Sun 15th June

A better day was forecast today, which meant a busier Clubhouse for the second day of the weekend. 
The Duty Instructor had been taken out for Father’s Day, so we were lucky that Mike Sloggett, Peter Smith and James Flory were happy to stand in. We then had a surprise visit from Glenn Turpin back from sailing, who after currency flights, also stepped in to help complete the list.

Flying started at 10:30am with all four two-seater gliders in use, Gordon Hutchinson (DLM) making sure everything ran smoothly. At 12:00pm, the private owners started bringing their gliders over to the launch point. Dan Hender (JDP) taking the first aero tow, closely followed by Richard Roberts (V5), Simon Minson (SM), John Burrow and Alan Rappaport (DD3), Pete Startup (230), Mark Wallis (CEC), Chris Woodward (HKB), Paul Medlock (JDD), Barbie Fairclough (DFK) and Kevin Fairburn (new syndicate partner and first flight in HMS). 

230 " Cullompton - Sixpenny Handley - Cullompton 197km, Task set by Rich V5 for the North Hill Nomads 230, SM, JDP AND V5, and perfect to get us home before the day switched off." Pete Startup

SM " not quite so perfect 19km from home near Culmhead" Simon Minson

JDP " a bit tricky (slow) on the way back" Dan Hender

V5 " Well....... I overset as usual. Good day out with the DSGC team. Cloudbase was 4000ft to the east as forecast. The shut off was also as forecast, hence the 200km fallback . As it happened this was about right for the day in our location!  Extracted myself from picking fields twice, seabreeze seen on North and South coasts, central part was good to really good, with odd patches that could catch you out if not high enough into the headwind. " Rich Roberts

DD3 "What 'appened was.... although the forecast wasn't great Alan and I went for a gentle bimble round the club 100. Cloudbase started at 2000ft QFE but gradually went up to 3000 with a few good climbs. " JB

Got a bit difficult on the way back (Simon Minson)

 

Amongst the training flights, we had three previous instructors taking their turns, Peter Warren, John Sillett and Pete Harmer, lovely to see them all. Chris Warnes flew the two Trial Flight Visitors unfortunately the Eurofox failed on us part way through the day, but both visitors happily took the option of a winch launch instead and enjoyed slightly longer flights to compensate. Geoff Lawrence took over the afternoon DLM duty and organised the rest of the day successfully. Jill Harmer got back in the Launch point for the afternoon, to cover me while I flew, thank you. Everyone was flown by 5:30pm when we packed the kit away, and retired to the clubhouse for Vicki’s tea and cakes. 

Thank you to everyone for another successful days flying. - Sally Hender

Sat 14th June

 On arrival at the Club, possibly due to a mixed forecast of sunshine, showers and thunderstorms, it was immediately apparent that only a few members had been sufficiently tempted to come along on the last ‘pre-Summer Solstice Saturday’ of 2025. Maybe saving themselves for the club’s Social Event on Saturday 21st (note to all members - if you aren’t on the paper list please let Sally know asap if you’re attending).

James Flory kindly stood in last minute as Duty Instructor, with Simon Jordy available for trial flights and Stuart Proctor in attendance as Tug Pilot.  Given the low numbers and that the weather/cloud base was likely to be changeable, rather than a ‘no flying day’ the decision was taken to do aerotows only.  A decision gratefully supported by all present. 

Junior next (Karen King)

 

Over the next four hours, with a one-hour lunch break due to a downpour, there were 6 launches with 3 of those soaring flights taking the relevant pilot to a cloud base of around 3000feet.  James and Stuart each did a couple instructional flights, and by special request Stuart did some aerobatics during the final flight of the day (at the blogger’s request to ‘burn off height’ although in reality a reason is never needed!). 

All helping to dry the glider (Karen King)

Despite the forecast it was a reasonable day with Gordon Hutchinson Saturday’s pundit (72 mins), new members ‘family Hoggarth’ always keen to help and a small but efficient team of long-time members, particularly when it came to wiping down gliders.   - Karen King

Wed 11th June

A fairly standard day of training / check  / solo flights mostly circuits with a few extended. 

