Author Archives: Steve P

Tuesday 18th December 2012

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Today we finally managed a Doughnut Day. It all went very well. We were lucky not getting any mist or fog this morning and we were able to get set up on the South East stub runway nice and early. We had a good turnout of about 20 members.

Apart from some early morning misting of the canopies which soon disappeared we had no problems. Visibility was not great but we did get some sunshine and with the gentle N.W. wind it was not too cold. Everyone flew as much as they wanted and we finally put it all to bed at around 3.45pm.

As the flights were fairly short because launch height was not very high due to a very gentle crosswind we made life a bit more exiting by doing some of the circuits to the right. Very interesting and good practice for those more used to our “normal” circuits. So the details are as follows,……………………

  • Total Launches…………..30
  • Successful Landings……30 (this is for the C.F.I.’s peace of mind).
  • Total Flight Time………….2hr. 54min.
  • Longest Flight(s)…………8min. Well done to Dereck H., John H., and Phil Pa.
  • Average Flight Time……..5min.

All in all a good day, all the doughnuts and mince pies went and it was really good to get a days flying in especially in view of the forecast for the rest of the week. Many thanks to all those who turned up early to get set up, it really helped to give us a good day. Oh and last but not least, Thanks to Pete the Meat for the lovely chockies, a big tin and we struggled to finish them all by the end of the day but we did manage, thanks Pete.

See you soon, Steve P.

Tuesday 4th December 2012

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The sun certainly shines on the righteous. We had almost unbroken sunshine all day today. We were very lucky with the showers and the wind. We stayed dry all day with the showers passing to the north of us. The wind did not get as high as forecast and peaked around 1pm at about 20kts.

We managed to retrieve the cable by a devious route which worked well but it did cost us a couple of broken shock ropes, not a problem as they can be re-spliced, it just cost us a couple of launches while the rope was changed.

So all in all a really good day, everyone flew who wanted to although some did want to have more launches but with the short day, misting canopies and shock rope problems we finally called it a day at about 3-45pm. Now we know the problems we may have on similar days we will be much better prepared.

Many thanks to Allan again who as always worked really hard all day and especially to those who did retrieve on the Land Rover, after an hour you really had had enough.

So to the details,…….

Total Launches……….26

Total Flight Time……….3hr. 37min.

Longest Flight(s)……..12min. Well done to David (we need more blue strops) S, Pete the Meat, Phil P and Tony M.

Average Flight Time….8min.

30 Doughnuts gone in a flash, everybody happy(ish) (sorry George, 3rd time lucky, promise). Well worth the effort.

Steve P.

One of the last K13 launches of the day.

Tuesday 13th November 2012

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Today went very well after we had worked out how to get the cable back without doing damage to the field. We were also very careful in marking out a good solid part of the field to land on. It all went well and was a good exercise for people to land accurately from the slightly unusual approach on 24.

All 30 Doughnuts went by lunch time and we were lucky it stayed dry all day. It really was quite warm and we had our fair share of sun. It was good to see our new K6 on line and it was very well used all day. It is proving to be very popular.

Doughnut Details are….

  • Total Launches……………27
  • Longest Flight…………….13mins by Geof G, also worth a mention was 12mins by David S and 12mins by Bob Horsnell and Harry in a K13..
  • Total Flight Time………….3hr..35min.
  • Average Flight Time…….7min.

Backup Winch Doris worked well all day and gave us consistently good launches, at least one to over 1900′. The wind did increase during the morning but did not get as strong as forecast, probably no more than 18kts. max. By the time we finished it had dropped to almost nothing. A good day all round.

Steve P.

Tuesday 30th October 2012 – Doughnuts

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It may have been 4 weeks since we last had a Doughnut Day but it was well worth waiting for because today we had a fabulous day. The weather could not really have been much better with a 10kt. Westerly all day giving us consistent launches to over 1600′. The sun shone all day with only the last hour or so having a lot of cloud cover.

It turned out to be thermic with some really good flights from several members. The turnout was excellent with over 20 members present at 9am and probably 25+ an hour later.

It was a good job we had 2 instructors on hand to help Allan out, all 3 were kept busy from when we started flying at 9-45am until the finish which was not until light stopped play.

Doughnut Details are,

Total Number of Launches, 56

Total Number of Landings,…..a few more ! (only joking…..joking ….joking…..joking…..joking…joking….joking…)

Total Time Flown, 10hr 37min. (including several cable breaks, most simulated and one not).

Best Flight of Day, 47min. Excellent flight by Humph and Pete the Meat in H.S.M.

Average Flight Time 11min.

A few other flights worthy of mention, TonyM 41min, JohnG and Allan 28mins. GaryA and Nick 31mins. JohnH 20min. MartinC 22min. and last but not least well done to KenM who had 21min. in the K18 on his first flight on type.

I think everyone had a brilliant day, thanks to everyone who helped to make it such a success, it really was a team effort.

See you soon, safe flying, Steve P.

Monday 19th March 2012 – Glorious Monday

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What a change from last week and even yesterday today was. We got exactly what it said on the tin. A good westerly breeze from early on that got a little stronger as the day went on. It was thermic from 10-30am and by 12-30 several people were having flights to well over 4000′. It was a shame that it was such short notice as several regular members were absent so we did not have a large turnout however most of those who did turn up had a brilliant day with some memorable flights, there were about 15 members on the flying list and 6 of those flew their own ships.

Details as follows:

24 launches
Best flight was 3hrs. 9min by Phil Pickett in his beautiful ASW24.
Average flight time, sorry forgot to look but it would have been good.
Lots of long flights , Nick J. 1hr. 55min in the Dart (eat yer heart out Bob), Phil Pain 1hr 31min in the Vega, Humphrey 1hr. 19min and Pete Merrit 1hr. 05min in their K6, and last but not least Jonty with an hour in the K18. Lots of other members had good flights with Allan to heights they had probably not been to before.

