Sun 31st January

Condor Racing

The task was Barnworthy!
166km NH2-BPL(Barnstaple)-HOL(Holsworthy)-HHL, standard class gliders - water ballasting allowed. 307/11 kts, strong thermals, base ~5500ft QNH. Dunkeswell and Exeter ATZ active, and parachuting at Dunkeswell.
It’s a good day but there’s quite a fresh WNW blowing - It’s going to be a good battle upwind on the first leg. Luckily there are some good thermals and a fairly high base, some cloud streets. 

 

The sun was shining, and seven Discus2a lined up on the grid at North Hill for a 2000ft aerotow,  Dan (as ever) was quick off the mark to get downtrack, with some giving chase, and others flying at their own pace. It was a long into-wind leg with thermals streeting at times. Fortunately the sea air hadn't got into the Taw Estuary, but bases were a little bit lower near the coast.

 The crosswind leg to Holsworthy was easier as everyone managed to get quite high and the run home was a breeze (except for Dan) who tried to push it a little too fast and had to slow up to cross the finish line at the minimum height, and was pipped at the post by Stewart at 125kph. (Note to self - don't push the MacCready too early).

Good performances from Geoff and Oscar who are both now flying in VR. Hopefully the spectators will be able to join in soon. - J&P

Fri 29th January

 Condor Racing

Friday's task for the regular racers was another high-speed multi-turn 81kms slalom race in the Swiss Alps from Interlaken. 

 

After a briefing from Stewart, for the first run in LS4s the grid lined up with David, Chris, Simon, Stewart and Jill. It was more like an exploration than a race as half the field got temporarily stuck in the wrong valley, with high mountains on both sides and some serious digging out of holes was required.

 Having completed the reconnaisance, a second attempt was made with David, Chris, Simon, Stewart, Pete and joined by Dan and Matt, with some additional spectators watching. It turned into a more serious race..... with Dan going for the record in a JS3-15. 

 It took Dan just 20minutes at a speed of 131kph to complete the course with the rest following on some time later. 

 

Another one of those flights that need several attempts for most us to perfect but great fun and great scenery. Come and join us or just watch,  the sun is always shining in Condor! - J&P

Wed 27th January

 Condor Racing

Today's race was in New Zealand and a rerun of the task for the Junior Gliding practice day, 131kms with ridge running and thermals.

Dan made a mess of the run in to the start gate (too high) - but that was easily fixed with a swift loop through the window. The first leg from Omarama heading northeast  followed the ridge with a westerly wind and a thermal was needed around the first turnpoint. 

 The second leg included a  choice of routes with a pass at 4500ft,  across Lake Ohau to Maitland. Following the turn the route south  had the option of jumping some ridges with  areas of sink crossing the valleys. The final leg having turned Omarama Saddle was a straightforward run back to the finish.

 Dan beat his previous time by two minutes at 134kph with Stewart 2nd at 129kph, Chris, David and Pete took it a bit more leisurely taking in the great scenery! - J&P

Tue 26th January

Condor Racing

The task for the Tuesday regulars was  the Eurobattle task that Stewart had completed on Monday evening. - First flight of the new competition in Slovenia/ Austria was 219kms and Stewart in EB29 came 13th out of 54, with most of the leaders using the new JS3 and superior on handicap. 

Six of us took the more modest Discus2a for the afternoon entertainment and unusually Chris seemed to be hanging back and Jill led the way along the ridges to the 3rd leg. Thermals were needed to get on to the final leg, and it was pot luck if a cumulus was found in the building rather than declining phase. Geoff , Stewart and Chris made good climbs to cloudbase, whilst Jill, David and John struggled to make contact. 

Geoff raced off to the finish in his new VR goggles to win the race at 102kph, Chris had to break off and go for tea, Stewart hung around to  usher the stragglers home. Welcome to David Cottingham for watching the stream and enthusing about the new Condor landscape - hopefully joining the racing soon. 

In the evening, Dan flew in the UK Junior Gliding eWinter series Round 2, with the second race in New Zealand. Well done Dan for coming 6th out of 43, and retaining 1st place overall from 2 races. - J&P

Sun 24th January

 Condor Racing

An expedition to Denbigh for the Sunday Condor racers with a task set by Stewart. Eight Ls and a Dragon!
108km Lleweni Parc - Denbigh South - Bala - Cader Idris - Llwyngril Bridge - Llanbedr
Wind 305/11kts, Moderate thermals (activity high), base up to 3500’.
School class gliders, With PDA, Winch Launch. Start window 20 mins.
Start Lleweni Parc below 2000ft, finish Llanbedr above 1000ft.
Plenty of good thermals around today, but a lowish cloudbase. Ridges will help for much of the task. Tricky upwind final leg.

