Tag Archives: flying

Flying Report 21/7/16

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Cross-country wise, we’ve been trying to make the most of the taskable days presented to us. Today was another day that looked sufficiently taskable to result in a turnout of cross-country pilots.

The expectation was that the milky top-cover would be thin enough to allow an early thermal start followed by an early shut-off as the top cover thickened. The topmeteo and RASP forecasts were broadly in agreement and they turned out to be right.

General tasking was South-East as far as Aylesbury or Thame and then North East to Alcester with a leg back to Edgehill. Several 18M ships took this tasking along with a Duo Discus. The club’s 15M LS4 tasked shorter along the same line with an out-and-return from Bicester.

The 18M ships made their Southern turnpoints but on returning to the Stratford area were met by an overcast sky with scarce thermals. The club’s LS4 turned Bicester and made it back around the same time. Meanwhile Duo Discus 666 managed to get around the whole task by taking some pretty long glides through thermal-less areas to reach better climbs.

X/C pilots are now generally very quick to upload and score their traces after a day’s flying so the (h’cap) results look like this:

Barry K (with Mike) in Duo Discus 666: 229.9km @ 72.1kph – 1367pts
David M in LS4 G-DEMG: 106.9km @ 63kph – 692pts
Keith L in LS8 302: 149.7km @ 54.1kph – 671pts
Sharon K in ASW28 777: 143.3km @ 56.5kph – 652pts

Achievements 6/9/15

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A truly busy day today at SoAGC!

With Andy B running the show, we had every club aircraft including G-CHXK plus a T21 in the air at the same time!

Many new visitors to Stratford were flown while some significant pilot development and goals were achieved.

Peter C and Kit B achieved their 2hr duration flights which are required for their Bronze cross-country endorsements. Peter’s endorsement is now complete and we are hoping there will be a suitable day in the remaining soaring conditions for him to complete his silver distance flight this year.

Phil C set off in Stratford’s new Astir CS77 G-FECO and made it down to Bicester for his Silver (50km) distance leg. Many thanks to the friendly folks at Windrushers GC and duty instructor AJ who let us derig ECO at the back of the their launchpoint.

Minions derigging Astir Derigging Astir at Bicester Rigging Astir CS77 G-FECO at Stratford

Flying Report 16/8/15

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We had a great day of flying today despite the early spreadout.

Every aircraft was out of the hangar and flying including our new Grob Astir CS 77 G-FECO. Those who have flown it have reported that they very much enjoyed it.

Brilliant achievements were also had by Keith L who reached Silver height (1000m height gain) and his two hour duration towards Bronze X/C.

Junior pilot Jesal P achieved his two hour duration flight with a brilliant bit a scratching in weak lift under heavy spread-out, needing to stay aloft until after 6pm.

Jesal P soaring towards his 2hr goal under heavy Spreadout.

Jesal P soaring towards his 2hr goal under heavy Spreadout.

Monday 12 August – Friday 16 August 2013

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We will be open everyday this coming week. Allan will be on duty every day and the forecast is looking ok.

We should have gentle to medium westerly winds everyday and mostly dry. There is a chance of showers on Monday but they should be light and we may be lucky and not get any.

It should be thermic most days but probably not fantastic (Sorry Derek and John). But it will be warm, dry, flyable and good company.

As always no food Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday but tea and coffee on as usual. The forecast says there is strong chance of Doughnuts just North of Stratford tomorrow morning between 9 and 10am.

We do have a course on all week but Allan will be available to fly with everyone else as well, he does need more practice as he still seems to struggle with this straight and level bit, so come along and give him some help.

See you there, Steve P.

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.

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 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.

Saturday 27th October 2012

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It felt like brass monkeys today!

We had a stiff Northerly wind today which made the field setup a little awkward, flying from the SE stub runway, we had the winch in the NW corner and landed 34.The wind also provided significant chill against already low temperatures so most members have sworn to break out the thermals (underwear).

We had a good turnout of club members and a contingent of 4 from Warwick University Gliding Club. Launches were reasonable given the wind direction. Flights were a mixed bag; some pilots encountering only sink, some others getting short climbs under weak streets of cloud.

Winch driver training was given to PhilS and he gave some great launches. By the end of the day, everyone had got in the flying they wanted to do but the Snitterfield Arms and it’s open fire provided a more than welcome retreat.

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.