Sat 26th June

Saturday,  and the usual faces helping James Flory get the show going when I arrived. Tom  Sides was looking excited about doing some Introductory flights later in the day and discussing with  CFI Stu about sharing the Perkoz to fit in round James Smart's checking out for the Introductory Flight ticket. 

Setting up the field for a light easterly a trick, was missed in using the north side for the launch point as this funnelled landing gliders down in front of the launch, halting play. Briefly the new grass was used for landings and the launch rate perked up, but discussion with the Head Groundsman Nick stopped this and we switched sides. The new grass is ok for the odd landing but very flinty and patchy and needs more time/work.

Slightly convective looking skies meant a few extended flights in the morning but nothing epic. Cable break demos for me with Josh Batchelor and an exciting aerotow or two refresher with Trevor Russell. Returning with the aerotow cable connected to the glider not the tug was a personal first! 

As usual Team Hender put in long stints at the winch and launch point and the Juniors - Josh F, Charlie and Dan took turns in the K6 DRE. The afternoon skies looked much more soarable, as I handed on to Glenn  Turpin as DI and turn my hand to trailer mods. 

 

Congratulations to James Smart (IFP)

Congratulations to James Smart for ticking all the boxes with the CFI and gaining the IFP rating.

There seemed to be happy faces in the clubhouse for a beer in the evening with Karen King kindly buying a massive round having resoloed after Covid lockdown! - John Pursey

Fri 25th June - Trial Flight Day

With our plans for Friday 18th and Monday 21st  June for more trial lesson days messed up by the weather, it was good to get a full turn out for today. 

Flights started promptly at 11:00, although a Mile High flight had to wait for a short while as the cloudbase lifted and broke. 

 

Dennis Hall with Pete Harmer (Jill Harmer)

Congratulations to Pete Turner  from Mendip GC who flew in to North Hill in KWAK and flew our K21 to celebrate 60 years since his first flight in a glider. 

Pete Turner and Barry  from Mendip GC (Jill Harmer)

There was a continuous stream of visitors for the pre-booked slots  and some had been waiting nearly two years. 

 We look forward to seeing them return during their 3 month temporary membership and hope that some join the Club as a result. Further Trial lesson days are planned for  Fridays 2nd, 16th and 30th July.

With thanks to the Instructors and Helpers for making it all happen. - J&P

Thurs 24th June

Andy Davey and Dave Perriam applied some fettling to the winch before flying started, and then it was full steam ahead with overcast skies. 

Overcast skies (Mark Layton)

 With just Brian Knight requiring pre-solo training initially, the two-seaters were then employed with IFP training, Instructor checks and then solo flying. The two  Juniors were busy all day with mainly shortish circuits, and the hoped for aerotow training / checks had to be put off for another day. 

Just a glimpse of some sun (Mark Layton)

 And Cheryl applied some paint to the Clubhouse.

Painting the Clubhouse (Graham Barden)

A much better day than was originally forecast with just a 1200ft cloudbase but 34 launches  nonetheless, thanks everyone.- J&P

Wed 23rd June - Camphill

Day 3 -  So caravan cushions and random soft items tried behind Dan’s parachute seemed to pass the ground test so the K6 was towed out early with hope for 5hrs. RASP had the Duo off to Rutland Water via Tuxford Jnct. Last night beer and wiring questions had the Eagle on a day of gentle rides with Ben “I can’t feel my legs”  given the front cabin to start. Dan did a great job outflying the multitude of para plungers locally with increasingly poor visibility until the cushion fix proved to be still not good enough! Another good landing (Dan mentioned at the morning briefing for his excellent sideslip the previous day).
Ben showed the cobwebs had been blown away and landed very cleanly- Team NHL in the points! Several Eagle rides with locals and a  final short hop with the new winch driver had me in the throng of paragliders as the warm front high cloud made the day appear dead but not as the duvet boys showed some local phenomena meant it was gently getting better.

The Eagle rides (John Pursey)

 DD3 was now under power to get back, Dan was on the cider and Ben was talking to the AA to find out why towing an Eagle had killed his van. My short hop with Camphill Nigel turned out to be great fun as duvet dodging turned into an absorbing 2 and half hours taking thermals and ridge (wind was 285 10kts) as the Eagle outdid the para plungers and enjoyed gentle ridge and “thermals “ in 10kts of wind.

