Thurs 29th April

With no flying on Wednesday, the flying list was long from early on. There was a small delay whilst waiting for the temperature to warm up a bit, and everyone was treated to a briefing and demonstration of how the new Launch Control would operate. 

What a great example of Club member skills to design, manufacture and kit out our new Launch Control following the great service that Mike Robinson's LPV has given the Club, but it was time to move on... 

New Launch Control (Rob Hender)

 The new Launch Control was used all day successfully on its initial proving trial, and will be in full service very soon - Well done  and  a big Thank you to everyone who has contributed. 

 

Blue skies initially (Mike Sloggett)

The cumulus clouds that were initially out of reach started to form over the airfield in time for the first launch, with the first couple of K21 launches soaring, but after this soaring flights from the winch were rare. 

Check flights both winch and aerotow continued throughout the day in all 4 two-seaters and the Junior was soaring in the middle of the day. Wyn Davies in W7, Eric Alston in G29 and Phil and Nick in DD3 all had good flights, with DD3 reporting convergences from both coasts and snow showers.

Congrats to Josh  (Mark Courtney)

Congratulations to Josh Funnell for completing his cross-country endorsement with a nav flight with Mark Courtney in Rotax Falke.

Thanks to everyone for a pleasant day back in the air with 29 winch launches and 10 aerotows. - J&P

Sun 25th April

 First thing the strength of the wind was such that any immediate plans to fly were delayed, in the hope that the forecast might be wrong, and the wind reduce in strength, to allow flying to take place later in the day. 

Woodland clearing stumps (Mike Sloggett)

 As ever there is always a ‘to do’ list at the Club, so whilst some members worked on continuing the clearance of the woodland area, others took down the tarpaulins in the MT hangar to allow investigation of the roof and related necessary repairs.

Removing the tarpaulins (Mike Sloggett)

 

At lunchtime and with the wind strength showing no sign of reducing, with gusty 23 knots being seen on the Clubhouse anemometer, the decision was made that there would be no flying activities today. - Mike Sloggett

Condor Racing

During the week, the Condor Racers had visited Peru, Greece and other countries to fly, 

 On Friday afternoon, there were some more simulated launch failures  at North Hill this time with an easterly wind and with Dan and Stewart's script to randomise the time before release - this worked really well.

For Sunday evening, Stewart had set a tricky little task tiptoeing to Tiverton and back, but the thermals kicking off the ridge were few and far between. Several pilots made attempts to get to Tiverton and practiced field landings, but well done to Stewart who was the only successful pilot to get back as well. - J&P

Sat 24th April

A small but enthusiastic group of around a dozen Club members arrived at North Hill early Saturday to be greeted with stunning, clear blue skies, but hopes of long hours in the air were tempered by the very strong, gusty easterly wind.  Both K-21s and a Junior were prepared for flight, but with a combination of blue card conditions and a paucity of members able to take advantage of single-seat flying in the conditions, the Junior was returned to the hanger.  The flying day continued with just a pair of K-21s, with the first aircraft in the air just before 0930.

The day continued with a mixture of training flights and card checks, with an ebb and flow of numbers as people came and went – some to fly, some just popping in to say hello, with Club members very obviously enjoying being able to meet up again – albeit in an outdoor socially distanced fashion - after the enforced Covid lay-off.  James Flory, as Duty Instructor, took the lion’s share of the instructional training flights, supported by John Pursey,  Stuart Procter and Pete Harmer at various points throughout the day, with Sally Hender, James Smart and Jill Harmer looking after launch control duties.  As the morning progressed, we were rewarded with an increase in the availability of lift.  Although there was some debate among the seasoned veterans over the actual origin of said lift, it was nevertheless gratefully received by all who were fortunate enough to experience it.  Dan Hender, flying with CFI Stuart, blagged the longest flight of the day at 47 minutes, and several other Club members were lucky enough to have flights of over 35 minutes.A short period of concern ensued when an Air Ambulance flew directly over the airfield at around 500’ from south to north, directly across the launch run, without any warning or communication, illustrating the continuing need for awareness, vigilance and, above all, lookout.

