Sunday 10 May - SW ICL 2015 Upavon/Mendip

Sunday had a consistently poor forecast, us and the Mendip lads had a Mendip ridge plan B in our back pockets.

The scoring had been revisited in the morning and had revealed that Liam won the intermediate class due to penalty zones around the start line.


The brief scrubbed the ICL for the day due to a low cloud base and no sign of that changing. We de-rigged the Junior and sent it back to NH with Mike F.

Henry and Liam set off to Mendip to find a 300 ft cloud-base. Itching to fly, Liam and the Mendip crew emptied the hangar to get an Astir and Henry rigged his battered Cirrus.

The Mendip core group, having long since gone home (Same at most gliding clubs then), were not able to help, so with a skeleton crew (One wing runner), we winch launched, pulled off before entering cloud and dived for the ridge.

Henry and Liam both had just over an hour with the cloud-base rising to a whopping 800 ft when we landed.

Opportunity is always there, we must take it!

Saturday 9 May - SW ICL 2015 Upavon

The Friday before it all began; Liam was busy doing what a poor student does best... cooking pasta. Meanwhile, Henry was fettling the Junior to fix the radio and provide a PDA for tomorrow's big task.

After an early, wet start on Saturday, the only thing on our minds was the promised Upavon bacon baps!

Briefing was delayed until bacon was consumed, the weather was looking promising and we rigged the Junior (thanks to the small army of helpers getting the wings on).

Henry suffered a hole in his canopy from a trailer door in the wind and his luck didn't get much better, his novice flight was short lived and he wasn't able to start.

Liam, however, completed the task: "As I towed out to the launch point I was a little apprehensive with the howling 20 knot wind... so I decided to get an aero-tow to at-least save me the embarrassment of not getting away, I regretted that decision massively; at least a winch launch would have been over quickly, but instead I had 10 minutes of being dragged through hell.

After release, I turned straight into a nice 5 kt climb up to about 2700 ft QFE, by which point I was massively downwind of the start line and no where near cloud-base... so I checked the PDA and I had gone through the start sector and so decided to not waste time pushing back into wind, and instead kept going, a few km east of the airfield I contacted a 7 kt climb and got up to a base of about 3300 ft. I managed to fly along a street, straight down to the first turn-point, where I found another good climb and then began the next leg. This one was straight into wind for about 50 km. By the time I thermalled to the top over the turn-point, I had been blown about 5 km downwind. The push into wind in the Junior was hard, the streets weren't working consistently and it resulted in getting low as any thermal less than 4 kt resulted in me making negative distance around the task. After that leg I had to head north, which wasn't too much hassle with some good clouds around, but it began to deteriorate on the way home with a few very slow climbs, resulting in me being quite far off course. I managed to get on glide after a few scrappy thermals leading to a solid 7 kt core."

Liam landed back safely on a final glide which squeaked in nicely.

Michael was helpful in his crewing activities, he picked up tons to do with towing, rigging and understanding tasks.

All gliders safely down, we rigged our tent and ran back to the airfield.

Wyvern gliding club always put on an epic BBQ, their scorer was being anti-social and got all our scores sorted for Sunday morning's brief. Unfortunately, Liam had missed the 500 km wide start line by 2 m.

Novice: Upavon - Rivar Hill - Devizes - Avebury - Upavon (75 km)
Intermediate: Upavon - Hungerford - Calne - Wroughton - Upavon (99 km)
Pundit: Upavon - Hungerford - Melksham - Wroughton - Upavon (119 km)

Between the 5 clubs, there were 12 entrants of which 5 completed their tasks.

Saturday 9th May

The Met Office forecast predicted showers this morning.  John Pursey didn't.  A £33m computer vs a flourescent orange jacket wearing, coffee-powered cyclist/glider pilot.  Which was correct?  - JP obviously!  That had to go into print as his opinion was doubted in certain corners.  So despite some heavy clouds hanging over North Hill at 10am, the showers didn't materialise.  What eventually did materialise however, was the Pursey / Williamson combo.  Having their departure time delayed by Tim's porridge-making antics, meant not only had they arrived later than they considered optimum, but also they had an entire hour in a van together to whip themselves up into an unstoppable enthusiastic frenzy.  The result of this was that while everyone else hid in the clubhouse looking at clouds and waiting for the rain that never deigned to arrive, they had rigged H5 SF27 in possibly the shortest time yet in anticipation of 'epic skies'.  This was quickly followed by JP making his way to the launch point to hop up and down (metaphorically at least), waiting for a willing student.

