Busy Weekend.

After a fantastic soaring week, the weather over the weekend was rather mediocre. Saturday was blue, though locally soarable for a while. Sunday saw a dull start with rain in the morning and then brighter weather in the afternoon once the cold front had passed through. The club fleet was kept very busy with a number of new ab-initios and cadets keen for tuition, as well as SRE Dave Munro running an Assistant Cat Instructor 'Completion Course'.

Flight of the year...so far?

Congratulations to Tim Highton who flew his first 300km & nbsp on Thursday; Tibenham - Mendlesham - Northampton - Tibenham, and in the process ticked off his silver distance, silver height, silver and gold duration, second part of the 100km diploma, gold distance and diamond goal !!


http://www.bgaladder.co.uk/dscore.asp?FlightID=25524

That's now 4 x 300k flights from TIB in April so far, plus lots of other 100k+ flights!

Nice One Paul!

See the details of Paul Woodcok's circum-navigation of Norwich Airport today at:

http://www.bgaladder.co.uk/dscore.asp?FlightID=25406

Wednesday.......it was still fun!

I was tempted back to Tibenham today with the promise of a booming day.


I arrived late for a 500klm [and that is another story] but declared tib-sy1-rat-mad-tib.

A bit cross wind but I thought that there might be stepping stones across the streets as it proved.

What was a surpise was the low base at Tibenham, the amount of cloud and the air of depression of those on the ground at 11:30

I launched and yep there air was miserable until passed Marham. By Sleaford the air was buzzing nicely but the late slow start had doomed me.

The run from Syerston, where it was turning blue, down to Rattleston was stuff that dreams were made of, with the occasional 5 knots. However I did not push the flight knowing that I would turn Rattleston and go back to Tibenham. I arrived happy but very cold [6000 was best heigth and very very cold].

Not the day of days advertised, not the 500 klm I had planned but a fun flight again of 340klm at 80kph.


Peter Stafford Allen

Another 300k from TIB...and it's still only April!

East Anglia drew the short straw on what was a 500km+ day inland, with one ladder flight of 840kms!!! It was a relatively poor start at TIB, but it did finally get going and Dave T fought his way upwind to Long Sutton in Lincolnshire and back for a creditable 158kms in his LS4. Meanwhile Peter S A (visiting again from Marham) took his Ventus to Syerston and Rattlesden (over 300kms) seeing 5kts to 6000ft further inland. Not the 500kms they'd initially hoped for, but good XCs nevertheless...and remember, it's still only April! Back at base the Wednesday regulars and the course guys had some good local soaring after lunch. Unfortunately I couldn't fly 'LY' today as I was cordially invited to attend work.

Rollercoaster Weather

Check-out that Averager - Yes it does say +8.7Kts
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It was very blustery, but super thermic. Mick and the course guys had a great day in some amazing weather. Peter Stafford Allen pitched up from Marham with his Ventus in tow and I helped him throw the wings on. We then set off on a 2-Task adventure: First Ridgewell O/R followed by The President's Triangle. There was some fantastic climbs (8kts) and some monster sink (don't ask), but we both got round in around 3hrs or so...another fun day's XC from Tibenham. Big thanks to Steve Brownlow for towing.

A delighted Peter with his Ventus after his 2-Task Flight

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For more detail see:

http://www.bgaladder.co.uk/dscore.asp?FlightID=25218 and

http://www.bgaladder.co.uk/dscore.asp?FlightID=25221 and

http://www.bgaladder.co.uk/dscore.asp?FlightID=25228

Training Day

Not very thermic, but a good training day for the guys on the course with Mick - George B. provided the A/Ts. Jim Carter and I made good use of the weather to complete his XC Endorsement training in the motor glider.

Sunday 18th April

. On Task - Out West!

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Myself and Andy V running the day, with Jonathan and John Gammage tugging. Still using our borrowed winch and many thanks to all who pitched in to drive and learn to drive it. It was a busy day with all 3 two seaters out and an Astir, as well as plenty of private owners.

The weather was not that promising, it started out as blue as yesterday and we were expecting it to get a bit more stable. However the conditions did improve in the afternoon and a few of us got a bit of soaring in, some Cumulus developed and we got good climbs to just over 3000ft. A number of flights over 2 hours were flown.

Out flying today included Sarah J and daughter Sophie, Paul G, cadet Peter C and new junior member Chris Baraclough, Andy H, Geoff, Berekeley and Will. We also had a few trial lessons.

Some cross country tasks were planned for the privateers, the presidents triangle being favourite, but conditions were not good enough for this so Dave T set the task to Cambridge and back which he and Ian successfully competed. Ray flew HNC to get some time in before he flies in the Eastern Regionals in a few weeks. Mark W, Chris L, Ben H and JRK were also out in their gliders. This evening Jim C went off on a XC Endorsement Navex with Ian in the G109.
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Andy H flying locally in N12

Not Even A Vapour Trail!

Tim lauches in AV8

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JC's new toy!

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Buster stands guard!

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It was blue bigtime with not even a vapour trail to 'spoil' the view. The inversion never quite bust at TIB, but there were lots of folks practicing their survival skills! The fleet was out and we there were many folks here. Mark W ran the day but managed to 'palm-off' most of the ab-initio instructing to the rest of us whilst he did some instructor checking. After flying we retired to the bar for beer and a chinese!

