Monday 30 March 2009

A fantastic Sunday...

What a day for March! Bob King did 400k, Dave Watt and Pete Stratten did a very quick 200. Tony Cleworth did his 100k, Richard Lever his 50k to Gransden, James Best his 5 hours and Silver height, George unpronounceable did his Silver height to complete his Silver. This is what I know about, if anyone achieved anything else, please let me know. We also welcome John Roberts and Fran Aitken who will be flying with us during the summer. Conditions were reported to be as good as 6kt averages to 6000ft!


Work has been progressing on the briefing room refurb, a huge thanks to OJ, Debbie, Pete Cadle and George. Also, Phil Gardner spent a great soaring day fixing the Astir trailer, thankyou Phil.

A good Tuesday..

The task, Bicester - Kineton - Newport Pagnell - Southam and back to Bicester. Derren and Dave Watt got round in their Venti, starting and finishing together. Tony Cleworth, the jolly old Pete Cadle and myself planned to fly the same task together, however Radio problems meant that we all went our seperate ways. The weather was a little tricky, with a strong wind at flying height and definate wave interferance. I got round Kineton and NPT but failed to get round Southam, Pete did Kineton then Southam. Corbin also did a couple of hours locally. Everyone was home for tea...

Monday 23 March 2009

Thermals, wave and pea soup

Friday was fairly quiet, with only a few ab initios hitting the circuit, but all did lots and lots of flying.

Saturday was for the desperate and the brave, with K19 and KBS getting as far out as Stow on the Wold and back for 80km. The rest of us tried to stay in sight of the airfield in very hazy conditions. A certain Discus BT could be heard polluting the natural quiet of Bicester for quite some time....

Minoo Patel, who has recently joined us, flew his brand new ASG29 for the first time today. Shiney shiney! Want one.

Sunday was much better. Not really sure where everyone went, but some managed to contact wave to the west and Ken Hartley managed to climb to 7000ft. James Best converted to the Astir, Sal Cooper has now completed her cross country endorsement, and even John Wright, yes John Wright, flew SOLO in the club's Astir. Spending his own money - must have a new web design client again.

Richard Chapman had the best adventure of the day, with a trip down to and along the South Downs in his Ventus BT, achieving the out and return with only 13 minutes engine time.

Hopefully, we will be reporting some good flights on Tuesday...

Tuesday 17 March 2009

Spring is here....

Friday was scrubbed due to poor weather in the morning, but the afternoon did clear up enough for Derren, Pete Stratten, Miff and Mike to go over to Booker to pick HAL up from it's annual inspection.

Saturday was fun, with some managing to get into the wave at Upper Heyford. Others managed some local thermal soaring. We did 60 odd launches.

Sunday was very busy, with over 100 launches flown. The grid launched and managed 100k's, some doing Enstone - Northampton South, others doing Bletchley, Silverstone, Aylesbury. The Fox was out and about, doing aerobatics all day with many getting the chance to pull some 'G'! Maz and Dave Morgan were practising for the Dan Smith trophy at Dunstable in a couple of weeks, aerotowing until dusk.

Monday 9 March 2009

Are you ready for 2009?

What are your flying ambitions for 2009? How are you going to achieve them?

Dave Watt and Mike Pettican are holding a meeting on this coming Saturday night (14th March) at 18:30.

The focus of this meeting will be on those who are looking to achieve duration flights, and 50k's, and those who are looking to fly their first x/c tasks. However, as always all are welcome. Look forward to seeing you there!

Friday, Saturday and Sunday - just gone..

Friday proved to be another good day (we won't mention Thursday), with 10 or so launching around about midday. Dave Watt, Derren Francis and John Giddins in their Venti, and Bob King in his ASW27, got round Chedworth - Silverstone (146k) in good time. On the winching side, we had 12 abinitio's out, Dave Burrett converted to the K8, and John Hunter converter to the Astir. Many thanks to John Wright (the pro winch driver) for coming down and spending the day in the back of a two seater instead, and a huge thanks to Alan Smith and Ian Smith who helped me ensure that everyone got flown.

Saturday was not so good for thermal soaring, but instead we welcomed members from all over to fly aerobatics in the Fox and K21, with many members receiving aerobatic instruction and getting a taste for learning aerobatics. For all those that missed it, we are only charging £32.00 for a 4000ft aerotow for aerobatics.

On Sunday we flew in the morning in an ever increasing wind, until rain stopped play around midday.

Thursday 5 March 2009

Update - Thursday 09:00

Ok,so we did not wake up to sunshine this morning, as a layer of Cirrus has moved up further north than previously forecast.

None the less, this should retreat to the S by midday, still leaving a reasonable airmass that should give good climbs to 3500 - 4000ft maybe a little more in the best bits.

Still a good 200k day.

Wednesday 4 March 2009

Thursday and Friday looking GOOD

Today turned out to be a cracker despite of the poor showery forecast. I saw 4500ft over Kettering (in the motorglider on a nav ex).

Congratulations to James Best for completing his Bronze today.

Tomorrow looks lke it could be slightly better than today, with a slighly drier airmass, and less wind. Ignore RASP, it's currently broken. Tonight will be frosty, and we should be waking up to a nice sunny morning tomorrow. Be here rigged and ready for thermals to start about 10.30, going on until 16:00 ish. We should see consistant 3kt climbs to 4000ft or more. Tomorrow will be a 300k + day. (Thanks to Dan for providing this info).

Friday is also shaping up well, with a slight ridge of high pressure, but an occluded front is fast approaching from the west which may shut it down with high cloud cover by early afternoon (here at Bicester).

Tuesday 3 March 2009

Potential Good Day this Friday


This coming Friday is now showing some potential to being another reasonable day, with a small ridge of high pressure. We'll keep you updated as this is still some way off.

Monday 2 March 2009

The 2009 Cross Country Season begins

Dave Watt and John Giddins launched first on a 227km task to Little Rissington and Gransden Lodge in their Venti. Both completed.

Mike Pettican (Std Cirrus) and Mark Lavender (ASW19) launched on a 140km task to Little Rissington and Newport Pagnell. Both completed.

Several other also flew on what was a nice early March day, which at best gave 5.5kt climbs to 4000ft.

Norman Hollifield visited Oxford and nearly Milton Keynes in the clubs Astir, before completing his first 'real' field landing, and getting introduced to getting stuck in the mud.

The Dunstable DUO Discus also popped in for tea and a tow home.

Both the Pawnee and the club Robin are at Turweston for servicing or maintenance, so we are using our third accessible tug D-ENBW until G-OTIB comes back, hopefully by this Friday.

My apologies for not attaching photo's to recent blogs, having recently moved house I can't find my camera download lead :(