Our author Tim with the Orange coffee machine-JP ( Tim P)

It was possibly the forecast that had the effect of limiting the list size (every cloud'n'all that . . excuse the pun).  This meant that even list amateurs were to find themselves flying sooner than they expected.  JP got stuck in as soon as everyone got brave enough to extract themselves from the clubhouse.  His first flight with Mia was around an hour.  Ridge lift and plenty of thermals meant staying in the air was not difficult.  The good conditions had the added bonus of making list progress extra efficient.  

Amongst the usual gliders on the launch point consisting of expert instructor/amateur pupil, could be found the expert instructor/expert instructor combination of Martin W and Stuart P.  Stuart did a good job of hiding the pleasure he must have gleaned from getting our shiny new CFI to do exactly what he said, as Martin underwent his 5 year checks.

Stu gives Martin 5 year check (Mark C)

 Anyone questioning the quality of the conditions soon had their doubts dispelled as Pete S rocked up at the launch point with Discus 230, launched and was shortly seen heading towards Tiverton under some 'hard to reach in a K21' clouds.  That's an excuse that could be used anyway.  He reappeared a considerable time later having completed 100km complaining of wind.

After Matthew Wi had finished flying H5, he handed the 'keys' over to James H.  The same James H that has previously insisted H5 is good for nothing more than a bonfire.  The same James H that insists he won't fly wooden gliders because he doesn't trust them.  Matthew Wi is nothing if not persuasive it seems.  James had a good soaring flight and if you listened hard enough afterwards there were possibly some compliments in some of his comments!  Photos are available for the doubters.

Rowan flew Libelle CLM and after getting simultaneously bored with hanging around the club / tempted by the clouds, also ventured towards Tiverton.  Finding himself 1000ft under final glide, with fields picked, he eventually recovered the situation to return the glider exactly an hour after setting off (as previously promised) to Chris H.  

Heather had both great news about Roly's progress and also a great flight with Lisa, acquiring her red card. 
 

Lisa and Heather (Mark C)

James F completed an aerotow in a K13 in order to practice some spinning and JP finally got to fly a glider himself as he gave work colleague Keith a flight in the DG505.  Keith was suitably impressed describing the experience as 'amazing'.  Matthew Wi did some further BI training with Mark C and James H and Nick H (complete with new hair cut'n'colour) went for a flight in the DG505.  

Paul briefs Heather's nephew (Mark C)

Thanks to Ruth and Gordon B for running the launch point, and to all the instructors and members for helping out.  Thanks also to Graham H for installing the new Gator security feature.  As well as secure the Gator, it also makes for a good puzzle, as Jonathan and Tim found out after convincing themselves that it simply couldn't work (luckily Graham was on hand to demonstrate it could!)

A very productive day at North Hill. - Tim P


ICL at Upavon
Meanwhile at Upavon, rumours (well Facebook actually) suggest that Liam completed a Task..... More news expected.

Thursday 7th May

With a Wednesday washout, Thursday was forecast to be reasonable and was very nearly over-subscribed. There was a lot of cloud to start with but plenty high enough, flying started before 10:00am. 

There was a mixture of launch failure practice, training and check flights before the soaring started. The cloud street to the south became within easy reach of the winch launch and Gordon B in K13 and the Juniors joined the two-seater training for 1 hour flights. A few private owners joined in -  Pete St in 230, Joe in 877, Paul M in HMS - but struggled to get away from the winch as the street spread out and died. Peter Stap had flown in from Newquay in his Cessna after his winter hibernation, and after some blue card checks with Mark, he took an aerotow in JZK  further south to the visible sea breeze front, and recorded the longest flight of the day 1:37. Mark put out a call - Any more aerotows to the lift? and 230 on his way down from the second winch pushed straight to the aerotow queue. Aston and Paul took the final launches before lunch and both soared over lunch.

