Sat 15th June

Another low cloud start but a small group of members and Instructors gathered, and got on with some jobs whilst waiting patiently for the weather to improve. Thanks to all who helped to add an extra length of rope to the winch rope that had been shortened recently. Thanks also to Kris Pratt for updating the Simulator with the latest release of landscape scenery. 

And then by lunchtime, the sky opened up for flying  "Rubbish thermal day, but some awesome convergences with humungous rain showers at the end of them." (Pete Startup) and unusually Pete took some pictures.

Awesome Convergence (Pete Startup)

Thru' the tunnel (Pete Startup)

Lyme Bay sea air (Pete Startup)

Taunton under the wispies (Pete Startup)

The afternoon continued with training flights and a couple of Trial lessons - as usual it's always worth waiting. 

R151 arrived back from a D-Day re-enactment having landed on Saunton Sands, and  was immediately despatched to Popham on a mercy mission: 

Mike and Barbie R151 Piper Cub

Mike and Barbie Fairclough delivered the Passports and Holiday documents that had unfortunately been left at North Hill in the morning by one of our friends from Dartmoor Gliding Society. The oversight had only been noticed in the Car Park of Heathrow Terminal 5, and with no local taxis/couriers/bikes available to help, R151 and Crew stepped in to help. - J&P

Fri 14th June

A group of Flybe Diploma Course students from Exeter College arrived  for their day of Trial flights with some fairly dark skies and low-level cloud at North Hill. There had been quite a bit of rain on Thursday, but the airfield had drained well as usual. The introductory session was followed by some gliding videos and some sessions in the simulator. 

Flybe Diploma Course from Exeter College (Jill Harmer)

With an early lunch, the promised weather improvement arrived and the flying started. It was easily soarable from the first launch to 1500ft for extended circuits. As the day went on the cloudbase rose to 2000ft , but with  a short spell of cloud at 1300ft. The students all enjoyed the experience of gliding and soaring, with several considering coming back for more.

Sky opens up with convergence over South ridge (Jill Harmer)

As the students departed, the gliders were handed over to some gliding visitors from the Bath, Wilts and North Dorset Gliding Club (BWND). The Management team from The Park were visiting North Hill to try out the Perkoz and DG505 from our two-seater fleet for evaluation purposes. The experienced pilots alongside CFI Stu Procter and Pete Harmer were soon enjoying the improving soaring conditions with an increasing challenging southerly crosswind putting the two gliders through their paces. 

BWNDGC with Stu and Pete (Jill Harmer)

It turned into a remarkably good afternoon considering the forecast of hopeful breaks in the cloud.

It was good to host both students and experienced pilots at North Hill today - thanks to all the Helpers and Instructors. - J&P

W7 in France in June

On Monday 3rd June, undeterred by a poor forecast for the Alps I set off with W7 in tow to catch the evening ferry to Calais.
Napped on the ferry and then drove/napped (not simultaneously I might add) to arrive at Barcelonnette on Tuesday evening.
I was met by the usual “you should have been here last week/month”.  Had a rest on Wednesday and on Thursday decided to have my first flight, in W7, - a sort of short “self-check flight” as I am apparently still current, from last September.
A week on and I have spent more days on the push bike than flying. 

8th June
There was not a cloud in the sky, and the local ridges worked well enough to get away to the North. Then the fun began as I slowly appreciated that the ridges were not always working as expected due to very strong thermals, and on top of that, later in the day, some got a bit lively being in the lee of wave.  I never really worked it out but found a good wave bar in the blue to bring me back to base. Where are all the clouds when you need them, to mark the Wave/Thermal etc.? Nowhere to be seen, just pure Alpine blue. 

Pure Alpine Blue (Wyn Davies)

12th June
This was forecast to be better, and it was because there were clouds.  Good fast run to the North on the ridges and then back to Glacier Blanc – obscured by cloud. The usual run down the Ecrins was made more fun by the tops being in cloud. Crossed to the Morgon, which had its head in cloud and pushed out under some convergence in the Durance valley. The Parcour was not really accessible due to cloud, so flew various convergences and thermals back to base.

Convergences (Wyn Davies)

13th June
Briefing was for the prefect day. 700k potential according to TopTherm. Big challenge – it was blue again. I planned to press on further than usual into the North Alps. When I got past Briancon, I was not at all confident with the way the ridges didn’t deliver as hoped. Decided to return to familiar territory and climbed high to enter the Glacier Blanc. However, that endeavour was aborted, as part way in it was too lively, and a fast exit was required.  Found a nice climb into wave and reached 5000m, with views to match. Strong winds at height, and a pleasant push over Mt Guillaume and over to the Pic de Morgon well below. Had a short trip down beyond the Dormilouse, but it was not working in a classic way, so called it a day and came back to base. Later, at the usual chat and comparing flights, I was told, that strong SW winds make for “interesting” conditions on the ridges. How very true I thought.

