Saturday 17th May

Busy busy busy!!

A bright and promising day, with sunny skies and more clouds than promised. Graham had sent his Nimbus on an expedition to Morocco (! more of this later - Graham promises a blog for the trip, flying in the High Atlas Mountains) and so was flying a borrowed ASG29. He went off on task To Bury St Edmunds late morning. Later Phil & Russell took an aerotow in JYR, and Tim & John D went off in KHC.

We had an unexpected visitor just before we started flying. One of Damien Dyer's friends was flying past in a small aircraft en route to a race and had an engine failure. He just managed to make it over our fence safely to land at Shenington - a great relief to both him and us. Damien was flying in formation in his Yellow Cub and landed to see if he could help. They were unable to fix it that day but apparently Colin has come to the rescue and is looking at the carb. A very lucky escape when you consider the terrain & crop either side of Shenington.

It was very blue at times, with a healthy crosswind (it was a karting weekend!), and a day to drink lots of water. Out towards Silverstone it looked much better at the time I took these two photos (around 3pm).

The two seaters were flat out all day as we had plenty of visitors and trainees, plus Paul Armstrong & Tom Burton had come over from Hus Bos to carry out some Instructor renewals with Mike Miles John Whiting & Pete from Bidford. Alistair F and Eric flew their respective K6's, and HLH was flying too. New member Sam Potter and his Dad Martin had their first flights in a glider with Paul Noonan, and soon got stuck in learning all the airfield tasks, while Mary organised our Trial lesson visitors in moving and collecting gliders. Bruno was busy doing cross country endorsement training, and Phil M did some motorgliding with a visitor, while Robin flew G-Mild. The usual suspects helped out with the winch, retrieve and general odd jobs, and Rowan was kept busy again in the tug. At one point we even managed to get rid of all the gliders.......

We flew late and had a good day....as we sat by the bar Phil Hebden launched his balloon from the top hangar and went for another trip!

Sunday 4th May

Sunday started sunny and calm, the perfect day for Beth to come out of the hangar. This time we were in the 8 Acre field, Phil Marks in charge with a K13 and the Skylark at the launchpoint.

We had a most excellent start to the day when Phil flew a couple of flights with Glen Evans then sent him solo in DVX. Many congratulations Glen!

Russell & Eric took it in turns to fly BTH with various happy passengers, Alistair Frier flew his shiny K6e - HJD, and the Skylark continued to soar in spite of the usual early release on the winch. 

David Taylor then resoloed after a break from gliding, and Phil put John W through his paces in DVX. Christine took the last flights of the day in the K13 having spent the day as duty tug pilot.

After flying Eric (with various helpers - thanks Jackie & Carol) made a slap up meal of toad in the hole, veggies, mash & gravy for about 16 of us, followed by apple pie and custard.  Then off to the bar to celebrate Glen's first solo.....

Saturday 3rd May

Another fine day at Shenington!

We started with blue skies and small wispy clouds though it went blue in the late afternoon. We launched from the top field, and K13, Skylark and Jaffa were all kept busy with a mixture of visitors and club flying. Mary brought some of her family along for flights with Russell and Derrick.

There were also plenty of private gliders out. Graham Paul went off in 60 on some epic task. Alan & Trish took off in JYR for a declared 500km and did around 335km of the task, going out to Rattlesden in Suffolk and visiting Upwood on the way home when conditions weren't as good as forecast. Dave Smith flew his shiny new LS6 while 373 had multiple soaring flights with Eric & Andy, and Robin & Jon flew G2. H20 finally made it out of her trailer for the first time this year and had the cobwebs blown off in three soaring flights.

It was nice to see our new tug getting so much use. Nearly a third of the launches were aerotow and many people pulled off early and saved money under our new charging system.

After flying a number of us went down to the pub for tea.

April 29th

Blast from the past??

John Rogers sent these photos from midweek. Some of you may remember when this was the first task of the day before flying!

I sometimes miss the cows but I don't miss the cowpats!

Monday 14th April

The sky went good at around 10am on Monday.  Gavin had Clive Sutton as a 4 day course man, and their first flight was 49 mins!  Graham then left in the Nimbus and returned with a long face 647k later!

Graham's flight was Edgehill, Lavenham, Sheffield West (!), Depden Water Tower then back to Edgehill for a declared 707km. The detail is as follows : (see BGA ladder for the trace - it's very long!)

