Thursday 11th September

There was a reasonable forecast for easterly wind, sunshine and some soaring, which brought the Thursday regulars out in force.

The hangar was emptied - first time in a while - and five Instructors and all the two-seaters were kept busy all day. Late morning it became soarable to 2400ft and the junior pilots joined in with the local soaring. Robin W-F was the sole private owner rigged and he flew for most of the soarable part of the day. 

Ron tries out his new Leica camera

 Congratulations to Paul M, occupying CFI Pete all morning and successfully completing his Bronze flight skills tests. We also hosted Jordan and John from Culdrose with Wooly giving them refresher winch training (they normally auto-tow) prior to them attending an Asst Cat course next week. Thanks also to Ron, Paul and JB for occupying the other back seats.

Wednesday 10th September

A warm and pleasant forecast, and we had just that with a large flying list, we walked four two-seaters to the N/W corner and Robert took the tug up in anticipation of the booked Trial lessons.

Thanks to Eric, Matt, Paul C and JB for ad-hoc instructing so we managed to get through the list, we also had three new quarterly members.

Well done to Peter Sm on completing his instrustors course, it was rounded off with completion flights with Regional Examiner Graham Morris.

It was soarable for most of the day with a cloudbase of about 2500ft, Robin and Jeff T flew their own gliders.
 

Some of the Exe Valley Rotary Club

The last evening group of the season Exe Valley Rotary Club enjoyed the lovely evening sunshine for their flights until misting canopies brought a slightly premature end. - JSt

Sunday 7th September

The low turnout on Saturday was completely offset by a large number of members and visitors showing up on Sunday. 

The flying list filled up quickly, and with a combination of Muggles filling in for Peter F for the pre-solos, Guy in the afternoon John St with the post-solos and Paul Summers handling the Trial lessons, we got through pretty much everyone who wanted to fly. Oh, can’t forget to thank Simon L for also stepping in and helping out in the afternoon, particularly with those needing card checks. With a gentle easterly wind, the sky was generally...well, mediocre! Matt W and Tom S were able to steal the DG505 over lunchtime for the longest flight of the day while Robert mowed more grass. But after almost two weeks of almost no flying, who can complain. Maybe it’s an Indian summer and we can still snatch a bit of soaring. - TS

Oh and congratulations to Mike F for converting to the Junior!

Mike F takes the Junior into the wild blue yonder!

 

Saturday 6th September

Well - Where was everyone???? Bad visibility & low cloud  for the start of the morning, although the Met Office forecast was for a clearance by 1pm,   but by this time the non-believers had all gone home! Only five members left  and  Lisa - Duty Instructor - ever optimistic rallied the troops and a great afternoon's  flying (although rather hazy) was had by all. 

Andria took advantage of being the only student on the flying list and had five flights today working towards her goal of going solo!

Lisa found the time to do a Trial Lesson which Michael Foster thoroughly enjoyed with his “Young Lady instructor”  (as he put it)  which chuffed Lisa no end!! Simon L flew Trudie's nieces, and  Mike F wins the award for the longest flight of around an hour in the Pik. Runners up were Roly & Heather who had 29 mins in KEK, Finishing off about 6pm    - with Heather having an aerotow with Lisa  which she finished off with a hangar flight.  Stu with James ventured off in VG to South Molton and back.

 As we say - If you are not there you don’t fly ! - Lisa & Heather

 Meanwhile up the road at Taunton Racecourse,...We had a great day at the Somerset Military Tattoo. Our pitch was in a perfect position beside the entrance so we had a constant flood of people visiting us. 

 

Lots of interest at Somerset Military Tattoo

 A lot of interest was shown and I am hopeful that several are keen to fly with us in the future. I was helped by Paul S, Stirling and Toby, William and John Si. All help was much appreciated. - Guy

Friday 5th September - Course week

Another grey day but with higher cloud base so when the visibility improved we were able to start flying. Still frustrating though, with very poor viz making it difficult for the less experienced pilots and mostly circuits and short ones at that. Ollie converted to the Junior after lunch and on his fourth flight he and Rick in the other Junior connected with the only thermal of the day and managed 39 and 38 minutes respectively. Well done to both (through gritted teeth!!).

