The Sport England K8 flies!

Sorry for being so late in posting these photos. The first week at uni has been rather hectic and now is the first chance I have had to sit down!

Our fully-refurbished Sport England K8 came out of the workshop after months of work and flew for the first time on Friday 20th September. Here are a few photos from that long-awaited day.

Waiting at the launch point.

About to take my first launch in HLH.

Looking down on the airfield.

Late afternoon sunshine.

Gail preparing to fly.

Brian doing the last of his pre-flight checks.

The end of a successful day's flying.

Sunday 22nd Sept

This weekend saw the blue K8 (HMH?) enter service - she looked shiny and brand new at the launch point. Everyone who flew her looked after her as if she were precious - and she stayed up on a whisper of a thermal. The sight of the Club's two K8s in the air together was rather special and the debate on which flies better has already begun!! Our visitors Jon, Freda & David were cleared to fly the K8's and were very impressed - the extension of the fleet to include two such 'friendly' aircraft, which are a natural step from the K13s, was a source of a lot of fun (smiles of delight on every launch & landing). We had a good club day on Sunday with 40+ launches.

Russell Dyer

Saturday's flying

Another busy day with Dave Perkins & Don Puttock in charge. The weather was dull to start off with, so it was a late start to the day, but improved quite quickly in the late morning.

Alex & Gus, who had done some course flying midweek in summer, were booked in for some more dual tuition, together with some trial lesson visitors. There was also some instructor validation happening, with Paul Armstrong on site to help Phil M so the two seaters were kept in continuous use.

It was good to see Andy Moore again - after a break from gliding (and Shenington) Andy resoloed again last week and is now getting current again of every combination of winch, aerotow, etc that he can before applying for his EASA license.




 We had a break for a little cow herding mid afternoon, as the young bulls once more made a bid for freedom near the winch! The life of an instructor is never dull....


Eventually the sun broke through. Not for long, but it did allow Tim T to get the only soaring flight of the day in his Kestrel 17. Lucy also flew her K6 DNW - perhaps for the last time before she heads off to Uni next Saturday - and Andy M flew the Astir.

 

There were a great many practice launch failures and not just from the instructors, so perhaps it shouldn't have been a great surprise that towards the end of the day, Alex went solo.

Thanks to Nigel C, Gordon C, Clive and Brian L-W for manning the bus and winch all day, and to everyone else who helped out. Thanks also to Liz for cooking an evening meal for everyone.

BETH flies again...

After spending the past couple of months in the workshop, Beth returned to the air for the first time in two years. John Rogers and I took Beth up for her first flight and even managed some soaring, gaining a whopping 200ft! Eric took to the air again in her and said on his return: 'Finally, I got the spoiler/elevator co-ordination correct!'

Lucy in the sky with Rogers.

'Controls: Yes.
Ballast: Yes.
Straps: Yes.
Instruments: Yes.
Flaps: No.
Trim: No.
Canopy: No
Brakes: Not really...
Eventualities: Land ahead!'

'I think the winch is coming towards us too...'

'Have you checked the floor yet?'
'No, Keep smiling...'

30th August - Post now removed on request

Saturday 31st August

Another good day. Gavin & Don P were in charge with Clive doing BI duties, Alan & Trish winching and Rowan tugging. A number of private gliders came out to play, and there was even a rumour of a mass K6e flight that did not come to pass.

Russell & Phil A went off West in JYR to do a tour of the Cotswolds - they visited Hereford, Aston Down and then back to HusBos & Edgehill for a 300km + flight. John W went off East in H20 to Cambridge North & back, John R and John le C also went off in their respective gliders but I didn't note where they went though they were both gone some time! Lucy set off very bravely upwind (there was quite a lot of wind!) to Bidford on an 50km/100km triangle attempt but ended up landing out at Bidford. Her retrieve from Bidford merged into a tug collection duty for Dave Findon from Bidford (their tug went U/S during the Interclub final and they arranged to borrow ours) which worked out well for all concerned.

In the meantime Don went motorgliding with a visiting glider pilot, and Gavin & Clive did a number of soaring flights with our trial lesson visitors. The Astir also had plenty of trade, and Martin Jones popped in in time to grab a late flight in DVX.

It was a relatively 'quiet' day as befits the last Saturday of the school hols, but the weather held out and I'm told that there were some excellent climbs. The day ended with an evening meal cooked by Liz with some help from Carol - twenty of us sat down to eat together in the new kitchen. Thanks again Liz.

 

The rest of the week looks decent so if you're not a wage slave don't delay - get on down to Shenington! And if you are a wage slave and need to finish any of your field landing training - or just brush up on specific skills - do remember that you can book a slot with an instructor during the next two weekends to get it done. Hope to see you there.

