Comp Ent Day 2 - Sunday

Yorkshire Rose

Similar to yesterday’s task, a line running East - West and another North - South through Sutton Bank split the country into 4 quadrants. Points were scored for flying to turn points in each quadrant.

Again, there seemed to be 2 general plans, stick locally and pick up a turnpoint in each quadrant or venture to the south towards the better weather for more distance but sacrificing the bonus points for going into each quadrant.

The Humber (Pete Bennett)

I opted to fly towards the good weather and tiptoed down towards Pocklington with the cloud base around 2000ft above Sutton Bank. The weather appeared to be better around Pocklington, so I decided to head further south towards Scunthorpe, crossing the river Humber. The steel factory at Scunthorpe provided an 8kt climb in the steam and took me back to Pocklington, where I connected with a convergence. 

Convergence (Pete Bennett)

This got me to 600ft above glide but then turned into rain which put me into another field about 10km from the club! 

Day 2 Field (Pete Bennett)

Scores for the day and totals:

Ron & Dan in 711 - 11th on the day, 12th overall

Team DD3 - 16th on the day, 7th overall

Pete in DG1 - 13th on the day, 13th overall

Team Eagle - 20th on the day, 21st overall

- Pete Bennett

Sun 7th July

One of the enjoyable aspects of our Club is to see how much fun people have in learning to fly gliders and once solo build their skills even further - today was a great example of how everyone helping each other to fly can also be fun in and amongst the actual flying.

We have recently seen a number of new junior members join the Club and today another potential new junior member came to see what is available at North Hill - with both Jack and his mother Jenni getting airborne and seeming to enjoy their day all being well we will see them back at North Hill soon.

Great Teamwork as always (Mike Sloggett)

The morning had started under relatively uninspiring skies but with Peter Field and Trevor Russell as the morning Duty team efficiently organising the start of the day’s flying. The winch was set up in the North East corner of the field which meant a long walk to the South West corner with both K21s, the Perkoz and a Junior. And with quite a long flying list a K21 was soon being launched into the air.

On the ground our junior members were getting stuck in to the various ground activities and it was great to see the continuing teamwork between the junior members to launch and retrieve gliders, suitably supported by various parents, who have become an integral part of Club flying days.

As the flying list made good progress we also welcomed various Trial Lesson visitors who completed their aerotow flights as scheduled.

The skies did not offer much encouragement in terms of potential lift sources but some gliders managed to find odd pockets of lift during the day whilst others flew simple circuits.

During the day Guy Adams and James Flory completed some local flying in Falke VG.

With suitable planning Club flying continued through lunch with Guy Adams and Rob Rand taking over as the afternoon Duty team - again with continuing teamwork the flying list was completed by late afternoon with gliders then being flown back to the hangar end of the field.

A very enjoyable day all round, well done all for the very evident teamwork throughout the day. - Mike Sloggett

Comp Ent Day 1 Saturday

Anyone for tennis?

Keeping in ‘swing’ with Wimbledon, the first task was based around a game of tennis. An infinite line running East - West through Sutton Bank was the net. The task was to turn any turn point to the North of the net before turning another to the South. This could be repeated as many times as possible.

Generally, it seemed there were two possible plans. Fly local and pick up lots of tp’s or venture away to the better weather and pick up more distance points. 

DD3 over Ripon (Nick Jones)

Phil and Nick in DD3 came 4th, Ron and Dan in 711 who found wave up to 6000ft came 10th, Pete in DG1 came 11th and Team Eagle came 21st, scoring an unprecedented average of 3 points for every minute they were in the air! 

DG1 field (Pete Bennett)

711 field (Ron Johns)

Both 711 and DG1 ended up in good fields. Thanks to Martin Bennett for doing both retrieves! - Pete Bennett

Sat 6th July

Another hot day but very few members, Mark Courtney was busy instructing all morning and then Rowan Smith took over for the afternoon stint. 

Devon Skies (Lisa Humphries)

Paul Summers flew the Trial lessons and the rest just about managed to keep the field running. Stu Procter and Michael Harris rigged their gliders and had some nice long flights along with other members also having good stick time in the 2 seaters. 

