Saturday 12th November

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Thursday 10th November

From the forecast we were expecting to have to wait for the weak cold front to clear so KEK was rigged and an early lunch was planned. 
So how many people helped rigging? (Mark Courtney)
There was strangely very little wind all morning  with the low cloud, which was a little unexpected, but we got going just after 2:00pm eventually with an increasing north westerly and clearing skies. The ridge worked well for most of the afternoon, with a couple of brief interludes with mass landings. It looked like a big rain shower was coming through reported at Cullompton, but it managed to slide past to the west of the airfield.
Clearing skies after the shower passed by (Jill Harmer)
Paul Little in Open Cirrus CEC takes the prize for the longest flight of over an hour and Dartmoor visitor Rich Roberts in his Discus also had a good flight. 15 flights in total with Malcolm Vest just missing out.
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Wednesday 9th November

Because of the strong wind and poor forecast not many members turned up today, as soon as enough bodies had turned up, we got one K21 out. 
A good strong northwesterly (John Street)
Pete Warren took the first flight with Malcolm Vest after the wind strength had eased a little and found plenty of ridge and thermal lift and airbraked down after 30min to let others fly, John Street and Chris Warnes were not so lucky on the second flight they had to return early because of an approaching  line squall.
In the meantime John Sillett got the DG505 out ready to fly, but by this time the rain was quite heavy so we went to lunch.
Heavy downpour stops flying (John Street)
During lunch the rain got worse so regrettably we put the kit away and put paid to a day that showed early promise and retired to the clubhouse to discuss the American Presidential Election and other more important issues. - John Street.
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Monday 7th November - Spectacular Southdowns

Spectacular Autumn Colours
I doubt you will believe me when I tell you that the forecast for northerly winds on Monday had held steady for about 5 days, but hold it did and unaccustomed to this kind of long range possibility it was still a fairly last minute flurry  of emails and Whatsapp messages which precipitated a record number of NHL pilots going off to enjoy the wonder of the Southdowns. In all 6 gliders made the trip to Parham, 230, 711, HOG, JB and M5 joined SM who had arrived the day before for some extra fun at Parham. H5Matt joined in too but he had wangled himself a seat in Dan's Arcus and not content with just soaring the Southdowns they were going to do it launching from Nympsfield and motoring back afterwards just because they could.

The steady forecast  also meant that a great many other visitors also turned up and were raring to go and so by the time the first launches got under-way just after 9am the next local in the queue was number 12.
Golden swath of leaves on the ground behind the trees (Ron Johns)
The wind was a blustery 350-010/25 kts with  generous helpings of thermal gusts which made the ride almost uncomfortable at times and which produced some very strong sink, usually when you least wanted it. The NHL gang set a 344km task of 5 beats of the ridge between Lewes and Butser Hill which meant covering an extra 68km getting to the start and getting back from the finish to bring the actual distance flown to more than 410km. Not bad for November!
Getting low after a particularly nasty bit of sink
Nearly all of us completed the task at varying speeds ranging from a more pedestrian 90kph to a slightly faster 112 kph but were all much slower than the pointy boys, chock full to the brim with ballast, hugging the tree-line and clocking in with speeds in the high 140's. Neither my nerves, teeth or gel coat could have coped with that abuse and anyway our more leisurely pace gave us more of a chance to soak in views of the magnificent late Autumn colours. Phil and Ron in 711 were so lost in the spectacle that they also lost track of how many laps they had done and ended up landing on the last leg unaware of their error.
John Pursey in LAK12 HOG on the home ridge
By sunset we were all back, derigged, paid up and grinning from ear to ear before we discovered that our post-flight, pre-drive home meal would be thwarted by the locked door of the pub and so rather than hang around for an hour waiting for it to open it was time to hit the road.
Smoking the ridge near Lewes
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Sunday 6th November

A bright forecast encouraged suitable keenness among the members today with a long flying list in place before the hangar doors were opened at around 8:30am.

