Thurs 22nd August

A bright start with the forecast incoming cloud on the horizon to the north, and some beautiful lenticulars to photograph.

Lenticulars out of reach (Jill Harmer)

The Thursday regulars were keen to get started alongside the Course members, and with good height launches and some thermals there were extended circuits and some hour long flights. However the private owners never found it totally convincing and all stayed local with cloudbase at just over 2000ft. Ron Johns and Chris Wool explored some unconvincing convergences in the ASH25.

Dan's enjoying flying the Junior (Jill Harmer)

Dan Hender had another 8 flights in the Junior including soaring flights, and Charlie Stuckey fitted in a couple of flights in K6 alongside passing his Bronze exam, completing the Bronze Endorsement - well done. 

Congratulations to Charlie Stuckey (Mark Courtney)

Mike and Harry Rigby and Adam Mortimer continued their training flights and Graham Hawker enjoyed some more soaring in the Perkoz.

K6 landing (David Clements)

Ian Mitchell was busy in the Rotax Falke including flights with Andy Davey (practising cloud flying) and Chris Warnes (field landings).

Another winch launch for Dan (David Clements)

56 winch launches and 2 aerotows in total.

In the evening, there was the customary Course dinner, but in the Clubhouse cooked by Cheryl and Graham. - J&P

Wed 21st August

A good early start and all the gliders were out of the hangar, starting to be D.I’d by 8.00am.
We welcomed Justin and Gillian Wills who brought the Antares for a launch turning Rutland Water and landing back at Bidford!

There was nothing much in the way of lift for DSGC pilots though, some flights managed nearly 30min, even Pete Startup stayed local, it was a pleasant easy day with the August course slotting in nicely with the Wednesday club. -John Street.

Rob Hender took the morning shift on the winch (to give Gordon a chance to have a change of scenery)! Sally Hender took up her regular position in the Launch point, Gordon  Hutchinson launch area, Steve Westlake and Mark Courtney instructing.

Busy Club and Course day (Sally Hender)

Harry Rigby was back with us but probably wished he wasn’t,  as Steve decided to give him four consecutive simulated launch failures. Mark started off with Mike Rigby, but had to pull off early to avoid launching into cloud. They eventually got away on their third attempt and made up for it with an hours' flight.

North Hill Airfield from the west (Mike Sloggett)

Dan Hender was left grounded by Mark, due to the afore mentioned low cloud base but eventually he radioed down to let him loose, he managed 37 mins in FZF.

Charlie, Josh and Reuben rigged and flew the K6 throughout the day and Charlie also got put through the ringer by Mark, working towards his Bronze. Adam Mortimer flew with Steve and Graham flew with Mark.

Lisa Humphries with Dave Perriam in the hazy setting sun (Lisa Humphries)

Total flights for the day 76, including other club members and the evening flying crew.- Rob Hender

Wed 21st August - TSC 2019

 Day3 - Pocklington
Today presented a very similar series of  tasks to yesterday with Newark being the furthest point south. The maximum task distance was 252km.

Pete and Martin Bennett in DG505 (Pete Bennett)

We launched at around 1pm and it had been predicted that soaring would end abruptly between 4 and 5pm, giving us a 3-4 hour window making 200km seem achievable. The Eagle was first to launch from the NH gang and started very quickly after getting a good climb to almost 4000ft. There were some big holes which required long glides of  2000-3000ft each in the plastic ships. These gaps proved too much for the Eagle which landed out safely after bagging the first TP.

Eagle in another field (JB)

DD3 and JZK made it down to the second TP but the route to Newark looked bleak as the top cover had arrived early. Dad and I in JZK decided to press on and investigate if it was working under the top cover but struggled and then struggled even more to make it home with a few low points. We eventually managed to get into glide after diverting well east of Hull to get back out of the cover and took a climb back too almost 4500ft to put us on a 35km glide back to Pocklington. We saw a few gliders in fields on the way home.

DD3 crossing the Humber (Nick Jones)

It seems that only a few gliders managed to make it down to Newark and of those, only 1 or 2 made it back to Pocklington with all the others landing out or firing up their engines. - Pete Bennett

Tues 20th August - TSC 2019

Day 2 - Pocklington

As usual the task was a list of TPs with the pilots having the option to return to The finish from any of the TPs. The first TP was directly up wind 25k to Rufforth South (conveniently close to the York Gliding Club at Rufforth airfield).
The Eagle was one of the first away and managed to make a fairly uneventful trip to the first TP, but with nothing left in the sky to go for, landed at Rufforth and got an aerotow retrieve back to Pocklington. Content that none of the other Wood gliders had managed to get that far we relaxed in the confidence that we had got “Best Wood” for the day and were only minutes away from hitting the Otter barrel when we spotted one of the Capstans pulling out for another launch.......

