Thursday 31st October

A bright enough start to get five gliders to the launch point  by 10am but the air was sooooo damp that it was gone 11am before the canopies would stay clear.

It must be half term.....

From then on it was a very pleasant day with high (1800ft) launches from the Skylaunch (thanks to Adrian for fixing it this morning).

Mark took some more photos for the DSGC calendar

We thought it might be the end when a short spell of drizzle occurred mid afternoon, but it cleared through and we continued until dark. There was a suggestion of wave over Broadhembury which extended most circuits and longest flights were Gordon B in Junior for 17 mins and Peter B in K21 for 16 mins from 2000ft launch.  Liam even did a short cross country to Hembury Hill and back, enabling him to post his 6th flight on the BGA Ladder and so secure his Soaring Section Badge. Well done to all the winch drivers. Rick and Peter B were trained up as duty launch marshalls.

Hangar packing in the dark

Wednesday 30th October

The first day of the darker evenings is upon us so an early start, unfortunately the Skylaunch packed up on us so out came the trusty Supercat to give us launches up to 1,700ft in the strong S/W wind, most flights were extended due to a bit of wave and a bit of ridge, we packed up just as the rain started. - JSt

Mini-Comp Ent weekend - Denbigh

Nick, John and Matthew travelled to Denbigh with the Eagle, and took part in Comp Enterprise and outsoared white gliders for a while..only for a while! Very very rough great wave for some - 19000ft for one, but we stayed safe and low! The task was set as 'Quadrant Conundrum'  - With LLE as the centre you had to fly into each of the quadrants NE SE SW NW doing an O/R, score one point per km in quad 1 then 2 pts in quad 2, 3 in the third etc. 20 points per Thousand feet of height gain. Hope that makes sense! With 40kt + winds and rotor, Eagle was at a disadvantage vs the Arcus brigade

 

The Eagle soars Denbigh

Came 2nd to last but won respect! All good but too windy today so came home. 

 

Preparing for the journey - (must finish the trailer!)

- John P.

Winter Series Long Mynd - Sat 26th October

Friday evening: We arrived at The Long Mynd in torrential rain, where a warm welcome was received by the Team GB Juniors. Later in the evening, met up with the Mendip juniors and following a big meal we moved to the bar. In the meantime we had the weather and operations briefing, everything seemed rather optimistic. 

Saturday morning

Saturday: Majority of people were up early at 7:30am, keen to get the equipment out but unfortunately the weather wasn't on our side. We remained in the restaurant until late morning, when suddenly the cloud lifted and first glider was launched soon after. With only one rain gap, we flew for the whole day. Mike and Matt both flew with the local instructors, in K13 and K21 respectively - battling with the very strong and gusty wind. 

Mike in K13

Over 40 pilots have flown today, soon after 5 pm most people were derigged and ready for a hearty meal. The weather for Sunday does not look promising... But we shall see. - M&M

Thursday 24th October

Today's forecast had been changing all week, and after a very heavy dew, it dawned bright, but by the time we had got the kit to the far end for the south easterly wind, some low cloud started building up over the field. There was a morning of reduced height launches in the two seaters and by the time it got down to 700ft we stopped for lunch. The cloud lowered even more and the rain was not far away on the radar, so there was just time for a couple of hops back to the hangar. The solo pilots weren't too upset with not flying and walked the Juniors back to the hangar. We managed to get a trial flight in for Sue Cade who is writing an article for Devon Life on 'Trying something new'.

Wooly has created some DSGC keyrings which will be sold for donations to Ian Beckett fund.

Wednesday 23rd October

Today would have put some of the summer weather to shame, all the kit was out early and ready to go at 10.00am, with a good long list it was soarable from the word go, on the first flight the ridge was working well but we had to avoid the patchy low cloud. As the day progressed the cloud base rose and made things easier, soon we had three two-seaters soaring plus a Junior these were joined by Pete St in the Discus, Joe in the ASW 19. All the the flights were soarable and everyone had a soaring flight, Pete W flew the two trial lessons hotfoot with his new shiny EASA medical. - JSt

Sunday 20th October

With a forecast of an improving day weather-wise a small, but keen group prepared the field for flying.
Mid-morning a weather check flight evidenced that the South Ridge was working reasonably well allowing some extended flights using the available lift to good effect.
With a careful eye being kept on the weather, flying continued until lunchtime when the darkening skies and 'flashes and rumbles' gave warning of time to stop flying, with prudence suggesting that the gliders would be best out of harm's way in the hangar. A good decision as the view from the hangar shows - a huge downpour of rain, with the Clubhouse weather station recording 230 mm per hour of rain in just a few minutes. 

 

9mm of rain today

With the 'safety' decision made, lunch was taken and optimism was in abundance around the weather clearing through for an afternoon of more flying. The optimism was sadly not supported by the weather which did eventually improve mid afternoon but all too late and with a water logged field the decision was made to call it a day....

 

Amazing how quickly the field drains

...and go home with a drive home in the sunshine which soon turned into more rain -so the decision to stop flying for the day turned out to be the right one. - Mike Sl

Saturday 19th October

Strong winds and low scudding cloud conspired to prevent flying today.

Time was well spent hoovering out glider cockpits and canopy polishing etc - many thanks to the many hands for doing that stuff. Can we make it a regular thing now we're in the season of mud, grass and baa lamb poo?

CFI Pete has made improvements to R37's total energy system so that the varios may, a. tell the truth, and b. tell the same story as each other! Some other maintenance bits were done too.

Did I mention I went solo in R37 back in 1985? It was all working then - or was I too inexperienced to know any different!

The clearance came through about 3pm by which time most people had drifted off and I suspect the field may have been too wet to use by then anyway.

Better luck to the Sunday crew.

Pete S

Thursday 17th October

The forecast was good and the call to go flying was quite strong.The usual suspects turned up, but the moist south westerly didn't want to play fair and shrouded the field in orographic cloud - just after the weather check flight, so back for coffee before we really got going. The air dried out and there was some very strong thermic lift and sink, with a small shower at lunch time. Harry had the longest flight in the Junior of an hour, and there was a competition between Mark L and Fred for the shortest flight of 4 minutes who both got caught in some really heavy sink.

The sun setting on a good autumnal day

 Congratulations to Dave C who completed his field selection and landing exercises in Rotax Falke for his cross-country endorsement. 

Pete St laboured all day with the DG505 release hooks (not yet finished), and thanks also to Adrian for replacing the front foot of the winch last week.

Wednesday 16th October

Wednesday started with very wet and windy weather as forecast and only a handful of members turned up - not enough to get the kit out.

 

About 11:00am the weather looked if it was clearing and another couple of people turned up so  after lunch we got just one K21 out, it was still very windy 15kts plus and gusting but the wind was due west, we launched into strong ridge lift and even stronger thermals - 6 to 8 kts at times.

 

Seven people wanted to fly so we kept the flights to 30mins each, Pete St flew his Discus for nearly 2 hours, a very interesting day and well worth the trouble in getting the kit out.

 

We started packing up at just before 5:00 pm, James turned up in readiness for the committee meeting and was disappointed that he was just to late to join in the fun. - JSt