Saturday 8th Sept

Not what I'd call a nice September day, but once the low cloud cleared we did some flying out of the eight acre. We had some air experience visitors who flew with Steve T & John W, and the rest of the flights were taken by our Dublin friends who were trying out their new glider for the first time. Lovely to see a PW5 for the first time - I can report that it has a very spacious and comfy cockpit!

Sunday 2 Sept

A very quiet day after a busy week, but a day that started with sausage or bacon baps, courtesy of Jane. (Brings back memories of the Prestall Buffet). All our visitors enjoyed their air experience flights. Eboni came all the way from Norfolk, but says she will come back to fly again. An ex-member of Shenington, Chris Delahunt brought his son Jamie for a trial flight. Jamie had a soaring flight of 35 minutes, so got plenty time at the controls. Charles did some refresher flights, and Bill G had some warm up flights to prepare for his training course with Bruno tomorrow. 

Eboni 

Janet after her flight

Mariana 

Jamie and Chris Delahunt

or .

Photos from Pocklington

Lech sent the photos below. Only 3 days flying (pretty much the same weather as the rest of us) but a good time had by all, and lots of museum visiting. See you if you can spot the odd photo out!

 

Competitions & Results!!

A big congratulations to Leigh and Martyn Wells who came first and second in the Standard Class Nationals at Aston Down last week!

Last week was a busy week for club members competing in gliding competitions. Graham Paul was flying the Open Nationals, and Lucy was competing in the Junior Nationals at Lasham. Lucy, flying the only wooden glider in a competition that had difficult weather and was - oddly - not using DHTs or AATs, had a good week for field landings, and found some cracking fields. If you don't land out you're not trying....

Another three crews of assorted club members were competing in the Two Seater Comp at Pocklington in East Yorkshire. Alan & Trish, Bob & Jan, Paul F and Tim D took their respective gliders up north for the week, and looks like they flew at the start of the week though I'm guessing from the results that they had the same poor weather as us later on.

With the end of the competitions it feels like the season is already drawing to a close, but there's still lots of good soaring & cross country flying to be had so don't hang up your parachute just yet.... 

Saturday 25 August

A westerly wind didn’t turn northerly enough for the ridge to work, but it was still a useable day. Graham H, John R, Steve T and Al all went away for an hour or two dodging the showers that arrived in the afternoon.  Tess was busy with air experience flights.

 Richard trying a winch launch after his scheduled aero-tow flight.

 Katharine looking forward to her second launch.

 Nitin returning to gliding after a 20 year gap

Philip was blinded by the sun, rather than in deep prayer!

Task Week snippets

I think they're having such a good week that they're too busy to send news! Al & Graham did 644km yesterday & sent this photo of the convergence that used for the final part of the task:

Meanwhile Clive sent this photo from Alistairs field landing near Brackley yesterday:

What a fantastic field!

Hope everyone is having a great week....

Photos.....

A link to some more competition photos:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/pjd4773/sets/72157695158739132/

Sunday 5 August

A busy day with our visitors from Kent (Challock) who have brought 11 gliders with them. It was another booming day, with cloudbase rising to 5000ft QFE. Every winch launch got away for a soaring flight straightway for the first few hours. This was the sky at 11.00am

Shenington members joined the Kentish contingent with Tim and John D, Graham B, John R, Steve T  and Rowan taking their gliders cross-country, whilst Paul M and Rob F gave the K8 an overdue airing. At one point we had 18 gliders airborne. Rob got his Bronze 2 hours – well done. New BI Lucy helped with the Air experience flights.

Our Task Week starts tomorrow, and the forecasts for Monday and Tuesday look very promising. Fingers crossed!

Tuesday 24 July

Another booming day – there have been several in this hot July. Graham P. did 500km ( Sleaford, Silverstone,Whittington) in 4.5 hours, Steve did 312km, reaching 6000ft near Cambridge. Alan and Trish went west, but found conditions weaker, so only did an hour and a half. Al took DVX  cross-country. Gail, Robin and I stayed local, where cloud base was around 4000ft, with strong climbs. There were still 4kt thermals around at 6.00pm

Caroline, returning to gliding after a break of some decades, did a one day course with our guest instructor for this week, Graham W.  Clive did three trial lessons, all of them getting good soaring flights.   

Clive briefs Ivan before his hour-long Air Ex flight. 

The Shenington ASW15 fleet gets ready. 

Today - 11th June

Graham P had a good flight today, completing a 220km polygon task. He reported a great convergence at Bromsgrove, and sent this photo from the Severn estuary: