Saturday 28th March

A cold blustery northerly enabled mainly circuits only. John P in the Junior made a dash to explore the North ridge and managed to pick up some thermals.

Thursday 26th March

The cold front did not clear until lunch time, and then only to showers and a very strong blustery westerly wind. So no flying.
The few of us at the Thursday Morning Tea Drinking Group gathered around the computer to work our way through the new "Safe Winch Launching" bit on the BGA website. Watching the video clips of simulated winch launches not reaching their wished for final outcome bought the point home. Working through the quiz was a very useful tutorial.
We then had lunch and went home.

Thursday 19th March

Most of the Thursday regulars started flying under a clear blue sky and cold easterly wind, it was circuits all day except for a little soar by Joe, Matt and three buzzards just as one of the inversions broke - good opportunity for training and check flights. Joe converted to the Junior, and Ian enjoyed a 4000ft aerotow for spin checks in the DG 505.

Wednesday 18th March

The enthusiastic Wednesday regulars were at the club early and were setup in good order, but the remnants of a weak front were slow to burn off. John Street not wanting to waste the chance quickly press-ganged a few members into some hole-filling duties, while waiting for the fog to clear.

Dave and Carl finished off the C of A on the DG and rigged it ready for the Thursday crowd, while Joe had some help installing lights in the Tug hangar so that the tuggies won't be left in the dark.

Flying was fairly slow paced in the very poor visibility and a good few cable break practices were performed. Not much soaring was on offer, with highlights being the chance of doing hanger landings at the end of the afternoon.

All in all a very pleasant day out in the fresh air.

Sunday 7th March

Flying was short lived and 'interesting' as the very blustery wind became too strong and accompanied by squally showers of rain/sleet/hail!
Work went on in the glider workshop and the CFI held an impromptu Instructors brief.

Sunday 1st March

A Cold front had gone through on Saturday leaving a cold west north-westerly airstream. Streets set up during the morning from coast to coast. Some wave interference was shown by lower cloudbases and no lift along sections of the streets. All the available Club fleet and 8 private gliders enjoyed the streets which lasted all day.

Thursday 26th February

That's more like it, our first flyable Thursday since 11th December and only the third since the end of September!

We have been stuck under the influence of an Atlantic anticyclone, off to our south west, for the best bit of two weeks. Fronts have been skirting round the north of it, each one bringing various amounts of moisture through North Hill. Wednesday was one of these days, damp, grey, not very nice at all. Overnight a cold front passed through which cleared the air, but still moist with cloud bases at about 2000', and a moderate, cold westerly wind.

The remnants of the cold front cleared as we set up the field, expecting a reasonable ridge day, however first launch contacted thermals which continued through to midday. The ASH26 and Discus used the cloud streets to venture as far as the motorway to pick up decent wave to allow good trips to Exmoor. Back at the ridge this wave stifled the thermals but did produce a large area of "extended" ridge lift up to 1200' way out into the valley. Then late in the afternoon when everything seemed to be dying two of us latched into gentle smooth lift at 700' just off the end of the airfield, up to the base of the airway. This wave bar lasted for, at most, an hour. With its area of sink coinciding with the ridge and circuit a few up, round and downs ended the glorious day. I am sorry to the few who only got an u, r & d.

In total 7 members shared the one available instructor and K21, 6 flew one or other of the Juniors and 4 private owners flew ASW20, ASH26 and Discus.

Thursday thermallings (and wavings) 26th February

That's more like it, our first flyable Thursday since 11th December and only the third since the end of September!

We have been stuck under the influence of an Atlantic anticyclone, off to our south west, for the best bit of two weeks. Fronts have been skirting round the north of it, each one bringing various amounts of moisture through North Hill. Wednesday was one of these days, damp, grey, not very nice at all. Overnight a cold front passed through which cleared the air, but still moist with cloud bases at about 2000', and a moderate, cold westerly wind.

The remnants of the cold front cleared as we set up the field, expecting a reasonable ridge day, however first launch contacted thermals which continued through to midday. The ASH26 and Discus used the cloud streets to venture as far as the motorway to pick up decent wave to allow good trips to Exmoor. Back at the ridge this wave stifled the thermals but did produce a large area of "extended" ridge lift up to 1200' way out into the valley. Then late in the afternoon when everything seemed to be dying two of us latched into gentle smooth lift at 700' just off the end of the airfield, up to the base of the airway. This wave bar lasted for, at most, an hour. With its area of sink coinciding with the ridge and circuit a few up, round and downs ended the glorious day. I am sorry to the few who only got an u, r & d.

In total 7 members shared the one available instructor and K21, 6 flew one or other of the Juniors and 4 private owners flew ASW20, ASH26 and Discus.

A post by pharmer on the old DSGC forum

Flying blogs

Last year I tried to keep a blog going for events at the Club on Thursdays.

Could we try to get something similar going for every flying day?

I know that this forum has a very small readership with only 37 members, but more might join once they know that there are regular features.

Just a little story about each day would suffice: what the weather was and conditions on the field, who was there, what the flying was like, who achieved what.

A post by pharmer on the old DSGC forum

The latest EASA nightmare

The BGA have just drafted it's response to the latest EASA consultation document about it's proposals for pilot licensing.
This totally overbearing,sleep inducing document is hard work to read,even the BGAs clipped version,and compiling a response to it,even harder.
However,for the future of gliding it is vital that we all make a response in our own words and let them know of our concerns.The BGA response will provide guidelines to help with this.
This document is not only concerned with pilot licensing,but also medical requirements,training and endorsments for various other aspects of gliding.
The Devil is in the detail,so please take your time to read and respond - it has to be done by the 15th December.
EASA have just published the revised document re:registration and maintenance,and gliding has regained a lot of the priveleges that we were to lose under EASA regulation,so responding appropriately does work.

More details are on the BGA website.

A post by pete s on the old DSGC forum

I think that judging from the lack of replies of any sort to my post,and chatting to people around the Club,that most of you do not realise the implications of the latest EASA NPA(you should - the BGA have given enough notice and GPN is full of discussion on this topic), don't care(pretty bad),or are leaving it to somebody else to respond to the NPA(even worse).

The NPA covers many items which cause serious concern to gliding,although many of them we can live with even though they will be a headache and will require money to be thrown at them.

However,there is one item in there which if allowed to pass unchallenged will mean the end of soaring,and especially cross country soaring as we know it.

The priveleges that we have enjoyed with respect to cloud flying have been removed.Now,you may think that "I don't cloud fly ayway so it won't affect me"

WRONG - the removal of this means that gliders will only be allowed to operate in VMC - that is 1.5km clear of of cloud horizontally and 1,000' vertically above 3,000'QNH and in a flight visiblity of 5km.

So you won't be able to fly from thermal to thermal,follow a cloud street or climb in front of a wave bar.

Please respond to the NPA,by e-mail if nothing else,to npa@easa.europa.eu to register your protest against this piece of european legislation - you have until the 15th December to do it.

Plenty of additional info on the BGA website including their responses and notes for guidance to compiling your own rsponse.

Aren't you glad we joined Europe

A reply by pete s on the old DSGC forum