Thursday 11th October

Wet, wet, wet - A few Thursday regulars braved the flooded roads to meet up for a bacon sandwich and discussions on new Laws and Rules, igc files, official observers, synoptic chart analysis and RASP forecasts. By the end of the afternoon, the airfield had started draining quite well in a foggy white out.

Sunday 7th October - The Ochill Tour

Another day of ridge and late season thermal - initially the windsock was doing it's best impression of a gravity indicator but then slowly started twitching in the gentle westerly drift and weak becoming increasingly stronger thermals appeared.

To start with the light wind onto the hill also meant that it was perfect for the paragliders and a couple of hours of 'duvet dodging' ensued. The disparate performance between them and us made for some interesting flying, especially as they 'park' in the best and sometimes only area of lift.

JB and Pete thermalling over the loch

The thermals started as vague wisps but better looking clouds ran along the line of the Ochills out to the West. A slow tiptoe across the loch enabled Matt and Pete S to connect with the better clouds, Pete only managing to reach Dollar before getting in a bit of a spot and chickening out but Matt made it to Dunblane - a top effort! JB turbo'ed out to join in the fun.

Tom did 2 and 1/2 hours local soaring. Martin, Ron, Chris and Rowan having survived the ridge traffic all took a breather in the thermals enjoying the stunning visibility.

More traffic joining in the fun

Saturday 6th Oct - Good Crieff!!!

After working a soft Bishop ridge for some time, weak thermals started to kick off. The first excursion to Perth ended up with most running back to the ridge for a relight. Second trip out went towards Glenfarg and then onwards to Crieff where the wave is usually around. Only Martin in LS3-17(KMV) managed to connect with a respectable climb to 7,500' and even though Matt, Pete S and JB were in exactly the same place , failed miserably in contacting the wave. However, the real highlight was an epic 4-ship formation glide home(35km) without stopping at all which had us all laughing and Matt's 'camera on a stick' in full swing.

4 Musketeers set off from Crieff

Tom S(the next President of the USA) had some time on the ridge in a club Junior and Ron enjoyed a few hours too.

A fine day of soaring - and the Portmoak infrastructure hasn't collapsed as feared, just changed. The rooms are still good, the catering 90% there and bar plans are in motion. The SGU are using this opportunity to maximum advantage.

Sunday 7th October

The forecast had changed to be quite a reasonable day, but somehow the members must have missed it. With no trainees, two solo pilots, 8 Instructors (at times) incorporating  3 tuggies  -  a reduced price aerotow day was declared and we enjoyed half a dozen shared aerotows in the very smooth air. Both Falkes were out, VG visited Halesland and SC went to the south coast.

Saturday 6th October

After a lot of rain yesterday, the sky was gin clear and a north easterly wind with the usual down wave.

Some low level cumulus did form and there was some gentle soaring.

In the evening, the first of our winter talk series was given by Chris C and with a good turnout was enjoyed by all. The talk was followed by a  nice carvery from Maria & Co.

Friday 5th - Portmoak Hints of Wave

Jb, I arrived at Portmoak early afternoon on Thursday and had an short flight on Bishop before being chased down by a rain shower. Ron arrived just after sundown towing 611 and we retired to the pub for dinner.

Friday morning started gloomily with fog on the airfield which dissipated as quickly as it formed revealing hints of wave to the north. We set a wave task, hoping to utilise the usual wave hot spots. The wind was a light north westerly and Bishop was working well and gliders were contacting week wave off West Lomond but as the sun climbed the thermals started interfering and contact was lost. 

Gin clear air

JB and Ron persevered making multiple forays over the loch and towards Glenfarg trying to reestablish but with out real success.

Gnarly valleys on the way to Loch Tay

Loch Tay

Frustrated with the hunt for wave I gave up and decided to go out west in thermal, managing to make it into the mountains near Loch Tay. The visibility was incredible and the views were magnificent. A great days flying despite not going quite as planned.

