Thurs 15th April

The first Thursday  after two-seater flying is allowed to resume, and the sun was shining after a cold frosty night and the flying list was not surprisingly very long. 

The first task was to help with  a line of stone picking on the newly-dug southwest area of the airfield to enable the rest of the field leveling process to continue in the good weather. Meanwhile the gliders were prepared and walked up to the northwest corner in the unexpectedly cold easterly breeze.

KEK launching (Mike Horwood)

It was a difficult balance for the flying list with solo pilots needing check flights and some members on training, whilst others were just glad to get back in the air. Pete Harmer started on the flying list whilst Peter Smith checked out Mike Sloggett before the other 2-seaters  were also allocated.

The private owners who had already been cleared solo were keen to get aerotows into the gorgeous-looking skies, but it was soon decided that the rotor on the approach limited the cleared Junior pilots to Blue card only. 

Cloudbase at 4000ft QFE (Mike Horwood)

 Following a short break for everyone to warm up with some hot food and drink,  the flying list made some good progress. Congratulations to Dan Hender for completing his Bronze with a load of spinning in the Perkoz and a swift out and return to Watchford Farm with Pete Harmer.

In the afternoon, after Chris Wool had finished adding the bright colourful livery to the new Launch Control he completed his Instructor checks with Mark Courtney, who had run out of customers for aerotow. 

And on Cross-countries - Well done to Pete Startup 230  for his first 300 of the season Salisbury - North Tawton, Phil Morrison and Ron Johns  in DD3 Launceston - Yeovil, and Eric Alston G29 and Rowan Smith CLM for Club 100.

Field leveling Southwest area of North Hill (Mike Horwood)

By late afternoon, most members had flown - although not all the check flights were completed, please bear with the Instructors while they try to get everyone back in the air safely. Thanks to everyone for helping members get back in the air. - J&P

Wed 14th April

The day started cloudless and by 08:30 the K21s and a Junior were out of the hangar and being DI'd. The Easterly wind causing us to launch from the far end of the field.

It was the first chance many of us had to fly since last December or earlier, so the emphasis was on getting all concerned flying and current, so it was helpful to have 3 instructors. Despite this it was obvious that a good thermic day was developing. By 0930 good and deep Cu were appearing.

Whilst the currency checks were going on the Junior was well used with 3 flights over 40 mins and good thermals to cloud base at over 4000ft QFE by the end of play.

K21 library pic (Rob Hender)

 It was decided to run one cable at a time, because restrictions imposed by field leveling activities, caused problems when trying to run two, and frequent simulated launch failures caused further delays but despite this we still managed about 35 launches and we continued through lunch, sometimes with a skeleton ground crew. - Chris Warnes

Mon 12th - Tues 13th April

Monday

It was a slow start due to clearance of the first rain for a couple of weeks, but everything was in full swing by mid-morning, thanks to the helpers. 

Peter Smith, Pete Harmer, Lisa Humphries and John Sillett all completed their "return for Instructor checking out flights". Latecomers James Flory and Stu Procter were thwarted by a little snarl up on the winch and a line of rain showers. 

Helpers - Andrew Logan, George Sanderson and Dan Hender completed check flights and Rob Hender had the longest flight of the day with John.  A good first day back on dual flying. - J&P

Tuesday 

Because the gliders inevitably ended up the wrong end of the airfield  there was slow progress and a lot of walking!

Once the instructors Mark Courtney, Steve Westlake and Glenn Turpin had completed their check flights they moved on to flying  with the helpers.

Mark and Gordon Hutchinson (Mark Courtney)

 With more cable breaks to complete for them it led to yet more long walks from the wrong end of the airfield.

Charlie Broderick was cleared for solo by Glenn and promptly demonstrated a perfect circuit and landing, Dan Hender having been cleared for solo the day before reacquainted himself with the club's single seater.

