Thursday 30th July

The forecast was for a good soarable day, but there was a build up of quite heavy looking cumulus by 09:00, but enthusiasm was still there with a long two-seater flying list and many private owners rigging. At first the wind was further north and stronger than expected but it was still quite soarable. Unfortunately, the gusty crosswind and curlover restricted the ambitions of the early solo pilots.

Progress through the two-seater list progressed slowly, and thanks to Paul C for flying the trial lessons followed by more training flights, by lunchtime the wind backed and reduced a little, and the sky started looking much better. The private owners launched en-masse and set off on various tasks. Mark C was kept very busy in the Pawnee.

During the afternoon conditions got better and better with cloudbases up to 4000ft and 6 knot climbs and it remained soarable late into the evening, when the group for ATC cadets  took over.

The BGA ladder shows a lot of visitors to Devon, with Peter Sm's Flarm receiver now operational at Hewish near Crewkerne giving much better coverage on Spot the gliders.

Snapshot of the TV after some of the action (Mark C)

Our own pilots enjoyed the conditions although undersetting tasks, Pete St 230 Discus completed a 200kms with a follow on 100kms. Eric in G29 did 154kms.........

G29  with Wimbleball Lake (Eric)

........Tom in DG1 flew 85km  Nigel in FAJ toured the M5 turnpoints,  Liam went to the seaside in K6 HEB.........

HEB at the seaside (Liam)

........and even the Eagle with JB and Malcolm V got to Taunton and back. Robert seemed to enjoy himself in  DKU Astir. Wooly and John B explored Exmoor in K21,  Jeff T in 380 Mosquito was last to land on this good day - J&P

Wednesday 29th July

An epic day and a long flying list, there was lift from the first launch at 10:00 by 10:15 we had three gliders soaring, as usual Mike Fitz and JSt took the first launch and disappeared for an hour.

As the day progressed the cloudbase reached 3,000 ft with unbroken cloud streets stretching as far as Barnstaple in the strong northwest wind. 

 

Chris W under a cloud street (John St)

Joe S, Nigel, Mark L, flew their own gliders and the K6 HEB was well used all having long soaring flights. The rain did not arrive but showers could be seen in a line along the front of the Blackdowns.

Streets and showers (John St)

 Well done to Peter B for going solo in the DG505 and having a good soaring flight in it, John Sil and JSt were kept busy all day and had to be called down on occasion, Eric looked after the visitors, Pete W was tuggie.

We handed over to Henry with his Met Office visitors at just after 18:00 after calling the two K21s down that were still flying. - JSt

Saturday 25th July

After 36mm of rain on Friday, the Saturday forecast was quite promising, and the two-seater list was rather long by 8:30am. There was a bright blue sky and white puffy clouds in streets to the north. But the wind was a little stronger and further to the north than expected, which restricted the early solo flying in the morning. There was also a lot of sink particularly on the approach.  After lunch the conditions improved significantly with the wind reducing and backing and it became really soarable - as long as you found the first thermal off the winch. 

Pete St 230 Discus, JB  in Ventus and Eric in G29 all chased each other round the Club 100 at very good speeds.

Lovely clear air  from G29 (Eric)

In the afternoon, Ian changed the plugs in the Pawnee and it started easily again. Thanks to Pete H and John Si for flying the trial lessons. 

Four 2-seaters parked up (Jill)

It was also a shame that we had to park 4 two-seaters as we didn't have any spare instructors in the middle of the day. With some help from JB and Pete H we managed to complete the flying list by 18:00.

James at The Park (Stu)

Congratulations to James F for completing his Cross-country endorsement after flying his nav test to the Park in VG with Stu. - J&P

Long Mynd - Thursday 23 to Saturday 25 July - Great flights come to those who stay

Thursday

Thursday was forecast to be the best day of the week but even the weather brief at 10:00 disagreed with what was happening outside the window. It turned out to be rather overcast. Later in the day a line of organised convection kept people aloft but with the penalty of wet wings.

• Chris flew the Mynd's K23
• James flew 'his' ASW 20
• Steve W in his Discus
• Karen then Martin B with Simon in the DG505
• Paul L in SF27
• Andrew L in K6
• Mark in (James') ASW 20
• Paul S in Cirrus
• Henry in Cirrus

James taking the lazy route to the club house

Gaggle of duvets

The valley floor

Friday

It was wet, very wet. Looking at the NH weather station, it showed 36 mm of rain, it wasn't too much different at the Mynd. After a sight-seeing trip to Shrewsbury, Mark, Simon and most of the group decided to use the bad weather to escape and earn brownie points back home this weekend.

The NH group in Shrewsbury

Saturday

After a quick briefing in the hangar, a head count revealed only four NH members remained, Paul S, Paul L, Henry and Nick H.

