Portmoak Expedition - Day 5 (Last Day!)

Well our last day was a little hit and miss ... Mike 'hit' some of the remaining low level lift on Bishop Hill then found some thermals to stretch his flight to about an hour. However, both Paul & Jenny 'missed' all lift as the wind died down to almost nothing ... so both landed within a few minutes of each other following a brief circuit.

Mick was laid up due to a few back problems, but Don went off early with John Williams hoping to do a fairly good cross country flight (and learn a thing or two!). Due to the wind not playing ball, they still had a reasonable flight for a couple of hours but stayed local.

We later de-rigged and had a really good steak meal at the club. Home tomorrow!

Portmoak Expedition - Day 4

Another glorious flying day! Unfortunately, Phil had to go home before the conditions became flyable, however, the rest of us all had a good solo hill soaring flight in clear conditions up to 3,000'. Paul & 'Pinkie' danced the ridge for over 3 hours.

At the end of such a good day, we were greeted with a beer and Haggis, Neeps & Tatties for dinner!

Portmoak Expedition - Day 3

Paul used his latest Tom Tom service to find the cheapest petrol in the area at 99p per litre .. so two of us drove 13 miles to the said garage. However, on arrival the price was the highest around at £1.10 per litre!! Don was the wisest & paid £1.02 local to the airfield! Due to low cloud & rain, flying was off the cards so we all went go-karting in Kircaldy instead. Don & Mick were the most competitive in both heats with much determination on their faces, but Don could not quite catch Mick up ..! Mick won with Phil second in both heats. Posted by Jenny

Portmoak Expedition - Day 2

A claggy morning cleared just after lunch, when Don, Jenny & Paul all had good hill soaring flights, coming down just as the lower damp clouds closed in. However, an hour later and it all cleared again, allowing Phil, Mick & Mike to have even better flights in weak wave up to 4,000ft, only coming down to be fed & watered by our great hosts. The scenery here is just fantastic, especially when flying out over Loch Leven which runs alongside the airfield. All our flights have been from a winch launch as this is sufficient to make a dash for the ridge. Don has informed us that he will shortly be putting his newly written poem on the blog ... apparently relevant to this expedition ... you have been warned! posted by Jenny

Portmoak Expedition - Day 1

After settling in following several long drives the day before and a hearty meal at the club that night, today was our first 'flying' day. What a day too ... all had site briefing from a local instructor, then site checks with Mick Hughes in our K21. Paul Woodcock was so excited with his check flight, he went straight off in his own little 'pinkie' Pegase to soar the Bishop Hill and then into the wave ... tee hee!! Mick Hughes later flew solo in Paul's 'pinkie' to enjoy the wave too, racing between the hill and the wave. Mike Crook flew solo in the K21 and Phil Hayward in Jenny's ASW-19 as the last flight of the day. All had well over an hour each and came down only to be fed or watered! Posted by Jenny

More Talgarth Photos

Talgarth Easter 2009

Robyn and I arrived on Saturday late afternoon just as James was about to take off for his long evening flight. The weather on Sunday wasn’t as good but I did get a 45 min flight in at about 4pm with Ian. Monday was altogether better. We woke early and watched the mist creeping down the valley through the open van door. I had an excellent flight with Bo in the morning in their K13 (we couldn’t fly ours because of the wind direction at take off). The wind was southerly, blowing into the South Bowl and setting off a consistent thermal we kept coming back to. It’s really interesting to see how the lay of the land aids the thermals to lift off. We were heading back when we heard on the radio that the tug was out of action so continued to have fun in the thermals. At one point Bo asked me if I had ever done a loop in a glider and before I had time to say ‘no’ he took control and did a series of three, one after another. The G force was considerable and I was amazed (and happy) the old thing could take it. I also fulfilled a little ambition which was to wave to Robyn, who was walking along the ridge, as I was soaring above. Once back on the ground Jan congratulated me on doing my first field landing. I wasn’t sure what she meant until she pointed out that that is effectively what Talgarth is, a field, and not a very flat one at that. I would liken it to landing on the surface of a giant Easter egg.

Ian letting one out while waiting to take off!

The people of the Black Mountains Gliding Club are a well organised and friendly bunch. All in all the whole experience of being at a different club, in a different part of the country, and flying in different conditions was very enjoyable and rewarding and I would thoroughly recommend it to anyone who has never done it.

Ben and Bo

I would like to thank all involved in making it the experience it was but especially Ian and Jan for organising it, Dave Taylor for towing the K21 down and Adrian for towing it back. I really hope he got some flying in after we left.

Easter Monday at Talgarth

The day didn't turn out to be what I'd hoped. The wind was too light for the ridges to work, but Ben still managed a couple of hours with instructor Bo in the thermals, with some aerobatics to finish it off. Unfortunately that was the end of flying for the day as the tug developed a fault with the undercarriage, so I turned tail and left for Norwich at about 3pm. Thanks to everyone who's helped with the exped so far, especially Ian and Jan Atherton, Ben Harker, and David Taylor for bringing the K21 down. It's been a great weekend and I hope the week ahead is just as good.

Easter Sunday at Talgarth

The day wasn't quite as thermic as Saturday, with lots of over-development and top cover spoiling the sunlight and the visibility. I still managed to fly for just over an hour with Ian, while Ben managed 45 minutes later in the day. Today looks much better. An early fog in the valley burned off quickly, and we now have cumulus popping up over the site. The wind has also picked up to 10kts, so we may even get to sample the Black Mountain ridges.

