An Unusual Day...

Sunday 6 May 2012.

John Donovan in charge, assisted by Tim Donovan later, and Gavin flying some friends and family.  The wind was as predicted ( from the North East, about 5 knots) but the morning sky looked better than forecast.  I took a launch at 11.40 and stayed up for an hour, hitting a cloudbase of 3,300ft QFE.

Cloud rolled in soon after, giving the flat grey day that had been predicted. Plenty of launches taken, mostly air experience flights, but with the day declining we thought we would be packing up early.

Then about 4.00pm, the day revived spectacularly. Alistair Frier got a 60 minute flight, John Rogers took a K8 for an hanger flight and stayed up for an hour and 45 minutes. Alan L did a later hanger flight for the other K8, and took it up to cloudbase around 5,000QFE.  After much patient waiting and helping on the field, visitor Harry Abrahams, flying with John D, got a flight of just under an hour.  Lucy and Tim D. took the last flight of the day and got 1 hour and 20 minutes. 

An unusual day, but very welcome after weeks of rain.
 

Dave Price

Thursday 4 May 2012

Rain all day with an occlusion directly over us.

Tez started us off with a wethaer brief and Notam brief, before giving us all a brief explanation of altimeter setting procedures.

Well done Tez, the bronze exam and oral test are completed.


The rest of the Day was taken up with briefings on Winch launch procedures, Approach control techniques, Charting with a half million map, and navigating with a compass.

Don

Wednesday 2 May 2012

A very dull morning but we did manage to get some flying in during the afternoon. North east winds and cloudbases rose to around 1200ft QFE.

A good day for AFR flights and practice field landings. Scott managed to squeeze in one flight before vanishing off on his hectic schedule---muttering something like "she'll murder me".

just goes to show perseverance with the weather does sometimes pay off.

Don

Tuesday 1 May 2012

Rain, well yes, quite a lot actually.

A great day for getting the bronze theory stuff underway, and getting wet on the dash from the lecture room to the clubhouse. Welcome to Alex Nicholls, who has an uncanny knack of picking the wet days to go flying.

lectures included, Navigation part 1 and 2, Altimetry and Compass, Approach Control and Winching.

A better day expected tomorrow.

Don

Monday 30 April

Southerly winds, good thermals in the middle part of the day. The weather cycling quickly in the unstable airmass.

A great day for Bobs one day course group, and a great day for Tez on his bronze c course.

many thanks to gail and tim for the invaluable assistance with instruction.

Don

Friday 27 April

At least the winds have reduced in strength. However the rain continues and the ducks are having a great time.

Colin and his team are making great advances in the completion of the K13 repairs,despite the rotten weather The fin is now back on and the fabric and metalwork repaired. Next will be the rudder, wheel and lettering. So not too long now

 The venture is now almost ready for painting, but the damp conditions may not allow that to be done for a day or two.

Don

Thursday 26 April

Winds 20knots westerly. Showers forecast.

The day started with a briefing on weather, followed by a trek to the short hard. Alex Nicholls and Bob King continued their training---well done both, pretty turbulent conditions and a  strong wind gradient well handled.

Clive retrieved the last landing just moments before the heavens opened, so in true brummy style he got in the dry cockpit with Bob King and gave him an impromtu lesson on altimetry---now that is imaginative.

Needless to say it was still raining when we repacked the hangar, but a useful training  day.

Back in the workshop the K13 progresses well, it is just amazing how much work is involved.

Later in the evening, the children (Robin and Clive) were having helicopter dog fights in the club room, that was my call for bed---the giggling got a little too loud for me.

Don

Wednesday 25th April

And it continues to rain. Kath was observed checking out the field---yup definitely wet.

Kath was next seen painting the gents loo---and as she said---at least its dry there, except for the paint.

In the workshop Colin had concocted a little tunnel to direct the warmth of the heater onto the rebuilt end of the K13, to encourage the paint to dry.

Phil was, according to him, dashing around on his fuel thing. Dashing around obviously involves lots of tea and biscuits.

Lets hope for a better day Thursday.

Don

Tuesday 24 April 2012

Winds forecast at 340/10, and heavy rainshowers predicted for the afternoon. The rain showers did not materialise until much later.

Alan and Graham set some tasks in the hope that the weather would be favourable. They were right, and we had a great afternoon. Alan flew his 107km task with time to spare and Graham reduced his task to 200km from the original 300km and got around in good time.

Meanwhile club local soaring continued, with the K8, K6, discus, K13, DG300 hedging their bets as the wall of weather approached from the southwest.

Mini lectures included flight limitations and altimetry.

The day was complete with a beer and listening to the howidunnits.

Don

Monday 23 April

Monday 23 April 2012

Winds 135/10 with heavy showers and overdevelopment forecast later. Cloudbase 2800 QFE.

Hans, our German guest  led the way with a blistering climb in the K13. I dont know why, but I had pictures of those Magnificent men in their flying machines flash through my mind as we steadily climbed at 6 knots up to cloudbase.

Clive (our kid) followed suit in his K6, but was sensible enough to land before the rain started.

We just got the gliders away before the really heavy rain arrived, April showers---you are not joking.

Don