Some more pics of fun at Lleweni Parc

The members on the spring expedition to Wales had another fantastic ridge day with everyone here spending several hours beating up and down before showers brought an end to the day around 1730.

Here are a few pics:

A view of the ridge from ground level

27 launchpoint

Somewhere over Wales

Ed in KV, photographed by his syndicate partner Phil from 315

Ed again

A happy bunch of pilots

The smiling faces say it all. All the young students after they had flown. Several came up to me after their flights to say what a great time they had had and to thank the club and their instructors. My thanks to the instructors, tug pilots, cadets and office for making it all run so well

BA/Air League day at Booker today

Booker hosted another BA/Air League sponsored work experience day today. 30 young students from around the Heathrow area are part of the scheme BA are running which includes seeing different aspects of jobs at BA, interviews, CV writing, team building and giving them a few life skills that school doesn't  (as well as an aviation experience). We flew all 32 who attended and and still had time for lunch.

Welsh catch up

Here are a few more pics of Wales from various angles

Lleweni Parc - 850m of tarmac

Snowdon - snowed on

Snowdon below an inversion

316 on finals

Here's what we did on our rest day last Wednesday:

Boys being boys

Beaten by the locals - Chris from Lleweni Parc with Gold

And more sedately:

Llandudno prom, looking towards the Great Orme

View from the top of the Great Orme

And some local livestock:

Gulls on a Jaguar

Sheep. Of course.

Saturday Fantastic Views

Took a ride in the tug with Richard and two tug pilots in tow behind - Boris and Jim Rowland. Great views of Snowdonia, Morecombe Bay, Cumbria, even the Isle of Man in the far distance. Then the Flarm went berserk.....

 

This might be why the Flarm went beserk...........



 

View from 316

 

Lleweni Parc easterly

All change today, the wind was from the east and at first there was a lot of mist, but after a while the sky cleared and we started launching towards the ridge. There was no sign of the promised easterly wave, but there were thermals and the scenery looked great. Landing procedure was no longer 'roll to the end of the runway' as that would have meant a gentle canter down the slope on the second half with the possibility of continuing on down the grass to the stream, so we aimed to stop at the taxiway, referred to as the Cook Strait, halfway down. Seemed to work. Here are some random pics from the day.

316 on tow

Symeon trying out an alternative mode of transport

There was a much more difficult version with just the one wheel, like a unicycle without a seat. Mostly it required people walking either side to keep the rider upright.

Booker's homemade fuel bowser

GH in its temporary home

The gang at the end of another fun day

Scary selfie

Denbigh Wave - there's more from Tuesday

Just a couple more pics of Denbigh sights. T4 and LC flew out to the coast together after a spell swanning around just below 7000 feet close to the airfield. It was relatively easy to transition in to the wave by pushing out from the ridge, with the lift working over a large area. It was a great flight, but I should have landed 15 minutes earlier to avoid the edge of a large (massive) shower, won't do that again!

View of Dee Estuary looking towards Liverpool.

Prestatyn Pontins.

To Snowdon and back

Yesterday was a stunner. A brisk westerly produced lively conditions at times but in general the trend was upwards. Symeon got the back seat of the ASG31-MI belonging to Rod who owns the airfield. They went over the hills and far away........

River Conwy and the Great Orme

The seaside

Other people flew the ridge from one end to the other - 30km - in a mix of ridge and thermal, there were those who turned points out to sea near Rhyl. Richard and Simon went to Snowdon.......

Alwen Reservoir and Lake Brenig

Menai Strait

The Great Orme....again

The seaside

More seaside

Snowdon in cloud

All this fun was temporarily halted by a shower front when it seemed best to be on the ground, and then we started again. The Duo and K21 had wave flights - the Duo reported 8000ft and minus 11degC.

Somewhere over Wales

Working backwards - on Monday we flew from dawn to dusk, literally, the last flight landing on the dot of official night.

And yet more seaside

A bit of the ridge

Absolutely legal

And in other news.......our loyal readers may have been wondering about food. No photos, but the household at Caeu Mawr has been eating well. Here's the menu so far:
- Cod on a bed of beans and tomato, with cheesecake to follow
- Salmon in parcels with leek, petits pois and creme fraiche, with apple frangipani flan
- Smoked salmon followed by Piedmont stuffed peppers, then the last of the cheesecake with fresh raspberries
- Mexican shepherds pie (sweet potato topping) followed by homemade lime and tequila ice cream (to die for!!)

Last night we were all a bit worn out by all the fun so we had pate, Morrison's battered haddock with the rest of the shepherd's pie.......and the last of the ice cream.

And finally......there are some rather odd creatures around the perimeter of the airfield.

Today we have some soft Welsh rain obscuring our usual view of the ridge so a rest day is in prospect.

Welsh Monday

This morning started very wet indeed but by lunch time the bad stuff had passed and the fleet was rigged.

Launchpoint

Everyone was soon batting up and down the ridge and climbing away in wave, with views of the seaside, iron age forts, the Jubilee tower and lots of lovely countryside, some of it quite wet. The field off the runway and peri track is also quite wet, so the rule about keeping off the grass has a lot to be said for it if you don't want to get covered in mud. All good fun though. And one happy person is Nik von Merveldt who finally completed his Bronze by demonstrating that he could get to the end of the runway on landing. It was also his first time ridge and wave flying, the grin when he landed was quite something.

Well done Nik!

Lleweni Parc pics

Here are a few pics from Saturday and Sunday. It's a bit wet this morning but we hope for sunshine later.

Fran and Richard on the ridge

View from the top

Nice cloud!

Jim W and Richard in wave

....and again

Lleweni Parc day 2

Still blowing a gale, but Pete Wyld battled through wind and weather from Booker in the Robin, with the whole expedition lined up to watch his landing. After a pause for breath he launched Richard and Jim in 315, they promptly wafted up to 6000ft in wave. It was getting a bit late by then so we fuelled up the tug and went to our respective homes.

How many people does it take to pump fuel into a Robin?

Booker spring expedition to Wales

Booker Gliding Club's spring expedition to Wales has a different venue this year - Lleweni Parc near Denbigh. The weather so far has been a bit wet and windy but 315 had no sooner arrived than it was rigged and going up the wire for a look at the local sights, including the 30km Clwydian Ridge.

Richard and Fran ready to go

Back again ahead of the rain