Monday 31 August 2015

Temporary hangar lodgers

Rowan has passed on these photos of Smudge's latest litter of kittens! As you can see they are growing up quickly, but all have a new home planned so they won't be around much longer.

Saturday 29th August

Saturday started efficiently, as always with Bruno in charge. Robb Batty had a full day! It began with a short aerotow with Bruno - they had an 'eventuality' over the clubhouse boundary and after a well handled revised circuit, Robb was then sent off for first solo aerotow in DVX. He then followed with another solo in the K8 which turned into his first xc endorsement flight of an hour. After that Robb went down to the winch to get some winch driving training from Eric & Andy L. 
David Stead had organised a family group from all over the UK to come and fly, and Bruno & Clive flew multiple times with seven different folks over the morning/early afternoon, having a mixture of short and longer soaring flights. Everyone enjoyed themselves, club members and visitors alike, and the two seaters were kept fully occupied.  Later in the day we were joined by Patrick, Witold and Zanna, who all flew in DVX with Bruno. Gary & Tess took the K8 for extended circuits to finish off the day, failing to get away under the encroaching top cover.
   
Thanks to the duty instructors who didn't have much of a break, and the winch team of Eric, Andy & Robb who worked all day to keep us airborne.You'll also be pleased to hear that hangar packing has got more complicated with the arrival back of CCC! The motorglider has also returned to site so we have DVX stowed down at the clubhouse too.

Friday 28 August 2015

Sunday 23rd August

Rain was forecast for 1pm so, having two keen students in Leslie & Patrick we got the kit out smartly and got launching. Up on the winch in the eight acre I was joined a number of times by Leslie & John W in DVX as they tried out launch failures and got lots of exercise in at the same time. Alistair flew his K6E a couple of times and the K8 also flew, but DVX took most of the launches. Leslie was sent solo just before midday, then Gavin flew with Patrick and sent him solo at about 12:40pm! 
The sky had been looking steadily greyer and now threatened rain, so there was a final launch with Gavin & Patrick to hangar land in the drizzle. With perfect timing, rain stopped play at 12:57pm!

Hangar packed, we opened the bar to celebrate. A big congratulations to Leslie & Patrick.
What a great end to our week's holiday at Shenington!

Saturday 22nd August

From the sublime to the ridiculous....where did the heat come from?? All week it has been very pleasant, suddenly on Saturday the temperature soared and we all broiled.

Predictably, after 5 days of grey skies there was another rigging frenzy. Lech rigged Q5, we rigged H20, Eric had HJD out, the DG100 came out of the T hangar, and Paul N got out his DG202 to show a prospective purchaser. Graham meanwhile set another task out east for 60 declaring BSE O/R. Russell was kept busy with plenty of visitors and new trainee Zanna, though Clive and Derek W were also there to help. (Derek & Sylvia came over to visit Frid night and are coming to fly with us again).


The sky was very odd - we had a strange assortment of cloud formations which did not look typical of a good soaring day and it took a while for any soaring to start. We were forecast possible thunderstorms later so everyone was keen to get off, and in fact we saw some huge cbs in the distance though we were never in the rain. Graham hit the blue conditions just beyond Cambridge and said it was like sea air, he cut the task short to stay in the good air. Most of the others stayed closer, and there was a mass derig at about 3:30pm when rain looked imminent.
We packed in not long after 5pm as most people had had enough of the heat, and once the hangar was packed we lounged around outside trying to get cool. A trip to the chip shop finished off the day and the club cats did quite well out of it!



    

 

Tuesday 25 August 2015

18th - 21st August

Oh dear......did anyone tell the weather that it's August?

A dull week of grey......lots of Oxford and Shenington GC members hanging around drinking tea on Tuesday hoping for improvements, while the midweek crew got on with training. By Wednesday morning most of our visitors had given it up for a bad job and had gone home to do something else. John & I headed to Sudeley Castle in the rain for a change, having (finally - after 22 years!) visited Upton House on the Tues afternoon. We were most interested to view Eric's field from the main house instead of the air - the NT visitors must have got a prime view of Eric completing his 300km. More rain forecast for Thursday, though mostly drizzle at the airfield. Leslie came to fly and get more familiar with cable breaks and spinning with Bruno - she had a profitable day. Lucy meanwhile had broken down in Wales and was unable to get back to sort out her trailer ready for the juniors. 

On Friday there was more dull weather, though fine for training thank goodness. Patrick turned up to get some more instruction while John & I finally cracked and cleaned H20's trailer of about 5 years worth of mould. (Looks like a new trailer, and also looks quite smart now amongst the rest of the mould in the trailer park!). Lucy finally made it back in the evening and headed off South to the junior nationals with Robb Batty in tow. Fingers crossed that the weather improves but the jet stream seems to be sitting in the channel and doesn't look great.  

Monday 17th August

More sunshine, so everyone thought it would be great! Various Oxford friends turned up to fly, and Paul Fletcher took a last minute day off to fly his libelle. Graham in 60 set off on the same task as yesterday,  while Phil & Russell, John W in H20, John R in EPU, Eric in HJD and Paul F in TP discussed the option of flying west instead. There was great uncertainty about the weather, with the bit in the middle of the country (us!) looking worst of all! Lucy wanted to try for a 50km but east or west? 