WOW! What a view (Wyn Davies)

Score so far is, Push bike 6, Glider 3.  Hoping it improves.  

Hope it improves (Wyn Davies)

More rain so the Push bike wins again - Wyn Davies

Wed 12th June

Low cloud stopped the Wednesday Regulars from getting into the skies but the Met Office put in an order for the clouds to clear for their evening trial lessons. The skies cleared for 17:00 as requested so that the 10 eager 'sky flier wannabees' could enjoy the thrill of our incredible sport.

Group from the Met Office (Jill Harmer)

Jill Harmer manned the launch point whilst Pete Harmer helped with glider retrieves. Gordon Hutchinson on the launch point activities, Stirling Melhuish on the cable retrieves and Hans Jenssen on the winch. With this crack team JB and Rowan Smith gave everyone two flights each, with several coming back for a third.

Each flight brought back fresh tales of delight to the waiting group. They all thoroughly enjoyed themselves and after 24 flights and many grins we put the kit away with the same slickness that the evening was run. Many stayed for a drink to carry on sharing their experiences and asking questions about flying and gliding. Such a pleasure to have shared the evening with such an enthusiastic and fun group.

Many thanks for everyone who volunteered for the evening event. - Rowan Smith

Sun 9th June

Assuming the weather forecast for today was accurate the day was potentially going to be “interesting” - it was just a question of to what extent and whether the forecast heavy rain showers would bring an early end to the day’s flying activities.

Powerful skies today (James Hood)

With the morning evidently flyable, Peter Field and Rick Andrews, as the morning Duty team,  were soon organising Club gliders out of the hangar and for the launch point to be set up in the North East corner of the airfield.

Alongside Club training flights there were a number of Friends and Family flights to be completed so with good teamwork the gliders were soon being steadily launched into the air by either the Pawnee or winch and in turn retrieved back to the launchpoint.

During the morning, despite evident rain showers to the West of the airfield, the launches and landings continued undeterred whilst the flying list made steady progress - for some gliders there were good thermals to be used to climb to cloudbase at around 2000ft, but for some gliders there was simply lots of sinking air and a relatively quick return to the airfield.

And then around lunchtime greying skies and in turn drops of rain encouraged a stop for refreshments.

A sign of things to come (Mike Sloggett)

But with brightening skies and the weather radar suggesting that rain would stop play later in the afternoon, it was back to the launchpoint to endeavour to complete the flying list. No sooner had the decision been made to start flying then a rain shower appeared and with a warning from the winch that hailstones were starting to fall at the West end of the airfield it was now a question of seeing how many people could quickly fit inside the launchpoint vehicle!

After the rain had gone through the focus was then on completing the rest of the flying list -  once this had been achieved by mid-afternoon, against a backdrop of increasingly grey skies, the decision was made to put the gliders and ground equipment away and close the hangar doors on a day where as much flying as possible had been squeezed out of the day.

Time to put the gliders away (Mike Sloggett)

As ever great teamwork all round to get others into the air - and a particular thank you to Rob Hender who winched all day without flying. - Mike Sloggett

Sat 8th June

So today's forecast was such that I planned other things this morning earning my brownie points at home. When I did arrive at the Club at 3pm just to deliver eggs, I was met with a few hardy members who had been there all day and they had enjoyed the challenging conditions. Strong westerly winds and some rain showers but towards the end of the day the sky was definitely soarable. 

Lisa & Stu (Lisa Humphries)

I managed to time my arrival perfectly - jumping into a K21 with the CFI for a quick whizz around, I did put the glider away and help as well as I wouldn’t want to gain a reputation!

Cracking Devon visibility (Lisa Humphries)

After we landed, John Pursey requested a final launch and as I left the club 30 mins later he was seen high in the sky having a great flight in KEK.

As always Gliding beats shopping and housework, I was privileged to get into the sky today and thanks to all present for running the field. - Lisa Humphries

Fri 7th June - Course Summary

The starting point has to be thanks to our instructors, Guy Adams and John Sillett for helping us get the very most out of the weather. The course started at 08:30 Monday morning prompt with Tim  Powell, Jim Binning, Brian Knight, Sue Dyson, Mark Errington and Gordon Hutchinson defining their aims and wishes. Then straight into getting the aircraft ready and starting to fly. That willingness to work as a close team exchanging experience as well as stories kept us maximizing the opportunities we had to fly! all week. The great use of available weather just kept on giving us, a good flying return. 

