Wed 31 May

The day started with the ever-optimistic arriving at North Hill hoping to fly on what promised to turn out as a lovely sunny day once the low cloud had cleared, but with strong winds and a chill in the air !!! The decision was made to wait a while and then at around midday the field was set up and the “Met Flight” flown.

Blue skies and a strong wind (Dave Perriam)

 The hardy solo pilots were cleared to fly, leaving a busy day for the instructors present to fly with everyone else. Some aerotow training took place which provided some entertaining viewing from the ground and even more entertaining for the crew on board, but, all useful experience and training !!!

The small handful of evening flyers arrived around 1700 and took over, with the same conditions throughout.

In all, a good day with lots of experience and practise being gained by those who were prepared to venture out on a windy day !! 25 winch launches and 4 aerotows in all- Dave Perriam

Sun 28th May

 Another day of blue skies and sunshine in a fresh north easterly, with clouds appearing during the afternoon. Fairly quiet on the flying lists again today due to the bank holiday weekend, but those who flew enjoyed some reasonable conditions with some getting away and others finding the sink.

James Flory enjoyed his 5 yr Instructor checks with Stuart Procter, and Pete Harmer likewise his 9 yr Instructor checks with Ian Mitchell.

Pete Startup 230 flew an out and return to Wells 117kms "Best thing about NE winds is that you can go across the Somerset Levels - sometimes........................"

Dan Hender  JDP went to Halesland and back 113kms and has finally worked out how to put a flight on the ladder (thanks Phil) - but was disappointed  with the points change when he changed the glider type from normal steed K6 to DG202!

Well done to Connor - field landings signed up (James Hood)

 Well done to Connor Williams who attempted 7 field landings in the Rotax Falke with Mark Courtney, so that's field landings on Cross Country endorsement done, just the NavEx now.......

And Rob Hender enjoyed an expensive 'hangar flight'  in JZK via Cullompton with Dan.  Thanks to everyone - busy day with few people - 44 winch launches and 4 aerotows - J&P

Sat 27th May

 There weren’t that many members at the club this morning first thing, possibly due to the Bank holiday or half-term. However, with the duty instructor, John Pursey, running the action, the airfield was set up and the first launch taken just inside the cheaper rate time at 9.58am!

JB arrived within the hour and took the second K21 to help with the two-seater training list. (A big welcome back to JB on the instructing roster.) With no afternoon instructor and JP unable to stay late, all extra help was gratefully received.

Launch point ready (Sally Hender)

 Dan Hender and Connor Williams rigged the K6, DRE, first thing and got some flying in. Dan had the longest flight of the day with 31 mins for his go.
Simon Minson, helped out with card check flights and spinning, and James Flory arrived mid-afternoon and helped finish the list for another successful day of flying.

Blue skies (Stuart Procter)

 

Tom Sides completed his Annual BI checks with Stuart Procter, and then entertained the Trial Lessons visitors with pleasant flights, with three happy visitors. 

Phil Morrison, Andrew Logan, John Pursey and Nick Jones cleaning the tarpaulin (Sally Hender)

And it was a great day for getting on with some more of those 'prepare for Competition Enterprise tasks' with several members helping to clean the tarpaulins for the Briefing hangar decoration, and Kevin Fairburn and Gordon Hutchinson checking out the briefing room  projector mount. (More help will be required during June - please watch out for the calls.)
Everything was packed away by 4:30, with the last glider LRD, flown by Andy Batchelor enjoying the last flight of the day, and (edit to blog) he pipped Dan for the longest flight sneaking in 36 minutes.

Thank you to all the instructors who stepped in and helped complete the training list. All in all great team work on the ground. 37 winch launches and 6 aerotows - Sally Hender

Thurs 25th May

 Wall to wall sunshine from the start, with that same northeasterly wind greeted the Thursday regulars. 

Training and  check flights in the four  two-seaters,  thanks to plenty of instructors and the Junior was keeping the solo pilots happy. 

