The forecast suggested a short flyable window in the morning, and with 3 instructors available, the two-seaters were busy. The launches were good to 1400ft, the ridge was working low down and there were even some thermals under the overcast sky. The rain turned up on schedule at 11:00am and the kit was all put to bed. -J&P
Wednesday 23rd March
Wednesday started with a clear blue sky and a little haze John Sil started the ball roĺling with the first flight before 10am.
The
visibility and the sink were a bit of a problem at first with short flights
all round, but Robert was first to soar with a flight of 45min, this
prompted Tim J, Matt M5 and Nick H to rig their own gliders Matt fell
out of the sky on his first attempt but managed 2hrs on his second, this
was the longest flight of the day. Tim and Nick also had good soaring
flights.
The wind picked up during the afternoon and the West ridge started to work, the thermals went to almost 3,000ft.
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| Malcolm shares John's 20,000th glider flight (John St) |
Saturday 19th March
Today was the quietest flying day I have ever known at the club. Having arrived early to get my name on the flying list, I found that I was the flying list. The sky looked miserable first thing, and Alan T took the opportunity to service the winch and test its guillotine.
By lunchtime there was enough enthusiasm among the small group of members to drag a K21 to the west end of the field. DLMs Joe and David C were both on hand to a keep a grip of the hectic schedule!
Stu flew the tug, I flew twice with Rowan before handing over to James H and Paul S who took a flight each with the other sitting in the front providing encouragement. There was some weak lift along the edge of the Sheldon valley, though being surrounded by some rather stronger sink it was a little difficult to stay in. Meanwhile Lisa drove her Landrover around as a retrieve / mobile LPV, before taking the hangar flight with Stu for her turn (after much arm-twisting Simon L had agreed to drive the Pawnee for the final launch). - Ruth
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| Cheesy Grins despite the weather! |
Thursday 17th March
The High pressure is still holding leaving us in a cold but sunny Easterly wind. The kit was readied early and the gliders were walked to the far end, the wind was stronger than expected with 17 gusting 30knots initially. The first flights found heavy sink all round the circuit and especially behind the ridge.
Mark and Paul K in DG505 went exploring downwind looking for wave, but only found soarable rotor. A few scruffy cumulus formed at 1500ft but there was not much chance of pushing through the strong inversion. The visibility had improved for a while before the haze thickened again especially into sun.
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| A buzzard joined in for low-level soaring (Mark L) |
At the peak of the day, most flights were marginally soarable, with Matt in M5 taking the prize for the longest flight of 44 mins. Unfortunately by the time the wind had settled down for the early solo pilots, the flight times in the Juniors were down at 4 mins.
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| The Junior jumped over the moon....(Mark L) |
Another nice day out albeit 'bracing' with 52 launches - J&P
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| Busy launchpoint (M5Matt) |
Wednesday 16th March
After the last two
Wednesdays, today had promise, but we would have to wait for the
low cloud to disappear, whilst we were waiting John Sil gave a talk on
spinning.
The cloud had cleared by mid-morning so we got the kit out and had an early lunch.
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| Hooking on - the grass was dry (Andre) |
John
Sil was first away with a good soaring flight followed by Roly in the
Junior, most flights were soarable and the cloudbase was over 3000ft.
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| It was warmer in the cockpit than outside (Andre) |
We had a strong wind today making the takeoffs and landings interesting and the soaring difficult.
Everyone flew today including Carl and Dave C in the Falke. - JSt
Sunday 13th March
With a flying list all but full by 8:30 in the morning it was a question of teamwork needed by everyone from start to finish.
The DG, both
K21s, R37 and a Junior were taken out of the hangar whilst the launch point
and winch were set up for the South West/North East run albeit with an
expectation that should the wind direction move round as forecast then a
change of sides at the East end of the field may well be necessary
during the day.
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| Hazy to start (Mike Sl) |
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| Good inversion (Mike Sl) |
During the day there
were odd pockets of 'blue' lift areas which allowed various pilots some
fun working such lift in the absence of clear clouds marking them.
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| Power at North Hill - two Falkes and Pawnee (Mike Sl) |
Simon M (ASW20 SM) and Pete St (Discus 230) both had fun in their gliders recording the longest flights of 40min and 60min respectively. 230 was feeling flush and wanted to get into the clear air above the inversion, at least momentarily, so took an aerotow to 3000' which Pete W was happy to oblige.
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| Teamwork! (M5Matt) |
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| Another North Hill sunset (Mike F) |
An unspectacular day
but with good signs of spring around the corner and with 48 winch and 4
aerotow flights completed for the day. - Mike Sl
Saturday 12th March
With a sensible forecast, the
lack of rain, a bit of sun and wind unlikely to cut you in two a keen
group of members arrived at the club hoping for an early start.
Unfortunately the weather has the last say and with everything ready to
go irritatingly low cloud and poor visibility forced a retreat to the
clubhouse! Small groups engaged in various essential activities busied
themselves until John P deemed it ready to fly mid morning!
From
the off it was one of those days when despite everyone's best efforts,
the launch rate was somewhat painful! Simon M spent the whole day
entertaining Matt W and was untypically in relaxed mood!
Pete St
finalised some bits and pieces on the DG505 instead of rigging, Stuart and Martin rigged
the LS3 KMV. Chris M had a couple of launches in the DG100 LRN and Alan
T rigged and flew the B4 CYA after its ARC.
