TVHGC Flying Diary

This blog is now located at http://tvhgcdiary.blogspot.com/.
You will be automatically redirected in 30 seconds or you may click here.

For feed subscribers, please update your feed subscriptions to
http://tvhgcdiary.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default.

Name	::	Nik Valiris
Email	::	nik.valiris _at_ gmail.com
Date	::	24 / 04 / 2010
Direction	::	South
Comments	::	Arrived at 11am with a few others. It was blowing a steady 12mph SE'ly to start with and nice and sunny but quite hazy (inversion layer?!?) however by 12noon it had picked up to 16-18 and S'ly. Everyone got some decent soaring for a few hours with small punchy thermals which at times were quite rough and most fizzling out at around 2000' amsl. Landed about 2pm as the wind had picked up even stronger. Whilst on my way back up from landing I had a chat to a very nice family who were having a picnic and were mesmerised seeing all the gliders - time for a chat and doing my PR bit for the club! We had some lunch and met up with those who came over from Golden Ball for some communal parawaiting and the usual banter.
Pictures	::
XC League	::	TVHGC :: National

Name	::	David Hague
Email	::	davehague _at_ gmail.com
Date	::	23 / 04 / 2010
Direction	::	South
Comments	::	Launched just after midday and initially had the sky to myself, apart from a bird of prey that followed me around squawking. Eventually decided to go XC with a (Team 5?) blue wing. They raced off towards Marlborough and found a climb. I joined a sailplane in a climb above the Manton Estate stables (which has worked before) and bimbled around Lyneham airspace, got a few more climbs and landed at Faringdon. Climbs were really rough and pretty unpleasant, with a strong inversion around 4500'
Pictures	::	http://www.tvhgc.co.uk/photo_gallery/
XC League	::	TVHGC :: National

Name	::	Al Wilson
Email	::	al _at_ mrog.co.uk
Date	::	21 / 04 / 2010
Direction	::	North
Comments	::	Beautiful sunny day with wind strong and a little off to the east, but nice conditions in the air. The forecast cumulus disappeared about lunchtime leaving blue conditions. Clearly 'good blue' though, as a couple made it into Dorset for 70k (Kirsty) and 80k (Tim G). Strong climbs to 4.5k+, but tricky going, with big sinky gaps between thermals. I landed around 25k as did many others. Still flyable well into the evening.
Pictures	::
XC League	::	TVHGC :: National

Name	::	Nik Valiris
Email	::	nik.valiris _at_ gmail.com
Date	::	20 / 04 / 2010
Direction	::	North West
Comments	::	A cheeky visit after work, after a quick pre-travel weather check (thanks Lee) I arrived with lots of cars and a few groupies flying could only mean one thing lots have gone XC - 100k+ has been mentioned good going all. Well after take off at 6.30pm I had a ball with some very floaty conditions with the odd bit of turbulence at some points, gaining about 800'for about an hour and playing around with the lift kept me happy and incredibly it was still thermic! Not massive amounts of lift and no more than 2m/s but just enough for lots of smiles. At one point standing still, no up, no down, no forward or back just very odd but nice evening until sunset.
Pictures	::
XC League	::	TVHGC :: National

Name	::	Al Wilson
Email	::	al _at_ mrog.co.uk
Date	::	20 / 04 / 2010
Direction	::	North West
Comments	::	epic! at least 4 100k flights to the south downs, think mark jones won the day with 120k. well done to jon collie on his first uk ton, 109k to arundel. windy in the morning, but liddington lived up to reputation for being good in a gale and tim g and i climbed straight out from takeoff at noon. now on traain back from worthing, with sunburn and a lungful of volcanic dust.. :)
Pictures	::
XC League	::	TVHGC :: National

A whizo weekend.





Reech

Name	::	Wayne bevan
Email	::	waynebevan23 _at_ yahoo.co.uk
Date	::	10 / 04 / 2010
Direction	::	East
Comments	::	Last Saturday provided much flying for all disciplines at Mercuy albeit the conditions at first were light. May I thank those PG pilots who displayed good airman-ship & discipline when scratching & having to slope land. Most of these pilots did their best not to hang around in front of the hang gliders who were waiting to launch & even having slope landed carried back to the take off area. However a small minority of pilots ignored this common sense approach & through pure ignorance not only 'kited' the PG back up the slope from below the fence line but also took off from the same point directly below the sight line of those on the hill! This was directly in front of the HG pilots who were waiting to take-off! The pilots were spoken to & advised (by HG pilots) which raised an important point. These pilots appeared to be visiting pilots & claimed not to know the site rules/code of conduct etc! Did they not receive a site briefing or communicate with anyone? They also seemed ignorant of the dangers of kiteing up the slope below other pilots sight lines. it was only due to the fact that the HG pilots were aware of the situation which prevented a serious incident. A HG pilot on a take off run cannot abort without serious consequences! May I wish you all a safe & enjoyable year
Pictures	::	http://www.tvhgc.co.uk/photo_gallery/
XC League	::	TVHGC :: National

Quite a day really. Got there about 11.30am. Loads of people there for a BCC round. Very light. Most trekked up to the top takeoff some people used the lower takeoff and managed to get up. I didn't and had a bit of a trek up through the bracken........... Anyway, loads of people flying and quite a few getting away. For reasons unknown to me I was flying like an ass and could barely stay up! After a bit of of that I kind of gave up and decided a munch and a snooze in the sun was in order watching people scratching about.



