Monday 23rd June

Day Three, and third day flying. Weather looked ok, but due to close down early. Task was Westcott, Lambourn, Bicester East and home to Edgehill. Sadly the weather didn't play ball and we got top cover in early - many of the gliders ended up at Bicester (some on the way out, some on the way back) and I landed at Abingdon Airfield. Five gliders got round, which was very impressive! 

Four of the gliders at Bicester went back to Shenington on dual aerotows. Damien got some brilliant video shots from the tug - do have a look on YouTube.

The grass at Abingdon

In the evening Graham gave a talk about his gliding trip to Morocco.

Sunday 22nd June

Day Two of the Regionals and another sunny day. We flew our first Distance Handicap Task from Shenington and it seemed to go well with all the gliders back. Forecast still looking good for the next few days - yippee!

Saturday 21st June

Day One of the Regionals and some decent weather to start us off. Lots of first day activity with everyone getting their kit sorted, and a very full eight acre field. 

Christine worked miracles getting us some last minute tugs when our planned tugs went offline, and we had a relaxed 192km flight out to Bicester North (ok, everyone else but me went to Bicester North - courtesy of the task setter I went to Bicester North West  and scored as a landout - pah!), Gloucester South, Deddington then home.Here is a photo from abeam of the Gloucester TP.

A good start to the week, and the forecast looks good for the next few days.

We ended the day with a BBQ and a concert from the Abingdon Brass Band.

Don Birks

We are sorry to report that Don Birks, a former President of the club, passed away last week. His funeral will be held at Stourbridge Crematorium at 1.30 pm on Friday 27th June. Don will be remembered by many as an enthusiastic member of the club and excellent instructor and will be sadly missed.

The Regionals start on Saturday!

Hello All! Off down to the club tomorrow evening ready for the start of the sixth Shenington Regionals on Saturday. Hope to see you there. If you can't make it, follow the action at : http://shenington.onglide.com/current-day.xml

The Few.....Sunday 15th June

Another less than perfect day with the weather and another quiet day at the airfield......perhaps a little too quiet, as it turned out that we had visitors due and no-one rostered to fly them. Terry McKinley, who had stayed overnight after helping out on Saturday, stepped into the breach and with the help of Dave Price as LPC (again!) and Tim Treadaway in the tug, ran the operation all day.  

Thanks to the others who helped out adhoc, or were working on the club aircraft in the workshop.....

I think we all owe Terry Mc and Dave P a big thanks, and I hope everyone else is going to pitch in and help out next time either of them turn up to fly. 

Saturday 14th June

Forecast was not great which is why, I suspect, there weren't too many people around. We had three keen and willing instructors - Paul Noonan, Mick Furseden and Terry McKinley - so were able to fly all the trial lessons and visitors who turned up in spite of the grey skies. Chas Cook, Martin Lawrence and Dave Price managed to get some flying in, and Dave Gould did some tows when the cloud lifted high enough to make it worth while. John le Coyte flew his DG briefly, but otherwise there was no single seater flying. We owe a big thanks to the instructors and Dave P (LPC) for keeping the operation going all day......

Meanwhile back at the workshop Tim D & Andy L worked hard to get DDB online, and Colin fixed the K8 canopy before continuing with his Americas flight preparation. One or two of our Regionals competitors turned up with caravans and kit ahead of next weekend. Liz cooked an evening meal for those who could stay.

Weekend 7-8th June

The morning was wet and threatening at Shenington, though never actually got any thunder there but could see the occasional flash towards the North in the distance. Air experience and day course had been cancelled anyway and only a handful of the usual suspects at the club, mostly busy with K13 DDB the workshop.
In the afternoon the sky cleared and looked nice right into the evening.

Sunday looked altogether different from the Saturday start, a surprisingly small number of people turned up for what seemed a promising forecast. Gliders were rigged and prepared and tasks declared.

 The sky looked all for it, but within quite a short time it proved otherwise, heralded by the arrival of three visitors landing out, one from Nympsfied and two from Aston Down. Going by radio traffic, we weren't alone in getting unplanned visitors. 

