Yes week kan – Final Report

Saturday

Yes week kan – Final Report

Unfortunately we haven’t been able to write the blog as the wifi has been busticated by the huge storms that have ravaged the Pyrenees and destroyed our wifi mast, several cathedrals and a small hamlet called Villa Sureal.

However, as intrepid aviators, we were not about to let a little thing like this get in the way of our aviation. Now sit yourself down in your most comfy arm chair with a large whiskey and prepare to hear tales of daring and dangerous doings.

So, it is sooo far back – Ben says “Wednesday, we flew” (Helpful, thanks Ben). He has tried to move the conversation on to Thursday but this is because he wished to draw a veil over the creative pull-off on the lee side of a ridge with a power dive into the cascading sink having only interpreted the first half of Dave’s instruction being “pull off tow when ready”.

We are in the bar on Saturday, it is pouring with rain (and other things), we have had our first beer having derigged all gliders (only to receive instruction that said gliders were being used this week) therefore the following is no longer in chronological order due to the effects of ilcahol and the random order that the human mind recollects.

Bob, intrigued by the contents of the funny bags we carry on our backs when flying, decided to investigate. He was somewhat perturbed when he discovered that just like toothpaste, a drogue chute does not go back into the parachute – oops. Slide that one under the driver’s seat and hope no one notices.

On the topic of parachutes, we were deeply confused to be set the Lasham challenge to take four in-date parachutes and pack them in the trailer for Sisteron. This was as we only had three out of date parachutes. Much scratching of heads and perplexed brows. We therefore (after much deliberation) adopted the SEP approach (namely someone else’s problem (i.e. Mr Lewis who has just arrived in the bar).

For the vegetarians amongst us, the last two nights’ dinner have been a little bit on the shocking side, as Bob Johnson and Ben Warcup have committed farm yard genocide consuming a vast smorgasbord of nearly all the deceased (hopefully) quadrapeds of Aragon, whilst Chris and Dave looked on ashen faced. Another veil needs to be drawn over the mountain of detritus that remained on the creaking catering tables of the club as we crawled our way out of the bar.

Flying has been both dramatic and exciting. Including the following:

1. Mike Evans claiming that not only cars can do hand-brake turn, as he nimbly sashayed his Discus down the runway with a neat 90 degree turn into taxi way C. Most impressive. He has convinced us that it was intentional.

2. Bob feeling a little bit warm, created a swimming pool in the back of the DG, through disconnecting the mouthpiece on his camel back
3. Alison (having called 20 mins to landing) attempting to sneak down a 8,000 ft street climbing at 6 knots away from the airfield whilst engaging Mr Williams in witty badinage in the vain hope that he might not notice the big numbers on the instruments
4. Mr Larry Marks conducting a lightening tour around the peaks and snow line in 1hr 20 minutes resulting in Mr Bob Johnson retuning somewhat subdued (unusual for a man of his calibre)
5. Chris going on THE grand tour of every nook cranny, col, ridge, cwm, arête, peak and summit of the Pyrenees in a monumental flight which he terminated after 2.5 hours due to the cold.

Anyway, enough now, time to return from the blazing heat of the Aragon plain to whatever England has to offer.

Week At The Knees – Retrospective on Day Two in Jaca

Week At The Knees – Retrospective on Day Two in Jaca

This is not Colin Watt, this is Keyser Sochez. Colin Watt is not here.

Day two was successful if you measure it by amount of damaged people, planes and puking. There was none so it was a successful day. If you measure it by hours flying, it was a disaster, as there was none of that either. The weather map had shown a spider web of fronts passing over us yesterday and it was dreech (for the scots among you).

But we made the best of it.

At breakfast we decided what rules we would pass when we were gods for a day.
1. Van drivers would have dead fish to hit cyclist with as they pass through London
2. Cyclists would have metal fish to hit Van drivers with as they pass through London
3. All morally bankrupt politicians would expire slowly
4. Toothpaste tubs would blow your fingers off if you squeezed them in the middle
5. We would all park very neatly (if its not a right angle to the pavement, it’s a wrong angle).

We then moved onto controversy – Socialism is evil – discuss …as we wondered around the supermarket.

Back to the apartment to tuck into our booty and a nice bottle of wine. Misery hit us as the second glass went down because the sun came out but it was suitably fleeting and never got flyable.

We could have been cultural in the afternoon, seen a monastery, could have been athletic and climbed a mountain but no, we dug ourselves into the apartment and somehow lost 7.5 hours playing poker at £2 a round.

