Fri 29th July - Sid's Task week

Sid's forecast: Bright start & blue thermal starting fairly early becoming very shallow isolated Cu 6000-6500ft beneath slowly increasing high cover .

The tasks were set :  

Class A 337km Nympsfield - Winchcombe - Sackville - Silverstone - Rivar Hill - Nympsfield

Class B 229km Nympsfield - Winchcombe - Buckingham - Hungerford - Nympsfield

Class C 125km Nympsfield - Hungerford - Nympsfield

Dan in the K6 DRE (had completed the 100km task on Tuesday) so stepped up to 229km, Pete  230 and Phil and Nick DD3  took on the 330km task. The conditions were "Amazing" cloud base over 6000ft and thermal averages of 6 to 8 knots.
The hardest part was making sure you kept under the cobweb of height restrictions covering the centre of England.  All tasks completed.

DRE and DD3 ( Sally Hender)

 "Great task, great company and great thermals - top day out!" - Pete Startup

"Epic conditions for us West country boys..... Dratts!!!! missed hoped for 100kph by a fraction." - Phil Morrison

And Dan (tooo tired to comment!) - Third Cross-country flight 3hrs 42min , 85kph - "The boy done good!!!" - PS

A perfect flying day was rounded off with a Barbecue organised by the North Hill group for all at Nympsfield . Thank you Phil, Sally and Rob. - Nick Jones

Thurs 28th July

For the second day running the RASP forecast was completely wrong and over-optimistic. With the holiday period in full swing a lot of the Thursday Regulars were away, but the two-seater flying list was as long as ever with several new members filling the void. 

Getting the gliders out (Mike Horwood)

Pete Harmer, Mike Sloggett, Chris Wool worked their way through the training sessions whilst Tom Sides looked after the Trial lessons and some of the new members' flights.

 

The three Junior pilots took turns with flying and winching.

By 16:00 the RASP forecast came to fruition with a small convergence setting up along the field up to 3000ft with Pete Harmer and Andreas Kraemer enjoying the longest flight of the day of just over an hour.

Thanks also to Barbie Fairclough for standing in for Mark as tuggie. We look forward to seeing our new members again soon, Thanks to our hard working Regulars for the smooth running and start of ground training for the new members. - J&P

Highbridge Caravans were the booked group for this evening, and they were met by the evening instructors, James Flory, Glenn Turpin and James Smart. With just eight visitors in the group the introduction was done, and flying started at about 6.30pm. One of the group was a silver pilot from Aston Down, so was taken in the Perkoz by James Flory, who didn’t need to be there! All eight enjoyed their flights, with six of the group taking a second launch. 

Highbridge Caravans (Sally Hender)

 A very successful evening, thank you to the helpers, Aston Key, George Sanderson, Stirling Melhuish, Rob and Sally Hender. - Sally Hender

Wed 27th July

The Wednesday Crowd gathered in strength under the cloud of John's retirement from Instructing and we tried to carry on with his way of doing things -  not easy.

In spite of numbers and enthusiasm, the grid  was set up by 09:30, but we were hampered by a few technical problems and a slightly awkward field layout and flying didn't get going until just after 10:00. John's absence as an instructor was compensated for (in part) by Peter Field whose task as Tuggie for the day was re-designated as backseat in a K21, thank you Peter. 

The weather, a bit flat at first brightened up for a while and some local soaring was to be had before total cloud cover largely killed the lift. With several newer members, a trial lesson and a 'walk in' we struggled to cope with the flying list and it is on such occasions that one appreciates the hard work and support of the club members carrying out the many mundane tasks willingly. Thank you. 

Lovely evening for a spot of flying (Lisa Humphries)

The day shift was in turn replaced by James Flory and  the evening crew for a pleasant evening's member flying.  - Glenn Turpin 

"What a great evening, thanks everyone and especially to James  for making the evening possible." - Paul Summers

Tues 26th July - Sid's Task week

 Pete Startup 230, Phil Morrison and Nick Jones DD3 and Dan Hender DRE were flying from Nympsfield in Sid's Task Week.

On Tuesday 26th, tasks were set for the pundits...

Nympsfield - Bridgnorth - Hereford Cathedral - Mynd - Nympsfield - 298.6km

 and for Dan...

