5th July

Although the forecast suggested some 'interesting' weather around the middle of the day it was still somewhat surprising that only a few members turned out to make the most of the potential flying until such weather might arrive.

After looking at the flying list it was decided that only the K21s and a Junior were needed so those gliders were taken out of the hangar for daily inspections to be completed whilst the launch point was set up in the North East corner of the field - once the windsock was in play it was evident that the fresh Southerly wind would make the approach lively.

With a reasonable looking sky Mark C and Konrad P took the first winch launch and as it happened then achieved the longest flight of the day at 43 minutes.
A promising start (Mike Sl)
 Mike S and David C took the next winch launch hoping to also stay up but their flight had barely started before it ended with a rope break and a long walk back from down the field.

A few more extended circuit flights were then completed in the K21s and the Junior before imminent signs of the 'interesting' weather getting ever closer influenced the decision to put all the gliders away until the weather  had passed across the airfield. 
Interesting weather passing by (Mike Sl)
With one of the ropes clearly showing signs of more potential breaks and ahead of the Course Week starting on Monday John St led a rope replacement team as the weather front got closer and closer.

Just as the team were about to finish rain started to pour down so everyone stopped for lunch - as the rain ran steadily down the Clubhouse windows and saturated the field it was clear that the decision to stop flying had been the right one. The main downpour was 170 mm/hr rain rate with a total of 11 mm between 13:00 and 14:00.

After lunch and the grey skies had been replaced by bright blue ones with a more Westerly wind so the K21s were taken out of the hangar again - with Roly flying a Trial Lesson whilst the weather was playing fair.

After a few more flights during the afternoon the next weather front could be seen approaching from the West and as the skies rapidly darkened again it was decided that the gliders would be safer in the hangar so all the kit was put away for the day.
More weather approaching (Mike Sl)
 A total of 12 flights for the day - not the best of days, and certainly for early July, but all those who wanted to fly had done so. - Mike Sl

News from Competition Enterprise 2015
Day 2 The early start was scrapped with the front coming through in the morning which was being followed by a trough which gave us a small window of around 3/4 hours in the afternoon. People were setting off about 3 o'clock into a horrible looking sky, I thought I might be able to scratch around and make some distance but landed back, after some umming and ahhhing I decided to have a relight as the sky had opened up a bit and there was this great big black street running along course, I towed up into it and it ended up hailing ridiculously heavy, 
 
"Take me home please" (Liam)
so I got the tug to tow me back over Sutton Bank and landed safely, a few others got caught out locally in the valleys and very few did up to 20/30k most just landing in a very crowded airfield and calling it a day, Dave Masson didn't bother launching, Trevor Stewart landed out after flying 20k away and making it half way back. However Bob Bromwich managed about 70k and Gillian Wills is currently following Justin with the trailer in tow towards Scotland up to his normal cloud flying antics... Tomorrow looks like an actual early start this time. - Liam
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SW ICL 2015 - Halesland - Saturday 4 July

With Sunday's forecast looking sub-optimal we were keen to make the most of Saturday. James, Henry and crew set off on an early start for Halesland (Mendip Gliding Club) to the ridge of dreams!

We rigged and had one of Terry and Jojo's famous brakfasts before a postponed brief at 1100.

The task was Halesland - Gillingham - Cerne Abbas - Wincanton - Halesland for 130 km. There were 10, 5 and 0.5 km barrel sizes for the three classes.

Despite several valiant attempts to get started, only two pilots managed to make something of the approaching sea air.

The pundit, Mick (Park), made the first TP and almost made it to the second but had to turbo home.

The intermediate, Jeff (Halesland), made the first TP then landed out at The Park and took an aerotow retrieve to glide home.

After the de-rig and BBQ, teams went on their way as Sunday's weather looked decidedly flash-bang worthy.

Henry
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Saturday 4th July

R37 arrived back early from it's holiday at Mendip GC and was immediately put to use. Not quite as busy as last weekend, but still plenty to fly and JP was at it all day, flying that is! Lovely to see our old friend Alan Rappaport who was a regular flyer back in the 80's, as he keeps in touch with JP we occasionally get a visit when he isn't flying the 737. 
Martin rigged and flew the LS3, Stuart managed to grab a flight in too, before letting me have a nice float around the skies. 
 
That glorious Devon Countryside (Lisa)
 Some trial lesson flights today flown by Matt (back from France) and Roly (back in the saddle) and some solo flights in the K13 for Phil G.
The afternoon's instructing was shared around (as Ian was on duty helping out at Mendip) and everyone flew, with Josh having his second solo flight in the K21. 
Pete and Jill in OL went to (nearly) Mendip and back along the sea breeze front with the longest flight of the day of 2hrs30 and flying was wrapped up by 6pm. All in all a lovely relaxed day at the club. - Lisa

News from Competition Enterprise
1st day, It was foggy after the overnight rain,  
 
Foggy Bank (Liam)
but eventually the task setters set a  Compass Rose task, which in the past few years I've had some success in, essentially a N/S and E/W lines are drawn through the centre of Sutton Bank creating 4 sectors. You can then do an out and return to any point in each sector and would be scored on the distance and there were bonus points for each out and return and for reaching either coast. Launching after 3pm, I decided to dash downwind, which in the SW wind meant there was very little land left, however there was a nice convergence/wave/weird cloud thing running in that direction, by the time I had done 15Km it had died leaving me in horrible sky downwind from the enticing Cumulus that was moving closer from the south. A few Kms running home I was in a field...
Thanks Dad - first retrieve (Liam)
 In hindsight I should have pushed into the wind towards the better thermic conditions, but who can't resist flying above the clouds! Sounds like an early start in the morning with an early cut-off.  - Liam
 
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Thursday 2nd July

The forecast was for heavy rain clearing through at lunchtime and a pleasant afternoon, so the morning was occupied by weather briefings, how to plan your first cross-country flight and some patter practising on the 'make-do' simulator. 

Wet field (Mark C)
The timing of the rain clearance was pretty accurate and so was the clearance of the veil of high cloud,  but with 10mm of rain the field was pretty wet with big puddles on the winch runs, so it was aerotow only and the first launch at 3:30pm.
Weaving round the cumulus (Mark C)
 There were 11 aerotows including a simulated rope break for Aston in K21 - who then followed up with the longest flight in the Junior of 44 mins, finally packing up after 7:00pm.
Worth waiting for...... J&P
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Wednesday 1st July

A frustrating day of tailwinds, the forecast of very hot weather and S/E winds arrived only occasionally and we spent a lot of time changing ends, a light shower called for an early lunch.
After lunch the first of the end changes so it was up to the west end of the field, after a few launches we had to change ends again.
Difficult tailwinds (John St)
 
Well done to Roly after his check flights with Martin he is now back to solo flying.
There was a couple of aerotows and occasional short lived and shifting lift with some extended flights, everyone flew and we finished flying about 5.30pm. - JSt
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