Steve and Josh Funnell (Mark Courtney)

Charlie Stuckey, Josh Funnell, Gordon Hutchinson and Dave Perriam all had at least one flight and some had three or four. By 4 pm the Instructors energy levels  were fading fast so the kit was put away.

A very tiring day, but hugely rewarding with another 3 instructors now ready to go.

A huge thanks to all the helpers as usual, without there help none of the instructors would have been able to fly over the last few weeks. - Mark Courtney

Field Levelling

We stole a start yesterday on the field levelling,  but it was brought to a close early by a piece of flint wedging and jamming the Blecevator. First job this morning was to remove it and then back to the fray.  Jonathon Erskine and Brian Knight helped greatly with stone picking and removal.  Rowan used long dormant skills to go solo driving the tractor and rotavator. Robert refreshed his familiarity with it allowing me to pitch in with Nick, Stirling and Scott to put the wide wheels on the John Deere as the narrow tyres were creating ruts in the soft ground towing the new roller.

Rotavating and stone picking (Peter Smith)

 A good start and progress, but we need help with stone picking on Thursday please and possibly other tasks. - Peter Smith

Condor Racing

Another trip to Peru on Tuesday afternoon with Stewart, Mike, Simon and Jill with the Condor cafe racers.

 It was a task of 163kms in good conditions with high cloudbases enabling the turnpoint at 13,300ft to be achieved. The second leg was a straight glide down the valley to the finish at corrected Vne. - J&P

Sun 11th April

With RASP forecasting good things and Ron calling for a tug pilot to be available, a skeleton motley band of optimistic die hards met at the frigid club. They were presented with huge over-development to the west and low scud crossing the field. So maybe the forecast was wrong, this time. Maybe it was a day for home DIY? Still we had some moaning to do and that would occupy us to see how the day would unfold.

RASP - Star Rating @1pm 

With James F and Peter W wanting to fill their boots with tugging there was a call at 11am to send up a sacrificial lamb. Rowan S obliged and took the first tow into a sky that still hadn't made up its mind what it wanted to be.

Ron explaining that 1976 was the last best summer

Rowan S (Libelle) went west - at first happy just to be in the air and hadn't planned on a task found the conditions to be sublime. Each cloud told the truth and gave consistent lift each time. The sky slowly decided that it was going to yield a very promising day so he turned a bumble into an out and return to Eaglescott (NHL - EAG - NHL). Along the way was greeted with sub zero degree conditions and some 8 knot average climbs.

Rowan S - Out and Return to Eaglescott Trace

Ron and Dan (ASH 25), Pete S (Discus), Eric (ASG 29), Phil M (Duo Discus) and Simon M (ASW 20) all headed east to complete the club 100 (NH2 - TIV - CRK - NH2) - They were met with stonking lift, showers and snow. They all made the grade. Pete S arrived back not satiated and attempted a second run but was met with enough showers that would have turned the club one hundred into 300 km triangle.

Pete S - Club 100 Trace

Robert L (Astir) took advantage of the extraordinary powerful lift for a 2 hour local romp before a short layoff due to a forthcoming eye surgery.

Thanks to James F and Peter W for getting us aloft. Glen, Ruth and the Hender's for running the field. - Rowan

Condor Racing

For those who are still having to enjoy the virtual world of flying, Stewart had set an interesting task taking off at Usk and flying through inactive Cardiff airspace to cross the Bristol Channel and then via Wimbleball to North Hill. 112 Kms but with a light north westerly wind and a generous cloudbase and strong thermals, and there were no snow showers in the virtual world!