 The team lined up on the grid at Lleweni Park with six Ka6CRs in bright colour schemes and three K21s. The first leg was following the ridge line with plenty of thermals kicking off. Not long after the turn at DRS, Dan reported a total blackout both VR and on the monitor, but as he was still flying, a plan was hatched by Stewart for some blind formation flying, this worked well for a while until Dan eventually landed out. 

The rest of the group continued at different paces to Llanbedr, with Chris leading the way at 73kph. 

 

In the evening, Stewart and Dan flying ASW20s took part in Day6 of the Condor World Cup in Denmark, it was another large field with a late start as part of the plan. Centering in good thermals not too far from track was key and helpfully Dan caught up the field with lots of LS4s marking thermals, Stewart had taken another restart and was further back and largely on his own for the 240kms. 

Both had a couple of low saves, but Stewart ended up 17th and Dan 24th but only lost about 50 points on the winner.  Overall Dan is 24th  with 6 flights and Stewart 38th with 5 flights. With 17 /24 flights counting it's all to play for. - J&P

Fri 22nd January

 Condor Racing

Friday's entertainment for the regulars was advertised as an Interlaken Loop Ridge Race, and it was short and fast enabling a number of attempts to improve the technical skill and speed.

 At just 62 kms it was only expected to take 15-20 mins for the loop, but there were some twists and turns and 13 tiny gates to get through. It also involved some steep climbs and big descents with tight turns in the mountains. Appropriate use of flaps, flight at Vne (without fluttering) and high speed manoeuvring was necessary to successfully negotiate the turnpoint windows. 

 After the first reconnaissance attempt in Antares, everyone had learnt what to expect and by the third loop the race was on. Stewart and Dan decided that the JS1 would provide a better chance of beating the fastest times, whilst everyone else was just content to achieve a clean run.

 Well done to Stewart who was fastest on the day and has gone to the top of the Condor leaderboard for the task with  a time of 14:36, Dan was just 5 secs slower but is likely to try to improve his time. Best of the rest was Chris at 16:30. - J&P

Wed 20th January

 Condor Racing

A very big congratulations to Dan Hender for winning the first competition task of the UKJG eWinter Series Round 2 on Tuesday evening. It was a 206kms ridge-running task from Omarama in New Zealand, there are 4 more competition days on Tuesday evenings to follow. 

On Wednesday, the Condor regulars tried another race129kms, following the route of Hannibal crossing the Alps, the start was at Bex in Switzerland finding a route to follow some elephants into  Italy!

This was one of our early flights in the Alps in October when we flew DuoDiscus, and so to put another spin on it, Chris and David flew in K21s, Pete took a Blanik and Stewart a K6. 

 Quite a different perspective in these gliders particularly the K6 which went up very easily but took a long while to go forward.  There are many different possible routes across the Alps and Chris headed off exploring alternatives, whilst Pete managed to follow a pass in the wrong direction and ended up with a very long track picking up thermals on the plain. 

 Stewart commented on the different options available from a K6, and everyone took some valuable experience from the task.  Chris' route proved the fastest at 111kph and beat the K6 even on handicap, and Pete did an extra 35km. Great fun. -J&P

Tues 19th January

 Condor Racing

There were 5 lined up for the task today in the Austrian mountains,  - Chris, David, Stewart, John and Jill with a northwesterly wind, some ridge-running and thermals would be needed.

 It was a 3-turnpoint 206kms open polygon, finishing at Innsbrook and with a tricky low start.

Chris set off quickly along the first leg running the ridges with a few jumps needed, and the cumulus were hard to find. 

 

The second leg was almost downwind and a couple of thermals were definitely needed, and fortunately appeared on cue. 

 

Having got some height (11,000ft cloudbase) we were able to set off into wind across the ridges, on the third leg picking up some lift at each crossing.

And then it was an easy run down the valley to Innsbruck to finish. Chris was racing to get back in time for tea! 133kph. - Good fun task. - J&P

Sun 17th January

Condor Racing

The regular Sunday Condor racers had a large turn out with 10 pilots lined up on the grid at North Hill for a local task NH2-MUD-TAU-KNO-NHL of 140kms. The conditions were a light northwesterly wind with good thermals up to a high cloudbase. The point of the exercise was to take full advantage of the high cloudbases but taking care with the bottom of the airway. 

  With Simon Leeson now hooked on Condor, it was Oscar's turn to join in the fun. Also lining up were Dan, Matt, Stewart, Chris, Pete, David, John (and Geoff in stealth mode).  

