Pre-Frontal...

A few flights on aero-tow and in the Falke and G109 motor-gliders, plus a few other power movements. There was a little scratchy soaring but nothing like yesterday! Peter Molloy, visiting CFI from Dorset GC, enjoyed the best soaring flight of the day at just under an hour. An evening pre-frontal wave slot added some interest and the G109 allowed us to explore some gentle, if rather short-lived, lift (engine-off) towards the end of flying.

Always make a declaration

What a day! Phil S standing in for Will, a gin clear sky (at 9.00 BST), very bleary eyed (clocks going forward etc.) I figured that I might rig just in case. I helped get the club gliders out first as there was a BI course running and they needed the K13 for high tows. DIed the K21 and helped tow it out. Not many folk rigging, Ben and Barrie rigged Libby and Tim and Chris rigged HNC. As I reached the launch point a newish member needed a finishing lesson on how to use the winch. Well the sky still looked poor so why not? Only one launch needed so we dragged the cable back to the launch point only to discover that all the other winch driving pilots had gone for tea. Our new recruit was thrown in at the deep end and so I gave him a briefing on my launch and sent him back for his first unaccompanied launch. I waited for Ben to take an aerotow and then pushed on line for the winch. Away.... not bad for a first timer, 1000' before I released to prevent over speeding. Thermals were just building and I got to 2000' with no problems. From then it was charging around the market towns of Norfolk and a foray over the city at 4000'. A better pilot would have declared but I had a great time (4 hours and 17 minutes worth). Cloud base reached 5200' at times but cold feet defeated me in the end. What a marvelous day.

Not much ...

Front, trough, front, trough.

Ray Hart and I sat in on a BI Course and helped where needed - so you can now watch the BGA Winch Launching Safely videos on the computer in the briefing room - http://www.gliding.co.uk/bgainfo/safety/safewinchlaunching.htm

We also redesigned the "President's Triangle" so that it doesn't cross the Norwich approach.

A PDF will be distributed but the basic details are

TIB - NOE (Norwich East) - PIC (Pickenham) - DIS - TIB
or reverse

for 116km

Blustery but Bright Sunday

A very bright and windy Sunday eventually saw soaring flights of over an hour for George B'ski. Will Day, John Kinley and Geoff T & Barry Marcham. Not to be left out, I shook the cobwebs off my Cirrus and after a shakedown and trial flight following winter maintenance, managed over an hour myself. Conditions not ideal for XC with 21kts of wind at 2k and launching off 33 meant an interesting approach with the trees providing plenty of curl-over. At least the vis was much better than the previous 2 days.
Andy Vidion ran the day with help from Ben Mangnani and Jonathan A. Thanks to Paul Thompson and his wife for providing the catering.
Others out were, Grum Ashworth, Mark Wright, James Francis Andrew Hewitt, Mike Tate and Pete C.

Hazy Day

A murky start did not put people off rigging, and although the thermals got going late under a thick inversion, it turned into a good local soarable day with many flights over 1hr. Dave Munro ran the day, with John Roche-Kelly kindly stepping in to take some trial lessons.

Our ab initios turned out in force including Oliver Bloomfield, Ben and Steve Kirk. Amongst the others out enjoying the day were Tom Smith, Chris Lawrence, Tim Highton, Mark Wright, Art Kerkoff, Geoff Tilly, Josie Briggs, Paul Wilkinson, James Francis. Ian Atherton and Roy Colman took a trip in the Grob 109 to Rattlesden returning at the end of flying.

I did just over an hour and a half in the 20, cheating a bit by taking a high tow above the 3000ft inversion and dropping down into the top of the thermals! Still a nice flight despite the poor visibility.

4 hours of thermals...

A misty start with the sun burning through to rapidly raise the cloudbase during the morning. The dew point quickly climbed above the inversion and the day went blue - but that was definitely not the end of the thermals. The inversion rose to around 3000ft and despite a SE wind there was around 4 hours of usable thermal activity. Country member Roy Colman got the longest flight of the day in Astir NG1 with 3 hours soaring. Others out included Paul Wilkinson doing some BI course prep, Tony Griffiths and Tim Highton, with Ian Atherton instructing and Jim Lawn providing the aero-tows.

