Sunday 26th March

Alan L reports that there were clouds and thermals on Sunday, although the wind was still quite strong. The thermals were active from early on and easily contactable from the wire, with plenty of tell-tale wispies to go for. HMB had her first outing of the year and both Trish & Alan took her off on soaring flights, finding a cloud base of 3000ft. Both Graham & Paul N flew their gliders, and Mary brought some more friends from Oxford who they kept Bruno busy in DVX. In addition there were some trial lessons and more club flights. Spring is here at last....!

Saturday 25th March

Another very enjoyable day at the gliding club! Saturday was fairly windy but very sunny, so we were hopeful of the flying conditions after recent disappointing weekends. Paul N & Mick were on duty, with Dave H back in the tug. Paul M flew his Cirrus....

 

Nice launch!!

We had a number of visitors who enjoyed flying with Mick and Paul, Andrew Fleming did some aerotow training with Paul while the rest of us took it in turns to take up the K13s, with the occasional extended flight. Graeme got longest solo flight of the day in the K21 but brought it back because he was worried about hogging the glider!

 

New Chairman, new direction??!!

Thanks to all who helped out on the day. As usual the bar saw a bit of trade before we ambled down to the pub for a meal en masse.

Saturday 18th March

AGM Day, and there was a good turn out for the 6pm meeting in spite of poor weekend weather (yet again!). Phil Brennan ran the meeting as President, and we had a summary of the key events of the year from Andy Linfield, followed by Christine Bell presenting the finances. Andy is stepping down as Chairman so there was a vote of thinks for all of his efforts. Alan Langlands brought his BGA award to show the club - he felt it was a testament to the club's efforts as well as his own in running the Regionals.

We had a contest for the position of Chairman and after a close vote Martin Jones was confirmed as our new Chairman. Secretary and Treasurer stay with Jon C and Christine, with the rest of the committee comprising Terry Turner, Lucy Wootton, Paul Duffy and Lech Zakrzewski. They will of course continue to need the full support of all club members!

Graham P gave a brief presentation about the new Cross Country initiative being organised by himself and Al Cook. Subscribe to Whatapp and send Graham your comtact details if you want to be part of the messaging group. 

After the meeting a number of people stayed to eat and chat, so a pleasant evening all round.

Saturday 11th March

After a couple of cracking days during the week (Clive, Gail & Martin took advantage of a nice day on Friday!) the weekend forecast was pretty rubbish once more, though it did look flyable. Arrived at the club to find the ridge almost invisible and no chance of flying in the morning. We drank tea and waited for the day to clear. 

Around lunchtime we decided to do something useful and rig the K13 triple Charlie, as Clive had just finished some fabric tidying on the fuselage. A group of us, under the direction of Rowan and John R, pulled the components out of the hangar and put her together. She was then given a hoover and clean, to match the shiny canopy and bright new paint work - a lovely looking glider when we finished.

As if by magic, it was then flyable so we took CCC up to the North end of the N-S runway and all had a fly. John W flew first, to check the cloud base (not very high, and vis. was fairly poor), then we all took it in turns to fly solo.

The occasional flash of sun gave us a little zero sink, but the  longest flights of the day were still only 8 & 9 minutes! Even so, it was great to get off the ground and blow off the cobwebs.

After repacking the hangar we drank more tea then went off to the pub for a meal. A very pleasant day at the airfield....

Saturday 4th March

Saturday was a promising day for the time of year, with some early season thermals.

A few members had currency checks with Rowan, and then took advantage of the small soaring slot. Lech took the K21 soaring and managed 29 minutes, only coming back down because people were waiting, then Gary went on to take up the K21 for 24 minutes. Bob & Jan, Jon, Gail and George all helped out. 

Terry Turner, Martin Jones and Patrick arrived after lunch and all flew, but by then the soaring window was pretty much over and sunshine and Cu turned increasingly to showers.There were some quite spectacular rainbows appeared about the time of the last couple of flights, but the best and brightest were viewed from the bar door.

