Team Eagle Jura Expedition

When the Chairman convinced a few of us to accompany him on a recce trip to Jura, we thought it was for his favourite tipple but when we ended up standing on Jura airstrip thinking “I wonder if a EuroFox and two-seater would get out of here” we realise there was more to this trip than whisky! 

Jura airstrip as seen from drone approach (John Pursey)

Little used, Jura airstrip when not producing silage, may well be a hidden gem for gliding.

The Paps (John Pursey)

 The hills behind include the Paps of Jura at 784m (technically Corbetts) possibly soarable in a number of wind directions. 

The Beach (John Pursey)

Downsides include no alternative fields aside the beach and a field at Ardlussa, but who needs fields with hills that high! The ferries to get there added to the romance and the scenery was out of this world. 

The reason for coming....? (John Pursey)

 Maybe as an addition to a Portmoak trip it might make sense, to help explain the long drive. No doubt the Eurofox trailer designs sketched out last year will get a dusting off on the drive home… - John Pursey

Wed 22nd March

 Glenn's 'will we / won't we fly' weather forecast for Wednesday was erring on the side of being optimistic. First thing, the field was not that wet and the wind was not that strong. The smallish group of Wednesday hopefuls readied two K21's and a Junior and set up for the south west, north east cable run. 

Ready to go (Mark Layton)

 Broken lift could be found from the first flight at just after 10:00 and as the wind swung round a bit more to the south the south ridge was also working in places which gave extended flight times for nearly all the flights. The approaches were challenging and exciting in equal measures and care was needed not to 'go back too far' as the wind shear was very much apparent. 

Broken lift (Mark Layton)

 New member Louise Dowding joined the group and had a couple of flights getting used to the experience before her course starts in the near future. Peter Warren also had the longest flight of the day in the Junior with 34 mins going up & down the south ridge. The wind increased throughout the afternoon and with the first signs of rain appearing at about 15:00 it was decided to pack up whilst we were ahead. Everyone flew with most having more than one flight. - Mark Layton

Sun 19th March

 Happy Mothers to all!!
So those members with a special pass turned up early on the airfield, with an efficient team the first launch was taken at 9.34am by duty instructor Ron Johns with Ashley Thomas, closely followed by afternoon instructor Mike Sloggett with Emma Flory, also getting a reduced rate launch! With a surprisingly long two-seater and solo list, three two-seater gliders, and both Juniors were put in to action.
A number of private owners rigged and flew, Pete Startup (230), who made it to Tiverton & Wellington, Simon Minson (SM) who made it to Tiverton, Andrew Logan (FMS), Andy Davey (KCM) managing the longest flight of 192mins, and John Burrow (JB).

Team  Hender (Ashley Thomas)

Dan Hender continued his IFP training and was given permission to take me up for a flight on Mother’s Day! I came back beaming! Thanks Dan.

Busy thermal (Jake Stabb)

 Flights became longer as the day progressed, with a number having to be called back down! Check flights were completed, BI / IFP training consolidated and a sunny day was enjoyed by all. 49 flights in total.
Thanks to everyone who helped out. Hopefully the start of spring is here. - Sally Hender

Sat 18th March

Patience was the order of the day today - those arriving had plenty of time to feast on Cheryl's delicious rock cakes and receive some ground school lectures from Mark, Steve and James while the showers came in... and were rewarded with just two flights before the showers returned and an early lunch was declared.

After a long lunch break, the weather finally understood why we were there and some decent flying was achieved, great news for those who'd stuck it out. We had just enough people to keep three gliders in the sky, thanks to everyone who got stuck in helping with everything, no one was idle! 

Decent sky (Mark Courtney)

 James F and Stu got in some long flights right at the end of the day, and Mark then got in some practice at parking up Launchpoint in the hangar. A busy but fun day just 14 flights. - Buggy driver and first time blogger, Lucy Williams

Tues 14th March

After a few days of snow, snowmelt and rain the airfield has started to recover and today there was  a sky that caught everyone napping (albeit with the Pawnee on Annual service), but Chairman Nick made a tentative start to the grass-cutting season.

