Plug for Landable Fields DB

Now that many of us are addicts of glidernet, we can see that the last couple of days have been difficult with the high pressure becoming established, and the continually lowering inversion.

On 23rd we can see gaggles forming near the start point,

 

 and even the rest of the grid getting ready to launch. 

Yesterday we could see a whole bunch of gliders at <1,000' near Ely and Littleport

This is a good time of year to be thinking about landing out. Much better than say May and June, when the crop is long, and a land-out could mean minor repairs. It would be good if you could see all the good land-able strips nearby at that time of year.

With that in mind a couple of us in East Anglia have started gathering some info's on Landable fields. For Norfolk Gliding Club Mike Crook has a folder of land-able fields in the area. I have gathered a couple electronically working with Martin Gregorie of Cambrdige GC (I have yet to reconcile the two).

A couple of file-formats are supported, and you can find the info on his website, here. The gist is you can download it as additional waypoint info, and it can show in your glide computer as options to land at, should you need it. XCSoar will even predict arrival height there (other programs probably do, but I have no recent experience).

If you have spotted an airfield (hopefully from high enough to be thinking about your task, not landing), it would be good to have it validated. Martin is interested in both positive and negative affirmation on the sites. We want to remove a strip from the DB once it has been ploughed over.

New stuff is also interesting. As an example, I took a picture of Fen End Farm (52º18.800N 000º07.400E) strip last year and have only just this week got around to asking, and yesterday had its existence confirmed by the owner. Google Maps / Sat view is still showing it as a normal field. We need to update the database and add it back in.

Fen End Farm strip from N of Great Ouse

 If you have any Farm strip sightings, or helpful comments, please update Martin Gregorie (look for the contact page on his web-site).

You can also drop a note on this post in the short term.

Off into the Blue...

18m Nationals task here.
Juniors task here.

Weather window not big enough to task on 22nd Aug.

So from 21st Aug. Side view of what Nationals 18m pilots fly in 2016.

The ventus 3 sure has the biggest dihedral. It looks like it's pulling 3g turns even on the ground. I wonder what it looks like when it is pulling 3g.

It makes me wonder how the span is worked out for the classes. Is it the shortest bit of string between the two tips, or is it from lying the string along the wing. Is a curved wing a way of getting a bit more length of wetted wing, i.e. a slight advantage for any given class (nominal span)? If it is I guess we'll see more aircraft like it.

The tech of all of those on the grid: (JS1s, ASG-29s also) is pretty amazing. You would not turn your nose up at any of them. Top speed of 111kph with a 19Kt wind, and cloud-base that looked around 3k' seems quick to me. The top 4 finishers were over 100kph and the slowest finisher over 78kph.

Trying to read a bit more about wing shape has lead me via rec.aviation.soaring group to an article by Dick Johnson on side-slip in turns. I have heard several people say about a side-slip in turns is a good thing (unless you have winglets), but this explanation makes me want to experiment more... The notes about the string would show a slip around 5º when you're flying true... as it is forward of C of G.

Get set.....

Juniors scrubbed today, but the 18m nationals are lining up:

18Kt Westerly mean lining up on runway 26.

The back of the queue is snaking back up 33

The back of the grid...

Ready to go....

Progress is on Soaringspot.

2016 18m Nationals and Juniors competition starts today (20th Aug), and runs to 28th Aug.

... though unfortunately today is scrubbed.

The soaringspot site is here. This will have tasks, and daily results.

The juniors general purpose facebook page (that talks about the comp) is here, along with another one specifically for the comp is here.

The Norfolkglidingclub page is here.

2016 April showers

Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur

Our very own Griff has a letter from the French Government stating that he's been awarded the status of Chevalier (Knight).
 If you click on the link below you'll see an image of the medal plus a comprehensive explanation of what the medal is all about,

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legion_of_Honour  

Apparently if he were to write to the crown he could also be awarded the status of Sir/Knight in this country.

We are proud of you Griff!

Graham's turn to make his first solo flight.

Saturday 24th January. Congratulations to Graham Patrick on his first solo flight. It has been a pretty decent winter for ab initio training; I am sure Graham will not be the last first solo we see before the spring is over.
Pictured below, just after his first solo landing, a very happy Graham.