Category Archives: Flying reports

Thursday 21st February 2013

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What do you get with a brisk Easterly wind and a bitterly cold day? What you get is some brilliant flying weather!

It was a very slow start with only 6 members on site by 10am and very little enthusiasm to fly. But the field had dried out really well and we could even do a 2 cable full out and so with a little persuasion (ok a lot) we finally got the toys out on the understanding we would finish at lunch time. We only took one 13 to the far end which was the correct decision at the time with the numbers on site but a decision we were to regret later.

The first flight was as expected until the downwind leg when we flew through some good lift. The second flight was much better gaining some 400′ and lasting 15mins. From then on for the lucky ones it just got better with Humph and Pete getting to 2300′ with a 28min flight before lunch. We decided to stop for a warm up in the clubhouse and after lunch Phil Pa. and lucky me as ballast managed 32min and 2700′ (Sorry Humph).

We really could have done with another K13 as 4 more members had turned up but by the time we landed nearly all the lift had gone. Not a lot of launches but we had a great day with some very unexpected flying, Well worth the effort and I think we all learned a lesson, if it looks flyable give it a go cos you never know.

And finally many thanks to Phil P who stood in at the very last minute as duty instructor.

See you soon, Steve.

Tuesday 19th February 2013

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What a wonderful day it turned out to be today. Much better than we expected with wall to wall sunshine from dawn till dusk. The flying conditions were not ideal but it was just so nice to get out in the warm sunshine all day. We even managed to operate from outside the clubhouse.

We had a really good turn out with over 20 members on the flying list. All the Doughnuts went very early on !

We still had to operate with a single cable which did slow down the launch rate a little but by the end of the day everyone had flown who wanted to and we all had a good day.

Vital statistics…………….

Total Launches……………39

Time flown…………………..4hr. 41min.

Longest Flight………………10min. Well done to Tony M. and Dave J. (Very closely followed by Humph with 9min.)

Average Flight Time………..7min.

All in all a really good day which was enjoyed by everyone and so nice to actually feel the warm sun again.

See you soon, Steve P.

Monday 4th February 2013

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It was very short notice for today so it was not surprising that we only had 10 members on the flying list. We nearly cancelled it at 6-45am this morning when it was blowing 34kts at Wellesbourne but it seemed to settle down soon after that to a more manageable 22 – 25kts.

We all flew and had a really good morning with plenty of sunshine and a stiff 25kt westerly. No problems and everyone managed really well. We all had excellent launches as expected to 1950 – 2000′. Many thanks to Humph and Geoff, they did a brilliant job in difficult conditions.

Allan worked hard as always and we kept him well fed with Doughnuts (I x Jam 1 x Custard 1 x Chocolate) purely to keep his energy levels up.

We even managed to coax Phil out of the workshop for a flight. He may not have been current but he has not lost the touch. (he is current now !)

The wind seemed to increase a little at 1pm so we stopped for lunch when it was gusting to 35kts. so a mutual decision was made to put the toys away. Of course as soon as we had finished that the wind dropped back to 20 – 25kts. But we had all flown and had a very interesting morning. Really good fun and I think we all learned something.

Details are………………

Total launches………………9

Longest Flights…………….20min. well done to John H. and Allan…… not so closely followed by Phil Pa. and me and Humph and Pete.

Average flight time………..9min.

Total Flight Time……………1hr. – 33min.

Average approach speed…..68kts.

Fingers crossed for Thursday, looking good but maybe a bit colder.

See you soon, Steve.

Saturday 2nd February 2013

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The field was still rather marsh-like today and the only viable option due to the (strong) North-Westerly wind was to takeoff from the SE hard runway edge and land along ’34 hard’ in the wheeled aircraft and within a few feet of it on the grass in aircraft with skids.

Still, plenty of eager pilots turned out. A full contingent from University of Warwick Gliding Club attended. We had some trouble with ground vehicles but nothing that couldn’t be cured with a large blunt instrument or tow-starting.

It looked initially like training would be the order of the day but in the early afternoon some cumulus began to form in cloud-streets running on a roughly NNW line. The three K13s which we had out began to soar for increasingly long durations.

Ultimately there were two flights over an hour in duration and while no serious cross-country flying was attempted, one aircraft climbed to just a sniff over 4,000ft and perhaps a couple of hundred feet short of cloud base.