Discussing the learning points (John Pursey)

  An excellent day in many ways, Dan learning the importance of cushions, Phil the importance of having fuel on board and me a reminder that evening flights with a hill and gentle wind can be great fun as the local topography pushes the air up -Paragliders outflown,  Nigel’s numb bum and an open bar meant AXJ needed to return. Jokes that Dan still had time to do 5hrs before proper dark failed to get DRE from its lair and the lure of the bar called! Rain forecast so fingers crossed. - John Pursey

Tues 22nd June - Camphill

Camphill Vintage Rally may have fallen victim to Boris, but Team Eagle headed north anyway for some socially-distanced, ad-hoc flying at what is one of the oldest clubs in the country. One of the Eagles may have been swapped for a Duo Discus but the vintage theme was kept with the inclusion of K6 DRE. Young Dan has been entrusted to the Team to be tutored on the ways of Team Eagle expeditions and hopefully should return a few pounds heavier…

The grid at Camphill (Ben Watkins)

After check flights on Monday,  Dan had several good soaring flights yesterday but has been struggling to get comfy in the cockpit.- foam at the ready for today.

Tuesday’s weather was excellent for a North Easterly, the Duo with Phil and Nick did a 300k task to The Long Mynd and back via Barnsley. Grumbles from Phil about spreadout near the Mynd but a good run back.

 

The Blue Eagle made the trip (John Pursey)

I took Ben in the Eagle and tested his physical pain threshold as his legs went to sleep in the back. After dropping him off for a leg stretch, I then flew with a succession of locals looking for that vintage experience with a soaring day that went on well into the evening. Well-deserved beer followed in the fully stocked bar and Dan’s continued tutoring in ways of Phil’s story telling…

Soaring into the evening (John Pursey)

Wednesday is starting sunny and an almost on-the-ridge wind holds some promise.. John Pursey

Thurs 17th June

With rain overnight it was a little slow start, but the long flying list was set to with Pete Harmer, Chris Wool, Peter Smith and Mike Sloggett taking turns in the back seat. 

Lenticulars starting to form (Jill Harmer)

During the morning the sky became increasingly full of lenticulars,  but late afternoon the gentle north westerly wind suddenly turned into a north easterly 

 

Barbie surveying the sky (George Sanderson)

and Geoff Lawrence took the prize for the longest flight of the day  47mins and the only soaring from  a winch launch. - J&P

Wed 16th June

Another busy  Club day with a good length flying list which Glenn Turpin and Peter Smith worked through, but very little soaring and no private gliders out summed up the weather. 

Library picture

 The Wednesday evening Club member group took over at tea-time completing a day tally of over 50 launches.

Tues 15th June - Ad-Hoc day

The Chairman called an Ad -hoc day, but the weather struggled to perform in the West Country. Just 230 and DD3  took up the baton with Robert tugging.

The Task was set as  203kms NHL - Blandford - The Park - Cullompton - NHL. 

230's trace

"Hard slog today with variable thermals, none particularly strong or reached cloudbase. Getting back across the Bridgwater/Lyme Bay gap was particlarly difficult as it blued out so was never sure where the sea air was, took a big diversion off track to go South of Yeovilton. A couple of fortuitous climbs got me from one landout option to the next and eventually home."  - Pete Startup 230

"A tricky day in the West country. Pete and I declared 200K which he did very well to complete. The return to NHL was entirely blue. We picked one too many old wisps and started the iron thermal just short of Merryfield on the way back. Hard work, Well done Pete!" - Phil Morrison & Nick Jones DD3

Mon 14th June - Trial lesson day

Perfect day,  Great weather,  Well-organised crew and six Trial lesson visitors.
Thanks to  Instructors,  Tuggies and Helpers Peter Field, John Sillett, Tom, James, Jonathan, Hans, Tim and Dan. 

Aerotow at North Hill (Mark Layton)

It was nice to be able to give our visitors a lot of our time before and after their  flights. They seemed to appreciate it.  We have further Trial lesson days planned for Friday 18th, Monday 21st and Friday 25th June - slots should be pre-booked on our website. - Peter Field

Sun 13th June

A beautiful morning at North Hill and a bit of housekeeping replacing the macramé tow rope on the Golf Buggy while we got the kit out.

