Glider flying has now finished, but the modellers are out in force.

The Rally is now Officially Underway!

We've now got many gliders rigged, and flying started a couple of hours ago. Here's a snap of some of the rigged gliders, but check out the VGC Photo Gallery for more.

Starting to improve !

Get the Winches out Chaps !

Opening ceremony and Pilot briefing

Norman Clowes "The Guvner" briefs the "Yellow Perils" in the Big Top.

Roll up ! Roll up ! (See the tattooed Lady)

The waiting throng.

John Roche-Kelly (Chaiman NGC), Richard Bacon M.P., Chris Wills (VGC), Jan Forster (VGC), Roy "Woody" Woodhouse (Pres. NGC)

The Chairman sticks his oar in !

Site Briefing by Mike Bean

"Met. Man " Graham Parker trying to part the waters !

Mark Wright C.F.I. (If I'm doing the Blog I get to put my picture in !)

Now we just wait for the weather !

Day One - Good Morning !

Good Morning Peeps, An unexpected start to the day , It appears to be raining ! (Trans - Ill pluet!) Looks like an easy day for weatherman Graham Parker. Another factor that has come up is that the toilet cleaner has walked out on the job - anybody got a few hours to spare ! Opening ceremonies will be taking place this morning in the "Big Top" Followed by a site/flying briefing by Beano and myself, For some reasons the Germans started reffering o me as te "Commander" at the launch point yesterday - much to the mirth of the local Pi***oc*s. Going to work on my tan now so I'll catch you later

Fortunately the French contingent are serving breakfast this morning which shoul help make the start of the day a little more bearable !

More news will be added as it happens, Hopefully this will include some Gliding !

Here we go ! Friday rehearsals !

Saturday 24th July - Nutty boys tour Suffolk

An overcast morning saw our intrepid Aviateurs take to the air.

Another solo...

Congratulations to Alan Merriles who went solo on Friday, with thanks to Mick for towing and Will for instructing.
The midweek courses are really showing their worth, 7 solos so far this year - and more cadets to come!

Wednesday Wave!

Wednesday did not start very well. First the Tug broke down then the winch tow-out truck got a puncture so expectations were poor for the rest of the day. The sky looked odd all day with possible wave effects. With a borrowed Tug on line we started to launch.

I joined the queue pulling off in strong thermal lift which then turned into strong and persistent sink. At 1500' I contacted good lift again averaging 4.5 to 4000'. Mike Lindsey radioed to say he was in wave at 8000' north of the site. Pushing forward under the cloud to see what would happen I also contacted smooth solid lift. I turned along he front edge and it improved to 8 up for a while. after a beat or two I was at 7000'. Venturing further east I reached 8000' over BUN. scuttling back home before the rain came in. Mike had topped out over 9000' in the meantime. A great day after all.

The following from Mike Lindsay
"I've been gliding at Tib since 1968 and never managed to contact wave before away from the hills. Not quite like mountain soaring, for one thing the clouds were moving downwind, albeit much slower than the wind speed.
There was a promising looking cloud just north of Diss, base at about 5500. I got to the upwind side of it and fairly gradually was able to climb way above it.
Fantastic! ..."
He actually reach 9700ft!
"I was wondering if I should try to make Gold height, but I couldn't find any more lift.  It looked good towards the coast, but then it showed signs of closing in. It took about half an hour to get down."


Well done to both
Jan

Norfolk Wave!

.

There was a good turn out at briefing for the last day of our 'Summer Soaring Week'. With a warm front approaching the forecast for soaring was not particularly hopeful, though I thought that it would eventually trigger after lunch and provide some weak local soaring, so most decided to rig. However, the front brought with it a sky full of lenticulars formed by front associated 'shear wave' which both enhanced and suppressed the weak 'blue' thermals below depending upon whether they were in or out of phase . Phil S took an early launch in his DG and showed us the way - he eventually logged over 4 hours soaring. Chris L and Bob G took a placed tow to the wave and climbed above the clouds. The rest of us struggled on below until the temperatures rose and Cu started to form. Even so it was far from easy to go anywhere - even Pete R in his DG400 self-launcher could only get as far Bury! Eventually we found that we were still soaring passed 6pm with the wave still influencing, in what had turned out to be a fascinating, if at times somewhat frustrating, day.

.....

Chris L & Steve F-H soaring in the Janus in the afternoon.

First Solo Wins The Day

Congratulations to Josh Brownlow who went solo on his 16th Birthday today - completing over 1hour soaring which also gains him a Bronze leg and a leg for his Cross-Country Endorsement. Doing this on the soaring week gained him 1500pts and puts him in the lead for the week!

Josh’s father Steve, and both grandfathers were all there to see him go solo, infact Steve launched him as his tug pilot. They are all former RAF pilots – and all still fly to this day. He also had an uncle who was an RAF Tornado pilot and another uncle who held a private pilot’s license. Josh’s mum was an air traffic controller in the RAF too!!

Josh after his first solo

Ray Hart congratulates Josh on a flight well flown!

From left to right; grandfather Keith Nunn (former RAF flying instructor, and later a civilian instructor), Josh, Steve (former RAF Jaguar pilot and now an airline pilot with Virgin Atlantic), grandfather John Brownlow (an RAF and civilian test pilot – still flying at the age of 81!)

Summer Soaring Week - Midweek Update

Disappointing to start with, but we did at least manage to get some flying in on Mon & Tue around the showers. Wed, Thu and Fri all saw some local soaring but XC tasks were not possible. Fingers crossed the hopeful forecast for the weekend is correct!

Summer Soaring Week - Day 2

Overall another good day, though it was a slow start as we waited for the weak cold front to eventually pass through and trigger the thermals. It eventually got soarable at TIB around 1:30pm but the 20kt wind broke up a lot of the themals for the first couple of hours and made progressing into wind hard work. Several of us went XC and managed 100km+ (Mark W, Ray, Will, and myself) though Chris L tried to cross a gap and had to land at Eye - Phil M retrieved!

...

Buster teaches Berkeley how to be a retriever!

.

...

Summer Soaring Week - Day 1

A good turnout for briefing and lots of optimism for a decent day. Several 300kms were planned and 3 got round - the Stemme completing Watford Gap O/R and Chris L and Tom S making it round their tasks via Hus Bos. Several of us (Tim D, Bob, Tony G, James F and myself) flew 200km+. It was a day of very hot cockpit temperatures and at times tricky inconsistent thermals. There was also lots of local soaring and a good day was had by all.

.

Good Parking! - RAF Marham.

I do like to be beside the seaside...

Having had to relight scrapping the planned 500 and falling back to the 300 - I then found myself down to 1400 feet out over the fens with no reasonable landing fields. A long slow climb back above the jumbled thermals below 2,500 drifted me north to Wisbech. The clouds ahead looked poor while back into North Norfolk looked booming. I'd seen the new TPs along the North Norfolk coast on SeeYou and decided it was time to go and see them myself.

First tp was over the boarder in Lincolnshire at Long Sutton, then King's Lynn, Hunstanton Light House, Blakeney Point, Cromer Pier and home.

Sutton Bridge & Power Station


Lynn Channel


Hunstanton Light House


Blakeney Point and next TP - CRomer Pier


Cromer Pier