Nympsfield - Bishops Cleeve - Shipton under Wychwood - Nympsfield - 113km

All completed successfully - well done

DD3 on final glide back to Nympsfield (Nick Jones)

"Great task, difficult conditions to start with(went too early really), great last leg." Pete Startup

"A struggle at times but probably an advantage in starting late." Phil Morrison 

Dan's first 'How I dunnit' at briefing (Rob Hender)

 "Awesome 2nd solo cross country with a very low and difficult second leg. Probably should have launched even later than I did, but easy to say!"  Dan Hender

Thurs 21st July

 Wednesday club flying during the day was thwarted by misty low cloud, but the evening regulars turned up for some flying once the front had cleared through. So Thursday started with a very long flying list for both the two-seaters and single-seaters. There were also 3 quarterly  members returning after their trial lessons and  visitors Andrew from Dartmoor GS and Lucy from The Soaring Centre at HusBos and a Trial lesson flight to fit into the day. 

Waiting to launch (David Clements)

 With a light and variable wind the launchpoint was set up at the East end, and soaring was tricky through the morning but became easier in the afternoon, kicked off by Ron and Dan in Ash 711 and Pete Startup 230. Pete completed another Club 100  Knowstone - North Tawton  achieving top place on the BGA ladder on a rather indifferent day. "Slow bimble round the Club 100 once the cloud started to break up and let some sun through. Still very cloudy but even under the 8/8ths bits it worked ok.".

Mike helping Barbie get ready (David Clements)

 Well done to Connor Williams who achieved his first hour soaring flight in K6 DRE, it was good to see Barbie Fairclough back enjoying soaring in the Pik20. We even had a visitor from Skydive Buzz who dropped in on the adjacent field containing haystacks. - A busy day but good to get some pleasant soaring in for a change. Thanks all - J&P

Exeter41 Club - evening group (John Borland)

After a busy Thursday the Exeter 41 Club arrived for their evening flying experience. 15 people flew and many were able to experience soaring in some late weak thermals. A great evening was had by all. Many thanks to the DSGC team of volunteers. All safely packed away by 9pm. - John Borland

Sun 17th July

 The local forecast was for the heat to build to an unacceptable level for safety and enjoyment after lunchtime on Sunday. So the decision was made by myself and Simon Leeson with consultation with the CFI and Chairman, that we should start as early as possible and finish at around midday. Simon and I never need alarm clocks when we stay in our caravans, we are always rudely awakened by the resident pigeons at day break or near after, today was no exception! Early start it is then!

Coffee drunk by 6:15, time to wander down to the hangar and make a slow start, Gordon Hutchinson and Dave Perriam are also early risers and immediately set about getting the ground equipment out, along with “up with the sparrows” Stirling Melhuish.

Early start (Simon Leeson)

 By 07:15 three gliders were out of the hangar, DI’d and ready to go, we regularly glanced towards the entrance lane expecting a rush of members keen to “beat the heat”,  it appears that our members don’t have pigeon alarm clocks.

We knew Chris Wooly would not be early as he rarely goes to bed before 6 am, those re-runs of 1950’s horror movies are captivating….

Luckily Cheryl and Graham were in the kitchen early ( they have a pigeon clock) and fed the few troops that were slowly mustering outside the clubhouse.

Stu's new transport (Simon Leeson)

 The CFI arrived just in time for breakfast, he was absolutely puffed out having bravely ridden his wife’s electric mountain bike the 300 meters from his house.

Time ticked by……….

Mark seen polishing the logo (Simon Leeson)

By 9:30 having eaten, drunk numerous coffee’s, listened to the usual stories of “when I was in the war” etc we all felt we perhaps should walk the gliders down the other end and “have a go”

With no trainees Stuart, who had barely recovered from his epic bike ride, and Simon Leeson decided to take a launch, they managed to soar in the valley to the south, a mixture of weak thermals and wave/rotor for nearly an hour before being called down because the glider was needed by Robert (duty IFP) to fly out first Trial lesson visitor.

Stu Procter and Simon Leeson (Mark Courtney)

Simon Jordy was our tug driver today, barely recognisable, no Green overalls today, his Hawaiian shirt was louder than the pigeons, his shorts fit for a 90’s rapper, he explained to us that the last mirror in his house was broken so could not check his attire before leaving this morning.