Not a cloud...

Not a cloud in the sky. Very weak and short-lived blue thermals did finally bubble up but were mainly capped at 1500' by the inversion. Geoff T. did, however, somehow manage to scrape up to 2200'! Andy V. ran the day whilst I flew the G109 for Field Landing Refresher training with Wade, Adrian and Clive. Launching was off RWY 21 with winch launches reaching around 1600ft despite very light winds. This morning Jim L. retrieved the tug from Old Buck after maintenance.

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NGC's Grob 109a Motor-Glider

ATC Visit

A dull day with a weak front passing through so no flying. However, the day was used for some useful briefings in the morning followed by a visit to Norwich Airport ATC where we were shown round the Tower and the Radar Control Room. Our thanks to ATC staff Ian, Mark, Kate and Steve for an interesting afternoon - we even got a free cup of tea!

Blue, Blue, Blue...

Blue skies and stable conditions gave us a pleasant day to be out at the airfield, if slightly frustrating, waiting for a trigger temp that never quite got there. Some useful flying was achieved in the G109, whilst others fettled club kit.

Soarable Sunday

Light NW winds and soarable conditions lead to long thermal streets enabled several cross-country excusions; the first of the year from Tibenham.

The Season Starts??

Sunday 15th March

A super day, half the club appeared to be out with a number of privateers rigging. A patient wait until 12.00 was rewarded with the sight of cumulus slowly developing in the Tibenham hole. Taking a launch at midday I almost paid the ultimate price, narrowly avoiding the fate of the next launch by hanging in the weakest of thermals as it developed. It took me the best part of an hour to reach 2000’ but once there the lift was 2-3 knots and by 13.30 went to 3300’. I spent most of the time in gliding range, just, with one or two excursions around turning points just beyond range. Streets formed later and I made Wymonham to Beccles with the loss of only 200’. I finished by spinning the 19 just to remind myself that the single-seater does recover when you do the right thing. Three hours seventeen minutes. Not bad for March, and RASP looks good enough for a proper cross-country on Saturday!

JohnR-K

And they're off...

Beautiful blue skies this morning with a light NW wind. Cu started to pop around 11:30am pretty much as forecast and a number of soaring flights followed over the next 4 hours until top cover killed the day around 3:30pm. There were several X/C excursions by private owners, mainly running the well established street between East Dereham (a military exercise DZ at Sculthorpe prevented us going much further NW) and Bungay allowing some decent 'local tasks' of well over 100km and nice views of each coast at the respective TPs. JRK soared the longest scratching away early to clock up well over 3 hours. Longest X/Cs were around 140km. Bob and Ben ran what turned out to be a really busy day with gliding and SLMG flying. Thanks to all who helped make it a good club days flying.

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One of several XC tasks completed today. TIB-SWA-BUN-EDE-TIB (145KM)

Saturday

Poor weather in the morning gave way to better conditions in the afternoon. Mark Wright ran the day and a productive afternoon of instructional flying was acheived.

Friday

Mick was doing a few NPPL lessons in the motorglider and I turned up early afternoon after work to fly a member of the local press.

Cloudbase was around 1700ft, quite blustery and it looked like the forecast front was going to put paid to any afternoon flying. However this was not the case; I took an aerotow in the K21 at about 2:30pm to show our visitor what gliding is all about, and although we were sculking around the cloudbase on an extended tow, he still had an enjoyable flight. There were a few areas of reduced sink and if the wind hadn't been quite so strong we might have had a few more minutes airborne.

We retired to the clubhouse whilst other club members turned out to fly the motorglider - it must have been airborne most of the day.

I Can’t believe my season is over!!!!! (Gary M)

Having recently accepted a job offer to work in India, I find my season over almost before it's begun! So where do I start? I suppose today is the best place...

8th March the morning after thinking there wasn’t going to be anything left of Jenny’s or my awnings on the caravans!! Last night was horrendous with the wind and rain that came down. I thought my caravan was going to turn over at one stage. Anyway I laid in bed until just before 0900am expecting the weather to be bad and thinking I could get up have a shower and start DI’ing the gliders before anyone was to turn up. To my amazement the sun was shining and the gliders were already out and DI’d!!! Did everyone know something I didn’t? So I had a quick shower and followed the club gliders out with B12, only to break my wing dolly in the process. I shot off to the launch point to get someone to help to walk my wing to the launch and had the pleasure of meeting our new Cadet flyer Grant, who gladly obliged.