 After a short break, there was some urgency to get the two-seater training through the long flying list, and the Junior pilots kindly gave priority on the cables to the two-seaters . A busy day with 59 launches in all and a lot of walking back up the field. Belated congratulations to Jonathan 877 for (very quietly) achieving his Silver height last Thursday. - J&P

Bank Holiday Monday 4th May

At the start of the day the weather was disappointing and not as good as forecast but a small but enthusiastic group of members were keen to fly. John Si and Simon L started the 2-seat flying. John P came to derig his glider having seen the bad weather forecast for Wednesday and initially thought it was not worth taking a launch. Eric decided he had faith in the Met Office forecast and rigged the ASG29. Half an hour later patches of blue sky appeared and Rowan rigged this Libelle, Henry his Cirrus, Matt the SF 27, James the ASW 20 and John Pursey delayed derigging and took a launch. There were some extended flights from winch launches but Eric and James took aerotows and found wave to the west of the site climbing to 3700ft QFE. Flying was brought to a premature end when the rain came in the early afternoon.  - Eric

Pictures from James ENW

Sunday 3rd May

Today was a day for the persistent (or just plain stubborn?) few to gain their reward.

The morning orographic cloud taunted us as it rose and fell above the airfield, and our hopes for flying rose and fell with it.  Around mid-morning the sun came out, so we busied ourselves readying the vehicles and DI-ing a K21 and a Junior.  Our preparations were complete just in time to push the gliders back into the hangar for protection from the first of many passing showers.

The showers persisted for a few hours, but we were all glad of the opportunity to catch up with Roly and Heather, who popped in to the clubhouse for lunch.  Everyone commented how well Roly looked following his visit to the RD&E.

After lunch the showers held off to the west of North Hill, allowing us to start flying shortly after 2pm.  With a somewhat damp field and low number of members present, duty instructor JB declared an aerotow-only session.  Duty tuggie Simon J's face lit up!

Mia launched first with JB, and came back with a big grin after what was her first training aerotow.  Meanwhile Gordon H took the Junior for the longest flight (29 minutes), soaring the lift in front of the showers as well as the west ridge.  He selflessly brought the glider back so that Rick could have a go.  Richard H was put through his paces and got his solo aerotow pass re-validated.  Ruth had a couple of attempts with JB trying to teach her how to work the front of the showers but, just as she was beginning to get the hang of it, a particularly menacing shower chased them back to the airfield for close of play.

Thanks to JB and Simon for getting us all in the air, and to DLM David C for keeping us in order and managing the launch point.

In the evening, Henry and Mike F were fettling the Junior trailer ready for next weekend's trip to Upavon for the Inter-Club League.  Hopefully the trailer will soon be shiny enough complement Mike's brand new tow-car! - Ruth

Saturday 2nd May

Poor weather for flying today, but there was a good group of members doing field maintenance work on the churned up entrance gate area, thanks to everyone for getting a little wet and muddy.

Ian has made good progress with the CCY inspection and annual, no serious defects have been found and reassembly is now taking place. - J&P

ASK13 CCY fin post removed for inspection (Ian M)

Thursday 30th April

The forecast on RASP was one of the best for our region so far this year, and members turned out in force. It started off a little slowly, bright and cool, fresh north westerly, but lowish clouds, by the time we were ready to launch it was soarable to cloudbase at 2000ft.

There were some heavy showers in the morning over Tiverton and the motorway, but they missed North Hill, but did cause the Junior pilots to rush back to site. 

During the morning, the Supacat winch was given an airing by William and Aston, there were a couple of 'interesting launches' but the vast majority of them were OK. By lunchtime, it was decided to revert to the Skylaunch and we had an empty launchpoint at various times during the afternoon. 

Pete St 230 launching into a lovely sky (Mark L)

New member Martin with his T31 enjoyed the circuits of North Hill with a variety of Thursday regulars experiencing their first open cockpit flights. 

Martin with Ray in T31 (Mark L)

The private owners completed a variety of Club 100's in various directions, but most gliders found their way into the convergence along the south coast at some point. 

