Saturday 30th August

All day the sky was overcast, this didn't hamper spirits or the lift!
The ridge worked well all day, with regular thermals making things interesting. Pete St had the longest flight of the day with over 2 hours, staying up through the shower that brought most down.
Considering the sky there was a surprising number of private gliders, Pete St in 230, Andrew L in his K6, Martin and Stu in their LS3 and Mike F in the Pik.
John P pressed on through the huge flying list in the morning, with help from Lisa. In the afternoon Ian was helped by Stuart, Martin, Robin and Roly all instructing! Thanks to all the members today for generating so many smiling faces and happy students! Plenty of people were also picking up the required skills to help out on the ground.
Welcome to the brothers, Rory and Owen, and James from the Portsmouth naval gliding club.
Just on queue, as the hanger doors closed the sky brightened up revealing plentiful lenticulars! - Matt W

Cross-country week - not!

Would anyone believe that there can be a whole week of non- cross-country weather in August-  well it is the West country!

So having carefully watched the weather every day for any potential small slots, we called it a day. 

The Club would like to thank Justin and Gillian for devoting their week to our budding cross-country pilots, we are sure that the briefings on Monday will have helped to some extent.

Thursday 28th August

The kit was readied, but due to the low cloud, we took the opportunity to spend time doing groundschool for much of the morning. George was invited to do a notam and weather brief for the day. The forecast showed cold front clearing midday with low cloud and showery afternoon. By the end of the briefing, when we put the blinds up, the cold front had been almost non-existent and more than an hour early and the cloud was clearing.

The launchpoint was hurriedly set up and the afternoon saw a good amount of local soaring, with 3 two-seaters, 2 Juniors and 4 private owners, however it was just local as even Matt couldn't get beyond Cullompton in the strengthening wind.

R37 was rigged, thanks to Ian M and helpers for completing annual inspection, minor woodwork repair and nose and tail wheel assemblies.Well done to Paul M who passed his Bronze exam at the first sitting.

The sun always shines on North Hill

Monday 25th August - Cross-country week

Not the best of starts, low cloud and / or rain most of the day and just after most people left the sun came out - standard for North Hill.

Anyway, with Justin leading,  we got some basic introductions and aims sorted out, and talked about the various preparations needed for successful cross-country flying.

Sunday 24th August

It looked like a so-so day with a fair amount of top cover, so most of the members stayed at  home. Nevertheless, the remaining hearty crew took advantage of the quiet day - with spare Gliders and Instructors and organised extra Trial lessons to the three already pre-booked, and sent everyone home with a smile on their face. Andreas stayed up in the Junior for an hour, and all the members wanting flights got their fill. Thanks particularly to Paul S., Simon J. and Peter W. for going the extra mile. - Tom

Saturday 23rd August

A good forecast, but the heavy frontal clouds had to clear the south west first. By lunchtime the sky looked really promising with a light but gusty north westerly wind and streeting cumulus.

Training flights had started early and the two-seaters and the Junior were busy all day. The cross-country pilots covered most of Devon and Dorset with various tasks following the energy. The visibility was spectacular and we could see the smoke trails from the Red Arrows and other displays at the Dawlish Air Day.

The Red Arrows join the circuit at Exeter

Matt in M5  had the longest flight, went East first but managed to catch up the rain, so after turning Sherborne completed a zigzag of 346km.

6 flights posted to the BGA Ladder by North Hill pilots

Two seater Comp - Pocklington - Friday

A day with frustratingly poor conditions in the direction of the task meant Arnhem was recreated with even the big wings scurrying back. BBB was one of those looking for a relight. Time for a tossed salad with JBs own dressing and a rethink.

Yellow Eagle suits

To stay ahead in the battle of the wooden gliders, a launch was taken and with my daughter Jane in the back we set off. What followed was a climb and a final glide out to a field near York. Time for father daughter bonding... Yellow Eagle suits at briefing to get the best wood prize - 1 km the winning margin!  - JP

Friday 22nd August - Course week

It was quite misty first thing , but it soon cleared as the wind picked up and the cold front moved further away.  The Course members were treated to Pete B providing a Notam and weather briefing.