Well done to Kevin,  who can now apply for his licence (Ian Mitchell)

 

Congratulations to Kevin Fairburn who completed his Cross-Country Endorsement with Ian Mitchell in Rotax Falke, and supported by DSGC Charitable Trust. - J&P 

Sun 8th June

The danger of being the last in the clubhouse of a flying day is getting caught by Jill with “will any one write a blog please?” plea! So I was collared, no where to go… Excuses up front, I have little knowledge of the good work done up front only that JB and Pete Smith were instructing and Mark Wallis was in the DLM regalia when I met him. 

With SF and Eagle business to attend to I had only passing regard for the sky which looked to be playing out the forecast. Unstable, none too high a cloud base with a layer of high cloud and over-development keeping the sun from warming things too much. At times in the afternoon it felt autumnal to this man in shorts and flip flops! 

SM on aerotow (Simon Minson)

 

Pete Startup in 230 had the best crack at things visiting Crediton, Wellington and Chard for 110kms but he struggled back and I noticed Simon Minson in his ASW20 kept it local before switching into coach mode and flying with Paul Medlock on some instructor training flights. For a while it was quite soarable locally and the melee over the site quite intense! 

 

Stirling Melhuish SF27 in the launch queue (John Pursey)

My earlier SF business had involved rigging - getting Alan’s SF27 rigged and at long last we actually managed to get Stirling Melhuish up in it. With countless SF27 shares and outright ownerships to his name he of course, ironically, was flying the one we owned but he was there! Well done to Stirling, let’s get the next 2 SF27s over the finish line and go racing! 

Chilly in shorts today (John Pursey)

 

I was the last to land (in an SF naturally) at 5:20 after a jolly 90 minutes so, all in all not a bad day. - John Pursey

Fri 6th June - Course Week

 After a less than optimistic forecast for the week we managed to fly every day, with many long soaring flights in often very thermic conditions. 

 

June 2025 course

Everyone made great progress. Chris Mew returned to solo, Tim Petty made great progress to getting back to solo. Mike Rigby did his first solo aerotow and completed his longest soaring flight at over 2 hours. 

 

Well done Mike solo aerotow (James Flory)

Harry Rigby  made great steps towards re-soloing after a break whilst finishing Uni. Phil Taylor and Ainsley Fisher both made great progress towards going solo.

 

Great skies (James Flory)

Overall a great course with the weather delivering some great conditions. Thanks go to Kevin Fairburn, Shaun  Dayman and Emna Flory as our ever helpful ground crew, and Instructors James Flory and Guy Adams.  And a big thank you to Vicky for providing great food through the week.- James Flory

Thur 5th June

 It was a little wet to start, but course members were kept busy with lectures, unfortunately most of the Thursday regulars disappeared at lunchtime.

After lunch, the sun came out at times and the wind was spot on the right direction for the ridge to work (it still felt like Autumn though). The course instructors decided to get going,  with no rostered course helpers, there was a call for help to the Clubhouse, a minimum crew was found to operate the winch, cable retrieve and launchpoint  for the afternoon session.

Pushing the Junior on line (Richard Lean)

 

Most experienced soaring on the west ridge,  a few thermals early on, there was even a bit of wave possibly. All the course members had good flights and Mike Sloggett and Chris Wool  looked after the Thursday Regulars, with 14 winch launches (thanks Tim and Paul) in total. - J&P

Wed 4th June

 Today was a case of typical April weather, unfortunately its June! The odd bit of occasional drizzle, breaks for proper rain showers, dodging rain clouds, gusty turbulent skies with fantastic lift and strong sink whilst wearing wooly hats and jackets.

 

Assessing the Junior mainwheel brake (Mark Layton)

The day started with a small team derigging Junior FZF to investigate the ongoing mainwheel brake problem. To gain better access, the glider was inverted and placed on some small trestles to make it stable. The wheel and brake assembly had to be removed and refitted numerous times to determine the cause and having it upside-down saved George Sanderson, Gordon Hutchinson and Mark Layton from scrambling around on the floor. Glider manufacturers all have different idea's on how to make basically the same part and the Polish seem to be be masters at coming up with some clever but obscure solutions. It was found that various components of the brake system have become worn and now have to be replaced. Unfortunately, we don't have all the parts in our small stock of spares and those we have need specialist machining to enable them to be assembled correctly. Hopefully we can get it sorted in the next week or so.

