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Sutton Bank Expedition Report September 2016

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56,000 ft: The sum of all the maximum height gains from Stratford members flights at Sutton Bank – the most successful week in almost a decade.

The first week of September sees the Stratford bi-annual club expedition to Yorkshire Gliding Club at Sutton Bank. This year was no different with over a dozen members from early solo to pundits with several thousands of hours making the pilgrimage, with one straggler from Trent Valley Gliding club.

K21 CubPhoto of a K-21 launching at Sutton Bank. Image courtesy of Sharon Kerby.

Sunday 4th September.

With cloud base at approximately 500 ft QFE the day seemed all but scrubbed. However, late afternoon the front moved through to reveal a clear evening sky. The first flight took off at 16:00. Barry Kerby kindly aero-tow checked Paul Mcauley, Keith and Rois Lorenz. Neil and Richard Croxford proceeded to have several aero-tow training flights.

Left: Neil Croxford and John Right: Rois Lorenz and Barry Kerby. Images courtesy of Jeffery Gale.

Tuesday 6th.

With the met office forecasting good wave all the pundits scrambled to their gliders, with the remaining Stratford pilots setting up the launch point. Neil Croxford and Andy Parish proceeded to have one of the first flights in the DG 500 and quickly climbed to 7000 ft QFE, only having to return on account of the large flying list.

Barry Kerby and Keith Lorenz were the first privateers to launch contacting well organised wave almost immediately after release from aero-tow, and quickly out climbed Neil and Andy in the DG 500. They subsequently went for a 4:30 minute tour around the Yorkshire countryside in 666 reaching FL 125 with ease, only having to stop the ascent due to an active airway.

Barry Kerby and Keith Lorenz in 666 at FL125. Images courtesy of Barry Kerby.

Hearing of the quick success over the radio of the club gliders and 666 Barry Monslow, Sharon Kerby, Jeffrey Gale, Paul Mcauley and Rois Lorenz all took aero-tows and contacted strong lift. Jeffrey Gale reached an impressive height of 7500 ft QFE were he captured some fantastic photographs.

wave_sutton_bank_asw20Picture from 7000 ft QFE. The Yorkshire Dales are just visible in the distance. Image courtesy of Jeffrey Gale

Wednesday 7th

Wednesday saw a southerly wind bringing unusual some strong lift. All the pundits had several hours local soaring. Paul Mcauley set a 100 Km cross-country task, set off early and made good progress on track. However, the weather was less favourable down south and he landed out safely at Pocklington and consequently had an aero-tow retrieve back to Sutton Bank.

Thursday 8th

Thursdays wind was SW at 20 knots gusting 30, a classic day for the ridge to work with the Met Office predicting wave. Keith Lorenz participated in a aerobatics course ran by George Rizk from Saltby and practiced some manoeuvres from the basic aerobatics badge syllabus.

Barry Kerby and Rois Lorenz took an early winch launch in 666 along with Jeffrey Gale in 643 onto the ridge which seemed to work well. This was followed by Sharon Kerby and Barry Monslow taking an aero-tow in an attempt to contact wave.

Keith Lorenz took a late aero-tow at 16:10 in 302. By this time most of the privateers had little success with the wave and had been forced back on the ridge taking the occasional thermal. Sharon Kerby successfully contacted wave just North of Lake Gormire and radioed her find. Sharon very quickly climbed to 7500 ft QFE and marked the way for other gliders. Following this Keith Lorenz contacted the same lift and climbed to 11,800 ft QFE in a large blue gap.

ls8_gliding_wave_panoramaPanoramic picture of the evening sky from 302. Image courtesy of Keith Lorenz

Keith Lorenz then subsequently pushed into wind in search of lift but it seemed to bottom at the same altitude as the previous wave bar. Conscious of daylight and strong winds on the surface Keith headed back home and landed at 19:10 missing out on his gold height by 120 ft.

evening_sky_wave_flightPicture of the evening sky from 302. Image courtesy of Keith Lorenz

News quickly spread of the successful week to members back at Stratford which prompted Chris Edkins to fly up from Wellesbourne in a PA32 Saratoga. He landed at Bagby at 19:00.

Left: A picture of Chris flying the Saratoga into Bagby. Right: Picture of the flight to Sutton Bank. Images courtesy of the Saratoga’s in flight photography system.

Friday 9th

Friday saw a strong SW wind with the Met Office forecasting some wave. Barry Kerby and Chris E took a high aero-tow in 666 and contacted ‘difficult’ wave and climbed 5000 ft to 9000ft QFE. In addition to this Barry Monslow and Jeffrey Gale had similar flights in UG and 643 respectively. Both taking high aero-tows and contacting ‘difficult’ wave and making solid progress.