All in all a very disappointing week for everyone - Thanks to Instructors John and Paul  and helpers Liam, Heather and William  for making the best of the flying time available  and keeping everyone amused the rest of the time. - John Si

Thursday 4th September

The air mass has changed very little, but there was a glimmer of hope as the forecast was going for sunny intervals, the North Hill weather station was rather stubborn on 95% humidity all morning. 

Out of the gloom, mid-morning we had some unexpected visitors - 2 French microlights en-route from Bodmin to Old Sarum, they hit a wall of fog and cloud over Hembury Hill and were only too glad to see a large green field to make an emergency weather landing at North Hill. Luckily we had some French speakers on site who helped with the conversations.

French visitors

Having fed and watered at North Hill cafe, they waited for the afternoon improvement and then set off into the gloom.

 Meanwhile, it started to look a little promising and the humidity dropped to 88%. By 15:00 and after more lectures for the Course members,  John and Paul took a weather check, but it had started to thicken up again, and they decided to land at the hangar, followed by the other gliders. The evening group was also cancelled as some were traveling from Cornwall.

Ironically, at about 17:00,  instead of continually thickening  cloud, it suddenly all disappeared and the evening was full of beautiful sunshine. - Don't you just love our micro-climate!

In the evening there was the usual course get-together at the Keeper's Cottage, with the hope of some flying on Friday.

Wednesday 3rd September

More frustration with the weather, no flying at all today and the Treasurer is looking more worried than usual.

- John Si

Tuesday 2nd September - Course week

Well we all flew today but it was frustrating (again), the morning started bright but with a fresh northeasterly which kept the early solo pilots in the two seaters. There appeared to be wave well downwind of the airfield for a while but a foray off the winch proved fruitless. By lunchtime the gloom set in and the cloudbase lowered so it was mostly low circuits and practice launch failures after lunch. - We hope for better things tomorrow. PS both Liam and Ollie were on time this morning (is this a record???). - John Si

Monday 1st September - Course week

Typical North Hill warm sector, low cloud and drizzle with enough brightness from time to time to keep us interested. JSi did a weather check with Hans mid-morning getting to 450 feet so it was more coffee, followed by an early lunch, and more coffee until we gave up and put the kit away just before 16.00. Time was filled with a couple of briefings as well as cockpit briefings for Chris M and Ollie ready for the Junior. Meanwhile Paul briefed Konrad on the K21. - John Si

Sunday 31st August

'A nice day to end the month on'

A good weather forecast no doubt encouraged members to arrive bright and early - with a long flying list to get through and a group of members keen to fly, the gliders were soon all out and readied to fly with the first flight of the day in the air soon after 10am.

Then it was non-stop flying during the rest of the day with our steadily increasing number of Junior members playing an active part in keeping the launch line going, and learning new skills along the way.

A variety of private gliders (711, 611, ENW, G29, 230, OL, DQS, H5, DG1, 380, DKU, DFK) launched late morning/lunchtime and found it a typical gliding day - with some of the clouds which should have been working clearly not as good as they looked.

Blue sky with clouds coming and going

Mark C and Pete St found some weak wave just the other side of Tiverton climbing up to 2800ft, everybody else found the effects of the wave interfering with the thermals. Adrian and Guy in the two motorgliders enjoyed a day out to Keevil.

Pete B tries out the back seat

By the time the hangar doors had been closed a total of 74 flights (19 solo winch, 45 dual winch, 4 aerotows solo, 6 aerotows dual) had been completed including a number of booked trial lessons and all members on the flying list having flown.

With total flying time of just over 34 hours (15.5 hrs solo,18.25 hrs dual) completed a really nice day to end the month... - Mike Sl