Two lines for the course week (Peter Smith)

 

An improving sky (Richard Lean)

Meanwhile on the field, the course members and a smattering of Wednesday regulars were being guided by James Flory, Guy Adams and Pete Smith. Before lunch the flight times were relatively short, but after a rain-induced lunchbreak the conditions changed as predicted. 

Rain clouds in the locality (Mark Layton)

 

The thermals started to kick off and the end of the west ridge became a 'safe place' to top up on some height. There was some  terrifically strong lift about up to cloudbase if you were lucky enough to connect with it, but there was obviously some wicked sink about as well. 

Wildflower area (Mark Layton)

Most people had good soaring flights as the passing rain clouds stayed away from NHL for the rest of the afternoon. By 17:00 everyone had flown and with Chris Mew re-soloing after a bit of of a lay-off on the last flight of the day, everything was packed away. - Mark Layton

Mon 2nd June - Course Week

 The Course Instructors had put a call out for an early start, and the Cross-country pilots set a task for the Pundits of 

 NH2 - Fordingbridge - Okehampton -NH2 310kms 

W7 staying high (Wyn Davies)

  230
"Early launch fearful of sea air problems later - a good call. Great run to Fordingbridge and back, a couple of soft bits going in and out of Okehampton. With DD3, 711 and W7 for company." - Pete Startup

 DD3 
"A great day out in the Duo with Phil. Strong thermals made for easy going - except it took us a little while to work out which part of the clouds worked best! things slowed down a bit west of Exeter which gave us more time to enjoy the view!
Thanks to Phil for great company and Pete and Ron for setting a good task!" - JB

 711 
"Slow …(P2 Simon Jordy instructional flight he hasn’t really grasped turning long wings). Nice day out with the North Hill crew." - Ron Johns

 W7
"Early start. A slow and high trip to Fordingbridge. Didn't centre in thermals very well and at last made the turn point. Found it easier going into wind and on the way back got some lovely climbs. Unfortunately when I was back near the club, I got low and decided to end the task early. 216kms - Could have / should have continued,,, but I had a great day out with the North Hill gang. Thanks Robert for the tow." - Wyn Davies

and Shaun Dayman  (who was a course helper) was still after that documented 100km  NH2 - Chard - Knowstone -NH2 105km.

JDD
" Managed to duck out of being a course helper for a couple of hours so as to try and get my 100k Diploma. Thanks to Paul Medlock and grandson Alfie for taking over cable retrieve as well as Kevin Fairburn for doing a double shift in the winch! Headed east first like the others, good conditions all the way round pretty much as predicted by RASP, kept high and flew conservatively arriving at Knowstone above final glide. Task declaration issues unfortunately though might have scuppered an official badge claim" - Shaun Dayman

Sun 1st June

 With a blustery day forecast, and only four names initially on the two-seater list (50% of which were female!) it looked like a fairly simple day ahead for duty instructor Mike Sloggett, assisted by James Flory for the morning. However, as the gliders were being taken out from the hangar, more members appeared, however so did JB, who was happy to instruct too. 

We started flying at just after 10:00am, with boisterous conditions making it a blue card day. Rob Hender did winch and cable retrieve until the lunch break, thank you! Juniors: Lily Sanders Page, Adam Smyth and Faber Green made themselves very useful around the Launchpoint. We all stopped for lunch at 12.30pm due to lack of numbers. Dave Perriam then took on the role of winch and cable retrieve for the afternoon, thank you, with Paul Medlock doing the last stint of the day.  

SM enjoying some local soaring (Simon Minson)

 

Simon Minson was the only private owner out but enjoyed local soaring for the longest flight 2hrs 33. We continued into the afternoon, and managed to complete the flying lists by 5:30pm. 

Thanks to everyone on the field today, and a special thanks to Trevor Russell for stepping in and covering the DLM Duty. 23 flights in total, a good flying day. - Sally Hender

Sat 31 May

 A day pretty much as forecast; low cloud but flyable when it counted and by later afternoon quite fun. Usual faces there early getting stuff out and DIs done - thank you to all. A briefing at 9am and we were off with a list that had way more in the solo column than the two-seater one.

Gentle, slightly south of west wind,  so Clubhouse-end operations and a cloudbase that looked close. First launches just stroked the base and ample opportunity to exercise the last part of the “eventualities brief” concerning releasing under tension before any attempt to push forward. 

