Sunday 22nd May.
Posted 22-05-22, 22:01 by MikeWestonNot a great forecast today, so no high expectations but the day developed into a fine afternoon. A busy day with 6 aerotow trial lessons with plenty of candidates for instruction keeping the instructor team busy. Congratulations to Nick Tarasek for his first solo and to Tim Andrews who after soloing yesterday completed another couple of solo flights today. Thanks to everyone that helped today.

Sunday 15th May 2022
Posted 16-05-22, 08:24 by timboA bit of a contrast to yesterday with solid overcast and a fresh easterly that forced us on to to the ever popular 09 runway. Still, we managed to get a reasonable amount of flying in before rain stopped play at 14.00: Tom Knight completed his winter refreshers (only 6 months late), Ettienne had his first introduction to launch failures and Miranda continued her three day course with Tim Bralesford. Many thanks to winch drivers Tom Coles and Richard Causey.
Saturday 14th May
Posted 15-05-22, 15:17 by geoffdixonJust a nice day with hardly any wind for a change. Not a classic from the cross-country pilots' point of view but it was soarable from 11:30 until after 6 pm. Cloudbase rose to around 4000 feet above site as the cloud thinned leaving mostly blue thermals with just a wisp of cloud at the top. A tip from the experts, you needed to find the thermals in the blue bits and the cloud only formed as the thermal was finishing off.
Launching today was from runway 21 with both winch and aerotow available. A good line up of private gliders kept the tug happy and from the club fleet we had K21, K13, DG500 and K23 out. The Capstan was seen gracing the skies with its distinctive plan-form thermalling away.
Sunday 24th April
Posted 25-04-22, 06:42 by geoffdixonThe day started windy with operation from runway 03 and just 2 club 2-seaters, plus the K23 and a couple of keen private owners at the launch point. As the afternoon progressed, cloudbase rose to 4500 feet above site with thermals averaging 5 to 6 knots in places. The last couple of hours being the best with easy climbs from every winch launch.
Thanks to everyone who helped out. The atmosphere was really good with everyone working together. Particular thanks to those who stayed to put the gliders away after 18:00 hours.
Saturday 23rd April
Posted 25-04-22, 06:33 by geoffdixonFlying scrubbed due to high wind but very illuminating talk in the evening by Ian Macfadyen was followed by a curry dinner in celebration of Adrian Giles 50th anniversary of his first glider flight.
Sunday the 10th April
Posted 11-04-22, 10:20 by MikeWestonVery quiet start, not many club members around, must have been exhausted after Saturday! Some private owners joined us at the launch point looking at a sky that had a lot of high cover which didn't bode well for an epic day. However from about 1130 it was quite thermic with one of my P2s turning from the top of the launch into a steady 6 knots to 3500', much to her surprise! all the private owners had some lengthy flights. Visitor Will from Shobdon joined to get some winch experience, Jonathan Apperley flew our trial lesson bookings and Jonathan Huband shared the instructing with me. Later in the afternoon two Australian visitors turned up hoping for a flight, one was a gyrocopter instructor and the other a tug and glider pilot, both were great fun to fly with and both had soaring flights. We finished around 1730 when we had run out of members.
Thanks to Martin Hayward and Matt Page who covered the winching for the afternoon and to Ava, Will, John P, Jack and Jacqui for the ground operations.
Saturday 9th April
Posted 10-04-22, 16:37 by timboThe weather gods smiled on us today. It was thermic by the time of our first launch at 10.30 and we enjoyed a good soaring day. Andy Smith and Jon Huband raced each other round a 500k (Busters Hill - Shobdon - Bicester), while pupils Nick T, Tom M, Ava and Ben D all enjoyed extended soaring flights of over an hour, with strong climbs topping out at 6,000'. I believe Austin Rose managed the first land-out of the year, but not too far from home. Many thanks to our winch drivers Craig Mustoe and Paul Roberts for getting us in the air.

Sunday 3rd April
Posted 04-04-22, 09:26 by Mike RA reasonable cross-country and training day. Andy Smith and Jonathan Huband completed respectable 274 K triangles via Lasham and Blandford although they did have to contend with increasing overcast.
Our visitors on Loughborough students' expedition got in plenty of training. The enthusiasm of those of them who had survived the -3 deg night in tents has to be admired. At least one who had only been gliding during the winter months experienced the joy of thermalling to several thousand feet for the first time.
The wind steadily backed during the day, eventually terminating flying around 5:30 when everybody had flown at least once and it wasn't worth changing ends at that relatively late hour.
Many thanks to the many members and visitors who helped during the day, especially Tom, Andy, Matt, Harry and anybody else who drove the winch during the day.
Too flipping windy
Posted 19-03-22, 17:55 by timboAfter an early start, we managed a grand total of three flights before discretion became the better part of valour as the wind increased from "more than a little fresh" to "blowing a hooley" . By the time we called it a day, 70knot approaches seemed a bit on the slow side. The consolation prize was watching the antics of the herd of a dozen or so deer that seem to have taken up residence on the airfield.

Saturday 12th March
Posted 12-03-22, 19:26 by geoffdixonForecast to be windy and we were not disappointed! The airfield setup was on runway 21 with the wind almost straight down the strip to start with. The launch bus was placed opposite the PO hangar to try and limit launch height as the wind was predicted to turn more to the SSE. Later on it was moved even further up the field but eventually flying had to stop as the wind became more gusty.
Fleet-wise we had all the 2 seaters out; LRT, HXJ, KNK and the very shiny ENK, with K23 GCF as the single seater. No private owners out playing today but we were joined by the USK Grob and a fine supporting crew from South Wales. Some vital instructor training was done to help progress our trainee Assistant Cat. Instructors and in addition to a enthusiastic bunch of members needing instruction, we were very pleased to welcome 2 potential members on a one-daty course.
Great to be flying in conditions that were occasionally thermic and on a personal note, ENK is a real delight to fly and soar since its refurbishment.
