A sunny, but cold day on Saturday, but plently of members out on the airfield.  Much of the day was spent with instructors in the backseat and members getting on with their annual checks, lots of walking and pushing gliders about.  Jo G. supplied the rather cold members with a geat Stew (with obligatory dumplings) after flying, a great winter warmer, thanks Jo.

Sunday morning was foggy so the kit stayed undercover for most of the day.  However, in the meantime everyone was beavering away at some of the club tasks that required attention, mainly with the K18.  thanks to Al (painting the glider and himself!!), Steve T, Jonno W, Bob B, Sam R, Oscar, Jon A, Brain P, Terry B, Ben D, Tom D and everyone else that was there to help, the K18 is coming along nicely.

In the afternoon the fog had lifted a little, which allowed the Eon Primary to come out, with a few conversions including, I believe?  The Dews posse, Bob Bromwich (apparently still prefers his ASG29) and Sam Roddie.  If Sam asks Al nicely he may be able to use it for the club class nationals?  Just an idea.

Finally news from abroad.  As some of you are aware two of our members, Ted Richards and Carl Peters, are flying with the Chilian airforce (in gliders) in Chile, there blogs/stories so far are included at the following web address and is well worth a read.  http://www.raf.mod.uk/rafgliding/expeditions/chile2012.cfm

The kit was out on the airfield on Saturday, but it was soon deemed to gusty for flying, as ground handling the K21 was proving problematic.  Thus the kit was put away.  However, there was work ongoing with the K18, Discus and other bits and pieces most of the day.

On Sunday the wind was just as gusty during the morning and early afternoon.  However, in the meantime Jon A., Ali A, Sam A., Ken and myself weighed and rigged the Discus after it's annual maintenance.  Steve T., Al, Dave O., Bob Brom. and Oscar were busy with the K18 and winch fettling. Over the weekend we managed to get a great deal of work done around the club, sorry if I missed anyone out from the above.

By mid afternoon Sunday the wind had abated a little, it certainly wasn't as gusty.  Al decided that he was going to take the Faulke for a flight so I grabbed a tow behind him hoping it was going to be waving, although no-one was entirely convinced that it would be, including myself.  After a high tow to just above the unstable layer Al and myself were pleasantly surprised by the conditions.  I returned to Keevil after climbing to 9,500ft in wave as the light was failing.  Al, had the Faulke throttled back with the spoilers open and maintaining height... When I returned to the hanger I found Brian P. hoovering the hanger floor! the hanger floor is now spotless, thanks Brian.

Different format for the news this week.  Bob Bromwich has kindly put together the following for our enjoyment, Thanks Bob.

Mild day with west - northwest wind strong enough to just allow ridge flying at Westbury White Horse, and later, with a more northerly and increasing windspeed with height, WAVE at Keevil !!

Several pilots flew the wave above 7000 feet, with Arran Armstrong (ASW27 G1) reaching the best height, 10500 feet, including a short wave cross - country flight!

Bob Bromwich took the following pictures to show just a small part of a very exciting wave flight ....

Here the glider (ASG29) is just above the upwind wave cloud edge, where the wave lift was strongest
after initially contacting and patiently working up the weak wave lift at the lower leading edge cloud wisps :

Soon the glider is climbing in strong lift above the wave edge shown by the cloud, noting a nice wide "wave gap" - that is not closing and shutting off opportunity to descend back down through clear air :

The sun is setting at the end of the day - the glider must be pointed into wind to hold position in the wind, because the windspeed at height was nearly equal the the glider flight speed ! :

The full moon is above the horizon, gliders must be back at Keevil before long .....

 You You might all agree that it would be wonderful if more club pilots could benefit from the super flying available - but quite often a wave opportunity is missed !!
If you want to make use of these wave possibilities - like last weekend - the secret is to be prepared :
 Always bring warm clothes and optimism to Keevil !!