Perfect Sunset

ICL @ TIB

Sat 1st – Monday 3rd May

Please contract Tim Davies with your availability and the class you can fly in.

Novice – hadn’t flown a Regionals or 300km before 1st Jan 2009
Intermediate – hadn’t flown a Nationals or 500km before 1st Jan 2010
Pundits – The rest ...

As we have so many Novice and Intermediate pilots this year we will have two teams – the official team and the “I’ll show you why you should have picked me” team.

Tim Davies
07768 866882
tim@pellcomp.co.uk

Other dates we know about - Wormingford 31st July – 1st August

Fortune Favours The Foolish!

After a week at work seething as I looked out at the soarable weather, I was determined to make the most of what was on offer. I was due to help out on Mark's BI refresher course in doing Sim Rope-Breaks stuff in the G109 this morning, so got to the airfield early and sorted the glider (still rigged from Jan's flight yesterday). By 11:30am I'd finished the SLMG stuff and was airborne in the ASW-20 by 12:05. I'd "foolishly" decided to set a downwind task (TIB-GRL-HTN-CAX-TIB 306km) hoping for streeting - and perhaps a longer slot than predicted - rather than fiddle about trying to go upwind to the coast.

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The L-Nav threw a wobbly and 'locked' in PUSH pretty much at release making the audio and glide computer useless (GGRRRHHHH!) although the averager and Lateral Nav bits were OK. So I defaulted to using the good old Winter as I climbed in a thermal straight off tow which got me to cloudbase (around 3000ft) and I set off down the street fiddling with the LNav, but couldn't solve the problem. My initial thoughts were to see how it was going by NMT and then decide whether to chicken out, but I found myself romping along and not turning much as it got much better inland (4-6kts to 4000ft). It only took around 50 minutes to get to GRL making the 1st leg speed about 110kph! I'm not sure why but there were lots of gliders on the ground at GRL. There were also a few soaring locally and I spotted a Duo on track and poached the thermal just in time to see it leave heading upwind.

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OK, I thought, now lets's see how long it takes to get back to HTN. The streets were still very good and despite the 15-20kt h/w I made the second TP in good time arriving an hour later at 1410BST. (Just over 60kph). The sky still looked very good towards home and I was tempted to continue into wind for and easy 184km GRL O/R. A quick bit of maths meant I needed it to stay working for another 2 and a half hours to get round easily at my current rate of progress. I didn't really believe that was on but calculating I should be able to make a landout at Knettishall Airfield near HTN on the way back (for an easy retireve) I decided to plough on, and again turned my back on home.

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More good streeting and I turned CAX only 35 minutes later at 1445 BST. (106kph) and I was joined by another glider that followed me well upwind past Cambridge before he probably realise I wasn't from GRL and promptly disappeared! As calculated, it took an hour to get back to abeam HTN again, but this time my earlier supsitions were realised and the sky ahead looked disappointing with the cloubase lowered and the Cu collapsing. I picked up a bit of a climb and tiptoed through the energy as best I could towards Kettishall as planned, arriving north abeam around 1450ft QNH (1260ft TIB QFE). I was starting to get tired and was finding the strip really inviting. After quite a struggle to stay airborne I finally hooked into 3kts and I clawed my way up to cloudbase at 3000ft QNH and I radioed TIB to find they were now using RWY 08. I pushed into the 15kt head-wind and at Fersfield I was down to around 1400ft QNH again and picking fields. A bit of a try at a blob of lift made no gain, although whilst turning I spotted a good field to come back to if needed. I pointed towards 08 at TIB and was fortunate to glide along an energy line without losing too much height which to my relief put me nicely above glide. In the end I was on short final with about 800 feet QFE and surprised to find myself thinking about landing long for the trailer park. However, I could see they were waiting to winch lauch so I pulled the landing flap and full airbrake to spot land next to the K13, so that they could launch. Exhausted and ellated I pryed myself from the cockpit at 1630. The last 30km had taken 45 minutes (rather slower than the rest of the task at just 45kph)!

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Overall 4:26 airborne, 4:17 on task with a task speed of 71.6kph, but what a great spring afternoon out. We packed up the glider and went to the clubhouse for a beer. I don't think I could have got much more out of the day. Thanks to Jan (and our dog, Buster) for crewing.

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Trace times in GMT

Lovely weather for gliding

Lots of flying going on a Tibenham, weather getting better all week. Pete Ryland completing TIB-SIL-TIB yesterday while we were all looking at the sky in frustration from our desks.
http://www.bgaladder.co.uk/dscore.asp?FlightID=24800
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"Better inland than Norfolk. Originally planned a triangle, but too strong NNW wind to skirt the Wash. Should have gone faster/earlier. Concentration lost talking to Lakenheath.
Lovely day out there(at last!)"

A temporary replacement winch is expected on line tomorrow (Saturday) and the day looks promising for some XC. Plus the great news is the K21 is on its way home from Poland for rigging Sunday - everyone form an orderly queue (and wipe off your finger prints!!)