Tag Archives: gliding

Tuesday 6th November 2012 – Doughnuts

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We were lucky with the weather up to a point today. We knew it was going to rain in the early afternoon, it was just a case of when. We did manage to make a fairly early start and were flying just after 10am. The rain did not start until 12-45 so we got nearly 3 hours of flying in.

Launches were good with most people getting around 1700′ to 1800′. If the rain had held off a little longer and with the slowly increasing wind I am sure we would have seen 2000′.

So it was worth opening if only for half a day, the details are below.

Total Launches……………….17
Longest Flight…………………11mins. Well done to MartinC in the K18. There were 5 people hot on his heels with 10min. each.
Average Flight time…………..8mins.
Total Flight Time……………..2hr. 26min.

Many thanks to everyone who helped get everything ready nice and early. And especially to Allan who spent a very frustrating hour sitting in a traffic jam after a car crash blocked the roads out of Bromsgrove.

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.

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.

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.