I then had to shoot off too Long Stratton to meet my brother’s sister in-law who I didn’t realise till last week, lives in Newton Flotman. (How long have I been here at Tibenham)? Anyway Maggie decided that she wanted to come flying with me, but this was when we were both a wee bit tipsee at my brothers 25th wedding doo, so you can imagine I didn’t really believe that she would come. Well I was proved wrong!

So I went and dragged the Grob 103 out which was already DI’ed! Once reaching the launch point Mark our CFI told me to jump straight in it. I pre-arranged last night to do my Passenger Endorsement with Mark. But never really thought I would be able to take Maggie flying myself. However, Mark signed my Passenger Endorsement off despite the strong wind conditions which allowed me to take Maggie up.

So there I was sat in the glider with this lovely lady doing my first Passenger Flight. I have flown mutual flights loads of times but somehow this was much different. For the first time in years I was really nervous about flying and after doing all the briefings with Maggie we were there about to launch.

The launch was un-eventful and we turned right to get away from the launch. I kept talking to Maggie and pointed out the local landmarks. The view was brilliant today as well we could see for miles. She seemed quite at ease at this point. Well we hit a bit of lift so a made a few gentle turns to see how Maggie coped and I didn’t hear anything in the way of screams or whimpers from her and she was seeming to enjoy it so I wound it into the thermal even more and found ourselves climbing. I couldn’t believe our luck as everyone else had just gone straight up round and down till this point. Well we managed 17 minutes in all. After landing I was keen to see the look on Maggie’s face and she was beaming all over so I guessed she enjoyed it!!!! Once we had pushed the glider back she quietly whispered to me to say to everyone that she didn’t scream once!!! (I was about to ask her to say that to everyone).

So after a quick warming cup of tea we went for round 2. But the weather was starting to close in and after seeing the duty instructor Phil have and eventful approach I was on the verge of scrubbing our second flight, but seems we were strapped in and secure Maggie was wanting to go for it! So I went through the ‘CBSIFTCBE’ clipped the cable on and waited for the all out signal. Fortunately I emphasized the eventualities bit and guess what we went through a big wind shear and had a cable break. The wind had swung so we ended landing in the centre triangle. It was the safest option and the least scary one for Maggie.

To my amazement I found Maggie must have enjoyed it because she very quickly asked about the different types of membership that she might be able to join. This was when Ratty turned up and quickly whisked her away to his car to look for the membership rates, !!!!!!!! Hum…I wonder.

So back to my feelings, what can I say? It was fantastic to be able to take a total stranger up flying, and to give them the amazing experience of gliding. It was just an awesome feeling to give that gift to someone. I would well recommend it to anyone.

Also this week:
Due to our March offer of free reciprocal membership I had the pleasure of 3 of my Burn Gliding Buddies turning up for the Tibenham experience. Firstly on the Monday Keith Springate came with me . He flew with Ian A in the motor glider and had 2 hours. Keith managed to complete his cross country checks , one hour soaring the 109, and a site check. So he was happy. Keith flew the winch a couple of times later in the week.

Gary Vaughan and Tommy Lynch then turned up on Wednesday evening just as I was leaving the ‘Fox and Hounds’ so we stayed for a few beers. Over the next 2 days Gary enjoyed a couple of 1 hour soaring flights and Tommy did some winch work and further flying with Will and Ian. All three guys enjoyed it and pledged that they would like to get back some time soon.

On the Friday I rigged B12 with the help of Tommy. Gary and I decide to try and launch together in the clubs Astir and me in B12 so we could do a quick cross-country together. Unfortunately due to a cable break this didn’t turn out as planned and it left me only 40 minutes to fly before shooting off to work.

After taking off I managed to climb to base at 2900 feet and pushed forward to just south of Watton on the edge of Thetford forest and the danger area. And got back with loads of height!!! There was a good distance to be had I am sure.

