MIDLAND GLIDING CLUB
NEWSLETTER
Number 93 September 2001
Warning
for Knob Twisters and Winders... 1
Chairman’s Contribution... 2
CFI’s Bits...... 3
Treasurer’s Notes............ 4
From the Flying Field.............. 5
The Mynd in Spain Stays Mainly in the Plain.............. 6
Task Week 2001.............. 8
Soaring in Cerdanya..... 11
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Please send Newsletter contributions to: John and Ann Parry Holly Cottage Wentnor Bishops Castle Shropshire SY9 5EE Telephone..01588 650379 Fax.………01588 650596 Email……..John.Parry@Virgin.net
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Club Details: The Midland Gliding Club The Long Mynd Church Stretton Shropshire SY6 6TA Office Telephone......01588 650206 Office Fax.................01588 650532 Members Telephone..01588 650405 Email……………….office@longmynd.com
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Paul Garnham
In recent months several instances have come to light of damage
to altimeters caused by forceful winding of the sub-scale beyond limits set
by the manufacturers, generally 950-1050 mb. Some altimeters, but not all, have a stop built in to prevent/deter
winding past the limits but some determined or forceful characters just keep
winding, with the result that the sub-scale ring, which has very fine teeth,
is damaged beyond repair. A typical
repair bill is about £47. So, the
message is that if you encounter resistance when winding the sub-scale, don’t
exercise your muscles on it. It may
be telling you something. It is probable
that the greatest risk of this situation happening is when pressure is unusually
high or low and when the glider is already at height.
Or maybe some people don’t just know why they’re twiddling the knob!
Julian Fack
All change since I last wrote for the newsletter, not only did we return to the Mynd in early July, but we finally obtained permission, after some negotiation with both the BGA and with DEFRA, to fly cross country from Tuesday 21st of August. They provided a letter to carry in the gliders, and Neal Clements actually made use of it within hours when he landed the DG300 near Shrewsbury.
The Treasurer’s report in this issue makes the financial situation clear: basically we are OK at present, but another outbreak would be a different thing altogether. Jon Hall has made good use of the grant obtained by Dominic Haughton’s hard work, and Jon’s local advertising has produced a rash of customers for trial lessons of various sorts.
We now offer three types of trial lesson, the standard we all know and love (hate?), the Mile High Experience, and the Half Day Lesson. It seems that we can sell any amount of all three, and under the current trading conditions we seem to be doing just that. The longer and more expensive lessons seem to give the most satisfaction, and to produce people who are more likely to become members. Basically we are back in business as far as the public and course members are concerned, but not from many of our members’ perspective.
A good example occurred on the last day of the informal club/task week. The weather had been pretty lousy for the whole week, hot and humid, with no workable thermals even when there was cumulus, but during Sunday night a cold front came through and good conditions prevailed on Bank Holiday Monday, with cumulus for all to see. In spite of the obvious good conditions, very few members came up to fly. Dominic set a 134 km task (Whitchurch - Wrexham) and most who made a serious attempt at it got round in just over two hours. It was great to see some actual finishes, the first this year, right at the end of the season! In spite of the holiday there were a number of trial lessons, and we still ran out of people to fly hours before the light failed.
Our usual competition task week was sorely missed by many members, but had we run it, (not possible due to the late lifting of the ban), the week would have been pretty depressing with just one taskable day in ten.
The courses have been full right from the start in July, so it is just members flying we are short of. We are back to a seven day operation in the office: Pete Salisbury’s daughter Gemma is helping out midweek before returning to university in mid September, and Janet is looking after Fridays to Sundays inclusive.
I feel our big opening party was a huge success in terms of public relations, with around half the 220 guests being from outside the club. We invited members from Shobdon, Sleap, and the hang gliding club, as well as many other local individuals, such as farmers and local businesses. Some of the locals stayed until well past midnight, and a good time was had by all. The star prize in the raffle, a DVD player, was won by the chairman of the hang gliding club. The hangar looked splendid decked out in parachutes, bunting and coloured lights, and the random nature of the seating worked well, you just sat down where you liked, and were able to move from table to table.
We had another special party a few weeks later, to celebrate Pete Salisbury’s 65th birthday, which actually took place during the closure. The club presented him with an engraved pint mug, as well as a nice pair of binoculars. I stressed at the dinner, which was well attended by about 50 people, that this was not a retirement party, and Pete would be driving the winch for some years to come we hope.
Both parties were catered by Simon and Jo from the Crown at Wentnor, who have taken on the kitchen franchise and are coping well with our usual fluctuating demand. When I raised this point with them before they started, they said that it was no different to the demand in a pub.
