2 New Solo Pilots

Congratulations to Dan Comerford and Seb Routledge who both did their first solo’s during the half term week.

K23 boys

Friday 19th, saw Nic, Grant and Joe completing their 3rd K21 solo and then converting onto the K23. Nathan had beaten them all to it by doing it a few weeks earlier. Quite a good half term week for all that came along.

2 in a week – Grant goes solo

Grant has waited quite awhile for a decent day. Today was the day and he completed his first solo along with another later in the day – well done.

HCV at the Junior Nationals – day three

It was the first decent day of the comp and a 310k task was set!  I was the 5^th glider to launch so knew I was going to be waiting around for a while before the start gate opened.  The conditions in the start sector were fantastic; I spent a fun hour and a half bombing around at cloud base waiting for everyone to launch and the start gate to open.

I set off within minutes of the start opening as I knew I had a long flight ahead and that it would be a push to get it complete before the weather shut down.

The first leg was into wind towards Burbage with plenty of gliders marking the good climbs.  The next leg of 128k was the same length as most of my previous XC’s, a quite daunting thought!  It was downwind and with a couple of 5kt climbs up to 6000’, it was by far the best part of the flight and I managed to fly this leg at an XC speed of 112km/h!

It was strange flying over Milton Keynes and being able to spot Dunstable and knowing that I was a long way from finishing when I was used to being on final glide from there!

As we turned the far turnpoint near Sackville farm, the spreadout started and I had a long glide towards the next possible climb (almost 30k away) with around 10 other gliders.

It was from here that the flight became challenging and a change of gear was necessary.  Gone were the cruises at 80kts, instead we slowed right down to 60kts in an effort to preserve as much height as possible before the next climb as they were getting further apart and of weakening strength.

I spent the next two hours struggling to stay above 2500’ and expecting to land out at any moment!  I don’t know how but I managed to stay airborne and slowly push into the 20kt headwind.  Not easy when the climbs are about 1.5kts.

Quite a few of the group I had left the furthest turnpoint with had landed out, with only a few of us left.

I found myself near Gloucester airport with the only promising climb being on their ILS approach.  I spotted a couple of other gliders in the thermal so radioed up Gloucester to let them know of my position.  They were very helpful, re-directing traffic onto other runways to enable us to stay in the thermal and even offering for us to land there if we got too low!  I didn’t find the thermal worked for me as I was so low down so I pushed out a little to try and find some better fields.

I had picked a decent field and had just started to plan my circuit when I bumped into a very welcome 3kt climb which I took up to cloud base, which was now only 3500’.  My flight computer showed me as being 500’ under glide from Aston Down, all I needed was one more climb!

I set off towards Aston Down, getting lower and lower whilst not finding any lift under the clouds where I expected it.  I flew over a glider in a grass field but pushed on in an effort to get at least 300k down track!  I managed this but with the flight computer complaining of my final glide being through terrain and no possible lift around, I turned back to the inviting field already occupied with another glider.

(my field with Ben’s LS8 behind)

The field turned out to be a little steeper than it looked from the air, but being a Dunstable pilot I wasn’t fazed a bit!  The other pilot, Ben Hughes, had already found the farmer so within minutes of landing we had the field access sorted.

The gate was nice and close to the field and Gatfield’s ford focus managed to get out of the field fine with Ben’s LS8 trailer.  Unfortunately, Rhoan’s car didn’t quite manage with HCV.  We spent a good while taking run-ups but with no luck.  We eventually had to get someone from Aston Down to bring his 4×4 to the field to pull the trailer up the hill.

My flight ended up being 7 hours and 20 minutes, by far my longest and most enjoyable flight!

The next few days were scrubbed so this ended up being the last competition day.  I had never thought I’d end up in the top 20 but I managed to come 19th overall!

If anyone is thinking of doing the juniors next year, even just for the two seat training, go for it!  It’s a fantastic experience, you’ll meet loads of great people and learn heaps about XC flying.

HCV at the Junior Nationals – day two

After many, many scrubs days filled with karting and other activities we finally got a day that might be good enough for a competition task!

We eventually launched at 3pm after sitting out countless showers on the grid.

(sheltering from the rain whilst waiting to launch)

When the start gate opened myself and Tom Russell set off together towards the first turnpoint.  Getting there was rather easy as the wind was blowing towards the turnpoint so we could sit in a weak thermal and still be progressing down track.  It took about 5 climbs to get to the turn, after which we had to start heading into wind back towards the club.

After a few nice climbs by the turn I was at 4000′ and pushed on with a couple of other gliders towards the second turn.  Just after popping into the turn I found a climb at 2200′ with another gaggle which we took to almost 4000′.