The wind was swinging around but seemed to have settled in the predicted south easterly quarter by the time we were ready to set up the field so thus we did, launching from the north west corner. We took both 21s and Junior LRD. Flying was soon underway, first Peter Smith with Paul Summers and then Paul made a welcome return to BI duties, flying with Tristan  who hopes to soon join the Junior section. They had an extended flight covering the basics and we hope to see Tristan regularly. Meanwhile Peter put returnee Liam Vile through the hoops and we hope to also see more of Liam now. 

Grass coming through on the reseeded patch (Peter Smith)

Inevitably the wind seemed to settle in the south west so we changed ends but it kept us on our toes all day with spells of South easterly. Dan and Ruth had aerotow refreshers and Ruth’s tow was quite challenging leading us to hope for thermic activity after release but sadly no luck there. Glenn was getting stuck in to the flying list as well and by late afternoon we had flown the list and everyone who wanted to had flown with the Junior being in steady demand.

2 private gliders flew, Trevor Russell and James Smart in the ASW19, and Mark Wallis in CEC again making the longest flight of over 2 hours.

Thanks to all who helped during the day, Wyn for launch marshall without flying, the various winch and retrieve drivers and once again Sally in the launch control. 36 flights in total and a very pleasant and rewarding day. - Peter Smith

Sat 12th June

 After a disappointing few days of low cloud towards the end of the preceding week, the promise of better things from high pressure building over the Azores and pushing across the UK on Saturday was enough to a draw a good number of club members up to North Hill for an early start.   With military style efficiency, Team DSGC quickly established operations at the Eastern end of the field.  Under the direction of DLM Pete Startup and Duty Instructor James Flory, the first winch launch got off the ground at 09:29 with Andy Batchelor solo in a K21, followed 5 minutes later by James with trainee Adam Niemczyk.  A busy morning ensued, with both K21’s, both Juniors and the Perkoz being used for a healthy mixture of checks, training and solo flying.  Club members also took advantage of aerotows throughout the day, with CFI Stuart taking the majority of the tug duties, assisted by James F. By late morning, private gliders also began to arrive at the launch point, with pilots tempted by the developing thermal activity.  With flight durations increasing commensurate with the availability of lift, the launch point became very much quieter by mid-afternoon. 

With the soaring OK, but not brilliant, Pete Startup and Simon Minson were the only privateers to venture far, with Pete completing Tiverton-Beaminster with the benefit of some sea-breeze convergence and Simon Tiverton - Crewkerne.  Local soarers got a few more minutes with Jeff Taberham in 380 2:26 taking the prize.

Pilots of motor gliders VG and SC also took advantage of the excellent flying conditions throughout the day. 

Congratulations to Andy - convert to Junior (Josh Batchelor)

As things began to get quieter, and with the training flying list well under way with Steve Westlake stepping in to lend a welcome hand with instructional duties, it was suggested to Andy Batchelor that, having achieved the necessary solo requirements in the K21, all that stood between him and the conversion to the Junior was the successful completion of the spinning and stalling revision package originally commenced in December before Covid got in the way. With the weather being perfect and the Perkoz, tug, tug pilot and instructor all being available, Andy quickly ran out of excuses and under James F’s tutorage, found himself at 3000’ enjoying the delights of spinning once more.  With the spinning package completed, Andy’s day finished up with the requisite briefings and 2 solo flights in Junior LRD.  Single seat conversion complete! 

By 16:45, numbers were beginning to dwindle, so gliders – club and private alike – were slowly returned to storage.  The last flights of the day landed at 17:20 and by 17:45, everything was packed away after a very successful and thoroughly enjoyable day of gliding.  With grateful thanks to all those club members not specifically mentioned, but who worked hard throughout the day to support the gliding effort. - Andy Batchelor

Fri 11th June - Course week

Day 5, the final day of the June course,  and yet another slow start due to the weather not playing ball once again, with low cloud drifting around. So, the day started in the clubhouse with some interesting stories and useful learning experiences in the long and distinguished career of Sir Chris Coville, all of which had an underlying learning point on the importance of correct practice, procedure and attitude towards safe flying.

This was followed by Guy Adams returning to the clubhouse with the well received comment of  “let’s fly shall we,” no one needed to be asked twice, and the already DI’d aircraft and kit were soon in position and flying commenced. Cloud was patchy but a good number of launches took place and all the course students flew, making further advances in their individual training and led to Chris Mew completing his required checks to return to solo flying. Ian Hunt was now sharing the Junior with Chris C and notching up his flights also. 