 

John Pursey with Karen King (John Pursey)

I flew and let loose first Gill Morrison then Thomas Gunner. The cloudbase went up to around 2000ft by early afternoon and with the sun intermittently having full reign it got more sporty. Alan Turner, Ashley Thomas, Chris Woodward and Dan Hender brought out their gliders and went soaring. 

Mark Courtney did some instructor training with Paul Medlock and James F, for once, flew just himself! After a lunch time break I flew with Karen King and Phil Rowlands in some lively air, with James Flory doing a round of flights with Sally Hender. The day ended with smiles all round, I think, certainly I was happy. - John Pursey

Thur 29th May

 What started as a quiet morning with relatively few members soon turned into a good soarable day. The low cloudbase quickly lifted and promising lift including some good cloud streets swept quickly over from the south west.

Cloudbase lifting (Mike Sloggett)

 

Strong winds down the strip meant it was a blue card for most of the day,  making for useful dual practice for many, under instruction from Mike Sloggett and Chris Wool. A short lunch break was followed by longer flights in the afternoon - well done to Callum Ellis and Mike for achieving the longest at 42 minutes. Thanks also to Callum for a long stint doing both winch and cable retrieve duties to help keep the show on the road. Paul Summers and Chris carried out 3 aerotows for some spinning. 

 

Streets developing (Mike Sloggett)

Three two-seaters plus one Junior were flown, and many people had either two or three flights. Despite this, the launch point and gliders were packed away by 17:00, making for an earlier finish.

Thanks to all who came up for a great flying day - those who had trusted the pessimistic forecast certainly would have missed out!  - Arthur  Lean (First time blogger)

Sun 25th May

 At the morning briefing at 9:15am by duty instructor, James Flory he advised of a Blue card day ahead, with gusting winds. Simon Minson was also on site to assist with training, so he took on Richard Roberts and Paul Summers’ respective blue card checks and BI revalidation, while James started on the remaining five names on the two-seater list. 

 

Thanking the Instructor for a rating card check (Paul Warren)

Just two K21’s were brought out from the hangar, and flying began at just after 10:00am, fortunately flying from the east end, so no walking involved. Logging training started for Rob Hender, as we needed someone when I was flying!  At 1:00pm we stopped for lunch, as both James and Simon had to leave. Ian Mitchell then took over at 2:30pm and was able to complete the two-seater list.
In what looked like a challenging day, there was actually a lot of lift around, you just had to get through the launch and landing to enjoy it.  We packed everything away by 5:00pm.
Thanks to the small but very efficient team who stayed the whole day and got everyone flown that wanted to. - Sally Hender

Fri 23rd May -Task Week Summary

 Each day briefing started at 10am, accompanied by breakfast made by Vicky - a great start. 

 

Briefing and Breakfast (Sally Hender)

Tasks were set, weather briefed and a register of pilots taking part.
 
 Help was provided on planning and programming of Oudies for those who wanted it. Novices were assured they would get a retrieve if needed.
 
 Task set , grid looking busy below-

 

A busy grid, but Ron got it organised

 

Bumblebee to the rescue again

On the best day  5 Pundits set off for the 300K task, and Pete Startup 230 won on handicap beating Ron & Dan Johns 711, Simon Minson SM. Phil  Morrison and Nick Jones DD3 shortened the task turning back at Sherborne, and Wyn Davies W7 completed 177km also cutting off the eastern end.
 
 NH2 - North Tawton - NH2 - Clyffe Pyppard - NH2 326km
 Meanwhile Pundit 6 Dan Hender JDP  decided on a slightly different task to enable a potential Diamond claim,  but having declared Wantage, the sky was very flat in the east, and he missed out on the 300k paperwork as he had turned short, but actually completing  326Km.

 But what of the important progress of DSGC Novices

  The Club 100 was completed by Alan Rappaport FWH, John Borland FAJ ( no start line),  Alan winning on handicap with SF27 (with a failed battery).
 Congratulations to Dave Perriam DG1  for completing Silver distance and Silver badge (and just missed the 100km Endorsement because of the start line) with an out and return to Barnstaple.  Congratulations to Shaun Dayman JDD for completing Silver Distance  and Silver height (and just missed the 100km Endorsement because of the start line) with an out and return to Barnstaple.  Completing the line up was Mark Wallis who landed at Eaglescott, but congratulations  for completing Silver Distance and Silver Badge.