Course flying got going, and congratulations to Douglas who, after resoling earlier in the week, converted to the Junior and then soared for nearly an hour on his second flight. 

Cloudbase rose and Pete B soared the K6 until the seat got the better of him. Matt in M5 and Pete St in 230 took spare cables and completed a quick downwind dash to Dorchester and then a rather slower push up wind to Dulverton for 178km. Adrian in FDX, Eric in G29 and Pete & Jill in OL also took spare cables for local soaring.

Course flying continued all day, with Andria, Richard and Rob all getting close to their personal goals of going solo, and Josh moving forward with his training and taking the prize for the most flying in the week.

Course photo

Thanks to the Instructors - Ian assisted by Pete, Mike, John and James and the Helpers - Richard, Ian and Dave, for a really good bumper bundle week of flying.

The new online Purchase and booking system for Trial lessons is now available on the DSGC website, thanks to Jill, Rob, Mark for getting it sorted after many months of toil, and to Paul for proof-reading.

Thursday 21st August

There was a lot of cloud this morning, although it was slightly soarable beneath it. But with very little sun, it was rather chilly, and the wind picked up westerly. Peter B had his first solo aerotow in the K6. Ollie flew the K13 solo.

Ollie does another star jump

There were 80 winch launches today with the Course and Thursday club working well together.

Wednesday 20th August

All available gliders were out early and the second August course was soon under way followed closely by the the Wednesday club. 

What a fantastic afternoon! after a changeable morning with little soaring the weather changed quickly and dramatically after lunch.

Cloud streets as far as the eye can see, and IS28 returned from travels to Belgium

  Pete St in 230 followed the NW/SE streets downwind first to Beaminster and then back and forwards for 217km,  Eric in G29, Jeff T in 380 and Peter B in K6 all had long local soaring flights. Pete & Jill in OL enjoyed the purple heather on Exmoor turning Wimbleball and Barnstaple.

There was the usual quota of trial lessons.

The cloud streets set up giving easy soaring up to over 4,000ft the two course K21s were still soaring until after 6.00pm.  - JSt

Junior Nationals - Lasham

Day 5, a 300km task was set, and at the start this seemed very possible. Cloudbase was at 3200ft by 11am and rose to about 4500ft throughout the day. The first 50km to the first TP took far too long as my pda decided to fail on me and I wasted a lot of time getting it to work. The next 70km to the north went well with some good lines of lift, but by the time I had turned the TP,  it had all died and gone south - so back into scratching mode... I got up to cloudbase eventually and went all the way back south and then cut west to avoid a big blue gap near Upavon. By this time all the decent climbs had gone, I was on glide to base but was told to push back north to complete the 80km remaining of the task, after some very long glides and weak climbs I decided to call it a day, but I left that decision a bit late and just couldn't get back on glide so ended up in a field about 15km to the north of Lasham. - Liam

Pocklington - Day 4

JB and Nick Jones launched into a promising sky and headed west to York en route for Sutton Bank (first TP) .  However, having being lured into a big blue patch  by one dodgy looking cloud we found ourselves on base leg for a nice stubble field when the vario perked up and we spurned the approach in favour of a climb back to cloud base! (E by gum, that were one 'ell of a climb!)

On to Sutton Bank and from there headed to North Allerton arriving in the rain:-(

We thought we were dooomed so headed off on track anyway -nothing ventured nothing gained - and after half an hour of scratching finally won the sympathy of a passing buzzard who kindly showed  us where the thermal really was! We managed to climb back to cloud base and headed for home to learn that we had achieved the accolade of 'Best Wood' and 4th overall. 

 

Barbeque weather

After derigging we were treated to the culinary delights of J P's BBQ Kung Poa Chicken - an awesome concoction despite his consumption of a bottle of red during its creation. - JB