We flew today and it was well worth it !

FIRST SOLO ! Congratulations to Paul Gould on his going solo . Paul is pictured above with Instructor Tim Davies

Josie & Mike preparing for a flight in Mikes T21

Paul & Tim "I won't pull the bung" Davies

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!

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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.

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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!

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Buster teaches Berkeley how to be a retriever!

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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.

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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

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

Eastern Regionals Saturday 29th May - Sunday 6th June 2010

Catch up with the tasks and results on the Eastern Regionals Blog.
http://ngccompetitions.blogspot.com/

Pre-Comp Practice

A couple of flights reported so far from today, although I like many had to admire the view through an office window.   

Steve F-H flew '20' around the presidents triangle,
 http://www.bgaladder.co.uk/dscore.asp?FlightID=26480

Peter Stafford-Allen did a quick 352k TIB-NTN-GRL-TIB (92kph!) http://www.bgaladder.co.uk/dscore.asp?FlightID=26489
"The wind was a bit fresh on the way to Newark, 12knots, howver the task was completed at 96kph.  A climb to 6k near Cambridge at 7knots sort of sums up the day..........just Mega".

There were a few others out too including AV8, but not sure if anyone else tasked.
Group flying this evening and thanks to Mark, Ray, Will, JRK and Wilko - apparantly flying went on until 20:30.  Phil M was the hero on the winch.

First day of the Eastern Regionals tomorrow - lets hope the weather holds out.

Some (don't) like it hot!

Heading East - Worth The Wait

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Another baking hot day with temperatures rising to 26*C making it very uncomfortable in the cockpit until the sea air finally reached us around 1500BST to act like a mini Cold Front and bust the 1700ft inversion and allow Cu to form, and with climbs to nearly 6500ft QFE Silver Height was easily on. Suddenly there were 2-3 hours of 'comfortable' soaring to be had and a few of us capitalised after a long 'grid-squat' and the odd aborted attempt to soar in the unbearably hot blue conditions. I think I was the only one to go XC, and managed a 100km or so (see the BGA Ladder for details).
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Will D was Duty Instructor with Steve F-H helping out with the A/X flights again. There were lots of winching and quite a few aero-tows with a number of ab initio training flights, check rides and solo excusions with the whole of the club fleet out again. CFI Mark W concluded his BI course. Congratulations to our newest (and youngest) Basic Instructor James Francis...and welcome to the instructor ranks. Also, well done to Phil M who passed his GFT in the Grob109 to completed his SLMG-NPPL.

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Rather warm...

The weather has definitely turned warmer - 23degrees! but with no clouds in the sky it was a challenge for everyone to pick out the 3 'duty thermals'.

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Mark W's BI course is running this weekend and our own James Francis was flying on it. Ray Hart and Steve F-H were the duty team, with Pete R on the tug. A busy day with 18 aerotows and 23 winch launches, but the thermals got popping after 1:00pm, when Geoff T took the K21 and soared for an hour. The lift was pretty hard to come by, only 1-2 knots and topped it out at about 2,500ft, but I did manage to keep 'LY' airborne for over an hour, despite not going anywhere. Tim Davies flew 'AV8', and Steve Brownlow in '20' seemed to do a little better but again only local soaring. Jeremy K, sparked with success of his flights midweek, converted to the winch to help his bank balance. Also out flying today were; Josie, Paul and Sarah, Wilko and new member Mark Fiske who 'enjoyed' an introduction to spinning with Ian!

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Because of the light evenings, flying continued until nearly 7pm, when the gliders were brought back to the hangar and washed (we have photographic evidence!).

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Course week - a First Solo and a Bronze Leg.

Mick is training Jeremy Keeling and Alan Merrelles on the course this week.  I pitched up on Monday to fly LY, with George tugging.  Weather was pretty good with a few showers and at one point a line squall went through.  After about 3pm it picked up quite nicely with 2-4knt climbs to 4000ft.  Both course members got to go soaring. 

Well done to Jeremy who on Tuesday did his first solo - his first one was 27 mins climbing to about 3000ft, then came back to let Alan and Mick fly.  The second one was a Bronze leg 1hr7mins and got to 4300ft before coming back.

Another Saturday duty.

A busy day and an early start for Saturdays and a late finish. Some cruising around the President's Triangle during a very soarable slot in the weather. Well done folks! A good set of cadet and other ab initio pilots making good progress. Thanks to everyone who helped Mark and me today, especially Tim for stepping in when it was busy.

9th May and before

I had a great flight with Bob Grieve, great thermals and for the first time I took over on the launch, attempted a dodgy landing but as usual failed!! Had really good flights so far with JRK, Mark, Will, Jan, Ray, Mick and Dave

Sarah Jones

Two Triangles (...and the rest)

Whilst we were over at Henham Park selling vouchers in the drizzle and cold wind, Dave Taylor completed the presidents triangle from Tib - Twice!! Nice one Dave, it wasnt as bad as it looked then.
http://www.bgaladder.co.uk/dscore.asp?FlightID=25802
http://www.bgaladder.co.uk/dscore.asp?FlightID=25807

Others that also completed the president's triangle today included Dave Munro (now also on the ladder), Will Day and Chris Lawrence. Simon Urry went round but cut the corner at Diss, whilst JRK went to Norwich and back in addition to helping with some instuctional flights!

Come on guys - let's see those flights on the club ladder (especiallly if they are in areas that will help us fight additional airspace). We are currently 14th for total distance in the national stats with 3349.5km in 21 XC flights entered, only slightly ahead of where we were this time last year (2857.7km in 21 flights). It would be great to beat last years record breaking year for NGC.

And don't forget anyone can review their flights on the blog, not just XC stuff!


