Thurs 4th March

Condor Racing

On Thursday evening a few of the DSGC Condor regulars ventured into the world of the UK Virtual Soaring Club which is open to real life glider pilots from around the country. Thursday was the first of a 10 race series restricted to Cirrus gliders.

 The task was Devon based starting at Brentor, with turn points at Holsworthy and Crediton West before returning to Brentor. Geoff L, John D, and DC joined the task to be faced with about 40 gliders jostling for position, it being a regatta start.

All got away successfully but conditions proved to be quite tricky with light thermals. Only 20 made it to the finish, all 3 DSGC contenders being amongst the landouts. We were made welcome by the regulars and it was good practice for those of us who need to improve our thermalling.

Next race Thurs 11th March, servers open 19.40 for a start at around 20.00, all welcome, you will need to join the UK VSC discord group.-  DC

Wed 3rd March

Condor Racing

On Wednesday, we used the  final day task from the UK Junior gliding series ,  268kms in New Zealand. There were some rare weather conditions giving access to Haast on the west coast and a run back along the ridges above Lake Wanaka.

For once the thermals were good and easy to centre around Omarama, Dan led off showing the best route to cross the ridges to Haast, whilst Stewart decided to try a low-level fast route from the back of the pack.

 

After the turn at Haast, it was a bit tricky to find the best valley route and thermal climbs were needed, the field spread out a bit with Dan marking the best col to aim for. Having crossed the col it was an easy run down the west side of Lake Wanaka, and just one more thermal was needed at the turnpoint for the final glide. Great scenery. - J&P

Tue 2nd March

Condor Racing

The task on Tuesday was from Day 7 of the GP2020 , with 238kms from Muenster via Zermat and Gruyeres, an area in Switzerland that we have flown quite a bit recently, but this time with a moderate northerly wind.

The first leg was a straight ridge run  to the first turnpoint, but just after the turn everyone got a good wave climb near the Matterhorn and headed off straight to Gruyeres high over the ridges.

After the second turnpoint, a variety of  low routes were explored both north and south of track,  but another wave bar formed up and Stewart called everyone to the good area and another high climb made it an easy final glide back to Muenster. - Great fun - J&P

Sun 28th February - Instructor Recency Flights

The second of our DSGC Instructor Recency days was another sunny day with a light easterly breeze.

With the much appreciated help of  the skeleton local ground crew, flying was underway soon after 10.  The day‘s flying saw a second set of 7 instructors each complete 3 takeoffs and landings - with some good height launches providing flights for Instructors to regain currency. 

Thank you  to Sally, Dan, Hans and George for their help on the ground  today.  We look forward to getting our members in the air as soon as normal flying is allowed. - Mike Sloggett

Condor Racing

With normal flying for members not allowed, today's Condor race was designed to simulate a pleasant winter's day flying at North Hill. In fact it wasn't a race but a challenge to stay up longest with some very weak thermals and reduced sink on the west ridge. Task setter Stewart had set some rules-

Only K21s or Blaniks, but as many launches as required were allowed in the two hour period, Dunkeswell ATZ was active with parachuting. Any penalty zone entry invalidates that flight for scoring. Be wings level on final at 300ft minimum. Stop before the Beech tree. No approach flown at less than 50kts from low key. Any outlanding away from North Hill will require a 30 minute ‘sin bin’ penalty before relaunching! 

 There were seven contenders and an Official Observer, the best times have now been validated and no surprise here - Chris came out on top even with a technical failure mid-flight - well done Chris - J&P

Chris Warnes CJW ASK21  01:30:50 *cut short due tech failure
Stewart Henshall GHK ASK21  1:25:09
Simon Leeson SL5 ASK21  55:10
Mike Willmott 61 Blanik  24:04
John Davis JZB ASK21  24:50
Geoff Lawrence HES ASK21  13:20
John Borland JPB Blanik - no flight submitted
Oscar Leeson OJL - no flight submitted

Sat 27th February - Instructor Recency flights

Well our first Instructor Recency day was a great success, - I  arrived at the club 08:30 to find the ground kit out being prepared for the day by our skeleton local ground crew -  thanks to Stirling, Graham and Charlie.

 We were greeted with a light easterly wind, blue sky and brilliant sunshine, I took the first launch,  and then 7 instructors - most took 3 flights each to get some hands on and were also rewarded with a bit of soaring.

 
It was so frustrating not being able to open the Club to all of our members on such a nice day, but  we hope it won't be long and a big thanks to our ground helpers today.

 Can't wait to see you all back up there. - Stuart  Procter - CFI

Fri 26th February

Condor Racing

Friday's task was another fast race 70kms in the Alps from Interlaken taking in the high peaks of the Eiger, Monch and Jungfrau.

 With a strong northwesterly wind, the  two key points  to this task was being high for the turnpoints on the peaks and speed control on the run in. 

 On the first  exploratory run the grid was full of  Club class gliders - Cirrus, LS4, ASW20 with 10 pilots starting. Some had problems with overspeeding at altitude, or flying too close to the sheer mountain walls. 

