Task week begins...overcast and then blue

Day One of Task week, and two tasks were set...

Task A - BOB-OXF-BUC-BO1-BOO (111km?)
Task A - BOB-OXF-NOS-BO1-BOO (161km?)

Most pilot elected to do the bigger task and a few chose to do BOB-LAS-BIC-BOO instead (presumably to wave down to the folks at the Air League at Bicester today). At the start, several gliders reported good climbs to 2700', above which it all went a bit weird (very choppy and lots of sink).

Most pilots completed the tasks, although 971 and JDV landed at Thame and were aerotowed home. Meanwhile back at Booker G-DDXX (ASW19 competing in the ICL from Lasham) called in to say Hi and was later towed home too.

Sunday promises to be "interesting" with the possiblity of showers and thunder. H'mmm....

More summer

A busy day with more than 60 launches of various kinds. We started on 35 but after a while had to change to 24 as the wind came round to the west.Once we had launched the cross country grid we had a busy afternoon of two seater flying, finishing around 1800. Even after the top cover moved in it was still possible to soar locally. Four landouts reasonably close to home and one at the top edge of the Southern chart.

One day of summer - Friday 15 August

A surprising number of members appeared to have no jobs to go to yesterday, here's a sample of the grid, and the sky we launched into. A classic soaring day, more of the same please.

Some private owners and a number of club pilots came out to play yesterday 14.8.08. Mike Gardener soared for a couple of hours in the junior preparing for his 50km attempt and Henry Ross did a couple of hours in GBF dusting off the cobwebs from his lay off. Conditions were excellent from 10.00-16.30 with 4-5kt thermals, 3000ft + cloud base, winds 10kts @ 240. There were a few showers about all of which missed us until about 17.00 when we had a light sprinkling after which the wind dropped to 4-5kts and the sky opened up, just perfect for a first solo.

James Stanley lives in Hong Kong and while on a visit to his grandparents in 06 he spent a month or so almost every day at the club and became an unofficial cadet. James now aged 16 returned this summer and went solo much to the delight of his grandfather and father both whom are pilots and were on hand. Grandfather was on the field and gave father in Hong Kong a running commentary by phone while he monitored the weather via the BAFC website. Needless to say James is planning to continue the family tradition and become a professional pilot – well done James.

Today the rain cleared earlier than expected with the sun coming out about 9ish, the ground was a little damp after the heavy rain but it quite quickly dried out. Cloud base rose to 3000ft+ with solid 5-6kt thermals to be enjoyed if you launched at the right time between the periodic showers. At the peak the winds were 20 kts gusting 30, not too rough but sufficiently challenging to test our student pilot’s circuit planning. Good day.

Day 6 and it's all over

Everybody is back, prizes were given out (I'd say more about this but I missed it!), and another Booker Regionals is over with for another year.

Denis won the day with a blistering speed of 110.9km/h (along with four other pilots who achieved over 100km/h). As a result the day was devalued and so Denis (370) gained 'only' 837 points. This was sufficient to confirm his overall 1st place in the comp. with 3778 points. Jon Gatfield (T6) came second with 3626 points and third was Wayne Aspland (325) with 3424 points. A full breakdown of positions, scores, etc. can be seen at

http://www.soaringspot.com/booker2008/results/mixed/day-by-day.html

Well done to everybody who took part and also to everyone who helped out. Another fun, safe, competition with more smiles per km than anywhere else!

Day 6 finishers

!14, Z12, 370. T6 .are back 732 is at Bicester.

First launch at 12.10

Task A. Been watching the Cu building. This could be a fast race.

Day 6 Briefing

Metman says that there's several airmasses around with slightly different attributes (moist/dry, etc). Not quite sure which we're going to have but it's likely that we'll have Cu to 4000-5000', light variable winds, risk of a sea breeze front penetrating from several directions and periods of 8/8. Day expected to end at around 17:00. Therefore fairly short tasks set today:

Task A - Booker Bridge (BOB) - Membury (MEM) - Calvert Junction (CAL) - Chipping Campden (CHC) - Booker SW (BO1) - Booker Finish 1 (BF1) - 255.1km.

Task B - Booker Bridge (BOB) - Ilsley (ILS) - Calvert Junction (CAL) - Moreton-in-Marsh (MOR) - Booker SW (BO1) - Booker Finish 1 (BF1) - 207.6km.

First launch not before 11:30.

Oh, and the Battle of Britain flight is flying all over the Country today so need to keep an extra special lookout for them (for nostalgia purposes of course).

Day 6 The Final Countdown!

It's going to be rather hot with light variable winds today. The sort of weather that "The Public" love whilst the gliderpilot swelters under the canopy.

There's under 600 points seperating the top 10 places and only eight points between 1st and 2nd currently. I wonder if everybody is hoping for a long task to ensure it's a 1000 point day or if everyone is going into "end of competition-itis"?

Gliders are being towed out to the grid before the briefing at 10:30. I wonder where we're going today ? Watch this space and I'll give a post-briefing update later.