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Flying Report 7/5/16

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We were chased away by a big CB today!

In a weak easterly wind, we set up with the launchpoint at the west end of the field. The field condition is pretty good now having had several days to dry in warm weather.

Speaking of warm weather, the club weather station recorded a high of 22 degrees today in 85% relative humidity. “Muggy” was an understatement. The visibility wasn’t fantastic with a moderate haze which although not obscuring the lateral view of the ground too badly, was masking the approach of expected towering cumulus and CBs.

All of the club pure gliders flew, the LS4 coming out late as two members wanted to fly it. The Astir was lined up for Kit and David D to convert onto but their intentions were scuppered by rumbles of thunder from an as-yet invisible approaching CB. Hopefully the field doesn’t get too much of a drenching this evening and the weather plays ball so they can have another try tomorrow.

Soaring wise, the thermals were slow and the visibility poor enough that no private gliders turned up at the launchpoint but Iain R managed a one hour flight in the SZD Junior scratching between 1,500′ and 1,700′. The next nearest flights out of 26 launches were only a quarter of that duration.

Ultimately, the rumbles of thunder decided that it was hangar-landings for the aircraft aloft and a long tow-home for the others. The hangar was packed with just a bit of time to spare before the first rain arrived.

 

Flying report 6/3/16

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With Barry K and Steve P on duty, today saw climbs available from the very first launch. Plenty of embedded Cu to play with and at one point we had all of the two seaters aloft plus the Junior.

Speaking of which, we’ve now rigged the club K21 and several pilots have had refreshers on it including cable breaks (even if they didn’t want them).

A privateer syndicate rigged their Ka6E, the gorgeous 715. The lift reliability wasn’t good enough across the local area to task so club and syndicate aircraft stayed close to home. Some good climbs were achieved and durations of up to 43mins although we set a limit on the club ships of 30mins to get everyone flown.

In spite of a broken cable for a while, we achieved 32 launches with Tony M heroically driving the winch without relief for most of the afternoon.

The day ended with both the field roller and the winch getting stuck in the soft ground. Many of the day’s pilots retired to the Navigation Inn, Wootton Wawen for dinner.

 

Flying report 28/2/16

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With a contingent of our newest members with us today at Snitterfield as well as a visiting pilot from Talgarth, we took two K13s and the SZD Junior to the west end for flying ops. Andy B was standing in for Mike C as duty instructor. Inexplicably, the left winch cable which had proved so troublesome yesterday worked without fault today.

Launch heights were pretty good despite the moderate wind, 1,600 feet could be expected. Off the wire, there were a couple of good soaring flights with Des T in the Junior at 31 mins and Ian W at 34 mins.

Later on, what was appearing as cloud streets for others further south was appearing for us as wide bands of spreadout with narrower gaps of sunshine in between as they passed over. Lift was weak but it gave the opportunity for members to practice short-field landings on the zero-six west end landing area.

A little after 1600 as the shade of spreadout reached the field, David M climbed away in the SZD Junior for a short tour of local turnpoints. Although the spreadout looked uninviting, cloudbase was contacted at 3,300ft. Significant sink in the gloom brought him back in a hasty retreat.

Steven H converted to the SZD Junior having not added a new type to his logbook in a while.

A well staffed launchpoint meant that we were able to get around the flying list several times for a total of 32 launches.

Photos by Peter C.

Flying Report 28/1/16

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We had a really good day on Thursday with sunshine all morning but a bit cloudier in the afternoon. The wind started off a fresh W.S.W. but tended to back during the day but we managed OK. We had 17 members on site at the briefing and several more came soon after. All the doughnuts went in a flash. We started off outside the clubhouse but after a couple of launches realised it would soon be making ruts so we moved to the stub on the south side and flew from there for the rest of the morning without problem.

By lunch time it seemed everyone had flown and had disappeared back to the clubhouse and so we were going to call it a day and hangar landed both of the 13’s. However one member decided to have another flight as we were about to return the second 13 to the hangar. We launched from half way along the peri-track and they gained an extra 200ft on the launch compared to the morning. This seemed a good idea and so several more chose to do the same and kept us flying for another couple of hours. The good news is the new launch point trailer worked very well even from maximum distance from the winch.

K13 G-DCBW at the unusual one-nine launchpoint.

K13 G-DCBW at the unusual one-nine launchpoint.

Many thanks to Tony P and Andy S for persevering to find places for us to launch and land, meaning we had a good and long days flying.