We were blessed with a nice breeze, which was a blessing, the Junior was flown from the get go, rumour has it that James Flory was seen in it, James was obviously keen to fly because it has been over 12 hours since he flew last.

A friend of our local farmer who was visiting from New Zealand grabbed a flight with Stuart, she loved the views of England this time of year, although she did ask where all the sheep had gone.

The wind started to have a mind of its own so we decided to walk the gliders back down to the east end, Simon very kindly volunteered to drive the Gator once more so that Stuart and I could walk the length of the field, again, bless him….

Dan flew the K6 for longest flight of the day 64 mins (yes I know you came down for the trial lesson Leeson.)

Things were getting lively with the wind from the south and also gusting, the heat was building, steadily, time was now just after midday.

We stopped for lunch at 1:30, by now it was getting ridiculous inside the gliders, however Harry Rigby and dad Mike (he’s the one with the silly hat) had returned to NH after a long break and were keen to fly after lunch.

One glance at the windsock told us that we might not be able to winch, Harry opted for an aerotow, it was very rough for the first 100 feet so it was decided that the remaining trial lesson should come back another day. We all decided that enough was enough and we packed up about 2:30.

We had a small team of people today who worked hard in difficult conditions, Simon and I would like to thank them all (you know who you are).

It was disappointing to see so few members at the club early but those who came had a good time, there was harmless banter from the start and it turned out to be very enjoyable! - Mark Courtney veteran blogger

Sat 16th July

 With another hot day forecast there were only five names on the two-seat and four on the single-seat list. However with only one instructor for the whole day, thank you again James Flory, it was possibly a good thing.
Flying started at just gone 10am, with a mixture of flights. 

 

Well done Connor converting to K6 (Connor Williams)

Connor Williams converted to the K6 (DRE), watch out Dan you may have lost your ride! Private gliders, Jeff Taberham (380) and Andrew Williams (FUN) took aerotows and had about two hours each.

Well done Chris Bronze theory exam passed (Jill Harmer)

 Well done to Chris Woodward for passing his Bronze theory exam with flying colours. (ed: that's 2 members this week - who's next?)

Enforced lunch break (Jill Harmer)

 
With a short enforced lunch break for James, we managed to complete the flying list by 5.30pm, thank you to everyone for their help on the airfield today, especially those that haven’t even flown. - Sally Hender

Thur 14th July

The usual group of Thursday regulars were greeted with more wall to wall sunshine, and a few cumulus started popping, the wind once again proving tricky with a crosswind. We opted for the east end launchpoint, with the wind moving around with the thermals. It was soarable from the outset with both K21s enjoying soarable training flights, but as usual some of the solo pilots were luckier than others for getting away. The trial lesson visitor had cancelled due to illness, but both Robert Lee and James Smart had family and friends flights to do.

North Hill and Dunkeswell in the blue sky (Mike Horwood)

 

 The new Vertigo canopy covers  for K21s arrived at lunchtime and were immediately put to good use.

 

Vertigo canopy covers (Jill Harmer)

Well done to Connor Williams for passing his Bronze theory exam

Pete Startup 230 flew an impressive 300kms NHL Chilbolton - Membury - NHL "Club task which nobody has flown for years so thought I'd re-visit it. Despite the forecasts all agreeing that it woud be totally blue there was actually a mix of blue, wispies and even some proper Cu around Andover and Membury. It was going well until approaching the SouthWest on the last leg and I could see the milkyness of doom, the effect of the sea air brought all the way down the Somerset Levels on the 340/14kt breeze from Bridgwater Bay to the South coast. I knew that if I could get across the gap and onto the Blackdown Hills I would be able to get home and that's what happened but it was tricky and slowed me right down."  But in the end only a few private owners decided to fly - pleasant day thanks all. - J&P

In the evening, Ruth and Rob, friends and family gathered to experience gliding for the first time. Ten people flew and two had a second flight. 

