FOOTLAUNCH
Hi All.
It's that time of year again when your
membership subs are due. At £16 we must be the cheapest club in the
Cheques made payable
to MHGC
Send
to Bryan Hindle
Bydand ,
Gordon Terrace,
Malvern,
WR14 4ER.
MIDWEEK
FLYING - NOTAMS
In the Flyer Magazine (Feb 2004?) they included a CD which amongst other
things had a free peice of software called NotamPlot.
This excellent
product has been written by a pilot, and
instead of having to sift through 9 pages of Notams, that 50% of them
are for the Upper FIR, NotamPlot
puts the ones that count on a map
for you. Free Downloads of the software are available for
Windows,
Mac OS, and also Linux.
For NotamPlot to work you need to
1.. Download and install NotamPlot.
http://www.notamplot.flyer.co.uk.
Its about 17MB so may be better with a broadband connection.
2.. Register (which is also free) with AVBrief.
This gives free Route
and Airfield Notams. http://www.avbrief.com
3.. Enter AVBrief username and
password into the optionsconfiguration in NotamPlot.
4.. You could, but don't have to put in a sample route, say
from Barton to Sywell.
5.. Connect to the internet.
6.. Click on FileDownload
Bulletins
7.. Then configure a filter for maximum altitude of the
intended flight.
This
will get the all current notams if you are online.
Brian H
Accident Aaftercare The club is planning an evening
lecture later in the year on accident aftercare. Further details as and when,
so until then, FLY SAFELY!
Gradient Golden (by Rob Davis)
I
currently fly a Nova Argon (DHV 2-3) but am thinking of "changing
down". I believe that the performance of modern DHV 1-2 gliders are just
as good as my current wing, but with a better safety profile if things go
wrong. I like to fly in the upper half of the weight range of a glider so that
the wing loading is on the higher side. I have to use a bit of ballast to
achieve this with my Argon, which gets a bit tiresome. The alternative is to
fly with slightly lower wing loading.
Of
the DHV 1-2 gliders around I have "short listed" the Gradient Golden,
Nova Artax and Airwave Sport 2 to try. A mixture of
reviews, recommendations, seeing these gliders fly and the weight ranges,
guided this choice.
First glider up for a test; the Golden.
It comes in a nice looking rucksack, (which I did not fill up and put on my back) with the glider in a generous bag. The glider feels nice and light compared to the Argon. Laying it out, build quality is excellent, with a nice popper arrangement to keep the risers together. Brake handles, which have a semi- solid piece to go in the palm, are also attached with poppers. Neat. It has split A risers and not very many lines.
Time to clip in and ground handle. The
glider does what you tell it to do. No wing tips surging up and no centre oscillations.
Pull or tweak a riser and the canopy responds in a predictable manner. Pull on
the centre A's and the canopy comes up and sits overhead. A little jab on the
brakes stops it from overshooting (this is a habit from the Argon and may not
be necessary with the Golden). In a breeze the canopy comes up with just a lean
back and no pull on the A’s. I recently read that how a canopy handles and
behaves on the ground, reflects what happens when it is in the air. The Golden
certainly holds true to this observation
A quick “ground SIV” revealed a stall point way, way down. I could not stall it on the ground without wraps. Pull on half the A's and an asymmetric does not result in any rapid turning motion. Pumps out easily.
Now for the flying bit. If a bit of lift comes through when the canopy is overhead you get the message with a nice little surge and you are off. Brake lengths are perfect for flying without wraps. The brakes are steady and progressive. You get plenty of feedback as to what is going on in the air, but the canopy feels nice and solid. I was flying with 48cm between risers and the ride was very smooth. Turning was a joy with either lots of brake for a steep bank or little brake and lots of weight shift for a flat turn with very little height loss. Glide angle seems very good and I appeared to be keeping up with the Aspens that were around when I was flying. Coring thermals is pure joy as you get all the information that you need and yet the canopy is so solid. Put on full speed bar and the canopy feels racy and solid. Entering spirals was easy and equally, coming out textbook, with a nice conversion of energy to height gain. I did not do an Alpine launch, nor B line, but expect utter predictability with those. I flew at Frocester on Easter Friday and was lucky to catch a nice thermal. It was such fun on the Golden. The pleasure was enhanced by out-thermalling an Omega 5!
Overall, a
great glider, with a good feeling of solidity but plenty of feedback. The performance, I think, certainly matches the
Argon (except for speed, at full speed-bar glide). I felt completely at home
early on and had a smile all the time that I was flying it. I was happy to
throw it around the sky and it felt very safe. You can be as active as you like
and it will respond. Equally, I’m sure that it will look after you if you just
want to potter around the sky, pulling the brakes lines and admiring the view.
It certainly would "do the bizz" and gets
“a big thumbs up”. I look forward to trying the other 2 gliders.
