I arrived for my Launch Marshal Duty this morning at what I thought was a very early time of 8:10am. Imagine my surprise in finding all the vehicles out ready and a crowd of members in the clubhouse with Duty Instructor Stuart Procter checking the weather and Notams for the day. The enthusiasm translated into excellent team work setting up the field and DI'ing the gliders, the first of which we launched shortly after 9:30am.
We had benign conditions with a light headwind all day. This was perfect for David Herbert and Lukasz Kieruczenko, who racked up a few more solos each in Junior FZF following their recent successes on Course Week.
We had benign conditions with a light headwind all day. This was perfect for David Herbert and Lukasz Kieruczenko, who racked up a few more solos each in Junior FZF following their recent successes on Course Week.
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| A pleasant day with light westerly wind (Lisa Humphries) |
Mid-morning Ian Mitchell and James Hood brought out the newly rigged Junior LRD complete with new rudder cables for a test flight. LRD was declared serviceable just in time for the lift to really start working and solo pilots scrambled to take full advantage of the booming conditions which lasted all afternoon and into the evening.
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| Booming conditions locally (Lisa Humphries) |
Meanwhile David Wojnar was being put through his paces by Stuart, finally convincing him to vacate the back seat and let him loose on his own. David soared for over half an hour on his first solo, and consolidated with a couple more solo flights in the afternoon. - Congratulations!
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| Stuart congratulates David on his first solo (Stu Procter) |
With a large contingent of our cross-country pundits away at Nympsfield for Sid's task week, only Simon Minson in SM ventured away from North Hill. Initially heading out east towards Crewkerne and finding conditions less than helpful, he headed west to explore Mudford Gate and Cadbury Cross. - Ruth Comer
Sid's Task Week -Nympsfield
There were only 3 of the expected 5 DSGC particpants at the NHL regionals as Sid called his task week at the packed 10am briefing in the NYM kitchen area. He decided that the much more spacious bar wouldn't be a good place for the briefing as the proximity of beer might lead to the drowning of sorrows having looked at the weather. Sid was uncharacteristically optimistic and set the A class a 312km task via Newbury to exploit the good weather in the east with a fall back of Newbury out and return. The tricky bit was getting out past Swindon with a very moist, murky and uninspiring cloud base at Nym. The waiting game dragged on eventually forcing Sid to announce fall back to NEW. Most of the club instructional flights were barely managing extended circuits when the front of the grid decided "What the hell, might as well give it a go!" They couldn't bare anymore hanging around hoping for an improvement. Off high tows the first couple just glid out on task through cloud, hoping to connect with a climb somewhere near Aston Down, man they are keen here!
The NHL gang were at the back of the grid and about 2 hours later I set off under a marginally better sky, cloudbase was still low however and the good climbs in the region of 2kts. It wasn't until Newbury that it really got going but that was where I had to turn around and head back into the gunge! It was another slow struggle with thick bands of top cover and increasing wind from the in rushing sea air. Pete in 230 was another 30minutes behind me after being caught in a dead patch of air after launch and needed a relight before starting. Wyn, also needed a relight and got put off by the gloom on the radio so opted for a bit of local soaring before calling it quits. I made it back with about 400' to spare after a long final glide from abeam Kemble but Pete was just a little too late and the sea-air cut off any chance for getting back. He relished the chance to land on a proper runway at Kemble and rolled to a stop outside the bar only to discover that it had just closed.
To rub salt in the wound the retrieve was a fiasco and took far longer than expected, I blame the idiot using my phone as a satnav! We did however make it back in time for the BBQ and beer! -M5Matt
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| So that's what Kemble looks like! |
