A couple of questions

Ian Molesworth s comments
read:

Doesn't look too impressive till you realise that they're quoting thermal
strengths in Metres per second!

There are words to describe Bruce but my mother doesn't know I know
them ;-)

Actually I like the "Thermal Strengths: Dangerous" bit.

Oh look it's started to rain! Don't you love England
--
Tim - ASW20CL "20"

"Bill Gribble" wrote in message
.. .
Does anybody know of any decent sites (or, at a push, books) that
illustrate the various different types/makes/models of glider that are
out there? Anything to help me recognise what I'm looking at, or picture
what people are discussing?

Get thee a Sailplane Directory from the SSA. It is published every now
and then as a special issue of SOARING, but I'll bet they keep extra copies.
I think the last one was July 1997, but not that many new gliders have been
introduced since then and certainly none in my price range. I always keep
my copy handy for just what you describe.

Vaughn

On Thu, 9 Oct 2003 16:08:33 +0100, Bill Gribble
wrote:

....snippage....

So Sunday it is. Forecast suggests it'll be "weak thermalling
conditions". Which doesn't phase me in the slightest, as every set of
conditions is a new experience at the moment g

Any soaring you get between now and March will be a gift from the
gods. I've had my gift. I flew a club Discus last Sunday and reckon
that an unexpected treat because I figured the thermal factory had
shut down in mid-September. But - what a lovely day. Visibility from
3000 ft was about 46 miles. I could see the Wash quite clearly from
above Gransden Lodge. Lift was plentiful too. I had a couple of
thermals that put 5 kts on the averager and that was between 15:00 and
16:00. The only thing that could have improved it was if I was in the
Pegase instead.

Where do you fly? Assuming you're on a flatland airfield, if your club
makes an expedition to a ridge site during the winter you may want to
go for a few days. Talk to your instructors, of course, and go if they
think you're far enough along to benefit from a bit of ridge soaring.

I expect I'll pay my usual annual visit to Nympsfield between
Christmas and New Year.


--
martin@ : Martin Gregorie
gregorie : Harlow, UK
demon :
co : Zappa fan & glider pilot
uk :

"Martin Gregorie" wrote in message
news
On Thu, 9 Oct 2003 16:08:33 +0100, Bill Gribble
wrote:

...snippage....

So Sunday it is. Forecast suggests it'll be "weak thermalling
conditions". Which doesn't phase me in the slightest, as every set of
conditions is a new experience at the moment g

Any soaring you get between now and March will be a gift from the
gods. I've had my gift. I flew a club Discus last Sunday and reckon
that an unexpected treat because I figured the thermal factory had
shut down in mid-September. But - what a lovely day. Visibility from
3000 ft was about 46 miles. I could see the Wash quite clearly from
above Gransden Lodge. Lift was plentiful too. I had a couple of
thermals that put 5 kts on the averager and that was between 15:00 and
16:00. The only thing that could have improved it was if I was in the
Pegase instead.

Where do you fly? Assuming you're on a flatland airfield, if your club
makes an expedition to a ridge site during the winter you may want to
go for a few days. Talk to your instructors, of course, and go if they
think you're far enough along to benefit from a bit of ridge soaring.

I expect I'll pay my usual annual visit to Nympsfield between
Christmas and New Year.


--
martin@ : Martin Gregorie
gregorie : Harlow, UK
demon :
co : Zappa fan & glider pilot
uk :

Found Lleweni Parc quite good in October when England was under frozen fog.

Frank Whiteley

Bruce Greeff wrote in message ...
AHem - sorry about not being explicit on the non-imperial nature of our
weather reporting system. The thermals are pretty good at present with
cloudbase last weekend at 20,000 foot MSL (15,300"AGL)

One club member recorded a 13kt thermal in an L13, pity he had to
abandon it to let his nauseous passenger disembark...

Last Saturday - I launched into the South African Free State sky with
the expectation of reaching 18000 ft. Oxygen on - the whole works.
Released straight into lift and thought - this is it - gold height
stuff - tentatively planned a 300km - the whole works. Promptly lost
the thermal and five minutes later was sitting in a farmer’s
field happy to be in one piece. Coupled to the incredible lift was the
most vicious sink I have ever experienced. It felt as if I had no
control of the glider as it was falling from the sky. I am just
thankful that my glider is as solid as a T61 tank and could take the
pounding of a poorly selected landing field, as I had no choice in
where I was going down. Luckily the wind/sink subsided sufficiently
that I could at least land with the ploughed channels at the last
minute. There was a thread recently on RAS about gliding not being an
adrenalin junkie sport - well the extreme lift/sink at this time of
the year in this part of the world makes one wish for a little less
adrenalin at times.

Clinton
LAK 12

BTW, what was your McCready STF in that sink? 200+ MPH? Like the bumper
sticker says, "Sink Happens".

Bill Daniels

"Clint" wrote in message
m...
Bruce Greeff wrote in message
...
AHem - sorry about not being explicit on the non-imperial nature of our
weather reporting system. The thermals are pretty good at present with
cloudbase last weekend at 20,000 foot MSL (15,300"AGL)

One club member recorded a 13kt thermal in an L13, pity he had to
abandon it to let his nauseous passenger disembark...

Last Saturday - I launched into the South African Free State sky with
the expectation of reaching 18000 ft. Oxygen on - the whole works.
Released straight into lift and thought - this is it - gold height
stuff - tentatively planned a 300km - the whole works. Promptly lost
the thermal and five minutes later was sitting in a farmer’s
field happy to be in one piece. Coupled to the incredible lift was the
most vicious sink I have ever experienced. It felt as if I had no
control of the glider as it was falling from the sky. I am just
thankful that my glider is as solid as a T61 tank and could take the
pounding of a poorly selected landing field, as I had no choice in
where I was going down. Luckily the wind/sink subsided sufficiently
that I could at least land with the ploughed channels at the last
minute. There was a thread recently on RAS about gliding not being an
adrenalin junkie sport - well the extreme lift/sink at this time of
the year in this part of the world makes one wish for a little less
adrenalin at times.

