Sunday 20th Sept

A very odd day! It was sunny in town but foggy elsewhere (M40 was closed briefly), and the team didn't get started till late morning due to the mist/fog and low cloud. A nice start with sunshine, the promise of thermals and a few people in shorts/sandals. This didn't last sadly! George very kindly stood in for Phil M as DI, and flew with Alex Phillips while Clive, Tim & John W helped out with our Trial lesson visitors. Club members slotted in with solo flights.

Leslie, back from France and addicted to gliding as ever, had a few solos, and we has some visitors from Oxford GC who had come to try aerotowing. Patrick & Leslie have wasted no time learning how to drive the winch, and both helped out yesterday. Longest flight of the day was flown by Alisdair in the K6E, and after that there were mainly extended circuits. Here's hoping for better weather next week.....

Sunday 6th Sept

A cracking day at the airfield! Forecast said it would be blue, but with a cold night and a warm (ish) day we were hoping for thermals anyway. Gavin was Duty dog, and when I arrived the kit was all out and ready to be taken to the eight acre. Danny C, having not flown for a while, was first up in DVX with Gavin, and they had 15 minutes off the first launch. This was enough to get the rest of us moving and I went next in the K8, and after an initial scrabble found it progressively easier as the clouds built up. Cloud base wasn't high - it moved from c1800' to 2200' over the hour, but the vis wasn't bad, and the thermals were plentiful. I could see Danny & Gavin having a long soaring flight under neighbouring clouds. Rowan in C2, and Alan L in HMB both took to the air late morning and had good soaring flights. Alan went down to Nympsfield and back, reporting that cloud base got no higher than about 3100' - at Nympsfield the encroaching sea air was hitting the prevailing wind and making conditions quite poor.

Back at Shenington pretty much everyone who flew, trial lessons and club members, had decent soaring flights. The K8 spent most of the day in the air. Steve T took it after me, then Bill Gordon converted to the K8 and had a couple of good flights in it to consolidate. David S had a long flight in the later blue conditions, and even the hangar flight was fun, getting back up to aerotow height off the winch. Gavin kept Danny very busy (and exercised!) with a succession of launch failure practices, so the flying is obviously going well!

A big thanks to Andy and Eric who drove the winch all day without flying - their launches were great, and their help as always was much appreciated. A very enjoyable day all round.

DIY continued....how many gliding club members does it take to fit a dislodged flue pipe??

   

Friday 4th Sept

The thinker:

Eric contemplates the results of a misguided attempt to drive the buggy with DIY supplies between the two club building!
....to be continued!

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.

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!

    

 

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.