 

In DSGC May 2025 Task week - Statistics

• 16 DSGC pilots have now started posting on the ladder. Great news, well done all.
•  Of those who went cross-country,  46 flights ended up flying 115 hours.
•  4029 km total distance for the week.
•  An average of 143.9 km per pilot, per flight.
•  DSGC ladder for 2025 now shows over 7000km flown. Let’s keep adding to that total for the rest of the year.
•  Only 4 land-outs all week

Wyn down safe and sound

2 of us tricked by the Dorchester sea air Rich and Wyn

Ron & Dan ASH25 stayed on the working side of the sea breeze front

The Club two-seaters got in on the action on various days as well – DG505 visits Devon and Cornwall 

NHL - Bodmin - NHL 212km - Simon & Mark with a private hire of JZK.

 

Simon Leeson & Mark Courtney in DG505 JZK

 

Local task on a soft day with Rich Roberts and Nicholas Johnson training cross-country

Rich Roberts & Nicholas Johnson in DG505 JZK

 

Top three pundits of Task week 2025 - BGA Ladder
 1st Pete Startup 4432
 2nd Dan Hender 3906
 3rd Ron & Dan Johns 2730

Brian Masters Trophy - last awarded 2016

 Thanks to  many : all the Pilots for taking part,  the Tuggies and Bumblebee for stepping into the breach, the retrieve crews, Vicky for feeding and watering all, weathermen, task setters, logkeepers, the weather for playing ball and Rich for organising everyone.

Tue 20th May - Task Week

It was a busy Clubhouse this morning,  and the tasks were set ..... Well, it was a slow start with a clear blue sky and then at about midday the clouds started to pop up and it turned into a really good thermic sky.

Task week grid (Sally Hender)

Novice
NH2 - Knowstone - North Tawton - NH2 Club 100km
Silver distance  - Release at Hembury Hill - Barnstaple

Pundits
NH2 - Knowstone - North Tawton - Blandford - Frome - NH2 301km

 

Clubhouse was packed for briefing (Sally Hender)

So 5 Pundits set off for the 300K task, and Pete Startup 230 won on handicap beating Ron & Dan Johns 711, Simon Minson SM. Phil Morrison and Nick Jones DD3 shortened the task turning back at Sherborne, and Wyn Davies W7 completed 177km also cutting off the eastern end.

NH2 - North Tawton - NH2 - Clyffe Pyppard - NH2 326km
Meanwhile Pundit 6 Dan Hender JDP  decided on a slightly different task to enable a  potential Diamond claim,  but having declared Wantage, the sky was very flat in the east, and he missed out on the 300k paperwork as he had turned short, but actually completing 326Km.

NHL - Bodmin - NHL 212km
Simon Leeson and Mark Courtney with a private hire of JZK completed O/R to Bodmin.

The Club 100 was completed by Alan Rappaport FWH, Rich Roberts V5, John Borland FAJ ( no start line), with Rich at 85.4kph, but Alan winning on handicap with SF27 (with a failed battery).

Congratulations to Dave Perriam DG1  for completing Silver distance and Silver badge (and  just missed the 100km Endorsement  because of the start line) with an out and return to Barnstaple.  

Congratulations to Shaun Dayman JDD for completing Silver Distance and Silver height (and  just missed the 100km Endorsement  because of the start line) with an out and return to Barnstaple.  

"The Cu out towards North Devon was positively inviting and didn't fail to deliver out and back. There was even a nice Cu waiting for me at Barnstaple.  Navigation a doddle - just followed the Link Road! Bumped into Dave (not literally) on the way back from South Molton. On arrival back at North Hill there was yet another thermal to afford me the opportunity of getting my height gain in addition to my distance." - Shaun Dayman 

 

Alan, Shaun, Dave all flew 100kms (Jill Harmer)

Completing the line up was Mark Wallis who landed at Eaglescott, but congratulations for completing Silver Distance and Silver Badge.

Flying locally in the good conditions were Geoff Lawrence HES, Ashley Thomas 877, Andy Williams FUN, Rob Hender LRD, Mark Layton 477, Steve Westlake and Dave Weeks KEK and JB and Sally Hender HCX, and later Robert Lee DKU, Jeff Taberham 380 and Nick Harrison JDD.  

