Monday 10th June - Course week

The first day of the course started with low cloud and less than full height launches. But an enthusiastic bunch of students and helpers had the kit out in good time for the flying to begin well before 10.00. Cloud base soon rose to about 2000ft. There was some fairly gentle thermal activity at times allowing extended flights but mostly the six students were doing circuits. The wind was light southerly sometimes, SSE sometimes and SSW sometimes. A total of about 35 launches were flown plus one for Tom in DG1 who did his usual circuit!!!

John Si

Sunday 9th June

There was a strong north easterly wind again, but it got soarable during the morning with a fairly low cloudbase. By lunchtime the conditions improved and a variety of private gliders joined the launch queue. There was quite a long list again - you don't realise how much you miss that extra two-seater.
Well done to Pete St for ditching the club 100 and with a new favourite turnpoint Melbury Bubb (ed nice name) for a 202km flight NHL- MBU - WEG - SHB - NHL

"Quite difficult today as the drunken spider trace and speed will confirm - took 2 launches to even get going. Windy(again), thermals never stonking and cloudbase never epic. 1st leg into wind leg took forever.
Pleased I got round really, nearly gave up at WEG.
After about 5pm conditions a lot better - very handy!"

Also well done to Wyn for yet another 6 hour local soaring flight.
There were several trial lessons and returning Open weekend visitors and welcome to new member Simon La who has joined us from Lasham (and a lapse of 10 years gliding).
Congratulations to our Instructors:- Rowan for completing all his Asst Cat Instructor  training and acceptance flights, Clive has also now been signed off  for Basic Instructor, Paul S has also completed everything for Basic Instructor but just awaits the rubber stamp on the paperwork. Meanwhile James and Mike Sl are hard at work on a Asst Cat Instructor training at Dunstable this week. We also welcome John P back to the Instructing rota after a break of about a year.
Soaring continued into the late evening.

Saturday 8th June

Dick Wolff
- The death of Dick will touch almost everyone in the Club – Dick was a member of the Club for many years, an Instructor, Chair of the committee, and even in retirement was a key figure in looking after records for the caravans and the private owners’ trailers…We will miss him. Our heartfelt condolences go to Anne and family. - LH

Saturday - Clear blue day, but a very strong north easterly wind produced considerable turbulence and curlover at the western end. Most of the flying until late afternoon consisted of very short circuits, but late in the afternoon those that stayed all day enjoyed an extended flight.

Clear blue sky

News from the Alps
Today I did not fly and it's raining now and tomorrow will also be wet. Its forecast to  get better by Wednesday and tres bon for Thursday and Friday - just in time for the Approaching Hoards! - JB

Friday 7th June - A short sightseeing trip in the Alps

More of the same - humid air from Italy with isolated heavy showers developing from early afternoon and possible thunder storms later. Today I went to Gap-Tallard and flew with Wolfgang in his Duo Discus WO.

Wolfgang Herzog and JB in WO

He has been flying in this region for the past 40 years so knows his way around! After a 13 minute aero-tow (£72!) we really struggled to get away and eventually started climbing from very low on the SW slope of Grand Ceuse. 

Low down on the SW slopes of Grand Ceuse

It seemed that we got to know these lower rocks and brown trees very well as WO clawed his way, rock by rock and tree by tree, up the slope. What a wizard!

Rock face of Grand Ceuse

After about 20 minutes we got up to the rock face and from there it was less than a minute to the top and then away to the higher mountains.
Next stop Tete de Clapp and a rocket thermal then on to Pic de Burre (with it's head in the clouds). The high mountains to the east were already cut off by rain so we went on a 120k sight seeing tour to the west and south taking in all the landing fields on the way. 

Lac Serre Poncon looking very low of water as the snow has not yet melted in the Ecrains

By now it was looking less wet to the NE so we headed north past Lac Serre Poncon to the snow covered mountains in the southern edges of the Ecrains.

