Category Archives: Flying reports

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.

Tuesday 17th January 2012

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We had a good turnout today with about 15 members on the flying list. It was a very quiet day with a  gentle S.S.W. breeze. Visibility was poor all day and canopy misting finally put paid to flying a little earlier than we wanted. Appologies to George who missed out on his 4th. (free) flight . If he had been a bit quicker with his eventualities he may just have got it, hey ho some you win, but in the end better safe than sorry.

Congrarulations to John H who went solo in the Junior, only problem is he is going to want it out every day now !  It WILL cost you John !

Finally the grim statistics,

Total Launches.   30
Longest Flights, (we use the term “longest” very loosely here)  Honours go to Humph, Roger and Pete (the Meat) with a mighty 8mins each !!
Average Flight time 6mins.
Total Flight Time  3hrs. 4mins.

A good time was had by all and in the end it was not as cold as we expected.
Thanks again to Alan, I don’t think we had to hot berth him today but he still worked very hard all day.

See you soon,  Steve.

Sunday 15th January 2012

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It was certainly cold when we started out today but the members turned up, set up and we got stuck in.

The wind was generally from the South-East as it had been yesterday and although the sky was cloudless visibility was limited by a fairly low inversion.

We took two K13s and our K21 to the North-West launchpoint along with the single-seat K18. Launch heights were around 1,550. We have begun a new round of instructor training so the launch rate was steady. In the early afternoon, there was some definite thermal activity and some small climbs were made. The longest flight was 13 minutes. The T21 syndicate brought their aircraft up to the launchpoint and Derek H completed the required training to able to fly it solo – Well done!

During the day a group from Lasham collected a vintage 1943 Weihe glider which has been stored at Snitterfield for a while. The Weihe will become part of new gliding museum at Lasham. They had just a little trouble getting it into the trailer they arrived with.

Warwick University Gliding Club sent three members, a mix of experienced and completely new pilots who thoroughly enjoyed themselves. We also had two visitors from Scotland who flew with us while they are in Stratford on Avon on business.

All told there were 48 launches and only the arrival of sunset stopped play. Several members were again able to partake in ever-popular winter 4th launch free scheme.

Rain and Rainbows Jan 12th 2012

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Penny B writes:

We started the  day with great enthusiasm –  some of us admiring the huge rainbow – ahm that means……….rain!     Fortunately not a very heavy shower as a cold front went through.   After an hour or so we ventured out again and its turned into a lively, cool, sunny afternoon  (NWly 20 kts and gusty at times).  The wind dropped away towards the end of the day………. and then suddenly there was a little lift around.  Well done to Vic, 18 mins in the K18.  Is this the longest flight of the year??  36 launches.   Stunning sunset.

Penny also sent some pictures which made a great panorama shot.

 

Penny also included a photograph of the sunset.

Busy Tuesday 10th Jan

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We were very lucky with the weather today, it was much better than we expected with sunshine for most of the day. The cloud base stayed around 17 – 1800′ but with plenty of gaps it was never a problem for very long. We had a brilliant day with most of the Gliders being used non-stop. The launches were very good as predicted with cloud base easily attainable.

Total Launches  45
Longest Flight    14mins. by David (nice to see you back) Clark.
Total Flight time 5hr. 26mins.
Average Flight Time  8mins.

Many thanks to Alan who we “Hot Berthed” for most of the day and to Nick J. for flying all the members that Alan could not, it meant several members were able to take advantage of the “Buy 3 get 1 free” winter offer. Good for them and good for the club. Without both of their hard work it would not have been possible.

Tuesday 1 November 2011

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To quote Steve (Pearce) who kindly sent me this update “what a day that was”! In fact, it was the best doughnut day ever.

Although the weather was a bit disappointing early on, the rain cleared away by 9:15 and everyone had a brilliant day with wall to wall sunshine and some good thermal flights from 11.00 onwards.

The cloud base was between 1,000ft and 1400ft early on with lots of gaps between the clouds so we got to fly round the clouds after launch. Later the cloud base rose to few thousand feet.

Key facts and figures for the day are:

  • 53 launches
  • 35 members on the flying list – the doughnuts ran out fast!
  • a total of 7 hours 30 minutes flying time
  • longest flight was flown by Humph (31 minutes), closely followed by Pete the Meat (28 minutes) and Vic who had 27 minutes in the Skylark

Thanks again to Steve for organising everything and for sending me these updates, Alan who was instructing and Pete who was duty marshall for most of the day. What an extraordinary day for November.

Tuesday 25 October 2011

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Just received a quick update from Steve P on our latest ‘doughnut day’ – thanks Steve!

Good day had by all with a very good turn out and brilliant weather.  We flew 19 launches and a total of 5 hrs 56 minutes flying time before rain stopped play around 2:45pm.

The average flight time was 18 mins but there were some long flights by Humphrey, Joe and Steve (51 minutes – which isn’t bad for October!).  The conditions were best between 12pm and 2:30pm with some really good thermals up to 2,200ft.   Pity the rain came so early but it was good while it lasted.

Thanks to Martyn who was duty instructor for the day.   Keep an eye on your emails and the website for updates on future doughnut days.