Thursday 4th June

A decaying cold front moved through the high pressure and parked itself over east Devon for the morning, it remained dry but gave us low cloud over the field.
The summer course did cable break training below cloud base and the few of the Thursday group present went through some theory in the Clubroom. After lunch the cloud broke, and with cloudbase now at around 1400'QFE course and Club flying continued with a few weak thermals to help the enjoyment. The course members went off for their end of week dinner and the Club set up for a trial lesson evening.


The second group of the LAA Devon Strut managed, at last, to get their flying, after two cancellations because of bad weather. Two members flew in from Dunkeswell, and one all the way from Cardiff. It was a beautiful cloudless evening: no lift, but wonderfully calm conditions and good visibility. All ten members of the party flew. There were enquiries about Club courses, and also about returning to fly during the month's membership period. A successful evening enjoyed by all. Again, thanks to Devon Strut organiser, Peter White, who liaised with Graham Barden to finalise the organisational details. - Wendy

Best flight of the day: 720kms out of Lasham to Welsh marches and back twice, taking a few minutes short of ten hours.

Just a few stats. about this blog. In the five weeks that we have been running there has been 1160 visits, from 315 unique visitors and 12 countries, at currently about 30 visits per day.

Wednesday 3rd June

The day started hot with a moderate n/e wind, being a club day it was quite hectic at times. In the afternoon it became quite thermic with climbs to 4500ft although many pilots found it difficult to find the first thermal. In the evening there was a trial lesson evening for friends / colleagues of Simon Minson.

Tuesday 2nd June

The day started hot and blue with a brisk n/e wind, in the afternoon the cu built up and the wind moderated giving thermals to 5000ft. Dick Britton and Sean Parramore re-soloed and all course members had good soaring flights.

Monday 1st June - Course week

The persistant high pressure is still centred way to our north giving very dry weather and strong easterly winds.

The June course started today with Guy Adams and John Street instructing in the ASK 21's. A very windy morning blew out any thermic activity but everyone had plenty of circuit practice, 6 minutes being about average. As the day progressed the wind moderated a little and even John had to give up thermal avoidance and by the end of the day an 80 minute flight up to 5000' was becoming the norm. Dave Reilly buzzed off into the blue at lunchtime and came back as we were packing away some time after 5:30. His turning point was Salisbury and we rather suspect he went via all the National Trust properties en route just to make it a bit of a challenge! JB pinched a cable in the early afternoon with a view to visiting Sturminster Newton. That achieved he managed a wings level flight back to base from Yeovil. Nifty bit of kit that Ventus! - Tim.

It was nice to see some old faces, Dick Britton and Robin Street have been coming on these courses for over 20 years, and some new ones

Sunday 31st May - ICL

Interclub League
Another blue day dawned,but today clouds started forming about 12:00. There was still a strong easterly wind. Tasks were again set into wind.

Tasks
Pundit NHL - Sturminster Newton - Westbury - NHL 197kms
Intermediate NHL - Sturminster Newton - Bruton - NHL 157kms
Novice NHL - Sturminster Newton - NHL 137kms

North Hill pilots:
Pundit - Simon Minson, ASW20
Intermediate - Mark Courtney & Paul Summers, DG505
Novice - Andrew Muggleston, Cirrus

It was quite difficult initially particularly into the strong wind, and the clouds proved to be more of a distraction to finding the lift than the blue of Saturday. There were at least two landouts but most got back. North Hill did well today, Andrew was the only novice to complete the task, and Mark missed first place by three minutes in two and a half hours.

Results:
Pundit: 1 Park, 2 Wyvern, 3 North Hill, 4 Shalbourne
Intermediate: 1 Mendip, 2 North Hill, 3 Wyvern, 4 The Park, 5 Shalbourne
Novice: 1 North Hill, 2 Mendip, 3 Wyvern, 4 Shalbourne

Overall points:
North Hill: Sat 7, Sun 13, 2nd w/e 20, 1st w/e 17, Total 37, Position 3
The Park: Sat 16, Sun 8, 2nd w/e 24, 1st w/e 20, Total 44, Position 1
Shalbourne: Sat 5, Sun 6, 2nd w/e 11, 1st w/e 3, Total 14, Position 5
Wyvern: Sat 14, Sun 11, 2nd w/e 25, 1st w/e 16, Total 41, Position 2
Mendip: Sat 11, Sun 10, 2nd w/e 21, 1st w/e 14, Total 34, Position 4

Saturday 30th May - ICL

Interclub League
A clear blue day dawned, with a fresh South Easterly wind.
DSGC welcomes all the visitors from Mendip, Shalbourne, Wyvern and The Park.