So we took another launch and it just so happened that we were dropped in a 4 kt thermal that topped out next to the mother of all streets that seemed to stretch out in the direction of the first TP!
It was too good to be true but we headed off into the 20 kt wind along the street and soon had to fly at 80kts to stay out of cloud. Unfortunately the street was about 6 km north of the turning point so we had to make a dash out to the TP and decided to just go back to street and romp home - might even get speed points, something unheard of in an Eagle!

Heading out into the blue (JB)

It was a very slow climb back into the lift, but we got back into the strong stuff and romped home - 50km in 42 minutes =72kph. So we were quite surprised to see that the scorers had given us a handicapped speed of 151kph.

York Minster (JB)

 In the morning we thought that we ought to just check with the scorers before we were awarded a trophy for the fastest flight in a wooden glider since records began! But they said it was correct because of the BGA “windycap” system which compensates wooden gliders flying in windy conditions. Ironic really considering the Eagle’s rules on wind!
So we scored 8th for the day and got an extra bottle of wine for setting a new record! - JB

Tues 20th August - Course week

Early call from the Rigby’s, unfortunately Harry was not well so a no show from them, (hope to see them all well tomorrow), leaving a smaller group, we started the usual set up, DI’s etc and were flying by about 9:45. This turned out to be the start of another cracking day, which saw several club members turn up to fly alongside the course members.

Mark Courtney started by sending Dan Hender solo in HCX, given the opportunity with the calmer conditions, while Steve Westlake took Adam Mortimer in KEK.
Adam decided to check out Steve's reaction time, when he misinterpreted Steve's instructions and pulled the bung on him! (Good recovery Steve).

Cool Dudes (Mark Courtney)

Dan completed three solo flights in the K21 and the decision was then made to send him off in a Junior (along with 50lb of lead) in which he completed another three solo flights - well done Dan.

Meanwhile a number of other club members had been rigging  and  started to launch and disappear. Pete Startup 230, Eric Alston G29, Jeff Taberham 380, Tom Sides DG1, Wyn Davies W7, Stu Procter KMV.

Great sky (Mike Sloggett)

After lunch, Mark started to give Charlie Stuckey a thorough workout, with dodgy launches and tricky positioning, all good fun for Charlie to put right.
Steve  took Graham Hawker for what turned out to be an extended (2hr 18min flight).

Total glider launches for the day was 42 (1 aero-tow).
Longest flight Pete Startup (No surprise there!) 181min  turning Lapford - Cerne Abbas for 187kms, but there were also some other good efforts. - Rob Hender

Mon 19th August - Course week

The day started with a welcome briefing from Mark Courtney and a useful weather briefing from Gordon Hutchinson. RASP was suggesting some potential good soaring conditions from mid- morning onwards, so we quickly got the kit out and got launching.

Dan Hender and Mark Courtney in a K21 were first launch of the day, well before 10, and disappeared off for an hour in the evident thermic conditions. Steve Westlake and Graham Hawker followed soon after in the Perkoz.

Steve and Graham in Perkoz (Mark Courtney)

Charlie Stuckey had 5 solos before lunch to take me up to the 50 required for Bronze. Adam Mortimer had his first training and soaring flight in which he got to sign up lots of his training card due to the exceptional lift. 

Adam Mortimer had first training and soaring flight (Mark Courtney)

Josh Funnell enjoyed some solo soaring in a K21 whilst Harry Rigby continued with his training flights. Stuart Procter rigged his LS3 and Mike Sloggett his ASW20 and both enjoyed a number of local soaring flights during the morning.

After lunch the lift improved even more and the Rigby’s  (Mike and Harry) both enjoyed soaring flights. 

Kentisbeare (Charlie Stuckey)

Charlie had an hour and a half in the Junior which goes towards his Bronze Cross Country endorsement and Mark and Dan had another hour. 

Everyone thoroughly enjoyed their day and we're all looking forward to the rest of the week! -    Charlie Stuckey

Sun 18th Aug - TSC2019

Day 1 -  Pocklington

The first day of the Pocklington 2-seat Comp was not blessed with ideal weather conditions especially for JB and John Pursey in the old Eagle. It was blowing half a gale from the south west which made for interesting launches due to the cross wind on the south runway!

The wind strength at flying height was 23 to 30 kts so making any real progress to North Duffield, the first TP, 15km upwind was not easy for the plastic ships and nearly impossible for the old Eagle and we spent the first hour crossing the start line many times in both directions - drifting back in the climbs, then pushing into wind - only to end up back where we started our last climb and in need of another climb! This seemed to be the order of the day for everyone and quite a few had to land back for a second launch.

From past experiences flying in the Eagle at Pocklington we have established three rules;
1.Never go back,
2.Take every climb to the top,
3. No breaking of the wind by the P2.
Unfortunately two of the rules were broken due to the conditions and the breaking of rule number 3 went completely unnoticed due to the extreme concentration of the P1!

After a while the cloudbase got higher and eventually we managed to follow a street out to the west til it ended in a large blue hole - clearly influenced by wave. Having finally managed to get 5km out of the start zone the excitement was just too much; we got completely carried away and roared off towards the first TP at a breakneck ground speed of 23kts!