We had an informal visit from Matthew Green, our MP, on a rainy Friday during the club week, and he expressed his willingness to help in whatever way he could. He also asked if his wife could have a trial lesson. Speaking of MPs, Lembit Opik, MGC member and parliamentary delegate to the BGA, re-soloed in the K8 during one of our recent course weeks, and then had a superb time flying it in wave and thermal conditions for the rest of the week. I did not realise that he had first soloed at the club in about 1988, before going off and injuring himself on a paraglider. Welcome back Lembit.
The committee has been working hard to keep our heads above water during the closure, but there is still much to do. At our next meeting we will be considering the format of the awards dinner for next spring, and also planning the winter maintenance program for the fleet, the MT kit, and for the clubhouse.
In the meantime there will be plenty of opportunities to fly, both using the last of the summer thermals, and in the autumn wave. In the meantime a small band of Myndites are off to the flatlands of Norfolk at the beginning of September, to compete in the Eastern Regionals at Tibenham, in the hope that we are not too late to do some belated cross country this year.
If you have not flown at the Mynd since our return, do note that there have been two winch launch fatalities recently (Usk and Syerston), so do remember to have a full winch launch check, whatever your level of experience.
Enjoy some safe flying this autumn, and if you have not been back to the club since we opened, please come up and see that things at the MGC are more or less back to normal.
Please contact me if there is anything you would like to discuss, either by leaving a message at any time on 07626 954 208, or by email at jfack@cwcom.net
Happy soaring
Nick Heriz-Smith
I’m writing this as I pack for one more month in Spain, but this time I leave knowing that the club is flying again. It is a pity that the lifting of the cross-country ban came too late for us to have a proper task week, but it was good, in the short time I was there, to see so many of you on the Mynd once more. Let’s hope that the last weeks of summer continue as fine as the last few days have been.
After the long layoff, starting again proved to be a little more difficult for some than others, problems that have now been ironed out and are behind us. But those events do give me the opportunity to make a point about our responsibilities on the flying field. In order that everything works safely and efficiently we have volunteers who give their time on a regular basis. They help run the field, instruct, drive the retrieve winch, fly the tug, etc. When it works well, as it mostly does, we don’t even notice that it is happening but we fly within a relatively calm and safe environment. All this activity needs structure and control and the person responsible for all this is the Number One of the day, the Instructor in Charge, one of the volunteers. The system only works because we accept that the Number One is in charge, and while on the field we do not argue with him and we do as he says. If you really think there is an important problem, then have respect for the Number One’s position, talk to him one to one or seek a higher authority, but respect the system, do not upset the running of the field.
During my long absences from the club this year I have thought often about the role and duties of the CFI within the club, and it is clear that he or his deputy needs to be available as much as possible. As a Deputy CFI, John Stuart runs the operation during the week, and the committee have agreed that Neal Clements as CFI elect, also becomes a Deputy, and that he will stand in for me in my absence. So, please all give him a welcome in his new role and I am sure you will all help him as you helped me! See you all in October.
David Rance
Being the Treasurer when the club is closed and we have little trading income is not a lot of fun and so it warms my heart to see lots of activity at the club again and money once more flowing into the coffers!
Courses have been well attended in the first few weeks after restarting them in early August. This is in part people who have booked early and paid for flying in the spring being rescheduled to fly now and others trying to make the most of the summer. Typically, there have been up to a dozen people on the course each week and we have had to engage a third instructor on each of the first four weeks operation. Bookings for September onwards are lighter, so if you are keen to fly, give the office a call. Remember, there are excellent rates for members booking ahead and flying on a ‘pay as you go’ basis.
We have tried to promote trial lessons as hard as we dare in the last couple of months, consistent with raising income but not putting the interests of visitors before members. The introduction of the ‘Mile High Club’ has been a clear success. The cost of this lesson is £85 and after a briefing involves an aerotow to one mile above sea level - about 4000 feet above site. On successful completion of their mission, the visitor is given a smart certificate admitting them to the Mile High Club. As most trial lessons are gifts from one person to another, these have extra appeal and seem to be universally enjoyed by all. They are good for the club as well.
The insurance claim is proceeding and a great deal of work is going on behind the scenes to put together an interim claim for losses incurred over the last few months. We won’t know what the full claim will be until next spring but I suspect that there will be a lot of negotiations along the way. We continue to enjoy excellent support from our insurance brokers, Heath Lambert, who have put their head claims manager, Alan Robertson, on the job. Alan normally gets involved with claims that run into millions but the injustice of the way the insurance company responded to our claim has galvanised him into action to promote our cause. His work has been crucial to the club being compensated at all by the Allianz Cornhill insurance company and our thanks go out to him for his continuing assistance.