Task details
Pundit NHL - Taunton - Shaftesbury - NHL 164km
Intermediate NHL - Tiverton - Yeovil - NHL 121km
Novice NHL - Taunton - Yeovil - NHL 101km

North Hill pilots:
Pundit - Pete Startup, Discus
Intermediate - Mark Courtney & James Hood, DG505
Novice - Stu Proctor, Junior

It got going about 13:30, all in the blue locally, but there were some blue streets and haze caps further east, with the good thermals 5kts to 5000ft. Despite the Task Setter's pessimism, most got back and completed the task.

Results
Pundit 1st Wyvern 2nd Mendip 3rd Park 4th Shalbourne 5th North Hill
Intermediate 1st Park 2nd Mendip 3rd North Hill 4th Wyvern 5th Shalbourne
Novice 1st Park 2nd Wyvern 3rd eq North Hill Mendip Shalbourne












This evening's trial lesson group came up for a birthday party. 14 flew, lovely weather and a really nice buffet supplied by H. Thanks to the small group of members who run the evenings. Are there any more volunteers? - James

Thursday 28th May

Probably the biggest crowd of members for a Thursday, for a long time, sat in the Clubhouse all morning watching the low cloud and drizzle blow past. After lunch it was dry and the stratus rose to about 1000' QFE. With that cloudbase and very little wind there was no real soaring, so circuits for all. Three Club gliders and four private enjoyed the fun. Because of the late start we flew right up to 'evening group' time.

This evening's group were staff, friends and families from Motorola. Seventeen people enjoyed the calm evening, still restricted by that 1000' cloudbase, six of whom had a second flight. The evening finished with a cold buffet outside the Clubroom recounting their experiences.

Watch the video of the evening on youTube

Sunday 24th May - Open Weekend

Day 2

The day started with a light northerly breeze and strong sunshine, the first visitors arrived at 0830am. Flying started quickly before breakfast. Around lunch time the wind changed to south-east when we changed sides and then 2 launches later it changed again - to south-west and we had to change ends causing a little problem with flying queues building. It became soarable through the afternoon, which meant we had to limit some of the flight time to ensure everyone flew.

Stories of the Day
"Sam Cotterall with 1000hrs in a Lockheed F104 Starfighter serving with USAF in Vietnam had ejected from one of his 8hour combat air patrols. He was also an instructor in a T33 Shooting Star, his last flight was in an Antonov 2 in 1996, and today, he handled the K13 brilliantly.

"Steve Welch attended a two-week course at North Hill and remembers cloud flying with Mike Fairclough in a Bergfalke, he vowed to return, and 37 years later he brought his daughter Bonnie along to fly.


A large number of visitors turned up who were staying at the local Forest Glade caravan park.


There were 79 flights today and 3 new members have signed up for the special membership. We have also sold 6 voucher flights. We have raised £170 for the Devon Air Ambulance.

Thanks again to H for the refreshments and to the club members for running the launching so efficiently. Special thanks to Trevor for the organisation.

The evening was complete with an impromptu barbeque run by Cheryl.

Saturday 23rd May - Open Weekend

Day 1
A very pleasant May day, slack south westerly wind, a veil of high cloud and warm. Never really any chance of soaring. Perfect weather for a day of trial lessons.

Our trial lesson guests arrived steadily although we were running with about an hour's wait most of the day.

Late in the day, with about ten people still to fly we had a winch snarl-up and as soon as the cables were back the sea air passed through and we had to change ends. Fortunately it was such a pleasant evening the remaining guests did not seem to mind the one hour delay.

Hangar doors eventually closed at about 20:00. In all we flew 91 trial lessons, four of whom signed up to our special offer of four months' membership and a few more are thinking about it.
Thanks to H for providing food and drinks all day, and to the Club members who turned up to run the event.

Thursday 21st May

Just to cheer Matt up who has gone back to work, (but we know he's watching) - we had a cracking day today!

Beautiful cold front clearance gave a west north-westerly breeze with 6 (sometimes 10) knots to 4000ft QNH. Soaring flights from start to finish with the two ASK21s & Junior, two Discus, two K6, B4 and Astir having a whale of a time. Although the 6 knots sink did occasionally catch a couple out. Geoff Sharpe resoloed after a long layoff.