Flying Week Sep 29 2014

The Week

We had a really great week, probably one of the best I have been involved in. Everyone got on well and things ran very smoothly thanks to George & Ken tugging and Anna & Angus doing great work as Duty Pilots. The weather also co-operated to provide soaring every day apart from Friday. On Tuesday we did 24 launches and over 75 hours of flying!  On Thursday we did 27 launches and, if you ignore Steve Rae's aerobatics training and subsequent exam flight (which he passed - well done Steve) the average flight time was over 2 hours per flight.

The only problem we had was the demise of the bus. As usual Ken Marston got stuck in with help from Angus Sheldon & Trevor Gorley (visitor) who went well beyond the call of duty by probably spending more time under the bus than in the air. Eventually it was thought that the fault was diagnosed and the faulty part removed. A replacement is on order which should, hopefully, arrive arrive this week allowing the bus to be fixed shortly.

Andy Bardgett (Instructor)

Devon & Somerset GC Expedition to Milfield

Reproduced from DSGC News with kind permission from DSGC

http://devonsomersetgc.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/milfield-expedition-borders-gliding-club.html

After a painless, but fairly tedious 400mile drive, OL and crew arrived at Borders Gliding Club at Milfield on Saturday afternoon , joining in with a flying week with visitors from Saltby.

Weather was not very inspiring on Sunday, but following a daily briefing, Pete had a site check with Andy with wave assisted thermals and wave broken thermals but no wave.

Site Check in the Duo

On Monday, there were thermals over the Cheviot hills but after 45 mins we dropped out the bottom.

Tuesday's forecast was much better with RASP forecasting wave in the valley. We found the wave straight off tow and climbed to 6000ft, but it didn't go any higher, we could have stayed there all day, in the cumulus congestus, later in the day, proper lenticulars formed but again only to 6000ft. 

Cumulus Wave

Wednesday produced some wave in the morning but a few locals (brave people) got to 8000ft before getting cut off with low cloud  with some exciting final glides from 15km downwind under 2000ft base. Cloud cleared after lunch and there were launches to go ridge soaring but it wasn't really doing that either.

Thursday was the best day of the week, with a busy launch point from early on, with strong thermals in the valley, which turned out to be wave induced. After a good low point of 1500ft, they went smooth at 3000ft and we climbed to 6000ft just above cloud tops, after  exploring a little, we managed to drop out the bottom and then had to spend some time in the broken themals climbing up again. By then the wave had established nicely in the blue and after climbing to 7000ft we pushed forward  into the Primary over The Cheviot and carried on climbing to just over 10000ft. We ended the flight with a sightseeing trip to the seaside over Lindisfarne passing three blue bars on the way back.

Holy Island

Friday was forecast with strong winds and rain so derigged OL ready for the trip on to Portmoak.

Borders Gliding Club - Milfield

Thanks to Borders GC - A nice friendly Club with excellent facilities and weather, worthy of a a DSGC expedition proper.

Jill & Pete Harmer

Weekend of 6/7 Sep

A good weekend of soaring at Milfield with Sunday providing better conditions for longer flights.

Saturday produced some reasonable thermals giving an hour or so local soaring to a few pilots. What did happen was that a good cloud street would develop, overdevelop and then decay so timing was important. Barry Lytollis reached around 4000' so decided to try and reach Jedburgh. At the end of his street, a bit short of target,  was a blue hole filled with sink and, on turning back, a street which had stopped working. Although Barry's computer said he could get home it doesn't know that there are hills interupting that nice glide slope. After a brief struggle to gain more height Barry, safely, decided that a field landing was the only option and, having chosen a cut field with a vehicle driving around it, made a safe landing, The farmer was friendly and helpful, even offering Barry a lift back to the airfield - great ! What Barry had missed was that access to the field was via a very steep ford across Bowmont water. Visions of having to carry parts of the LS4 across the river were, thankfully, dispelled when the farmer managed to find an alternative route via 3 fields. Barry didn't think his Audi would cope with the tracks through the fields but John Brown came to the rescue with his Hi Ace proving to be very skilled at trailer driving (see John, all that retrieving of Steve Marriott came in handy). Thoughts of gliders landing on the wrong side of canals comes to mind. Has Barry been watching A Bridge Too Far ?

On Sunday Stuart Black managed a full five hours with Andy Bardgett close behind on four. Stuart had time to take some pics and got a great shot of an SHK soaring near the Torrs with the K21 flying in the same direction in the distance.

SHK over College valley

The demand for launches on Sunday helped George hall, the duty tuggie, to reach a landmark thousand tows. Well done George.

 George Hall ready for tow number 1000

Number 1000 for the log book!