BWND Blog

With the promise of good soaring day we saw 16 plus members at the morning briefing. FUY, GAM and the 3 single seaters were enthusiastically taken to the west end of the airfield with expectations of the “murk” clearing by late morning. Wrong!! Oh aren`t we all the eternal optimistic bunch of aviators! 

The haze lingered most of the day with an improved visibility about  15.00hrs. As the first glider was launched just after 11.00am it was ruled one glider in the air at one time till about 14.30 when visibility improved and the first soaring began. Two soaring flights of 44 mins in the Puchaz and Alec in LPM  just over an hour launched at 16.00hrs landing at 17.04.  

Many thanks to Mike J and Phil G for volunteering their time for instruction, Dave, Andy H, Nick M our intrepid winchers, Gordon and Stuart our volunteer tug pilots.

Chris Chappell

Aerobatics on the ground – an undignified backward roll!!!

A very cold Wednesday morning saw some 18 club members turn out to fly during the day, amongst our usual maintenance team and “fettlers” of gliders. Two of our industrious private owners transformed the club Astir trailer from a greenish hue of accumulated alga to a very respectable white (ish), so all smart and ready for the first x-country retrieve. Just goes to show there are always plenty of non-technical jobs for our junior and cadet members to get involved with!

First launch at 11.08 and final launch at 16.46. As predicted the grey, overcast sky cleared about 13.00hrs and soaring flights of up to nearly 2 hours with cloud base at around 3,000ft. With 1 Puchaz, K21, JKW, LPM and a couple of private gliders saw members enjoying soaring, having annual checks and regular instruction from Mike J and Alisatir with John Garland stepping in for the last check flight enabling our CFI to fly JKW and have some “me” time soaring away in the blue (but thermic) yonder!

28 winch launches, 2 aero-tows and 2 motor glider launches.

Chris Chappell

A cold dull start turned into a nice soaring afternoon. This is the first part of an aerotow taken from the back seat of the K21 on loan from Tim Dews.

In a cold north easterly, instructors took turns to fly the ASK21 on loan from Tim D, firstly from the back seat as PUI, then from the front as PIC with the next one in the back.  That kept up the concentration of our dedicated log-keepers too!  Alastair and Mark H. took a tow to spin it.  Thanks to Mark P. for getting the Pawnee back on line.

Ahead of another lovely meal from Julie & John ( mmm, luscious sauce ) and the Presentation & Safety Meeting, this is how we stacked the hangar with three single seaters, four twin seats, the Pawnee and the Venture ( plenty of room, even if it had a spinner in place).   More than one way to skin a cat ( oops, sorry pussycat lovers) …….

True to British weather, after basking in the sun on Saturday and Monday, it definitely was back to the winter wear, with Alistair taking the photos of enthusiastic members taking advantage of the short window of thermal activity in the morning.  First launch at 11.20 and final launch at 14.25, 13 winch launches and 6.38hrs. flying time.

With some private gliders rigged, two Puchaz and LPM out on the field, longest flight of the morning 1.52hr. before the rain closed in. 

Chris Chappell 

Full winter kit today, but strong thermals to compensate until the inevitable showers came in.

EZE was derigged and returned to Tim Dews and we are now looking forward to rigging and flying his K21 at the weekend.

43 flights flown today in soupy conditions with poor viz and weak thermals. It must have been good for the soul!

37 of us there for the 09.30 briefing so it was always going to be  a busy day, but by careful management and the availability of Tim Dews’ EZE we flew all on the list.

Parachute repacking  going on in the hangar for some, as well as the usual maintenance.

 

17 winch launches produced 19.33 hours of flying time.

CC

Sun, thermals and soaring! What a glorious Wednesday which saw members enjoying soaring flights of up to just over 3 hours with a cloud base of 3,000ft plus with some good cross country tasks. With a good cloud base enabling members under instruction to gain some of their spinning and stalling exercise experience whist the tug is out of action. The day produced thermal activity till the close of day with the final launch at 16.11. First launch at 10.55. 17 winch launches in all. 

With a full fleet plus an extra glider – EZE, to tuck up for the night  we were all witness to the amazing hanger packing skills of Nick B.

Chris Chappell 

Some good soaring today and I expect Chris will put in a report on the flying later. Please note though that RASP is not working at the moment and if you look at it and it tells you the soaring is very bad, you could miss a good day

RASP stratus though currently is fine.
http://rasp.stratus.org.uk/app/viewer/

Alastair

Despite the generally gloomy weather there was lots of activity at the launch point.  The tug is U/S, awaiting a new magneto, but good height winch launches were possible in a 12 knot North Easterly wind.  Lots of hangar activity still as hopefuls fettled for the imminent good weather.

Just a few miles north of us there was sunshine and cumulus when Mark Hawkins and I flew the Venture along the Pewsey valley and back via Salisbury, even stopping to try some lift around Rivar Hill.  Cloudbase over 4000ft!  The solid overcast from Andover back to The Park reduced the cabin temp.