Rob Hender and Pete Harmer (Jill Harmer)

 By mid-afternoon, the wind had abated a little, but veered round to become a southerly cross wind so, with all who wanted to fly having flown, the flying day was declared complete with the last launch at around 1645 with 26 launches completed over the day.  Overall, a very good day for those that were there, and as ever, very grateful thanks to all those who worked hard to made the flying possible. - Andy and Josh Batchelor (first-time bloggers)

Thurs 22nd April

It was almost a repeat of last Thursday, but the easterly wind had a bit of south in it, it was a bit warmer, and practically not soarable.  There was another stone-picking exercise to start and yet again a long flying list.

Stone-picking (Mike Horwood)

With all four two-seaters in use all day, we made good progress with return to currency flights, but as with last week, unfortunately a few members missed out on flying - hopefully we will be back to normal soon, please bear with us. 

Latest area to be levelled (Mike Horwood)

Late morning, Chris Wool managed a short soaring flight in DG505 with the help of some  brief sea-air convergence, but it was short-lived. 

During the afternoon, the winch-driver George Sanderson spotted a small problem (noise) with the winch, whilst aerotows continued, swift investigations and analysis occurred and Chairman Nick and Stirling dashed off to a bearing shop in Exeter, and it was all refitted by close of play. 

Thanks to everyone for mucking in - great teamwork as always. - J&P

Wed 21st April

Wednesday's turn out was a bit disappointing as the forecast was reasonable, perhaps the prospect of another easterly day discouraged some. With three instructors available flying began in seemingly promising conditions some lift, some broken wave and increasing wind, leading to some quite challenging flights, the lift being more than balanced by sink.

Ron Johns was returned to currency, as was Nick Harrison and David Perriam, Andy Williams flew with Peter Warren, no doubt wisely in the conditions. Peter Smith took some time away from pursuing his flat earth policy and had a lively solo flight,  and the family West had training flights.
Once again Gordon Hutchinson aided by Jeff Taberham, did much winching and thank you for that. We paused for lunch and were able to remotely enjoy the delights of Graham and Cheryl's Catering.

The afternoon saw an improvement in the weather, the wind shifting and decreasing in the south. - Glenn Turpin

Sun 19th April

 The airfield was relatively quiet first thing but as the hangar doors were being pulled open then slowly but surely the flying list gained names so one of the things which was certain was that there would be a lot of launches needed during the day. The one uncertain thing was whether the wind, albeit light, would settle down to enable a decision on where to set up the winch and launch point - eventually it was decided that the first launches would be from the North West corner.

Both K21s, the Perkoz and both Juniors were walked down to the launch point - flying was soon underway with Pete Warren completing his instructor ‘post lockdown’ check flights with Simon Minson, and with Peter Field and Glenn Turpin starting to work through the flying list. 

Perkoz soaring (Mike Sloggett)

 The increasingly thermic skies promised much but with the wind moving to more of a Westerly component after only a few flights a decision was made to change ends and walk gliders down to the other end of the airfield - Tim Butler made the most of having launched in Junior LRD just before the change of ends by staying airborne for an hour and a half before being ‘invited to land’ at the East end so that others could fly LRD. Flying soon re-commenced from the East end of the airfield and with the arrival of Team Hender there were enough people to allow flying to continue through lunch and on into the afternoon.

North Hill looking very dry (Mike Sloggett)

 Guy Adams completed his instructor ‘post lockdown’ check flights with Mike Sloggett early afternoon and having not been allowed by Mike to fly very high, Guy then took Jonathan Erskine several thousand feet higher for a deserved flight of over an hour in K21 KEK after Jonathan’s hard work on the ground during the morning.

The day saw Hans Jenssen and Mark Wallis complete card renewal checks with Peter Field and Glenn Turpin respectively before flying a Junior, Stirling Melhuish completing currency checks with Pete Warren before taking a K21 solo and Tom Sides and Ruth Comer re-familiarising themselves with the Perkoz.There was even time for Paul Medlock who had been working on airfield signage to take Junior FZF into the air late afternoon for a short soaring flight.

Well done to Dave Perriam (Mike Sloggett)

 Well Done to Dave Perriam for his longest soaring flight at North Hill to date, just over two and a half hours in Junior LRD and during which he achieved his Silver Height (subject to trace verification).

Pete Startup (Discus 230), Simon Minson (ASW20 SM), Andrew Logan (ASW15 FMS) and Mike Fairclough (PIK20 DFK) all enjoyed good soaring/cross country flights in strong thermic conditions but with a hazy horizon making for interesting visibility.