 

Ruth, Rob, friends and family (John Borland)

Some weak lift persisted into the evening to extend some of the flights. A good experience for all.
Thanks to volunteer crew for a smooth operation.  - John Borland, Group flying coordinator

Wed 13th July

 The normal gaggle of Wednesday regulars took two K21's, Perkoz & Junior up to the west end. The light NE wind gave moderate height launches and those lucky enough to find a thermal had decent flights, those less fortunate had to settle for circuits..Unfortunately the tug was u/s for the day so Chris Warnes had to do two winch launches with the one trial lesson for the day, Chris managed to have two decent flights and the visitor went away happy  promising to return. The warm weather was at times draining and everyone was glad of a rest in the shade to take on more fluids. A steady enjoyable day for all!

Mark in the back seat being arty (Mark Layton)

 Pete Startup (230) went to Okehampton & back but was unsure how he managed it in the difficult conditions. Eric Alston (G29) flew locally but started his engine three times, again finding the conditions difficult. - Mark Layton

Connor kept the Junior busy notching up circuits (Mark Layton)

 The evening members didn't seem to be as keen as usual to turn up with there still only being 3 on site at 5:30. However gradually more members trickled through the gates and once we had enough to fly the wind followed the forecast and went round to a NW leading to a change in ends. Once we were all ready to go (again) Connor had several flights in the Junior whilst  Kevin Fairburn  had a check flight with James before another solo. 

Flying into the great sunsets (Rowan Smith)

 Stuart Thomson also flew with James and Rowan continued the training flights with Ella Penny and Tim Powell. Overall a good evening was had by all accompanied by some beautiful sunsets, 56 winch flights in total over the whole day. - Connor Williams

Sun 10th July

 Sunday was hot and not so many members in attendance, very light winds changing direction at times but nothing to cause an issue.
Ron Johns check flew David Wojnar, to renew his red card and then flew a few solos  on the junior, I also flew Ella Penny who is mastering the launch, circuit, weak thermals, approach and landing …all with 20 odd flights ! - One to Watch! 

K21 (David Clements)

 Chris Wool managed the only decent climb of the day topping out at 3000ft plus with Jonathan Erskine. Everyone flew but we were happy to pack up at 4pm and escape the heat. The Trial flights went off ok but the heat was taking a toll. Thanks to everyone who contributed today - Ron Johns  First time Blogger!

Sat 9th July

 A beach day was predicted by the weather forecasters, and it seemed like most members agreed, as there weren’t many on site first thing. Martin Woolner was Duty Instructor for the morning and James Flory Tug Pilot for the day, so after running a successful course week, both were back for a sixth day on the trot!

Launch point (David Clements)

 

The list was started with Rob Hender, and Martin got even more walking in, with eventualities being covered. Meanwhile the Junior was being used by Connor Williams, Dave Perriam and Chris Coville.
Training continued with Jack Cook and Thomas Gunner flying with Martin and Steve Westlake (afternoon instructor) respectively. Tom Sides flew with the Trial lessons, with some very happy customers.

K21 on winch launch (David Clements)

 
There were a number of private owners taking their chances, with mixed success. Pete Startup (230),with the longest flight of 208mins on another local bimble,  Andrew Logan (FMS), Jeff Taberham (380), Eric Alston (G29), and Robert Lee (DKU).

Pete's flight  NH2 - Dulverton - Okehampton - Beaminster - NHL 194kms

"Task set by Eric(G29) based on where the Cu was forecast to stay longest. Actually the Cu lasted until about 15:30 when it blued out very quickly. Task about right given that the cloudbase never got to the height hoped for. And I had a right faff after BEAminster............................." Pete Startup,  Eric had been DLM in the morning so a later launch and the blue caught up with G29.

Mike Horwood, Sandy Harrup and Stirling Melhuish got in solo flights, Phil Rowlands had a social flight, and Hans Jenssen had the final flight of the day for his currency check. 38 flights total, a hot but enjoyable day, thanks to all who helped. Hopefully I’ve covered everyone, I apologise if I’ve missed anyone 28 winch launches and 5 aerotows - Sally Hender xx

Fri 8 July - Course Week

Well flight of the day award goes to Kevin Fairburn who completed his first solo after Martin finally got bored of flying with him......

Congratulations to Kevin Fairburn - first solo

 ......Kevin had a couple of nice circuits before disappearing off for 45 mins which encouraged Pete Startup (230) and Eric Alston (G29) to rig before disappearing for a few hours. Pete abandoned his task due to risk of sea air and followed the energy on a local bimble 182kms.