Assuming you are keen to make the most of your future wave flying chances, here are some hints :
before each flying opportunity, look on RASP to see if there is a possibility of wave.
http://rasp.inn.leedsmet.ac.uk/RASPtable.html

To use this site to obtain an indication of wave is not straight forward, as the calculations cannot be exact enough. Last weekend, for instance, wave was not forecast by the colours and wave bars over the RASP map of the UK in our area, but the atmospheric soundings gave a tip-off to look for wave.
 To view the local atmospheric sounding, go to the right hand side of the above linked page, click on "press for full parameter set", and scroll down to "#11: Larkhill" which is local to our area, and click on this to obtain the sounding. On these soundings, wave is more likely if the wind speed has consistent direction with height (look at the wind direction/speed feathers at the right hand side of the sounding), and increases smoothly in speed with height (look at the green line running up the right hand side of the sounding graph). Note that you can have wave even if the wind is slack or different direction at ground level !!
Here are some general help FAQ's for the RASP site :
http://rasp.inn.leedsmet.ac.uk/FAQ.pdf

Here is some more wave information
http://www.weatherjackwx.co.uk/tutorials/tut-various/wave/wave.html

When you are at Keevil, keep an eye on the shape of the clouds, if if a "wave edge" shows with a suitable "wave gap", take an aerotow to just above and in front of the upwind edge of the wave cloud - and wave is nearly guaranteed - its a bit like fishing, and you have to contribute patience and skill to be successful ! If in doubt, tow higher, to give yourself more margin to get "established" in the wave ....
With the hills around Keevil, the most likely wind directions are north westerly (wave from the Welsh mountains) and southerly (wave from the edge of the Salisbury plain) but other wind directions can sometimes produce a surprise !

When the conditions are right, any of the club gliders could do exciting wave sorties - for instance, Ben Dews very, very nearly had his first wave flight in the K18 last weekend, and I am sure that if he had a second go he would succeed.....

A very cold but dry day. A few individuals braved the elements to fly the K21 and K18. Ron Peach completed his bi-annual in the Falke with Pete Desmond. Alex Richards the RAFGSA chairman's eldest daughter achieved her first solo in the K21. The first person to do so since the arrival of the retrieve winch.

We had a good hard frost on both mornings with freezing rain on Saturday morning.  We had some good flying on both days with lots of training.  Although it was cold on the airfield it seemed to warm-up as the day progressed, or maybe that was the hypothermia setting in.  We managed in excess of 60 launches on Sunday even after the slow start in the morning due to the ice.  Mike Knell and Carl Peters (who took an aerotow to 6,500ft) took aerotows to hunt out some wave but nothing strong enough was found.

Achievements for the weekend:

-  Mark Peters completed his Bronze-C and converted to the K18

-  Adam Clarke converted to the LS-8

-  Our CFI, Ian Harris, completed his NPPL flying skills test in the Faulke (apparently he can fly!), which means that his NPPL is now complete, well done!

Ali and Jo organised a Christmas meal on Saturday which was wonderful, with mulled wine, jackets with chicken in a sauce followed by desserts and way too much cheese and port.  Deliceous, thanks.

Warning!

As we saw this weekend the airfield can get very icey so please drive (and walk!) carefully and take your time. Not only does the airfield get icey, but the road to the airfield gets icey, as one member found out as they sailed past the turn-off to the airfield on Speirs Piece due to black ice.  I've done that before myself...

Well, we waited in bated breath whether it was going to wave again today, but with a little south in the wind it wasn't on.

However, we did manage a good number of flights today, both for training and annual checks.  We did finish a little early as the rains came and washed us out.

Also, we have to welcome our newest member, Steve Holmes, who joined after his trial lesson last week.  Looks like Steve has been biten by the gliding bug.  Thanks to Carl and Gaz who spent the weekend beavering away in the workshop on R3.

WOW! is the best way of describing Saturday.

After rigging the K21 following it's annual fettling and paperwork, we began winch launching with some signs of wave present.  However, it didn't seem like that a winch launch was going to surffice as we were deffinantly in the down part of the wave!

Al turning up and we tried to aerotow into the wave, it worked.  It was waving from the edge of the danger zone at Westbury all the way up past Melksham with a hot spot at Trowbridge, over Tesco's of course.  Eventually we had G1, 16, 547, R12, K21 and the Faulke all wave soaring.  Heights achieved varied from 6,000ft to 11,800ft (see www.BGALadder.co.uk for traces).  The wave continued, but we were forced to land due to fading light.

See the image below taken from 11,800ft (2.2 statute miles) up and some what chilly.

Please see Neil's final picture for Movember!

He wants to thank all club members who donated money to the Movember cause.

Although I think Jo is glad its coming off soon!

Strong westerly winds on the Westbury ridge. Ian Harris passed his NFT in Tim Dews's Grob 109. Neil Wreford converted to the K18. The new Skylaunch retrieve winch continues to generate much interest and debate.  

An interesting day with nany launches. Those who stayed to the end were rewarded with some southerly wave. The K13, K21, Slingsby Tutor and Rotax Falke were all wave soaring until dusk.