More Pictures from Saturday 10th April

Talgarth is one of the clubs which still actively flys a T-21 (called Snoopy). There is a syndicate of about 8-10 people - at least on insurance shares. You can easily spot the pilots, even on the ground: they're the ones with the Russian hats on warm days. It's great to see T21s still being flown.
On Saturday we could not stay up until after 15.00 BST, and did best pushing out west in the valley, and after passing Llandrindod Wells, see right:
From a bit further west, we could see the Garreg ddu Viaduct in Elan Valley - along with a  couple of wind-farms (not in the picture). Elan Valley is NW of Talgarth, about the same distance that Rattlesden is from NGC, but probably alot less landable fields along the way.
On the way back, looking over Builth Wells (I think),  you can see Talgarth almost on the horizon. Also, there seem to be big blue gaps between the CU. These gaps run perpendicular to the very weak wind (about 5Kt). There was no other evidence of ridge or wave lift. Cloudbase was 5,750' above site, maybe just short of 6,700' above sea level. Not bad for early-mid April.
We shared a thermal with a buzzard on the way back.  See if you can spot him coming straight at us.

A Few Pictures from Talgarth

The day took a while to get going, but by 3pm gliders were staying up, and even though I launched at 5:45, still managed over 2 hours with the sun dying before the thermals!

Thermalling at 7:30pm near the 5,500 ft cloudbase

View of the Black Mountains

Thermalling with the Pilatus

Talgarth - Weird Welsh Weather

James Francis and Dave Taylor had arrived the previous night and rigged the K21 so were raring to go early on Saturday. Beautiful blue skies and what looked like cumulus forming above the hills early on meant everyone rigged early. Ian flew with both James and Dave but it wasn't until around 3pm that it started getting soarable (weird Welsh weather again!). I launched in the 20 at around 4pm and spend a very happy 3hrs 46mins bimbling around the local area to Hay-on-Wye, Brecon, and down to Crickhowell. Cloudbase was in excess of 6000ft QFE (about 7000ft QNH) and climbs were in the region of 4-8knts. Both James and Dave got soaring flights of over 2hrs with Ian, with the last landing going to James at 8:03pm, just as the sun was setting. We all had to abandon climbs of 2knts to get down before sunset - it was still going when we'd landed and packed the gliders away. Ben Harker and his girlfriend Robyn arrived later in the day, unfortunately missing the opportunity to fly but will tomorrow. We spend a nice evening at the Honey Cafe in Bronllys.

Tuesday

An interesting start to the day with low cloud with signs of high wave above. The locals must have thought it was going to be good as two of them launched at 07:30 declaring 1000Km. It was 10:00 before the cloud cleared off the hill enough for the rest of us to begin launching. The Vega was kept flying all day with each of us having a 2 hour plus flights. These flights were made up of hill and thermal soaring as we were unable to locate any wave no matter how hard we tried. What wave that was found (up to 12,000 feet) by the local pundits was contacted a lot further north that we dared to fly. The two early starters arrived back at lunchtime after completing 500Km We however had a very enjoyable days flying. We dined in Kinross this evening, after which I introduced the others to the sport of curling.

Monday 31st March

An initial poor start to the day with some light drizzle on looking out of the bedroom window. This however rapidly cleared up over breakfast to give fine sunny day. Not as hot as yesterday, and with a stronger wind with a lot more west in it. There were sighs of wave activity throughout the day and there are rumors that a couple of locals had got up to over twelve thousand feet further inland. John flew first and landed at lunch time with a broad grin on his face having contacted weak wave climbing several times to four and a half thousand feet over the loch. Will flew the Vega for the rest of the afternoon and eventually managed to climb away in weak wave to six and a half thousand feet. Again this was local, just in the area of the airfield. This evening we dined at a very posh county house hotel. The food was excellent with every one clearing their plates. The highlight of the meal though was the chef agreeing to make me a bowl of custard from scratch. We all agreed that this was amongst the best tasting custard ever. The forecast for tomorrow also sounds promising.

The Bishop Hill from the airfield

Sunday

A nice sunny day with a cold south to south westerly wind of around 15 knots. After a large full breakfast we joined the locals for site checks. Site checks completed, after lunch Will took the first launch in the Vega. Flying for a couple of hours in hill, thermal and bits of weak wave Will managed to get to 4500 feet in thermals. Mike had the second flight keeping the aircraft airborne for another couple of hours until it was time for tea. The hospitality offed by the club has been so good with the minimum of fuss and excellent facilities that we have decided to stay at the club for the rest of the week, canceling the hotel we had tentatively book.

Portmoak visit

This weekend the Vega and its 3 syndicate members, John, Martin (Will) and Mike, are venturing north for the week. We hope to be sampling the wave and hospitality offered by the Scottish Gliding Union at Portmoak. If the weather does not generate any wave we will sample the hill lift, and if the hill doesn't work we will sample the whisky which we know will work. A picture from my last trip to Portmoak. (Can you guess the year and names?)

Norfolk Gliding Club Expeditions

This blog is started to give an area of NGC pilots on trips and expeditions a place to write there accounts of flying and generally having fun at other clubs. This Spring we have a number of groups travelling to Portmoak, Sutton Bank and Talgarth.