The other good news is that Dominic Haughton and Jon Hall have put together a grant application to Advantage West Midlands for the restart and re-marketing of the club. This is government money, handed out by Business Link, and paid to businesses which are not directly related to agriculture but have been badly affected by the FMD crisis. It is not cash compensation but is specifically awarded for promotion and marketing costs over and above the expenditure we would normally incur, to kick start the business back to life. The maximum we could apply for was £15,000 and that is exactly what we received. The money will in the main be used for new promotions, promotional material and marketing.
The business of the club is in pretty good shape considering that we were unable to trade for four months, due largely to your continuing and unwavering support for the club. My greatest concern in the foreseeable future is the possibility of another outbreak of FMD closing the club for a second time. At the time of writing, in late August, it is clear that the outbreak is not under complete control, with hot spots in Yorkshire and Northumberland and at a time of the year when we were told that heat and strong sunlight did not favour the virus. What will happen in the cooler, wetter months to come? It is quite certain that the insurers will not accept business to re-insure the club for Business Interruption caused by FMD again, unless we were to pay a huge premium. In my opinion, it is equally certain that FMD isn’t finished yet. So we must continue to be careful, maintain our reserves intact and in the words of our beloved Mister Brown, be prudent.
Ann Parry
Good to be back operating from the hill. 7th July was the first day of flying from the Long Mynd after four months away, with much work taking place in the days before to reopen the club. We operated Wednesdays to Sundays until the courses restarted, which happened on 30th July. Martin Moss was finally able to take up his job as second course instructor. The first three weeks of courses were so busy that an extra instructor was required, help coming from Chris Ellis, Chris Harris and Dave Crowson among others. Reasonable weather enabling much flying. There have been a lot of enquiries about trial lessons. Congratulations to Hannah Hay and Sally Hewison on going solo, and Mike Morris, Lembit Opik and Dave Toye on resoloing. Dave was originally sent solo by Keith Mansell in 1961. Simon Ramsay has his five hours, John Roberts has done another Silver distance (this time within the 1% rule), completing his Silver C, and Sarah Platt has gained her Bronze C. Members have been off flying in various regional, national and international competitions (including aerobatics), some trying competition flying for the first time.
The weather was disappointing for what is usually our task week, but this year was a members’ week (no competition being run) due to the foot and mouth restrictions. The cross-country ban was lifted on Monday 20th August, too late to be useful that day. Tuesday was a strong southerly, with Dave Rance making the most of the wave from a high aerotow. He only stopped climbing because he had no oxygen with him. The first possible cross-country day was Wednesday 22nd, when Neal Clements and Dominic Haughton set a task with a flourish, and the grid was organised (just like task week) and we launched by winch and aerotow. In my case I had three launches and couldn’t get away. Others called starts and were off. But sadly not for long as the sky and forecast looked more promising than they actually were. Shortly afterwards the phone started ringing, and Sue Holmes and Hazel Turner were busy looking after the landouts. Seven pilots in six gliders in three different fields (there was talk of Whacker International). Much trailer manoeuvring and disinfecting of wheels on cars and trailers, and the retrieve crews were off. By now the sky looked the best it had all day, but still those pilots local soaring found it wasn’t up to much.
Finally the weather yielded a good day on the bank holiday, with pilots completing the task set by Dominic, and John flying to Bidford for his Silver distance. A crowd of us sat outside the clubhouse that evening after flying, enjoying the wonderful sunshine and clear views into Wales. The woman who’d had her first glider flight earlier was still with us, high on the experience. An exuberant K23 appeared on the ridge, John back from his aerotow retrieve from Bidford, and then a mysterious big winged glider did a run on the ridge past us, oh it was a Stemme, must be Howard Rutherford then, flying out of Shobdon on his visit south. Heard that Andy Holmes had flown another 300 km (Juniors at Aston Down), having flown his first for Gold distance a couple of weeks before. The sun set behind Cader Idris, and it got chilly quickly, thoughts of summer ending. Next day on the course we enjoyed more glorious sunshine and strong thermals to 5,000 feet, so here’s hoping for an Indian summer.
On Saturday 4th August we held our reopening party.
Thank you to everyone who helped make it possible.
I’d especially been wondering how decorating the hangar would turn
out, and I was delighted with the way it worked.
Every time I looked on Saturday there seemed to be a different person
up the ladder hanging the parachutes, and yet more miles of bunting strung
up. And then thanks to all those who helped clear it up afterwards.
By the time I arrived on Sunday morning, most of it had already been
taken down. We estimate there were about 200 people at
the party, and by all accounts it was well received.
Jon Hall
After a miserable year of rained out competitions Paul Shuttleworth and I decided that this year we would go somewhere hot and reliable for a change. The thinking was two Regionals takes at least three weeks time and costs about £100 a day after paying for entry fees, launches, food, lots of drink, travel etc. At the end of it each of us might get 30 flying hours if we are lucky, more likely 10. Going abroad for 12 days we might expect more quality flying in less elapsed time.
