Surprisingly quiet this morning
with most members presumably Christmas shopping or on an away day at Mendip GC. Stu P
arrived with the expectation of flying the LS3, but stepped in to cover
the Instructing slot this morning. The weather was pretty poor initially, and too muddy for the winch today, but after
an early lunch
things picked up and some superb flights were had by the hardy few with a combination of ridge, thermals and wave!.
 |
| North Hill in the sunshine again (Lisa) |
A
total of 14 Aerotows, mostly to keep instructors and pupils current,
longest flight of the day at 61 mins with Lisa and Stu in the DG505.
 |
| Longest flight for Lisa & Stu in DG505 (Lisa) |
And after cleaning all the gliders and the Pawnee, KEK was derigged ready for its Annual inspection.
 |
| North Hill sunset (Lisa) |
An unexpected very nice day out indeed! Beats shopping any day! - Lisa
Awayday to Mendip GC
The bickering over the
flying list for ENW started at least the afternoon before, in fact the
foundations were laid several weeks prior when Simon cleaned the trailer
ensuring the syndicate members would be forever indebted to him. Nevertheless a
small band of members arrived at North Hill on Saturday night, hooked up the
trailers and were ready to leave at 7:00am the next day following
Christmas festivities in the caravan. A restless night was had, a
combination of the blistering temperatures, the locals at the bottom of
the hill celebrating the upcoming solstice and the excitement of a
blustery southerly on the Mendip hills were to blame.
The team arrived at
Mendip GC and were rigged before briefing, JP turned up with the Eagle
sporting new trailer livery just in time.
 |
| Slingsby Eagle trailer (Nick J) |
Expectations for the ridge
were high, with a risk of showers. Mark C launched
first into the sky in ENW, the ridge was working well from the extent
at Wells down to the M5 junction, a 20km beat, it would have been
working well down to Weston-Super-Mare; however no one dared risk a
field landing with most of the fields resembling cheddar reservoir!
Oscar flew with a
local instructor in a K13 and was greeted by the challenging Mendip
conditions. Their field only allows a single strip that is perpendicular
to the hill, resulting in a dominant crosswind component on good ridge
days, a valuable training experience for Oscar preparing him for future
visits.
 |
| H5 from the Eagle (JP) |
H5 Matt joined ENW Mark in
his trusty SF, the visibility quite poor made the beats into sun
particularly tricky, however the hill was working the best he had ever
experienced there. One of the forecast showers slowly approached,
Matthew and Mark landed with enough time to retrieve the gliders and
take shelter, in the double decker bus LPV, before the downpour! Both
were feeling contented with the opportunity of even their relatively
short flights with the run of recent weather.
The Mendip locals were
very welcoming in the club house, providing a log burning stove and
bacon sandwiches for everyone! Coinciding with the final mince pie being
washed down the rain stopped, the sky was glorious, crystal clear with
wave clouds in abundance, everyone scurried back to the launch point to
get airborne.
 |
| Spectacular Cheddar Gorge (MattH5) |
The shower improved
the visibility, the North Hill pilots got airborne once more, this time with
Simon L in the driving seat of the 20 for an hour before handing over
the keys to James. JP flew one of the visiting Nympsfield pilots as well
as one of relatives of Nick J in the Eagle.
 |
| Winter skies at Mendip (Mark C) |
The wave was tantalising
all afternoon, quite rotary below 1000’ but silky smooth above this
topping out at 2500’ for the most capable pilots, it was soarable well
past sunset with the last gliders being packed away in the twilight.
A fantastic winter's
day flying, with over 7 cumulative hours and several hundred km flown -
the gliding addiction was sufficiently fulfilled for a number of North Hill
pilots. As always thanks to the Mendip GC for their hospitality and
fantastic ridge. - Matt H5