 

Around lunch time the forecast cloud appeared and there was a bit of soaring for the lucky few to 2,500ft.

We welcomed Steve Lesson from Dartmoor GS  to learn about North Hill and it was good to see Ian Hunt back flying after his long layoff for shoulder surgery. 37 winch launches and 2 aerotows. Thanks everyone - J&P

Wed 24th May

 A bright blue morning welcomed the Wednesday Flyers with a fresh NE wind. By 9am the training list had grown promising a busy day for Peter Smith. The field was set up for SW to NE launch runway 07. There was little opportunity for staying up as any thermals that tried to establish quickly blew away. A few quieter spells extended a few flights. 

Contemplation soarable? (Mark Layton)

 Mark Layton in Cirrus CYO recording the longest flight at 41 minutes. Two walk in trial flights from Forest Glade made Chris Warne’s day. Both were pleased with their experience. Tiverton U3A were hosted during the morning to give them a view of how a Gliding club operates, they then kept Graham busy over lunch.

Launching into a blue sky (Mark Layton)

 They were suitably impressed with our Club. Good PR. All in all a good day although the soaring could have been better. 46 flights 13 hours. (some using engines). All safely put to bed by 6 pm.

Many thanks to Ashley Thomas, Chairman Nick, Scott Bennett and the use of Supacat’s Development shop to change out the wheels on the K21 trailer. - John Borland

Sun 21st May

So, I didn’t actually make it up to the airfield until gone 10:00am, so by this time everything was set up and the first launch had been taken! With Mike Sloggett and James Flory instructing for the day, and Martin Woolner stepping in to help with post-solo pilots, the two-seater list was well in hand. However, with 18 names on the list it looked like a long day ahead! Paul Summers flew a friends and family flight, Samantha, aunt of Jake and Luke Stabb.

At about 1pm the private gliders started appearing on the airfield,Phil Morrison and Nick Jones (DD3) taking the first launch of the pack at 1.40pm, closely followed by, Pete Startup (230), Simon Minson (SM), Ron and Dan Johns (711), and Dan Hender (JDP). 4 of them went on a task out and return to the Park, 158km - I’m sure they’ll have their own story to tell…..

"Thought the day would never start at North Hill so this was the fallback task. Even so probably went a bit early - we were getting twitchy by 14:00 - then a slow slog into the 15kt wind and a nice blow home. With 711, DD3 and SM." - Pete Startup

Turning The Park (Nick Jones DD3)

 Two seat flying continued, with the Trial Lesson Visitor enjoying their flights, and the card check/training flights progressed nicely. Peter Warren stepping in to help with the instructing as well. Everything was packed away by 6pm.
Another successful flying day, thanks to all who helped and stayed until the end. 45 winch launches and 6 aerotows. Thank you to all four instructors today, none of whom were actually on the rota for today. - Sally Hender

Sat 20th May

 Another strong, gusty north easterly wind, but wall-to-wall sunshine helped, and in the lee of Launch Control it was quite pleasant although the Blue flag told the story. James Flory with help from Stuart Procter and John Pursey made good progress with the flying list.

Collective noun for log keepers? (Rob Hender)

 By lunchtime the wind had started to calm down a bit, and some thermals were usable, the blue card was reduced to yellow, and our patient trial lesson visitor enjoyed his flight with Chris Warnes.

Thanks to everyone 30 winch launches and 3 aerotows -J&P

Thurs 18th May

 A lot of high cover today and virtually no wind with the DG505 needing the best that Skylaunch can give, but soaring started late morning. Various check flights and training took place and several private owners came out, cloudbase went reasonably high. 

Rob converts to Junior (Graham Barden)

Congratulations go to Rob Hender  who spent all morning getting familiar with the Junior flight manual and seating position, then Pete suggested that he gets a nice flight in K21, and then after a further briefing  from Pete, he converted to the Junior for another soaring flight, - more than doubled his solo hours - well done.

