A Pleasant Autumn Day

“Dispite an ‘iffy forcast(given by our “addopted”Welland weather guru,Mark rushton)the day turned out to be beautiful……for november.

Crisp blue skies,light wind and a sniff of thermal activity made for a splendid autumn days gliding.

With the promise of weak thermals,no fewer than SEVEN gliders were lined up at the launch point!Including….wait for it……..Ians asw15!!!!Yes folks,its true.You heard it here.And just to rub our noses in it,he flew it.Twice!AND stayed up for 15 mins!!!!

There were in fact a handful of similar flights but the day went to ian the “Kaiser”,with a whole 16 mins!(pilatus)

not very dramatic when we consider what we were doing in mid october but nevertheless,enjoyable.

Thanks to B J Gobber Whitehouse for being duty dog and for giving our rather fortunate new member,7 instructional launches.At this rate he’ll either be solo by xmas or skint!

Sunday it rained!So Mark is forgiven and we look forward to his company at the end of november.

sw

Weather Folks, well 50mph winds Sat and rain on Sun… Don’t think even Gobber would fly in that…

The real reason i always land out in country fields…

O and for the weekend, we have instructors i believe, its a case of fingers crossed for the weather…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aS7y2B9sgBg

if you get bored of watching that video, just watch up to the move at 1min 30…

Few More Pics from last weekend

Today didn’t have much to report, very strong northerly, (wish i didn’t have work first thing or else i could have flown the downs) the strong wind meant 1400/1500ft launches, think Ian may have got more…

New member John Evans, has previously flown and is hoping to get back into it, so now we’re getting quite a nice collection of new members make them all feel welcome.

As an aside, today would have been good for the southdowns, i’m thinking of making a plan so that last minute if it looks good myself and a few club members get an early start and de-rig a club 2 seater and take it down to Ringmer or Parham. Single seaters obviously welcome aswell, would break the winter blues up a little bit.

Got a few more pics of that Motor Glider which was s “Super Ximango” from Will and I’s flight the other week…

G-MOAN

G -MOAN

I am now going to attempt to put a video on for the third time, no promises…

Its really bad to be honest, because one second i’m boasting how we’re in 2 knots in this street racing the Ximango, then about 20 seconds later Will pointed the camera at the vario which said 2 down so i sound like a bit of a T**T really…

Updated Saturday post and weekend forecast.

Started off cloudy like forecast, but with nowhere near as much wind as forecast, so by mid-day it had completely cleared and there was Cu in the air, even if it was rather scrappy.

About to launch into a scrappy sky

Winch Launch

Maurice was winching for the start of the day and because there was quite a strong wind-gradient the top of the launch was getting a bit quick…

i quote, "F***ing hell Maurice" as he realises at 70knots

We scraped about 15minutes under a not too good looking sky, which for the day was looking like the best sort of flight times around…

Simon Waters under a constantly improving sky

The conditons looked to be improving with a cloud street developing nicely downwind of the launch point, for a while we were all being disciplined and playing politics but then Will and I took a launch, 1200′, and dash to the bottom of the cloud street.

Cloud Street

It sure paid off after taking a nice climb up to about 2k we headed off upwind. Spotting a light aircraft in the distance thinking nothing of it until about 10mins later it was cutting right in front of us… turned out to be a motor glider…

Above us in the distance

Ok i know what you’re all thinking, “what a crap photo”, but theres a story behind this. They say the super dimona up at Challock with its engine off has a glide ratio of 27:1 which is better than a ka13, so my theory was, with its engine off, this ‘glider’ was about the same as us…Game on!

“I have control” was soon said and i was soon spanking up this cloud street at 70knots catching up with this ‘glider’. Now 70knots in the 13 isn’t a very conservative speed to fly so i was working the street for every knot of lift i could. Averaging about 2 up all the way along, until we caught up with it, Will and I took a moment to laugh at its Reg which was G-MOAN…(two juniors in a glider, what do you expect)

Now alongside him and higher

So that proves my point, this ‘gliderpilot’ was thrashed by two kids in a 60’s glider made out of wood and fabric…

G-MOAN that decided it was losing out and started its engine, circled around us whilst we were still climbing quicker then him in a stronger part of the cloudstreet until we pushed on. He then turned his engine off again, and soon fell out the sky, having to fire up again.

