Sun 28th November

With the weather much improved from Saturday, and the lanes cleared of debris from Storm Arwen, there was a large turnout of members early on. So with four of the five gliders brought out of the hangar, and a group rigging KEK, and the Juniors got K6 DRE rigged, the airfield was ready and the grid was full by 9:30am, we even managed two launches before the magic 10am cheap rate cut off!

A busy November day (Mike Sloggett)

 

Duty instructor Ron Johns worked his way through the two-seater flying list, while the Juniors and K6 were kept busy, and the Perkoz was used for IFP training by Stuart Procter and Chris Warnes, congratulations to Chris on completing his CFI acceptance.

Blue skies and puffy white clouds (Mike Sloggett)

 Unfortunately HCX was declared U/S after a few flights, with concerns over the cable release, thank you to George Sanderson and Peter Smith for their efforts with this, and bringing it back into service before the end of the day. Mike Sloggett took over as duty instructor for the afternoon, finishing the two-seater list in good time. Well done to Andrew Batchelor, for taking on and achieving the task of learning Launchpoint Control.

James Hood back in a glider with  Stuart the Boss (James Hood)

 
Both Trial lessons were flown with Robert Lee taking the 12:30pm and Chris Warnes completing his first ever at 2pm. Both were extremely happy with their experiences, and the visitors enjoyed themselves too!

Thanks to everyone today for their efforts a total of 61 flights, a great achievement in November! - Sally Hender

Wed 24th November

I arrived at the club around 10am to see a group of members walking KEK down the hill in order to de-rig and put it in the workshop for its annual. Robert and I took the easy way out and worked on getting the clubhouse internet back working. Within a short time, the cold group stamped into the clubroom demanding tea and coffee. 

The widespread low cloud took most of the enthusiasm out of setting up for flying, but by 11:30 Glenn rallied the small turnout (8 members) to pull some equipment and at least two gliders out of the hangar. 

The low cloud in the morning also gave Hans Jenssen and Stewart Henshall the opportunity to find out how to rig DG100 HMS, before Stewart headed back to the dark room, continuing the Simulator upgrade.

New toy for Stewart, Hans and Stirling (Hans Jenssen)

We were fortunate that we had an experienced bunch who rotated through winch driving, logging and launching/retrieve, plus we had the unusual situation of everyone wanting solo flights. With good coordination and eating a cold lunch alongside the launch point, we managed 15 flights before the cloudbase once again dropped and canopies started misting. 

Not epic flying, but it was great to see everyone pitch in and have a couple of flights. - Tom Sides

Sun 21st November

Even with the blustery conditions forecast, there were quite a few members at the club early on. The airfield was set up at the west end, with everyone thinking they may have needed another layer of clothing!

Flying started at 10:30am with Duty Instructor Peter Field starting on the training list, but the yellow card was quickly moved to a blue due to the wind strength, and unfortunately the booked Trial lesson visitor had to be put off for another day.

Not North Hill! ............ but Southdown GC with a NE ridge day

The training list was worked through, with Guy Adams taking over the duty in the afternoon. A few solo pilots took the opportunity to fly in the challenging conditions, but overall a fairly quiet day, and very limited numbers left to help, as we came to pack away and de-rig KEK for next week's Annual.
Thanks to everyone who stayed the course !! A lovely day.

More raffle tickets were purchased during the day, thank you to everyone who is supporting the Juniors K6 DRE fund, a new prize of a bottle of Jack Daniels has also been donated. - Regular blogger Sally Hender!!!!

Sat 20th November

It was a slow start, with low cloud stopping play starting too early. However the hangars were unpacked with the optimism ever present among glider pilots. Duty instructor Mark Courtney was feeling under the weather, so the afternoon instructor, John Sillett took on the reins and the first pupil in the K21. With just five flights taken, the cloud was moving back down towards the airfield, so the decision was made to break early for lunch. 

Low cloud started rolling back in (Dan Hender)

 However, after eating and putting the world to rights, the call was made to put all the toys away for the day. More tea and cakes were consumed and members drifted off home to earn brownie points (or watch the rugby!)

