After getting up at 6:05AM I had a foggy drive out of town. But beyond Fleet Services it cleared nicely as I reached drier air. I checked out caravan first. There were lots of flies but apparently they're everywhere so c'est la vie. It was frosty here. I returned to the clubhouse for brfeakfast and then got SH7 out.

My first flight at 10:30 was a cable break at 700 feet. After a slow start to the launch it sped up rapidly. I allowed the nose to pitch a bit too high and snap! Then followed a straight forward circuit from that height. I was still high enough to see lots of fog to the South East. The South Downs showed up nicely sticking out of the fog. I landed after 2 minutes.

The 2nd and 3rd launches both took me to to 1800 feet. 10 & 13 mins. They were straight forward up round down flights with nice wide circuits and smooth landings right next to the launch point after 10 and 13 minutes respectively. On the 2nd flight I sliced my finger when closing the strap buckle. Someone had a plaster to hand thankfully. In the air I attempted to photograph the foggy south downs. A bit of reduced sink on the 3rd flight just upwind to the Southwest of the airfield. After landing at 11:22 I handed the glider over to other pilots.

There was fairly thick top cover by late morning so I reckoned there was little or no chance of any useable thermals despite the potential for some in the soundings. I headed back to caravan to clear away the flies and put the solar panel away, then to the clubhouse for lunch. During lunch the sun shone more strongly again and a few low scruffy cumulus appeared locally for a short while. (I could also see more well defined cumulus over the Isle of Wight). I suspect they were probably not usable and there was more top cover upwind. After lunch I headed home early while the roads were quiet. A satisfying day with a few pleasant winter hops that kept me current.

Phew it's been a long gap of 8 weeks. The first half of September was a washout. Then I was away for a couple of weeks. Then more unsuitable weather. A hot spell was completely unsoarable, and then it became unsettled. However it looked like a cool ridge of high pressure was taking over for today and tomorrow before more bad weather arrives. Today the forecast soundings suggested the possibility of blue thermals to maybe 2000 feet. Tomorrow looked like a much lower inversion and maybe not soarable. After a few issues with the car I decided to prepare a reduced gliding kit and get the motorbike out. Without my cross country gear my gliding kit could fit into a small rucksack in the top box of the bike. The car was fixed but by then I fancied riding anyway. At 6:30AM this morning I left Hendon. It was maybe 7-8C and there was mist in places (pretty!). Traffic wasn't too bad and I cruised into Lasham on the motorways. I needed my heated grips and a few layers under my summer jacket. I was a bit on the cold side but not too bad. (Time to get the winter jacket out soon.) I arrived at Lasham about 7:40AM. I dumped my gear in the caravan and connected the solar panel to top the battery up. Then over to the clubhouse for breakfast. I put my name down for a Discus, but switched over to retractable Grob102 SH7 as it was easy to reach in the hangar, since I wasn't expecting much out of the day. The primary aim was to keep current after all.

By 11AM I had the glider at the launch point ready to go. The sky was looking a bit wavey actually. South Downs wave in the Southeasterly breeze? (It has happened before.) I decided to get into the winch queue and launched at 11:20AM to 1500 feet (above Lasham). As I launched a bank of flabby cumulus clouds was forming upwind. I went under them and indeed found weak but usable lift. From 1300 feet I climbed up at about 1kt and eventually reached a 2600 foot cloudbase. Wheee! Thermals, and better than expected as usable, not blue and higher than expected. I stayed upwind of Lasham, getting as far as Alton in that general area. Cloudbase slowly rose above 3000 feet and the cumulus got shallower and shallower. Eventually it started to go blue. Mostly 1-2kts, then weaker above 3000 feet. My best height was 3300 feet. After 3 hours I decided I'd had enough and came down. But I reckon the soaring window was maybe 4-5 hours. After much longer airborne than expected, one launch was enough today. So I landed by the hangar at 2:32PM for 3h12m in the air.

Once on the ground I checked my downtime, cleaned up the glider and put things away. (I left the glider out after being advised accordingly.) After a good cup of tea and collecting my gear and locking up the caravan, I was back on the bike at 4pm, and had fun going back via the A30 and Hayes bypass instead of the motorways. (The M25 was a car park when I passed it on the A30...) It was nice to be able to filter as traffic was busy. So while I've ridden to Lasham before (albeit not to fly) this is the first time biking and gliding itself have been combined in one day. Nice!

I booked Discus SH4 as today had been looking like the best day for the next week. I decided to come the previous afternoon and stay in the caravan overnight. Due to heavy rain and flash flooding causing nasty traffic in and around London, 2h10m was a new record for time taken to get to or from Lasham! (1h does it on clear roads!) Once there I set the caravan up and had supper. Soon enough it was time to sleep.

The morning was unsurprisingly a very soggy start with condensation dripping everywhere outside. Good job the solar panel electrics tolerates it OK. Apparently it was foggy before I woke up. I'm not surprised! By briefing time the glider was rigged and DI'ed and I had packed away all but the solar panel in the caravan. A 200 and a 300 task were set and it looked as if cloudbase should be above 4000 feet, but a slow start and an early cut off as top cover comes through. After the briefing I marked my map and got the glider to the launch point at a leisurely pace. Then back at the caravan I had time to make temporary repairs to a ceiling skylight that had blown off and broken, taping over all the cracks and holes to make it reasonably waterproof again. Then I finished closing the caravan up. Around 11'ish I set off for the launch point on foot, munching my sandwiches en route. Upwind it was starting to look soarable, albeit with a low cloudbase. I took a gamble and was the first of many single seaters to go in the winch queue. Behind me everyone decided to scramble on my lead and a long queue formed behind me! I'm glad I went when I did. Meanwhile a fairly sizeable grid was yet to launch.

I launched at 11:54AM to about 1500 feet and fairly quickly found 2.5 knots to a 2000 foot (QFE Lasham) cloudbase. I reported that back to Lasham on the radio. Colin the CFI told me to keep them coming. A little while later I reported 2300 feet. Then I struggled for a while before eventually a bigger cloud came in and I climbed at 4 knots to 2500 feet. Several of us all reported accordingly and Colin duely scrambled the grid. Cloudbase went up to 2700 feet upwind of Lasham but then seemed to drop back a bit. Then it didn't really budge for much of the flight. I tiptoed out as far as Overton but was struggling, and at one point while retreating back to Lasham I was down to 1300 feet just south of the Western end of Basingstoke. Thankfully a weak thermal rescued me from a possible field landing and I got away again. Several other gliders with me at a similar height also presumably saved too. With top cover amounts increasing too it was clear I wasn't going to go cross country. However the challenging conditions did make for a fun local soaring flight. At one point I spotted the green K8 153 in a field just a few fields away from the airfield. Oops! I may have been down there too but for the Discus's better performance. Towards the end of the flight I again tiptoed out to Overton. Then a gap in the top cover came through and cloudbase jumped to 3000 feet. With a decent thermal found I proceeded to climb into a good sized cloud and got to 4000 feet (still QFE Lasham) before I lost it a little and escaped. The views were spectacular and I got the iPhone out to take a nice video sequence as I circled a lovely big cumulus sprialling down from the top to near the base. (See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hhWuGDCX3I for the video.) Then I dived under another cloud en route back to Lasham. I final glid back for a nice fast 'competition finish' (made up for not managing one last time on the 9th) and landed smoothely near the trailer at 3:12PM.

So a pleasant 3h18m in the air. But nowhere near as good as expected. Presumably the soaking wet ground took its toll and just took too long to dry out, keeping the dew point up and the max temp down. Never mind. On the ground the toys were put away and then I set off for home at 4:30pm. Heavy traffic again! Struth! Back around 6pm though. ...and relax!