June Course (Jill Harmer)

The week's weather forecast last Sunday had not been particularly good, but we managed to reach a total of 18hours in the air, over four very good flying days.

Preparing to fly (Jim Binning)

Our interaction with the mid-week flyers (reported elsewhere) increased the teamwork and chat, but more importantly reinforced the strong group enthusiasm. We all gained much and while doing lectures and course review on  Friday (the only day we lost to the changeable conditions) we all considered it a successful course.

Great Teamwork (Jim Binning)

Thanks also to Robert Lee, Hans Jenssen, Alann Mounce and Jill Harmer for providing the support to let us all, concentrate on the flying.

All of those of us on the course agreed the following outcomes, sufficient circuits (ticked), soaring flights (ticked), stretching conditions occasionally (ticked),great company (with an enjoyable course dinner on the Thursday night) (ticked) and FUN (multiple tick’s) all resulted in a very enjoyable week with the vast majority of our initial aims achieved. - Gordon Hutchinson

Thurs 6th June

It was a bright sunny start, with a forecast for possible showers and the wind backing southerly and increasing. The Course flying got underway promptly, with a Perkoz spinning sortie for Gordon. 

Good streets forming to the south (Jill Harmer)

The Club flying took a little longer to organise with a large number of Thursday regulars on holiday. Some good streets started forming to the South of North Hill, whilst a showery convergence formed to the north. 

Chris  Wool and Mike Horwood over North Hill (Mike Horwood)

Pete Startup 230 was the only private owner to venture out and half way round his Club 100kms he was unceremoniously dumped onto the ground near the Wellington Monument - (nice field though!)

Nice field  with the convergence to the north in the distance (Pete Startup)

Once the wind had backed and picked up, the south ridge was working and kicking off good thermals to 2500ft, and the soaring became quite good, just the lower 400ft to deal with at both ends of the flight! 

Thanks to George Sanderson for coming in specially to sort out some minor instrument snags on the Perkoz.

Mark Courtney and George Sanderson  in Perkoz (Mark Layton)

It was still quite soarable when the Course had to finish flying for the Course dinner at The Keepers Cottage. 35 flights in all with Pete Harmer in Junior longest flight 1:15mins.

 

Wed 5th June

With a reasonable forecast and the second Course of the year all the available gliders were quickly given their daily inspections and walked to the launch point. John Sillett and Guy Adams started work with the course members and John Street and James Flory looked after the Wednesday suspects, Peter Field was tuggie for the day.

A busy launchpoint (John Street)

All went well except for a change of sides due to the wind backing to the southwest, as usual Chris Warnes was first of the Wednesday crew to get away and was called down after nearly two hrs as the Juniors were in great demand, Ron Perry flew in from Mendip in his Falke to consolidate his soaring in the Junior.
There was a lot of rain about but it bypassed North Hill without disrupting flying apart from a few pilots landing as a precaution.
The Super Falke new engine arrived and Carl and William were soon fitting it and hoping to get it flying by the weekend.
There were a few private gliders flying, Pete Startup (as usual) left the environs of North Hill and bumbled around Devon and Somerset for a couple of hours.
With rain clouds on the horizon, we handed the gliders over to the Club Members evening group.
- John Street.

Late evening sky (Emma Kendall)

The Club members evening  was a little delayed due to the rain, but after an hours wait we got going.

Flying til sunset (Emma Kendall)

There was just enough people to fly with Pete Harmer and Simon Minson in the back seats, with Emma, Karen, Ben, Stirling and Daniel, with help from Sally.

Sat 1st June

The new month started with a beautiful blue day but with a Southerly cross wind. Launches commenced from the North East corner,  and then late afternoon the launch point was moved to the North West.

Spot the Pawnee! (Karen King)

There were four successful trial flights, and a ‘friends and family’ for Tilly (daughter of a friend of Karen King) who celebrated her 18th birthday on Saturday with an “amazing” flight going to 3000 ft. 

Tilly looking forward to her flight (Karen King)

More than 30 winch launches took place, and whilst a large proportion of these were to around 800ft everyone who wished to fly flew.

Aerotow to get some height (Karen King)

A thank you to the instructors and tug pilots of the day who flew the trial and instructional flights.  Fantastic experiences and memories for the visitors. - Karen King