This was an awesome flight, showed Will what can be done in a glider as we were almost at Canterbury at 1500ft after all the faffing about. So a quick glide back and a few tight turns got us back to Waldershare for a nice circuit.

This cloud street then moved upwind and was right over the winch, which meant maximun advantage was soon being taken of it by all the gliders that were out (not the 7)

Gorgeous Street for mid October!

More pics to come, comp can’t take anymore today…

Ok attempt 3 at this post…

Ed enjoyed his flight in the 6

Ed

Steve Potter finally completed his Bronze with a day full of launches with Alan ‘CFI’ Tapsell, and was congratulated by a lovelyflight in the 13. He was running alongisde me, (with Ed a bit higher behind us) all the way to just short of Canterbury.

Steve and Alan in EDU

I thought Steve was being really brave, probally the lowest and furthest he’s been from the field, (perhaps other are ridge run at the start of the year)

I headed back and obviously then had the other gliders behind me so couldn’t see how far they all went.

Got back on the ground (after Steve did some more spinning) and i said to Steve how impressed he was, he then replied by saying he panicked when i headed to home, apparently he was following me!

Good show everyone. Surely there’s no more soaring to be had!?

Forecast

Friday is looking to be really windy and we may be affected by that Saturday morning. Its looking like a brisk Northerly of anything up to 20knots. Shouldn’t be too across the strip so should be ok to fly. Cloudy, but hopefully not really low stuff. In fact the forecast is for there to be near to no low cloud what so ever (not the first time i’ve said that and been wrong).

I believe all gliders are fine and we have at least an instructor Saturday.

Sunday i’m  not sure what the instructor situation is at present, the weather is due to be better, with a gentle Northerly going Westerly as the day goes on with medium top cover so perhaps even some weak broken thermals!? (Optimism)

Hope to see a good turnout still, can’t be too many consecutive good weekends left so make the most of it, its you guys that will miss out.

*I think some of us should go down to Ringmer or Parham Saturday to fly the southdowns…less cloudy down there and dead on the ridge*

The weekend…

I expect we won’t see Ken as he is probally still resting after his giant flight last weekend, so that means everyone come down, Ka6 is free!

Saturday is looking like the better of the two days but the weather IS changing day by day (timing of fronts) so both days could turn out equally good, or bad..

Looking like a westerly wind on Sat with perhaps a touch of North in, 10-15knots so launches should be fairly decent. Forecast is for 100% cloud cover but i’m petty sure that it’s going to be high enough and will probaly have some thermal activity beneath it.

It looks like he front is due to go through overnight so wind may pick up towards the end of the day so please get there early just in case.

Sunday is looking to start off cloudy and pissing it down with rain, but should clear as the afternoon comes on and is more likely to be convective then Saturday i think. Its going to be a bit of a ‘hang around’ morning so use it as an excuse to get things done, maye even clean some gliders!? The problem is in the afternoon the wind is going to be very very strong, although pretty much down the strip so lets see what instructor we have, it should be flyable, just maybe no Solo flying and very fast approaches!

Just a little something, i’m not sure if any of you have ever heard me mention the ‘blossom effect’, now i’d recomend watching this video, and telling me at what stage you see the gliders… its why look-out is so important 100% of the time because sometime there is no time…

This is my goal for next year, but at Dover…

May or October?! Not a clue!

The weather on Sunday was incredible, would have been really good in May, let alone in October! Sat was a right off but Sunday was bringing anything from 4 – 6 knot climbs up to over 4k for some…

All gliders were airborne pretty much all day, with a good number of people thinking of ways to shoot down the gliders so they can have a go…

sharing with a bird of prey

The sky was looking really good, i didn’t turn up til 1 and had a trial flight to do before i could do some real soaring (although took a 6knot climb with him up to 4k) but i was doing the flying then so didn’t really get any pics.