I booked SH4 last Sunday when, 2 days in advance, the forecast soundings started to look nicer than before. I decided it was worth a go. Another 6AM start saw me at Lasham by 7:30AM again. By the briefing the glider was rigged and DI'ed. A number of big tasks were set. I decided I would try downwind for Goodwood first before heading to Gloucester South, and possibly across to Bozeat for a 400km flight. The launch point was set up on the South side on the grass due to movements. I launched at 10:36 as by then cloudbase was already above 3000 feet and quite soarable. I only got 1300 feet on the winch launch but soon found 4kts of lift and climbed away. Then I had a stonking run down to Goodwood. I stayed high but that was no problem with 5-6kts of lift around. Then the fun really began. Coming back into a 27kt (according to the ClearNav) headwind at height was OK at first with the strong thermals. However upwind, an area of top cover or spreadout was going through and conditions had weakened significantly. I managed to get on to a marginal final glide for Lasham and headed back and best glide speed towards that area, staying as high as possible. Fow a while I wasn't sure I'd make it but to the West of the airfield I found weak lift that was just enough to keep me up.

I tiptoed upwind to the Northwest as the sky began to open up again. Slowly but surely conditions improved. I spent a lot of time in the Whitchurch area before deciding to push further upwind. Cloudbase seemed to be stuck around 4700 feet (QNH), and even dropped to about 4400-4500 feet as I carried on towards Swindon. On the way I stopped to explore what seemed to me like a wave hole. I found no useable wave though so eventually crossed to the other side and carried on upwind. I almost turned back before Swindon but in the end pushed on. Just before South Cerney I almost turned back again with a big gap upwind but in the end I pushed on, and indeed with patchy lift in the gap I only lost a few hundred feet. From there it was a steady slow push to Gloucester. For a while on the Cotswold Edge I struggled but eventually managed to follow a small street. I decided to go to Gloucester West instead of Gloucester South. Then on going back it would be 305km instead of 294km. That plus Gloucester West was straight upwind and along the cloud street I had reached.

After a good climb just to the North side of the turnpoint to stay high it was easy enough to round it, taking in spectacular views of the Severn Estuary in the process. Then going back was so much easier. It took me more than 3 hours to get from the Lasham area to Gloucester. But only an hour to get back again with a 20kt tailwind. The street near Gloucester I followed back over the Cotswold Edge and I didn't need to turn for a while. Pretty rapidly I threaded myself past South Cerney again and over the top of the Fairford ATZ where I spent some time topping up ahead of another gap. Near Swindon I climbed briefly into a shallow cumulus before heading past the southern edge of Redlands parachute drop zone. Then it was pretty much a straight forward thermal hop back until I was on final glide. I overcooked the final glide a bit (too fast) and got a bit too low so didn't have enough energy for a 'competition finish' but never mind. I was just the right height for a normal circuit. I was pretty knackered after such a long challenging flight so happy just to have an uneventful landing at 3:51pm, 5 hours 15 minutes after launch. (However during the final approach I saw ahead of me a Stemme glider landing ahead of me and promptly groundlooping. The first time I've seen a glider groundloop at Lasham. Oops!)

Back on the ground, after a cup of tea and getting the log updated, people kindly helped me put the glider away and I was able to leg it by 5:20pm. So in about 5 hours I flew 305km, LAS-GWD-GLO-LAS. Only 61kph but given the spreadout period and very distorted and hard to use thermals I was happy with that flight. Another good day out.

I got up at 6am and was at the club by 7:30. Two of us grabbed 2 Discuses (I got SH4) in the ballot at 8am. After breakfast we reluctantly rigged despite murky skies, hoping the early top cover would break up. In the briefing 300km and 500km tasks to the north was set. Then as the sun came out a leisurely tow out to the launch point was made. Around midday I decided to go for launch. I winched at 12:10pm straight into a thermal. I launched on the 2nd cable so was able to use it. I struggled for the first hour under semi blue conditions and small cu rising from 3500 to 4000+ ft above Lasham. Early on I tried pushing to Basingstoke but was unable to find decent lift under a transiting patch of top cover. So I scampered back to Lasham, dropping to 1500 feet above site before getting away again.