"Had hoped the 400km aligned with the wind would be under streeting, but no such luck, streeting started on the way home when I was flying west. Still some great climbs but the thermals were very small and broken by the wind, which was a 20kt headwind going up to Sheffield and a 9 kt tailwind when I turned to come back. Signs of sea air with low base clouds and a lack of cumulus as I reached Cambridge convinced me to give up on the last turnpoint. Probably would have made it as run back very easy."  

Meanwhile back in Oxfordshire, John R flew for 3.5 hrs, Eric checked out his loggers with a 1.75 hr flight in Cosy and AND  Lech flew in Q5 for  12m and then for 5 h 40 mins! 

Many congratulations on the silver duration Lech.

Apparently this is a rare shot of members working!

Eric (ntd)

Sunday 13th April

Eric (ntd) reports that the weather was not as good on Sunday as had been anticipated. However  BETH came our of her winter nest and flew with Russell, Harry, Clive & Eric. Looks like a few other people were flying too, and judging from the shadows on the photos below, the sun did make a welcome appearance!

Brian getting ready to fly

Little Miss Muffett and Friend

Terry with no sign of fear!

Saturday 12th April

Saturday started off with a disappointingly grey sky and a cool wind. Being small in numbers, we just got out the Skylark 4 and a token K13 and set up in the 8 acre field. Robin went off to do the first stint on the winch, and Phil Hebdon took first slot in the Skylark, but we weren't terribly hopeful about the conditions. DI Graham P was adamant that it was going to get better!

Sam Tomline and Zander, another friend of Phil & Sam, turned up to fly so Graham had something to do, and the rest of us took turns with the Skylark. It all worked out quite well because fairly soon Sam was sent off solo again (after an 8 year break), and we kept the gliders busy all day. 

Solo Sam!

 Initially the flights were better than circuits but not terribly long, then just as it was looking very frontal, Paul Fletcher got away in wave in BNP. As we watched he disappeared up underneath the dull grey top cover, way above the lower ragged cloud, until he was at over 5000'. Best flight of the day, with an hour off the winch, and once again he kindly brought it back for the rest of us. Paul reported that some of the ragged clouds below him appeared to be lined up but that there was otherwise no clue as to the source of the lift.

Whilst Paul was up high, Harry turned up and launched in the K13 - he also contacted wavelike of some sort.....we watched him going up in a straight line away under a grey but cloudless patch of sky. Later, when the front had gone through, we got blue skies and thankfully it warmed up. After that there was more traditional soaring to be had, and Terry M, Phil H and Rowan had decent flights in BNP. 

This is more like it!

 

Thanks to a small but helpful team we had an enjoyable day. Thanks especially to Robin, Paul F and Michael Bell for doing all the winching. 

Saturday the 29th of March dawned with great expectations from members.Tim and others were working to get the Skylark 4 ready for its first flight at Shenington. 

Thanks to Phil (CFI) Tim Donovan and several others who worked over the winter to get it airworthy again and thanks to a member for donating it to the club.

Weighing had to be completed and the control deflections checked, not forgetting the paperwork  before its first flight

Meanwhile club flying went ahead with a number of training flights and a welcome to a trial lesson candidate  who said he had thoroughly enjoyed his flights and was going to sign up for a day or a weeks course.

The rest of the members enjoyed an active day with the big wings with engines off flying and the new tug proving it's worth.

Towards the end of the day, with the Skylark  duly certified it was readied for an aero-tow taken by Tim Donovan as a well earned opportunity to take a first flight on type.

Lifting off very quickly in a relatively light breeze he was soon at 2000 ft and enjoying himself.

This flight was followed by Alan (Chairman) and myself.

All reported that the glider would be welcomed by the club members, providing a real experience to fly a annex 2 glider and one of the last all wooden "high performance " ships.

It was time to close the hanger doors with a really enjoyable spring day.

The photograph is just one of many which will be added as they become available

Sunday was a similar day and several other members were able to try out this new acquisition from both aero-tow and winch launching.

All reporting what a delightful glider to fly.

It will be kept in the top hanger so despite a wing span 18 mtrs it will be easy to get onto the airfield. 

Derrick

Some more pics from Saturday 15th March...

Continuing on from Tess' post, here are a few photographs I took. Most of them were taken while flying along the ridge with John W, watching the sunset.

Panoramic View

Saturday 15th March

On Saturday 15th March, Clive managed to get into the wave near Shenington. Here is the commentary from his flight!