Pic du Tourond with Chaillol ahead, with it's summit in the cloud

We could not cross into the St Crepin valley as it was still raining hard there so we played around Chaillol and Le Sirac staying well clear of the cloud that shrouded their summits before heading back to Tallard having enjoyed almost five hours of eppicness in the safe hands of Wolfgang!  - JB

Thursday 6th June

We thought it was going to be another bright warm day, but the shorts were soon packed away again as it was quite cold in the brisk north easterly wind. It was very hazy  and the inversion was at 1200ft throughout the morning and it wasn't really soarable although some people did manage some extended circuits. In the afternoon, CFI Pete flew in with Ian for a couple of practice landings on grass in the Dunks Citabria, in practice for borrowing a Scout for tugging during Competition Enterprise.

In the evening there was a good group of West Bay Coastguards for an evening out, (disappointing for some as Mark had been promising 'Baywatch type' Lifeguards!)

News from the Alps
A little local rain dodging.
Wet air from Italy and no valley breeze did not fill me with the confidence to go very far today but after three days on the ground I felt I should give it a go!

By 12.30 the Parcour was already being drenched, so after a good climb out of the valley of La Motte Du Caire I headed south east to Auribeau. It was not working at all so I went to Auton which provided a tres bon 6 kt thermal to cloud base. Everywhere to the east was being drenched with rain so I carried on south to St Auban, but the clouds beyond looked very scruffy and unhelpful  so I back tracked to La Motte Du Caire and went west along the Crete des Selles and Mtgne Aujour before running south again on the west side of the Durance valley to Montagne de Lure. 

The Durance valley looking north from Sisteron to Crete des Selles (Les igly-pigly ridge in the distance!)

The clouds were working well and it was just a matter of cloud hopping along until your way was blocked by rain. For me it was not a day to head boldly off into dragon country, so after a bit of pottering around I headed back east to Sisteron town and across to Jeuere to investigate a monster cloud curtain hanging over Le Monge which was dumping it's cargo of rain in a hurry! I skirted the shower in strong lift and headed back towards La Motte du Caire to put the glider to bed before the Monster reached La Motte Du Caire and soaked us all!  - JB

The Monster cloud over Le Monge!! (notice the little rolls of cloud low in the valleys beyond- maybe, due to the saturated air and cold down drafts from the cloud)

Wednesday 5th June

The good soaring weather continues without a break (touch wood) and today it was at last warm enough for shorts.to be worn. Wednesday started with the gliders out early walked up to the S/W corner - flying started well before 10.00am.

The list was long and we missed the K13, we could have done with another two seater.

The thermals started before lunch and continued for the rest of the day. The wind was quite light and the flying continued untill after 7.00pm to try to get through the long list, thanks to Ernie and  Peter W.
Well done to Clive who completed his acceptance checks with CFI Pete for BI flying.- JSt

Monday 3rd June - Liam hogs it!

Another great soaring day forecast and the possibility of flying was again kick started by Matt.
Sadly there were virtually no takers, a great pity - another stunning soaring day missed.

Still, a day not wasted. Matt fettled new M5 ready for the trip to France, myself and Mike H fitted a new radio in KEK and Stu P fixed the Pawnee tailwheel.

Liam came to make a nuisance of himself. But hang on - there's an Instructor on site, Tuggies x2 on site and an OO on site. After very little persuasion Liam was told to get ready for a 5 hour attempt.

What's at the front of the hangar - HCX, that'll do, more comfortable than a Junior for 5 hours anyway.
After a false start when the tow rope broke, luckily just as 'all out' was given, he was away. So after 5 hours and 23 minutes he was back and grinning like a banshee.

After 5hrs 22min and 50 seconds

North Hill's latest Mr Silver

My sincere thanks to Mike H for fitting the radio to KEK under my 'guidance' (more tea Mike?). Seriously he did the bulk of the work and more taking the opportunity to tidy up the birds nest of wiring behind the panel at the same time - many thanks indeed.

So, a worthwhile day but why weren't there more people wanting to fly???

