It was a day of new faces at Brentor for the Wednesday Wavers to meet and greet. We welcomed:
Matt Miller, a Royal Navy medic, who is curious about gliding and might be tempted to buy a Navy Flying introductory voucher to try it out. He hails from Plympton.
Phil Hayward, a former power pilot who was booked to fly with us last week, but the high winds put paid to that. So he made a second attempt at the trip from Dartmouth to DGS.
We were also excited to welcome Christoph Welster, a glider pilot from Germany. Christoph is a member of a gliding club near Cologne. He flies cross-country in a Nimbus 4D
or an LS8. Currently, he is on an extensive road trip with his wife Hanna on a tandem-bike. Their continental road trip started in the Canary Islands in February and arrived in the UK in Portsmouth
by ferry earlier in the week. They planned to arrive today and camp nearby but sadly didn't show by the time the Wavers packed the gear away. Maybe we will see them on Saturday?
I was the Duty Basic Instructor and Mike Jardine the Duty Instructor. The weather had changed since last week. Of course, it had. There was a Bank Holiday weekend since then so that meant rain. Indeed, there was rain was forecast today perhaps at 1100, 1400, or 1500... but before then it was predicted to be a thermic day with SkySight and RASP particularly optimistic. Cue an early brief.
As well as continuing his solo flights David Osment was keen to get signed off as a winch driver. The K-8, FXB, needed a test flight before returning to service, and the Twin Astir Trainer, HBK, need its Flarm Firmware updated. Not an easy task. Our other club gliders just need a SD card or USB stick to transfer across the new firmware. Not so with an LX7007 flight computer. It needs a laptop, the Flarm tool software, and a serial to USB lead then a custom Flarm lead with an RJ12 connector. This is pre Bluetooth technology! Luckily we have an IT expert on site, John Allan, but he didn't quite crack the problem today, but he now knows what to do...
Today there were five trainees, two visitors, and three instructors as well as BIs and IFPs so progress through the flying list would be rapid.
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| Not a very promising morning sky for the Wavers |
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| After the obligatory check flight and then practice launch failure David Osment is cleared to fly solo again. |
After an introduction and show around the club Matt Miller didn't need much persuasion when Club Secretary, Steve Fletcher asked him "Do you want to go flying then?"
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| Matt and Steve about to launch in the Twin Astir 1, DSL. |
One Day Course candidate Phil Hayward had a great day; flying, an extended soaring flight with plenty of time on the controls, witnessing the launch tower routines, handling gliders on the ground, acting, launching gliders from the tower, and witnessing the "power and the glory" of the winch, all before the rain set in and the time he needed to depart for band practice (I forgot to ask what instrument he played). We hope to see Phil again very soon for him to make use of his three months' temporary membership following his course.
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| Lapsed power pilot Phil Hayward about to start his One Day Course with Gavin |
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| After recent southerly winds the visibility aloft was poor |
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| And ominous looking to the south-west and further west over Kit Hill. It remained like that all day. |
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| Mike and Sean spot the Twin Astir, with Steve and visitor Matt Miller, as it manoeuvres to join their thermal |
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| Sean climbing. Does that look like a weight off his shoulders? |
Matt enjoyed his flights with Steve Fletcher one of which was a nice soaring flight.
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| Matt Miller receives his completion certificate, following his Navy Flying introductory package to gliding, from Steve Fletcher |
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| The FXB's test flight by Steve Lewis revealed some snags with the instrumentation |
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| Chairman Steve gets to grips with the Total Energy probe whilst chasing leaks in the pneumatic system. |
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| Neal readies himself for his second flight |
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| Why the long faces chaps? Ahh, "the symptoms of a stall and incipient spin training" sortie coming up! |
While there was lift around it transitioned from classic thermals to something else; convergence. Andy had mentioned at the brief that there might be convergence to the north of the airfield. To observers on the ground it didn't seem likely, but it pays to listen to the gems of information at the morning brief so you know what you are encountering in the air.
This is John's story:
No photos today. All I have is a trace showing the nice convergence line. After an initial climb in a thermal I followed the line of a strong dark cloud street going west past the airfield. On seeing the typical rising clouds (danglies) of a convergence, with clear weather beyond the northern edge of the street, I moved to the north side. I was now climbing above the cloud base running along the vertical edge of the street with about 1-2knots up, sometimes a little more, always closely following the edge of it as it twisted and turned its way west. That was between 2,200 and 2,500ft above the airfield (blue in the trace) until it ran out just south of Launceston, then with a few detours I followed it back again. Sometimes its worth turning if you pass an obvious rising cloud, and you get a few knots of extra lift, but typically it's better to just keep feeling one's way along the band of lift, so long as you are climbing, or at least not losing any height.
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| John's flight trace of his flight in the convergence. |
Andy tried a different approach on his second flight, eventually climbing to 5,000 ft QNH and enjoying 1 hour 26 minutes of flight.
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| Andy's trace of his flight in his Libelle, callsign M (Is Andy a James Bond fan?) |
At around 1430 the sky was getting darker, the cloud base was starting to lower, and the air felt damp. Unsurprisingly, the flights became just circuits. The drizzle started to get heavier and the cloud base came down to launch height. So after a flight with Neal at 1520 the Duty Instructor called ENDEX (since we had so many naval and ex naval personnel on the field today he used a term that they would understand)! Post Note: There was torrential rain in Callington while we were packing up so that murkiness over Kit Hill had developed during the day to something more substantial.
During the post flight clubhouse discussions, and setting the world to right, my phone was buzzing away with gliding questions? What was the pilot load capacity of the Puchacz that we recently handed back to Heron Gliding Club (Royal Navy) and whether K-13 was available for use. Well, once it has had an annual inspection and the newly made instrument panels go back in - well yes. A price was mentioned. Fingers crossed, although we will be sad to see the old faithful go.
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| CCY's newly made front instrument panel |
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| And the rear panel displaying John Osment's recent handiwork |
Twenty-nine flights today in conditions less than forecast. Despite that it turned out to be a cracking day for the Wedensday Wavers.
Gavin Short