See you soon, Steve P.

Tuesday 6th March 2012

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Yesterday certainly was “Super Tuesday” and nothing to do with the American Elections.  We got exactly what it said on the tin, brilliant day with good thermals from about 11-30 until 3pm. A gentle wind from the N.W. gave us reasonable launches to around 1400′.   It did back to the S.W. later as predicted but stayed around 5-8kts.

Lots of private gliders out, most for the first time this year. It was nice to see gaggles of 3 or 4 gliders at a time sharing the same lift. We had a really good turn out with well over 20 members on the flying list. We even had a trial lesson in the afternoon. Every club glider flew (except the K21 which is still off-line). It was a really busy day and I think Allan will need a couple of days R and R. to be ready for next Tuesday.  Many thanks to Allan, Nick and Mark who finally managed to get everyone flown.

The Skylark was also out for the first time this year, so it was good to see that Vic still has lots of friends.

O.K. now to the “Brilliant” details,

50 Launches.
Best flight, Phil Pickett in his 24. with a time of 2hrs. 1min.
Best Runners up were Pete Merritt in his loverly K6 with 1hr. 38min.  Jonty with 1hr. 17min in the K8.  Nick J. in the Dart 1hr. 16min and finally Bob H. also in the Dart, 1hr. 04min.
There were plenty of other long flights but those were the ones of over an hour.
Average flight time was over 20mins.

See you soon,  Steve P.

Tuesday 28th February 2012

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We had a good turn out with around 18 members on the flying list at 10am. unfortunately the sun did not break through so we were stuck with a 900′ cloud base all day. However we did not waste the day, we spent the time practicing cable breaks and other low level exercises. It was a good day to try these things, we made best use of what we had..

We flew all day and both instructors did plenty of walking from parts of the field they had probably not seen for some time. Many thanks to Martyn D. and Allan for their patience and help. They turned what looked like a miserable day into one we all enjoyed and hopefully we all learned something.

O.K. so we did………..

21 Launches or simulated failed launches or simulated cable breaks etc. etc.
Best flights, Ken M. with Allan and Derek H. with the amazing time of 4 mins. each.  However Martyn and I managed 2 x 4min flights so I think that makes us the winners !
Average flight time  2 mins.
Total flight time 55mins.

Statistically not very impressive but we all had a good day and had fun (that’s the whole idea). We made the best of a poor day.

Allan is back on duty Thursday which is now looking much better, sun, sea and sand ? well we should get some sun at least.

See you soon,  Steve P.

Tuesday 21 February 2012

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Today turned out exactly as it said on the tin. Good launches to 1950′, well they were for Nick and George, everybody else was getting 15 – 1600′. A good S.W. breeze and plenty of sunshine in the morning. No showers and not too cold as long as you were out of the breeze.

Cloudbase was a bit of a problem from time to time coming down to 1200′ but it was never thick and was fairly easy to miss. We had a good turnout with about 18 members present. It was good to see Derek H. back after his 2 weeks in the sun, the break obviously did him good, see best flight in the details below.

No problems although we did find a bit of a hole in the field that needs filling. Many thanks to Allan for another good day.

Details…….

Total Launches….29
Best flight………….16mins. Derek Hudson in the K18.
Average flight time…………7 mins. (without me it would have been better).
Total flight time………………3hr. 29mins.

See you soon, Steve P.

Tuesday 14th February

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We were lucky with the weather again with a nice sunny  morning and good N.W. breeze as forecast. Launches were to around 15 – 1600′.  The wind slowly increased during the day to around 20+ kts on the ground and went more to the north. It went very grey by 3pm so we packed up fairly early as everyone had flown and retired to the “Snitt”.

We had around 15 members present when we started flying at 10-30 but well over 20 by lunch time so all the Doughnuts disappeared pretty quickly.

No long flights today but it was quite challenging, we had no problems and everyone had a good day.  Thanks of course to Allan as boss for the day, the winch drivers who gave us such good launches in some difficult turbulent conditions, no cable breaks or failed launches and last but not least to Barry and Phil who repaired the canopy of CCT so we could have 3 two seaters on line today, we really did need them.  Thank you all.

Well done to Jonty and Nick for the longest flight of the day, aahh you can’t beat old age and experience !!

Gruesome details……,

Launches  31
Longest Flight  12mins.
Average flight time 6 mins.
Total flight time 3hr 4 mins.

See you soon,  Steve  P.

Monday 23rd January Dougnut Day

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It still looks like it was  good decision to fly today. Tomorrow is looking very wet in the morning with quite big changes in the wind direction during the day.

Today started off a little overcast at 9am but it soon brightened up  and by late morning we had plenty of sunshine and a good westerly wind, not quite strong enough to get us to 2000′ but 1700′ was normal.

There were 15 members on the flying list and everyone flew, the only fly in the ointment was a hail storm at about 2-30. We could see it coming so we were prepared but a few members still got wet and Nick spent a happy half hour sitting in the K18 near the cross track while it poured down.  I am sure the company was very good. After half an hour the sun came back out and we only stopped flying when canopy  misting became a problem at 4-15.

Grusome details are,

Total Launches 26
Total Flight Time  3hrs. 6mins.
Longest Flight(s)  10mins, so no records there then. Well done to Martin Clark, David Clark  and Humph.
Average Flight time 6mins.

Many thanks to Allan for a brilliant day and stepping in at short notice.

Thursday is still looking like a good day so fingers crossed.

See you soon,  Steve.