What a great week it was for the visitors, Gary, Tommy, Keith, and Maggie. It was good for the club with around 200 to 300 pound spent on flying and I don’t know how much on coffee teas food and beer, and a possible new member at that as well. What a marvellous experience for me to gain my passenger endorsement and fly one of my family. I just want to finish this by saying a great thank you to all that winched instructed cooked food served beer and pushed and pulled gliders and every thing else that makes flying in this fantastic club so good.

Good and safe flying to all from Ting Tong Slumdog.........

PS Unfortunately due to me going to work in India for 2 years…B12 is for sale!

Gary Marshall.

Wild Westerlies...

Phil S ran the day with winching off RWY 26. Not much soaring in the 'wild westerly' winds but the best was made of a blustery day until heavy showers stopped the flying around 3pm. So despite some variable weather we have flown all but one day in March so far with some good soaring flights on 3 days.

Busy to the last minute!

Tim Davies ran most of the day, covering for Mark Wright who was at the BGA Conference to attend the 'CFI forum' this morning. JRK was BI flying and it was a busy training day with a good turnout including more visitors. Launching off 21 we were regularly winching to 1800ft+ in the 2 seaters, with some gaining over 2000ft. I took over as D.I. at 3pm when Tim had to go, shortly after which Mark also turned up to help out for the last portion of the day. We were busy to the last and only stopped flying due to running out of daylight. Thanks to all who helped out winching, etc. to enable us to get the most out of the day.

And the soaring continues...

Will Day covered for Mick, who was away for his medical. Launching was off RWY 33. The kit came out early and when I arrived after work around 1:45pm lots of soaring had already taken place. Even Grum soared for over an hour solo in the K21!!! I helped out with some instructing and Will managed some soaring in the Astir before the day cut off earlier than expected around 3pm or so, though by then most had managed some soaring. Thanks to all those who pitched in with the winching to enable yet another good days flying. Others out included; Mike Bean, Ratty, Paul Wilkinson, Paul Woodcock, Geoff Tilly and Dave Taylor, plus our visitors from Burn - Gary V and Tommy L. Gary is hoping to come back and fly the Eastern Regionals at the end of May.

Big Cu

A good soaring day for the time of year. Moist and unstable air leading to some over-convection and some large cells that gave the odd light shower. Mick and I instructed. I flew with Andy B and the visitors from Burn, one of which (Gary Vaughan) gained the longest soaring flight of the day at over 1hr 20min solo in the G103, before returning for the next pilot.

Late Clearance

The morning was poor with a later clearance of the front than hoped for. Nevertheless, Mick and the Wednesday regulars managed some winching for a few hours this afternoon. No soaring but at least Keith got to solo on site before his journey back up North to Burn. We wish him well on his BI course at the end of the month.

Best Day of the Year So Far

Keith Springate (visiting from Burn GC) and I made good use of the best soaring so far this year.
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Flying the Grob 109 for 2 hours we briefly explored the local area before turning the engine off to soar in thermals of up to 3 knots for almost an hour. Cloudbase was around 3500ft with well defined streets. The thermals started to die after 3:00pm, so we restarted the engine and completed a field landing refresher before landing back at Tibenham.

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Considering the excellent weather it was just a shame that more people couldn't get to the club to enjoy it today. Wednesday still looks promising at the moment so hopefully we'll get more soaring.

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The BGA ladder shows lots of X/C flights, several of 200km plus: http://www.bgaladder.co.uk/Enquiry.asp

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Don't miss the next good day.

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Forecasts at; http://norfolkglidingclub.com/Weatherton.aspx

Saturday

Although it wasnt particulalrly soarable, it was good to see a number of club members flying including ab initios Oliver Bloomfield, Ben and Steve Kirk. Ben and Ray got the only soaring flight of the day apparantly a thermal found them whilst doing stall recoveries! Also out were Brian McClean, Geoff Tilly, Art Kerkhoff, Josie Briggs, Berkeley Pittaway, Tony Griffiths, and Rebecca Woodcock. Temporary member Bob Fairfield(?) returned to the club after his trial lesson last weekend and really got involved with helping after his flight.


We did around 25 winch launches and 3 aereotows. Not bad for a Weatherton 'day 1'.