Members' area.

winds 330/10 with strong thermals from around 10 am.

A few members ventured out today to enjoy the fantastic soaring.

The course proceeds well, David Potter achieved his 1 hour soaring flight for XCE, Mayur is now the handling pilot throughout the flight, and Ethan has learnt a few new skills.

The hangar doors were worked on today, we should now have 1m more space to get the gliders out.

Dave Breeze continued the grass cutting programme today, sadly the landing area on 03 could not be cut because we were using it!

winds 330/10, good thermal conditions with high cloudbases

A new course starts today, welcome Ethan, David and Mayur. David resoloed today, Mayurs first day gliding and landing already, Ethan finished the day with a thermal climb and then a side slip approach. Thanks David Hart for all the tutorial work.

Lots of other activity,preparation is underway for the competition, the farmer fertilising the grass, caravans have started to arrive and tomorrow should see the new hangar doors installed.

Another good soaring day tomorrow.

winds 030/05, cloud 1000ft QFE and rising. Thermals pm

A nice early start with the enthusiastic students making bacon sandwiches before briefing at 8.15

Cloudbases rose quickly and Pete Robson practised his launch failures prior to goinf off solo for the first time. Well done Pete.

A warm front passed from East to west last night and another front is due during the day bringing light rain and showers on and off through the day wind 060/20 (operating off 03).

Flyable but soaring and cross country unlikely. Evening club flying planned from 1600 onwards.

Graham Allinson went solo for the first time, Nigel Payne is now able to fly a safe circuit without instructor aid and Colin Parker resoloed today. A very chilly day lots of jumpers and hot tea.

Meanwhile Tom and Richard were busy repairing bug 1 which seems to be burning a lot of oil ,and the grass cutting tractor. All this behind the scenes support is fantastic.

The first friday evening flying session started this evening. Very well subscribed with a bunch of enthusiastic university students. The winds picked up during the evening as can seen on the photos.

Well done Matt Page who now has a full instructor rating.

Winds favouring 09 at 10 Knots. Cloud bases rising to over 4000 QFE with cumulus.

Matt set off first thing to Hus Bos in the motor glider to hopefully complete his full rating test. While Doug Gardiner set off with his trailer to get his glider back from a secured field in Banbury, I know best ask him---its complicated.

Barry Keys had a one day course to complete so the course members benefitted from a 2nd instructor. With his help we managed to catch up on the flying programme.

The afternoon was excellent soaring with climbs to nearly 5000ft, difficult to get away from the winch but definately worth the effort.

Flying continued into the evening with a busy evening group.

We have a new letter of agreement with Kemble. It's on the documents > briefings page.

winds an awkward 120/10 knots, soarable in the afternoon with tight thermals in the blue. Visbility about 35K. Possibility we will need to use 09 for launching.

The remainder of the cut grass should be collected today.

Operating off 09 proved to be a challenge. However slick operations meant we could operate one aircraft at a timne and alternate between club and course flying. PM it became soarable and several single seaters were brought to the launchpoint and launched reasonably quickly.

Pat Greer looked after club flying. Paul and Lawrence got cleared to solo on 09 and Chris had more practice on his way to resolo.

instructors took the equipment and continued flying into the evening, while the course guys ate a wonderful stir fry dinner.

The course flying continues well with Graham doing launch failure training, Nigel now handling the whole flight and Colin getting back into practice.

winds 090/10, blue, thermals pm to about 3000ft

Another good day for the course, loads of flying and everyone getting the hang of landing on the runway.

The standard cirrus and libelle came to join us. Andy Davey managed a decent soaring flight in the local area.

Good to see another visitor from Dartmoor Gliding Society, Colin Boyd popped in for a few days.

Grass collection is almost complete, the airfield now looks like an airfield again. many thanks to Jules who spent the day cutting the grass around the camping areas and hangers before cutting the landing strip 21 grass right. barrie Taylor brought out the 2nd tractor and cut the cable runs.

Briefing after flying covered launch failure procedures and mcReady. A pleasant meal afterwards of an Indian tapas (well thats what I think it was)

Club day tomorrow looks much the same forecast.

winds forecast 120/10, no rain, blue conditions, thermals from around 11am.

A new course starts today with Nigel Graham and Colin. Andy Davey here with his libelle for the week.

The awkward winds made circuits a challenge, long groundruns were the theme for the day with a number of incursions into the cut grass waiting collection. The grass will be collected over the next few days.

The soaring was not as good as hoped, with broken thermals lower down. Despite that there were a number of notable soaring flights. it was good to see a brace of libelles at the launchpoint.

Our grass cutting is now underway, David Taylor kicked off by cutting the landing strip 21 grass left. Thanks David.

The evening briefing was on circuit planning and followed by a lively discussion. Colin is seen explaining to Graham.

An excellent day for both the cross country brigade and the more local activities. Some exceptionally strong thermals persisted for most of the day under wall to wall cumulus. Even when it went blue locally late in the afternoon it remained possible to get away every time from a winch launch (for some at least).
Our University of West England members made full use of the conditions for their training weekend and were especially active and helpful on the launch point. We managed to cope with the scheduled 7 trial lessons in spite of grass cutting and a winch tangle. Many thanks to those who kept us going in spite of that and one or two other little difficulties.