Party-Time !!!

Some photos of the Christmas party taken by Paul Mucha.

 

Out of the grey...and into the blue!

Some cold grey days this week, but Thursday provided some improved visability and (most importantly) a gap in the cloudbase just east of the airfield towards Banbury.

 

As we both had birthdays this week (mine today), we decided to give ourselves a birthday treat. So off we went in the Supermunk to find the sunshine...and find it we did!

 

We climbed up through the extensive gap to break out and enjoy some magnificent views of the cloudscape and clear skies above. Having played around in the sunshine for a while we decended back into the grey winter landscape below and made our way gently home.

 

Coventry ATC Visit

A great morning visiting Coventry Air Traffic Control tower with a few club members. We were shown around the visual tower and the radar room.
More trips planned for Birmingham in early 2013, I'll keep you posted.

Friday Fun and Frosty Falke-ing.

David, Don and Steve looking pleased.

No instructors available, but with remote authority from the CFI Friday proved to be a good day, if very cold, with several "Licence Standard" members having a good time. The ridge was working well with thermal interspersed. John R and Alan L seem best able to manage the cold well for the longest flights, however most flights were upwards of 40 min with voluntary return to the field for a warm up.

  

Also, Don has paid us a couple of visits recently for X/C Endorsement training with some Dartmoor members, all of whom have had a great time. Read more at the DGS blog at:

 

http://www.dartmoorgliding.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/blog-sunday-2nd-december-2012-mike-and.html

and;

http://www.dartmoorgliding.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/thursday-29th-november-2012-david-and.html



Falke on a frosty morning.



Ridge...not furrow!

Keith and Ian getting ready to fly DVX.

A bright and chilly day with a moderate westerly wind with just a touch of north, right down 28, but enough to make the ridge work.

 

A few hardy souls braved the chill, and each enjoyed some soaring. John L-C flew his DG, whilst Keith, Jane, John R, Scott and I had a relaxed but fun day soaring the ridge and admiring the fantastic winter colours created by the low sun, which also nicely highlighted the "ridge and furrow" fields at the southern end of the ridge.

With such a stiff wind we decided to lauch on RWY 28 inset from the short hard cross-runway to minimise driving on the 8-Acre field and avoid creating our own furrows by damaging it with vehicles! Thus, allowing us to mainly drive on the hard surfaces, and land in the 8-Acre "undershoot" and roll up to the launch-point ready for the next flight with minimum effort. The slightly shorter launch run still gave launches of around 1000-1300ft, so making it to the ridge was still pretty easy.

We packed up around 3:00pm, having each had our fill and retired to the clubhouse for some hot tea!
 

Scott soaring the ridge - note the ridge and furrow fields.

A better view of the ridge and furrow fields to the west of the ridge.

Floods

This week I was called to fly off with a photographer to shoot the floods and beat Sky News helicopter to get the exclusive.

Below are some of the pictures taken from the C172 News ship!

Our pictures were shown on NBC, The Sun, The Mirror and some of the Sunday papers.

Lee

 Oxford - Abingdon Road

 Caravan Park - South Tewksbury

 Cherwell River - Along side the M40

Tewksbury - River Avon & Severn