Eventually as conditions improved a bit I tiptoed northwest to better clouds around Newbury and then after a while continued on to a towering cumulus at Didcot. Further north looked rather showery. With rain reports at Bicester and near Didcot and increasing top cover from Southwest I wimped out and retreated southwards into an increasingly strong headwind. That plus weakening thermals under the top cover had me struggling in the Goring area for a while, eyeing Brimpton as a good place to land. However as the sun poked through a bit near Newbury, a line of small cu showed up and I managed to get enough height to push upwind and get on glide for Lasham. I landed at 3pm, 2h50m after launch.

That was enough today as I was knackered. Atleast I managed 100km with an out and return to Didcot, and getting back despite the top cover. Back at Lasham it was now a fresh sw'erly breeze off the sea. I got the glider put away after a cup of tea then waited for the other Discus pilot to return. When he did (no retrieve needed) I departed back for home to end the day.

I was thinking of turning up yesterday to fly but the day before it looked rubbish so I bailed. But today was looking good so I managed to book Discus SH4 and decided to come yesterday evening and stay overnight in the caravan. After a reasonable sleep overnight I was up early. One surprise was that it was foggy, which was not in the forcast. After breakfast in the clubhouse at 8AM I teamed up with another pilot to rig our gliders as the fog cleared. In the briefing it became clear that we were sandwiched between cloud to the East and a front to the West, with a strip of clearer air up the line of 1W. Tasks were set up and down this line, with some going as far south as the Isle of Wight and some as far north as Grantham. I took two possible 300's with me - LAS-PAR-BUB-CAL-LAS and LAS-NAE-AND-LAS. Given the poor positioning of the winch and disruptions due to movements as well as the grid forming right by the trailer, I just couldn't resist and pushed the glider into the grid after the briefing. Then there was a rather humid wait for conditions to improve. By midday cumulus was popping locally (having been around a while further away where the fog had cleared earlier).

The grid scrambled and I launched behind the Pawnee at 12:09. Cloudbase was rising rapidly and was already almost 3000 feet. It looked crap towards Parham so decided to head North first upwind to better looking clouds. I tiptoed my way upwind and found some good lift under rising cloudbases. However as I reached Ilsley I could see it looked like 8/8 top cover and not very soarable further north. So I moved to the northwest but could see the same problem there. So I turned Woolley Down (WLY) and headed south. I carried on to Andover where I struggled a little. Then just South of Andover I bumped into a 4kt thermal in the blue. Lovely! As I got high the cloud formed above me - a young vibrant thermal. Then it was easy to turn Chilbolton and then head north again. A cloud climb from a 5200 foot cloudbase to just over 6000 feet saw me good for a while. This time north of Woolley Down had opened up. I went as far as Abingdon. Round here I struggled though and others had already landed out. However over Abingdon town I eventually found enough lift to stay up. Then got to a bigger cloud somewhere between Abingdon and Benson where I took another climb in strong gusty lift again to just over 6000 feet. This allowed me to glide back south a long way, getting under the airspace south of Didcot with just 200 feet to spare and already technically just in range of Lasham (except I had to go round the compton box so needed extra). I carried on south to Newbury where I took another good climb to increase my margin. Then a nice fast final glide saw me back to Lasham safely to land at 15:51. Flight time 3h42m. Task time maybe 3h30m.

On the ground the toys were swiftly put away. I then mowed the lawn at the caravan before heading home after the rush hour for a late supper. LAS-WLY-CBN-ABN-LAS was 203km albeit slowly again at just 58kph. Some cracking lift around with 5-6kts averages to be had in places. Shame about the sticky spots that slowed me down so much. Still nice to get off the ground and my first weekday flight since I finished my job.

Last night I saw plenty of bats swooping for insects around the caravan as it got dark. I woke up around 7'ish after a reasonable night's sleep. The caravan was packed by 7:30, then I headed towards the clubhouse. The glider was di'ed by breakfast time and ready to launch by briefing. Tasks were set through Bicester with a better day than yesterday being forecast. However a blob of persistent cloud over Bicester on the satpics caused concern when it failed to dissipate. I decided I'd go northwest instead towards the Birdlip area.

Outside it was a slower start than yesterday. Cumulus was popping to the north and northwest but it stayed blue near Lasham at first. However I launched 45 mins later than yesterday in the end, just as cumulus was starting to pop overhead. The cumulus to the north and northwest was already much bigger.