Just before lunch after the wind kept on switching direction instructor Martin made the call to swap ends and so the launch point was moved back to the north east corner with the winch over at the west end. 

After lunch the other course members had further training flights, before Kevin flew the K21 solo again gaining his 1 hour flight for Cross-Country endorsement and coming within 500ft of a silver height! - Well done Kevin.

July Course Members, Instructors and Helpers (Stu Thomson)

 Overall an excellent course week was had by all with everyone making huge progress and everyone going away with huge grins on their faces. A special thanks to Instructors Martin Woolner and James Flory and Course Helpers Stirling Melhuish, Emma Flory and Connor Williams. - Connor Williams

Thur 7th July - Course Week

 A slow start with low cloud from a weak front passing through the ridge of high pressure, and it was warm but quite blowy with a fresh north easterly wind.  The course members passed the time with a "beyond solo" talk from James Flory and the Thursday regulars got on with some small jobs, and some flying in the simulator. Kevin Fairburn practised some spinning exercises in the simulator with Pete Harmer with the hope of cloudbase allowing for the real thing later.

The Course members got flying first with the Club members following on with the launch point at the west end. As usual some lucky ones got soaring flights, but others only managed circuits. In the middle of the afternoon the thermals perked up and the the launch point emptied for a short while, with warm sunshine.  And Mark Layton got a bit arty with the camera whilst waiting for the glider retrieve from the middle of the field........ great photo

Junior amongst the Daisies and Clover (Mark Layton)

 The course  members headed off for their fish and chip supper, and the Club members handed over to the Evening group of visitors.  Doug Smith  with the 1st Liverton Scout’s and their adult helpers had a successful evening in all blue conditions.

 

Lovely evening for Trial flights (John Borland)

17 people flew and everyone had a good experience. Many thanks to the pilots and ground crew. A good team effort.. Another full day with 63 winch launches. - J&P

Wed 6 July - Course Week

 As the course members arrived for Wednesday they were greeted by the familiar layer of low cloud. However, not deterred the course members proceeded to get all six gliders out of the hangar for the first time in a little while. Once the Wednesday crew arrived (eventually) the launchpoint was setup in the northwest corner. With low cloud still hanging around the instructors took great joy in ensuring that none of the first five students reached the top of the launch. Once the instructors got bored of the launch failures and decided to venture to the top of the launch they decided that there wasn't much fun to be had up high and so it was just circuits for the rest of the day with all course members making excellent progress (with some getting very near solo standard). - Connor Williams

It's a course week and as usual few members turn up despite RASP being pretty optimistic. Unusually though the course did not require the Juniors so the three club members on the single seater list were well catered for.

Well done Chris - for your longest flight  so far of 3.5hrs

A cloudy start with bases 800ft ish, were enough for the Course to start promptly with cable break training, but by 11:00 bases had risen sufficiently (abt 1200ft) for the Juniors (gliders that is).
From then on some thermal activity could be found although mostly weak and narrow, in a WNWly (15-18kt at 2000ft).
Not a good day for spectacular soaring, but several flights of 30mins or more were made, and 4 private gliders were out as well with flights of an hour or more., I even had visions of a 5 hour flight, which floundered after about 3 1/2 hr, when I took a wrong turn and lost that elusive lift. Another day perhaps.  A total of 55 winch launches and 3 aerotows - Chris Warnes

Tues 5 July - Course Week

 A quick start to the second day's proceedings. The field was all setup by 09:30 with the first launch at 09:44 with Chris Woodward and Martin Woolner. The second flight was then quickly taken by Jorg Beasley and James Flory. The early start was mainly down to a more than "above the call of duty" late night run to Shrewsbury to get a part for the winch by Stirling Melhuish. A 6 hour round trip, getting back at 3am to then start fitting it at 6am! Thank you Stirling - hugely appreciated by us all.

Stirling replacing the part after a 6 hour round trip to Shrewsbury (Connor Williams)

 The sky started off fairly weak with very little happening to write home about. Stuart Thomson has again successfully gained the longest flight of the day with 25 minutes. Earning him the nickname of Mr Anti-gravity from James Flory.