Steve Chapman was furious Ken got to the 6 first, but managed just short of 2 hours in the 13 i think!? With Ed in the 7,  ( all of daniels sitting in it finally paid off)

Ed again

Paul and Will had over an hour together getting some good soaring in, with Will picking up on Paul’s large amount of hours…

Paul and Will

With most of us getting up high, shame some of the Solo guys didn’t take up a logger, especially Ken who got away from a low down save and back up to 4400′.

The BIG news comes as one of our eldest members at 73, Ken Ellis, after several attempts in the ka6, pulled off an amazing accomplishment…

After the sky started looking like this…

Just about see Ken in the distance, incredible he stayed up in this sky

We all stood there, anxious as to what he would do next… eventually he joined the circuit…

Ken landing

And he’d done it, at 73, he’d completed 5 hours and 19minutes to get his first Silver leg in October after trying so hard all over the summer, Ken really has inspired us all this year and it shows that just about anything is possible, any time of year, any type of flight, and any age. Ken has really improved over the years, and bearing in mind only about a year ago he was thinking of giving it up, he stayed strong, really pushed himself to improve, and it was for the best and now he’s done something he’s always wanted to.

Here’s to Ken

Ken after 5 hours 19 at 73

The next person we’re really going to be turning to is Derrek. He’s had a weeks course up at Challock, getting his flying to come well along and i took the oppurtunity to fly and show him some thermalling techniques. He had to make the transition from glass back to wood which isn’t an easy feat for anybody, especially ab-initio’s.

After i took a climb up to 3k i let Derrek take us up to cloud base, and then he flew us along a cloud street for about 20k from the coast up towards Challock. Picking Ken out on more than one occasion, as he was darting about the sky with no apparent sense of direction but kept finding him higher than us…

After a while the sky became really overcast but there was still 4 knot climbs to be had. Derrek kept us airborne for another half hour or so but we got to a stage where there was no sun and we were absolutely frozen to pieces. So Derrek flew a nice circuit (even correcting me because i was thinking of doing a right hand circuit when the correct circuit for the day was to the left) and i finished the flight off which was a shame because Derrek’s flying got so co-ordinated its a shame i wasn’t allowed to let him land it.

So there we go people, watch out for these guys, they aren’t to be looked upon lightly.

Derrek

I think i either caught him mid-pose or he was trying to get his blood flowing after freezing.

A really good weekend with everyone getting some soaring in on the Sunday, and club gliders really getting a good use. I think another glider is going to be needed soon, or some people should start to invest in there own gliders to get there flying to move onto the next step.

Quick Weekend Update

This post is pretty much a waste of time because i have no idea what instructors are around at the weekend, i think Bob’s there Sat but with the wind looking as strong as forecast its almost completely scrubbed. Although i will be tempted to get my kite out if anybody fancies trying to hold on to there life…

Sunday looking like quite a reasonable day actually which is good. Shouldn’t be more than 15knot winds coming from the West. Not too much cloud around, so nice high launches into a possible soarable sky.

Now for the real reason of my post, is purely this amazing video i found on youtube after a hard week doing nothing off work, i’m glad i did something productive…

Still Summer!?

Weekend was good, a mix of everything going on once again, and both days delivering some really good soaring and some decent flights.

Saturday started off to look like the membership turnout was poor, but in fact as the day went on it got busier and busier and the last flight was as late as nearly 6 i think?! Probally one of the latest days we’ve flown all year, proablly having the young fit Paul Cronk down who when i towed the a glider up the other end the tick over was so quick he was pretty much running the whole way in 20 degree heat…Maybe its a new training routine at Welland and maybe Mark will be showing us his jogging skills next times hes down?!