Straight off winch I hit 4-5kts straight up. Wheeeee! I rapidly climbed away to over 3000 feet before pushing on up track towards the bigger clouds. After a brief struggle to top up it was a steady romp to Rivar Hill with strong thermals under every cloud. Cloudbase of 4300-4400ft above Lasham was easily maintainable without turning. Then the spreadout started quite rapidly. I decided further northwest was a nono with lower cloudbase and bigger gaps. I did reach Ramsbury though which I turned (unlike yesterday). However now the spreadout was almost 8/8 and I was struggling.

Over to the Welford area, I started to get low despite trying to stay high. Down at 2000ft near Ilsley, I noted that no fields nearby looked landable. However I found weak lift where glimmers of sunshine reached the ground and scraped away over what seemed like an eternity. Lasham Duo Discus 775 joined me for a while before vanishing northwards. (Apparently it was worse that way!) I scrabbled enough height to tiptoe southwards with Brimpton just in range. (A nice known place to land at least.) However as I got towards Newbury I found scraps of better lift and eventually reached a big cloud over Greenham Common where I made it just about to a marginal final glide for Lasham. I continued to Basingstoke where I found and joined local soaring gliders. I had some fun for a while in mediocre conditions before landing 2h56m after launch.

LAS-RAB-ILS-LAS in about 2h15m was 113km at just 50kph - unsurprisingly slow but it felt like the great escape to make it home so still a satisfying day. So Saturday was indeed the better day, but I am glad glad I flew both anyway. A pleasant weekend for the conditions. Over 7 hours in the air certainly felt good, even if less than 250km in total.

I booked the same Discus again for tomorrow, last Wednesday, but then the next day the forecast changed and today looked the better day. I was going to just come late on and stay over, but I decided to come for the ballot, in which I managed to grab SH4. So it was mine for the whole weekend! It was a lovely start after early top cover burnt off but I was expecting a spreadout day. All gliders rigged by briefing, when we were tasked to the Hungerford / Wantage areas and then onwards past Oxford as far as Grafham Water. By 10AM cumulus had already popped and was above 4000 feet. I managed to launch at 10:53AM. From 1300 feet off the winch (wind was nil) I got away and climbed to 3000 feet. A few climbs later I maqde it to cloudbase at about 4400 feet above Lasham. I decided to head to Hungerford first. Near there however it had already spread out and at one point I got a little low and tracked South towards Rivar Hill to get away under a dark lump of cloud. Then I went straight over Hungerford (HUN) with Wantage in my sights. However in that direction it looked awful with big gaps. (Later on I heard on the other side Oxford northeastwards it was booming.) I bottled and turned Woolly Down (WLY) and retreated Southwards. I eventually ended up going past Kingsclere and back to Basingstoke (BAS) before heading back out to better airspace again.

I then headed northwest past Aldermaston with Wantage again in my sights but spreadout was bad still here and again I retreated. (But not before the ClearNav crashed and I had to reset it!) After playing around South of Newbury I ended up at Whitchurch (WH2) where I had two goes at cloud climbing. The first attempt I lost the thermal and only gained a few hundred feet. Then almost right over Whitchurch I entered cloud at 5800 feet QNH in strong lift and climbed well, exiting at 6500 feet, 100 feet below FL65. I took plenty of pictures as I sunk back down past the cloud above, below and all around me. Bliss! From that height I was able to blast back to Lasham at 100-120 knots with plenty of height still to spare. I decided I wanted to land at the time and got down to 1300 feet above Lasham. The sky locally looked rubbish. But then I found myself in lift, and couldn't resist. I climbed again and got up to a 3900 foot (above Lasham) cloudbase. I realised that I was in the middle of a sea breeze front and had great fun climbing up and around the sides of the low sea air cloud. I finally headed out again inland to Basingstoke first and up to TMA (5500 feet QNH) before heading West as far as Overton, where I climbed up to 6000 feet QNH. Then I finally came back and landed at 3:20PM.