One AD pilot took a winch launch relight and was back on the ground almost before the next set of cables were out, he then took a 3000' tow and (hopefully) made it home. The Nympsfield pilot got towed to a good looking street heading his way. The other AD pilot had me take him almost all the way home and I enjoyed a nice flight across the Cotswolds in SA.

The streets behind.......

Returning from AD, approaching Moreton in the Marsh

The day course cancelled from Saturday flew with Gavin, and his partner enjoyed a couple of flights too - both were put to work driving the retrieve buggies to help out our short-handed crew, thank you to both! Thanks to all who volunteered or were press-ganged into driving the winch and general duties.

The end of the day.....

Thanks due to all who helped out, we were short handed but with everybody mucking in we had an enjoyable day.

Rowan

Sunday June 1st

It's official - the sun came out again, and Sunday promised good conditions for the day. True to form the various toys came out of their boxes to join the club kit. Once again a last minute volunteer was invaluable - Derrick S stepped in to cover the duty instructor role and was kept busy all day with trainees and a few visitors. 

Phil & Russell went off cross country in JYR, visiting Kidderminster (why?!), Great Malvern and Bicester; Alan L took HMB to Uffington and Winchcombe; John Rogers visited Enstone, Thame and Northampton; Dave Smith went off somewhere in his LS6, but I don't know where! Lucy took her K6 for a flight and discovered a bit of a mismatch between her two varios - one reading 10 up, the other 2 down - she's pretty convinced that the first one wasn't correct! 

As you can see from above the gliders quickly began to disappear from the launch point. We also had plenty of other gliders overhead during the afternoon as the Opens & Standards routed past Shenington, and we had a drop in visitor from Snitterfield.

Bob Playle went off for a couple of hours in the Capstan with his son Malcom, Norman took HJD for a spin, Rowan flew C2 to check out his instruments, and Tess (anticipating some retrieves in late June!) flew H20 to get in some landings before the Regionals.  

Glen soloed again. Paul B, Paul D, Jon L, Maciej, Alex, Tim D, Mick F, John W, Trish all went soaring too....Jon L got away very late in the day in DVX for the last soaring flight of Sunday.

It's great to see Dave Heath back at the club and already cleared as tuggie, and Daryl is visiting again from Australia.

A big thank you to all who helped out, and especially to Derrick for covering DI all day. After the hangar doors were shut we all sat down outside with a beer, and organised a trip to the local Chinese take-away. Roll on summer...... 

Graham on expedition!

Some of you may know that Graham is currently on a gliding expedition to Morocco with some friends from Lasham. They're flying the big Nimbus in the Atlas Mountains. Here is the link to their  blog of the trip:

http://johngorringe.blogspot.com/

(if this doesn't work directly from the blog, just cut & paste into a browser page)
 
Looks fascinating, if a bit (lot) unlandable!

Saturday 31st May

The last day of May and the sun appeared to have done a runner for the eighth consecutive day! Unbowed by the grey skies, the duty team swung into action with lots of two seater flying scheduled - a day course, a number of trial lessons, and multiple club trainees. The day worked very well because a few key people stepped in to help. Bob & Jan - who had swapped with Brent for the morning lpc duty - ended up running the launch point all day, so that the duty tug pilot and lpc for the afternoon could variously drive the winch, Robin having winched all morning. Paul Fletcher who came up for a day off, ended up being number  two instructor all day whilst Russell flew with the day course.

Sam Potter about to take his first ever aerotow

It was a busy day for the two K13s - Maciej, Sam P, Martin P all had multiple flights, plus Sam T and Lucy also flew CCC. Our various visitors enjoyed their flights, and we had a nice day in spite of little soaring. After we'd packed up the kit, the sun came out at last! Liz finished off the day well by cooking an evening meal for the remaining club members.

A big thank you to Bob & Jan & Paul for keeping the operation running so smoothly.