Sally Hender "After launching the whole grid for the task week, tasks, JB and I took the penultimate launch of the day. I had a great flight in HCX with JB, went out to Tiverton then across to Wellington, practicing my turns, sharing the flying (JB gaining us height, me loosing it!).
Flew for 1 hour 40 mins, before having to come back to help with the booked group evening. To loose the height we had gained, JB threw some loops and chandelle’s getting us back down after an ‘epic’ flight!"

Many thanks to Stuart Procter for tugging with Bumblebee.

In the evening, several members helped with the Group evening booked by Bridport Round Table.  - J&P

Mon 19th May - Task Week

 Sally was running the Launch point ......

Is this the largest cupholder? (Shaun Dayman)

NHL - Tiverton - Culmhead -  Wellington - NHL 67kms

230
"DSGC newbie X-C learning and achievement week. Short task to get people to progarm a task into their gadgets and fly the task using start/finish lines and using sectors. Late start due to excessive cloud cover but improving as the afternoon went on so did two laps. They're doing great!" - Pete Startup

JZK
"Small local task part of task week." - Rich Roberts and Nicholas Johnson

W7

Near Blundells School Tiverton (Wyn Davies)

"Short flight to TIV. Didn't find a good climb , and slowly descended into a field" - Wyn Davies

Sun 18th May

With no formal Duty Instructor available for training flights today, it was great when a few  Instructors actually turned up to help out with the few members who had come on the off-chance. 

Task Week Grid (Rob Hender)

 

Thanks also to Simon Leeson for tugging, Dave Perriam for looking after our Trial lesson Visitors, and everyone for running the show. 

John completes Silver with Silver distance (Jill Harmer)

 

Congratulations to John Borland for Silver Distance and complete Silver. 

 

Andy completes his qualifying cross-country (James Flory)

Congratulations to Andy Broderick for completing his qualifying cross-country for his SPL TMG extension flying Henstridge and back.

Cross-country flying

JDP NHL - Bovington - Launceston - NHL (another attempt at a documented 300kms!) 235kms
"Weather at Dorchester was awful, the sea air had come in and it was a struggle to get away after the turn point. Hit a blue gap, 10km short of Okehampton but pressed on. Made my own luck finally getting to Launceston. I was tempted to see how much further I could go getting into Cornwall, but thought about my retrieve crew and decided to stick to the task. There were a few potential clouds in the distance, and thought if I could get to them I may get away, but I was so low and the clouds so wispy they didn’t work at all. 

The whole village turned out to help carry out (Sally Hender)

Picked a field which turned out to have just been planted, so a carry out was required, but the whole Village came out to see the aircraft that had supposedly ‘crashed in the field’ so many hands made light work!" Dan Hender

711 NHL - Cerne Abbas - Hatherleigh - NHL 225kms

230 NH2 - Dorchester - Roadford - NH2 263kms
"Went East first but Dorchester was aready 10km into sea air when I got there. Made a sh*t or bust dive in and out under the convergence which left me low and questioning the wisdom while climbing out of yet another farmyard. Once I got going again had a really good run to Okehampton only to find Roadford was in sea air too but this time I was high enough to get in and back out without too much drama until the glide through yet more sea air home - phew!
Well dome to JB2 (John Borland) on his Silver distance in the not so easy direction." Pete Startup

W7 NHL - Dorchester - North Hill 128kms
"Great conditions - but Dorchester was behind the sea breeze front. Got there and almost back to the sea breeze front. But not quite. Good field, and spent 10 minutes soaring with the sea gulls, until they flapped their wings." - Wyn Davies

FAJ  O/R North Hill 130kms
Well done to John Borland for his Silver distance flight and completing his Silver.

877 Ashley Thomas stayed local, but achieved his longest flight in 877.

JDD  Shaun Dayman headed off to Dorchester but scuttled back home beating the sea breeze front. "I struggled to see a way forward beyond Chard so headed north and still couldn't get high in order to have the confidence to keep going. Struggled to even find a decent climb as I drifted back towards North Hill."

DD3  JB and Phil Morrison also got caught with the sea air, but the iron thermal came to the rescue.

CEC Mark Wallis stayed fairly local in the Tiverton area.

