Norfolk Gliding Club Flying Reports: January 2010

Sunday, 17 January 2010

Another Busy Sunday

With fine sunny (if rather breezy) weather and the snow now all gone it was a very busy day for mid-January with plenty of club members and even one or two visitors. We also had a couple of aircraft fly in for lunch as well as the usual Tibenham based powered-aircraft out for their Sunday constitutionals, including the lovely old yellow Tiger Moth. Ben M. was Duty Instructor, and was busy all day. Plenty of useful instruction was delivered to Ab Initios and AFR candidates alike with a little help here and there from Will, JRK, Steve F-H and myself. We launched from near the end of 21 enabling launches in the 2-seaters well in excess of 1500ft on the winch. There were also a number of aero-tows for A/X flights and spinning sorties. The day was crammed with flying until dusk, after which the "Winter Lectures" continued with Jan repeating her interesting and informative lecture from last night on the often dry and bureaucracy laden subject of 'OO' FAI & BGA responsibilities and badge claims which was again very well attended.

Monday, 4 January 2010

Cold But Pretty

Sat in my office at home, I decided that the only thing to do was get out. I gave Ian A. a call and asked if he was available.
90 minutes later we were opening the Hangar and rolling out the Grob 109. Although it was cold (-2 deg C to be exact) it was bright with the sun shining brightly and reflecting off the blanket of snow.

After a pensive couple of minutes the engine started and we were off shortly afterwards once the oil temp etc had risen.

We cruised up to 5500 ft before shutting off the fan then gently soared around for 45 minutes before starting up again and landing.

The views were stunning and there was a clear inversion but vis was still very good. The shadows were long and dramatic as can be seen from the 4 aerials at Talconeston!