Stewart Henshall helped by Jill & Pete have been burning lots of midnight oil with fine-tuning the simulator upgrade, which will be ready for general release very soon.

Thanks to all who tried to make a go of the day. - Sally Hender

Wed 17th November

Wednesday saw most of the normal crew arrive for what turned out to be a good flying day with nice weather, and not to cold, but also not a lot of thermal activity, however a slight amount of wave.

The dual list was short with a greater number of solo pilots and instructors on site, so the K21s were used as well as the Junior for solo flying once the training flights were completed.

Library pic (Andy Mayson)

 
A couple of aerotows took place for those that wanted them which led to a couple of extended flights taking place in what can only be described as calm and enjoyable conditions.

So all day flying, leisurely lunch, and a cease to flying at about 16:00 made for a very good and enjoyable day with the normal banter and atmosphere. - Dave Perriam

Sun 14th November

The drive to the airfield under blue sunny skies, alongside a generally optimistic weather forecast, suggested a day of flying awaited Club members at North Hill today. With a good number of members keen to fly James Flory and Dave Herbert, as the duty team for the morning, soon had both K21s, a Junior and the Perkoz out of the hangar. Whilst daily inspections were completed on the gliders, James and Mike Sloggett went to the West end, to check the condition of the airfield and decide the best position for Launch Control and winch rope run taking into account the light NE wind.

Once the gliders had been walked to the West end of the airfield by mid-morning it was on with the flying list for a series of training and check flights completed by James and Mike whilst the solo pilots took the Junior for winch and aerotow launches

Andy Davey demonstrated how quickly one can lose height in a K21 from a 5000ft aerotow, being watched from the ground by various members as he completed a series of aerobatic manoeuvres. The arrival of Ron Johns and Peter Smith allowed flying to continue through the lunch period which meant the flying list made good progress as the day unfolded. 

Sunglint (Mike Sloggett)

During the day Paul Summers looked after our sole Trial Visitor. Well Done to Paul Medlock who successfully converted to the Perkoz.

Sun setting (Mike Sloggett)

 By mid-afternoon and as the sun started to descend in the sky the flying list had been completed, and with canopies starting to show signs of misting the decision was made to fly the gliders back to the hangar.

 

Sally hooking on Hans in the Junior (Rob Hender)

Thank you (as ever) to Sally Hender who did a long shift in Launch Control including some training of others - and after which Sally, being evidently bored and no longer needed in Launch Control, decided to help out with launching gliders!

A good day from start to finish, thank you to all involved today. - Mike Sloggett

Sat 13th November

View from the Duty Instructor

 The 1hr trip to the club from South Hams is a good chance to study the sky and today was an example of an interesting sky. First leg dropping my daughter at work in Darlington and I felt the training was paying off when she asked about the “smooth straight cloud over the Moor”. That opened the door to full bull s@@t mode about wave without me really thinking about the why. David Braine on Spotlight the night before made the day sound fairly inert with, I thought, light winds. Coming over Haldon, I was struck by how many lenticular-like clouds dotted the mid-level cloudscape.
Perhaps David Braine scared off people because it was a modest, but keen team that got the field going. Only two on the 2-seater list and yet no real risk of rain and gentle winds  so good  for training made me think “what a shame”!
Connor Williams and Rob Hender with their one to one tuition kept the K21s busy, while the sky filled and hid from view the early wave clouds.
Eric Alston  having helped with early launches and chatting about the sky, slipped the wings on to G29 and disappeared off. I heard the buzz of his engine just about the time the sky to the north started to show crosswind clouds and sunny gaps. The wind was very much NNW and fresher aloft so spying him at 5k’ on Spot The Gliders criss-crossing Culmstock was no surprise! Sadly I had to leave before he was down for a debrief but well done Eric for giving it a go! - John Pursey