Busy launch point as soaring starts (David Clements)

 

Pete Startup 230 ventured out over Exeter to see if RASP was correct, but found too much high cover and reverted to Club 100 "Very good but very localised soaring at North Hill today. Unsoarable to the West due to heavy high cover and sea air just about everywhere else so original task went out the window. Fallback Club 100, just crept around Crewkerne before the sea air got that too, with the assistance of a couple of convergences." Pete Startup. 

K21 landing (David Clements)

Meanwhile Jeff Taberham in 380, Chris Woodward in HKB, Ruth Comer in B19 and John Borland in FAJ  were all adding to their soaring hours with some very pleasant local soaring. Thanks all 27 winch launches and 6 aerotows- J&P

Wed 17th May

 The day started fine and blue but cumulus soon started to appear as we walked the gliders down to the West end. Both K21s and the Perkoz were used by 3 instructors to get through the dual list, for which many thanks,  while the half dozen solo flyer used a junior. The DG505 was out on private hire. 

Devon skies (Mike Sloggett)

 

 Many reported good thermal activity, some getting averages in excess of +4, while others complained about the frequent downdraft they encountered.  Can't please everyone I suppose. The cloudbase rose from about 3000ft at the start of the day to over 4500ft by the end.
   6 private gliders·launched, some by aerotow, and good soaring was had by many. - Chris Warnes

Tue 16th May - Ad Hoc Day

 NHL -  DORCHESTER- KNOWSTONE -  LAUNCESTON - WITHERIDGE- NH2 - 303kms 

Devon Sky (Rowan Smith)

"Started off well but ended up as a survival exercise! Nice run down to Dorchester and even the run Northwest into the stiff breeze was ok albeit slow. But mid Devon was very soggy, lower cloudbase and difficut to find/centre scraggy thermals, and Lauceston was just in sea air. A few low points but perseverence paid off to get home - enjoyed that beer!" - Pete Startup

"Struggled to get to DOR with some major detours. Strong thermal over the town which was encouraging. Returned to KNO and abandoned as very unpredictable. Couple of lowish saves on way home. Great day out." - Wyn Davies

"I had a short time window so went for the "new" club 100. It was a lovely day out. Chased up a north/south street to see whether it went all the way to the coast but it petered out." - Rowan Smith

Mon 15th May

 The members staying on site overnight  woke to blue skies and sunshine but with a brisk northerly crosswind as forecast and evidently increasing in strength. So no flying planned today but as ever at North Hill there is always a ‘to do’ list of tasks to be progressed.

Lifting wood into place (Peter Smith)

The morning saw Peter Smith, Guy Adams, Dave Perriam and Mike Sloggett continuing the work on the trailer shelter. Meanwhile Simon Leeson, Mark Courtney, Dave Weeks, James Hood and Steve Westlake were working on toilet disposal facilities ahead of Competition Enterprise.

Best described as CFI with his head down the drain (Mike Sloggett)

 After lunch, Dave and John Borland disappeared over the horizon to the West end of the airfield with a supply of paving slabs to complete the laying of the new reference markers. Chairman Nick steadily worked his way up and down the airfield with the mower.

Stirling tidying up (Mike Sloggett)

 

And by the end of the afternoon Peter, Guy and Mike had completed the final key part of the trailer shelter construction, with the roof next to be installed, and Stirling continued the tidying up.

Well Done all at North Hill today.- Mike Sloggett

Sun 14th May

 A short(ish) flying list for both training and solo flights today which was just as well because the orographic cloud was slow to clear and it was only around mid-morning that flying could get underway.

Steady progress was made with Club flying whilst various private owners were taking covers off gliders and getting ready for ‘hoped for’ better soaring weather during the afternoon. 

Not quite finished, but trying it out for size (Mark Courtney)

 

With few members, a decision was made to stop for a quick lunch break and then early afternoon it was on with the flying, with several private owners seeing if they could get away off a winch launch - some did,  some did not as the thermals were sporadic and not marked or sign posted by fluffy clouds.

