Birkelunn dinner day 3

Regrettably the mushroom risotto starter was eaten before we could photograph it, but suffice to say another fantastic presentation from our pastry chef, and a great chicken pie from Tessa.
The photos tell the rest of the story:

OMG! Who cut the nose off the cheese?

and to finish:

Aboyne Day 3

Lighter winds and good thermals affected the wave but we had fun flying with spectacular views of the Cairngorms and Dee valley.

           Checking out the K21




              Ready for take off

The busy flying schedule has meant that we have fallen behind with our culinary reports but after a gentle day of soaring in the sunshine we have an opportunity to catch up.
Evening one at Birkelunn opened with Rob's delicious pasta followed by a plate of artfully arranged chocolate HobNobs provided by Doug.
Evening two featured John's amazing chili con carne.
We have been very fortunate to yet again secure the services of one of Europe's leading pastry chefs who has been providing our just deserts. The Bread and Butter pudding can only be described as phenomenal.


          The pastry Pastry Chef and one of the Bread and Butter puddings.




John and Rob 
providers of Chili and Pasta

Simon eyeing the Balvenie





Further reports on evening three to follow.

Aboyne 2012 - day 2

Awoke to another clear sky but some worrying cloud to the north west that made it less obvious where to go for the wave. 315 was first off followed by KCZ before anyone else had launched and wave was contacted at around 3,000' by Loch Kinord.

Specter of K21 over Loch Kinord

Others having heard what was happening then started to follow but a short burst of rain broke up the wave and had a lot of gliders scrabbling around low down before a wave system re-established itself and gave good climbs along the Dee Valley towards Braemar.

Ice formation on K21 after rain passed through

To the North and West there was extensive cloud cover but this didn't stop climbs to around 11,000' - around 13:00 the gaps started to close up and most people started down, again this was associated with more rain that came in from the northwest.

It brightened up late afternoon with a strong (20kt) wind at around 300' but virtually calm conditions on the ground.

Every landing is special and a piper was laid on to recognise the arrival of 315.

 
And in case anyone is wondering - the food is great too!

Aboyne 2012

Bookers annual Expedition to Aboyne has started with 315, KCZ and 318 from the club fleet making the journey north plus A9, RM, 118, JDV, 370, 279 & 208 with their respective owners.

The first day has had clear sunny conditions with a very light westerly but under Dave Byass' excellent direction, the most was made of the day with familiarisation flights with the people who haven't been before in the 2 seaters and most of the single seaters flying. The wave was good but peaked out around 7k and the convection in the middle of the day broke the wave up - this didn't detract from the fantastic visibility and stunning scenery.

Rigging and Gridding

Rob M in the early morning wave looking out over the North Sea to the East

Waiting to be hooked on

Climbing out towards Morvan

September continues to be good and 'odd' weather

September has continued to be an exceptional month weather wise and its great to see so many members enjoying the continued good weather. Whilst there haven't been any blog posts for a couple of weeks there have been plenty of good soaring days and many good achievements.

Last week (Wednesday 19th) saw many flying Glyn's task of Lynham, Lasham and Didcot (315, A2 & 325) plus a lot of other single seaters merely enjoying the excellent soaring. John Hubberstey finished his Silver C with a quick 50k to Enstone - he was a little too enthusiastic with his first pull off at 700' (worried about the 1% rule) and landed back but was not deterred and launched again and got to Enstone in about 2 hours. Saturday was again busy with lots of you out enjoying the light winds and reasonable thermals.

This week has produced a strange mix of weather with a funnel cloud appearing to the west of the airfield and this evening a strange and eerie low level mist drifting in across the airfield.

Funnel cloud to west of Booker

Eerie mist

Andy Tobias after his 1st solo

We also saw another first solo by way of Andy Tobias (our local friendly AME) in CFA. He has been flying with us in between giving CAA and most recently EASA medicals on the airfield. Congratulations to him and anyone else who has achieved anything special recently.

September Soaring, Solo's, Spitfires

The current run of good weather has seen a lot of activity at Booker this week (and it looks likely to continue).

Tuesday's weather provided good streeting conditions with cloud bases in exces of 4,000' and HA, Z3 and AJ did a 200k task at over 100kph out to Chiping Norton, Thame, Chipping Norton and home. The Duo Discus did a Bicester Didcot with Graham Morfey at the helm.

There has been plenty of training going on and Basic course member Daniel Pollard solo'd in CFA.

We were treated to a spectacular flypast of a couple of BBMF spitfires Thursday evening.

A grid was set up ready to take advantage of the good soaring conditions on Saturday with a mix of training 2 seaters, private single seaters and a vintage group Wassamer Super Javolet.

Saturday's grid

Simon Vardigan and Chris Arnold converted to the Pegasus and K18 respectively.

Simon and Chirs after their converstion flights

 And lastly not to be outdone and continue the theme of open top flying we have a picture of Graham Saw from his recent trip to Lithuania in a Hol's der Teufel. He claims his '6 second flight (with handicap is about 5 hours in plastic gliders)', with a glide ratio of 13:1 perhaps he is right?

Another Booker champion in the making

Guy Trees entered the 'Saltby Open' aerobatic glider comp at the weekend and won in the Beginners Class.

His overall accuracy of the figures, positioning in the 'box' and harmony marks were obviously good as he zeroed one of the figures and still won !

Photo shows Guy being presented the medal by Sam Mummery, a legend in the glider aerobatic world, representing the British Aerobatic Association.

Congratulations Guy.

 

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Meanwhile, the Cabriolet was out again on Sunday and Jane Moore expertly demonstrated her ability to loop without falling out of the open cockpit.

 

 

And it looks like Richard felt it would be better for his career if he kept a low profile as Mini Gat demonstrates that style, and enthusiasm for gliding, clearly run in the family.

 

 

 

Bonus point if you can spot what is wrong with this picture. 

Mad dogs and English men ............

It looks like the recent run of hot weather has finally got the better of the members. Todays sunshine meant that the only way to stay cool was to fly with the canopy off and CFA took to the skies several times with the 'Cabriollette' canopy.

Most of the people who flew it seemed to acquire silly grins some however .........

Tuesday Evening Group Aerobatics

The Tuesday Evening Group have been up to their usual antics and using up all the available daylight hours as well as seeing the world from a different angle.

The following excellent pictures taken by Sam Gervais say more than words can possibly do.