Wed 29th May

 Peter Smith's normally optimistic Tuesday evening email about the weather for Wednesday flying wasn't particularly inspiring as it indicated a window of opportunity lasting about four hours with a boisterous westerly wind. Luckily the low pressure over the north of England drifted further into the North Sea during the night and we were delighted to be dealt a decent cloud base, light winds and some cracking thermal activity.  

View from Launch Control (Mark Layton)

Peter along with Guy Adams and the tugless tug pilot Peter Field shared the instructing duties. A variety of check flights and card checks followed. Peter flew with Isabel, a returning Junior experiencing winch launching after her recent aerotow flight experience. Chris Warnes also sent away three happy trial flight customers who all had winch launches as there was no tug available.

Towards the end of the day the thermals began to work off the west ridge but it was a tad more difficult further afield as Pete Startup in 230, today's only private owner found as he landed out not far from Tiverton.

 

230 near Tiverton (Connor Williams)

The wise old ex-instructors Pete Warren and John Sillett, having lost none of their soaring skills showed everyone how it was done as each had an hour or so flying P2's with Peter and Guy. 

Peter Warren and Peter Smith (Mark Layton)

 By five o'clock everyone had flown who wanted to as everything was packed away after another busy day.  It turned  out much better than expected with many happy faces amongst not only those new to gliding but also those with many (many) flights under their belts. - Mark Layton

Sat 25th May

 At 7.30am there was a flurry of activity from a certain young Hender, when he checked the RASP forecast for the day, and mutterings of ‘300’ and ‘Lasham’ were heard. We arrived at the Club to find the gliders were already out of the hangar and the airfield was being set up, by a small but keen group of pilots. 

The briefing at 9:15am was well attended, and we were back at the west end and launching the first glider before the 10am ‘cheap rate’, thankfully Pete Startup stepped in to drive the winch to make this happen. Well done George Lee for being first on the list. 

Connor preparing to launch K6 DRE (Sally Hender)

 

James Flory and Simon Minson then started working their way through the two-seater list, and Stuart Procter took on the tug duties in Bumblebee. The juniors Dan Hender and Connor Williams rigged the K6 for Connor, and then took launches in JDP and DRE respectively, hoping to make the most of the day. Pete Startup (230) took a launch half an hour later hot on their heels. With an ever increasing single seat list the decision was made to get the second Junior, which was then put to good use. 

Good to see LRD flying again (Stewart Henshall)

 

230 NH2 - Molton - Crowcombe NH2 112kms

"Small task set to finish before North Hill was wiped out by sea air, incoming high cover - or both(happened about 14:30).Got disconnected from the clouds half way along second leg and spent half an hour faffing about over the Exmoor gnarlylands before getting going again which cost me millions of speed points :)" Pete Startup

JDP Dan practiced doing an electronic declaration - but then decided to fly a different task???  Connor enjoyed more than 2 hours of local soaring with the day not lasting long enough for his 5 hrs attempt.

Gill & Phil Morrison in DD3 (Stewart Henshall)

 DD3 was then brought up to the launchpoint just before 12pm by Phil and Gill Morrison, only to be told we were changing ends! They finally got their launch at 12:51pm. Flying continued through the afternoon, with numbers of helpers reducing on the airfield with the clubhouse so nearby and the draw of the excellent North Hill Cafe food!
Everyone who wanted to fly, did so, and by 4pm before the predicted rain arrived we were all packed away. - Sally Hender

Thur 23rd May

 In recent weeks we have had to trudge to the far end of the airfield with all the equipment before we could fly. Today was different we were actually launching to the West! It was very cold!! Dave Weeks even had to change into long trousers, once the shorts come on they normally stay on till November!

Simon Leeson and I were staying on site, at 7am we went to the tug hangar to deep clean the EuroFox only to be met by night owl Ashley Thomas coming onto site! The  reliable Thursday crowd arriving steadily after that. The list was long but with plenty of instructors on site, winch drivers, and tuggies jockeying for pole position, we were confident we could deliver!

Martin Woolner and Chris Wool  enjoying some time in the Perkoz (Mark Courtney)

 The instructor team consisted of Mike Sloggett (lead), myself, Simon Leeson, Stuart Procter, Martin Woolner, Steve Westlake, Chris Wool and James ( I’d like to fly) Flory. Why can’t there be that many instructors when I’m on duty! 

New member Andrew Chisholm practiced landings and circuits in the simulator with Steve Westlake, before putting into practice what he had learnt in the real thing - a K21. This proved very valuable as he was doing the landings when he flew. Lesson to all, practice for free then go fly!

