27 August 2012

Monday 27^th August

Winds 180/40 at 1000'. At the launch point, a 15kt wind, gusting 20kts, made it a difficult day. A warm front, shortly followed by a cold front out to the west. Thankfully, the rain held off until 1600, so we were able to get some flying in before then.



Don with his tea!



Patrick Taylor was brave enough to take the first flight of the day and in doing so, gained some valuable experience at approaching at high speed through a strong wind gradient. He returned to the launch point to be greeted by Don: 'You are flying again!' So with little choice in the matter, Patrick managed a commendable 11 minutes on his second flight.

Next to fly was John D, with his friend Yoav from Dunstable. They did 4 flights in total, ranging from 3 to 11 minutes.

Lucy and Dave L-M also did a flight each to keep current.

Meanwhile, Don looked on from the bus, drinking China Tea and eating Gary's Jaffa Cakes. Tim and Gary also helped out. Later, Gary even got his kite out!

Tim and Patrick headed to the Tysoe shop to get their lunch and kindly shared some of their food with the rest of us!

After rain stopped play, we headed back to the clubhouse to drink more tea, while Patrick and Yoav sat practice Bronze C papers.

Overall, we got the best out of a challenging day!

Lucy



Tim and Gary sheltering on the bus!



Preparing to launch



Patrick and Yoav working on their Bronze Papers

Friday 24th August

Winds 170/10. Occluded front to the west. Low pressure building over Ireland. The morning forecast as reasonable soaring with rain by mid pm.

Robin Jackson showed us the way by taking the first sniffer flight and soaring away.

After a frustrating week for Steve Nicholls, our visitor from Bowland Forest, he took off in the club Astir and away he went----fantastic.

Meanwhile back on earth Eric was on lawn mower duties, of course that isnt Eric the dog, its the other one. Apparently there is no e in Erics name so he must be Ric Lowne?

The day ended with a curry in Kineton, 12 of us descended on the curry house and a thoroughly good meal.

Don

Thursday 23 August

Probably the best soaring day of the week, winds light westerly and some overdevelopment.

2 visitors arrived from the Bidford comp, one was our very own chairman. Bad luck, the weather wasnt quite good enough to complete their tasks.

Andrew Linfield and Eric Lowne completed their training for friend and family ratings.

Phil is now officially our soaring God of the day and now speaks in “vario2 rather than the English of the rest of us mere mortals. Well done Phil.

Jack, Scotts 13 year old son, had his first flying lesson in the K13 and discovered its not hard at all!

Brunos pupil had another busy day.

A communal dinner finished the day with Mexican Fajitas and all the trimmings, including a homemade Guacamole made by Lucy.---Delicioius.

Don

Wednesday 22 August

Winds 210/10, with some convection and cloudbases rising to 3200 ft QFE. The lucky ones flew in the convergence that conveniently set up on the downwind leg.

Welcome back to Ross and Mark Daniell who continued their basic training with an intensive day course. Launches and landing now coming along a treat.

Bruno and his pupil enjoyed a productive day, with a very tired and happy pupil at the end of the day and a grinning Bruno.

Thanks everyone for a great day.

Don

Tuesday 21 August

Weatherwise a reasonable day with light southerlies to start and ending with westerlies. Needless to say that all involved changing launchpoints part way through the day.

Welcome to Lech Zakrzewski, an ex ATC instructor of some 40 years ago. Lech spent the day with us and was flying the entire flight by the end of the day.

Thanks you to Lechs family for letting us pinch some of their picnic lunch.

Well done to Lucy Wootton who has now completed her bronze C.

Don

Rainy Days & Mondays

Forecast for another hot sunny day but the cloud rolled in and it rained. But we sat it out and by lunchtime the sun began to shine. Bruno managed to fly a trail lesson and abit of club flying.
It's always worth coming to the club as most days are flyable at somepoint in the day.

Friday 10 August

Winds light and variable, becoming 020/05. RASP predicted another good day from about midday to about 5pm.

The course continued, and a number of club members came out to play. A few cross country flights set.

Some 500s were set and a number of 100K diplomas by the Kent and Bowland Forest contingent.

Thanks again to Colin Beer for taking Nigel Curtis on his best ever yet cross country soaring flight---beats circuits by quite a margin.

Well done to Tez Bowler for completing his 2 hour duration and therefore his cross country endorsement---Silver next?

The fickle winds forced a change in airfield set up, no big deal for team Shenington.

The Kent group thanked us for our hospitality, and of course it was great to have them with us. See below:

Lee,

Thanks for welcome and hospitality during our recent visit. We all enjoyed ourselves and some personal achievements.

