Members' area

The weather has been hot all week, poor David suffered a little sunstroke and was forced to take a day of rest on Wednesday.

Wednesday was very busy, with thermals going to 6000ft, see gthe picture of the grid!! Thanks to everyone who stepped up and helped get the launchpoint moving smoothly. We all noticed how dependent we are on our winch driver.

The Seahawk guys from Culdrose had a super week and put in 110% on the airfield, great to have you with us.

Remy (from Challock) went solo again and converted into the K23, Eddy (from Ringmer)has now mastered circuits and landings and has started on launch failures. Patrick (a local man) is now flying with a few prompts from the instructor. Well done everyone , good effort. Caroline and Will spent the entire week giving back up at the launchpoint.

Airspace restrictions over Aston Down due to the Fairford air display meant we could only climb to 3000ft QFE, however this was no real hardship and pilots moved off to the west in the remarkable soaring conditions we were given.

Thursday dinner was at the Tunnel house, good company, good beer and good food---what could be better.

The pictures show Eddy at 4000ft, Remy getting prepared to go solo and the busy wednesday grid.

Winds 020/10, visibility 30K, blue thermals to 6000ft

A steady return to normality after the busy competition week.

The Farnborough RIAT is now in place with an agreement that we have a sector up to 3000ft QFE.

Winchie David went home unwell , many thanks to Doug and Robin for stepping in and driving the winch for us.

The Culdrose expedition are enjoying themselves and benefiting from the good soaring conditions.

Remy , Patrick and Eddy are getting on well with the course---well on target for achieving their objectives.

Another good soaring day expected tomorrow---see you there.

Another hot day with winds forecast 070/10.

competitors for Enterprise start to arrive.

Congratulations to William Haye, who went solo on the 5th day of the course. A very good effort on his part, and we hope to see more of him as he strives for his bronze C.

Winds 060/10 mainly blue with Cu developing in athe afternoon.

The warm breeze kept the air feeling a little cooler today.

The Surrey Hills guys kept the field running for us, many thanks chaps. fran, Andy and Dave Freeman ventured out and were treated to a great afternoon of flying.

Barnaby Haye went solo after a gap of some decades today, well done to him. He then went off and flew for over an hour just to prove he could do it.

The day finished with a great BBQ, (many thanks to Mike Weston for organising the food and then cooking it!).Meanwhile the evening group took many first timers up for a taster.

Winds 090/15 at flying heights. Blue with a low inversion.

The course continues well, Will is now flying circuits and making a pretty good job of them.

Mike Weston took care of the 2 one day course visitors, father and son had a great day.

The front tyre popped off the rim on ENK. many thanks to Pat Greer and Robin for getting it back into service.

By 5pm the thermals were going to 2400ft above the field and Mike took advantage of the conditions to show our visitors a little more about soaring.

A smart new concrete entrance is now going down at the front of the new workshop.

The next few days will no doubt see increased activity as preparations are underway for Enterprise. Mike Weston will be available for
site checks.There will not be a winch facility on Friday pm but undoubtably there will be a few willing tug pilots. Friday will probably be blue again.

Yesterday the Pik20E flew to RAF Llanbedr where they used to launch the target Jindivik UAVs for us to shoot down - there’s one in a hangar at Benalla, maybe because they were an Australian design.

Good enough locally but a climb to 6,000 feet quickly got across the dead air in the Severn valley and into decent lift again near Hereford. There 5,000ft climbs were available, improving to 6,000ft as the afternoon progressed.

The first photo is looking down the estuary towards Barmouth, about 20km short of Llanbedr.

The second shows Llanbedr airfield but more obviously the sea surface has a dark line caused by the tide running over a reef underneath, which is rumoured to be an old path to Ireland!!?? They found ancient forest trees near here after a huge gale recently.

The last photo was taken above Barmouth on the way home. There is a sea breeze coming in against the northeast wind and the resulting sea-breeze front is showing brown at top on the left, with a heath fire adding to it. I ran that convergence all the way as far as Hay-on-Wye on the way home to Aston Down.

Regards, John

Calendars will be provided in future for composers of these Blogs

Winds 090/05, blue thermals pm.

Matthew Okuhara, Barney Haye and William Haye on the course this week. William and Matthew are now handling the entire flight with prompts and Barney has just started on his launch failure refresher training.

The Surrey Hills expedition dragged the K23 out for an airing and like the rest of us, spent time keeping out of the sun.

The Spartan event stuff is now almost gone, and we expect preparations for the upcoming Enterprise week to begin soon. The showers are looking good after their refurbishment.

David Hart spent another day supporting the ground operations and grabbed a flight in the K23.

Jules flew his "duvet" before spending some time cutting grass in the caravan area in a bid to make it look a little tidier, thanks Jules.

The outlook for the rest of the week looks mainly blue and hot. Course flying will start at 7 am on Thursday and Friday and the last launch will be 1pm on Friday---this will give the Enterprise organisers some time for preparation.

Reduced runway again today because of the Spartan event but we were still able to get around 1200' in the light north westerly. Not too much interest from club members, guess the event and a certain football match had some impact!. Having said that, John Petrie made the most of the opportunity for some extended instruction and Jon Huband was kept busy flying Jack, a newish junior member. Soaring flights up to the inversion level were available for most of the day with improving conditions later in the day, Phillipa got to know more about her new purchase, Robin D had another flight in the Ventus, the Kenley guys had some soaring in their Vega and Doug as usual, disappeared off somewhere. Thanks to everyone who helped today.

..Mike W.

Winds 240/10 cloudbase about 1000ft QFE.

Operating on 21 until freshening winds forced a move onto 27.

The day started with the hanger shuffle, moving the Pawnee to the rear of the hanger and the single seaters to the front. Thanks guys for the help.

Grass cutting continued on an ad hoc basis, Lawrence Wood and Paul Baker volunteered to do some mowing rather than sit around waiting for the weather to perk up. We now have a large area cut, fantastic job. As usual more volunteers required so we dont burden a few number, an hour each will do it easily.

Barrie Taylor and Jim Eva spent the day polishing their skills in readiness for good soaring on Thursday and Friday. Chris Sanderson is now the "handling pilot" coping with the entire flight from take off to landing.

Roger Bagley got the club flying underway and Tony Hayes took over a little later. Drizzle stopped play around 1pm.

The instructor training started after normal flying had finished and continued well into the evening.

Preparation for the Spartan event progresses satisfactorily, the South field will be out of bounds for flying ops from tomorrow (Thursday).

The outlook for the next two days is excellent, fingers crossed the forecast is accurate.