We were all delighted to see Dave Cowley today after a long layoff, Dave even managed a flight in the EuroFox with Simon Leeson, he did comment that he had bigger model aircraft at home!

Perkoz being checked (Mark Courtney)

Low cloudbase early on curtailed aerotows but when the sky started to open up people were keen to take advantage of the new pricing structure. 

Soaring was possible from the off with the WNW wind boosting any buoyant air, Pete Startup had the longest flight of the day (that came as a shock to us all!) at 80 mins. 

The DG was derigged until the new rudder pedal adjustment pin arrives and the second Junior was rigged to fill its place in the hangar.

The evening  group took over at 5:45 ish and flew until late.  51 winch launches and 9 aerotows. I’m really hoping that Dave Weeks needs his shorts again soon! - Mark Courtney

Tue 21st May - Club Week

 How do I spend my day off? I asked myself this morning….. I know I could sit at the end of the airfield and log!!!! Again!!! 

Junior and Eurofox (Simon Leeson)

 This morning started with a repeat of yesterday, walking the gliders to the west end of the airfield. Tom Sides started the flying at 11am with his BI revalidation with Simon Leeson. Followed by Rob Hender and George Sanderson in the K21 with Mike Sloggett. 

A rare sight Stuart Procter in a Junior (Simon Leeson)

 At 11:30am the private owners started trying their luck, first off Dave Perriam (DG1) who had his parachute this time! Mark Layton (477), Barbie Fairclough (DFK) and John Borland (FAJ) were hot on his heels!

Dave Perriam DG1 (Simon Leeson)

Flying continued all day, I even got half an hour courtesy of Mike which I loved, first time thermalling with other gliders, unfortunately I couldn’t tell who they were (FZF and KEK)!

Sally Hender leaving her post to enjoy some thermals with Mike Sloggett (Sally Hender)

Flying continued until 5pm by which time everyone has flown, Barbie being the last to come back after a 4 hour 6 min flight. Everything was packed away, minutes before a hail shower at 5:30pm. - Sally Hender

Mon 20th May - Club week

 The first day of the Club open week and it was a lovely day, the sun was shining and a number of members were onsite expecting great things.
 

The day started slowly with a few member trips in the Eurofox courtesy of Mark Courtney and Simon Leeson, taking place whilst waiting for some indication that the sky was developing and a good time to go. Private Gliders rigged and prepped, and towed to the west end  in readiness with growing anticipation.

We've waited a while for white puffy clouds (Mike Sloggett)

 

Then …. It all started with Ron and Dan Johns 711 and Pete Startup 230 launched and disappearing far afield in a westerly direction. The rest of the of the members with their own gilders Dave Perriam DG1,  Mark Layton 477, John Borland FAJ, Stewart Henshall HMS, and Mike Sloggett FUN all lined up. All took flights and all exceeded  2 hour flight times in some lovely conditions into the early evening.

View from Eurofox (Stuart Procter)

711 NH2 Roadford - Culmstock  NHL 142kms

"Aborted full task because we wanted a cup of tea ..fabulous convergences " Ron Johns

HMS NHL - Cadbury X - Bridgwater - Axminster - NHL 132 kms

"A day when it took a long time for conditions over the Blackdowns to get going. I mistakenly chose to start downwind to Cadbury Cross but all the energy was to the South, CCX was in a big gap. Attempting to get there directly nearly got me in trouble. A diversion to the energy line to the South did eventually fix it, but any hopes of speed were dashed. Then a long trip upwind to Bridgewater with surprising good energy lines in places. Probably should have started back the same way as it was patchy going South. A good climb North of Axminster (where I met Pete S coming back from Salisbury) put me on final glide, which of course meant I then found the best thermal of the day near Honiton. It was too good to refuse so it was taken to ensure a quick romp home. Finally a proper XC day and flight! There should be more days like this.." Stewart Henshall

230 NHL Okehampton - Salisbury NHL 313kms

"Went West first as soon as we saw Cu towards Dartmoor as SS and RASP predicted the first convection that way. They were correct but it was lower and soggier than we'd hoped for and I spent way too much time faffing around OKE instead of getting out of there! Rest was OK but the sky really lit up at Salisbury(the Almighty always delivers a great thermal there), for a nice cruise home." Pete Startup (ed: qualifies for the earliest 300k flight from North Hill, but 20 May must be one of the latest ever!)

