the day turned out better than expected and everyone had their fill of flying and soaring. Congratulations to Mark Williams who went solo on Thursday and upgraded to the KA8 today.
Neal
May 282016
May 282016
A very busy club week with two guys on a course as it was the only time they could get the same week. The weather was average with one good day on Tuesday when a few of the regular pundits went cross country. Most went east for 300+K except for Jon Hall and Martin in KA who went round Snowdon, a fantastic flight in thermals. Rob tried for his silver distance but found battling into a 15knt headwind in a K6 (no downwind options in an easterly) a bit of a groundhog day exercise and managed halfway before heading back, a good effort (he got back very quickly!).
The two course members, Tim and Steve have been here before and are converting to real flying after a lifetime in jets. Tim flew Lightnings and Steve flew Phantoms before leaving the RAF and flying commercial jets. After all this they both loved the K8.
Thursday was the first of the evening courses with Steve Rudge, Mark Williams, Martin Sloane, and Suzie G R. all enjoying flying till sunset. Mark Williams did his first solo in the K13 followed by a second to prove it wasn’t a fluke.
May 262016
Hi everyone, this is the first of a weekly blog intended to let you know what is coming up and keep you posted on the state of our current projects. In addition there will be a blog after each committee which will outline what has been discussed and agreed and a more detailed description of the projects we are currently working on. If you would like something mentioned in the Thursday blog then email me during the week and I will include it.
Last week:
Wood week was excellent with lots of flights in the T21, thanks to Roger Andrews for organizing this and Tuesday, as forecast by Mark Sanders was fantastic and you will have seen the earlier blog on the flights achieved and attempted. Keep your eye on the blog for more forecasts.
The evening courses start tonight, these really are great ways of developing your flying. Contact the office if you would like to join in.
Weekend outlook:
The weather for the weekend looks flyable and we have slots available on both days. If you need a check or you want to develop your flying in any way then book a slot with the office. Neal Clements and Denise Hughes are on duty on Saturday and Mike Greenwood is on duty on Sunday.
Forthcoming events:
The club calendar is a good way of checking what Is coming up, if you haven’t already got a copy then ask in the office.
Flying Taster day 11 June. Bring a friend along or just come along to help, this is going to be a very busy day and is aimed at gaining new members and reminding past members of what they are missing.
Steve Male is running an Aerobatics course week beginning the 18th of June. If you are interested then contact the office first and we can send you details.
Building and caravan park
You will have seen the progress being made on the new MT shed, once the shell is up then we will commence the fitting out and moving of Roger’s workshop.
Neal Clements (Chair)
May 262016
Well, as Mark predicted, it was a cracking day for some XC flying and a generous offer from Julian soon had the rear seat of JF occupied by John Kingsley. Rob and Mark in their LS’s, Julian and John embarked on a task of –
Montford Bridge-Shipston-on-Sour-Abergavenny SW-Mynd
Jon and Martin –
Snowdon/ Llangynidr Bridge/Telford East/Mynd but scrapped the Telford bit.
Bob Sharman rigged his K6 and flew to Telford/Worcester and back.
I took two hours heading North East into a 15k+ headwind trying to make Seighford and back for my elusive 50k Silver leg but gave up over Telford as by the time I had made any height gain, I found myself back where I started. A real game of snakes and ladders but by the time I had climbed a ladder, I slid down the snake, the disadvantage of a K6 found, especially when it only took me only 15 minutes to get back over the Mynd with 1875′ in hand!
Dave and Guy were instructing the folks on the course making good progress, Dave B and Dave W rigged and flew their Astir, Steve Foster flew one of his fleet, Simon and Den took up residence in a K13 for some instructor instructing!
Steve Male and Diana King went off in the motor floater on another training expedition.
A lovely meal provided by Fay and music in the bar rounded off another great day at the Mynd.
Hopefully some of the bold pilots will add a few photographs as Telford isn’t that pretty, even 4000′ away.
Cheers
Rob
May 202016
Request from Dominic Haughton:
I would like to fly Competition Enterprise at Shobdon from 2nd to 10th July this year (http://www.compenterprise.uk/2016.html ). Having been on the reserve entry list for a while, I have just been offered a place and am hoping to find one or more standby retrieve crew volunteers so I can take up the offer.
Crew will not need to be on the airfield, just available to collect my car + trailer from Shobdon (Leominster, Herefordshire, HR6 9NR) and recover me sometime the same day in the event of a land out. The car will be insured for the crew.
If you are available for one or more days (Saturday 2nd – Saturday 9th July), on a voluntary or “commercial” basis, I’d be very happy to hear from you! Email me on dominic_haughton@hotmail.com or call 01829 772268/259654 (work/home).
Many thanks, Dominic
May 202016
Some uneven patches on the airfield have been filled with top soil and then sown with grass seed. They are to the left of the drive, about half way between the gate and the turning to the club house and are clearly visible. New grass is slow and difficult to establish on the Mynd. Please, without compromising safety, keep off the patches, don’t even walk on them. (Apart from the financial cost, four members spent nearly a day shovelling, raking, sowing etc. and they will be awfully miffed if their work is trashed).