Great to see Chris back in his Astir (Connor Williams)

 Chris Woodward took to the skies again in his Astir CS77 after a long break. After helping us out, Gordon Hutchinson also took his DG200 out for a short trip.

Kevin Fairburn completed some successful winch launch failure simulations with Martin in the back.

Grey skies still (Connor Williams)

 Good progress has been made by Aaron Harris and Arthur Hayhoe with the later afternoon flights of the day. - Stuart Thomson - First Time Blogger

Mon 4 July - CE2022

 Competition Enterprise Day 3

The task was "a string of pearls" or a line of turning points stretching from Snowdon to Rye in Kent. Pick off as many of these along the way as you could or ignore most of them and fly as far as you want under the OLC system.
Another day of mixed meteorology. Earlier prophesied  as a 750kms day - in practice it was a lot less helpful; though the day winner, Chris Gill did manage 560kms out to Cambridge and half way back. Most managed more like 200kms and there were several land outs. 

Two managed significant wave climbs including Dan Hender who was special guest in the back of a Duo Discus flown by Robert Vaughan from Denbigh. 

Dan Hender climbing in wave

Phil & JB in DD3 managed 180kms going just past Worcester racecourse before turning back; faced with lowering cloud and concern of sea air from the Bristol Channel.
A couple of low saves with one finger hovering over the starter button, and the others crossed, saw them return safely to the end of the ridge again with crossed fingers it would still be working! - Phil Morrison

Well done Phil 9th for the day and 6th overall after 3 days.

Mon 4 July - Course Week

Everyone was at the club bright and early for the first day of the July course. With the weather looking good the two K21s and a Junior were brought out the hangar and the airfield setup. We all then went inside and had a welcome briefing from course instructor's Martin Woolner and James Flory before having a quick lesson on how to use RASP from Gordon Hutchinson which ended with the famous line "never trust the forecast". 

Once we'd got all the admin out the way we looked out the window and saw that it was drizzling and the cloudbase had dropped to about 600ft. So to pass the time the course members (Stuart Thomson, Kevin Fairburn, Arthur Hayhoe, Aaron Harris, Jorg Beasley and Chris Woodward) received a winch launch briefing from Martin followed by a cup of tea. 

It was then decided that the cloudbase was high enough to fly and so Jorg jumped in with James for a few flights meanwhile Kevin worked on some circuits with Martin followed by his first (simulated) launch failure. 

Chris taking full advantage of the Junior today (Connor Williams)

 Chris Woodward took full advantage of being the only solo pilot on the course (for now) by completing several flights in the junior. Next up with James was Arthur who got close to solo a few years ago and is now back as a member. He enjoyed getting reacquainted with the K21 and hopes to be solo in the not to distant future. 

Grey skies still (Connor Williams)

 After a quick lunchbreak flying continued with the sun teasingly appearing for a few minutes before disppearing again. However, a few flights after lunch Stirling noticed an issue with the winch which led to a halt in flying for about half an hour whilst he temporarily fixed the problem. After this quick break the sky started to get a bit more soarable with some thermals and the ridge beginning to work thus leading Stuart and James managing the longest flight of the day which was exactly 1 hour long. Flying finished at about 17:00 with everyone agreeing that a good days flying was had. - Connor Williams - Logger and Blogger

P.S Thanks to Stirling for winching all day.

Sun 3rd July

 There were a few keen stalwarts out early, getting the ground equipment out. That was swiftly followed by an ever-filling clubhouse where members were reduced to drinking tea and telling tall aviation stories (well some did seem a bit far-fetched when the view outside was of a sub-200ft cloudbase).

However, as the enthusiasts?  believed and the forecast suggested just after 10am things started looking better. By the first flight at 11am full height launches were possible - just!. From there Chris Warnes and John Pursey showed the way, with at least half a dozen private gliders appearing. 

Threatening sky (Paul Gunner)

 The sparse ground crew worked diligently to share the work and flights. In the end we achieved 50 launches and a total of 32 hours. Pretty good for a day that started so dismal.

PS John Pursey bagged the longest flight in the SF at 3hours 48 (though that may have made him unpopular when he made it home?!). - Gordon Hutchinson

Sun 3 July - CE 2022

Competition Enterprise Day 2

Sunday's task was based around North / South / East / West lines centred on the Mynd. We had to turn one BGA turning point in each sector with 10 points for first sector, 20 for 2nd, 30 for 3rd and 40 for 4th plus additional points for distance.