View from the Launchpoint

Considering the weather forecast and conditions, there were very few people in the clubhouse first thing. Alan Turner had managed to get all the ground equipment out before the first pilots even arrived! With both K21’s, the Perkoz and a Junior brought out, flying began at 10.05am just missing the cheaper rate launches. Duty instructor John Pursey started the flying list, and Simon Leeson (although on tug duty) took a trainee too, which meant by 11:30 the two-seat flying list was completed!!! (Only two pupils today, so for any of those that could have come up, you missed your opportunity). The single seat list was four times the length so inroads were made into that throughout the morning. While I continued to sell raffle tickets between launches, trying to keep members up to date on the ever growing list of prizes (here is the link to the current list:  https://www.dsgc.co.uk/gallery/367-agm-raffle-2021).

 

The second axle has appeared as if by magic! (John Pursey)

Between launches, there was much admiration of the second axle on the Launchpoint, and I definitely noticed a big difference in the stability, big thank you to Peter Smith. Flying continued into the afternoon, with flight times increasing as the day progressed.

Andy Batchelor converted  to Perkoz (John Pursey)

 

Mike Wilmott came back after his 3000ft aerotow reporting a very notable flight, found wave, did aerobatics back down through a hole in the cloud and found more lift on his way back.

 

View from above the clouds

Eric also got into the wave 

G29 above the clouds (Eric Alston)

 

"I Headed north and found a gap in the clouds,  stretching from Tiverton Junction to the Wellington Monument. Reliable lift along the southern side of the gap, at times averaging over 2 knots, climbing to 5000 ft QNH. The gap started to fill in so headed south over the cloud to another gap just west of North Hill. Some lift here, much less than before, then this gap started to fill so air braked down to below the clouds."  - Eric Alston

 

Everyone who wanted to, flew, and the three Trial Voucher flights went home with smiles on their faces, two of whom it was third time lucky.

 

The hangar was packed away by 4pm, thank you to everyone for their help today, we were fairly thin on the ground, but everyone worked well together and efficiently ran the airfield, with no real delays between flights. - Sally Hender

 

Thur 11th November

 Surprisingly, cloud was above launch height for the first flight, and the air was amazingly clean with sunlit banks of cloud.  Two K21s, a Junior and Perkoz were in demand. But during the morning the cloud started to build up and an early lunch was called for some light drizzle. 

Bands of cloud developing (Jill Harmer)

 In the afternoon, conditions got better and better, although the forecast southerly wind didn't pick up significantly. Some weak wavy conditions provided reduced sink for the high launches. 

Stewart Henshall and Andy Williams both claimed the longest flights of 22 minutes. With 23 flights in total it proved to be a really pleasant day. Unfortunately Stirling Melhuish missed out on flying after winching all afternoon due to the canopies misting as the sun was going down.

A wavy edge (Stewart Henshall)

Junior LRD was rigged after its Annual (thanks Carl Tharme and Andrew Logan for the speedy turnround.) Stewart, Jill and Pete spent some more time checking out the new projections on the Simulator at lunchtime and after flying. Thanks everyone. - J&P

Sat / Sun 6/7th November

An Eagle Tale

A weekend of interesting wind forecast (SW then NW) and recent banter on an Eagle WhatsApp chat about soaring St Cyre’s hill, led to Saturday starting with scouting of fields but then realistic appreciation that the day wasn’t going to plan. SW is always an interesting direction for the wind with wavy effects probably from Dartmoor interacting with the ridges around the club both positively and negatively. The big go for broke dash to St Cyre’s in an Eagle was but given up but thanks to Stirling’s help, AXJ got rigged and dragged out to enjoy the drizzle. Moments of brightness beguiled but didn’t deliver and we watched the low cloudbase disrupt as we waited a turn. A rope break at 800ft didn’t help the mood but the ridge was reached at XXX feet and enough height gained to do a circuit. The next launch for AXJ missed the bright gap and with the ridge getting weaker the lower we got the wave effects were definitely negative locally at that moment. A wide wall of rain meant a landing and park up seemed sensible.