During the day, James Smart looked after a booked Trial Lesson visitor and also a walk in Trial Lesson - and then completed the CFI acceptance checks for his BI Rating. Congratulations also to Ruth Comer flying the ASW19. 

Well done Ruth - in ASW19 (JB)

 Apart from a short break for a rope break to be repaired, the day was one of continuous flying and with the flying lists all but completed by late afternoon a decision was made to put everything away - Thank you to the members who got stuck in from start of day to the end to get others into the air today. - Mike Sloggett

Sat 13th May

With the weather improving it was expected to be a busy day at the club today. And indeed it was, by 8:15 the clubhouse was buzzing with enthusiasm. Unfortunately as is often the case the weather initially had other ideas.

To ensure the 5 Junior members didn’t lose interest, the CFI kindly set a quiz on how to interpret and understand a flight manual much to their uncontained delight!

Soon the wind dropped enough to allow the gliders to be towed to the far end of the field. With low cloud the pilots needing cable checks got to fly first. When the cloudbase lifted the flying list started properly. 

Hans Jenssen getting checked out by CFI (Mark Courtney)

We had 3 trial lessons today and two “friend and family” flights which kept James Smart and tuggie James Flory busy. 

Low clouds to the north, circuits to the south (Mark Courtney)

 The instructors slowly worked through the list, slightly hampered by the main wheels of the gliders getting jammed by the freshly cut grass. This resulted in long delays whilst we dug the grass out! 

Digging the wet grass out of wheelboxes (Mark Courtney)

 With the list being so long and everyone getting tired we unfortunately had to cut the number of flights to two.  A very long hard day but very worthwhile.
Thanks to everyone who worked tirelessly to ensure that everyone flew. - Mark Courtney

Thurs 11th May

 A tricky day with the field still draining from the flooding deluges this week, but the slow start allowed the DG505 to be rigged by the Thursday crowd after the difficult repair of the trim spring (Thanks Carl and team). 

Rigging the DG505 while waiting for clouds to lift (Mike Horwood)

 Aerotows on a carefully selected run were started  with the trial lesson visitor who had been cancelled yesterday flying first. The sky had been clearing nicely, but that tiny bit of heating was enough to kick off some enormous showers again generating more puddles at lunch time. 

Opening up nicely... (Mike Horwood)

 Pete Harmer and Mike Sloggett made their way through the flying list with Robert Lee providing the 1500ft tows, fortunately most of the showers developed around North Hill during the afternoon, allowing flying to continue.

Launch control on the hardstanding (Mike Horwood)

  The wind struggled to stay in one direction as the lines of clouds moved through, but it was fairly light, and showed no signs of squalls, and the forecast was continuing to show a pleasant evening.- 12 aerotows in all.

Waiting for the showers to pass (Miike Horwood)

The group evening of cyclists arranged by Wyn Davies would clearly not get an evening of winching because of the soft ground, but a decision was made to offer 1500ft aerotows  instead, with Stu Procter volunteering to tug. - J&P

Wyn's group of cyclists (Wyn Davies)

And it turned into a lovely sunny evening - "All met in the club for a briefing and flying started soon after 6 with the last landing just after 8. A fine  sunny evening and everyone enjoyed clear blue skies and stunning views. All felt very lucky to get in the sky after such horrendous weather, and were very impressed with the club running with volunteers and the great facilities we have. We all enjoyed a picnic in the clubhouse as the sun set and the evening cooled.  Big Thanks go to James Flory, James Smart, David Perriam, Ashley Thomas and Stuart Procter, another 10 flights " - Wyn Davies

Wed 10th May

 With 40mm of rain over the last couple of days, the puddles on the field needed some time to dry out. A big thank you to Jonathon Erskine, Chris Warnes, and Dave Perriam for help on moving the Club trailer store project forward today. The generator kindly donated to the Club a while ago greatly improved productivity with cutting wood. If it looks chaotic and random, that’s because it largely is at present but it is coming together and very robust. 