Attached a photo of most of group. Could you please forward to Don who requested same for, I believe, something to do with your blog!

Ian

Another great day, quite hot, but never too hot.

Don

Thursday 9 August

Westerly winds and RASP predicting a decent day.

Soaring got underway about midday, with cloudbases rising to 4000ft eventually.

The day course guys had a great day with some decent soaring flights.

A couple of 300s and 100k flights by the Kent contingent as well as some cross country endorsement legs.

Well done Lucy Wootton for getting both bronze legs and a cross country endorsement flight. Bronze C is now just around the corner.

Clive took off very late and scratched away in the last of the thermals---he was seen later wandering around with a silly grin saying 4000ft, no really 4000ft, its true 4000ft.

Thanks to the whole team for pitching in and making it all work on the ground.

Don

Wednesday 8 August

Winds 310/05 with a cold front off to the south.

The day started with low cloud around 700ft QFE and so time to get some handling practice in the Venture.

Thanks to Mick Fursdon and to George for keeping the courses going. 4 people in all getting flight training, including a one day course member.

Lucy Wootton completed the first part of her bronze GFT. Well done to her.

After the passage of the front, soaring became excellent with several notable soaring flights. cloudbases rose to 3300ft QFE and thermals off the clock.

Lots of tired and smiling faces at the end of the day.

Thanks to our visitors for helping to make it a fun day.

Don

Tuesday 7 August

Winds 260/10, several troughs in the area and a warm front to the west.

A slow start but some reasonable soaring at times. This was in between the rain showers.

The weeks course going well with some help from George, a newly qualified instructor from Kent.

Briefings on circuit planning and approach control in the morning and winch launching at the end of the day.

Don

Monday 6 August

Winds 280/10, an occluded front passing to the North of the region.

Welcome to Greg and Charles Molan at the beginning of the one week course. The Kent Gliding Club and Bowland Forest visitors had a good day with some soaring during the middle of the day.

Thanks to Colin Beer from Kent for assisting with our unexpected trial lessons. The assistance also meant we could get Sarah from Kent some flying lessons.

Don

Monday 6 August

Winds 280/10, an occluded front passing to the North of the region.

Welcome to Greg and Charles Molan at the beginning of the one week course. The Kent Gliding Club and Bowland Forest visitors had a good day with some soaring during the middle of the day.

Thanks to Colin Beer from Kent for assisting with our unexpected trial lessons. The assistance also meant we could get Sarah from Kent some flying lessons.

Don

Friday 3 August

The winds forecast as 200/20 with showers and some strong gusts.

Ashleigh and Nigel Curtis continued their training, many thanks to Clive for stepping in and taking care of our one day course and our trial lesson.

Rain stopped play about midday, and then stopped to reveal several windows of good soaring.

Lucy Wootton spotted the good weather and took the K8 for a trip.

The day ended with a debrief in the clubroom, and Lucy completing her Bronze oral test.

The first Kent Gliding club trailers started to arrive in the evening---welcome.

Another surprisingly good day, thanks everyone for making it fun.

Don

Pictures from the week

 Ashleigh Duggan, learning to fly.

 Alex Gill learning to fly

Bruno about to take Emily Upjohn for a trial flight on Wednesday.

Thanks to Mary Meagher for the pictures and thanks to Bruno for stepping in for a few flights on Wednesday.

Your pictures are always welcome to liven up the blog.

Don

Thursday 2 August

Winds 220/15 with rapidly developing cumulus, showers of rain and some big cu nims.

It was good to see the K6 syndicate brave the weather, and Dave Smith risk getting the tractor wet as he cut the grass.

The usual Thursday suspects came out to play and joined Ashleigh and Alex who are on a course.

Everyone got wet at some point, the good news is the water was warm.

Don

Wednesday 1 August

A fresh southerly wind and the occasional light shower.

Welcome to Alex Gill, another new junior member who is now learning to fly. Like Ashleigh, Alex has an ambition to become an airline pilot.

Well done Ashleigh for completing her first unprompted flights, not bad for 3 days.

The evening talk was on circuit planning and some videos on spinning.

31 July 2012

The weather was mixed, and we were forced to fly in between the rainshowers. Wind shifts meant we changed launch point to a westerly after lunch.

The evening course lecture covered winch launching.

Ashleigh Duggan was joined by John Davis for a one day course. John is a volunteer from Upton House, and entertained us with interesting tales of the place.

Don

30 July 2012

A reasonable day weatherwise, with some interesting flying in a convergence.

Welcome to Ashleigh Duggan who is learning to fly. Ashleigh comes from a family of professional pilots.

Agata joined us for a one day course.

Thanks everyone for taking the time to teach our newbies how to operate the field safely.