Brian Knight with Lisa (Lisa Humphies)

If you managed to get into lift off the winch launch it was strong and possible to be at cloudbase 3000ft QFE, descending required airbrakes after an hour as a refreshment break was in order. 

VG was seen thermaling engine off and making good progress too. Brentor members were checking out the Supacat winch and Mark commented on how high the launches were, expertly driven by Dick Stevens of course.

Summer is definitely here – but for how long, lets make the most of it while it lasts! - Lisa Humphries

Fri 5th July

After another course day of mainly circuits, the evening group of work colleagues of DSGC member Tim Powell arrived from Exeter CC Housing Dept.  

It was a large group and we had 4 Instructors with 4 two-seaters on the go all evening, with 19 visitors to fly it was always going to be a hectic evening. But with great organisation from the DSGC helpers it was a breeze and we even managed second flights for those who wanted more. 30 flights in 3 hours. 

Super North Hill sunset (Mark Courtney)

It was a great crowd of people who spent the whole evening at North Hill enjoying another beautiful North Hill sunset, even helping to pack the hangar.

July 2019 Course summary

What a good week and what a good course.  We flew all day and every day, all days were soarable (some certainly better than others) except Friday when lots of circuits were flown.

July Course

Of the six course members, four were complete ab initios,  James King, John Ellison, Charles Popham and Chris Birbeck plus Mike Rigby (a regular club member) and Nick Bromley (a returning course member). All made lots of progress with both flying and ground handling skills. To top it all we all made new friends.

Charles Birbeck (John Sillett)

Everybody had some decent soaring flights and were able to see why we all love this sport; hopefully we will see them all again during their temporary membership period and beyond.

James King (John Sillett)

Thanks to our helpers this week, Hans, Robert, George, and Gordon. (ed: not to mention the Instructors John Sillett and Peter Field) - John Sillett

Thurs 4th July

It was going to be another hot one! with the Course using the K21s and the Club members the DG505, Perkoz and Junior, the kit was all washed and and walked to the west end of the airfield. Thanks to Chris Wool for the new corporate sunshade look outside the Clubhouse.

Shade form the hot sun (Jill Harmer)

It quickly became obvious that after the great work from the rope party yesterday on the North cable, the South cable was also in urgent need of replacement. So another team of volunteers led by Andy Davey prepared the new rope whilst launching continued. -Thanks all.

Ian Hunt and Peter March -splicing fingers (Robert Lee)

Late morning, Gordon Hutchinson  enjoyed an hour long flight in the Junior, but the blue skies proved difficult until after lunch and then everybody found that Forest Glade Caravan Site was kicking off reliable thermals to 3000ft.

Jack Raybould consolidated his first solo yesterday with two more circuits.  Mark Layton in 477 flew for 2 hours and Mike Fairclough  in DFK for 3 hours.

Good Luck to all our Pilots heading up to Yorkshire for Competition Enterprise, we'll be watching progress on Spot the Gliders and reporting back here during the week. - J&P

Wed 3rd July

With the July course in full swing the Wednesday crew set to work walking a Junior and the Perkoz up to the southwest corner under the expert supervision of Glenn Turpin.
It was obvious that the North cable needed to be replaced, so John Street & Mike Wilmott set to work to replace the entire cable whilst the Course managed with just one cable. Working with the busy launch point this took most of the morning and didn't seem to affect the launch rate much.
After lunch Reuben has his red card renewed after a break from gliding for a few months, the course and the club flying worked well together.
Although the sky looked good and soarable it was quite difficult to get away from a winch launch, those taking an aerotow had no such problems. Chris Warnes had no problem getting away from a winch launch, he was still airborne at 6:15pm, wandering about at over 4,000ft, meanwhile John Street & Andreas Kramer had over an hour at over 4,000ft, we handed over to the Wednesday evening crew at 6.00pm (that is of course with the exception of Chris Warnes who was still airborne!   - John Street.