The day finished gloriously with a food feast, lead by our able guide, Mr Bob Johnson as he took us to some of the best eating holes in town. (Although Dave W and Chris S wimped out and went for Pizza… lame-o).

This morning we are waiting for the cloud base to lift but it looks flyable. The only comedy we have had to date is a Bob Johnson rant at the L Nav and Gps in the DG1000. I didn’t know a man’s face could turn the same colour as the maroon Lasham fleece. He was good enough to using “effing” and not the eff word but no idea what he was on about… too many “effs” and crying with laughter.

Oh and we are letting Dave W drive the 4WD again. On Monday, he tried to go into town in low ratio. 28mph, fifth gear and pedal to the metal, he had twigged something was wrong but wasn’t going to turn back and request assistance until a near death experience with a series of large trucks made him realise his chocolate/ junk food need did not rank higher than his life.

Week 2 Reprise!

Just a quick comment from Adrian on week 2

'What more can a first timer ask for, Initial climb to 8000 ft after 4 min tow, through stage two to stage three and 11900 ft. Followed by 3 similar flights encountering thermals, ridge, wave and rotor, not to mention climbing whilst looping!'

and a link to Owen's video for you to rate

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnPHydDQXdI

Sorry guys I should have posted this much earlier!

All the best to Keyser and his troops - looking forward to your next post.

Merv in wet windy UK ;-(

Report from Keyser

this is not colin watt, this is keyser sochez. Colin Watt is not here.

Week four is not a name for this brave band of aviatars (Explorers= Ben Warcup, LarryMarks, Chris Southern, Alison Booker and Doug Walker, ably destructed by Bob Johnson and David Williams [not Walliams despite the humour similarities.. oops computer says no]). We need to rename ourselves... week knees.week climb.week thermal, once weekly (if you are lucky).. more options and votes please

Week X - Day One Report One

All got off the ground (Larry twice- seemed a shame not to wear the runway out), no damage to planes, people or puking. A fantastic first day for our intrepid team. Weather was... unusual - more in valley thermalling than we were lead to believe but Chris Southern did make it to the third stage [show off... there is always one]).

OK this should be about our flying but Alison got distracted in Stansted by the Ted Baker shop and nearly missed the plane, the man next to her on ryan air was looking at, well put it this way... female topiary... with his Dad in the seat next to him.

At five past beer oclock, we are all in the bar, beer in hands, tales of wistful thermals that got away are just limbering up. More Beer now, longer blog tomorrow.They say it is going to rain. Bagsy not sitting on the naughty step on the way home.

Keyser

Week 3 Day 5 (Friday)

Another sunny day dawned. There is no doubt that the past weeks and this week this year have had a great run of luck. Shame about next week though. The first flights flirted with Stage Three and landed back so that the second pilots could have a turn at the stonking thermals. The clouds were developing fast but still generating strong lift. Even though the varios were against the stops, the higher terrain began to seem less inviting and so the best strategy was to run east along each side valley's Stage One until Sabinanigo. (Note spelling, Derek) Everything started to look a bit grey and ragged. The continuous line of lift there wasn't quite as continuous any more. A prudent decision to head back to the airfield turned out to be very wise as the showers began to threaten. By the time we got back to Santa Cilia, it seemed to be snowing beyond Stage Two. Feet were warmed up again by the time that we assembled at Toya's for the weekly feast. Merv appeared after another epic tour in time for the first course, though he did admit to half an hour's engine time to get home. Today is looking grey and windy. The gliders are parked at the launch point, but some improvement is needed if we are to spear a Spanish parachutist.

Day 4.

Having been lucky over the last few days with the timing of the weather fronts, today our luck ran out and the rain got us. The decision to scrub flying for today was made after the morning briefing, this allowed some people to go sight seeing in Pamplona, others to catch up on work and some to catch up on sleep!

Tonight’s evening cuisine was at the Biarritz restaurant in Jaca followed by a small sharpener in the bar before bed. More news tomorrow when the promise of better weather should get us back in the air.

Colin

Week 3 Day 3 (Wednesday)

The day dawned cloudy and Anna gave us a gloomy forecast that just lacked locusts and boils. Colin immediately announced that we should get the gliders out. There was much muttering the ranks that the wine from the night before was affecting his judgement. The three gliders launched and immediately were whisked into good southerly wave up to 11,000 feet. Cloud was moving in from the west giving us some entertainment in working out were we were but we all landed back at the airfield for the second flights. The wind slackened and so these second flights could not repeat the achievements of the first batch though they reached a dizzying 6,000 feet as much as a kilometre from the airfield. They don't make instructors like they used to. Our three looked knackered by three in the afternoon as they guzzled their cafes con leches.