Saturday 10th

All members de-camped. Chris E and others, flew back from Bagby to Wellesbourne in difficult conditions – nothing too difficult for a man with 1000’s of hours powered flying.

-Keith Lorenz

Flying report 5/6/16 – Lots of launches!

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Today’s flying started early but to a rather low cloud base. Finding big enough gaps in the cloud was the trick.

The whole club fleet was taken to the west end to launch into a moderate easterly. Initial launches were cable-break practice towards aircraft conversion and pre-solo training. The cloud-base didn’t vary much early on but it started to break up to reveal blue sky albeit with a low-ish inversion. Once we were able to launch to full height, a number of private aircraft began to show up at the launchpoint including an LS8, LS4, ASW28 and a Sport Vega.

By early afternoon it was a busy cycle at the launchpoint due to the weak soaring conditions. Kit B had a good flight in the club’s Astir CS77 and several others managed to climb to over 2,000ft. After being put through the mill in the K21 by Barry K, Peter C was converted onto the club LS4 G-DEMG which he apparently rather enjoyed flying, having three flights including soaring. Others who hadn’t flown recently were given check flights and the cycle of annual flying checks was well under-way (more SCBs!).

peter_ls4

Peter gets into Stratford’s LS4

Catherine J took several flights with CFI Steve B and re-soloed on K13 G-CHSM having previously been a solo glass pilot at other clubs.

David G also took a couple of flights with Steve B and coverted into the club’s SZD Junior G-CHDB, his first glass single-seater!

Dave converts onto the Junior

David G converts onto Stratford’s SZD Junior

The day was warm, nowhere more-so than in the Skylaunch cab which left winch-drivers wilting towards the end. Many thanks to Tony M who put in another epic session getting us all launched.

Visiting pilot Outi from Finland had the last flight of the day in G-CHSM with Steve H.

last flight of the day
After just missing 60 launches a few weeks ago, Steve B reckoned we’d make it today and we in fact managed 66 winch launches which we think is the highest day total this year.

After packing everything away, it was approaching 8pm and a number of pilots retired to the Snitterfield Arms with the notable exception of Peter C who couldn’t make it. 😉

Sutton Bank Spring 2016 Expedition Report

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For over 20 years Stratford on Avon Gliding Club has been making the twice yearly pilgrimage to the YGC at Sutton Bank. The following gives a brief insight into what our 15 club members got up to on our latest adventure up north.

Friday 20th May
With great trepidation and with many excuses made at work to leave early, the journey northbound started. For the first time in many years a club aircraft was to be taken to SB and so Peter C joined the trailer convey with the Astir, nervously towing for the first time. Some were brave and tackled the 25% Sutton Bank climb head on, whereas the “youngsters” in their small cars chose the scenic but less steep back-route to reach the club and more importantly the bar.

Preparing the Astir’s trailer before the journey

Preparing the Astir’s trailer before the journey

Saturday 21st May
With rain and low cloud, flying was scrubbed and so the day was our own. Peter C and Neil C were introduced to YGC’s fantastic simulator. After some virtual aerotow practise and site familiarisation we soon progressed rapidly from flying the K21, to mid-air refuelling a Tornado and finally to low level formation flying through the Lake District in F-35’s!
We all reconvened for the traditional meal out at the Forrester’s Arms in Kilburn and this was followed up with more drink and games back at the Club house.

Neil C mastering the F-35

Neil C mastering the F-35

Sunday 22nd May
The weather seemed to be on our side and so the SoAGC pundits rigged their machines and those requiring check flights/instruction patiently awaited their turn to get airborne. Conditions in the end weren’t that great and so only Barry K and Barry M in the Duo Discus T went cross country whilst the other pundits explored the local scenery.

Keith L having his check flight in YGC’s DG 1000

Keith L having his check flight in YGC’s DG 1000

Sun setting over the Pennines

Sun setting over the Pennines

Monday 23d May
Whilst the privateers awaited for optimum conditions to develop, the club’s Astir was rigged and prepared for its first Sutton Bank adventure. Phil C was first into the seat and we all eagerly watched to see what he could achieve. Well, at about 500ft we all saw him come off the tow and with no chance of returning to the airfield he was last seen heading north towards what we hoped a nice grass field. Confirmation from Dan aloft in his Lak that Phil was down safe, 4 of us hitched up the trailer and set out to find him and the Astir. It wasn’t a nice green pasture as we hoped, but a newly planted potato field. (All credit for Phil landing in one of the furrows and for completing his first field landing) It took a couple of hours to de-rig and to carry the wings and fuselage out of the field to the trailer. Many of the Stratford pundits enjoyed watching us hard at work from their gliders high above!
Flying wise, not a lot to report. Those optimum conditions never really materialised so most of Stratford pilots stayed close to the airfield.