So the plot was formed to go to Ontur at the end of June when the fields are at their best, hire two LS4s and pair fly for seven days in the middle of a fortnight. Get the check flights and site familiarisation done beforehand and fly anything that happens to be available at the end.
After a lengthy period of research, a full ten minutes as I recall, we elected to go to Ontur in southeast Spain with the Spreckleys. Neal Clements had sung their praises and we believed him. We booked before Christmas, long before the Foot and Mouth crisis erupted. It was to be just the two of us. A change from the Mynd.
Then February came and Foot and Mouth and we stopped flying at the Mynd. Paul was working in Scotland and flew a bit at Aboyne. I flew at Shobdon and Sleap. Iain Evans went to work at Ontur and so did our CFI. As the crisis deepened we talked to Colin Calderhead and he decided to join us. So did James Moore. Before we knew it we had an expedition.
Ontur is a small rural town about an hour and a half drive west of Alicante. It is in the high plain that sits between Madrid in the northwest and Murcia in the southeast. The nearest town of any size is Albecete. The airfield is at 2000 feet above sea level, as is a great deal of Spain. Surprisingly Spain has the second highest mean ground level of any European country after Switzerland. The countryside is parched and typified by poor sandy soil strewn with rocks out of which grow olives, vines and almond trees. Occasionally, actually quite often, sharp edged barren mountains and ridges of volcanic rock jut out of what would, without the irrigation, be desert. Apparently they film spaghetti westerns there because it looks so much like Arizona. Where irrigated it manages to produce grass, alfalfa and a very short variety of maize and barley.
Daytime temperatures can reach 40 degrees C but the desert conditions cool substantially overnight to give 8 knot average thermals and cloud bases up to 13,500 feet. The thermals are fiendishly narrow but are produced by very reliable triggers such as the sunny ridges of rock and dark fields on the ground. The towns don’t work at all. Days are often blue but sea breeze fronts and convergences are common very close to the airfield. We would sit outside our bungalows on the airfield after the hangar was packed and watch, over several beers, as the convergence changed from a milky hint of something to full blown Cu in a matter of minutes. Then there is the wave off the mountains to the north and west. Never a dull moment.
“Come on you wuss, turn tighter”, said Nick as he coached me through the first climb on my check flight in the K21. We had towed out to the southeast on runway 13. The tarmac runway is 1200 metres long, 5 metres wide, down hill at the start, and it looks unbelievably narrow to someone used to the wide-open spaces of the Mynd. The tug had turned sharply right heading back to the ridge that stands very close to the northeast. This is the usual source of the house thermal and is very reliable.
Roger the tuggy loves getting into the thermals with you and if you don’t bank it in you find yourself being catapulted out to an early relight. “Pull off whenever you feel confident” said Nick. “We rarely go above 1600 feet”. In fact as the week progressed we found it was often possible to release at nearer 900 feet. “You have to turn very tight, much tighter than you are used to, to stay in the core. Tighten up, watch the speed control, tighten up” and bang we were going up at six hundred feet a minute to ten thousand feet in the blue. “See those good looking fields over there, they are crop but only about six inches tall so you can land is those. But these ones below with the quilted pattern of black dots every five metres or so - those are 2 metre tall 40mm steel standpipes for irrigation. They are not good for your wings! But the big circular field are irrigated with a revolving boom. Those are great to land in and are really smooth.” And he was right, the big round fields are really big. You have no idea how big until you see them from the ground. You could land the proverbial 747 in them.
We quickly learned that the convection layer worked best from about half the height of the cloud base, or more often the blue inversion. Below this the thermals are narrow, rough, decidedly un-circular and very difficult to work. So with thermals topping at say 12,000 feet and with the ground at 2000 feet we had a margin of 5000 feet, or to put it another way don’t get below 7000 feet on the altimeter or you are looking for a field big time. And picking fields here means picking regions or valleys that are not irrigated. Green fields means water which means stand pipes which means sawn off wing tips. Lack of green fields suggests the opposite. And if you find stubble fields they are generally very big, flat and eminently landable. Still five thousand feet of booming convection isn’t so bad, is it?
The days went something like this: Wake up when the sun gets up and the temperature rockets at about 7:00am. Kevin turns on the generator at about 7:30am and with it the air-conditioning. Go back to sleep in the cool. Get up around 9:00, shower and breakfast. Unpack the hangar at 10:00 and prepare the gliders. This generally takes about 15 minutes, as there are remarkably few bugs to clean off. Briefing in the open air at 11:00 which usually also takes about 15 minutes. “It is going to be hot, strong thermals in blue conditions with a convergence running east west. Day should last till about 20:30. No NOTAMS. No Airspace. Go do a 300k. First launch at 13:00. Have fun.” says Brian. Take gliders to the launch point. Go shopping for lunch in the supermarket in Ontur. Buy sticks of ciabatta bread for about 25p, cheese and fruit and vegetables for not much more and litre bottles of St Miguel beer for 70p. Stock up with good local red wine at £1 a bottle and stuff for the evening barbecue. Have lunch. Saunter up to the end of the runway. Get in glider. Launch. Fly all afternoon.