Thursday 4th October

Best day of the week, and very nearly dry all day! There was a fresh north / south westerly wind providing some thermal and ridge lift at various times with the cloud streets cycling.
Thanks to Roly and Mike Fitz for manning the back seats all day in lieu of the normal unfit Thursday Instructors.

Wednesday 3rd October

Not a brilliant forecast and a gloomy damp, damp look to the day with a brisk S/W wind but we made a start and from the first launch things improved and it turned into quite a pleasant day with long flights with a bit of lift on the South ridge and some weak wave in various places.

 

As not many club members turned up, those that did had as much flying as they wanted, in the afternoon the wind backed to the N/W giving us good lift on the West ridge with a bit wave as well, the last two flights we air-braked down.

 

We welcomed back Dee C who has rejoined the club he was formally living in Mallorca but is now living locally, also Christine from The Park will be flying with us mid-week.- JSt

Wednesday 3rd - Denbigh Screaming

After a rest day in the rain at Denbigh, put to good use by Matt editing his latest video 'Denbigh Dreaming' - due on a computer screen near you soon -  we rigged, launched and dropped onto the ridge to try the set task of 140k, made up of 5 runs between the DRS (Denbigh ridge south) at the south end and DYS (Dyserth) at the north end of the ridge. Kevin mentioned that a pioneering ridge-runner from Nympsfield had achieved a speed of 132.7kph on a task using Prestatyn as his northerly turning point, in effect throwing down the gauntlet! As representatives of North Hill Soaring Section and naturally not wishing to let the side down we were obliged to rise to the challenge.

The ridge from launch height

With speed now being the name of the game the long tips were left in the trailers and Matt filled up with water! Using the remote start at the south end of the ridge gave us a brief chance to explore the handling before selecting 'flaps to minus two and stick to the front'! It was my first outing in the Ventus in 15 metre mode and it was remarkably nimble. With the extra water on board, after the start Matt was gone like a 'robbers dog' and I was playing catch up for the rest of the task. 

Testing the short wings

We found that running north was much quicker due to the slight tail wind component however the north section was not working as well as on Monday due to suspected wave interference and we had to slow down, both in and out of the turn point to maintain sufficient height to allow the jump back to the main ridge.

We both felt that we were pushing as hard as we could, and a couple of times, I over did it and had to S turn to get back into the workable zone which cost me in terms of task speed. On the final run north, because of a short beat of reliable ridge at the Dyserth turn point and not having to conserve height, we could plan to arrive low at the finish making the last leg blistering!

The 'robbers dog' won the day with a task speed of 145.3 kph, while yours truly hobbled home with a mere 133.2kph. -  I tell pupils not to grip the stick, but by the end of this task my hand was aching as we went in search of wave for a bit of a rest.

Heading west in the search for wave

JB

Monday 1st October - Dancing with Denbigh Dragons

With a few extra days to kill before the October Portmoak trip, JB and I decided to head north and a bit west to Denbigh, Pete S's favourite gliding site. With a low grey overcast and pouring rain setting the tone for most of the 4 hour drive we were beginning to doubt the logic of our decision but as we pulled into Lliweni Parc blue gaps were appearing between the showers. After filling out the paperwork and a site brief by CFI Kevin Hook it was almost flyable so we rigged and lined up on the narrow tarmac runway ready for epicness!

Looking south

There was a bit of a debate as to who was going to go first and test if the ridge was working as the wind at the launch point wasn't all that strong, until we realised that who ever launched second would be doing so with a trestle as a wing runner. So choosing the lesser of the 2 weevils, I launched first and was soon scaring the sheep on Moel Y Parc. 

Approaching Dyseth

The wind was 220/15-20kts at ridge top height  and it was booming, allowing us to complete our declared task of 5 beats of the 28km ridge in a little over an hour and laughing most of the way. Out to the west Snowdon was shrouded by showers which coalesced into an ominous curtain of rain which had us abandon the hunt for wave and scoot back to the airfield to de-rig before a nice cup of tea.

Soaring heaven

 Matt