So to the statistics:

Total Launches……………….24.

Longest Flights………………9 mins from the short morning run. 11 mins from the longer afternoon run.

Average Flight Time…………..6 min.

Total Flight Time…………….2 hrs. 24 min.

Steve P.

Flying report 24/1/16

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A tricky day’s flying with an abnormal field setup…

Andy B and Richard were on duty today and the first task was finding a field setup that, despite yet more rain overnight, would work without damaging the field.

With the wind from the south-west, a one-nine landing direction was favored and there was actually a strip maybe 2 meters wide which had boggy ground either side. Spot landings and no excuses were order of the day.

The launch-point was placed on the south-east hard runway with the winch on the south-western edge of the perimeter track so the (single) cable could be towed along the southern track.

Low cloud hampered initial launches but later, despite a measly 870 meter cable run and a crosswind, launches were as high a 1350 feet. At least part of this could have been down to the new direct signaling system which seems to avoid long ground-runs.

In total a small crew, late-start, single cable operation and one glider did 17 launches including some attempts and soaring in lift from the Snitterfield ‘ridge’.

Thanks to Andy and Richard for finding a way to make the day work.

 

First Flying Day of 2016

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A Happy New Year to all from Stratford on Avon Gliding Club!

After the recent rain storms and a severe lack of flying due to a saturated airfield, the traditional January 1st flying day wasn’t looking promising.

A small bunch of pilots turned out looking hopeful for some flying and Andy S went off in search of anywhere we could operate a glider safely. When he didn’t return for a while, we considered sending out a search party but Andy reappeared with a plan!

By the time we’d set the field up the plan had changed due to the dry areas not being as extensive as first thought. Rather than operating a formalised launchpoint, we’d land the glider in the dry area and then take the cable out to the aircraft and launch from the same spot.

Conditions were exciting aloft, quite a bit of churn low-down and then a big swing to southerly with sufficient strength that the winch would be nearly idling at the top of the launch. Up top a smooth, brisk wind held hints of weak wave. Peter C flying with Barry K managed to climb a bit and stretch out to 22 minutes what would be Peter’s first wave flight.

Landing from the north at the west end over the gate offered all pilots the opportunity to brush up their circuit planning.

In total, with one glider and a minimum operation, we launched 7 times enabling everyone who wanted to fly an opportunity to do so for the first time in 2016!

Thanks to Andy S for making it happen!

Flying report 25/10/15

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We had a really good turn-out today. Plenty of pilots and an early briefing.

The Chief Flying Instructor conducted a Bronzer Skills Test with Keith L who we are pleased to say passed!

Neil C converted onto the club’s Standard Astir CS77 G-FECO and Chris B converted onto the club’s LS4 G-DEMG.

Some thermal soaring was to be had too! Andy B set off solo in K13 G-DCBW and managed to contact a solitary street of cumulus clouds, pushing out to Long Marston and over 3,000feet. Not bad for October!

The other K13, K21, Junior, LS4 and Astir took up chase and for a while the entire club fleet was airborne.

We later de-rigged the club K21 G-CGAG into the workshop for it’s ARC maintenance.

A brilliant day shorted by the return to GMT/UTC time!

The longest flight duration achieved today was 48minutes.

Kit & Ashley convert to the SZD Junior.

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Well done to Kit B and Ashley V who converted to the club’s SZD 51-1 Junior last weekend, their first glass single-seat type in their logbooks.

The Junior, an ideal single-seater for early solo pilots provides a stepping stone towards more advanced types such as the club’s Astir CS77 and LS4.

Ashley V converts to the SZD Junior

https://www.stratfordgliding.co.uk/2015/09/kit-ashley-convert-to-the-szd-junior/Video shows CFI Steve B sending Ashley V off in the SZD Junior.#gliding #soaring #juniorgliding

Posted by Stratford on Avon Gliding Club on Monday, 28 September 2015

Peter C’s first cross country.

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Well done to Peter C who flew his first cross-country flight on Saturday from Stratford on Avon Gliding Club at Snitterfield to Windrushers Gliding Club at Bicester!

The flight distance of 50km in Stratford’s Astir CS77 gives Peter his FAI Silver distance. The flight was flown on Saturday 26th which was say fairly tough local soaring conditions.

Peter at Bicester with Stratford's Astir

Derigging Astir at Bicester

The only other Stratford glider to task on Saturday was Mike C who flew 203km in his LS10 (18m).