 With 8 starters, Dan, Chris, Simon and Pete were the early leaders, and providing a climb to cloudbase was made before crossing the water, it proved a good run for all, with Dan fastest at 149.3kph. - J&P

 

Mon 5th - Fri 9th April

 Condor Racing

Monday. A chilly Bank Holiday in the UK saw 5 DSGC Condor pilots on a warm SW France -Northern Spain joining the mid-day task from  169kms Biarritz to Bilbao with the Condor cafe. Wind was light from the northnorthwest and the Atlantic thermals looked promising but, typically, turned out to be disappointingly only adequate.
The usual suspects  got off to an early climb and start while I, after spending too long on an orientation flight, turned up late again and followed in my newly acquired JS3 allowing David to point out some useful climbs on the first leg. The comms chatter was its usual wave of relaxed banter punctuated by thermal concentrating quiescence, especially from myself as I became more familiar with the JS3. Thanks to all those who gave tips and advice on the way.

 After TP1 the course ventured south and inland across higher terrain which gave little assistance in the light wind so the thermal-hunting continued. Listening on the comms, I realised that the thermals didn't improve much inland so I chose a climb to base after TP1 and this proved a shrewd move as I scudded passed David on the 2nd leg. It was about this time that comms chat revealed  an unfortunate 'mid-air' had occurred  with subsequent lost points (and a little pride) for two of the lead group making me think that a late start and keeping clear of the gaggle was not such a bad thing. After a couple of short climbs to TP2 It was a straight run from here to Bilbao with no top-ups needed and I realised that I could've got away with flying a little quicker between thermals and could possibly have finished a few places up the table in my now well-liked slippery JS3. Well done to Stewart who was 4th overall and the fastest of DSGC pilots. - Mike Wilmott

On Tuesday, 5 DSGC  Regulars who had managed to download the Peru scenery joined the Condor cafe flight for 159kms. 

 The task setter had been rather generous with the weather conditions and a thermal climb to 18,000ft before the start meant a fairly easy run along some ridges where more occasional strong thermals could be found.Stewart was fastest overall in just 37 minutes! - J&P

Wednesday was a standard lunchtime Greece task in Condor cafe for 6 DSGC Regulars, 309kms into Albania with conditions that were much more challenging than in Peru. Clouds were fairly sparse  and were needed at critical times and it would have been easier if you had taken an EB29, but DSGC were flying JS3-15 or Ventus18. Well done to Dan who was fastest overall out of the 14 finishers. 

With the planned return to Real Life flying next week, another refresher training session was organised for Friday, this time on launch failures at North Hill. Pete gave the Instructor brief and then using the new United Kingdom scenery with improved graphics, everyone took a turn on a randomised launch failure scenario (this involved Pete shouting NOW - and watching the handling pilot on Condor Spectate - release and complete the landing). Everyone agreed it was a really useful exercise for getting back up to speed for flying. - J&P

Thur 8th April

The first flyable Thursday after lockdown saw some of the Thursday regulars turn up for tractor / grass-cutting training, whilst  the Instructors and the Tuggie decided to take some aerotows. 

Launch queue (Rob Hender)

 Aston was also cleared to fly and had the two longest flights of the day tickling the South ridge. Meanwhile Gordon and William were busy with more work on the new Launch Control. 

And the first 3 early arrivals from Africa were seen  - Swallows! - summer is coming.

Thanks to all the ground helpers, hopefully dual-flying/check flights next week. -J&P

Sun 4th April

Several Instructors, and Blue card pilots came out to play at North Hill  for solo flying with  K21 and Junior joined by  SM, 230, G29, M, CLM, KMV, DKU, and the Pawnee (complete with shiny new struts  after the Annual.) 

Pawnee flying again, thanks Ian Mitchell (Stuart Procter) 

There was also plenty of fettling going on with various private gliders checking out new flarms and rigging/towing equipment. And work continues apace on the new launch control.

 

Thanks to Rob, Sally, Ashley, Paul, Nick and Geoff for running the ground operation. Hopefully we'll be able to get more people flying next week.

Condor Racing 

Meanwhile in the virtual world, DSGC was making a presence felt in the UK Virtual Soaring Club task, 219kms  Usk -Malmesbury - Moreton in Marsh - Gloucester Canal - Ledbury -Usk.