Tuesday 24th May
After confirmation that the Astir’s early departure from the tug was not due to a mechanical problem and was probably because of an inadvertently early release, Peter C jumped in for his first air tow solo. The thermals didn’t materialise as hoped and he was down in 12mins. With deteriorating conditions Phil C managed to complete a full tow to 2000ft but soon returned after 9mins. At least Kit B managed to scratch out 24mins in the Astir before he too returned to terra firma.
Barry K and Barry M in the Duo tasked 300km but were forced to use the engine a couple of times to get back. All other pilots reported poor conditions and stayed within gliding range of SB.

Duo landing at Sutton Bank

Duo landing at Sutton Bank

Wednesday 25th
With low cloud and rain forecast flying was cancelled for the day and so many of the party hit the roads south and headed home.

Thurs 26th to Fri 27th
No further flying to conclude the club expedition.

A big thank you to the Yorkshire Gliding Club for being great hosts. We look forward to returning again in September and hopefully for better weather.

Flying Report 8/5/16

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Today promised nothing but high temperatures, low visibility, high winds and thunderstorms.

As it happened, it turned out to be a pretty good flying day! Again we were over at the west end with the launchpoint for a south-easterly wind. Certainly after a relatively calm start, the winds picked up considerably although they were steady rather than gusty. The upper winds were impressive. One pilot recounted ‘pressing-on’ into wind at 80 knots and having the impression of going down rather more than forward.

The club’s TMG G-CHXK was out and about, Steve F flying with Les early on and then instructor Andy B flying out on a refresher with Barry K, visiting Wellesbourne for fuel. It’s possibly the first day the TMG hasn’t struggled with the field surface conditions this year.

Two of our aspiring cross-country pilots who were hampered by the weather yesterday were able to convert onto the club’s Grob Astir. Well done to David D and Kit B who will hopefully be able to fly the Astir during the club’s expedition this month to YGC at Sutton Bank.

New basic instructor Rois joined the team giving some fantastic flights in K21 G-CGAG to members of the public on their Trial Lessons.

Very noticeable wave indications formed in the sky but at least for a while, we were caught on the down-stroke and some flights through the middle of the day were fairly short.

The club’s LS4 was out for a second day of what looked like more circuits (timing guys!) but eventually climbed away to 3,000ft when the wave influence decayed and the air-mass started to become more unstable.

Privateers were also in evidence, Sharon brought her ASW28 ‘777’ out and had a good local soaring flight to shake down the aircraft for the cross-country season. Chris B had a soaring flight in SK. New arrival, Pegase 101 M7 also launched from Snitterfield for the first time!

The SZD Junior was popular; Jesal P flew it again with a view to flying the club’s Astir soon. Our newest member Outi, from Finland, flew with the CFI. An experienced pilot, hopefully she will be flying with us throughout the summer at Stratford.

All in all, a very busy day for us with 59 winch launches in total. Given the uncommonly warm conditions, we set up our first evening club barbeque hosted by Dan B. Around 20 members attended and the food was fantastic!

bbq

At the end of the BBQ, our CFI was lamenting that we’d done ‘only’ 59 launches instead of 60. He promptly launched himself backwards through the clubhouse fence to make up for it. What a hero.

last_launch

Flying report 31/3/16 End of Winter Flying

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What a great day to finish the winter season with! It was pretty well as the forecast predicted with the thermals starting at around 10-30 and getting stronger as the day went on. Perhaps not quite as good as we thought but still a very good day.

Most members had good long flights but occasionally you could launch at just the wrong time and you were back on the ground a few minutes later but if you took another launch straight after, you usually got away. The conditions changed that quickly. The wind was a little more north than we hoped it would be so we were limited to around 1200′ which was usually enough but not always.

It was certainly the best day of the year so far with some very long flight times, total launches and hours flown. Mike and Barry both set off on long tasks, I believe Mike got around in his LS10 but in the end Barry with Keith in the Duo Discus had to use his Iron Topsail to get home. Congratulations to Jesal P. who successfully converted to the Junior and then showed us all how it was done by staying up for 52 mins, then making a perfect landing. I am sure that Nick is finally a happy man after getting his Dart 17R back on line after it had not flown for nearly 18 months. Whatever was done to it certainly worked as he had the longest Non-Turbo Flight of the day with 2hrs 10mins. Life in the old dog yet me-thinks ! (Now is that the glider or Nick ?).

So to the statistics which are impressive……………..

