The Wednesday Wavers had a guest forecaster today.
John Allan posted:
Wednesday 8th Oct 1200hrs chart shows the cold front clearing us to the SE in the morning. It's normal that as a cold front passes, the wind will fairly quickly veer (change clockwise) around 30 degrees, in this case from WNW 2Kts to NNW 6Kts, with cloud breaking up.
This should mean some flying early afternoon onwards. RASP indicates the cloudbase may still be a problem, only reaching 1,200ft QNH, but Skysight is more optimistic.
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| The synoptic chart for 1300 local |
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| Looking good for a day's flying |
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| Skysight's windgram for the day looks quite promising |
The Wavers welcomed Mike "Jonah" Jardine back as the Duty Instructor for Wednesday, fresh and eager to go after his holidays. That soon changed when I handed him a sheaf of new DGS SFCL training cards to sign off on the exercises completed by our students on the old-style training cards.
It was one of those "teas and coffees" mornings in the clubhouse, and time to tackle those non-flying jobs. These included: Cleaning and polishing of the Astir CS77's fuselage and canopy, the final job after the glider was rigged after its annual inspection; and the glider simulator extension work, which involves opening up the clubhouse wall to accommodate the huge computer screens, to provide that "wrap around" experience.
Later in the morning, we welcomed back Nigel Bray, the peripatetic glider pilot, stopping off for tea and chat as he made his way from Cornwall up country. I had the chance to quiz him on his experience in operating a FES (Front Electric Sustainer) glider. He has a Mini LAK FES, which is an electric self-launching 13.5m wingspan glider. So the question remains, why is it called a FES if it can self-launch? It needs a new designation. How about eSLMG (Electric Self-launching Motor Glider)? But "motor" traditionally describes an internal combustion engine, so how about eSLG? Mmm, I am not sure. Let's put it to the test by our tech-savvy juniors. The best name/acronym for the categorisation mini LAK FES from one of our juniors gets their choice of a choccy bar from the Tea Swindle. Small print: The Wednesday Blogger's decision is final!
The Wavers waited for the front to pass through and the weather to change...
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| The Wednesday Witterers putting the world to rights |
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| John Smith continues with the simulator extension project |
Just because there was wittering going on in the clubhouse it didn't mean that serious stuff wasn't going on. The Duty Instructor, assisted by the other instructor on site, Peter Howarth, continued with Ian King's gliding education.
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| Ian's autumn alfresco lecture on the winch launch |
After lunch, I received notification from the BGA that our BGA Quality Assurance non-compliance report (detailing the required follow-up work on the Puchacz and the Astir CS77) was accepted and that the BGA considers that all the follow-up actions following the audit three months ago have been satisfactorily completed. Well done, the DGS maintenance team.
I took Neal Oxley's final iteration of the 3D-printed sunshade for the front Flarm LED display in the Puchacz into the hangar. It fitted perfectly, and I look forward to feedback from front-seat pilots when the glider is next flown. No photos, unfortunately, as my smartphone camera couldn't hack a black display, housed in a black sunshade, mounted on a black glare shield, in a dark hangar. I must remember to take a photo when the glider is in the daylight. If successful, the design and code for a glare shield-mounted and an instrument panel-mounted (i.e. on a vertical face) Flarm LED display sunshade will be posted on gliderpilot.net to allow the wider gliding community to make use of them.
Regular checks of the sky bore out that the front was passing through much slower than expected. We came to the conclusion that unless the Wavers wanted some evening flying, it wasn't going to happen today.
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| Late afternoon, the front started to pass through, but the cloud base was still too low |
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| I checked the hangar and admired John Allan's and Ian's handiwork on cleaning and polishing the fuselage of the Astir CS77 |
Peter and I finalised our plans for our road trip over the next few days, which hopefully will be one of the next steps on the DGS strategic development plan. Details to follow.
So no flying for the Wednesday Wavers today, but training continued, jobs were undertaken, and of course, the world was put to rights.
Gavin Short
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