Landing at the hangar (Mike Sloggett)

Thank you to DLMs Wyn Davies (AM) and George Sanderson (PM) and also to James Flory who was busy most of the day retrieving gliders from various parts of the airfield. A particular thank you to Team Hender for helping out and not flying.

Another good ‘post lockdown’ flying day, thank you to all involved today. - Mike Sloggett

Condor Racing

The Friday training task was practising boxing the wake on aerotow, with Pete giving the briefing before everyone completed successfully followed by some spot landing practice on North Hill. 

  On Sunday, (having seen many Lasham gliders turning Devon & Cornwall this week), Stewart had created a task 180kms  NH2 - Avebury - Lasham North with some rather good weather conditions. Seven Pilots started the task, but unfortunately Dan had to drop out when his VR threw a wobbly.

 

 Good cloudbases, and a light tailwind meant for a nice run with Stewart claiming the fastest time 127kph but with the others not far behind.- Good practice for the real thing. - J&P

Sat 17th April

 There was so much going on that it's hard to know where to start with writing a blog post for Saturday.  Huge thanks must go to Mark Courtney and Stuart Procter for their epic 10-hour instructional stints starting just after 8am.  Thanks also to James Flory, Simon Minson, Steve Westlake and Lisa Humphries who also helped with instructing, as well as the ever present Rob and Sally Hender who worked hard all day to help people get in the air. 

Busy launch point (Mark Layton)

The flying list was already building by 8am, and all four club two-seaters and a Junior were DI'd and walked up to the north west corner (later joined by the other Junior).  Duty Instructor Mark Courtney briefed the socially distanced groups of six and the first launch went off at 9:36am.  By 10:30 it became soarable and by 11am some lucky pilots looked down on Devon from over 3000 feet.  The afternoon just got better, with consistent "off the clock" lift taken us effortlessly even higher.

Ruth enjoying her flight with Stuart (Stuart Procter)

 Many currency and launch failure checks were carried out and so many rusty and semi-rusty pilots got back solo that your writer simply lost count.  Congratulations to Charlie Stuckey who achieved his two hour flight for his cross-country endorsement and possibly his silver height (pending trace confirmation) in Ka6 DRE.

SM over Exmoor (Simon Minson)

Several private owners rigged and went off cross country.  They can tell their own stories.

There was also a late afternoon change of ends, a morning launch point visit from the Tea Lady, Motorfalkes going off on adventures, and probably lots more that your writer either missed or forgot...

An amazing and throughly exhausting day! - Ruth Comer

Thurs 15th April

The first Thursday  after two-seater flying is allowed to resume, and the sun was shining after a cold frosty night and the flying list was not surprisingly very long. 

The first task was to help with  a line of stone picking on the newly-dug southwest area of the airfield to enable the rest of the field leveling process to continue in the good weather. Meanwhile the gliders were prepared and walked up to the northwest corner in the unexpectedly cold easterly breeze.

KEK launching (Mike Horwood)

It was a difficult balance for the flying list with solo pilots needing check flights and some members on training, whilst others were just glad to get back in the air. Pete Harmer started on the flying list whilst Peter Smith checked out Mike Sloggett before the other 2-seaters  were also allocated.

The private owners who had already been cleared solo were keen to get aerotows into the gorgeous-looking skies, but it was soon decided that the rotor on the approach limited the cleared Junior pilots to Blue card only. 

Cloudbase at 4000ft QFE (Mike Horwood)

 Following a short break for everyone to warm up with some hot food and drink,  the flying list made some good progress. Congratulations to Dan Hender for completing his Bronze with a load of spinning in the Perkoz and a swift out and return to Watchford Farm with Pete Harmer.

In the afternoon, after Chris Wool had finished adding the bright colourful livery to the new Launch Control he completed his Instructor checks with Mark Courtney, who had run out of customers for aerotow. 

And on Cross-countries - Well done to Pete Startup 230  for his first 300 of the season Salisbury - North Tawton, Phil Morrison and Ron Johns  in DD3 Launceston - Yeovil, and Eric Alston G29 and Rowan Smith CLM for Club 100.