Soon a K21, the DG505, a Junior and a K13 were being brought out of the hangar whilst the launch point and winch were set up for the North West / South East run. - Although the wind was mainly of a Northerly direction with a little bit of East from time to time the forecast was for the wind to move more to the North West as the day progressed so it was hoped that the decision to start in this direction would be well founded.
Clear blue sky to start (Mike Sloggett)
As it happened the wind stayed in the same direction for most of the day but gradually strengthened with the card colours moving up through from an initial Red, via Yellow, to Blue by mid afternoon.

The crosswind conditions provided continuing  opportunities throughout the day for pre- and post- solo pilots to demonstrate / practice their skills whether on a standard approach or in eventuality situations.
Strong crosswind (Mike Sloggett)
Late afternoon after a short pause to allow a brief hail shower to move across the field, the final flight of the day was completed just in time for the gliders to be put away in to the hangar as the skies darkened and heavy rain appeared.
HCX at the end of the rainbow (Mike Sloggett)
A good start to flying weekends in November with both today and yesterday allowing a number of members to get into the air and enjoy some autumn flying - 43 flights today. - Mike Sloggett
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Saturday 5th November

A quiet day at the club today, strong northerly crosswind......
Great photos today (Lisa Humphries)

 ....... and very cold......
DG505 at sunset (Lisa Humphries)

 ...... but beautiful clear skies and as always a lovely atmosphere. 


Nick Jones and many helpers put the finishing touches to the bonfire (James Hood)

It was great to see the Clubhouse buzzing with members, friends and lots of children enjoying the Bonfire night, thanks to all who arranged and participated. We collected £124 for the Ian Beckett fund  - so thanks to all from the Juniors. - Lisa
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Thursday 3rd November

It wasn't as cold as forecast - in fact there was no wind at all to start with, but there was very little sun. 
Nice clouds (Mark Courtney)
However there were 1500ft launches and extended circuits just floating around in something...
K21 on  approach (Mark Layton)
Paul Kane got his Bronze and Red card signed up, and the prize for the longest flight was shared by Richard Harris in Junior and Paul Little in Open Cirrus at 11 minutes, with several more at 10 minutes. Paul and Chris Coville were enjoying their new acquisition.
Paul Little Open Cirrus (Mark Layton)

Later in the afternoon,  a southerly wind developed at height, and it started to get a bit darker, and some rain appeared out of the still quite high cloud, calling an early bath.
Chris and Malcolm sheltering form the rain (Mark Layton)

It was a really nice pleasant day, thanks to everyone - a total of 37 launches.
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Wednesday 2nd November

After the gloom and low cloud of the past week it was refreshing to arrive at the club with unbroken sunshine, the wind direction was less than helpful though with a light northerly wind veering sometimes with a bit of east in it.
Mike Fitz & John Street wondering if there will be any lift (John Street)
The launches were around 1,000ft due to the unhelpful nature of the wind, so most of the time the flights were quite short, there was a bit of thermal activity with Dave Clements having the longest flight of 20min.
Autumn Colours (Mark Layton)
 
Pete Smith looked after the trial lessons whilst Robert was the tuggie for today. Pete & Jill went for a ride round Exmoor in the Rotax Falke.
 
We had a visitor from Toronto,Canada - Roger , 
Site check for Roger from Toronto (John Street)
who enjoyed flying with us he loved flying the K21s much better than anything he has flown in Canada.
A glorious North Hill Sunset (David Clements)
Andrew Logan was the only private owner to fly in his K6. -  John Street.

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Thursday 27th October - Denbigh better than Diamonds

I've been told that when it comes to gliding expeditions, to be considered worthwhile, hours spent driving in the car must be offset by hours flying and preferably at a ratio greater than 1:1. Well on that criteria this was going to be a tall ask. 4 and a half hours of driving on Wednesday evening had to be made up for starters. At least the forecast was looking promising for Thursday. 
I was playing catch up with the rest of the NHL contingent who had arrived the day before and joined about 5 gliders from the Kent gliding Club who were at Denbigh for the week. 230 Pete, DG1 Tom and H5Matt were all in good spirits after a great days flying, the first 2 at Denbigh and Matt who popped in at the Mynd with the juniors for the day. 611 Phil was less enthused as he had spent the day trying to get to the bottom of why his ailerons felt to be stiffer than he remembered and didn't actually get to fly. The ridge had been working well, so much so that Pete had, apart from the usual wandering around looking for wave, completed the 140km ridge task, twice! JB also keen on a last minute adventure was on his way and due to arrive in the wee hours of Thursday morning. 
A busy launch point
We were all rigged before briefing but despite the obvious westerly wind there wasn't much eagerness to get airborne. The clouds were ominously dark and we kept feeling the occasional speck of rain, rumours swirled around the grid that Top Meteo was predicting a 300' cloudbase by 1pm. I thought what the hell, we've come all this way,  might as well take a launch before it gets any worse. 