So not the best conditions with all the spreadout but a fun packed flight nonetheless, and cloudbase atleast 1000 feet higher than I expected. Given how this year is going so far I'll gladly take it! 4h27m in the end was a nice long flight. LAS-HUN-WLY-BAS-WH2-LAS (136km) was in about 2 hours factoring out the local soaring. 68kph was slow given the strength of the thermals (some 5-6kt averages were to be found but they didn't work so well low down under the spreadout and it was hard to stay centred) but I'll put that down to caution and staying high in the spreadouty conditions. (The later excursion to Overton was all within range of Lasham.) On the ground I left SH4 out overnight and set the caravan up for the night. Let's see what tomorrow brings. There's only one true way to see which day will really be better and that's to fly on both and see what happens...

I actually decided to gamble and book a Discus glider last Monday, 6 days in advance. I was fed up with continually failing to book a glider 3-4 days in advance because someone had beaten me to it. Fortunately the forecast remained consistent. Unfortunately it didn't look that great, although it was looking good enough for local soaring. I decided to come to Lasham Saturday afternoon and stay overnight in the caravan. It had been a windy and very showery day. However at 5pm when I arrived it was dry enough to do some mowing. So I got the grass around the caravan looking nice. I then had supper in the clubhouse and set the caravan up for the night before having a reasonable sleep. In the morning it didn't look that great. Although I knew it was due to improve as the day went on. I got the glider rigged just before the briefing, helping a fellow pilot out with a mutual rig before and after the briefing. By lunchtime the glider was at the launchpoint and I had put everything aweay and locked the caravan up again. I had a rather horrible onion soup for lunch (won't be ordering that again!) before returning to the launch point.

By now the sky looked better and a nice looking cloud street was drifting within range of the winch. I took a launch which wasn't very good for the conditions, to just 1500 feet despite a fresh breeze straight down the runway. I contacted weak lift at 1400 feet but only gained 200 feet before I started to drift too far downwind. I didn't have enough height to cross a gap to the next decent looking street and fell down after 20 minutes. I took another winch launch straight away and despite it being another poor launch got away and reached 2700 feet (just below cloudbase) inside a shower in a 2kt climb. Meanwhile water started streaming along the canopy and wings. Quite mesmerising! However upwind there wasn't much else. I managed to cross to another street to the south but I was getting low, and never really found decent lift again. I managed to hang on around 1000 feet up for a while before falling down 48 minutes after launch.

After a while on the ground pondering a lifeless looking sky locally and watching some very dark spreadout cumulus clouds just out of range of the winch to the north I decided just before 3pm to give up and tow the glider back. The pilot I helped rig had also returned after less than an hour in flight and was about to tow back to the trailer. I grabbed a lift to the clubhouse, collected the car and tow out gear and went to get the Discus, only for another pilot to kindly take the glider off me. Sweet! So he effectively trailer flew the glider for me. A little while later I had helped derig both gliders and was on my way home by 4pm. A disappointing day for the time of year but atleast I am current, and hoping that a decent weekend day will come soon as the last month has been dreadful (as admitted by quite a few other pilots on the airfield during the day).

I chose today despite unideal conditions forecast as Saturday looked like thunderstorms. However Saturday was much better than expected but never mind. I grabbed Discus SH3 in the ballot and we had the gliders rigged by 9AM under a sunny sky with early cumulus already popping. In the briefing an early cutoff was expected due to an incoming warm front. The tasks were set to go downwind to Arundel first, then upwind (NW) to Uffington White Horse or Marlborough areas. I planned for Arundel - Uffington for 236km.

Mid morning these amazing wave bars appeared above the cumulus and for a moment it felt like I was back at Aboyne. (I heard that one person did manage to soar it. Not me though...) Soon after 10:30, as the grid launched, I took a winch launch. However I only got to 1300 feet and heavy sink brought me back down rapidly. Damn! I launched again to only 1200 feet and down again. Now rather miffed I gave up with the winch and took an aerotow. So I should have gone in the grid after all! I launched a 3rd time at 11:22 and the tuggie dropped me nicely in a decent thermal at 1700 feet. Thanks for that! I found it tricky to stay centred and the wind was quite strong so drifting was quite rapid. Downwind it didn't look that great and with frayed nerves already I bottled out of going to Arundel. (Later I heard it wasn't great anyway so wise decision!) I went Northwest to bigger clouds, while looking for possible ways into the wave bars above. Almost certainly shear wave as the lenticulars were drifting rather than staying still relative to the ground. I never did find a way into the wave in the end.