After another hot day at North Hill with the Course and the Club flying in full flow, the Wednesday Evening  Group provided some further training opportunities.

Congratulations Jack on your first solo (Jack Raybould)

Congratulations to Jack Raybould our latest Junior member to go solo.

Tue 2nd July - Course week

With the July Course Week in full flow, a decent RASP forecast and a shoutout on What's App, some Club members took the opportunity to enjoy the thermals. 

A busy day in the Devon skies (BGA National ladder)

Pete Startup in 230 was first to launch and headed off west, completing North Tawton - Salisbury 301Kms in 70kph- although it wasn't all straightforward:

"After a good run into Salisbury I somehow managed to disconnect form the clouds when I got there, had to go South for a good climb then back into wind to round the TP - not good. Another horrible patch of sea air between Yeovil and Chard required running South(again) to Axminster to get a climb home. Not a straightforward day. Exeter ATC helpful."

Pete Bennett in DG1 (wanting to get some practice before Comp Ent) completed Okehampton - Taunton - Lapford 214Kms in a very respectable 72kph:

"Better than expected to the west. Was on glide for my initial task as the sky just reached it's best so continued further. Some good phases and some very slow phases."

Phil Morrison and Nick Jones in DD3 completed Okehampton - Molton - Wellington - Cullompton 150Kms - but at a fantastic 93kph:

"The little leg to Cullompton to avoid parachuting at Dunks. In retrospect severely under set. Though on getting back to the club there were several reports of it being a struggle loaclly. We had a jolly romp round, sometime you just get lucky I guess:-)"

OL above the Quantocks (Jill Harmer)

The 'also rans' found it a little more difficult with suspected wave interference,and all just made the best of the local soaring, Andy Davey in Libelle, Dave Clements in Pilatus, JB in Ventus, Peter Smith in ASW20, Pete and Jill Harmer in Duo Discus and Stu Procter in LS3 with a late tow after work.

Thanks to Simon Leeson for tugging and the Course  for accommodating us. - J&P

Sun 30th June

Early morning was overcast with some drizzle around and low cloud scudding across the field.  - Disappointing after a reasonable forecast a couple of days ago.

Both K21s, the Perkoz and a Junior were readied and we set up NE-SW in hope of improvement. By the time of the first launch into a steady Westerly wind we released well below cloud base at 1300ft.  Paul Kane added 2 more flights and steadily regained skills and confidence. James Flory arrived to help instruct and set off for a series of flights with Gordon Hutchinson, culminating in Gordon re-soloing after a long break with big smiles all round.  

Cloudbase increased (Peter Smith)

The sky improved but not always reliably and getting away was far from guaranteed. 6 private gliders flew locally with Pete Startup in 230 taking the longest flight at just over 2 hours. It was nice to see Pete and Jill airborne in OL as well on a flight test for the new instrument fit.

Andy Davey needed to complete some eventualities satisfactorily in order to be cleared solo in the Perkoz and thus after being suitably challenged, he did and enjoyed his first solo in NH2.

Well done to Andy Davey for converting to Perkoz (Peter Smith)

Ian Mitchell took on the pm slot and flew with and Charlie and Andrew Broderick and both enjoyed some soaring flights before Ian flew with Chris Woodward to finish his day.

Various Club members flew the Junior with (mostly) extended flights. Treasurer Tom flew the trial lessons with Pete Warren as Tuggie.

North Hill (Jill Harmer)

With hopes for spinning in the Perkoz dashed by a flat tyre, Ruth took an aerotow in HCX, releasing at 2000ft and soaring to 3000ft for a 45minute flight, a nice way for me  to end the day as a passenger in the back seat.

Many thanks to James for stepping in at short notice and to Andy Davey and Chris Woodward who organised the ground ops and kept everything going all day, whilst also managing to fly. And to all who winched, retrieved and generally fetched and carried, as we were stretched to cover it all on occasions. Special thanks to Andrew Logan and team who set to after flying to repair a flat tyre on the Perkoz main wheel.  Everyone flew and some good soaring was had, so although not the day I was expecting a good result. - Peter Smith