Paul tasked and completed Talgarth and back for 128 km
Henry tasked and completed Nympsfield and Lower Clopton for 244 km

The day was forecast to be epic and turned out to be the best day of the holiday.

The river Severn

Amazing streets on the way back to the Mynd

Thursday 23rd July

It was rather a slow start with a total veil of high cloud, but there were a few launches before lunch. After lunch, with some 'scraggy' clouds formed, circuits were extended and Nigel managed 46 minutes in DG300. Rob consolidated his solo flying and Paul was back in a Junior.
 

Chris W flew Harvey and Julian on trial lessons, and was a bit miffed by being upstaged as Julian said his kit car was a a GT40.

The heavy showers went north and missed the airfield, but there were a few patches of drizzle and we had to pack up early. - J&P

Long Mynd - Wednesday 22 July - The Mynd delivers again

There were showers forecast late morning, so we decided to go for coffee in Church Stretton.

The afternoon was forecast to be epic and it didn't disappoint.

A hat-trick of 5 hour flights; Pete Bennett (5h59), Andrew Logan, Paul Little

Mark Wallace got cleared to fly the K23 and stayed aloft for 2h30 and had a "lovely time" and Mark C had a long flight with Nick.

On glide towards the Mynd

Martin Bennett was introduced to ridge soaring with an element of excitement for good measure.

Recent new member Karen flew for over an hour in the K13 with Simon L.

Tomorrow looks set to be the best day of the week... [Ed: It wasn't]

In the evening, Sir Chris Coville laid on a banquet of pizza, cake and wine to which 15 NH members descended and consumed all that was available.

Long Mynd - Tuesday 21 July - Showers

With showers forecast, a quick met-flight in the DG found the approaching rain.

There were a couple of check flights, Paul Little shared the ridge with Mark C in the DG. The day was complete with nearly two hours flown in the DG505.

Let's see what tomorrow brings, it's looking good!

Part 2 of the Bennetts arrived en-masse bringing with them a small tent city.

Wednesday 22nd July

A day with two halves, the morning started bright but soon over-developed with a southwesterly wind and showers which  held us up for about 15min. After the rain had stopped,  the wind veered to northwest and strengthened and it became very thermic.

There was a flurry of glider rigging and even Nigel stopped polishing  his glider and put it on line, Pete St Discus, Jeff T Mosquito, Nick H DG300, and Dave C Pilatus B4 all had long soaring flights.

Pete W was busy all day with aero-tows, thanks to Eric and Peter Sm for doing the Trial lessons all of them having good soaring flights.

The two K21s, a K13 and the Junior were kept in the air all day and all who flew had good long flights, Peter Sm flew his younger sister for her first glider flight - 

 

Peter takes his sister for a flight (John St)

 landed smiling from ear to ear! - JSt

News from Long Mynd

After a lot of model flying, the weather changed and congratulations to Pete B on his 5 hours in the K6 completing his Silver.

Family Bennett celebrating (Simon L)

There must be some more news from Long Mynd...

Sunday 19th July

The pessimistic weather forecast for the day meant that the flying list was very short.

Whilst the launch point was set up in the North East of the field daily inspections were completed on the K21s which were then soon being walked across and flying was under way for the day well before 10:00am.

The morning saw mainly extended circuits with a lack of any real lift, apart from odd pockets on the West ridge, so the opportunity was taken to practice some launch failures until lunchtime.

With few members available to keep the flying going throughout the lunchtime period  and with an uninspiring sky the decision was made to stop for lunch.

Uninspiring sky

During which time the sky started to look more and more interesting and by the time flying started after lunch it was clear that the members present could look forward to a much better afternoon thermals wise.

Sun on the ground

With cloudbase steadily increasing and lots of potential clouds under which to search for lift it was then an afternoon of continuing soaring flights albeit that as ever the first climb off the winch launch was key - as the afternoon progressed the thermals had become good enough that the gliders had to be 'encouraged' to come down by either use of air brakes or flying through the strong sink - also evident.

A good afternoon worth waiting for. - Mike Sl

Saturday 18th July

Another long flying list, and some weather that didn't really perform as forecast..... Thanks to all the extra instructors for helping Phil and Steve get through the massive two-seater list. The weather was light winds sometimes westerly and then with some south in it. The cloudbase was not particularly high but the clouds looked quite well formed initially, but some strange sea air which wasn't forming proper convergences moved across the airfield. 

Pete St in Discus 230 and James in ASW20 ENW both managed to scrape around the Club 100 but "difficult" was the common theme.

Congratulations to Oscar who converted to K6 under the eagle eye of JB.  And a big thank you to Stu and William for getting the oil cooler work on the Pawnee fixed in less than a week whilst Ian was away.  - J&P