The structure is taking shape (Peter Smith)

 Thanks also to Peter L Smith for continuing to appraise our energy usage and investigate the electrical installation.

Dave and Ashley also started replacing the reference markers at the west end of the field and Richard Harris kindly returned to the fold and brought his in-depth knowledge of the comms wiring to bear on the recent fault.

Lastly the Silver Disco has a new battery organised by Nick and starts readily. Thanks again to all. We just need some decent weather now! - Peter Smith

Sun 7th May

With Saturday washed out with the Coronation,  and after Ashley's call on the Google Group last night for an early start there were several members at the club raring to go by eight. However, as we begun to get the ground equipment out it was noted that cable retrieve wouldn't start which led to us towing launch point out with the winch's Disco instead.  

A quorum for the problem with the Cable retrieve Disco (Connor Williams)

As the K21s were wheeled out of the hangar we discovered that HCX's wheel was so full of the newly mown grass that it wouldn't budge at all! This led to another delay whilst numerous members mucked in to rectify this. Once all the glider's were finally at the launch point (and just as we were thinking nothing else could go wrong) the phone system between launch point and the winch decided to stop working which led to us having a slightly slower launch rate than usual as we had to use the ground radio.

Removing the newly mown grass from the wheelbox (Connor Williams)

 

During the morning, flying cloudbase was reported to be about 1400ft with the longest flights being just over 10 minutes due to some reduced sink on the ridge. However later in the day the cloud began to break up which led to Peter Smith and John Pursey having the longest flight of the day in KEK at 64 mins. And Golf Buggy 2 joined in the fun! having to be towed back to the hangar. Thank you to everyone who helped today despite the various misfortunes that we encountered as we wouldn't have flown without you - 38 winch launches and 1 aerotow. 

Thank you also to the several volunteers who answered the call for help with the Trailer  storage structure and spent all day working with wood. - Connor Williams

Thur 4th May

 A different day with the wall to wall blue skies all gone, and pre-frontal cloud approaching, but could we get some flying in before the forecast rain? 

The wind was lighter and the cloud was higher than forecast (but for how long??). 

After some more debate on whether James Smart's silver distance flight on Monday could be submitted to BGA, the kit was readied and two K21s were walked up the field. Pete Harmer made a start on the flying list, James greeted the Trial lesson visitor Tony Arman on a surprise birthday treat, and thanks to Simon Jordy for tugging.

With a brisk south easterly, winch launches were high and immediately showed an inkling of some wavy rising air giving slightly extended circuits. 

Wave bars appearing from the south coast (Jill Harmer)

Towards lunchtime, the wind went further round on to the south ridge, but unfortunately this was the pre-cursor to the onset of some very drizzly rain arriving. 

Thanks to all for walking the gliders back in the rain, and especially to those who didn't fly. Just 7 flights in all. Tony enjoyed some extra time in the simulator and we look forward to seeing him again during his temporary membership for a new found sport. - J&P

Wed 3rd May

I thought I had turned up on the wrong day because at 9 am all the gliders had been DI'd, two were already at the west end and the field set up ready to go. Someone had obviously set their alarm clock early today!

Pete Smith's predicted forecast for the day was a gusty south easterly wind with possibly some thermic activity and that is exactly what we got! 

Perkoz at the Launch point (Mark Layton)

Both flying lists were long but the Junior list was slashed as the yellow card was changed to blue as the wind increased with the 'grabbing hand' behind the west ridge ready to catch out the unwary. Flights times were a bit hit or miss depending on timing with the thermals disappearing as quickly as they appeared, the 'wave influence' was very much in attendance and 30 minutes being the longest. 

Checking the weather (Mark Layton)

 With three quarters of the instructor team named Peter (Smith, Warren and Field) and one called Mike (Sloggett) they made their way through the flying list of which quite a few required the long awaited card checks. 