Thanks in advance for your help on this!
May 202016
Good progress this week – the weather has been kind. The roof is on and concrete was delivered today for some of the dwarf wall which goes around most of the base – you can just about see the shutters. You can see beside the concrete lorry that the MT section has got a clear span of nearly 10 metres which should allow winches to be reversed in without too much collateral damage!
Looking forward to good progress next week too – should be easier with a roof on. Once the dwarf wall is complete the concrete base can go in. Roger will have insulation under his bit of the base to keep him and Liz cosy in the winter. All the roof and walls are insulated already. Some of the utility trenches have been dug.
Dave
May 162016
A better day than I expected at the Mynd. The wind stayed on the ridge most of the day (in spite of the forecast to turn north in the afternoon), and it was consistently thermic. We were launching to the north, and there were plenty of people out flying both club and private gliders. Nigel and Walter were the instructors, and did a number of trial lessons and check flights. There’s only one XC in the ladder at the moment – Allan Reynolds, MYN – WNE – CVN – LUD – SHW – MYN, 128 km. But it was a good XC day, and a fair number of paragliders left, their longest being around 60 km.
Nigel and Maria, on a First Flight.
Dave Wedlock getting excited on launch.
May 152016
Chris Harris, MGC President, and Nicky Harris, guests at the Long Mynd Soaring Club annual dinner last night, held at the Inn on the Green. Nigel Lassetter was also there, as a member of both clubs. Really good to see the increasing co-operation and contact between the two clubs, as the LMSC chair made clear in a short speech thanking the MGC.
Nigel and Nicky
The President.
May 132016
A mixed week, not the greatest but we still managed two half days and one full one. Austin Hartland (Guys brother) and Guy Hitchin resoloed and plenty of circuit training for the rest of the course so a productive, if short week.
The new building is taking shape at last, the framework was up in no time and is looking pretty impressive, we will soon be ready for fitting out the interior so there will be plenty of scope for volunteer effort. Talking of volunteer work we will soon be finalising the bunkhouse roof repair which will give you even more opportunity to volunteer your time and skill.
The weekend looks very good both for xc and training, I am off for some xc training with Andy Davies, it’s never too late!!
Dave
May 122016
Yesterday low cloud stopped play and we spent the day reading manuals and polishing gliders, fixing things that didn’t work and generally fettling. In the evening we had a really good meal with the Lasham guys and gals and the staff from the airfield in the bar next to the house courtesy of Toyah.
Today is very unstable with forecast thunderstorms so we are all doing other stuff again: Neal has gone for a walk up to the top of stage one, John R walking someplace else, Julian and Meg going into Jaca for a tapas lunch.
Mike Greenwood and David Brown arrive tonight, Paul Shuttleworth and Mark Sanders on Saturday. The weather looks set to improve considerably for them, and us.
May 102016
We have had unflyable days whilst the UK has had a heatwave. The weather in Spain is not particularly good for the week ahead but today we flew anyway. Once again a duff day in Jaca terms turned out to be extremely enjoyable (see the attached photo courtesy of Julian Fack). To the untrained eye this looks like a good sky but in Jaca terms it is poor as it only offered us 7k cloud base for 4 hours flying for us and 2 trips for Lasham.
Neal Clements
May 072016
Yesterday we thought that the next few days would be unflyable so we flew in what we expected to be poor conditions. As often happens on this expedition things turned out much better than expected and we tried to unscramble a complex southerly wave system. We spent several hours at 13 000 feet in an ever changing sky. Once again Jaca gives fantastic flying.
Neal Clements
May 052016
The footings were dug today. Concrete will be poured next week and the frame of the building should be up by the end of the week. Since we couldn’t move Dave Crowson’s caravan we moved the building a few inches 🙂
May 052016
So far the weather has been as we expected in May varying from 10 degrees to 25. We have had a couple of good wave days with long flights at flight level 195. The inversion has held us down in thermalling flights to 9000 feet. Unfortunately Clive’s wing was slightly damaged by a bird but everyone has flown everyday for 4 or 5 hours.
Neal Clements
May 032016
Hi All,
MYND REFRESHER WEEK – Sat 21st to Fri 27th May – Book your place now!
- Low cross-country hours?
- Looking to get your bronze cross-country endorsement?
- Pre-silver & need a refresher?
- Cloud flying training?
- Field Landing and Navigation Exercises training & checks?
- Soaring / 2-seat training?
We are putting on a special week from Sat 21st to Fri 27th May to help you get all the instruction and checks you need. So book now to join us for a day or even the whole week.
This week is likely to be busy & places will be limited, so if there’s something you’d really like to do then let us know asap & book your place, so that we can ensure we have enough instructors on site. It would also be wise to book your accommodation now.
Contact Martin now to book your place & we look forward to seeing you there.
Tel: 01588 650206, Email: office@midlandgliding.club
PS: There are also spaces left on the Get Checked Week which is happening this week 3rd-6th May, so if you need checking out ready for the summer, come up and get your check flights all done!