Field leveling Southwest area of North Hill (Mike Horwood)

By late afternoon, most members had flown - although not all the check flights were completed, please bear with the Instructors while they try to get everyone back in the air safely. Thanks to everyone for helping members get back in the air. - J&P

Wed 14th April

The day started cloudless and by 08:30 the K21s and a Junior were out of the hangar and being DI'd. The Easterly wind causing us to launch from the far end of the field.

It was the first chance many of us had to fly since last December or earlier, so the emphasis was on getting all concerned flying and current, so it was helpful to have 3 instructors. Despite this it was obvious that a good thermic day was developing. By 0930 good and deep Cu were appearing.

Whilst the currency checks were going on the Junior was well used with 3 flights over 40 mins and good thermals to cloud base at over 4000ft QFE by the end of play.

K21 library pic (Rob Hender)

 It was decided to run one cable at a time, because restrictions imposed by field leveling activities, caused problems when trying to run two, and frequent simulated launch failures caused further delays but despite this we still managed about 35 launches and we continued through lunch, sometimes with a skeleton ground crew. - Chris Warnes

Mon 12th - Tues 13th April

Monday

It was a slow start due to clearance of the first rain for a couple of weeks, but everything was in full swing by mid-morning, thanks to the helpers. 

Peter Smith, Pete Harmer, Lisa Humphries and John Sillett all completed their "return for Instructor checking out flights". Latecomers James Flory and Stu Procter were thwarted by a little snarl up on the winch and a line of rain showers. 

Helpers - Andrew Logan, George Sanderson and Dan Hender completed check flights and Rob Hender had the longest flight of the day with John.  A good first day back on dual flying. - J&P

Tuesday 

Because the gliders inevitably ended up the wrong end of the airfield  there was slow progress and a lot of walking!

Once the instructors Mark Courtney, Steve Westlake and Glenn Turpin had completed their check flights they moved on to flying  with the helpers.

Mark and Gordon Hutchinson (Mark Courtney)

 With more cable breaks to complete for them it led to yet more long walks from the wrong end of the airfield.

Charlie Broderick was cleared for solo by Glenn and promptly demonstrated a perfect circuit and landing, Dan Hender having been cleared for solo the day before reacquainted himself with the club's single seater.

Steve and Josh Funnell (Mark Courtney)

Charlie Stuckey, Josh Funnell, Gordon Hutchinson and Dave Perriam all had at least one flight and some had three or four. By 4 pm the Instructors energy levels  were fading fast so the kit was put away.

A very tiring day, but hugely rewarding with another 3 instructors now ready to go.

A huge thanks to all the helpers as usual, without there help none of the instructors would have been able to fly over the last few weeks. - Mark Courtney

Field Levelling

We stole a start yesterday on the field levelling,  but it was brought to a close early by a piece of flint wedging and jamming the Blecevator. First job this morning was to remove it and then back to the fray.  Jonathon Erskine and Brian Knight helped greatly with stone picking and removal.  Rowan used long dormant skills to go solo driving the tractor and rotavator. Robert refreshed his familiarity with it allowing me to pitch in with Nick, Stirling and Scott to put the wide wheels on the John Deere as the narrow tyres were creating ruts in the soft ground towing the new roller.

Rotavating and stone picking (Peter Smith)

 A good start and progress, but we need help with stone picking on Thursday please and possibly other tasks. - Peter Smith

Condor Racing

Another trip to Peru on Tuesday afternoon with Stewart, Mike, Simon and Jill with the Condor cafe racers.

 It was a task of 163kms in good conditions with high cloudbases enabling the turnpoint at 13,300ft to be achieved. The second leg was a straight glide down the valley to the finish at corrected Vne. - J&P

Sun 11th April

With RASP forecasting good things and Ron calling for a tug pilot to be available, a skeleton motley band of optimistic die hards met at the frigid club. They were presented with huge over-development to the west and low scud crossing the field. So maybe the forecast was wrong, this time. Maybe it was a day for home DIY? Still we had some moaning to do and that would occupy us to see how the day would unfold.

RASP - Star Rating @1pm 

With James F and Peter W wanting to fill their boots with tugging there was a call at 11am to send up a sacrificial lamb. Rowan S obliged and took the first tow into a sky that still hadn't made up its mind what it wanted to be.