The nights went something like this: Land about 19:30. Taxi up to the hangar and put the gliders away. Walk across the runway to the bungalows, shower and change. Sit around until about 22:00 drinking beer and wine. Go to the Capri Bar in Fuente Alamo where we eat endless courses of tapas, as much as you can eat, with as much beer and wine as you can drink, ice creams and coffee, bottles of wine to take home for £6 per person. Go back to the airfield at around midnight. Drink some more. Talk some more. Wonder at the day’s flying some more. Drink some more. Go to bed.
By all accounts our two weeks were not typical Spanish weather. We had blue days. We had cloudy and overcast. We had blue with a few cumulus clouds. We had CuNims and thunderstorms. We had convergences. We had wave. We had blue again. We had sea breezes. We had average 10,000 foot inversions but it sometimes broke through to 12,500 feet. We had blue again. We flew every day. I did 38 hours and well over 1200 km in a week.
Brian and Gill Spreckley were good hosts, amusing, relaxed, firm on the rules that count and just wanted folk to fly. The gliders were in good condition, well prepared and especially well instrumented with Cambridge loggers in all and L-Navs in most. They have trailers that work, including the most bizarre post constructionist east European K21 trailer that made Iain weep. They have tow out gear for everything and even a retrieve vehicle on site. The accommodation is well equipped, comfortable and modern and next year they may even have a bar and clubhouse.
At the end Paul and I tallied up the cost and including flights, car hire, fuel, launches, glider hire, food and incidentals it worked out at about £100 a day. Same as a Regionals only I did 38 hours, flew every day and it only rained once, rather politely at night after we had finished the barbecue.
This article first appeared on the club web site, where it includes some impressive photographs that we had to leave out as the printing could not do justice to them.
Debbie Bilham
A rather dubious start to task week, with rain and derogatory remarks made about the club’s heating not coming on during ‘summer’; a stark contrast to the hot sultry day in Bedford I had left behind some four hours earlier. Needless to say there was no flying.
The cross-country ban is still in place but we expect to receive good news on Monday.
Since most pilots are out of practice, apart from Rose who has just returned from the Women’s World Championships in Lithuania (finishing 9th out of 19 in her class), we will not be having the normal format task week this year. There are a few of the club’s die-hards here, hopefully we’ll see a few more people yet.
Chris Harris has had a haircut.
“Skimmed or semi skimmed?” asked Martin McCurdie.
Lots of rain in the night and heavy thundery showers forecast for later. Some optimists got the gliders out against a backdrop of dark grey cu-nims to the west just in time for the first rumbles. One visitor suggested to Keith Mansell, “If we must launch, then we’d better send up an old one”. Keith was worried as he wasn’t sure if he was referring to the glider or the instructor.
Later the showers died out giving way to a fine evening. John Roberts stayed up in the club Discus for 3½ hours, only landing when it started to get dark. He reckoned that we were in for a good night’s wave.
The principal topic of conversation in the bar, apart from the numerous text messages Herr Flick is getting, is, “Is this it, not many for task week is it?”
By 10.30 p.m. the first task week record had fallen, the earliest bar shutting. Sad isn’t it!
The morning saw a great deal of rigging activity although the weather wasn’t as good as forecast. There was a 20 knot westerly and enough high cloud to cause problems. Paul Garnham had been in contact with the BGA and DEFRA and, by the 11 o’clock briefing, was waiting for the fax to come through at any time. At that time no formal task had been set.
Just after 2.30p.m. Dominic came bounding out of the clubhouse excitedly, holding a piece of paper in his hand. “Freedom at last!” he exclaimed. The fax had just come through.
The sky looked good. The wind had died down and the high cloud had gone. Well defined cu were liberally scattered around, however those who flew struggled with many managing little more than extended circuits.
Julian and Chris Harris flew the Duo locally a couple of times and found it hard work.
In the evening Julian, Meg and I went for ‘bangers and mash’ at the Three Tuns at Bishops Castle. We had venison sausages served with sauce, mashed potato and a selection of superbly cooked vegetables; an excellent meal. I like the Three Tuns for its excellent food at reasonable prices, good service and above all its lack of pretentious frills.
Tomorrow’s weather looks hopeful.
