Talgarth Exped

See how Adrian, Simon, Ian and Jan are getting on at Talgarth
http://ngcexpeds.blogspot.com/

Day 1, Course 1

It was the 1st day of the first NGC mid-week course of 2010. Mick was out early with the K13 and course students Geoff L and new member Mark. Also out was Jan flying ASW-20 'LY' and cadet Beth R, who flew with me in 'T12'. It was not a classic, but still soarable. It turned out to be a rather blustery day with rough, broken thermals. Nevertheless, everyone that flew got some soaring in before top-cover from the west cut off the energy. Even George our tuggy managed some soaring in the K13 whilst the course was on lunch-break. The longest flight was over an hour.

Spring Has Sprung!

Ready to go!
..

Andy V and Jan A ran the day and provided instruction to many, including cadets Pete C and Beth R who both managed some decent soaring. Mike T clocked up an hour with Jan in T12 and made some headway towards his AFR. New members Paul G and Steve C were also out. Worzel, Jim L and Jonathan manned the tug.

..

Rougham/Bury

...
It was a busy day with the whole club fleet out as well as a number of private gliders. For a while some top-cover threatened to spoil the day, but most managed to battle through the cycle and it eventually popped big-time with 5kts+ seen in places. The wind backed from NW to SW'ly and I think some shear wave helped to create a few hot-spots with cloudbase climbing to around 4000ft by 3pm!

Norwich FC

...

There were some very respectable times achieved, and I think 5 hours soaring was possible. Geoff and Art pilfered a 2-seater for an hours mutual flying. Jim C achieved 2 hours plus in a club Astir for his XC Endorsement leg. Will flew 'Woodsock' for two and a half hours, Steve F-H clocked up 3:30 in '20' whilst Ben M flew 3:35 for the longest flight of the day in his Libelle. Des blew the cobwebs out of his LS4, forcing syndicate partner Dave T to take the other club Astir XC for a 120km+ flight round PIC-NOE-DIS whilst I set off collecting TPs and also clocked up 120km+ working my way round DIS-HTN-ROU-GRF-NWI-NOE (too many for the ladder claim)! You can see more at: http://www.bgaladder.co.uk/ - Why not put your flights on the ladder and make this year even more successful than 2009...and help protect our airspace?

..

Back at TIB

Soaring & Showers

The duty team was Bob and Ben the instructing men! Additionally, Will D was doing some instructor prep flying for James F. Despite the chilly NW'ly breeze a number of folks turned out to make the best of the conditions. We had the K13, G103 and an Astir out, plus a couple of private owners hurrying to rig - Dave M (LS7) and Simon U (Mosquito) - when Geoff T climbed away for an hour in the 13! As the sky greyed over new member Jason M (returning to gliding after a 3 year break) and I got out the motor-glider but had to delay our departure for half an hour until around 3pm as a large shower passed through washing everyone from the sky. Most sought solice in a hot a cup of tea in the clubhouse. 30 mins later the sky was again blue the lauch-point buzzing. Though the sky was now pretty flat, except for the odd bit of transient shear wave, our 'iron thermal' allowed us several climbs to 4000ft, then engine-off gliding for lots of hands-on time for JM. By the time we landed around 4:20pm the rest of the toys were being safely packed away ahead of another approaching shower, and soon after everyone was ordering beer in the bar.

..

.

Sunday 7th

Memorable ... not so much the flight which was blue and cold and had me admiring the new quarry at NWI from close quarters as the retrieve after!

I flew down to Diss to do some aeros over Chris Lawrence in his field and decided that it looked like he and James Francis would need some help.

After getting through the farm yard sludge with the assistance of the small holder the rest of the retrieve was fairly painless given the time of year.

Major disappointment was getting back to the club, BEFORE DARK, and finding the BAR CLOSED!!





and

Sunday 7th March

A very cold day, perfectly blue and despite the easterly winds it was thermic to about 3000ft from 11:30 onwards.  Many flew including Team Vega (John Kinley, Will and Mike H),   JRK in the ASW19, myself in the ASW20, Tim Davies in the ASW27, James in the Cirrus and Tim Highton having his first trip in the Cirrus. 

Quite a few long flights were had over one hour, but credit goes to Chris L in the ASW19 who was the only brave(?!) soul who went cross country to Norwich - Rattlesden, AND claimed the first field landing of the year near Diss. 

We had a new member, Jason, flying with Phil (on duty).  Barry M and Geoff flew together in the K13.  Jonathan & Ian A towed and Bob & Andrew H found seats in the warm G109 to do some navigation exercises.  Cadets Beth, Josh and Murray were also out and about helping in the bitter cold.

If you flew this weekend, tell us about your flight!