Course members, Instructors and Helpers

 
One slight, very short interruption in the afternoon with Heli-Med 71A requesting permission to fly through our overhead to attend an incident to the East of Dunkeswell, as all our aircraft were on the ground at the time minimal interruption to  our flying occurred - but we were happy to help.

Circuits where the main order of the day, but flight times did increase slightly towards the end of the day, which was unfortunately brought to a sudden close at approx 15:45 by the fast approaching low cloud and rain.

A course debrief then took place in the clubhouse and all departed for home with a common sense of gratitude to the instructors  - John Sillett and Guy Adams, and course helpers -  Andrew Logan, Dan Hender and Dave Perriam. The course students also appeared to have a good feeling of personal achievement and training advancement, given the weather conditions throughout the week restricted flights to basic circuits and launch failure practice for the majority of the time which made soaring and training exercises rather difficult.

But....  a good week was had by all, good banter, and flying every day, not too bad really !!! - Dave Perriam

Thurs 10th June - Course week

 Day 4 - well what can I say, orographic cloud, drizzle, more cloud, more rain and a club day as well.

After a very slow start awaiting the cloud base to lift, flights commenced....  then stopped ...waiting once again for cloud base, then it rained .... then it stopped ..... then it rained again, so that about sums up the day on top of the Blackdown Hills.

Mainly waiting around (Jill Harmer)

However on the bright side we did complete 20 launches and five out of six course members flew, (and that’s only because one left early). It also included a number of club member flights in the total.

The day finished at approx 18:30 and a very nice Course fish and chip supper followed - Hoping for better weather for the final day tomorrow. - Dave Perriam

Wed 9th June - Course week

 Day 3 of the Course and a very busy day with lots of flying being undertaken by both course and club members alike.

Ground equipment was out and DI’d, ready to go by 0730 once again, completed by the insomniac sleeping onsite, woken once again by the early daylight and very noisy dawn chorus.

First flight of the day, undertaken again by Sir Chris launched at 09:25 in the Junior, followed by course and club flights throughout the day. Cloud base was not particularly high so a fair amount of simulated launch failure and circuit training undertaken by all.

477 back flying complete with new Tost hook (Mark Layton)

Two lines were running, one for club and one for course members, which gave a nice balance for the day. All the course members benefited from the conditions of the day and all went home happy at approx 17:30.

The evening approached and James Flory and others arrived and flying did take place, however, with a patchy cloud base of seven to eight hundred feet most launches had to release early to avoid going into cloud or getting caught above the swiftly forming orographic clouds.

A productive day, lots achieved for many, looking forward to tomorrow in hope of a better day. - Dave Perriam

Tues 8th June - Course week

Course week day 2, got off to an early start, with the weather being bright and sunny but not overly thermic, with the first launch at 09:25 by Chris Coville in the Junior.

Bright and sunny from early on (Dave Perriam)

The instructors followed but they seemed to be reluctant to get to full height !!!! (If you know what I mean). Sally Hender arrived and threw in a freebie day during which she kindly started Dave Perriam’s logging training in the shiny new Launch Control. Sally left mid pm for a prearranged meeting and left Dave P to it, however all went well ..........  I think !!!

All course candidates had several flights with Mike Meatyard, Chris Mew, Stuart Thomson, Tim Powell, and Ian Hunt furthering the training requested and agreed with their instructors. Mike Meatyard also enjoyed the Perkoz with John Sillett in the afternoon with Chris Coville continuing to notch up time in the Junior managing some soaring time on a couple of his flights.

Ian Hunt re-soloed in the ASK21 and followed that with a flight in the Junior.

K6 from Culdrose (Dave Perriam)

Mixed in with all the course activity, there was some private flights as well with two visiting pilots from Sea Hawk at RNAS Culdrose launching a Nimbus and K6CR. We also launched Eric Alston in G29 as well.

An excellent second day was had by all and finished at approx 17:30, with a busier and better day expected and to look forward to tomorrow. - Dave Perriam

Mon 7th June - Course week

 Day one of our first Summer course and a reasonable day had by all, after a delayed start due to low cloudbase, adequately filled by John Sillett’s classroom tuition on the theory and recovery from the spiral dive and spinning. Flying started at about 11:00 and all course candidates flew at least three flights each, all of which were reasonably short flights due to the skies not wanting to play nicely !!!

