14 August 2012

Weekend Wave

Interclub League - Sunday


It was evidently waving in the early morning southerly breeze, however there was a significant amount of cloud around.

It was decided that scrubbing the task would be the best option and allow pilots to fly under their own free will.

I took a launch with my girlfriend for her first flight, and after a bumpy aerotow we were rewarded with a steady climb to 9,000ft over Ballater.

Robert Tait aimed to fly home to Easterton, but once in the Spey valley saw a good line of energy. He posted an undeclared 350km flight on the ladder!

C'est la vie.

Overall, Highland took the honours with Deeside a close second, followed by SGU and Feshiebridge.

Well done to Easterton, they are producing some adventurous and skilled XC pilots.

Interclub League - Saturday

Good morning,

The weather held out and allowed a good, but tricky, competition day on Saturday.

At Deeside we had:

Novice - Ron Ogston
Intermediate - Charlie Jordan
Pundit - Graham Holloway

The weather was broken thermals, 2-4knots with a cloudbase never higher than 3k feet.

The tasks were 2 hour assigned areas between 100-180km.

It soon became apparent it would be a struggle, and I spent almost 25mins trying to get away from Aboyne. However once into the Dee valley, the slopes were working well to provide constant bubbles of lift and maintaining height was quite easy.  I went middle distance in the 1st sector and met Geddes (my Highland rival) on the return journey. Once back in the Tarland bowl, I questioned whether heading to Rhynie would be a smart move - I had just heard Stuart Naylor in R1 landing out at the Turnpoint.

However, competing means pushing yourself, so I put thoughts of landing back at Aboyne out my head and had a good run into the TP picking up a decent 4 knot thermal over Mossat.

On the return journey, following the contours of the hills proved usefull and eventually scraped enough height to get over Press n Dye (is that how it is spelt?).

A straight glide around the final turnpoint - Lock Kinord - allowed a fast return home.

Unfortunately, Geddes was still going and had similar ideas! He had gone further in the 1st sector, and as the only two finishers, one of us had to lose. He beat me to the win.

A nice, tricky day in the hills that certainly required a bit of patience.



07 August 2012

Interclub League

Aboyne is hosting the Scottish Interclub League this weekend. Please come along to support the team, consisting of the usual pilots.

Fingers crossed the weather plays ball. There will be a BBQ in the evening courtesy of Murdo.

Woops...

Ron was going to be subjected to a practice launch failure by the dastardly CFI.

When you pull the bung, you at least give yourself a fighting chance!

It soon became apparent the Puch wasnt going to make it back from the awkward height the cable 'broke'....and allowed Ron to notch up a field landing alongside the airfield.

Roy promptly jumped in the tug and saved us derigging the whole lot, just to move it 100m up the road. Ron piloted the Puch out of the field and actually made it back to the airfield at the second attempt!

01 August 2012

Junior Championships

The UK Junior Championships will begin on the 18th August 2012.

The website is: http://nationals.juniorgliding.co.uk if you wish to follow my progress

Cruising

Club Class Nationals

I have finally arrived back in Aberdeen after 9 hours on the road.


Thank you for all the supportive messages recieved throughout the comp.

It was a fantastic week of flying - 7 competition days is almost unheard of within the UK. The weather has allowed almost 1,500km of racing, 30 airborne hours, 5 finishes and 2 landouts.

Day 6 was the highlight, with a handicapped 90kph around a 335km racing task.

The final Day 7 started with a low scrape almost immediately after making a start, however the air mass was very unstable with strong convection under stormy looking clouds. There was only so much rain dodging to be done, and the Cirrus doesnt fly too nicely with wet wings. After rounding the second TP, it looked like I would be landing as by 800ft I had not found any lift. However, under a particularly black looking cloud I found a 9knot average which ran me a good distance down track before landing in a field, but enough to take the day win.

The field on the other hand was not so fun. Due to all the rain in England, the crop is not yet cut - I do not exaggerate when I say Scotland has more landable fields at present! After a 10km search for something suitable, I selected a green field which turned out to be 'Sugar Beet' - John Mc will know what that is?!

I aimed for a tractor rut and made a smooth landing, however the ensuing groundloop was inevitable. Luckily no damage has been done and the farmer towed me out by tractor, kept happy by some beer tokens. An interesting end to a tricky day and tiring week.

The comp didnt start off in the best way however; we had a midair collision resulting in one of the pilots parachuting out. Whilst both only suffered minor injuries, it was a wake up call to everyone at the competition. Please next time you fly, rehearse what you need to do to jettison your canopy and remember that every glider is different.

I have uploaded some photos of my comp, which can be found at http://www.flickr.com/photos/80594325@N08/

Cross country / competitive flying is particularly rewarding and I would strongly encourage anyone to pursue it. There are a number of members at Aboyne which can help with lead-and-follow exercises or provide advice on the subject. The Pocklington 2-seater comp is a great introduction to comps and usually attending by the Capstan syndicate.

Anyway, the wings wont even be dry before the next comp - I am competing in the Junior Championships in 2 weeks...!