 On the second run, several Ventus'  came out of the hangar and a Stemme and it was more of a race with a better feel for where the height needed to be gained. Need to do it again without the modified flight plan to log the best performances. - J&P

Wed 24th February

 Condor Racing

Today's task was a  219kms rerun of Day 4 from the UKJG eWinter Series in New Zealand which Dan won a couple of weeks ago, so could he beat his competition time of 1:10:12? Could anyone else beat his time?

9 gliders lined up on the grid at Omarama for an aerotow, most were in Discus2a or Genesis full of water. The wind was a moderate southwesterly breeze, and thermals were a little tricky low down, so it was just a case of gaining some height to make a full energy start and then it was along the ridges to the south for the first leg.

 The field quickly spread out with Pete leading the way down the Hawkdun range, and both Stewart and Dan hanging back to get a late start. After the turn at Pisgah Peak, it was return along the same ridge along the Kakanui mountains until a jump back over a col to the ridge running along the Otematata River. 

There was another col to jump from the Benmore Range to get to the northern turnpoint at Clearburn before a final glide back to Omarama via the west control point.

 Dan's time was 6 seconds slower, but Stewart completed in 01:09:37 and nearly all completed in a faster than 160kph. Dan went back after the finish to look for and assist David Cott to get out of the Otematata valley where he had got stuck. Great fun again come and join us. - J&P

Tues 23rd February

 Condor Racing

Tuesday's task was 191kms in Austria, from a competition flight from Condor GP2020. 

 With no PDA's allowed on this flight, those using TrackIR had printed out a chart and the VR's had taken a bit of time to learn how to pin the chart into the Condor cockpit. The latecomers missed out on any helpful navigation  tools / briefing and were largely making use of lead and follow.

Thermals at the start -  St-Georgen were tricky low down in the moderate northwesterly wind and it took an hour and half for all 8 of us to get high enough to make a start on the task.

Taking a few thermals on the first leg before dropping back to the ridges, everyone made good progress with the field spreading out along the leg.

With early leader Chris running late, Jill took over at the front of the group to the turnpoint locating some good lift at the turn, whilst Stewart encouraged everyone to keep up.

 Heading south east, the route downwind across the ridges proved challenging with no PDA. Jill parked on a ridge whilst trying to work out where to go in the confusing terrain. DC  got very low and opted for a different valley, Fortunately Dan arrived to spectate and helped navigate  Jill, Simon and Rob through and over some narrow passes, whilst Stewart guided Geoff, Mike and David Cott down the conventional route.

All completed successfully, an interesting but tricky task in 2 - 2½ hours, with thanks to Stewart and Dan for getting us all home to Mauterndorf. - J&P

Sun 21st February

 Condor Racing

The Sunday North Hill task briefing was 124km   HHL - CER (Cerne Abbas) - SHB (Sherborne) - NH2
With PDA, wind 232/5kts, moderate thermals, cloud base ~4100ft, Club Class, aerotow to 3000ft QNH, Regatta start.

Yeovilton CMATZ closed today, however you will need to avoid the Westland, Yeovilton and Merryfield ATZ. Dunkeswell ATZ active with parachuting.
Some big grey clouds today - you will need to find where the sun has been. Cloud flying not allowed! 

 Another large grid at North Hill waiting for tugs, but a technical issue and phone call meant that Pete and Simon dropped out not long after the start. The cloud base was quite variable (just like for real) with big cumulus and little thermals, and it was easy to just get caught and penalised in wispy bits of cloudbase. Dan, Stewart and Chris headed off quickly for the jolly giant whilst the second wave took their time trying to stay high.

After Cerne Abbas, Stewart turned back to assist those struggling to find the cores, while Dan and Chris carried on to the finish. Dan nearly blew the Final glide but just managed to recover it with a good climb at Wellington Monument. Geoff achieved his best performance yet with no penalties, and Rob also managed to complete with no penalties after a couple of low saves. All found the  realistic conditions more testing than usual, but enjoyed the experience.

In the evening, Stewart and Dan completed another 300kms task in the Condor World Cup competition, in New Zealand, finishing 12th and 31st but only a few minutes after the leaders so both are still in the top half of the field with more races to come. - J&P

Fri 19th February

Condor Racing

Friday's task was another technical race through small windows, a rapid half-an-hour of fun round 72kms in the  mountains near Geneva. 

 A record of 11 gliders lined up for a winch launch at Annemasse, whilst waiting for everyone to be ready to start, some explored the first ridge and others inspected the facilties at Geneva airport.

 The first two 300ft high windows were along the into-wind ridge with everyone gaining some height ready to cross the valley. Stewart and Dan providing guidance for the newbies to this kind of task. 

 With a straight 15kms glide across the valley there was some height needed to make the next gate, and then using a choice of ridges some patient climbing was needed to achieve the Balme turnpoint on top of the mountain at 7,723ft. 

 Another into wind ridge made the run  through the col and another high level window easy. But then there were exclamations as the finish window came into view and there was more than 6,000ft to lose in just 6.4kms without pulling the wings off! 

 DC was top of the leaderboard after the first  exploratory race at 149kph and no penalties. 

Then it was time for a second run with some crew changes, so only 8 lined up for the rerun with others spectating. With everyone familiar with the route, the race was on with Dan and Stewart completing the run at over 170kph. Another one of those tasks where times can be improved.  Great fun, come and join us. - J&P