Clinton
LAK 12

Hi Clint - sorry to hear you ended in the fields. I nearly joined you
yesterday.

I can second that - Sunday included scratching away from a different
Free State farmers field. Loads of strong thermals but some huge areas
of 4-5m/s sink.

Those don't even make a dangerous rating, but from FL105 to 1000" above
a field in a few short minutes sure is exciting enough for me. The climb
away was excruciatingly slow and sweaty. Then it started to rain, just
to add insult to injury...

No thoughts of 300 kms etc, just out for a nice flight, got home in one
piece, and did 159km but it was rough enough that I landed before 16:00.


As Bill said - sink happens, and when it's going up at 5m/s here, it's
going down just as fast somewhere nearby.

Bill Daniels wrote:

BTW, what was your McCready STF in that sink? 200+ MPH? Like the bumper
sticker says, "Sink Happens".

Bill Daniels

"Clint" wrote in message
m...

Bruce Greeff wrote in message

...

AHem - sorry about not being explicit on the non-imperial nature of our
weather reporting system. The thermals are pretty good at present with
cloudbase last weekend at 20,000 foot MSL (15,300"AGL)

One club member recorded a 13kt thermal in an L13, pity he had to
abandon it to let his nauseous passenger disembark...


Last Saturday - I launched into the South African Free State sky with
the expectation of reaching 18000 ft. Oxygen on - the whole works.
Released straight into lift and thought - this is it - gold height
stuff - tentatively planned a 300km - the whole works. Promptly lost
the thermal and five minutes later was sitting in a farmer’s
field happy to be in one piece. Coupled to the incredible lift was the
most vicious sink I have ever experienced. It felt as if I had no
control of the glider as it was falling from the sky. I am just
thankful that my glider is as solid as a T61 tank and could take the
pounding of a poorly selected landing field, as I had no choice in
where I was going down. Luckily the wind/sink subsided sufficiently
that I could at least land with the ploughed channels at the last
minute. There was a thread recently on RAS about gliding not being an
adrenalin junkie sport - well the extreme lift/sink at this time of
the year in this part of the world makes one wish for a little less
adrenalin at times.

Clinton
LAK 12

Martin Gregorie writes
Where do you fly?
I expect I'll pay my usual annual visit to Nympsfield between Christmas
and New Year.

Cotswold Gliding Club, Aston Down. Nympsfield is just down the road from
us. I imagine the ridge lift of the Severn Valley and the potential of
wave from the Black Mountains are probably the main reasons the CGC
flies all through the year. Which is good for me, because it means I
have all winter to get to grips with the basics of how this gliding
thing works!

With respect to the any soaring a gift from the gods thought, I think I
can appreciate that now. Week before last (the weekend that included
your own "gift from the gods" I guess) was in fact my first weekend's
lessons. The apparent ease with which we grabbed a thermal on those
couple of flights was deceptive. This Sunday, quite different. The
gliders were dropping out of the sky like stones. Though that said, I
imagine I'm going to resent the winter more next year than I will this
year, as at the moment it's all so new that just playing ground crew and
helping retrieve the gliders from the field as they land is a hell of a
buzz!

Roll on Wednesday. Tomorrow. Hell with the work schedule. This time I'm
definitely sneaking out of the office for the afternoon.

--
Bill Gribble

On Tue, 14 Oct 2003 15:08:01 +0100, Bill Gribble
wrote:

Cotswold Gliding Club, Aston Down. Nympsfield is just down the road from
us. I imagine the ridge lift of the Severn Valley and the potential of
wave from the Black Mountains are probably the main reasons the CGC
flies all through the year. Which is good for me, because it means I
have all winter to get to grips with the basics of how this gliding
thing works!

Indeed. I know there's a lot of crossover between Aston Down and
Nympsfield, so as you say there' ll always be the ridge this winter,
though approaches there can be 'interesting' in a stiff westerly.

Actually, while you're learning circuits and landings it really
doesn't matter if there's lift: a sled ride from the top of the winch
is quite good enough and you'll get more landings per day than if
you're staying up. Hence my comment in another thread about the
benefits of fixed price to solo its encouragement to fly on
sub-optimal days.

With respect to the any soaring a gift from the gods thought, I think I
can appreciate that now. Week before last (the weekend that included
your own "gift from the gods" I guess) was in fact my first weekend's
lessons. The apparent ease with which we grabbed a thermal on those
couple of flights was deceptive. This Sunday, quite different. The
gliders were dropping out of the sky like stones.

They weren't last Saturday, though! I got away off the winch for a
nice hour of flatland soaring in warm, shirtsleeve conditions. Another
gift from Hung[1], the thermal god :-)

Though that said, I
imagine I'm going to resent the winter more next year than I will this
year, as at the moment it's all so new that just playing ground crew and
helping retrieve the gliders from the field as they land is a hell of a
buzz!

I aim to get out regularly throughout the winter to blow the cobwebs
away and like to fly at least once a month to keep some basic
proficiency.

[1] Hung is, strictly, the thermal deity of Free Flight model flying.
He must be propitiated with regular sacrifices of balsa and tissue
paper. If you keep him sweet he may help during a low save too.

--
martin@ : Martin Gregorie
gregorie : Harlow, UK
demon :
co : Zappa fan & glider pilot
uk :