 

George rigged his Pik and had a couple of flights. The Duo got rigged and put into the T hangar, DG800 had some engine runs, the grass got cut, the winch got driven, the cable delivered and some jobs got done, all by others not necessarily mentioned above, so thanks to the unnamed too!

BGA Conference

Shenington pilots were awarded two notable prizes at this year's BGA conference. Graham Paul & Al Cook won the Volks trophy for the longest out and return of the year - 648km to Truro and back!

Alan Langlands was presented with the John Hands Trophy, awarded for 'Outstanding Support in the Organising or Running of Competitions'. Well done to them all!

Saturday 28th Jan

A good number of members looked at the improving weather forecast and came out to play, Eric and Lech went off to fetch the Daihatsu from having a new clutch and brakes overhauled in Winderton, the rest of the kit started! – first time for weeks, thanks must go to Connor for his continuing persistence in sorting out the vehicles .

Although the morning started dull and overcast, the cloud base lifted and eventually broke up as the day progressed, resulting in sunny afternoon and even warm (for January), little bits of lift were evident so pilots had something to play with.

After 19 launches we put the kit away and opened the bar – super!

Lech Z

Saturday 21st January

Another great forecast with an alternative reality! A large cast of club members waited for the fog to clear and started flying mid afternoon. Time was not wasted - Clive & the band put the thermal cladding into the bar roof and Connor & Matthew tinkered with our various clapped out vehicles to try and get them working again. Rowan got C2 ready for her trip to Poland this week for regel.

We were most surprised when the first glider launch got 1200ft, but the sun gradually showed it's face and we had a most pleasant afternoon in spite of the very low temperatures. Andrew F got cleared as a winch driver, and everyone that wanted to fly did so. 

 

 

The visibility was surprisingly poor horizontally so probably just as well that it wasn't soarable, but we had a lovely sunset.

Thanks to everyone that helped out during the say, especially those working outdoors on the kit.

Tess

PS I meant it about my subaru!

Saturday 14th January

Forecast looked great and lots of people turned up so it was not a surprise that as soon as we got the gliders out, the weather retaliated by chucking it down!! Luckily this gave Connor the chance to fix the tractor which had broken down while towing out the winch to its spot for the day....

The Langlands were fettling the DG1000, the Donovans were working on the motorglider, and a team took CCC apart so that Phil M and Rowan could do some maintenance. Eventually the rest of us got flying and though the day promised very little initially - the fantastic launches of 1400 to 1700 feet being interleaved with low cloud - we eventually saw some small changes that meant we had some flights extended by the ridge effect. 

George launching Lech

Paul Fletcher had the longest flight of the day at 34 minutes with plenty others having long flights for the time of year. A number of us like myself and Paul M were just happy to get current again, with the rest making sure that they stayed current. A large number of people flew (must have had most of the instructors present too!) though we never got the tug into the air. An enjoyable day in the end, and the gliders were all put away clean and shining, courtesy of the washing down by the showers at the start of the day.  

Weak link lottery!

Photo to the left gives a better idea of the cloud which kept filling in during the earlier parts of the day. The later flights were the best as regards height and lift.

Graham models his patent jeans knee protection device!! Perhaps not the best day for wearing white trainers.

More scudding cloud in the air, but signs of promise with some blue patches showing through. We never saw any sunshine (well, except during hangar packing when we had a pink sunset) but it wasn't a bad day for January.

A big thank you to Connor, Phil & Lech for sorting out the winch & vehicles so that we could keep flying, and to Eric & Lech for winching all day. Photos from Rob F, Mick F and Rowan.

Tess

PS Rumours that my Subaru is the newest retrieve vehicle have been greatly exaggerated!!

Thursday 22nd Dec

13 stalwarts gathered at the club to enjoy the post winter solstice and to celebrate the commencement of the lengthening days towards the forthcoming soaring season.

The weather was cold, sunny, with a moderate south westerly wind which allowed the 8 acre field to be used, XXI and DVX were given an airing with members pairing up for a bit of mutual flying.

A lovely day enjoying what we like best!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all.

Lech