The Long Mynd (JB)

 

With 13kts Northwesterly breeze the lovely Mynd ridge was working well and kicking off thermals, so staying up was easy. However conditions away from the ridge weren’t that good so Phil and JB in DD3 climbed as high as possible (about 2000ft QFE and nipped out to the nearest TP’s in each sector before scuttling back to the ridge for a top up.

Powys castle at Welshpool, but not a  dragon in sight! (JB)

As the conditions improved later in the day they were able venture out to the west and into wales in search of dragons, but finding none turned Welshpool and headed back for a nice cup of tea!

 It was an enjoyable flight resulting in 7th place for the day and overall. - JB

Bidford Regionals 2022

Pete Startup 230 and Simon Minson SM decided that we ought to fly in a Regionals at least once just to say we'd done it, so after being convinced by our mate Rich Roberts from Brent Tor that Bidford was a good comp and there are always people happy to come and retrieve you we went for it, and got to prove this claim several times during the week!

Team Southwest (Jules Minson)

 

 The contest format is the Handicap Distance task type which is supposed to even out the different glider performances and keep them in a single class and it does this by having a different sized barrel around a common turnpoint for each different glider handicap. 

Jetstream (netweather.tv)

 

 Unfortunately the jetstream sat in the wrong place all week and brought us unfavourable soaring conditions, very windy (too windy to even fly on 2 of the days), then just windy with added very heavy shower activity for the rest with just one day providing a good racing day, 3 other difficult days, and 5 days scrubbed. Another problem was that from launching the first glider to the start line opening was about 1 1/4 hours(with 5 tugs stream launching), and with a short weather window most of it disappeared during that time! 

Gridding (Jules Minson)

 

 On the 'good' day we watched before gridding, gliders being filled with so much water it was bleeding from every orifice - but we're from Devon so we didn't bother. They seemed to go through this ritual most days working on the theory you can always dump it but you can't add it in flight. Task was a 241km task around Telford - Ledbury - Banbury and round a control point at Stratford and home.

1st on the grid (Pete Startup)

 

Considering we were flying unballasted relatively low handicap gliders I think we did ok, Pete coming 5th and Simon 10th in a field of 30 gliders at a x-c speed of around 90kph. Our overall positions at the end of the comp were Pete 15th and Simon 18th. There was only the one full scoring (1000 points) day, all the other flying days being devalued by not enough gliders getting past Point Y. 

Competition Briefing (Simon Minson)

 

What we did learn is that in competition the margins are very small and one poor decision in starting, routing or thermalling can make a big difference to your position. For example the difference between mine and Simon's positions was just 17 points and 2 minutes over a flight of about 2:45 hours!

Nice big fields (Simon Minson)

 

So, plenty of field landing practice(that could be a long blog on it's own!), beautiful airfield, great catering, great people(who are more than happy to retrieve anyone, anytime), met loads of new people and caught up with some old friends too. Here's a link to the tasks and scores page if you're interested - https://www.soaringspot.com/en_gb/bidford-regionals-2022-bidford-2022/results I'll let the pictures tell the story.  - Pete Startup

Sat 2 July - CE2022

Day one at Enterprise. 

Although thankfully the ridge was working the day loomed as you see in the photo.

Phil & Dan in DD3 (Phil Morrison)

 The typical "Enterprising" task was to pick off alternate turn points on either side of a line toward North Wales. Nick generously gave up his seat to Dan, which was a blessing as I had never flown from the Mynd before and he was able to point out how to miss the sheep on landing!

CE2022 Day 1 task

After a lot of scuttling up and down the ridge picking up the occasional week thermal gliders including ourselves were sneaking out to bag a couple of local turnpoints. As the afternoon progressed the rather better condition visible to the North arrived locally and we became emboldened and bagged a couple more tps. At this point we possibly became  a little too bold and went for a corking thermal which wasn't. Looking down at a large grass sector of a disused airfield we were forced to fire up the iron thermal and return to the Mynd. 

Day 1 preliminary results

A day that could have been much better with a little more patience but hey ho we had a good flight and missed the sheep! - Phil Morrison