Apart from a bit of help before the start locating thermals, it was a good race, with everyone completing the task successfully, 5 without any penalties and 4 with some point deductions.

First as usual was boy racer Dan Hender who was slightly slower than Stewart, but won on handicap with a standard Cirrus. Well done also to Matt who was 3rd and also over 100kph. David and Oscar were 4th and 5th respectively.  Thanks to Stewart   for setting the task and modelling the airway penalty zones. 

 Come and join us - fly or spectate in Condor, watch a live stream or just listen to the banter. Regular local tasks on Sunday, and expeditions to the mountains - Tuesday, Wednesday and Fridays, and on Mondays and Thursdays -join in with the Condor cafe tasks.

In the evening, Stewart and Dan flew in the Condor World Cup, with a race in New Zealand, another close result for the large field with Stewart 43rd and Dan 54th, but  the points are very close with all to play for, with many races still to come. - J&P

Fri 15th January

 Condor Racing

An exercise in speed and energy management with a 71kms racing task in the Swiss Alps with Dan, Stewart, Chris, David, John, Jill and Pete. 

 
The start was low 3,300ft.....

....but then immediately the mountainside was just like an elevator with the strong northwesterly wind. There was a decision to be made on the first leg, where to make the jump into wind to clear a col at 11,500ft before continuing to the first turnpoint at Jungfraujoch. The second leg was the start of a downwind slalom course with the glacier descending faster than an LS4a at Vne.

 

With most of us having 3 attempts at the task, we were able to improve our times by slight route and energy changes. As usual boy racer Dan Hender posted the fastest time, having stepped out of the LS4 to take the ASW20 on his 2nd circuit and found that careful use of ground effect down the glacier gave him some excess energy for the final glide (I don't think he added skis!).

Dan's time was 24mins 6secs and is currently the fastest time on the Condor Club for this task.

A great fun task which can be tried many times to improve the speed. - J&P

Thur 14th January

 Condor Racing

An expedition to South Island, New Zealand with Condor Cafe, with David, Chris, Stewart and Pete with John and Dan spectating. It was a 184kms zigzag course over the Southern Alps.
The clouds were a bit tricky being a bit close to the mountain tops and the ridges weren't working as well as the European Alps.

 
Chris pressed on as usual with Stewart catching him up, Pete got stuck just short of the third turnpoint which was on top of the mountain, but eventually found a short into-wind ridge which enabled him to get high enough to get to a thermal, and then an easy run to the finish. David got a bit lost and low and had to recover the situation spurred on by encouragement from the spectators. 

 

Stewart won the task at 157kph, with Chris 6th at 138kph and Pete 9th at 115kph. - One of the more difficult tasks we have attempted.

In the evening, Dan and Stewart took part in the Condor World Cup task in Italy. Another very large field with some tactical decision-making required. Stewart managed to hit the thermals at the right time and raced away to finish 11th overall with 903 points. Only 8 minutes behind Dan scored 778 points but was placed 74th out of the 195 competitors. After 3 races, overall placings: Stewart is 15th and Dan is 53rd. - J&P

Wed 13th January

Condor Racing

It was a 165kms thermal and ridge task in the Swiss and French Alps, with Stewart, Matt, Dan, Chris, David, John and Pete. The first leg from Neuchatel was easy thermals, then picking up the ends of ridges to make progress to Bex. 

 

The final leg was a run down a good ridge-line jumping several valleys to the finish at Albertville. Chris was just fastest at 115kph, but 6 finishers within 5kph  was a great task.

  Pete unfortunately suffered a Windows update and restart in the middle of the race. - J&P

Tue 12th January

Condor Racing

The Tuesday afternoon Condor Racers group was a little depleted today, but the task was set as moderate difficulty -  271kms triangle in the Swiss Alps.

After a briefing with a couple of route options discussed, Stewart, David, Geoff, John and Jill prepared to start airborne at Meringen, but John had a problem with  the joystick controls and ended up spectating. 

The first leg  was a good run along the ridges in a northwesterly wind, with Stewart and Geoff stopping for a thermal topup just before the turnpoint, David and Jill had pressed on to the turn but ended up going back to the sunny ridge to gain height. Once everyone was high enough we jumped over the ridge and across the Rhine valley. 

On the second leg, we picked up a decent windward facing ridge east along the Rhine valley and then diverted southeast into Italy to turn Locarno. 