Another two climbs got us to nearly 5000ft and suddenly the Oudie said we might get to the TP with 1700 ft to spare. Unfortunately the sky ahead was devoid of sun or clouds within reach of the 61 year old Eagle - (even one with new plumage), so we just crept on and watched the arrival height dwindle as we progressed. (Clearly reducing the Oudie’s glide calculator settings from a K13 with 20% bugs to 10% bugs was a touch too optimistic!)

Eagle Day 1 field (JB)

As the Eagle approached the TP a nice landing field was spotted and duly chosen on the return leg. It was a lovely field with a nice stone track out to the main road with a lovely wide gate. What could possibly go wrong!

The gate was locked!!

Fortunately Nick’s Land Rover was able to get the trailer in via another field down the road so it all ended well and the Eagle won Best Wood for the day and 14th overall.

Sun 18th August

It was thought from the weather forecast that it would probably be flyable today - albeit with a number of eyes being kept on the wind strength and the chance of some rain showers during the day.

The day started under bright and thermic skies with a small but keen group of members soon getting a K21 and a Junior out of the hangar, whilst the launch point was set up in the North East corner of the airfield.

Bright and thermic skies (Mike Sloggett)

With a steady Southwesterly wind, but with the strength evidently increasing, the initial Yellow Flag was soon being replaced by a Blue Flag - which ensured that pre- and post- solo pilots had their attention focused on suitable circuit planning, approach and landing.

As the morning progressed the “boisterous” thermals provided good opportunities to soar in and amongst the strong sink around the airfield.

Boisterous thermals and strong sink (Mike Sloggett)

Martin Woolner was the first private owner to launch in the LS3  KMV  soon followed by Simon Minson ASW20 SM, Pete Startup Discus 230, Wyn Davies LS7 W7, Andrew Logan ASW15 FMS and Mike Fairclough PIK DFK all enjoying soaring flights of various durations. Pete Startup completed Tiverton - Crediton, and Simon Minson O/R to Crediton with frequent wet wings.

Meanwhile James Flory, Pete Warren, John Street and Mike Sloggett progressed the Club training flights whilst Gordon Hutchinson had a a soaring flight in the Junior.

Around lunchtime the arrival of the first of the rain showers made it an easy decision to stop for some refreshments. After lunch the wind strength had reduced slightly which allowed Trevor Russell and Geoff Lawrence to fly the Junior.

Mark Courtney and Guy Adams (Mike Sloggett)

Mark Courtney had afternoon soaring flights in the Perkoz with Paul Summers and Guy Adams.

And although the odd rain shower delayed some launches, flying continued throughout the afternoon under a thermic sky and with the ridge working in parts.

All in all a good day, which provided suitably “interesting” conditions for those present to demonstrate, practice or learn flying skills. - Mike Sloggett

Sat 17th August

It was an amazingly quiet day at the Club, with not enough members to count on one hand initially, were they all at Beautiful Days? And also surprisingly no Trial Lessons booked today. 

Beautiful Days (Stu Procter)

As soon as the low cloud lifted to a usable height, we set up to launch into the southwesterly quickly forming streets.

Stu Procter and Lisa Humphries in Perkoz (Lisa Humphries)

Mark Wallis had some card checks, Tim Petty had some currency checks, and then it started getting nicely soarable, with most getting hour-long flights.

Rowan Smith and Tim Petty (Rowan Smith)

Thanks to Mark Wallis, Alan Turner and Mike Willmott for sharing the winch driving, and James Flory and Rowan Smith - Duty Instructors. Thanks also to James Hood for fitting the airband receivers in the Gator and Freda. - J&P

Thurs 15th August

After yesterday's washout, the forecast was promising with a cold front clearance and some anti-cyclonic curvature, and after a little bit of low cloud and drizzle before breakfast, the sky steadily open up, and the west north westerly wind increased with the thermal activity - so much so that it was soon a yellow card with the increasing gustiness.

Busy launch point (Mark Layton)

With the wet ground, the cloud base stayed at a rather conservative 3500ft amsl, but the north westerly streets lined up with good blue skies in between, to allow the Mile High trial lessons visitors to fly. 

Training and check flights continued apace with all the club fleet in action, and 6 private gliders enjoying the strong conditions. 

Perkoz landing (Mark Layton)

Pete Startup 230 and Andy Williams FUN headed off beyond Tiverton, but found the into-wind strength challenging, and cloudbase reducing, so remained local. 

Caption competition? "Weight on the nose please Barbie?" (Mike Sloggett)

We welcomed back Joe Somerwill  for an aerotow trial lesson after enjoying his taster at Open Day, he plans to take up the sport.

During the afternoon, some top cover arrived and there were increasing signs of wave clouds, but no-one managed to make any proper contact apart from finding the sink!

Wavy looking sky ( Mark Layton)

So with 46 winch launches and 4 aerotows, plenty of thermals and ridge soaring and the elusive hints of wave, it was a really pleasant day - thanks all. - J&P