R.D.
A Day in
the Life of the LAT Contact Widow
7.00am
I wake to the sound of the alarm clock and the curtains being pulled back with
that familiar voice saying, “I tell you what, it actually looks flyable today.
I'll just go and have a look!”
7.10 “Nope, bit too windy, shall we do lunch!”
“That'll be great, hun.” Dinks paces up and down the
front room convincing himself that the weather’s
different out of the kitchen window than it is out of the front. He puts the
news on to catch the weather, shouts at the lady on the telly to “move her arse
out of the bloody way of the wind arrow.” Another ten minutes of pacing, and he
checks the internet again.
I haven't even reached the bathroom and, “I tell you what, it’s actually
calming down out there, I'll just go and ring someone.”
Probably someone who’s been sitting on the hill waiting patiently for the wind
to be just right, oblivious to the fact they've been on the missing persons
list for three weeks.
Looks like Dinks is going to be joining them as he’s standing at the bedroom
door asking if we can do dinner instead of lunch.
7.30 Dinks grabs his glider and drives away as if it’s the last time there’s
ever going to be any wind anywhere ever again on the planet.
8.15 Dinks back, he got halfway there and someone rang, “The wind’s completely
off, there’s no point in going.”
Glider out of car, Lunch back on.
But it’s only 8.30 anything could happen.
9.30 Lunch off, Dinks on North Hill!
11.00 Text from Dinks, “Flying is the dogs
bollocks!!!!”
1.15 Wind’s dropping off, possibly flyable.
1.30 Wind’s smack on.
1.32 Fourteen gliders in the sky.
1.50 Wind picking up. Thirteen gliders land, looks like one of the low air time
pilots has decided to go cross-country!!!
2.15 No wind at all, retreat to the pub for a pint,
sandwich and a chat about flying.
2.30 “I tell you what it’s picking up out there, it could actually be flyable!”
2.45 Everyone’s on takeoff, some standing around with their hands in their
pockets swinging their heads from left to right while others are chucking grass
up in the air! Passers by don't know whether it’s socially correct to ask them
all if they’re ok, but it looks like they've got a couple of female carers
around who are probably watching out for them!
3.00 Everyone has 20 mins flying.
3.22 Text from Dinks, “Great flying, light, had to scratch!!!”
Hope it’s not those dog’s bollocks playing him up!
5.00 “I tell you what, that wind’s picking up, best call it a day”
6.00 Call in pub on the way home for a pint, sandwich and a chat about flying!
7.00 Dinks home, puts an e-mail out and talks to me
about, too light, thermals, lumpy, blown back, strongish,
lucky, arseholes, perfect, rough, scratching, pockets and dog’s bollocks!!!
Sounds like he needs a doctor but he reassures me he’s fine.
8.00 Dinner with Phil and Viv, we talk about too
light, thermals, lumpy, blown back, strongish, lucky,
arseholes, perfect, rough, scratching, pockets and dog’s bollocks, not
forgetting about the possibilities of flying tomorrow!
11.30 Home, bed, sleep.
11.45 Dinks dreaming, elbows me extremely hard in the side, he’s dreamt he’s
had to pull his reserve. He apologises as the last few tugs he was actually
aware of but it wouldn't come out of its bag.
12.00 He takes advantage of being awake and has a quick look out of the window!
7.00 “I tell you what”!
Lynne (Reprinted from an
article submitted by the Low Airtime Contact (LAT) of the Condors club.
The names may not be that relevant but I bet the story is not that dissimilar
to the lives some of us lead! Chris)
Go4it 2004
Rules
1.
2. No infringement of airspace.
3. Must have Pilot rating or be under instruction from one on
the day.
4. Flights between
5. Co-ordinates for T/O and landing required plus distance
from point to point in Kms as a
check. Flights
will be scored to nearest 100m.
6. Defined flights (BHPA rules) Coordinates for turn points
in addition. Double distance
awarded provided 60% of flight outside
ridge lift.
7. Stone's throw award for smallest flight submitted (or
known about) provided
distance 5km or greater (previously 3
miles).
8. The best newcomer to XC flying (as voted by
the committee) will win a voucher worth
£120 for Airways Ltd.
9. The
top pilot for the year will be known by the moniker “Skygod”
for the next year – so remember, that’s Monica Skygod
for the next year.
Name Glider Distance
Bryan
Hindle Frantic+ 62.9 11.9 8.3 83.1
km
Tim
Crow Sport 31.0 31.0km
Graham
Shand 26.0 26.0km
Nigel
Dewdney Sport 18.5 18.5km
Wanted
- vw Beetle engine spares,any club members that have any vw
Beetle spares they want to dispose of or know anyone that want's
to get rid of some?