Flying ended just in time to allow a committee meeting at to begin at 17.00.

Sunday’s looking good in prospect with a few trailers even left out on the field in anticipation of the first XCs of the year from The Park.  

Former member Des Pearce sent me the following.  It may be of interest to some of our members….

Dear Lasham members,

The British Junior Gliding Team finalise their winter tour of the UK with a full XC workshop at Lasham on Saturday 6th April.

The team will be presenting an interactive and detailed workshop on cross country flying as well as an evening talk.

All members, regardless of age, experience level and visitors from other clubs are invited. Please share around!

The content and schedule of the workshop and talk can be found in the attached document.

Please let me know if you plan to attend so that we can plan with our materials and hand outs beforehand.

Email: jake@navboys.com <mailto:jake@navboys.com>

We hope to see as many of you there as possible!

British Junior Gliding Team
15/3/2019

 The British Junior Gliding Team finalise their winter tour of the UK with a full XC workshop at Lasham on Saturday 6th April. 

The team will be presenting an interactive and detailed workshop as well as an evening talk. 

All members and visitors from other clubs are invited. Please share around! 

1400 – Workshop on how to fly XC faster using British Team techniques 

– Including a detailed look at glider handling 

– Speed to fly including understanding block speeds 

– Thermal selection 

– Routing – looking at real life scenarios 

– Centering techniques 

– Triggers and thermal sources 

– Final glides 

– Flying competitions 

– Weather forecasting tools 

– Pre flight preparation 

– Effective post flight analysis 

– Training regimes 

– Effective use of modern nav, vario and FLARM equipment in the air 

The above workshop is very interactive – there will be handouts for attendees to complete as well as plenty of note taking opportunities. We recommend bringing stationery and notebooks! 

There will also be plenty of refreshment and toilet breaks. 

1800 – An evening talk 

Preparing for a World Championships – a look at our preparations for the JWGC 

1915 – Dinner in the clubhouse 

The workshops and talks should be of interest to glider pilots and aviators of any age and experience level. 

There is no charge for entry but those attending will be invited to contribute to the team’s crowdfunding campaign – this will assist the team in their fundraising efforts leading up to the season. 

We will need to have an idea of numbers so if you wish to attend, please notify us which parts you will attend and if you require an evening meal to: jake@navboys.com 

The team are looking forward to returning to Lasham – hope to see you there. 

With overcast sky and low cloud any possibility of flying was relegated to the afternoon.                                                                                                                                 There was no shortage of jobs for members to get our community spirit well and truly working overtime, with EZE to be rigged, garden furniture to be spruced up and painted – ready for us all to sit in the sun after a good days flying, with a refreshing glass of something to chill out with. Maintenance crew as busy as ever. We welcomed new member Gotthelf Wiederman who got stuck in with jobs. Not to mention the “fettling” of private gliders as well.                                                                                                                                                     Lunchtime saw the club room almost “standing room only” with club members enjoying lunch and chit chat about all manner of things. Somewhere about 13.50hrs Mike J announced that we were getting the aircraft out if anyone wished to fly- have you ever been in a room and it`s suddenly gone from a loud hub of multiple conversations to no sound at all – you could hear a church mouse or a pin drop!!                                                           Members duly put their hands up and a Puchaz and EZE were out on the field, first winch launch at 14.20 and last at 16.52. With the 2 Mikes and Alistair instructing,  check flights and flying with members who just wanted to get their feet off the ground. Many thanks to Andy, wincher for today and Chris B for LPC.

13 Winch launches in all to-day with Mondays 5 winch launches, saw 18 winch launches for this session of midweek flying.

Chris Chappell                 

If anyone spotted my dark green hat, with LEDs in its peak, lurking lonely today, please let me know.  I’ll look around for it on Saturday. 

Thanks, Phil G.

Despite a very promising forecast, seeing Steve rig his flying machine full of hope, like the rest of us, an overcast sky with the addition of fine drizzle presented itself from about 9.30am. Not daunted, the winch duly took itself up to the westerly end of the airfield (with winch driver of course – Dave), caravan already in situ` from yesterday we managed to get 5 winch launches and 1 motor glider flight of the ground. We welcomed a  new reciprocal member, an old school friend of Mike J, who took 4 winch launches. Needless to say we did try to prize some old school secrets out of him!! We managed 1 instructor training flight into the bargain.

Maybe the Wednesday forecast will have “got it wrong” and we will have better weather than forecast – which is still “iffy” at the moment. We do have an instructor and winch driver on standby just in case the thermal gods come out to play!! 

Chris Chappell

Thermal streets to over 3000ft in a strong, cold westerly.  Gets the heart fluttering, as well as the new S80 varios.

Despite the tug going U/S with an ignition fault, winch launches were very adequate to the task.  There were several prolonged flights, one of an hour before a chosen return to the field.  Two Puchs and an Astir were fully utilised until about 16.00 when the promised rain showers threatened and then arrived.

Character building stuff but it gives hope for what’s soon to come.