18 METRE CLASS :
POS| POINTS |GLIDER  | ID  | PILOT         |       DIST   |   SPEED    |   TIME   |  STATUS  |  PEN    
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1  |  928.1 | JS3-18        | DRE | Daniel Hender        | 218.6 km | 115.1 km/h | 01:53:59 | Finished |    0.0
2  |  885.3 | JS3-18        | GHK | Stewart Henshall   | 218.6 km | 112.5 km/h | 01:56:34 | Finished |    0.0
5  |  696.1 | JS3-18        | SL5  | Simon Leeson        | 218.6 km | 101.2 km/h | 02:09:34 | Finished |    0.0
7  |  685.7 | JS3-18        | CJW | Chris Warnes         | 218.6 km | 100.6 km/h | 02:10:23 | Finished |    0.0

And in the evening, Stewart had created a task to assist the Regulars getting back into the real world with no pdas, airspace penalty areas or task helpers being visible.  The task was a 74kms local cats cradle HHL - Watchford Farm - Culmstock - Wellington - Culmhead - NHL - Cullompton - NH2. 

It was important to be able to navigate accurately round the Dunkeswell ATZ and Dropzone, and to have detailed knowledge of the precise turnpoints as photographs had to be taken within 1km. 

A perfect shot of the Cullompton roadbridge over M5 (Stewart Henshall)

With 7 pilots taking part, this time Stewart managed to beat Dan for 1st position, both being expert at taking photographs without losing much height - followed by Chris and Simon. -  Geoff, Mike and Jill enjoyed a less competitive flight. - J&P

Fri 2nd April

Condor Racing this week

On  Tuesday there was another rerun of the GP2020 Day 9 from Agathazel to try to improve on routings and times. 

 

Wednesday with the Regulars not able to join the real flying, they joined in with the Condor cafe task.

On Thursday, the north easterly rotor at North Hill was too violent for any real flying, but in the evening some joined in the UK VSC Cirrus Cup task in very blue and hazy conditions.

For the Friday session we tried something different. We split the afternoon into 2 parts: our first go at some refresher training, followed by a quick go at the Rivoli-Noetsch Power task.

Pete gave a recap of the fundamentals of stall/spin concepts, then we  joined a session to have a go. The scenario was a normal North Hill day, with a high airborne start in the Blanik - which does spin and recover nicely.

We found that Condor Spectate offered the best visuals for critique, Stewart volunteered as the first guinea pig followed by the Regulars with Pete and Simon providing the constructive Instructor  feedback. The benefit of using Condor was that the exercise  of spin entry and recovery could be repeated as often as required at no expense.

Everyone agreed that it was a very useful and worthwhile refresher exercise to increase skill and confidence, next week we plan to do launch failure exercises.

Everyone is getting much better at the Rivoli- Noetsch Power task with improved skills on speed and flap management. - Thanks Condor. - J&P

Wed 31st March

 With the CFI taking one of the first flights in the Falke on Monday - the first day after lockdown, the Club was keen to restart flying on Wednesday.

Stuart in VG on Monday 29 March

 

A group of three instructors and seven pilots gathered during the morning for a relaxed day's  solo flying in the most benign conditions. There was virtually no wind and almost summery when the sun broke through the top cover. Everybody enjoyed a couple of short flights on the road back to currency keeping the two K21s busyish.

A special thanks to Gordon H, Nick H, and Sandy H who helped out all day even though they could not fly - thanks it would have been difficult without you. - John Sillett

Fri 26th March

 Condor Racing

It was a 275kms out and return from Samedan, Switzerland to Innsbruck, Austria a rerun of Day3 of the Samedan Cup race with 9  regulars  ready for the airborne start. 

The  wind was southerly and the route followed the Inn River with some easy navigation, but some careful height management was the key to speed. The return leg was into wind and uphill from a low point at Innsbruck of 1900ft to a finish  at 5,600ft at Samedan.

 The scenery as usual was spectacular, with the sun shining in the mountains - a great day out. - J&P