In total 35 launches were flown and every who wanted or needed to fly did so. What a lovely day for February!

Tuesday 15th January 2013

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A brilliant day today for several reasons. First off it’s congratulations to Allan on another year under his belt; it’s his Birthday today – must make a note in my diary so we can get him a cake next year. The cake will not be a problem but not sure if we can afford the candles.

We all had a good day with wall to wall sunshine and the wind stayed west of north all morning giving us some good launches to about 1400`. We stopped for lunch at 1315 and when we got going again a line of large dark clouds drifted in from the N.E. There was lift underneath them with Geoff G. and Neil the first to find it. There was a rush to get the other two gliders in the air, first to go was Paul R. in the K6 closely followed by Harry and Allan in K-13 HSM

They all got away and had 3 really good flights, by the time they all landed the sun was going down so we had one more short flight and put the toys to bed at about 1545.

So the details are……………….

Total Launches………….23.

Longest Flight…………..37min. well done to Geoff G. and Neil. They also got from launch height (1200′) to cloudbase at 2000′.

Second Longest Flights……23min. Well done to Paul and Harry and Allan, they only managed to get to 1800′

Total Time Flown…………….3hr. 25min.

Average flight time…………..8min.

A great day, especially as Thursday is looking doubtful. Many thanks to those who turned up early to help set up.

See you soon, Steve P.

Wednesday 9th January 2013

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We were very lucky today in not having any fog at the club this morning. It was down to 50mtrs. in places not many miles away. We had pretty well clear sunshine all day with some very interesting cloud in the morning. There was a large bank of cloud half way to Alcester with a lot of low level scud drifting over the club field. It was not much of a problem with most people only having to wait a couple of minutes for it to drift away. The inpatient ones (mentioning no names Pete the Meat) had to release at 700′ !

By early afternoon it had mostly gone only to be replaced with the canopies starting to get a bit misty.

Flying before the sunset

Flying before the sunset

 

Everyone flew who wanted to with several managing 2 or 3 flights. Unfortunately the canopy misting finally won and we stopped flying around 3-30pm.

Total Launches……………26

Longest Flights………………8min. Well done to Vic A (2 x 8) Tony M and a Flying Visit from Ken M.

Average Flight Time…………6min.

Total Flight Time ………..2hr. 36min.

All in all a really good day, hopefully we will fly tomorrow so it’s fingers crossed for that especially as Saturday is looking very poor.

See you soon, 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.

Sunday 16th December 2012

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Today we managed to fly 33 more launches than on Saturday!

The field was very wet with little if any drying overnight so we had to go out and actively hunt the solid bits. The winch was set up on the southwest stub and we put the launchpoint in front of the main hangar.

The tow-out took the new ‘Z’ route along the cross runway and hugged the field edge back to the launchpoint.

The aircraft canopies took a fair while to stop misting (on the outside) which gave us plenty of time to get K8 G-CJHK and K8 former JXS ready to go on trailers to their new home at East Sussex Gliding Club.

Launch heights were good, 1,600ft was common and the cloud-base behaved for us.

Flight times were generally short but good training was done. Adrian F managed to squeak out 15 minutes and a 300ft climb on a street which was gone almost as soon as it appeared.

With careful planning, retrieves caused no problems and the field condition was not worsened.

Spot landings within a tracks width of the perimeter track on 190′ were order of the day and everybody achieved this admirably except for our Scottish visitor who had to show off his parallel parking technique. We duly kicked in his minor rut.

Ultimately, we kept flying until the canopies again began misting and the Sun escaped over the horizon.

Washing aircraft and vehicles down at the end of a good day!

Washing aircraft and vehicles down at the end of a good day!

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.

Sunday 18th November 2012

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Good, dirty fun today!

The airfield was still rather wet today but we managed to fly around the worst bits. Unfortunately the launch-point got a bit muddy as did the yellow retrieve Landrover which soon looked brown as it is now sporting the wide wheels again.

Plenty of flying done with yet more pilots taking to our new Ka6. The trick for smaller pilots, apparently, is to put all the cushions in and take out only the ones you don’t need.

We trained Joe on the backup winch and Adrian F began training towards a Basic Instructor rating.

Special congratulations to Phil who re-soloed with us today!

Adrian F, strangely pleased with how mucky he’s made the Land Rover.
(Yes, we know, the tow-out flag is in the back)