The ridge was patchy despite the strong 25kt south westerly wind and exploring south past Moel Famau there was some incredible sink on a bit of the hill that should have been going like gangbusters, obvious indications of wave interference. As can often be the case in the vale of Clywd there was a thick band of rain over the high ground 10km to the west but it didn't appear to be getting any closer and just lurked there like a monster in the shadows waiting to spoil your fun.  There were however more and more patches of rain that broke through, swept across the valley and over the ridge drastically reduced visibility and gave more urgency to the thoughts of going back to land. After about an hours flying with half the grid still waiting to launch there was more rain than clear air which precipitated a mass decision to land, a tricky situation at Denbigh because of the narrow runway and true to form a glider decided to stop in the middle of the runway forcing H5 Matt, coming in behind him, to land on the grass. 
Rain out west and to the north
Within 20 minutes of landing the rain had passed through so Pete, who had been getting rather stressed about being blocked in earlier on and was now at the front of the launch queue, took a launch.  I seized the chance of the second cable because the rest of the grid were all faffing in the club house and was soon back on the ridge looking at yet more rain to the west and resigning myself to another short flight. 

There was light to the north however, which soon turned to actual sun on the ground and Pete and I headed that way, skimming under the 2000' cloud base of a very dark street into clear air and steady lift along the side of another cloud bank. I even dared to think we had found our way into the wave but no sooner had that thought crossed my mind, the lift was gone and the jumbled mass of cloud didn't give any understandable clues as to where it might be hiding. JB, H5Matt and Phil all had held fire on their second launches because of the gloom to the west and were now airborne along with Tom all responding to our new found optimism. JB had found a strong patch of lift a few km southeast of the field and was nearly at 3000' but in a hole that was filling in and he had to drop back down again. This hole came and went and when it opened again I managed to time it right and get above the cloud layer before it filled in again. I wasn't concerned about getting trapped because it was still clear a few km to the north which provided an easy escape route. The steady reduction in the cloud amounts to the north also seemed to enhance the indicators of where the lift might be and soon all of the NHL gang were climbing above the cloud and into the otherworldly cloudscape of beautiful smooth wave.
Flying saucers and wave ripples
Lenticulars at 12000' and over cast to the south
230 Pete ended up topping out at 16849' the highest of the NHL gang and narrowly missed achieving his diamond climb badge on only his second flight carrying oxygen. There just wasn't enough time left in the day. I met up with him on the way down to get a bit of footage and as I flew along side him, with the great 230 bathed in the golden glow of the setting sun  I swear I saw a glint from his cheesy grin!



Time to head for home, who cares how long the drive is!
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Thursday 27th October

It was a foggy start and a cloudbase check was taken just after 12:00, but we decided to take an early lunch for a run right through with hopefully cloudbase continuing to rise. All available club gliders were in action.

There was very little wind on the surface, but the launches were high to 1500ft, and a huge patch of zero sink at the top of the launch. Pete Harmer was able to make the most of this with the longest extended circuits on two separate flights for 13 minutes. Meanwhile Peter Smith felt in need of some exercise and didn't reach the top of the launch all afternoon, with simulated launch failure training of various types.
Wooly playing (Jill Harmer)
Chris Wool was in a boyish mood, cracking the brakes on a training flight, and practising some out of position exercises. 
Cloud breaking up but too late to use (Jill Harmer)
Towards the end of the afternoon the cloud showed a few more signs of breaking. - J&P
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