Complete engines, rear brake assy's,alternator's,
distributor's,exhaust's,carburettor's,etc.
Please contact Phil Cooper 07947 824370
Flying Diary - April
Very nice time had on the Paramotor
again last w/e.
Saturday 24th - spent around Bringsty Common and a
couple of flights up to near the
Beacon and back. Managed a couple of photos of the west side
of the Beacon from
about 500m away. Photo shot angles probably not seen by many. Little bit
of 'engine off' thermalling 500m in front of the
Beacon.
Sunday 25th (early) went for a speed run across 3 counties (west mids, Worces,
Staffs and back). Averaged 51kph over 55 minutes on one run. Mostly on 3/4 bar
(Gradient Aspen). Easy stay up weather towards 11am
but clouds were starting to get quite big. 38 minutes of 'engine off' floating
at the end of the flight.
Richard
Fri 23rd April
Nantymoel SW 12-14mph
High pressure caused it to go blue quickly, and made it pretty bumpy at times,
had some fairly interesting asymmetrics and a big
frontal but no problem (I wonder if Bryans new glider is as much fun in choppy
conditions). Max 1200ft above didnt seem enough to
leave with so had a pleasant enough day on the hill with Nigel D, Chris and
Dean also out.
TC
Tuesday 13 th
April 2004
Often I am staggered by what we do, nowhere more so than Rhossili.
A few pounds of febble craft and a fair wind and I can
sail all afternoon across this incredible void. Five hours of endless gentle
westerly lift me 1200 feet over the pimple to the Worm, Llanmadoc
and the Spaniard rocks. Breathtaking.
Nick C and Stratos.
PS Chased a buzzard and realised I can now outperform them, so it crapped on my
sail - buzzztard!
Tue 13 April
Selsley N-NNW 6-12mph
Spring is here and the cuckoos are definitely out – there were about a dozen
all hurling themselves off at the scrappy thermals coming through. I don’t know
what the low airtime pilots thought but it sure scared me,
no-one was giving an inch as we all tried to core our own blip. One decent
cycle saw six of us slowly climbing out over the common. At this stage it was
useful to have a few others around and we all worked off each other and
eventually got to base at 5,000’ (the sailplane under the cloud was a good
clue!). Myself, Nigel D and Cath H on identically
coloured Sports flew off XC in formation, landing at 31km, 18km and 26km
respectively
TC
Easter Fri 9th and 11th Pmotor - North Worcestershire lots of Km's and some engine
off thermalling (I had been in one thermal for 25
minutes and had managed a measly 3k !)
Easter Mon 12th - Hay Bluff - Really surprising to soar and
thermal so much. Very bumpy as shown by the video I had taken. Photos
posted to the webmaster. One glider got away to about 7k but it really wasn't
get away conditions. Most gliders were running to Talgarth
and back quite easily. (No stiffies at all there)
Great smooth soaring in the afternoon when the sun went in. Only about 15 P
gliders max in the air (where were they all?). Landed 4 minutes too late as the
rain started just after landing (
Best ever Easter W/E flying I can remember - nearly 10hrs in the air in total.
Just think I nearly blew it by taking up the offer of joining some members of
our Scuba club in
Richard
Sun 11th April
Long Mynd, W 10-12ish
Another cloudy day, thought it might be N (Leckhampton) or W (Beacon). Decided on Mynd on Dave J-H's suggestion. Arrived
to find W 0-5, overcast with big clouds out in front. Oh well... Waited
a bit and things started to happen and by 2 everyone was flying. Had over 2hrs scratching with very little height gain. Dave
got loads of height and no scratching! Tim joined us for a late afternoon
flight and managed to get to the top of the stack.
An unexpectedly good day :-)
Chris
Sat 10th April
Kettle Sings, ENE 15
Day was forecast to be cloudy with some rain but perhaps brighter in the
midlands later. Doing some gardening things looked brighter so thought about Leckhampton. Driving down Wendy was giving E everywhere so
off to Malvern. Arrived to find no-one there! It was just touching 20 mph on
top but seemed smooth. I decided to wait to make sure it wasn't getting
stronger. Rob arrived a little later (
Chris
Fri 9th April
Hay Bluff, WNW 15
Arrived early as thought warm front would spoil the day. Launched shortly after
10 and had the whole ridge to myself for an hour in total blue skies. Lots of
wind but as it was off to the W not as much lift as expected so lots of scratching
practice. Later joined by some others so not so easy to use the lift, had to practice a few slope landings too! Had nearly 5
hours in the air and made it to the Talgarth gliding
club and back, a first for me. Top landed to offer someone a retrieve only to
find the wind on top was now 25-30 so had to walk down!!
Dave J-H had a good on the Mynd (one of his best?).
Graham Shand has started the XC season with a good
run from the Beacon.
Chris