Pete S

Sunday 2nd June

It was a nice enough start but the clouds started building just a little too early, with overdevelopment and spreadout. However the AssCat training continued apace for Mike and James.
Surprisingly, after the crowds of yesterday the launch point was fairly quiet today, but there was a group of private owners who rigged their gliders in expectation. After a switch of ends as the wind couldn't really decide which side of north to blow from consistently, the North Hill soaring section took to the skies to attempt the Club 100. The conditions were a bit mixed with reasonable climbs, big gaps and spreadout with a fast cycling of the sky. Pete St Discus 230, Simon M ASW20 SM, Rowan Libelle CLM and Pete & Jill Duodiscus OL all completed the task (although OL had to use the turbo after the otherwise comfortable final glide hit a lot of sink).

News from Keevil ICL
Muggles and Henry completed their respective tasks and Liam landed in a nice field of buttercups (but still managed to score some points) after struggling to get away from the start. Well done North Hill team, thanks to Mike F and Ollie for being excellent crew - points update to come.

News from the Alps

Good journey down. Rained much of the second day but cleared as I got to Aspre sur Buech and found the Mistral blasting through the small valley at about 40kts! South of that the wave bars were stacked high over the mountains around Sisteron. 

Check flight on Saturday in K21 with Christian - Mistral still going but all very weird. Renier and Camel rocks not working, Gash not strong and across on the valley the ridges that should have worked were yielding nothing but turbulence. We finally worked up in a thermal and came home finishing with a couple of loops and a roll.

Today I flew the Ventus but it was not much fun flying alone without my mates. Everybody was struggling and at times the ridge was like being on the dodgems. Nothing seemed to work very well and I eventually resorted to the iron thermal to get out of the valley. (I thought it would be good to give it a test run) 

Sunday looking north from the top of Blachere (the home ridge of La Motte du Caire)

Good lift once away and above the tops but Thunder storms over Blayeul meant that I couldn't go far. Went on a bit of a tour but it was still very unpredictable and I got low a long way up the Sasse valley on the way back with 5+ M/s sink everywhere so ran for home and put it in the trailer. There is a risk of thunder storms so its best inside and out of reach of the hail stones. The Parcour is all snow covered down to about 1900 metres and extending down to the south past Cheval Blanc. Looks fantastic but couldn't get there because of the storms. Pic de Bure is also white and was shrouded in cloud for much of the time. 

Tomorrow's not looking much better so I may not fly. They say it might get better at the end of the week. Funny old thing this weather stuff - xx jb

Saturday 1st June

There were some nice white puffy clouds from early on, but a stronger than expected northerly wind  seemed to blow apart any thermals until after lunch. An empty launch point over dinner was soon filled with all the private owners keen to get going. However although they all got away from the winch they struggled to go very far with the wave interference. But most enjoyed a spot of local soaring with Wyn flying for more than 4 hours.

We welcomed Andre and Blake who had both been introduced to gliding at our Open Weekend and have already become hooked on the sport.

There were also a large number of trial lessons and friends and family flights competing for the use of the two-seaters.

Congratulations to Paul S who successfully completed his CFI acceptance checks and is welcomed into the BI team.

In the evening the wave bars set up in a more obvious form.

Wave to the east

Waiting to hear how the North Hill team made out at Keevil in Interclub league -

Hot off the press from Henry (still on retrieve)

I was the only one in our group to complete. Pundit, Muggles in Cirrus 110 km of 220 km completed, landed out in Worcester, still on retrieve as I write this. Henry in Cirrus intermediate 156 km, completed in 3 hrs. Novice, Gordon in Junior ran for home after finding weak conditions. Wind 340 deg 15 knot. Blue until after 1200 then strong but sparse thermals to 4500 ft. - Well done to the North Hill Team.

Thursday 30th May

Thursday saw a brightish start but with a very brisk northerly. The kit was out and the first launch just before 10:00 with a reduced price launch for Chris M –  his reward for being early. The crosswind made for challenging conditions with a blue flag flying virtually all day. The wind veered a little just after lunch as the decaying front passed through so we changed ends and got better launches but it was still virtually unsoarable – only Pete Stap managed anything of significance with about 50 minutes, but for most it was a quick up and a very quick down. With the support of Woolly and Mark C everybody who wanted to fly did and  Liam and Gordon took advantage of the conditions to update card checks. Work continues on the Eagle and it is finally taking shape.

Many thanks to the workers for getting the Skylaunch back on line.- JSi