Total Launches…………….39.

Total Flight Time………….26hrs. 56mins.

Longest Flights (with out assistance)……. 4hrs. 26mins and 2hrs 10mins. Well done to Mike and Nick.

Longest Flight…………….4hrs. 58mins……Well done to Barry and Keith at least for their perseverance.

Average Flight Time………41mins.

Great day, great fights, great fun, which is really all that matters and most of all thanks to all the members who have helped to make the winter flying, which at times was in very difficult conditions, such a success.

Steve P.

Flying report 7/3/16

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Monday did turn out to be the best day of the year so far. We had wall to wall sunshine and some fantastic thermals almost from the start of flying. We were a little late with the first launch but it did not matter as that showed that it was starting to work and by the third launch it really was stonking.

The cloud base was initially around 3000′ but quickly rose to 4500′ and several people were able to see how cold it was at cloudbase. We had set a limit of 40 – 45 mins on each flight and many people were able to easily achieve that time, it really was that good.

We launched from the south stub as the wind was northerly and we were getting around 1400′ on the launch, which was usually enough to find the lift. There were a few who launched at just the wrong time but those of them who took another launch straight afterwards were usually able to have a great flight.

We only took the 3 two seaters to the launch point and they were kept very busy all day, many thanks to Allan and Tony who came down to help out, they were also kept busy all day.

Apologies to all for no Doughnuts but as it was such short notice I just did not have time to get them and a special thanks to John H. who arrived just after 8am to make up some new brown strops as we had none on the day before, thanks John. His real reward came as he had the best flight of the day in the K21.

Sorry to all those who could not make it as it was such short notice but it really was the best day this week (year,so far) and no matter what happens later in the week the field is going to be wet again after tomorrows rain.

Amazing statistics are……………….

Total Launches………………….22

Longest Flight……………………56 mins, will let you off John because of your work on the strops.

Total Flight Time……………….8 hr. 27m min.

Average Flight Time…………..24 mins, brilliant !

Steve P.

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 29/2/16

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Apologies to all those who had made other arrangements for today and could not make it down to the club, but in view of the forecast it seemed the sensible thing to do.

We had another good day although we did not get the thermal strength we had last Wednesday but I think that was exceptional. It was cold first thing and did not seem to get much better as the day went on even though the wind was in the South. We did have sunshine all morning and for some time after lunch but it then clouded over making it seem even colder.

We were a little light on members first thing because it was such short notice but eventually about 15 members turned up. There were some extended flights and we all had a great time and everyone flew who wanted to. Allan was kept busy all day (as usual) and we had no problems. We were able to operate from outside the clubhouse and use 2 cables all day.

290216

Lets hope that the rain that is coming in will not spoil the field which is (or was) drying so well. Thanks to everyone who turned up and worked so hard to give us another good day.

Well winter is now officially over so roll on some nice, warm, sunny and thermic days !!!

Statistics are…………………….

Total Launches…………………19.

Longest Flight…………………..18 mins. Well done to Bob C. and Allan and also to John H. and Derek H. who both managed an impressive 13 min. each.

Total Flight Time……………….2 hrs. 36 mins.

Average Flight Time………….8 min.

Steve P.

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 24/2/16

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We had the best flying day of the year so far with some excellent flights. The thermals were numerous and averaged around 2 knots but certainly for a couple of hours at lunch time we had 3 – 4 knots for extended periods.
Cloudbase  varied between 2500′ and 3500′ so it was possible to look down on the lower clouds if you were at 3500′. The only downside to being at 3500′  was it was very cold after a few minutes. It was possible to fly under the cloud for some time without losing height. The sun shone from early morning until we finished at around 4pm. The canopies were just starting to mist up by then but we had all had our fill anyway.
There were 3 flights of an hour or more and if you were up when it was good it was an air-brake job to get back on the ground, it really was that good!
There were lots of flights of 30 to 40 minutes as well.  We all had a great day with many thanks to Tony and Andy who made sure we got off to an early start and worked really hard keeping everyone flying right through the day.
Apologies to Cath, John x 3, James, Ken and David who all decided that the South of France or work were better than flying today! Sorry!
Total Launches………………….24.
Longest Flight…………………..1 hr. 8 mins. followed by  1 hr. 4 mins. and 1 hr 

. But really academic as we all came back to give others a go, honest gov.

Total Flight Time……………… 7 hrs. 59 min.
Average Flight Time………….19 mins.  Brilliant as that included some S.C.B.’s.
Steve P.

The cross-country ladder was also opened for 2016 with a pilot going round the very nearest turnpoints which have been unreachable from Snitterfield for months due to the bad weather – Ed.