 

The final leg was into wind across multiple mountain ranges and a good thermal would have been nice, but nowhere to be seen except over the unreachable high mountains. So plan B was to jump from valley to valley using all the into-wind spurs, and clear two passes at 8,100ft and 7,100ft. This turned out to be a good plan (thanks Stewart!) and we all arrived back with height to spare. A more challenging task than of late, but great to complete. - J&P

Sun 10th January

 Condor Racing

The Club task today was 106kms HHL-MUD-OKE-HHL with a variety of K6s, K21s and a Blanik and the 7 regulars. The cloudbase was around 4000ft with normal thermals and a light northwesterly wind. 

 Once everyone was established at a reasonable start height, Dan led off to 'mark thermals' but he wasn't  hanging around. The first leg to Mudford Gate was straightforward, and everyone pressed on to Okehampton with another fairly easy run. 

 The final leg home had some large blue gaps with quite heavy sink, but fortunately some nice new clouds appeared at the right time on track. 

 Unfortunately, the final results were lost when Dan had to rush off for tea  and tripped over a lead having finished. Nice local task. - J&P

In the evening, Dan and Stewart  competed in the Condor World Cup finishing mid-table out of 112 competitors who completed the 256kms task in the Pyranees, Good effort, only 17 of the 24 races count in this long-running competition (Thursday and Sunday evenings til end of March.)

Fri 8th January

Condor Racing

Friday's regular task was an attempt at the Condor Diamond Badge which includes 300kms flight  lasting at least 3 hours and a gain of height of 5000m. Several members had already achieved this, but there was a large contingent on the grid to start including Stewart, Chris, Dan, David, James, Simon, Geoff, John and Jill. No water was allowed, and most chose the Diana2, but David went in Ventus 3, and James was in DG808.

Wave was found fairly easily before the start, great heights were achieved, so Stewart suggested we started from about 10,000ft to make it more interesting! The start was near Mont Blanc with the first leg east to Matterhorn, TP2 was just short of Grenoble  and then back to near Chamonix,  317 kms, wind was south easterly.

Dan was trying to lose height quickly in an inverted sideslip, and just after the start his Oculus Rift objected, but Dan went onto Spectate to coach  others. James, Simon and Chris were quick to make a start, but found a lot of mid-level cumulus along the first into-wind leg. Hearing this the others decided to get a little more height before setting off. The wave bars and complex terrain was quite tricky initially, but halfway along the first leg it started to look more organised and was easy to zigzag into wind along the bars. James had a control stick failure and also went to Spectate to help Geoff and John who had got low and stuck on the ridges below cloud, struggling to get up to the turnpoint which was at over 12,000ft. Stewart was also assisting from high level. John made the first turn but having spent 2 hours battling, John and Geoff called it a day.

Meanwhile Simon and Chris were pressing on at mid-levels to TP2, David and Jill had decided to get and stay higher. The second leg involved jumping good wave bars for about 150kms. Having turned near Grenoble Chris had to go for tea, but Simon continued until he had a technical issue just 18kms from the finish - bad luck Simon. 

 David and Jill continued well above final glide, but clear of the tricky mid-level clouds  in the valleys on a  good run home  to complete their Diamond Badges, whilst Stewart went on a sightseeing trip of Mont Blanc. 

 ... and Stop Press... Well done John on having another go at it and completing Diamond badge as well. 

Great fun and lots to learn - come and join us- J&P

 

Wed 6th January

 Condor Racing

Another ridge running task in the Alps, with thermals if necessary, but this time there were 13 turnpoints to gather along the way. 

It started off quite well with the usual leaders out front and selecting the optimum routes along the multitude of ridge options.  

But the late, low sun on the Jura Mont Blanc scenery led to some unexpected problems when the mountain side turned into a dark crevasse. Those that were slightly below the top going for speed had difficulty with the side of the mountain in deep shadow!

 But it was an excellent learning opportunity and new attempts at  the flight with that knowledge have proved successful. - J&P

Tue 5th January

 Condor Racing

The regular Tuesday afternoon task was a Gold badge 200km triangle in the French Alps near Chambery, with Stewart Henshall, Dan Hender, Simon Leeson, John Davies and Jill Harmer all in LS4a. All but Simon had already completed the Condor Gold badge, but this was a new task and slightly more difficult. 

The first leg was a straight ridge run to the turnpoint Talloires,and then it was heading out into the valley downwind to find some thermals. After the second turnpoint Marlioz, we all made a dash back to a ridge and with the sky turning into lenticulars, we started searching for a transition into the wave. 

 The ridge was just in phase and it was a relatively easy climb straight up to 20,000ft, along track. Dan had a moment of madness, when he realised what the True Air Speed was at 20,000ft and and the effect on Vne. (oops! note to self). Stewart, Simon and Jill continued on track round Grenoble and back to Challes, whilst John was running late and landed at Challes.

 

Stewart's flight

Well done all - another great adventure in wave. - J&P