A tricky weather day with the sea breezes keeping everyone on their toes. - J&P

Sat 17th May

 At the briefing this morning the clubhouse was packed, but by the time we had walked the gliders up to the west end there seemed to be very few on the airfield, and there were only four names on the two-seater training list.

Duty Instructor James Flory assisted by Steve Westlake started the flying off at 10:15am. The list was actually completed by 1pm, so we stopped for lunch, due to lack of members on the airfield. Private owners, Alan Turner (CYA), Shaun Dayman (JDD), Ashley Thomas (877), Dave Perriam (DG1), Alan Rappaport and John Pursey took turns in (FWH) and John Borland (FAJ) all took launches in their own gliders. Josh Howlett had the longest flight of the day in a K21 with 97 mins. Unfortunately after lunch, we had to switch ends as predicted the wind changed direction, but it was smoothly completed and didn’t impact flying too much. 

For Task week they started off the first day, with a moderate 20km task, however Rich Roberts was the only one to make the attempt, unfortunately landing out between Cullompton and Willand, so a nice short retrieve!!! We even had a member of the public (who had had a trial lesson previously) phone Tom Sides (at home) to say they thought there was a glider in trouble! Very thoughtful. 

Sileage ready to cut ( Rich Roberts)

 

The Trial Lesson  visitor and Lisa’s friends and family flight (from Australia) both enjoyed their flights.  

"Lovely day, I was lucky to get my neighbours son in law a couple of flights , he is a microlight pilot in Australia and will ve joining his nearest club on return! My neighbour is a member of the rotary club and will be arranging an evening for their members . Vicky’s cakes were a big success and they took away her cake recipes"  - Lisa Humphries

 

Sally waiting to launch (Lisa Humphries)

Conditions declined again as the afternoon progressed, so by 5:30pm everything was packed away.  23 winch launches and 7 aerotows. Good luck to everyone who has kindly purchased a country for the Eurovision Sweepstake this evening! 😉🤞.
- Sally Hender

Thurs 15th May

 Yet another long trudge to the far west end of the field awaited us in the same old bright blue sky. Good for most folk but not ideal for the gliding fraternity. On the plus side we must of racked up the 'steps' over the last few weeks.

 

Junior waiting for aerotow to the wave? (Mark Layton)

Mike Sloggett and Chris Wool worked their way through the two-seater list made longer by the yellow, then blue card conditions as the wind increased during the day making the approaches 'interesting'! Most flights from the first launch were relatively short as there were no signs of lift from the winch launches in the NE cross wind.

 

Is there wave there? (Mark Layton)

After lunch the signs of potential wave looked a possibility so after having not a lot to do Simon Jordy burst into action flying the EuroFox. With winch launches being less than 5 minutes in the blustery conditions the aerotow queue grew as the 'wave hunters' excitingly jostled for position. Unfortunately it was not to be, but at least those who flew had flights in the blue thermals if they could find them.

Despite the increasingly challenging  conditions it was useful for training and with the mission, (if possible) to pack up early once everyone had flown it was reckoned we finally made it! (and so did Mike to the regional premiere of Mission Impossible The Final Reckoning !) - Mark Layton

Wed 14th May

 The forecast gentle north easterly would have been nice but a trip to the west end where the windsock was horizontal and quivering belied the accuracy of the forecast, nevertheless it was bluish sky, sunny and  dry, - we would have given much for it a few weeks ago.
 
Thermal activity should have kicked in soon after midday, it was late arriving and difficult to corner when it did, but there were a number of extended flights.

 

Launch Control (Mark Layton)

Andy Pincombe, John Burrow and Martin Woolner all helped with instructing ensuring everyone flew. JB completed red card checks with David Wojnar in an extended flight in the Perkoz.
 
Some private gliders came out to play, Richard Roberts V5 topped the day with over 2 hours and Pete Startup 230 not far behind. 

CUL - Axminster - Crewkerne - Hembury Hill - CUL - NHL 96kms

"Set task to the west , pushed out but in blue only able to get to about 3,000 ft max so rapidly went off the idea. Cu appeared on the south coast so worked my way to them, then had a run along the coast going east following the line of cu. Some worked great, others absolutely nothing. A bonus x country for me regardless. Need more faith as I think the west did get better. Driving home I think I could have been still flying an hour and a half later to the west." Rich Roberts V5

Not the day we hoped for but everyone flew 32 winch launches and 5 aerotows. - Peter Smith