Aboyne 2014

Day 4 Arrived at the  Airfield with rain still falling and had to wait for it to clear. However we were launching after 1000hrs into thermals. Winds were very light 240/5kts initially backing to southerly later in the day. Mike Wild managed to blag a ride in an ASH25M with Ron Gardener and toured the highlands landing at Portmok before returning, alas he wont stop telling everyone about it ever since.
Hilton Thatcher and Merv had some good thermalling flights as did Bill Vesty with John Simmonds with best climbs to cloudbase at 4500'. Dave Paffett, Stuart Waldie, Colin Simpson and Kevin Woods shared the single seaters in the thermal conditions. The main hope for wave was late in the day when the thermals had died away. Both 2 seaters launched after 1730hrs and took tows to over 3000'. Merv and Hilton found some consistant lift in weak wave while Colin and John Ranged over a wide area making contact with briefer weak wave. A beautiful sunset followed.

Day 5 Very low cloud hung around most of the day restricting the flight to circuit practice. A better day looks in prospect tomorrow

Aboyne 2014

Day2 & 3  Heavy rain and winds near gale force over the last two days have results in time to experience the delights of Scotland's tourist spots. Colin Simpson's cooking skills gave the team a Thai Chicken curry. Apparently all survived! Today the K21 received the attentions of an engineer or two and resulting in a fixed ailing radio and missing power on the Garmin GPS found. Thanks to all who helped Kevin Woods and Dave Paffett.

 

Talk about too many cooks!

Aboyne 2014

Day 1.
 All 4 gliders arrived on the Saturday safe and in good order, well done all volunteers! Everyone booked into the accommodation and feedback was it is excellent!
 We awoke on the Sunday morning to a spectacular sky full of wave, lenticular clouds everywhere! So waiting for the briefing and then rigging was only for the patient.
Once the DG1000 and the K21 were serviceable check flights commenced. The conditions were interesting with  southerly gusty winds at surface, at +4000'  210/32kts. The conditions in circuit could be described as 'Sporting'. Once on the equally lively tow, wave was contacted from about 2300' over the Lochs with 4-6kts climbs. With 8 pilots to fly on the first day lingering in the wave wasn't an option, so up to 7000' then breaking off to head back down, it's not easy you know!
Dave Paffett and Stuart Waldie were the first to take the Discus and the Grob 102 up. Colin Simpson and Kevin Wood were checked and cleared for solo. However almost as soon as the single seaters got airborne, the wave conditions started to change, Dave Paffett got to 9500ft before a precautionary descent was necessary. For a short while the circuit felt more like Heathrow! The  newbies Bill Vesty, Jon Bareford, Hilton Thatcher and Mike Wilde found themselves having to work hard just to stay up in broken undefined lift and then having their first experience of rough circuits at Aboyne followed by a 90 degree wind on approach, sometimes with a tail wind! Would they manage to 'hit' the runway? Could they stay on it? Could the Instructor recover it? All 8 flew and found the experience 'instructive'. Everyone enjoyed the day including the evening meal at the Commercial in Tarland.

Jaca Day 6

Possibly the last day for a Lasham Expedition, ever. All four pilots had good long flights. That made four good days out of six which we would have gratefully accepted in advance. David Williams managed to get to 11,000 in weak wave. On the second flight JMcC and Howard got half way along the Yesa lake up to 8000 feet. It was a good end. Let's hope it is adiós and not despedida. Many thanks to Toya, Ana and Jav for some great times. There is a very good restaurant in Ouistreham called Le Roulis. They take as much care over their cheaper menus as the pricier ones.
JMcC

Jaca - Week 4 - Days 4 & 5

Day 4 is only mentioned in case anyone thinks I have forgotten one. In short Thursday was wet. A few went to brieing and were told that it was wet, while others got their information by looking out of the window.

Day 5 (Friday) was breezy and thermic. 776 towed beyond Stage 2 and climbed in weak wave to 7200. 775 was towed just below it and scuttled back. When 776 were just about to say nah,nah ni nah nah, the wave vanished and so 776 had to scuttle back. to Stage 1. For both gliders a battle with choppy thermals and vultures followed before it was decided the other pair should have a go. They weren't interested, which is quite annoying since we could have stayed up there.

Because the wind was westerly, it meant that anything in the Hecho valley and downwind was bound to be churned up. This was proved on the final flight which was towed to the smoother air in the Verdun direction where the thermals were more amenable.

After unsuccessfully struggling to get the tyre off the Duo's tail dolly, (it was flat), we decided to cut it off on the grounds that it seemed to be filled with Holt's emergency tyre gunge. After sawing it away we found it  wasn't, so why it was impossible to shift is a mystery. (It wasn't a two-piece wheel incidentally) We had taken this action on the grounds that Neumaticos stocked these things. We were just about to set off for Jaca to get a new tyre when a bright spark suggested we phoned them up first. They were out of stock. Merv is bringing another one out today.
JM

Jaca - Week 4 - Day 3

The briefing claimed it would be raining by 4pm but it might be flyable before then. Consequently we stood staring at the sky for a few hours, first outside the club-house and then outside the hangar without actually getting gliders out. Meanwhile we were entertained by helicopters in an exercise flying simulated wounded people to a temporary hospital on the south side. More staring at the sky followed until we concluded at around 1:45 that this was as good as it was going to get and that this wasn't good enough.
JM

Jaca - Week 4 - Day 2

Another sunny morning, slightly more relaxed start, gliders out and parked in front of hangars before briefing. so far this week Lasham have exclusive use of the airfield.

Wind from the South East, launching at 13:00, 775 went first to experience a very rough tow around the sky, eventually creeping over Stage 1, and finally releasing in lift under Cu forming in the valley. The Cu over the valley showed the most promise as substantial streets formed. Steady progress to the SE up to 8000', passing Oroel below and on the left. (Oroel is very imposing from the ground, less so from above), and onwards until Sabinanigo, then crossing the valley northwards, to get to fly above above the snow, working back towards Sant Cecilia.

776 followed a similar pattern, looking for wave but finding only the rotor.

After a change of P2, 775 launched again finding lift at Stage 1, but nowhere else, the climb exercise was repeated several times, before getting back with the assistance of airbrake to get down.
776 launched again, and narrowly avoided beating the tug down.

In the evening, the party was again guided to an excellent restaurant in Jaca.

MG