10knotter found by Trevor Russell (Peter Smith)

 Others carried on with their training,  generally enjoying the challenging conditions.

Inspection of the recently levelled areas (Peter Smith)

 An enjoyable day was had by all and well worth the effort - 39 launches! - Mark Layton

Mon 1st May - Ad Hoc day

After another week of dire weather in the southwest, the call went out for an Ad Hoc day on Bank Holiday May day. 

Thanks to Peter Smith and James Flory for coming forward to run the day. RASP promised a reasonable day and that is what we got. The hangar was unpacked by 9am. Low cloud initially gave an opportunity for some land ahead cable breaks and time for lots of private glider rigging. The cloud base stubbornly refused to rise much above 2500ft at North Hill all day and a brisk NW wind kept the Red flag up all day with some interesting approaches experienced  at times. 

Sky looks better than it was (Connor Williams)

Twelve private gliders flew. 230, SM, G29, W7 all attempted a Club 100 but the thermals were not playing fair and were difficult to read. FAJ repeatedly attempted to reach Tiverton only to keep being blown back to Willand in the next climb. G29 got some help from the iron thermal to get back from Tiverton. 230, SM, W7 found Tiverton difficult but then went off to Chard and Crewkerne. Many stayed local due to the conditions.

James Smart getting ready for a Silver distance attempt (Stewart Henshall)

877James Smart went off downwind in search of Silver Distance and landed in a nice private strip near Buckland Newton just north east of the Jolly Giant. 

Retrieve crew photo (Connor Williams)

It clearly wasn't an Eagle day early on with JP and Stirling just getting 3 circuits, but then the 4th takeoff delivered with 2hrs44, and fortunately Stewart and Su still available to help with derigging the Eagle. HMS Stewart Henshall attempted to get to Dulverton and nearly came unstuck in the extreme sink, but got back. 

Despite not wanting to be a training and check flight day, well done to Kevin Fairburn who got his Red card signed and Simon Jordy converted to the Junior, while several others had currency checks amongst the tricky soaring flights.

Around 2pm the sky had it’s own ideas and a lot of gliders ended up back at the field but as so often happens by 3pm all was good again with flying eventually finishing at 6pm, (and an hour of  soaring still available). 52 flights. Not bad after all the recent weather. - John Borland

Cross countries

NH2 - TIV - CRK - NH2

230 " The speed says it all. Difficult day even though the sky looked amazing at times. Low cloudbase and incredably broken thermals which were hard to centre and climb in, the 14kt wind not helping. Thought I'd have a go at a second lap as conditions had improved later but after putting myself in the weeds twice in quick succession the will to live had gone............" Pete Startup

W7 "  Sky looked better than it was. A few low points but a visit to Lyme Regis made it interesting." Wyn Davies

HMS " Tried to get to Dulverton. Nearly stopped in Bampton. Sink everywhere.. !" Stewart Henshall

877 Silver Distance or not Silver Distance - the Jury is still out on the claim....50k attempt to Cerne Abbas
"I decided that it was worth attempting 50k to complete my silver badge with a run downwind to Cerne Abbas which is just over 50k from NHL. I pushed north around Dunkeswell to get on a straight run. The further I went, the weaker the thermals became, and after Crewkerne I just pushed for the distance. In the end I crossed the 50k point above my launch height. 

Cerne Abbas Giant (James Smart)

 At this point I ran out of thermals and talent but I knew that the airfield of Hermitage was just to the north along with some good fields. At which point I saw a windsock and a nice 400m grass strip. The decision was made and a nice easy landing out was achieved albeit with a crosswind. It was in a private farm strip at Buckland Newton about 3k east to Hermitage. Throughout the flight I had noticed that the Oudie was not charging. It turned out that the power to both the Oudie and the Flarm (my official logger) was disconnected. Ah well, I will just have to do it again. Huge thanks to Chris Woodward and Connor Williams who came to pick me up."  James Smart