Thanks to all who turned out to help at Henham Wings and Wheels including Adrian, Clive, Wade and Eric we sold 9 vouchers despite the poor weather.

Three TPs and one BBG

Getting urgent that I get some practice in for the Regionals I came to Tibenham on Thursday 6th May with the hope that despite the wind and the cold there would be some good flying.

Locally cloudbase was a bit low at 3k however out towards Thetford another 1K could be had. Some of the thermals were 5 knots plus.

I declared RAT-EDE-NOE for 145klm and hopefully 1.5hours good fun. There were only four problems on the flight apart from a slight in cockpit accident which will wash out.

Rattlesden appeared in a matter of minutes however a voice said stay high at the TP and I immediately fell into a hole. A bit more press on and I expect the strong climb that took ages to find would have been there immediately. Once at cloudbase the run to Dereham into wind was nose down 70 knots and just keep going....really good fun...except for problem two. Out of the mist of cloudbase as I was going north a BBG [ bloody big glider] appeared going south. Fortunately I saw the glider and dived underneath it and took the number 13 [from Dunstable] as the fin passed by. What amazing gliders are EB28s and the wings go on for ever. Time I bought a FLARM I think.

Problem 3 was Dereham and another hole with time wasted followed by a great run to NOE and yes, problem four, another hole and onto final glide.

The lesson for the day is that TPs are bad ideas [or do they sort the men from the boys?].

Thought for the day was perhaps buy a FLARM before it is too late!

Advice from the day is that you should buy some CONFOR foam from Trelleborg [as per S&G]. I put blue foam in the seat cushion and pink foam on my spinal support and the foam made a world of difference. Expensive, yes, but if your cockpit is a bit uncomfortable this foam would be well worth a trial.

http://www.bgaladder.co.uk/dscore.asp?FlightID=25782


Peter Stafford Allen

Monday 3rd May

So my three launches count for nothing then?

Not Scrubbed ...

... but nobody appeared to be brave enough to try the task.

ICL @ TIB - Saturday Results

Final results - speeds are Handicapped:

Novice:
1. Simon Urry - Mosquito - NFN - 58kph
2. Martin Hargreaves - ASW19 - ESGC - 45kph
3. Josie Briggs - Astir - NGC - (20km)

Intermediate:
1. John Roche-Kelly - ASW19 - NFN - 65kph
2. James Francis - Std Cirrus - NGC - 60kph
3. Vernon Bettle - Ventus CT - ESGC - DNS

Pundit:
1. Tim Davies - ASW27 - (ESGC) - 91kph
2. Ray Hart - ASW19 - NGC - 79kph
3. Peter Ryland - DG400(17m) - NFN - 74kph


Sunday was scrubbed and we now wait to see if Monday brings anything ...

Inter Club League - Saturday

Unexpected weather - a distinct lack of rain - started the morning. Don's bullish behaviour revealed a met forecast from Watton that suggested 3kts to 4K later in the day - showers possible.

Task were set
Pundit: SWAnton Morely, LITtleport, East DEereham - 161km
Intermediate: SWAnton Morely, WHiTtington, East DEereham - 126km
Novice: SWaNnington, PICkenham, East DEereham - 108km

Teams were announced - unusually there are so many TIB pilots in all classes that were were able to have two teams - the official TIB team and the NFN Reserves. This was always going to test my skills as a team captain ... Even after fielding 6 pilots we still had a spare pundit to lend to Wormingford ... not possibly my best decision of the day.

Launching started around 12:15 when Ray Hart took to the skies in Tim Highton's ASW19, I followed shortly after but failed to make a 700' winch launch stick so landed onto the aerotow queue, which was fairly short at the time.

The tug duly arrived at 13:00 and promptly towed me through 3kts at 1200ft, turned hard and I released giving the treasurer 200ft free. The flight passed in a blur of disbelief - "5kts ... this wasn't on RASP!" and with a policy of keeping about 2k I was soon completing the 2nd leg at 104kph and crossed with Ray Hart - FLARM is really useful for keeping tabs on the "opponents". At the end of the third leg I was able to climb onto glide under a large black cloud at EDE and in the excitement nearly missed the TP (another mistake). The final glide back to TIB was uneventful, except for the feeling that I was talking to a brick wall when making 5 and 2 minute radio calls. While doing 100kts with the speed director wailing, a "click - click" acknowledgement is bugger all use!

I landed to find Ray's shakedown flight before the Eastern's had been quite useful. Apparently the copy of GlideNav I has set up for him was in metres and an ASW19 doesn't have quite the same glide performance as a Nimbus 2.

After derigging scoring began ... as is traditional at Inter Club leagues there were many obstacles ... the club computer had rejected it's copy of windows, my laptop needed SeeYou, Airspace, TPs and COM port drivers, John Roche-Kelly's GPS wasn't talking to the logger, Martin from Wormingford was convinced his logger turned off mid flight.

It was a successful day. 11 pilots launched on the three tasks with only 1 land out and 1 failure to start - Jim White is right "Turbos are the devil's work".

Interim results - speeds are Handicapped:

Novice:
1. Simon Urry - Mosquito - NFN - 58kph
2. Martin Hargreaves - ASW19 - ESGC - 45kph
3. Josie Briggs - Astir - NGC - (20km)

Intermediate:
1. James Francis - Std Cirrus - NGC - 60kph
2. John Roche-Kelly - ASW19 - NFN - Awaiting 2nd logger
3. Vernon Bettle - Ventus CT - ESGC - DNS

Pundit:
1. Tim Davies - ASW27 - (ESGC) - 91kph
2. Ray Hart - ASW19 - NGC - 79kph
3. Peter Ryland - DG400(17m) - NFN - 74kph

Dilemma of the day: When you fly for another team when they are short of pilots - how hard should you try?

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'.