England 1: Tibenham 4. Sunday 27th June 2010

The winners on the day were those who turned up to Tibenham.

It did not start out that way. At 12:00 the low inversion was still holding strong, and forcing the gliders back to the ground.
On the ground it was sunny & hot, but at least there was a breeze from the SW. (6-16 Kts).

However, once the temperature got up that little bit higher the inversion broke down and started letting the thermals - and the gliders through.

Thermal heights to at least 5,500' locally with 5-6 Kt climbs. Yess! Up to over 6,000' near Martelsham, and over 7,000' near Bury St. Edmunds - at 17:45 BST.

It had been lovely and cool in the air too. Even after 18:00 the ground seemed hot and sticky after landing.

I missed the Lancaster flying over Old Buckenham, but I heard it call Lakenheath. I bet that someone who was still near Tibenham will have seen it though (own up if you did). The Lancaster never flew to Old Buckenham last year - even though the Spitfire & Hurricane did make it. The reason given by the announcer was that the rain (thundershowers developing that day) damages the propellers on the Lancaster (weird eh?). Not that that was a problem in WW II as they had a better production line for spares.

It even seems to be quite quiet on the bgaladder, for the kind of weather on Sunday - but for those of us who did not stay at home to watch England be defeated: "we wasn't robbed!"

Hot 'n' Hard. Saturday 26th June 2010

Saturday was another tricky blue day. 6-12 Kt E wind veering SE, with tight thermals up to 2,800' at the beginning of the day, gradually lowering down to 2,300 or less.

Kudos to those who set off (Dave M, Chris L, Peter R, Bob G) and especially to Bob G who even made it back from RAT.

The rest of us mortals got some good scratching practice.

This year a few syndicates have splashed out on FLARMs, and it is reassuring to have them beep away even with local soaring, when they notice the other FLARM-equipped members. You are reminded that they are working, even before you set of XC.

Paul W is planning to equip the club gliders with the necessary wiring so that anyone can plug a FLARM into them - if they happen to have one.

The winch was not used, as the cross-wind component on the main was considered to be too much. Shame, but at least it is very unusual: I can't remember the last time that happened.

It was still cooler in the air than it was on the ground.

News from abroad ...

but for those who haven't been following I'm at HusBos for the regionals. We have now had 7 of a possible 9 days and are looking like we will be coerced onto the grid again today and Sunday ... bugger this is knackering!


News and Results

Silver Day - Wednesday 23rd June 2010

The weekday operation of the club is proving to be a bonus, as it is allowing quite a few members to fly on those good soaring days which don't happen to line up with weekends.

Wednesday was a classic fair-weather clouds day, at least near Tibenham, once it got going, around 12:00 BST. Cloud bases from 5,000', from around 13:00. Wind from SSW, 8-14Kts.

Ben H got his new LS4 out and gained his silver distance with TIB-ROU-NWI-TIB, giving him a leg over 50Km from ROU to NWI. I think he did 76Kmh, though I am not sure if it is just for that leg or the whole task. He might well have got his 100K diploma too.

Also Andy H, did 5 hrs apparently 'by accident'. He enjoyed a fair bit of local soaring - and then noticed that it was around 5 hrs.

Peter R did TIB-FRW-SIL-TIB to get 340 odd K. I think Tom Smith also set of for Silverstone. I expect he got round, but did not speak to him. I also set off for Silverstone, but wimped out at Newmarket, when it went blue. The sky east of Lakenheath was working till 18:00. The big clouds that you see at the end of the day, and wonder if they work well.... really do work well. I also shared a thermal with the Tibenham Buzzard. Nice!

Thanks to Mick H for running the day, and all the club members out and about for getting us all airborne. I have probably missed a few things out, but it's been a week since it all happened, now.

The longest day

Well, as you insist Jan. The weather was definitely worth staying in bed for but I arrived at the club at 8.00 to find it all but deserted. Pete spotted me mooching about and relayed that he had been ready to fly the tug at 5.00 but had no takers!

We had a party of scouts joining us at 9.00 and I, aided by Ray, the day's duty instructor, DIed the winch. A few other folk turned up, as did the scouts, and by 10.30 we were ready. So it rained. That was the pattern of the day; rain, fly a bit, rain some more. We did get 23 winch launches and an aerotow in, however. The coldest and wettest we have ever been in June, we closed the hangar at about 18.00.

An interesting and challenging day, Beth, one of our cadets, managed the conditions very well, the scouts from 1st Bacton all had a flight and a good time.

Thanks to Ray, Steve, Art, Pete, Phil, Chris and the others I am bound to have forgotten. Now what are the plans for the shortest day?

(Almost) The Longest Day

Mick ran another Longest Day flying event and there was definitly flying to be had whilst missing the raindrops. 
Unfortunatly I couldnt get there but saw it live on the new moveable webcam. Could I persuade anyone who was there to post a small blog on how events went with a couple of photos?
Cheers
Jan

Tuesday and Wednesday, grab it while you can!

I knew Tuesday 15th June was going to be good but Wednesday looked better so went to Tibenham on Wednesday since the Ventus is still there, Marham being a building site at present.


The members said Tuesday was mega but Wednesday was not.....lots of little flat cu at about 3K all day with streeting, 12knots of wind and a constant worry that the day would go blue and one mistake with an invisible street would see me in a field. However I had three hours of local soaring in wonderful sunshine with the rest of the world at work.

The lesson never learnt is grab the good days when you can since tomorrow often does not come as expected [or forecast].

I also learnt this week why the "bent tube total energy compensator" is called the "bent tube" and not just the "tube".

It needs to be bent into the airflow by about 25 degrees. I returned my tube today to the correct shape [having wrecked it last year] after researching the subject.

It now compensates really rather well and was working really rather badly.

Now I need to work on my flying if I am ever to get the better of a certain ASW15



Peter Stafford Allen