Hmmmmm..... Got to about 3.30pm and with things appearing to drop off I thought 'Bugger this one more go and if I end up in the bottom landing so be it, that's where the car is anyway'. So I took off and joined the gaggle of gliders. Somehow the Brain seemed to be working a bit better and I got a nice steady climb to 3,600' ATO and poked me head above the rather nasty brown inversion. Feeling much better I decided to wander over Abergavenny way via some nasty 4-5m/s sink and a couple of nice 1-2m/s thermals. All very pleasant. Floated about over The Blorenge for a bit, toplanded in perfect soaring conditions. I may as well carry on so launched, floated about some more in really bouyant air until I thought I better land in Castle Meadows for a beer and phone Ron who was still at Pandy to tell him where I'd disappeared to. Lovely views and not a single frame of video shot. Told you the brain wasn't switched on.

Reech

Name	::	Mike Long
Email	::	_at_
Date	::	09 / 04 / 2010
Direction	::	West
Comments	::	Due to work commitment couldn't make the BCC round in Wales at the weekend so headed for Talybont on the Friday. Several pilots in the carpark. Some took the short walk;having met Ken Wilkinson I opted for his advice and we, with three others, took the long walk.... Superb views from the top. The conditions were pretty strong ( ken recorded a 5m/sec) and rough, although little wind ) so we didn't fly for long but it was well worth the effort and I can't wait to go again. What a place to fly !
Pictures	::	http://www.tvhgc.co.uk/photo_gallery/
XC League	::	TVHGC :: National

Name	::	Bob Johnston
Email	::	bob _at_ skylinemodelsdotcodotuk
Date	::	10 / 04 / 2010
Direction	::	North East
Comments	::	To call it a north East wind isn't fair, there wasn't any most of the time! Warm, stable humid day with increasing cirrus rolling in, stupid me thought it would improve once small cu's started popping, it didn't and I wished I went earlier! Finally left around 3 after a very low save about 200ft off the bottom landing and rode it all the way to a sort of base, bloody hard work with very weak climbs but gaggled with a few others, lost the gaggle when I got all impatient and knew the day was ending soon anyway as so hazy and late in the day, 34k of hard work but I'm happy with that in the conditions.
Pictures	::	http://www.tvhgc.co.uk/photo_gallery/
XC League	::	TVHGC :: National

Name	::	Simon Twiss
Email	::	simon.twiss _at_ btinternet.com
Date	::	07 / 04 / 2010
Direction	::	North West
Comments	::	If anyone was interested in the Wednesday weather (seems a bit tame after Thurs) - V cloudy. And windy. But thx for on site wx update from Andrew - It was flyable - just. The site was just on the divide between light overcast and dark overcast, and there lay a line of very smooth weak lift - at first to an unispiring 2700' base, but aligned in a street, which gave an easy ride to Andover, whereupon my PDA map packed up, so I had to land at the dish at Chilbolton. Moral of the tale - make sure your paper map is accesible in flight (I blame my new harness). My God, XC on Thurs was hard going in comparison, without that 30kph wind up the chuff.
Pictures	::	http://www.tvhgc.co.uk/photo_gallery/
XC League	::	TVHGC :: National

Name	::	Al Wilson
Email	::	al _at_ mrog.co.uk
Date	::	08 / 04 / 2010
Direction	::	North
Comments	::	Classic Combe day. Wind bang on the hill and soarable to begin with, but went light just as the thermals started Most of them seemed to stop at 2500' or so to begin with, but around 12 it switched on properly with good climbs to base at 4000'. Lots of sun on the ground and lift everywhere, albeit light and hard to work until you found a good core. Too many big flights to mention them all, but Dave Hague flew past the New Forest and into Dorset for 94k, on the same day that many went the other side of the airspace and down to the coast. Charles Norwood won the day, getting to the Dyke, Mark Jones and Craig Atwell to Worthing just short of 100k. I lost concentration and landed at 40k, but was still happy with my first day flying in 5 months. PS - the links below diary posts to the XC league have been updated to work with the new league website.
Pictures	::
XC League	::	TVHGC :: National

btinternet.com

Name	::	Simon Twiss
Email	::	simon.twiss _at_
Date	::	08 / 04 / 2010
Direction	::	North
Comments	::	Wow. Great day. Picked a nice field at Chichester on google earth - emailed declaration . It was being mown for me as I landed .
Pictures	::	http://www.tvhgc.co.uk/photo_gallery/
XC League	::	TVHGC :: National

Name	::	Bob Johnston
Email	::	bob _at_ skylinemodelsdotcodotuk
Date	::	04 / 04 / 2010
Direction	::	North West
Comments	::	Lovely "stolen" evening flight on Chinnor on what was a blown out day, had a feeling it might just drop enough before it went West later in the day, shot up Chinnor as soon as the wind started to drop and got about 40 mins of evening thermal flying in before it did drop and go too West. Sneaked in a top landing, packed up and home for tea, can't be bad:-)
Pictures	::	http://www.tvhgc.co.uk/photo_gallery/
XC League	::	TVHGC :: National

Here's a quickie of the doings at the Big Fat RePack. Really a must do each year. You might get one chance if you need to use your reserve. IT HAS TO WORK!



Reech