During the night the wind had picked up to a 25 knot southerly and the Mynd was shrouded in low cloud which didn’t lift until about 11 o’clock. An informal task of Shobdon, Ludlow has been set for those brave enough to tackle the wind.
Although it remained windy during the day, there was wave about for those prepared to take a high aerotow. Those who weren’t were soon back down. David Rance climbed to 10,500 feet QFE near Bishops Castle but had to take a 5,400 foot tow to do it. An encroaching front brought cloud and rain by teatime.
A bright start with a light westerly. The forecast looks promising for the next couple of days.
For the first time this week a task has been officially set, Shelton Water Tower, Mortimer’s Cross Mynd, about 100 km, with the option to go round again if conditions are good. By lunchtime there was still high cover and it wasn’t looking so good. There was a 12 knot southwesterly which hadn’t been forecast. At about 2.30 Whacker winched the Cirrus and after an initial struggle, he left on task reporting 1½ knots to 3,000 feet. Others followed including Julian and Paul Garnham in the Duo (or “the glider with the kinky wings” as Tony Danbury puts it), Chris Harris with Martin McCurdie in FWQ and Neal Clements in the DG300.
Notwithstanding the cross-country ban, this is the first day of task week where a cross-country appears possible as the weather has otherwise been so poor. It is one of those odd days where you can be feeling hot and sticky one minute and quite chilly the next; either way you get sunburnt. It must be summer though, there are enough flies invading the motorhome. Another first today was 154 seen out of its box for the first time this week.
Six set off on task and six landed out with Whacker, Dominic and Andy Holmes all in the same field. All six gliders turned Shelton Water tower. Julian and Paul set off in the Duo but decided to turn back when they couldn’t see any way to carry on. They just got back from having been 400 feet below glide slope at the north end of the Mynd. Tony Danbury (288) also thought better of it. “I went for this wonderful looking street and it turned out to be a ditch!” he commented.
This is a good point at which to mention the ‘McCurdie Effect’. This is a phenomenon which manifests itself in various ways, all to the same effect. Martin explained that he has flown six cross countries in two-seaters, and in all cases they have landed out. This could well be some kind of club record. Martin pointed this out to Chris - once they were safely down in a field!
Howard had been carrying out substantial repairs to the Cirrus trailer when he had to down tools, hastily fit a half-finished door and go for Whacker. Meanwhile Sue and Nigel had returned to the Mynd to pick up the Discus and Andy to take them to Aston Down for the Junior Nationals, due to start on Saturday. Instead they had to retrieve him and leave in the morning.
At about 5 o’clock the high cloud which had caused so much frustration cleared away, leaving, in its wake, a glorious day; about four hours too late. There were a few weak thermals to be had. Roger launched the Ventus and spent over an hour scratching about at around 1300 feet.
The farmers were generally OK with most not even mentioning foot and mouth. The only exception was Neal’s who was a bit belligerent at first until Neal showed him a copy of the DEFRA letter, then he was fine.
Although in terms of distances flown, today wasn’t a great success, these were the first cross countries flown from the Mynd this year and it brought about a remarkable change in mood from the despondency of previous days to the excited banter which we normally associate with task week.
The consensus is that the weather should be better tomorrow!
I was awoken by the pitter-patter of tiny raindrops on the roof of the car, which were soon superseded by bigger raindrops. The McCurdie Effect?
Later (10.30). Still overcast but a bit brighter. No sign of aviation and the apathy appears to have returned. I’m getting a bit worried about Dominic. He’s rigged and now he’s turned up with a car full of water ballast; what does he know that we don’t?
Later Still (about 3.00). Brightened up a bit although still hazy. Dominic has been using the water to clean the brown sticky stuff off his glider from yesterday’s outlanding.
Chris Harris and Paul Garnham both arrived and so a few stalwarts took to the air with Chris tugging. John Roberts had the longest flight with 35 minutes from the winch. Ann Parry went for an aerobatic flight with Herr Flick from a 5000 foot aerotow. Chris enjoyed it!
Tomorrow’s forecast is for traditional task week weather with McCurdie Effect enhancement.
Thick fog and drizzle early on followed by heavy rain, maybe clearing later.
During the afternoon we were visited by the new Liberal Democrat MP for the Ludlow constituency - which includes the Mynd - Mathew Green. He seemed very interested in the club and stayed for a couple of hours, during which he was shown round by Julian, Paul and Keith Mansell. He’s a big lad, too big for a K21, however his wife intends to come up here and fly. Unfortunately the club had the atmosphere of the Marie Celeste as the fog and drizzle persisted all day and the few members who were here had mostly gone out.
Later I went to Ludlow Leisure Centre for a swim. It has a good 25 m and is easy to get to from the club.