Travels with a glider....

Wednesday:  Phil & I groped our way down to Lee on Solent today - the seaside!! Great fun, though cloud base was less than 2000' and viz about a mile & a half, so initially slow progress. Staying overnight here and lets see what tomorrow brings!! The guys at Lee are really friendly.

Thursday : Looks like Phil wants to go to sea......

Russell

BH Monday

Monday showed more promise, and there was a flurry of activity preparing gliders at the start of the day. Graham and Al rigged 60, just back from Dunstable Regionals, Russell & Phil A were planning to fly JYR in spite of a non functioning engine, and G2, H20, KHC and CPJ were all taken up to the launchpoint before lunchtime.

Gavin and the midweek team got things moving early on, with two new students (Rob & Reuben) to fly and plenty of club members to help. John Dono turned up to fly with Tim H and got out DVX, and the K8 and Astir were soon at the launchpoint too. The weather took a while to get going, with no-one managing to stay up much before 1:30pm although it looked promising for while before that which kept everyone trying! Eventually the single seaters started staying up, and then the K13s started doing cable breaks. Gavin sent Rob Couper solo in the afternoon which was a great start to the week's flying. 

Graham P went out east in 60 to Bedford. I also went east though I turned back too early by Sywell - predictably conditions improved as soon as I set off back so I continued on to Bidford where the sky looked great...

John le Coyte flew the Presidents Triangle, while Russell & Phil visited Silverstone and some of the other local airfields, including Enstone and Barford St John. JYR stayed airborne till after 7pm - the thermals continued much later than we had all expected.

Now I'm sure all you locals know that Barford is not a good place to land, but one of the Shenington Regionals pilots was not aware and managed to make a safe landing there - not quite sure how!!  It's covered in wires, though it's not so obvious from the photo below taken in the poor vis in the cloud shadows. Don't be tempted to try landing as there are usually sheep where there aren't any obvious wire structures:

Back to the launchpoint and the Shenington K6 mafia has spread its hooks with Alistair Frier and Norman Danby taking over ownership of Dave Weitzel & James Stafford's old K6E HJD, now lovingly restored after many years sitting in a trailer. Alistair was getting his hand in flying CPJ on Monday. There is also a new Skylark syndicate forming, with Tony Taylor and two new club members. The K8 and Astir were kept busy all Monday, and I lost count of the cable breaks being visited on the K13s. Kath provided excellent launches as always - nice to be here during the weekday operation for a change. John R was tug pilot for some trial lessons during the afternoon - the 2 tugs came back from Nympsfield so he had a choice of three for once.

Back at work in the Birmingham TMA now, but hope you're all still having fun at Edgehill.

Bank Holiday Blues - part 2

Yes, you've guessed it. Sunday dawned grey and miserable - more low cloud, a lot more people on site, nothing much happening! After copious amounts of tea, Mary hosted a impromptu marketing discussion around the clubhouse table and lots of ideas were bounced about. After this Mary cleaned the kitchen, and the two Johns fixed the broken toilet in the Ladies! Members of the K6 mafia were fettling trailers and polishing bodywork...

Seemingly defeated by the weather we went off to Tesco mid afternoon to get some food for an evening meal, and arrived back at 4pm to see the skies clearing and little cumulus popping over the airfield. At this point we all decided to go flying, and the K8 and CPJ were dragged out to the launchpoint up at the farmyard, with Andy manning the winch. 

 Rowan & John R had flights in CPJ, as did Eric & Andy. Robin & John W and Tess flew the K8.

 We did 8 flights, out of which 3 were decent soaring flights, then we packed up the kit around 6:30pm feeling that we'd gained a bonus from the day! See right for some of the team posing at our informal launchpoint >

Later that evening 14 of us sat down to a dinner of pork stroganoff, followed by fruit crumble (Shenington blackberries foraged by Phil A from dingley dell) and a few glasses of wine. Bob & Jan arrived back from Pocklington just in time to eat, and Eric (td) was clearly pleased to see Colin back from his round the UK trips to Clacton & Yorkshire.   

Andy caught this photo of Eric modelling his new 'trailer work/derigging' anti head injury hat:

Bank Holiday Blues - part 1

Yes, Saturday did start as all Bank Holidays seem to these days - low cloud, rain, miserable looking views from the webcam....However...the day did become flyable shortly before a lone Trial lesson visitor turned up having driven from the other side of Swindon. Russell, who had very kindly rushed up from the south coast to provide instructor cover, took Qasim on his first ever glider flight, and so the day was not a complete waste of time! Thanks again to Russell and Rowan (tuggie) for staying on site all day and flying our visitor - he thoroughly enjoyed the trip.