Superb convergence (Ron)

Cloudbase rose to just over 5000ft above North Hill and well done to Dave C  in Pilatus B4 for his best Ladder flight so far taking in all the local turnpoints in 2:34. 

Congratulations to George for completing his Bronze Flying tests with Chris W.

A very nice day for North Hill this spring. - J&P

Wednesday 29th April

All the forecasts for today seemed correct and resulted in a low turnout initially, by 10:30 though, we had enough bodies to get the kit out.

We started with rain and low cloud, but by the time the kit was out, there was a big improvement and we were soon soaring, even with the strong westerly wind, the ridge didn't seem to be working, - but the thermals were, and very strong up to 4000ft. 

Paul L flew the SF27 and Nigel his DG300, we had three two-seaters out and a Junior and there were three Trial lesson flights.

Everyone had long soaring flights and and it was a very worthwhile day in spite of the forecast. Many thanks to Paul C and Eric for helping out. - JSt

Tuesday 28th April - Denbigh at it's best

For us glider pilots Denbigh has a great ridge. The Clwydian range. A 30km line of hills stretching from Prestatyn in the north to Llandegla in the south, designated as an area of outstanding natural beauty. Oh, it is beautiful, the purple, heather covered flanks of the slopes, gullies and ridges channel and deflect the wind providing us with seemingly boundless energy to fuel anything between high adrenaline, low level, terrain hugging, speed runs or min sink, lost in the view, floating. When the wind is from 250 it is perfect for the ridge and being in the lee of Snowdonia here is a good chance of wave too.

The ridge basks in the evening sun

Tuesday dawned clear and with a good westerly blow. Still in the cold unstable air-mass of the past few days, thermals would be in abundance too but no showers to mess with our chances of completing the almost full length task of 5 beats between Dyserth(DYS) in the north and Denbigh ridge south( DRS) for a distance of 140 km.  The topography of the ridge between the 2 turn points isn't constant so it isn't just a case of stick to the front and hold on. A bit like a race track there are places to go as fast as you can and others where you have to change down going as fast as you dare. It's all about trying to follow the best line.

The ridge was ballistic, 230 and M5 climbed to nearly 4000' behind the start and went through the gate at about 120 kts, to make use of the 1000m height loss allowance for ladder flights and trade the height for speed over the less defined first 10km of the ridge where going super fast low down isn't really possible. M5 and 230 both managed came up with personal bests, clocking in with 56 and 61 minutes respectively equating to 137kph and 151kph. Smoking!

Clouds over the Clwydian range, there is wave about!

To get our breath back, we went to investigate some thermals over Ruthin and M5 connected with some very weak wave which took him to almost 6000' over Denbigh town and gave the opportunity of pushing west into wind and to a good looking cumulus with a wave sculpted top near Conwy. A strong thermal climb to cloud base and then a push out front into the primary wave and a steady climb to over 12000'. Snowdon beckoned. Pushing into the 40kt head wind burnt 5000' to cover the 25km or so to get to the turn point, just skimming the tops of the clouds over the mountains and then turning for home.

Climbing over the Conwy Valley

230 meanwhile had not managed to connect with the wave at Ruthin and bored with trying, went back for another go at the ridge task but at a more gentlemanly pace. Another 140km completed and evidence of better wave started appearing over the ridge and as M5 arrived back from Snodwonia 230 was climbing above the clouds. M5 suffering a little chill after the wave climb went thaw out by doing a second run of the ridge task. A little over an hour later, task complete(at only 137kph this time - slow for Matt!), 230 reported passing 11000'.

Still cold and satiated from an all encompassing, ridge thermal and wave day, M5 went in to land and de-rig. About an hour later, 230 was back too, having lost 5000' jumping to the primary where he climbed back to 12500' and then bagged the coveted Snowdon turn point into the bargain(above cloud - didn't even see it!). We had each covered more than 380 km and climbed over 11000' in wave, epic doesn't quite do it justice. Captain Slow was happy, "In 30 years of flying gliders, that has to be my most spectacular single day out - it had everything!"

The mouth of the Menai Strait