Mixed opinions from pilots as to tomorrow’s weather. I suppose the safest bet is to say it will be better than today as it can’t get any worse surely?
Woke up to fog and light drizzle. As I write this (11.15) the valley floor to the west is just becoming visible. Apparently most of the country is in sunshine and hot and this localised murk is expected to burn off.
While writing this and looking for inspiration in the murk I am suddenly and brutally kicked back to reality by a horrible realisation. “SH******T!! I’M ON DUTY!”
The murk cleared. Pity! To put it more accurately the murk just cleared sufficiently to tempt a few desperate souls to launch gliders. We were stuck in a hot, sticky, nasty and stagnant airmass. The sky to the east remained a grey and claggy all day while tempting blue bits could be seen to the west.
The duration column of the day’s log comprised a list of 5s and 10s. Anything longer had an “A” in the launch column. Basically nobody soared.
While waiting for some poor sucker to squander six quid on yet another hopeless attempt to disprove Newton’s law of gravity, Paul Fowler and I discussed the relative merits of equipping launch marshals with a baseball bat in addition to the clipboard and 720 channel radio. Personally I favour it.
The evening meal was well attended with table setters scavenging round the portakabin and showers looking for chairs.
A presentation was held to, belatedly, mark Pete ‘The Winch’ Salisbury’s 65th birthday and also to acknowledge his 34 years service to the club, making him its longest serving employee, surpassing even Jack Minshall. The club presented him with a pair of binoculars and an engraved tankard which he put to good use later that evening. Pete is a well known authority on winch launching throughout the gliding movement having written many articles on the subject in S & G. He has also travelled to gliding clubs all over the world demonstrating and helping to develop winching equipment. Julian has worked out that Pete has done over 200,000 launches in his time here, and in doing so has let out and pulled in enough cable to reach the moon - I think I’d better stop here before I start giving JS ideas!
Although the surface wind had gone round to the north, the upper wind was southerly. We were still stuck in the same dead airmass as yesterday with a front lying across the country which is eventually expected to clear to the south bringing in cooler air behind it. Storms are forecast for the south. Basically today is a good fettling day.
Peter Turner and Derek Platt flew to Aston Down in the Falke to see how the Junior Nationals were getting on. They scrubbed yesterday so the Contest Director was anxious to speak to them and find out what they had just flown through. On their evidence, he scrubbed today too.
Julian fitted his Cambridge logger into the Duo Discus in preparation for the Eastern Regionals, starting next weekend at Tibenham. There is quite a contingent going from the Mynd. Julian and Paul Garnham are flying the Duo with Ann crewing for them and John Parry crewing for Dominic flying the LS8. David Rance will be flying the Open Cirrus (18) and I will be crewing for him. This has been brought about to some extent by the cancellation of the Northern Regionals due to the ongoing Foot and Mouth problems in North Yorkshire.
Once again the evening meal was well attended with both tables filled. The word is that the front should finally go through tonight bringing a cold night and temperatures of around 21°C. Sounds hopeful!
A clear fresh morning with a northerly wind followed a cold night. There was much feverish rigging activity in evidence early on.
John Roberts intended to attempt his 50 km in a K23. He turned up enthusiastically, complete with a duff EW coupled to a duff Garmin. Julian sorted him out with some working kit pulled out of his black bag of gadgets, then John disappeared. He eventually returned in the middle of Colin’s lunch break having made an emergency dash to the cash point in Stretton. Colin made a special effort to launch him, only for him to do a circuit. He eventually got away and made it to Bidford. There are doubts however that he may have difficulty finding an OO with the patience of Job to do the necessary, given his lack of preparation.
Dominic set a 134 km task; Whitchurch, Wrexham, Mynd. There was a minor problem in that Tilstock, just to the south of Whitchuch, were parachuting so they had to approach the TP from the west. Some saw parachutes dropping.
Paul Garnham was all set to fly in the Duo with Julian but got dragooned into being Number One so Richard Hinley went instead.
Dominic, Whacker, the Duo and Jon Hall in the Hornet got round although all were slow, taking over two hours. Tony Danbury surprised everybody with an early finish but it turned out that he had entered the co-ordinates for Wrexham incorrectly having been given them over the radio and thus had missed the turning point.
Several turned back and David Rance got an aerotow retrieve from Sleap.
Later Paul Garnham took a very nervous lady teacher for a trial lesson. Their first flight was very short but they got six knots straight off the wire on the second and had a long flight. She stayed for tea and was last seen discussing possible membership.
The Juniors were set a 328 km task. 30 out of the 47 competitors got round. Andy Holmes finished in 17th place.
Throughout the last week one recurring topic of conversation is the number of regular members who haven’t been seen since the reopening or during task week. When looking down the duty rota however, the vast majority of people on it have turned up at some point in the week, it’s just that they haven’t stayed all week as they might have done in previous years. Hopefully next year things will be back to normal.