Why aren't we flying? (Nick Jones)

 In the evening, the regular Condor Racers held a special event, to encourage members who haven’t had much experience with Condor to have a look at what we get up to.

We usually fly Condor tasks on Tuesdays and Sundays at 7pm - tonight we ran a Club 100 (NH2-Knowstone-North Tawton-NH2) in club class gliders.

NH2-KNO-NTA-NH2

 As an experiment Stewart Henshall streamed his view of the flight using twitch in a browser window, so no need to download or sign into anything - the link simply opened a browser window where you could see the flight and hear all the banter.

There was a good turnout of fliers (13) and CFI Mark was interested to watch and was sitting in Simon Leeson's cockpit via Discord. The Twitch stream had a small technical issue with only Stewart being audible, but he gave a good commentary whilst whizzing in and out of his own cockpit to view other gliders (whilst flying the task).

Nice parking - Stewart and Dan Hender

 The weather conditions were  set at a very realistic level with big blue holes, cloudbase at 4000ft and some fairly narrow thermals  at times. All 13 pilots completed the task, in times that varied between 1hr 5 and 1hr 30, although some did accrue penalties. Simon Leeson was fastest, but beaten on glider handicap by Mike Wilmott.

Classification

 There were 4 members watching the Twitch feed, but this was just a test, so in future we will give more notice to watch, and hopefully iron out the slight technical hitch. We also look forward to more pilots joining in on the flight - a great alternative for practising skills when the weather stops the real thing. Thanks to Stewart Henshall for setting up the feed and to all our regulars for taking part. - J&P

 

Sun 5th March

 After a nice day yesterday there were several members on site first thing so with three instructors (James Flory, Mike Sloggett and Simon Minson) the call was made to get out both K21s a Junior and the DG505. Flying was soon underway with Wyn Davies getting some good exercise thanks to some launch failures from Simon Minson.

 

Well done to Dave Perriam solo in DG505 (Connor Williams)

Meanwhile Dave Perriam and James had several flights in the DG505 before James decided it was safer for him to get out and let Dave fly it himself next step on the way to the back seat.

 

Don't get the socks dirty or Dan will have Mum Sally on his back! (Connor Williams)

After riding in on his motorbike, we saw Dan Hender rocking the new fashion of shoeless flying (maybe helps with soaring?) Overall a good day and thanks to all those that helped on the ground we couldn't have done it without you. - Connor Williams

Sat 4th March

Yet another bitterly cold North Hill day with that biting north easterly wind, must have put off many members today. 

North Hill struggling to get up to 3degreesC

So with a couple of members needing check flights in the morning and  just two members on training, they managed to fill their boots. With James Flory flying with Joel Roulson and Glynn Turpin taking in Dan Hedger.

John Allan was getting more practice with his new Mini-Nimbus. Just 23 circuits in all before everyone was glad to get back in the warm. - J&P

Thurs 2nd March

Another cold northeasterly  day, but today the sun was out, and  a few clouds formed over the airfield with a cloudbase of 2000ft above North Hill giving a few lucky members some soaring flights. 

Great photo of the Perkoz (Mark Layton)

The flying lists were quite long as the Thursday weather has not been kind to the regulars recently, but with Pete Harmer, Ron Johns and Chris Wool in the back seats, good progress was made through the flights by close of play. The solo list ticked over also with just a few lucky soaring flights, until the clouds disappeared and then the sinking sun and haze called for hangar flights. 

Long shadows (Mark Layton)

 Well done to John Allan who converted to his new glider Mini-Nimbus. 

 

Well done to John Allan converting to Mini Numbus (David Clements)

Longest flight of the day was Ron Johns and Glyn Bellerby in K21 42mins. Thanks everyone for the great teamwork 32 flights in all. - J&P

Wed 1st March

 New month and first day of  'Meteorological Spring' but it was bitterly cold still at the west end of the airfield. Very few members braved the cold wind, but Peter Smith and Mike Sloggett looked after the back seats of the K21s and there were even some extended circuits. 

On approach for hangar landing at North Hill (Mark Layton)

 Dave Perriam and Mark Layton enjoyed a shared hangar flight and Mark took this picture of the lovely colours in the late afternoon at North Hill. - J&P