Ron explaining that 1976 was the last best summer

Rowan S (Libelle) went west - at first happy just to be in the air and hadn't planned on a task found the conditions to be sublime. Each cloud told the truth and gave consistent lift each time. The sky slowly decided that it was going to yield a very promising day so he turned a bumble into an out and return to Eaglescott (NHL - EAG - NHL). Along the way was greeted with sub zero degree conditions and some 8 knot average climbs.

Rowan S - Out and Return to Eaglescott Trace

Ron and Dan (ASH 25), Pete S (Discus), Eric (ASG 29), Phil M (Duo Discus) and Simon M (ASW 20) all headed east to complete the club 100 (NH2 - TIV - CRK - NH2) - They were met with stonking lift, showers and snow. They all made the grade. Pete S arrived back not satiated and attempted a second run but was met with enough showers that would have turned the club one hundred into 300 km triangle.

Pete S - Club 100 Trace

Robert L (Astir) took advantage of the extraordinary powerful lift for a 2 hour local romp before a short layoff due to a forthcoming eye surgery.

Thanks to James F and Peter W for getting us aloft. Glen, Ruth and the Hender's for running the field. - Rowan

Condor Racing

For those who are still having to enjoy the virtual world of flying, Stewart had set an interesting task taking off at Usk and flying through inactive Cardiff airspace to cross the Bristol Channel and then via Wimbleball to North Hill. 112 Kms but with a light north westerly wind and a generous cloudbase and strong thermals, and there were no snow showers in the virtual world!

 With 8 starters, Dan, Chris, Simon and Pete were the early leaders, and providing a climb to cloudbase was made before crossing the water, it proved a good run for all, with Dan fastest at 149.3kph. - J&P

 

Mon 5th - Fri 9th April

 Condor Racing

Monday. A chilly Bank Holiday in the UK saw 5 DSGC Condor pilots on a warm SW France -Northern Spain joining the mid-day task from  169kms Biarritz to Bilbao with the Condor cafe. Wind was light from the northnorthwest and the Atlantic thermals looked promising but, typically, turned out to be disappointingly only adequate.
The usual suspects  got off to an early climb and start while I, after spending too long on an orientation flight, turned up late again and followed in my newly acquired JS3 allowing David to point out some useful climbs on the first leg. The comms chatter was its usual wave of relaxed banter punctuated by thermal concentrating quiescence, especially from myself as I became more familiar with the JS3. Thanks to all those who gave tips and advice on the way.

 After TP1 the course ventured south and inland across higher terrain which gave little assistance in the light wind so the thermal-hunting continued. Listening on the comms, I realised that the thermals didn't improve much inland so I chose a climb to base after TP1 and this proved a shrewd move as I scudded passed David on the 2nd leg. It was about this time that comms chat revealed  an unfortunate 'mid-air' had occurred  with subsequent lost points (and a little pride) for two of the lead group making me think that a late start and keeping clear of the gaggle was not such a bad thing. After a couple of short climbs to TP2 It was a straight run from here to Bilbao with no top-ups needed and I realised that I could've got away with flying a little quicker between thermals and could possibly have finished a few places up the table in my now well-liked slippery JS3. Well done to Stewart who was 4th overall and the fastest of DSGC pilots. - Mike Wilmott

On Tuesday, 5 DSGC  Regulars who had managed to download the Peru scenery joined the Condor cafe flight for 159kms. 

 The task setter had been rather generous with the weather conditions and a thermal climb to 18,000ft before the start meant a fairly easy run along some ridges where more occasional strong thermals could be found.Stewart was fastest overall in just 37 minutes! - J&P

Wednesday was a standard lunchtime Greece task in Condor cafe for 6 DSGC Regulars, 309kms into Albania with conditions that were much more challenging than in Peru. Clouds were fairly sparse  and were needed at critical times and it would have been easier if you had taken an EB29, but DSGC were flying JS3-15 or Ventus18. Well done to Dan who was fastest overall out of the 14 finishers. 

With the planned return to Real Life flying next week, another refresher training session was organised for Friday, this time on launch failures at North Hill. Pete gave the Instructor brief and then using the new United Kingdom scenery with improved graphics, everyone took a turn on a randomised launch failure scenario (this involved Pete shouting NOW - and watching the handling pilot on Condor Spectate - release and complete the landing). Everyone agreed it was a really useful exercise for getting back up to speed for flying. - J&P

Thur 8th April

The first flyable Thursday after lockdown saw some of the Thursday regulars turn up for tractor / grass-cutting training, whilst  the Instructors and the Tuggie decided to take some aerotows. 