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| Luton Minor flew in (Simon L) |
Ian M flew the Luton Minor
in for his PM duty slot which seemed to suffer from falling numbers.
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| Oscar winching (Simon L) |
Oscar L spent most of the afternoon on the winch whilst Louis L was in
charge of retrieving anything that moved and stopped!
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| Louis retrieving (Simon L) |
An occasional
tailwind added to the challenges to the afternoon flyers which continued
until the light faded and the temperature dropped quickly! Tim L
entertained Simon L with an unusual recovery from a simulated launch
failure but obviously didn't frighten him too much as was happily seen
sitting in the Junior LRD for two flights.
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| Another North Hill sunset (Simon L) |
A few bits of lift provided a
few lucky members with extended flights but most were short! Martin W had the longest flight 1hr 35 in KMV. All said
and done, it was a very pleasant day and dare I say the first sign of
Spring! - Simon, Oscar & Louis
Thursday 10th March
After yesterday's gales from Storm with no name....deja vu? Thursday's forecast was looking good with a sunny start, but someone forgot to turn the northerly wind off.
The gliders were walked up the field, and the first launch found more than the normal sink all round the circuit in the 20 knots gusting 35 northerly. However the second venture to the north ridge found strong bubbles of lift coming out of the gully to enable some soaring and the launch point filled up nicely.
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| Lovely cumulus streets downwind (Mark C) |
By lunchtime the wind had started to ease a little, and the cumulus that was out of reach in all directions started to form over the airfield as well.
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| Busy launchpoint (Mark C) |
Eric in ASG29 was the first to get away successfully, but with just a little low struggle initially. The DG505 had been towed back from Yorkshire yesterday (Thanks Tom & Matt) and after a rigging party this morning took a launch just before lunch with Matt and James S following Eric to the North ridge. They worked their way up to the 3000ft cloudbase flew into wind and carried on going up at 2-3 knots- topping out just over 5000ft above North Hill and way above the clouds.
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| Above the clouds (Eric) |
The afternoon continued with the wind dropping off dramatically, and all the solo pilots were able to fly the Juniors. Although the lift was hard to find and much weaker, but we managed to fly right through to sunset.
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| North Hill sunset (Mark C) |
Longest flight to Eric 3hrs 04 and 49 launches total - J&P
Sunday 6th March
At the start of the day there were very few members at the Club perhaps a
little surprising in view of the reasonable weather forecast and the
lack of flying yesterday - although the fact that it was Mother's Day
may well have tested the negotiating skills of some members...
Slowly
but surely the number of members present increased and both K21s and a
Junior were taken out of the hangar whilst the winch and launch point
were set up for the North West/South East run.
With the arrival of
a few more members and sufficient people to look after the gliders in
use a decision was made to take a K13 and the other Junior out of the
hangar.
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| Getting the gliders out of the hangar (Mike Sl) |
Meanwhile DSGC Instructor Coaches and visiting instructors from other Clubs
in the South West had started to assemble for a training/discussion
seminar run by Graham Morris and Mike Fox for Flight Instructor Coaches.
As
the morning progressed so did the flying list with some glimpses of
blue sky and potential thermic activity encouraging some private owners
to rig (877 ASW 19, 611 ASW20 and H5 SF27).
Meanwhile during the morning both Falkes were flown up to visit Mendip Gliding Club at Halesland.
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| G-BKVG and G-CDSC at Mendip (James H) |
Around
lunchtime whilst the ridge was not working particularly well, there were
enough lift 'pockets' coming off the end of the West ridge to allow
some long flights for those pilots lucky enough to find the lift and
also able to de-rust their soaring skills - as ever the first climb of a
flight was crucial in determining whether one could stay up and with
some pilots deciding that a "helping hand" from an aerotow made good
sense.
After an enforced stop for lunch due to lack of enough
members to keep flying, the afternoon provided the opportunity both to
complete the flying list and also offer additional flights to those
members who wanted them.
During the afternoon both Falkes went off for some sightseeing along the South coast.
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| The South Coast (Mike Sl) |
With
everyone having flown and/or flying account balances having reduced to
nil there was little interest in continuing to fly - so the gliders were
put away at just after 4pm.
 |
| North Hill (Mike Sl) |
Total number of flights 52 (46 winch, 6 aerotow) with the best flight of the day completed by James F in his newly acquired ASW19 (877) - 87 mins. - Mike Sl
Thursday 3rd March
Yesterday's gales gave way to a transient ridge which as luck would have it came through during the day. The wind started off just west of north but fairly light, and the cloudbase was around 2000ft above North Hill. There were 2 K21s a K13 and 2 Juniors from the Club fleet and 4 private gliders rigged.
The thin upper cloud cleared and some nice streets formed for a while, but the ridge never worked very well.
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| Streets formed (Mark C) |
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| Towing back always looked better downwind! (Mark C) |
After lunch the wind had backed to south of west, and the cloud started to fill in and lower as the next front started to make it's presence felt. The drizzle started at about 16:00, but everyone flew with 43 launches.
Eric A had the longest flight in one of the Juniors at 52 mins as he caught the best of the soarable weather beating all the private gliders that had rigged. - J&P
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