Sunday 28 February 2016

Saturday 27th February

At last, a Saturday where it's not blowing a hoollie or pouring down!! Forecast was for a brisk cold wind, and a dull grey day, but in fact it was far better than expected. Paul N & Mick F (on duty) set up the run on the short hard runway, with the bus at the bank end, and Paul went off for an hour with Alex P in triple Charlie. When they came down to thaw, Mick and Liz went flying too.

Liz was well wrapped up, just as well as on their second flight they got away and spent 45 minutes traversing the cloud streets at heights of up to 3800ft! It was bitingly cold on the ground (low single figures), but Mick claims that it was ok in the air out of the strong wind.  

Back at the clubhouse, Mary fed people soup and cake for lunch, and Russell & Phil A were working on the ARC/AD on JYR with the help of Dave H. 


Staying upwind was a challenge - as soon as the glider turned it would be pushed downwind. Lech managed to get a 20 minute flight by hanging on for dear life in a rough low thermal, but he caught the last bit of reliable lift of the day. Those of us who flew later (Gary & Tess) managed nothing better than extended circuits. Still, it was good to be out in the (very) fresh air and an enjoyable day out on the airfield.


Saturday 27 February 2016

Tuesday 22nd February

10 Stalwarts made it (Sorry if I missed you because you didn't fly and thus didn't appear on the Glidex flying list!), and we had a great day. There were early thermals - Robin showed us the way with an 18 minute flight. The tour de force was at 13:00. The temperature was tolerable, the sun was very pleasant all afternoon but it started to get very cold at 16:30.

Lech and Eric stole a 44 minute, 2700 ft flight in local thermals, triggered by a similar flight in HLH flown by Tim. The grass was too wet to use fully, and we had no cable breaks!

Thanks to the team of 8 who walked the crop field to the North of the cart-track in the unsuccessful search for the missing strop from last Sunday week (keep an eye out everyone) . Sadly Tim, Lech & Eric missed this part of the fun because they were taken up with thermalling!

Spring is here?

Eric (NTD)

Sunday 21st February

As expected, the sun shone, but the wind blew so hard that no-one was ever going to get a glider out of the hangar! Mary made soup & bread & cake so lots of people hung around at the club eating and drinking tea. 
The competitions committee met up to continue planning this summer's Regionals. We have lots of entertainments already lined up, and the planning is going well. Contact one of us if you are willing to help out in any way, particularly with the catering!True to form, weather looks better for the rest of the week........

Saturday 20th February

Saturday arrived, and true to form it wasn't very flyable. I think the mid weekers are using up all the good weather!! Luckily we all had the Shenington Annual Dinner to look forward to...

Lech seems surprised!
This year's attendees met up at the bar (where else?) in the Whately Hall Hotel in Banbury at 7:30pm then moved to the main room at 8pm for the main event. The food was good as always, and once we'd eaten Andy Linfield (Chairman!) said a few words.....and I do mean a few, so the speeches were all but non existent! Prizes were awarded to Mick Furseden (Geoff Webster award), Lech Zakrzewski (Highest Achiever), Steve Tilling (Best Flight, for a 500km),  Alistair Frier (most improved pilot) and Jane Jervis (Paul Gibbs Trophy). Phil Marks, our outgoing CFI (in both meanings of the words!) gave the CFI's award for this year to Kevin Hands, for all his efforts on behalf of the club over the years. (You can tell that 2015 wasn't the best year for Cross Country as we didn't have the usual long distance land-out to nominate for the far point trophy!)
rumours of no younger members have been exaggerated!
We had a mad raffle with lots of alcoholic and chocolaty prizes (yes, there's a theme there!), then the band started up in earnest. Liz had organised a proper country band, and a great many club members were cajoled onto the dance floor to participate in proper country dancing. It's harder than it looks, but great fun, and everyone seemed to enjoy it. Watching on dance from the table, I am surprised that more people don't get lost whilst gliding - the spatial awareness and general left and right-edness of our members left a lot to be desired!

After the dancing wound up, a number of us repaired to the bar to finish off a brilliant evening. The forecast 40mph+ winds on Sunday meant that we had a drinking forecast so no-one was too worried about getting up early for breakfast.

Many thanks to Liz for organising such an enjoyable event.
 


Sunday 14 February 2016

Saturday 13th February

After a few cold clear days, it was almost inevitable that Saturday would dawn grey and drizzly! It was also surprisingly cold, so we sat in the clubhouse and reviewed the conditions through the window whilst drinking tea! It was not to be a gliding day as the weather worsened, but Mary had cooked borscht and bread rolls for lunch, followed by apple cake, so we all tucked in early, then went off to do various jobs. Lucy, arriving at the 'normal' lunchtime, was left hungry as we'd finished all of the food!
In the evening a gang of us (Andy, Jackie + Kev, Lucy, Rowan, Alistair,Liz, Eric, Tess & John) went down to the Roebuck to help celebrate Nick Saul's 60th birthday. We enjoyed the buffet, drinks and company - as you can see from the photo below!

 

Thursday 11 February 2016

Wednesday 10th February

Paul B, Eric & Lech managed to re-cable both drums on the winch on Wednesday, and also had a flight each. Unfortunately the North West wind was not quite strong enough for ridge duration flights. The tractor ignition switch was also renewed.

Eric

Wednesday 3 February 2016

Thursday 28th January



The prospect of some sunny and flyable weather had SGC members flocking to the airfield to see if they could successfully get airborne.  Those present included Kevin M, Eric, Tim D, Mick F, Gavin, Gail, Robin, David S and Jon C plus Martin Jones, visiting after a break from gliding.  Andy L was also on-site, but overseeing repairs to the bar roof, rather than flying.

After defrosting, jump-starting, tyre-pumping, and other fun activities associated with winter and gliding clubs, we were ready to go.  We asked Eric which was the winch drum on which the cable had been replaced.  “The left” was the confident reply.  We set up to launch from the short hard with the wind blowing almost straight down the runway.  Four flights and three cable breaks later we concluded that it was “the other one”.  A number of us who had not recently experienced cable breaks for real can now tick that off in our log books!  Conditions all day were as Tim put it, “sporting”, but we all had enjoyable, if short flights.  Maximum flight duration was Mick with 9 minutes, while Martin flew again with Tim – the first time he had been back in a glider for 2 years.



Mid-afternoon, as conditions were deteriorating, we were just deciding to put the kit away when Eric and Gavin decided to have a last flight.  I volunteered to drive the winch, expecting it to be more sedate than flying.  When, during the winch launch, the gusting caused the winch to shift on its chocks I concluded that I had been wrong.  We packed up at just the right time having had an enjoyable day with all equipment and personnel still in one piece.

Jon Carlton

Tuesday 2 February 2016

Saturday 23rd Jan

After a bit of a late start the K13 was sat on line just in time for a  bank of very low cloud to arrive at the airfield! Jon Carlton sat in the K13 for about 10 minutes in the vain hope that it would pass quickly - but it didn't so the launch point was abandoned and the team went and had some soup. Conditions cleared by about 1pm, and then Paul Fletcher (Duty Instructor) did some check flights, including simulated cable breaks, which were quickly followed by some real ones.  We had a visitor from Snitterfield as well as the normal suspects. Lucy, Lech & Paul all encountered some odd reduced sink close to the kart track but otherwise there was no lift to be found. I guess this is normal for January, in spite of the very mild winter. Paul reports that the hangar packing was much more organised than our appalling efforts the previous week, and that everything was packed away before dark!