K21 waiting to launch (Library photo)

Both K21s and FZF were in use with Sir Chris making good use of the Junior having it all to himself. Guy Adams and John Sillett were kept busy all day carrying out a lot of refresher training and card checks, with our only non-member candidate Stuart Thompson starting his initial training with a number of flights.

A good first day had by all and the day closed at 17:30 with a well earned coffee and debrief in the clubhouse, looking forward to a better day tomorrow, at least according to the current forecast. - Dave Perriam

Sun 6th June

Condor Racing

With the weather at North Hill not playing ball today, the Regular Sunday evening Condor racers took to the virtual skies. 

The task was from a recent VSC Cirrus Cup  125Kms Llanbedr - Snowdon - Bala - Llwyngwril Bridge - Llanbedr, with a strong Northwest wind, high cloudbase and moderate thermals.

 It was an interesting ridge and thermal task with Simon Leeson leading off, and Chris Warnes delaying his start for a low, fast run which he managed to pull off to win the task. - J&P

Sat 5th June

Once again North Hill was blessed with a crisp blue morning sky, driving an early and productive start to the days flying. By half past nine five club gliders plus the K6 was rigged and ready to soar.

Cloud to the west had prevented Mark Courtney and Simon Leeson from landing at Brentor but the sun still shone over North Hill. A morning of check flights and simulated launch failures began with three instructors kept busy throughout the morning. Pockets of cumulus indicated the growing of some light thermals, mixed with very strong sink. Some did manage to find the lift, and Josh Funnell was awarded longest flight of the day in the K6 at 55 minutes.

Junior pilot Harvey Skeggs was introduced to cable breaks for the first time by Simon Minson and Stuart Thomson was given an introductory day to gliding by John Sillett before his place on the course next week.

 

Charlie Stuckey P1 back seat with Josh Funnell (Mark Courtney)

However the wind began to swing more and more to the south delivering cooler air from the sea. The sink became much stronger and as a result a few gliders were forced to turn in early on their approaches. But this short spell of sink then turned into some light thermic activity dotted around the ridge. Charlie Stuckey was checked out for back seat flying in the Perkoz by Mark. In an historic moment Charlie was cleared to fly the Perkoz as P1 from the rear seat with Josh taking the front seat. Finally after years of training two Juniors and best mates could fly together.

Busy day at North Hill (Mark Courtney)

 Pete Harmer climbed up on the hangar roof to replace the weather station that had been struggling to report humidity for a while.

Thanks to everyone who helped make today possible in some varied conditions. More than 50 launches in total. - Jack Raybould

Fri 4th June - Ad-hoc day

 At eight o’clock in the morning a clear blue sky covered North Hill. I kindly declined the offer of going to Beer with my parents, to stay at the caravan instead and help run wings for the cross-country pilots. This plan was suddenly changed though when Nick Jones very generously offered his seat in the Duo Discus to me, which I quickly accepted.

After some prep-work Phil and I both jumped in DD3 and Pete Startup got in 230. Pete had suggested a 200k North Hill - Molton - Launceston - Wimbleball - North Hill which Phil and I decided to follow.

Once we launched at around noon we both started our climbs up to a terrific 4000ft QNH cloud base and Pete lead the way with Phil and I not far behind. Within the first 20k I had already managed to get us low but was saved by a new thermal! After Phil and I had turned South Molton, Pete was already 20k infront. However this lead was swiftly lost as Pete got low halfway along the second leg and we cruised past!

230's flight

 Somehow Pete had managed to wiggle past us by our third turn point, Wimbleball, however due to Phil’s expertise in thermal selection we pulled ahead again just before the line!

Thanks again to Phil and Nick for letting me jump in the back of the Duo, to Robert Lee for towing us out of North Hill and Andy Pincombe for running the wing. - Dan Hender

Thurs 3rd June

 With Wednesday wiped out, Thursday had some low cloud to start which led to several simulated launch failures early on. But the cloud lifted and broke to give full height launches but little in the way of soaring from the winch, just some extended circuits.

 

Heavy cloud (Jill Harmer)

35 launches in all, thanks to everyone keeping it all going well. - J&P