 
So much for a S Westerly… Sunday and N Westerly become an option when for various reasons AXJ got left rigged and Alan R and I played a domestic credit to fly for a second day. With Pete S, Simon M and JB showing up and rigging, the faith in the NW wind being interesting was renewed. Wave again being the joker, from an unexpectedly buoyant ridge (given the wind angle) to the weak climb the ever canny Ron J found in the DG over the solar farm near the M5 Jn27. Ron kindly took two tows with Connor and Dan to coach local wave use.

 

Five Junior members rigged K6 DRE and all enjoyed some flights, whilst Sally Hender was busy selling raffle tickets to cover K6 running costs.

It's not all about a modern fleet (John Pursey)

 
AXJ by contrast,  hung on to the ridge and until a landing seemed inevitable when a series of weak climbs with Simon and Pete got steadily more solid as the day perked up. Strangely good for a while in band off the ridge,  the positive wave influence led to thermals that were quite useable until suddenly they weren’t. Dropping back to a now unreliable ridge we Eagled as low as we dared before landing. With no Eagle to follow Simon had to throw in the towel and land too… Pete who had made it further out earlier eventually dropped back and JB with the heady smell of unleaded and oil cruised a little longer.
More “ridge soaring” followed as the wave cycled and despite the oblique angle on the home ridge, lift could be found above the ridge. All in all a good day for November! - John Pursey

 PS welcome back as a DSGC member after a gap of 31 years to Eagle P2, Alan Rappaport!

Thur 4th November

After the cold night, it was a beautiful clear blue sky that greeted members today, and in the shelter of the clubhouse the sun felt warm. However on the northern side it was difficult standing up with the bitterly strong northerly wind. Although the ground equipment had all been readied, there was rather guarded enthusiasm for opening the hangar doors  with gusting to 26knots  straight in.

Sheltering on the sunny lee-side of Launch Control (Jill Harmer)

Peter Smith and Mike Sloggett did a reconnaissance of the west end  for a potential launch point and reported back that for once it was better at the west end. We took the opportunity to stow the light plastic chairs and tables in the hangar and then after another cup of tea, Wooly led the  careful extraction of a K21. 

Sparkling visibility (Mike Sloggett)

Flying was ready by 11:30 with Wooly and Peter Smith exploring the North ridge and the call came for another K21. With blue card conditions two-seater flying was limited to 1 flight each, most  were just extended circuits, around midday the ridge seemed to be kicking off something, and the Junior was brought out for the afternoon as the wind dropped. 

Sunset at North Hill (Mike Sloggett)

Extremely pleasant day in the sunshine and the lee-side of the Launch Control with everyone wrapped up in their winter clothes for the first time of the season. Thanks everyone - J&P

Wed 3rd November

Well the day started in a leisurely way with the normal Wednesday crew rolling in, the field inspection was carried out following the rather heavy or large amount of water that fell from the skies, but, it was deemed usable and the kit was readied and positioned for the days activities.

The weather was reasonable and quite calm, allowing a fair number of flights to take place, with all present who wanted to fly, flown. Flights were fairly short with it being quite cold allowing for minimal lift. The afternoon saw a couple of aerotows take place for currency and training.

However, the Wednesday crew led by John Sillett and Glenn Turpin had a good day and James Smart even managed to get a trial lesson flight in for a lady that really enjoyed her time in the air, and was full of the joys when back on the ground. 

Setting sun (Dave Perriam)

 As with this time of year the darkness started to close in and end of day hangar flights were soon upon us.

Overall a good days flying for the time of year. - Dave Perriam

Sat/Sun 30/31 October

 There has been a lot of rain at North Hill this week, and it was marginal on using the airfield on Saturday without damaging the ground, so after just a few flights including a trial lesson, it was decided to call it a day. No flying on Sunday with yet another 30mm of rain.

 But the Condor racers were active on Sunday evening with a quick ridge run from Innsbruck to Salzburg, although Matt Howard had tried it before and decided to play with some wave. 

 

 The rest raced down the valley some  struggling with a little fluttering..... but the task was won by Mike Willmott. - J&P