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2021 Part 1 - A 200km shakedown flight

This fashionably late post continues the story of my gliding adventures into the 2021 season.  Everything had been set up for the previous year to be the one in which I entered my first rated gliding competition. Silver badge done, some exposure to inter-club competition, club task weeks and a little bit of other cross country practice meant that the only thing to do would be to get on with it. Unfortunately the pandemic put paid to that, so I would do it in 2021 instead. We fly year round at Sutton Bank; with ridge and wave opportunities making sure that we have soaring opportunities at any time of year - I think I have said before that we are very lucky. Unfortunately, this weather can't be guaranteed, and being on the top of a hill does mean that we can also be snow and fog bound in the darker months, seemingly for weeks at a time. This is not really the time of year to use days off from work to go flying, so you take your chances that the weekend will throw up something that is
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I have some catching up to do

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Well, it has been a while hasn't it? Between pandemics, parenting, work and every other thing that takes up my time I am afraid I have neglected this blog - and I had always intended to keep it at least somewhat up to date with my gliding adventures. The idea of it was that it was something to reminisce over later, or perhaps it might inspire someone who stumbled across it to take their gliding to another level, or just to take up the sport at all. I currently find myself laid up with a bad back, which my gliding friends attribute (without proof!) to my trailer, however I think it's altogether more likely that it's down to lifting a wriggly toddler into and out of the car. But anyway, since I can't do an awful lot else, it seems like a good opportunity to go through the logbook and see if I can find some interesting things to write about - and get this blog caught up with things. The last flight I wrote about was July 2020, and according to my logbook, that wasn't t
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First XC's of 2020 - in JULY!

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Well hasn't this year been fun, everyone? It's been a long time since I wrote anything - but that's because it's been a long time since there was anything to write. The weather in February was bad, even for February, and as we were looking forward to getting going again in March/April, along came a global pandemic! Thankfully we had the ability to get flying again as soon as regulations allowed in May, but the lockdown period had enjoyed a searing spring, and we returned to some less than stellar gliding conditions - not only that but we all needed to get some local flying done to get in practice after what was effectively a long winter break. June came and went with no chance to use what few good flying days there were due to annual maintenance on the glider which is normally done in March before serious flying begins and so July was the first opportunity to try and get something out of the year. The first day where me, my airworthy glider, and some good weather were a
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An Almost Diamond Flight

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A Gold distance is defined as a 300km flight either in a straight line, or around up to three declared turn points - I guess you can complete it without returning to your original start point. If you do, you can also claim the Diamond Goal flight, which can be done as a 300km flight on an "out and return" basis or around a closed triangular course. I had therefore figured that on the right day, and since I really always want to get back to where I started (because retrieves are time consuming and/or expensive) I would try to do both in one. With the birth of my first and only child having only occured around two weeks previous, managing to go gliding at all was something of an achievement - but after two weeks stuck indoors essentially on-call 24/7 whilst we all figured out what to do - a bit of a timeout was definitely needed.  Anyway, SkySight provided a good forecast and basically said "Go south and stay inland" - the usual 300km O/R from Sutton Bank is
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Location: Sutton Bank, Thirsk YO7 2EY, UK
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Post flight analysis - was it me, or was it the weather?

In my last post, I ended with how much I was looking forward to the Inter-club league this year, especially since I'd organised it and it was being hosted at my home airfield. Sadly, it lived up to it's nickname - the 'inter scrub league' and we managed collectively to amass zero kilometres - even despite a mass relocation to a different airfield when we thought local weather conditions might give us something (it didn't). I'm however pleased that the turnout from local clubs was great and showed that there is enthusiasm and willingness to cooperate to put on an event. We'll try again in August. The weather still hasn't settled fully, either that or I'm paying much closer attention to it than in previous years when my goals were first to fly, then to be able soar locally - where of course now all I want to do is go places. So far this year I've done a few short flights; a 100km at the end of March, and then a couple in the 130km range more re
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Start of the 2019 Season

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It's been a while since I posted, it would seem. It hasn't been a particularly busy winter, flying wise - I've managed to do enough to keep current, but Lima-Five-One has been in it's trailer in a nice warm barn, and only came out in March as the weather started to take a turn and the ARC was due. This is obviously the first time I have needed to take an aircraft through it's ARC, but it was relatively painless thanks to the wealth of expertise we have at Yorkshire Gliding Club, not only some hugely experienced pilots, but engineers as well. It's fortunate, because the first thing that happened when we lifted the glider fuselage out of the trailer was that the tail skid dropped off! One expensive new skid and a couple of days work later, and I had a newly airworthy glider for another year - and with another day, we sorted out the instrument fit. Gone is the old LX160 to be replaced by an IGC approved LXNAV S100 for task flying and logging duties, and
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Yorkshire Gliding Club Task Week 2018

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I missed out on last years Task Week by becoming Bronze/Cross Country qualified about three days after it had finished, so I was looking forward to competing in this years 'friendly' competition. I had the week booked off work, I had a glider booked for the full week, and the weather looked as though it might have been a little better than it had last year too. Having sat in on a couple of last years briefings for the tasks, there were often 'smaller' versions for pilots competing with a bronze badge. I joked that I hadn't actually had my paperwork back yet confirming full silver, but no, I would have to compete on an equal footing to everyone else - maybe not even that, since several of them were using self-sustaining gliders, and had the option of an engine if they got into trouble. Task week has a basic scoring system that involves taking distance and speed points from a valid flight uploaded to OLC; and then adding a series of bonuses for other achieveme
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Location: Sutton Bank, Thirsk YO7 2EX, UK
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