Launch queue (Rob Hender)

 Aston was also cleared to fly and had the two longest flights of the day tickling the South ridge. Meanwhile Gordon and William were busy with more work on the new Launch Control. 

And the first 3 early arrivals from Africa were seen  - Swallows! - summer is coming.

Thanks to all the ground helpers, hopefully dual-flying/check flights next week. -J&P

Sun 4th April

Several Instructors, and Blue card pilots came out to play at North Hill  for solo flying with  K21 and Junior joined by  SM, 230, G29, M, CLM, KMV, DKU, and the Pawnee (complete with shiny new struts  after the Annual.) 

Pawnee flying again, thanks Ian Mitchell (Stuart Procter) 

There was also plenty of fettling going on with various private gliders checking out new flarms and rigging/towing equipment. And work continues apace on the new launch control.

 

Thanks to Rob, Sally, Ashley, Paul, Nick and Geoff for running the ground operation. Hopefully we'll be able to get more people flying next week.

Condor Racing 

Meanwhile in the virtual world, DSGC was making a presence felt in the UK Virtual Soaring Club task, 219kms  Usk -Malmesbury - Moreton in Marsh - Gloucester Canal - Ledbury -Usk.

18 METRE CLASS :
POS| POINTS |GLIDER  | ID  | PILOT         |       DIST   |   SPEED    |   TIME   |  STATUS  |  PEN    
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1  |  928.1 | JS3-18        | DRE | Daniel Hender        | 218.6 km | 115.1 km/h | 01:53:59 | Finished |    0.0
2  |  885.3 | JS3-18        | GHK | Stewart Henshall   | 218.6 km | 112.5 km/h | 01:56:34 | Finished |    0.0
5  |  696.1 | JS3-18        | SL5  | Simon Leeson        | 218.6 km | 101.2 km/h | 02:09:34 | Finished |    0.0
7  |  685.7 | JS3-18        | CJW | Chris Warnes         | 218.6 km | 100.6 km/h | 02:10:23 | Finished |    0.0

And in the evening, Stewart had created a task to assist the Regulars getting back into the real world with no pdas, airspace penalty areas or task helpers being visible.  The task was a 74kms local cats cradle HHL - Watchford Farm - Culmstock - Wellington - Culmhead - NHL - Cullompton - NH2. 

It was important to be able to navigate accurately round the Dunkeswell ATZ and Dropzone, and to have detailed knowledge of the precise turnpoints as photographs had to be taken within 1km. 

A perfect shot of the Cullompton roadbridge over M5 (Stewart Henshall)

With 7 pilots taking part, this time Stewart managed to beat Dan for 1st position, both being expert at taking photographs without losing much height - followed by Chris and Simon. -  Geoff, Mike and Jill enjoyed a less competitive flight. - J&P

Fri 2nd April

Condor Racing this week

On  Tuesday there was another rerun of the GP2020 Day 9 from Agathazel to try to improve on routings and times. 

 

Wednesday with the Regulars not able to join the real flying, they joined in with the Condor cafe task.

On Thursday, the north easterly rotor at North Hill was too violent for any real flying, but in the evening some joined in the UK VSC Cirrus Cup task in very blue and hazy conditions.

For the Friday session we tried something different. We split the afternoon into 2 parts: our first go at some refresher training, followed by a quick go at the Rivoli-Noetsch Power task.

Pete gave a recap of the fundamentals of stall/spin concepts, then we  joined a session to have a go. The scenario was a normal North Hill day, with a high airborne start in the Blanik - which does spin and recover nicely.

We found that Condor Spectate offered the best visuals for critique, Stewart volunteered as the first guinea pig followed by the Regulars with Pete and Simon providing the constructive Instructor  feedback. The benefit of using Condor was that the exercise  of spin entry and recovery could be repeated as often as required at no expense.

Everyone agreed that it was a very useful and worthwhile refresher exercise to increase skill and confidence, next week we plan to do launch failure exercises.

Everyone is getting much better at the Rivoli- Noetsch Power task with improved skills on speed and flap management. - Thanks Condor. - J&P