Tuesday 26 April 2016

Air League visit

Today we played host to a group from a school in Hillingdon taking part in an Air League event organised by Andy Perkins. The day was aimed at giving the students a taste of gliding and to encourage them to apply for Air League scholarships to enable them to progress their training.

The weather was unstable and windy, with occasional showers of snow and hail, and decidedly chilly, Everyone had a great time, both in the air and driving the buggies around, with luck the fresh air and exercise will set them up nicely for their mock maths exams tomorrow.

Andy with some would-be racing drivers

Who took the ignition key?

Getting ready to launch

Certificates all round

Happy pilots

Gratuitous pic of 315 showing the day's sky

Sunday 17 April 2016

Gridded up Evesham Frome under a great sky

Check the ladder to see who did what on the Handicap task

Friday 15 April 2016

ECZ flies again

ECZ - now known as 316 - flew again yesterday, under a very nice looking April sky.

Looking good....

Wednesday 13 April 2016

Cloudscape over Benson

Just a small part of my flight yesterday.....
Jim

Tuesday 12 April 2016

Proper April weather

The sunshine brought everyone out today and the launchpoint was busy with training flights and instructor training. A few single seaters went off to dodge round the showers, finding excellent lift along the shower edges. Meanwhile, members vied with each other to try out the SZD Perkoz demonstrator in one or other of its three configurations. As it is fully aerobatic it was on occasion to be seen flying inverted downwind legs, as well as in a variety of attitudes at height.

Graham about to fly with the Polish Aerobatic Team's instructor

Hmm not sure about that shower

Not exactly elegant but very nice handling

Monday 11 April 2016

Dan Smith Memorial Trophy 2016 - aerobatics

Late news just in - our very own Graham Saw competed in the Dan Smith Memorial aerobatics comp at Dunstable on the weekend of 2/3 April. For this comp all the competitors fly a K21, there are two Sports sequences, a Known and and Unknown. This year the comp attracted entrants from Poland (two previous word champions) and the Czech Republic. Graham came first in the Unknown and second in the Known, with an overall silver medal.

Congratulations Graham!

The grins say it all
Full story here.

Sunday 10 April 2016

Easter Egg 2016 - Aerobatics comp

The annual Easter Egg Aerobatics Comp took place today, with a number of members and a guest from Dunstable hurling themselves around the sky in a bid to impress the judge, Graham Saw. The strong southerly produced challenging conditions and presented the competitors with some interesting decisions on how to position themselves for their sequence. Competitors could choose between the Standard and GorBlimey sequences and could fly as many times as they liked. The surprise results were as follows:

1st - Standard - Jane Moore - 81.3%
2nd - GorBlimey - Alun Jenkins - 78.1%
3rd - GorBlimey - David Humphreys - 70.6%
4th - Standard - Jan Wazny
5th - Standard - Jim White
6th - GorBlimey - Rob Kehr
7th - Standard - Rob Turner
8th - Standard - William Parker

Jane

Alun

David
Many thanks to Graham for organising and judging the event, and to Geoff T for presenting the prizes.

In other news, George rigged his Ventus with the aim of staying up - and landed out......... But at least he tried.

Saturday 9 April 2016

Spring showers

Today provided some excellent soaring but only for a few hours, the rain arrived soon after lunch. As well as training flights, a few people rigged to and set off to explore the cloud streets. George Hunter made it as far as Wantage, making use of the lift along the front of the showers.