FAJ (ed:late entry)

"The thermals were slow to get going over North Hill so it took some time to establish some height then it looked better to the south so I set off round the south of Dunkerswell to the east trying to stay above 3000ft. Turned Chard, but it looked a long hop to go further east so tracked  north and  turned Taunton. Further East again looked a bit questionable so completed the circle turning Wellington, Cullompton and back to North Hill. Oudie said 95km distance, 76km triangle." John Borland 

An excellent first day let’s hope the rest of the week works out the same !!! - Dave Perriam

Sun 19th May

It was a busy day at North Hill, with a long flying list and many Instructors available, but having seen both AltoCu Castellanus and Lenticulars  in the morning, it was no real surprise when we realised there was rotor over the airfield and it wasn't going to be straightforward. CFI Mark Courtney finished the paperwork acceptance for Simon Jordy - BI - love the shirt!

Well done - Simon Jordy BI

And Dave Perriam  who got his BI paperwork back from BGA in the week, looked after the Trial lesson visitors who had returned after being unable to fly on Thursday due to the low cloud. (ed)

(JP continues..) As a late arrival at the club after sister-helping-DIY-carpentry duties, I was intrigued to see Pete 230 and then Ron 711 arriving back after almost sled rides down from their launches. As a firm believer in the faith of RASP I didn’t understand. 

Buzzards had been soaring above Screwfix in Honiton, only 20 mins earlier (maybe looking for scraps from Greggs) and so definitely it was working- RASP said so! After a pit stop in the Clubhouse, the launch point was a scene of action with circuits and check flights. How could this be so? 

Fortunately, High Priestess of RASP, Barbara F, had the faith, and defied the run of play by keeping a Junior aloft and encouraging others to do likewise.

Narrow squirrely thermals they were but it definitely started to work, in fact just as Pete “glass half empty” Startup and Ron  “I had rotor on the approach”  Johns were putting their gliders away. 

Gill Morrison returns (John Pursey)

 The later afternoon got better and better and your scribe had several enjoyable flights being piloted by first Gill Morrison, who is returning to gliding after a decade-plus absence, and then Kevin Fairburn who needed a buddy for the by now blue card conditions.

Spirited thermals, later driven by the sea breeze front that formed overhead, meant some fairly active circling was needed at times. I watched with awe as Dan Hender brought back an IFP chap back having stayed up but never really cranked it round - a skill indeed! I have to admit Kevin was great company and never buckled under my helpful torrent of advice about owning a thermal and having purpose -maybe I should write a book… Ron?

As followers of the faith of RASP perhaps we should acknowledge that maybe it is only a question of time… in fact about 3 hours for that was how far out the good spell was from forecast! For the latecomer with halo intact from brotherly good-deeds, 3 hours was just fine. Followed in only by Stewart Henshall's DG HMS, Kevin and I were late to land but very happy. 

 45 winch launches and 7 aerotows- John Pursey

Sat 18 May

 It was a bright start, that unfortunately went downhill by lunchtime. 

Increasing cloud during the morning (Dave Weeks)

 It was a quiet day anyway with Devon County Show on at Westpoint but increasing low cloud followed by  rain showers with the threat of thunderstorms caused a hasty retreat back to the hangar. Just 11 launches in total.-  J&P

Thur 17th May

 With Wednesday wiped out,  and considering it should be the height of the glider soaring season it was another disappointing day at North Hill. The South West continues to lag behind the rest of the country in thermal activity! 

The CFI turned up with the Clubs' latest acquisition - a big golf buggy - so much room for the golf bags / rucksacks and tyres!

Latest DSGC ground vehicle (Mark Courtney)

It was a bit of a slow start despite the field being set up for flying from the west end (just after dawn apparently) by Ashley who we believe gets up before he goes to bed! The flying list started with the instructors (Mike, Steve and Mark) pulling the bung on various unsuspecting P2's and the gliders landing in a variety of different locations around the airfield as the backlog of recency / check flights continued. 

Ground equipment (Mark Layton)

 

One or two flights managed extended circuits before the rain arrived conveniently at lunchtime. After reconvening somewhat prematurely after being conned by the CFI that it was clearing, we all stood out in the rain waiting for a further twenty minutes. 

Waiting in the rain (Mark Layton)

  Soon after launches continued in an attempt to get everyone flown but before long more rain arrived caused a premature end to the day. Unfortunately two gliders had to be walked back to the hanger, making those involved extremely wet. Most people flew and only a couple of unlucky ones didn't. 