I forecast Cu and for it to then go Blue, which was half right, there was Cu, but it actually spreadout after giving some strong climbs and that killed the day off by about 2 which was dissapointing, but thats the way it goes…

Paul was there early and got the gliders out and cleaned…

Paul and Noah cleaning

Whilst Steve Potter got the fleet DI’d…

The Fleet

Steve Chapman couldn’t go a miss…he turned up extra early and was ecstatic he got to the Ka6 first after Solo’ing in it last week…His aim was to complete his 50 Bronze Solo’s (more on that later)

Steve getting the 6 out

Cu started to pop off as the winch was positioned and the gliders walked up the other end…

Cu

There was 6 knots to be had…

Decent Climbs for nearly October!

And i wasn’t the only one that was using it…

Paul C

Now moving on to the story of Steve Chapman… At the start of the day he declared only “5 Solo’s left” until he’s done his 50 for Bronze. So as the afternoon went on he had done almost all of them and was edged on to complete them all (an evil plan to make it his round down the pub again). So as the day came to a close, he’d done it… Good show Steve!

50th Solo ( 5 - 0 for those who don't quite get what he's doing there)

Then Steve decided to Count… and realised he had only done 47…

47

So after that mishap, the gliding carried on with Tom Smith carrying out his first landing…

Landing late on in the day

And he came back Sunday so must have enjoyed himself…he’s specifically asked to do more Paul…(haha)

It turns out there was a Sea breeze that set itself up, but more over towards Folkestone so i wasn’t able to get anywhere near it… Never mind…

Sunday consisted of more of the same…

More good climbs

Forecast for a lower inversion and poor vis was correct (although there was lots of Cu about so i was wrong about it being blue)

Up at 3k alongside new member Will

I was keeping myself amused by chasing Maurice around the sky with him in his asw19…

Maurice

I once again caught Ed’s son sitting in the ka7…

Baggsying the 7 for his Dad again...

Tom was now doing part of the take-off’s aswell…

DNV

And Steve Chapman finally did do his 50 Solo’s at the very end of the weekend with the Sun setting behind…

5 - 0 for real this time

One last congrats to two people, firstly Simon for teaching him but also to Pete Tucker who was delivering some top quality winch launches and was sent Solo on the winch whilst Simon sat by the clubhouse and had a cold beer whilst each of the gliders were hanger landed right in front of him.

Another good weekend chaps…

Forecast…Maybe!?

This weekend is going to consist pretty much of the same as last weekend, a big high pressure meaning little to no wind, not great visability but constant conditions for flying and maybe some blue thermals with the odd bit of cu!? (theres the question mark again)

Saturday:

Looking more likely to have Cu around then Sunday, wind is next to nothing, from no apparent direction, forecast goes throught nearly 360′ so that just shows how light it is. Although it may go more Southerly towards the end of the day if there is any convection with the sea air wanting to then push inland.

wind w.e 26,27

Sea breeze may play a big factor, as a line of Cu may develop later on in the afternoon which will confuse people, but in fact it will be the damper sea air alongisde convection from the sea breeze, so feel free to get up  in it and then stay under it. Same goes for Sunday.

The argument behind me saying there is more likely to be Cu Sat is because of RASP’s forecast for Sat against Sunday.

Sat 26

Saturday it predicts that we’ll have Cu along the south coast up to about 3k which should be good. Although that is a forecast for mid-day so may well change as the day goes on… The rest of the coutnry will get decent soaring aswell i think, but it being blue. Comparing the above model to the thermal updraft model shows thats the air all over the country is going to convective.

sat thermal strength

Sunday is similiar weather wise, well in fact practically the same, although, and do bare with me on this one because i’m not 100% how to read Soundings yet, but it looks like there may well be a lower inversion causing it to blue out earlier on but thermals should still go up to 2500ft or so…

sounding sun

With thermals strengths reasonably similiar to Saturday.

sun thermal strength

Like i said the other day, Paul Cronks down so we have an instructor early BOTH days, so please make the most of him, if its a bit slow to start off, then someone please give the gliders a wipe over. I washed the 7 the other week so please everyone chip in…