Simon Ramsay
In the spring I thought of trying something different for my holidays and with the possibility of slightly more reliable weather. After a few clicks on the internet soaring in Cerdanya started to take shape.
After booking the course, and making all the last minute arrangements, I packed my bags, and off I went to the airport. Flight was from Birmingham and is very convenient, but it only goes once a day. Flights from Stansted and London are slightly better because there are morning and evening flights. The drive to Cerdanya is only 2 hours from Barcelona. You can get a flight in the morning as things only get going after 13:30 to allow thermals to start in the bottom of the valley, and go in the evening, when flying stops at about 19:30 and the last flight to Stansted is at 11:00 or so. As far as getting there I would recommend a good map, as the instructions on the web site are a little limited! The train is great with cheap tickets and a regular service. The airport and accommodation are quite close and so a car is not essential.
On the first day it was time for a checkout and site check. The site is in a very wide valley, with several other airstrips to choose from, just in case of an embarrassment with lack of height, as well as plenty of good fields. The mountains are about 10,000 feet to the west of the strip and about 8000 feet in the local area, and the airstrip is 3500 feet. The runway is in quite good condition with a grass strip as well, used primarily for takeoffs, the strip is not very wide with a fence on the north side; sounds difficult but all went fine when I was there.
The first flight was just amazing. There were very good weather conditions with wave and thermals. Flying was incredible. After the launch (my first aerotow), we climbed to the south onto a small hill (9000 feet) with a ski slope on the right hand side and woods all around. After a climb to 7000 feet in thermals it was in to the wave. The transition was very bumpy for about 500 feet and then fine, climbing up to 11,000 feet. To get a better look at the site, Brian and I went to the north across the valley and on to the north hill. This was very much flatter and grass covered, we seemed to be very near to the hill before we contacted lift, it looked as though we were only feet from the hill. Then we climbed to 14,000 feet. With no oxygen we stopped there and flew for 20 nautical miles or so looking at the area and getting a feel for the local hills. We climbed in thermals to 9000 feet and then pushed forward to wave up to 14,000 feet. Someone managed over 24,000 feet in wave, and has Gold height to boot. Not a bad first day at the club. The climb rate in thermals was 10 knots and in the wave over 14 knots. Aerotows are not my speciality and I took another flight to get used to aerotows and the turbulence that seems normal.
On the second day things were a lot easier and the only problem was that I had too many clothes on and got a little hot. On the rest of the week it was fine to fly in trousers, and a tee shirt, hat and suncream. Another great day, with lots of people having fun and some very impressive height gains. There was only one problem and that was there seem to be quite a few people talking about the turbulence during the transition from thermal to wave. I think it had a lot to do with the air spilling over the hill and falling down the lee side of the hill and that air was mixing with thermals and the rising air of the wave.
On my own at last! Flying in the Pyrenees on my own had quite a few firsts. First aerotow, first flight in the mountains and first flight in an Astir. The flight went fine with a local flight and some flying up some of the lower hills; the thermals are very powerful and small. It was just fantastic turning very tight and feeling the surge of the thermal coming out of the slope lift.
The next few days conditions were set fair, with warm sunny mornings, strong thermals and some broken wave, during the afternoon a little cloud on the hills and valley helping finding thermals and making long flights and late returns quite easy.
On the second from last day I managed to be P2 in an ASH25. The flight was great with climbs up to 14,000 feet and a mere 300 km cross-country flight, all in 5 hours and 10 minutes.
On the last day Gill Speckley set a small task for all pilots. The task was to fly from the club, climb up to the upper slopes on the north of the airport up to about 9500 feet then fly along the hills for about 15 nautical miles and return to the local hills. Then off to the east of the airport for about 15 nautical miles, again along the hills, this turned out to be one of the easiest legs. Then cross the valley for about 12 nautical miles and try to soar back on the south of the valley. This part of the flight was very bumpy and not easy. I flew back to the north of the valley, as it was a lot easier. After passing the club lift got very hard with the wind and conditions deteriorating, the height of the mountains at this point where over 10,000 feet with a 5000 foot cliff on this side of the valley. As we were always near the club it was easy to return back without landing out. The other way was to cross the valley and try to climb back up and start again. All pilots tried the task and had great fun. No prizes and a lot of people to help when thing got a bit tricky.
So after 10 days flight in the mountains I managed to fly every day, fly the Astir and Pegase and achieve a total of 25 hours flying. I was very lucky that I was the only pilot flying both aircraft on my selected days.
The holiday was a great success and great fun. I think that this type of flying would suit most people, as long as they enjoy a challenge and flying close to hills to get maximum climbs out of the conditions.