Tuesday 20 May 2014

Sunday 18th May

This was a day that was supposed to have better conditions that Saturday, but that didn't quite live up to the cross country promise. We switched ends on the grass strip but still had a healthy crosswind!

Graham set off on task again in the ASG and went to Basingstoke & back, reporting that he didn't particularly enjoy the conditions. Alan Langlands agreed when he got back from his flight to Blenheim & back, commenting that it was hard to stay up, and that lift was very patchy. Paul Noonan, Alistair F and Eric flew their gliders too, and that was it for the single seaters. 

On the club side we were again very busy with Instructor Renewals, and Mike M, John W and Pete all got signed off as Instructors again having been put through their paces all day. Bruno ran a day course in amongst our chaos (sorry Bruno), and managed to fit in some additional flying with Sam & Martin P, and Tony Tayler too. Clive took some friends flying in the K13 & moterglider, and we also did some trial lessons. Nigel flew the Falke, and a few folks took flights in the K13's when they were free. Thanks to all who drove the winch and retrieved gliders - and there was a lot of retrieving this weekend with all the cable break practice!  Thanks also to Rowan for doing a temporary repair on the crack in the canopy of CCC on Saturday evening so that we could all fly her on Sunday. We really did need all of our two seaters this weekend!

Saturday 17th May

Busy busy busy!!

A bright and promising day, with sunny skies and more clouds than promised. Graham had sent his Nimbus on an expedition to Morocco (! more of this later - Graham promises a blog for the trip, flying in the High Atlas Mountains) and so was flying a borrowed ASG29. He went off on task To Bury St Edmunds late morning. Later Phil & Russell took an aerotow in JYR, and Tim & John D went off in KHC.

We had an unexpected visitor just before we started flying. One of Damien Dyer's friends was flying past in a small aircraft en route to a race and had an engine failure. He just managed to make it over our fence safely to land at Shenington - a great relief to both him and us. Damien was flying in formation in his Yellow Cub and landed to see if he could help. They were unable to fix it that day but apparently Colin has come to the rescue and is looking at the carb. A very lucky escape when you consider the terrain & crop either side of Shenington.

It was very blue at times, with a healthy crosswind (it was a karting weekend!), and a day to drink lots of water. Out towards Silverstone it looked much better at the time I took these two photos (around 3pm).

The two seaters were flat out all day as we had plenty of visitors and trainees, plus Paul Armstrong & Tom Burton had come over from Hus Bos to carry out some Instructor renewals with Mike Miles John Whiting & Pete from Bidford. Alistair F and Eric flew their respective K6's, and HLH was flying too. New member Sam Potter and his Dad Martin had their first flights in a glider with Paul Noonan, and soon got stuck in learning all the airfield tasks, while Mary organised our Trial lesson visitors in moving and collecting gliders. Bruno was busy doing cross country endorsement training, and Phil M did some motorgliding with a visitor, while Robin flew G-Mild. The usual suspects helped out with the winch, retrieve and general odd jobs, and Rowan was kept busy again in the tug. At one point we even managed to get rid of all the gliders.......


We flew late and had a good day....as we sat by the bar Phil Hebden launched his balloon from the top hangar and went for another trip!

Tuesday 6 May 2014

Sunday 4th May

Sunday started sunny and calm, the perfect day for Beth to come out of the hangar. This time we were in the 8 Acre field, Phil Marks in charge with a K13 and the Skylark at the launchpoint.

We had a most excellent start to the day when Phil flew a couple of flights with Glen Evans then sent him solo in DVX. Many congratulations Glen!



Russell & Eric took it in turns to fly BTH with various happy passengers, Alistair Frier flew his shiny K6e - HJD, and the Skylark continued to soar in spite of the usual early release on the winch. 

David Taylor then resoloed after a break from gliding, and Phil put John W through his paces in DVX. Christine took the last flights of the day in the K13 having spent the day as duty tug pilot.

After flying Eric (with various helpers - thanks Jackie & Carol) made a slap up meal of toad in the hole, veggies, mash & gravy for about 16 of us, followed by apple pie and custard.  Then off to the bar to celebrate Glen's first solo.....

Saturday 3rd May

Another fine day at Shenington!

We started with blue skies and small wispy clouds though it went blue in the late afternoon. We launched from the top field, and K13, Skylark and Jaffa were all kept busy with a mixture of visitors and club flying. Mary brought some of her family along for flights with Russell and Derrick.

There were also plenty of private gliders out. Graham Paul went off in 60 on some epic task. Alan & Trish took off in JYR for a declared 500km and did around 335km of the task, going out to Rattlesden in Suffolk and visiting Upwood on the way home when conditions weren't as good as forecast. Dave Smith flew his shiny new LS6 while 373 had multiple soaring flights with Eric & Andy, and Robin & Jon flew G2. H20 finally made it out of her trailer for the first time this year and had the cobwebs blown off in three soaring flights.

It was nice to see our new tug getting so much use. Nearly a third of the launches were aerotow and many people pulled off early and saved money under our new charging system.

After flying a number of us went down to the pub for tea.

April 29th

Blast from the past??

John Rogers sent these photos from midweek. Some of you may remember when this was the first task of the day before flying!



I sometimes miss the cows but I don't miss the cowpats!