Training  / check flights when possible (Mark Layton)

 On the plus side Dave Perriam took his first trial lesson flight visitor after receiving confirmation of his paperwork from the BGA earlier in the day. The second and third flights were frustratingly scrubbed due to the rain showers and low cloud.

A frustrating day for this time of year but the best was made of it by all those involved. - Mark Layton

Sun 12th May

 Having arrived at North Hill at 8 am and ensuring name was on the list it was a slow start to the day, slowly aircraft emerged from the hangar and daily inspection duly carried out. There was a short flying list  maybe due to the poor visibility /  threat of thunderstorms (which went to Wales and further North).

Launch point set up (Paul Gunner)

 The field was set up for 9:40 and the flying started with Thomas Gunner training with Ian Mitchell instructing for the day, with Paul Summers looking after the Trial lesson visitors, and Robert Lee on tug duty. 

Aerotow (Stewart Henshall)

 The day progressed at a slow but steady pace with training for new Junior member Adam Smyth progressing nicely under the watchful eyes of Ian who did sterling service in the instruction role. 

EuroFox sitting under the Cumulonimbus over Cardiff (Stewart Henshall)

The afternoon was rounded off with Spinning training and currency flying, once all the aircraft had been bedded down, home was calling. - Paul Gunner (first-time blogger)

Sat 11th May

 As I arrived on site this morning at 7:45 I thought I'd be one of the first people there ready to get out the ground equipment only to discover Ashley Thomas in his ever keen state had already got the launch point positioned at the west end of the airfield so that was one less job to do. Many more members were on site soon after with the first gliders being brought out the hangar before 8:00. 

There was good attendance at the briefing with Duty Instructor Simon Leeson giving us an overview of what we could expect from the day (very little soaring wise). The gliders were then towed up to the far end of the field with the very efficient ground crew retrieving gliders at lightning rate under the watchful eye of DLM Stirling Melhuish. Dan Hender looked after the Trial lesson Visitors.

 

Dave Perriam acceptance checks for BI by Mark Courtney (Hans Jenssen)

First up was Dave Perriam for his CFI acceptance checks with Mark Courtney - well done Dave just need the paperwork back now before your first Trial lesson visitor flight. And during the day Simon Minson was putting (returning DSGC Instructor) Simon Jordy through his paces for BI rating - well done Simon for passing the RE tests. 

Simon Jordy being checked out for BI by Simon Minson (RE)

  The only private glider out today was DG202-17 JDD with Nick Harrison checking it out, unfortunately the new syndicate partners Shaun Dayman and Paul Medlock  will have to wait for a nicer day to make their first flights.

After a couple of hours the LPV was repositioned in the Northwest corner so as to decrease the number of gliders landing near the cables hence further increasing the launch rate. Around lunchtime some flights managed to get away with some pilots having flights of 45ish mins in the very turbulent blue thermals. The airfield was all packed up by 17:30 with the gliders safely in the hangar. A good day was had by all. - Connor Williams

At the other end of the field a work party led by Peter Smith were busy..."Meanwhile James Hood, Stuart Proctor and Peter Smith removed the bottom tracks for the sliding doors to the tug hangar. Many years of steel rubbing on steel have caused corrosion and expansion making the doors very difficult to operate. One door was twisted and had to be cut open and straightened prior to the main task. Nuts and bolts have long since rusted solid so removal had to be by disc cutters. 

Stuart Procter, Peter Smith and James working on the Tug Hangar door rails (James Hood)

 

By great good luck with a little trimming the replacement tracks fitted exactly and were welded in place. Some final touches will be needed over the next few days but they were back in use for the end of the day.  A big bill from outside contractors avoided" - Peter Smith

We are so fortunate to have many willing volunteers skilled in helping with all sorts of tasks involved with running the Club. If any club member has a hidden skill - please make it known to a Committee Member or Club Officer. - J&P

Thurs 9th May

The overnight mist had cleared before dawn to a blue day but with poor visibility and a hint of a SE breeze. The ground equipment and gliders were all out and DI’d before the 9:15 briefing by Mike Sloggett (duty instructor). (No glider DI’s were allowed to be interrupted despite use of some agent provocateurs.) The message being reinforced in the briefing, don’t interrupt someone doing a DI. 

With a forecast of increasing SE wind it was decided to launch from the west end.  The gliders were walked up to the west end and the first launch got away at 10:30. Some wispy low cloud had developed which caused some early launches to release early. 