Bruno & Kath just got on with it, having three day courses booked in, with Jan & Bob P helping at the launchpoint. 

As it turned out, the sky overdeveloped very quickly and we were enveloped in embedded cu beneath a solid top cover. Getting away from the winch was a bit of a lottery but most people managed it, and surprisingly most people did go xc. Paul F went to Bidford and then Aston Down. Meeting Phil & Russell coming the other way on their way back from Cirencester he continued, thinking it must be good out there! They had come back because it wasn't, and Paul eventually had a good save south of Little Riss after finding Aston Down without lift! The Oxford Duo flown by Gordon Craig went to Cirencester & back, and Lucy set off down the Cotswolds but thought better of it when the day closed it. No landouts, and a busy if slightly disappointing day due to the weather. We were all hoping for better during the rest of the week......various groups hit the local pubs again in the evening.
 

Weekend 15-16th August

Saturday was a bit variable but Graham managed to fly almost 350 km in 60, flying out to Long Sutton in Norfolk, then Stradishall and home.

Sunday looked better and there were lots of toys out. Dave Perkins was DI on his own, and though we had lots of additional instructors they were mostly going cross country in their own gliders so he was kept very busy with trainees and visitors. Phil & Russell went off in the Duo, Graham set a 380km to Newmarket, Grantham and Grafham, and John W set Grafham O/R. Paul had the DG800 out but not sure where it went, nor the various K6Es. Anyway they all went off soaring and left the rest of us at Shenington to enjoy the afternoon. No-one landed out though Graham had to cut his flight short due to evening commitments.


Early evening we spotted a visitor in the circuit and were anticipating an aerotow retrieve for the tuggie till we realised it was the Oxford GC DG500 flying in for the week. Their site is shut this week so assorted members are coming along to fly with us. Once everything was packed away a large crowd of Shenington/Oxford folks descended on Nick at the Roebuck for dinner.

Tuesday 11 August 2015

Saturday 1st August

Wow - August already, and our visitors from Kent already arriving and keen to get started on some soaring. Arriving for my duty day there was already a mass rigging taking place in the top field, and Robin was getting out G2. Another team of club pilots were carrying out glue failure checks on a variety of wooden gliders, including Eric, Andy L, Lucy and Alistair F.

Kit out, we decamped to the 8 acre with DVX & XXI plus the K8, and were soon joined by lots of Kent gliders. We had a healthy cross wind from the South west, and a low cloud base to start off, but enough height to fly the first trial lesson as an aerotow. John W and Bill G were the first of the very few to contact lift off the winch, having a 40+ minute flight whilst everyone else dithered about whether it was thermic enough to launch! Eventually Rowan did a brisk trade with SA though most people found the conditions a bit odd even off aerotow. Later on we saw what looked like wave clouds above the lower cumulus, and it was definitely a struggle locally to get away so maybe a local effect. Most of the winch pilots had to be satisfied with extended circuits, though Lucy having escaped the workshop for a while managed half an hour towards the end of the day. The private gliders mostly had decent flights, and Andy Moore flew in to visit. 

Bill G did some more launch failure practice and resoloed again. Thanks to Robin, Eric & Andy L for manning the winch all day, and to Dave P, John W & Clive for keeping the launchpoint busy. 

After flying a large bunch of us went down to the Roebuck for a meal to round off a pleasant day.

Sunday 2 August 2015

Friday 31st August



ATC Visit
An expedition party from Shenington visited Air Traffic Control at RAF Brize Norton on Friday.  We were hosted by Sgt George Day of the ATC squadron who, despite his apparent youth, was we discovered one of the more seasoned controllers.

 
Over the course of the afternoon George gave us a teach-in on air traffic control, including procedures and activities of particular relevance to glider and GA flying.  As we approached the ATC building, which is next to the runway, we had the spectacle of a C17 doing touch-and-goes at close range – very impressive.

There then followed a visit to Approach Control, where we were able to see controllers in action and witness at first hand the amount of “clutter” (not least glider traffic) which adds to the challenge of an air traffic controller’s day.  Finally, we climbed up into the tower and enjoyed the panoramic view of the airfield, while learning about the tasks and challenges which fill a tower controller’s day.
We left enthused and educated.  We hope that George will come and fly with us at Shenington in the near future.

Jon Carlton 

meanwhile, back at the airfield......

I arrived at the club on Friday late morning, having driven back from Brussels to find a busy club - Bruno with two course pupils and Gavin also in to help out with another.

I wasn't intending to fly, but went up to the launch point about 1545 to see what was going on. K21 XXI was sitting there and Gavin persuaded me to have a go. Not too much persuasion needed really as the sky looked brilliant! Took a winch launch and thought I was about to embarrass myself, but finally contacted reasonable lift at a height I'm keeping to myself... That climb took me to 4000'. 

From then on spent an hour's easy soaring with 6 and 8 knot climbs up to about 5500', and in one place out beyond Long Marston discovered cloud base was as high as 6000' above site.Could have done with a couple of those climbs during the Regionals! Then back home with some aerobatic practice.
A good day had by all...

Bill Gordon  re soloed at the end of the day after best part of 40 year break. 

Rowan Griffin