At this point I went left with Alex Harris whilst the rest of the gaggle went right.  It turned out that right was the correct way to go as myself and Alex struggled to stay high and gradually got lower.

Alex was a little higher than me and decided to try and push on back to the club whereas I’d spotted a nice grass field with a DG505 in so joined him.

Alex didn’t quite make it back to the club, instead landing out a couple of km further on that I did.

It was a lovely field with a gate straight onto the main road and only a 20 minute drive from the club.

(couldn’t have picked a better field)

Thanks to Lance and Keith for picking me up.

Even better than the field was the fact that I was 15th for the day!

HCV at the Junior Nationals – day one

My first competition day!  I spent the morning rushing around getting everything ready, despite the weather not looking very promising.   Almost 70 gliders were lined up on the runway, a rather awesome sight!

(view of the grid taken from the sniffer)

Launch was originally planned for 11 but kept being pushed back until we finally started launching at 13:15.

As I was on row 12, by the time I’d released from tow there were already gliders marking thermals (at this point mainly in the blue) so I managed to find a weak climb and had my first proper experience of gaggle flying!  Flying with 30-40 other gliders in one thermal was a fantastic experience, especially when at the top and looking down a funnel of gliders.

(HCV ready for launch with Dan McCormak behind in KMF)

The weather didn’t look very good, even after having waited so long to launch.  I waited around the start for a while with quite a few gliders and set off with a bunch of them.  We flew 15k before finding any lift and by that time was at 2300′ QNH but luckily found a small thermal.

After that we seemed to be getting lower and lower finding little pockets of lift until we found a decent 3kts when at only 1300′.

(Dan Welch thermalling in Arcus ‘EW’ next to the shower)

Several of us, including Tom Russell in 566, caught some nice lift right next to a massive shower which we somehow had to get round.

I didn’t.

After trying to skirt the shower, myself and another ASW19 got low and tried to join the same thermal as a glider a couple of thousand feet above us which was the only option around.  Expectedly it didn’t work very well so I soon found myself low enough to start picking a field.  The first thing I spotted was what seemed to be a little farm strip slightly uphill and directly facing into the 20kt wind.  I then saw a motor glider taxi off it towards a hangar by the side so this seemed proof to me that the strip was landable.

The strip turned out to be very smooth and had a very friendly owner who showed me around his two motor gliders whilst I was waiting for my trailer.

(HCV pushed to the side of the strip incase any other gliders decided to land)

Rhoan, who had got back and won the day, very kindly came to pick me up so thanks for that!

I finally got back to the club at around 9pm and was pleasantly surprised after handing in my trace that I was 27th for the day!

Overall a fantastic flight during which I learnt loads.  With quite a few scrubs days appearing to be lining up I hope we’ll get some better weather towards the end of the week so we get some more flying in.

Harry flies HCV

A belated well done to Harry Roberts who flew HCV for the first time last Wednesday!

LGC Cadet Dates and Opportunities 2015

Feb 28                 Latest date for re-applying to the scheme

Most important if you want to be part of Cadet scheme in 2015

Mar 21-22            Cadet Induction days

2 separate days with new cadets on each of the days, we will use a similar format to last year. One K21 will be allocated to the cadet team each day. It is primarily for giving the new cadets a first flight. Please try and come along on at least one of the days, it’ll be a chance to meet the new cadets and help them get their first flights.

Apr 17-19             Juniors Winter Series – Shennington

BGA Juniors event for the senior cadets.

May 26-29         Cadet Challenge (possible tbc)

An inter club, fun, cadet gliding competition, which Dunstable hosted and won last year. Only provisional at this stage, further details will appear here in due course.

Jul 25 – Aug 2   Dunstable Regionals

This is the main week of the year which you should try and set aside and plan to be at the club. To help with the competition and have a lot of fun in the process. The cadet glider will probably be flying in this comp with some of the senior cadets.

Aug 22-30         Junior Nationals – Aston Down

One lucky (and hopefully skilled) cadet will fly the cadet glider in the competition and represent the Dunstable cadets.

Aug 24-30         Duo Discus at the Junior Nationals – Aston Down

From the Monday our own Duo Discus will be at the comp flying the same tasks as the Juniors. This will give some of you an opportunity to fly in this with an experienced Competition pilot.

Sep 1-19           Llanbedr expedition

This is being organised as a general club expedition by Robin and Dan. However, it has been timed to allow cadets to participate before returning to school or university. It is a great new place to fly from. The Duo Discus and the cadet glider will be there.

Harry Completes Silver duration!

Congratulations to Harry Roberts who gained his Silver duration after spending 5 hours 16 minutes on the hill today.

 

Poor Harry…

Eddies converts to the K23

Congratulations to Eddie for (finally!) converting to the K23.