Chris Wool arrived to help Mike Sloggett with the two-seater list. Short flights were the order of the day until Chris and Mark Wallis found some thermal activity for a 38 minute flight. The SE wind forecast failed to materialise and with a slight west element in the wind it was decided to change ends and flying resumed from the east end. 

Tom Sides flew two Trial lesson visitors (on their 4th attempt at finding a flyable day) with happy customers and Chris valiantly put three card check pilots through spin / stall practice. By the end of the day the Perkoz wasn’t sure which way up it should be flying. 

 

Perkoz towed up by Eurofox (Jill Harmer)

All in all a successful day  if a little lacking in lift, with 28 winch launches and six aerotows before James Flory and Stuart Procter took over for the (first of the season) evening flying group with 7 more winch launches. - John Borland

Wed 8th May

 The early morning mist gave way to a brighter morning. A good show of members from first thing and we had DIs done on the K21s, a Junior and the Perkoz, and the field set up before morning briefing called for 09:30. Aside from the usual business  we revisited the plan consequent to the letter of agreement with Dunkeswell and Skydive Buzz. JB was involved in the original version and was able to add some background.  
 
Peter Smith asked for preference on the timing of future Wednesday morning briefings and a show of hands declared that henceforth it will be at 09:30.
 
Short flights were the order of the day with only Gordon Hutchinson and Roger Ellis managing double figures from a winch launch. The conditions suited several members keen to renew their winch launch skills which kept instructors John Burrow  and Peter Smith busy. Many thanks to JB for stepping in, it made for a pleasant and successful day. Paul Summers flew the only trial lesson booking in the Perkoz. It was nice to see Peter Warren back in the air, but not even he could manage to soar the south  ridge.  35 flights in total.

WT9 Dynamic (Peter Smith)

 We had a very sleek and shiny late afternoon visitor, originally bound for Branscombe then Farway but both were in the sea mist.  Jonathan May being well familiar with North Hill from tugging for Comp Enterprise and other visits diverted  to North Hill and asked to stay the night, which we were pleased to agree. - Peter Smith

Sat 4th May

 Lasham Task Weekend

The alarm went off at 4am this morning much to Dan Hender's disgust, but with the pull of Lasham Task weekend he jumped in the car for the journey ahead. We arrived at 7:30am and had rigged JDP by 8:30am, to then sit with a coffee awaiting the task to be set. 

G Dale surveying the competition (Rob Hender)

 At 9am Dan was happy to see a 50km task set, (this turned out to be a Junior joke) as however 5 mins later a 309km task was set for his class "Rum", which meant he was heading towards Wales. LAS - Hereford Cathedral - Bishops Cleeve - BlakeHill Farm - LAS

The grid started launching at 11:00am, which meant he took his launch at 11:29am, (just missed by Jill and Pete who arrived at 11.30am having been stuck in traffic on the journey up). …….. The first leg was long 150kms and thermals picked up to 4-5knots to 4000ft after Kemble. The turnpoint itself was uneventful and Dan was pleased to turn back as Wales looked ragged (dragons). The second leg started off really well with easy climbs up to a higher cloudbase, but hit a low point at Staverton before climbing away. All was good until the Swindon area when he changed to survival mode under the spreadout, seriously messing up the task speed. 16th out of 28 with 689 points for the day competing against Dave Watt, Andy Holmes, current World Champion Tom Arscott and several of the Junior National Team. 

Debrief in the bar (Sally Hender)

The DG202 was pulled off line and parked and the wings were washed (subtly encouraged by Jill). 

All pundits clean their wings after flight (Rob Hender)

Debrief in the cafe/bar followed. Checking on whether Dan's first 300kms qualifies for Gold distance, Diamond Goal - the flight was good, but no electronic declaration - ho hum!, Congratulations Dan first 300kms of many. - Sally & Jill

North Hill

 Many thanks to James Flory and the few instructors who were at North Hill today. At long last we got a taste of summer - perhaps the best for a week or two. We flew everyone, except Tom Gunner, who did an amazing job on cable retrieve most of the day, but left before we could fly him.  32 winch launches and 16 aerotows. 

Phil and Connor in DD3 (Stewart Henshall)

Phil Morrison and Connor Williams in DD3 enjoyed a flight out to the north coast  accompanied by Pete Startup 230  who flew to Ilfracombe and back.

 

The Eagle landing (Stewart Henshall)

The Eagle BBB was aired for the first time this year. 

Simon Minson putting Dave Perriam through BI checks (Simon Minson)

 Congratulations to Dave Perriam for surviving all day under the scrutiny of Simon Minson (RE) and signed off BI rating.   Sally & Jill