After about an hour the top cover came in quite rapidly and the sunshine mostly vanished. It also started drizzling on me and for the rest of the flight I had damp wings most of the time. Despite that the thermals kept going and my best climb of the day, 4kts on the averager, was had. Cloudbase slowly dropped from 4400 feet above Lasham (5000 feet QNH) to 3700 feet over the next 70+ minutes. Staying high I managed to stay up. When it did cycle down I did drop down a bit but staying upwind near Odiham I reached a street and got back to cloudbase again. At the end I came down intentionally as I was getting rather cold (0C and no sun at cloudbase is nippy!). I landed 2h42m after launch. The toys were swiftly put away and I was on the road home before 4pm. Atleast I had a nice bite out of my unlimited cost and kept current while having some fun local soaring...

I did turn up on Sunday 17th April. I braved a busy ballot as I was unable to book a glider (someone beat me to it). Only 3 gliders were available and I came 5th so failed. By mid morning I had lost interest and headed back to London in a bad mood to do other things. I then booked a Discus for Monday 25th April and the forecast promptly went pear shaped. However today looked good so I decided last minute to brave the ballot again.

However no such problem this time. I won and grabbed Discus SH4. Only 3 of us anyway. I had the Discus rigged nice and early thanks to some help from another pilot of a private glider. The grid was forming right opposite the trailer so I decided to simply push the glider a few metres and into the 4th row of the grid. That was nice and easy... No tow out gear needed. It was clear cloudbase was going to be unusually high again today (it's been above 7000 feet at times during the week as this unstable pre-heated continental air drifts over us). A task of Petersfield West - Membury - Brill - Chieveley and back was set for 219km. I set the glider's ClearNav up while I waited as well as had an early lunch. Meanwhile the grid became quite long behind me. (I was told later on that 53 gliders were launched. I was number 9 on the grid log...)

By 11:30AM cumulus was starting to pop, already at over 5500 feet! Six tugs roared to life and the grid was scrambled at 11:45, with me launching at 11:58AM. At first the thermals were fairly weak and hard to use. Initially I only got to 3000 feet above Lasham but soon found a bubble up to the 5500 feet TMA base. I decided to try the task in reverse as it looked blue towards Petersfield while there were plenty of wisps and small cu towards Chieveley. I tiptoed my way northwards, staying above 3000 feet above Lasham to be safe. I had good climbs at Greenham Common and Didcot, and soon made it to Brill. Just SW of Brill was where my strongest thermal of the day was. 8kt average, gusting off the scale, weakening off just under 6500 feet (QNH), still a little way below cloudbase.

I then had a nice and faster run down past Oxford as cumulus started to bubble up more in places. At Membury I was bumping my head on the FL65 ceiling. So I carried on southwards into better airspace southwest of Hungerford where I was able to get to cloudbase at 6900 feet. After some exploring I turned Hurstbourne Tarrant and decided to head back towards Lasham as it was blue and looked sea-airy towards Petersfield. At Basingstoke West I decided I'd not had my fill yet and to turned tail. After getting close to Andover, I went onwards to Burbage and then across to Marlborough, enjoying the high cloudbases some more. My best cloudbase of the day was at Marlborough, where I got to 7000 feet and went up the side of the cloud a bit to 7200 feet.

Then the flight finale. About 5 miles ENE of Marlborough there was a large towering cumulus. I couldn't resist. At 6900 feet I entered the cloud with turn and slip running and after a while wrestling the controls and resisting the leans, I popped out the side of the cloud at 8700 feet. The views up here were amazing, with large towers of cloud to fly between and smaller towers to go straight over. I took plenty of pictures and had a go at recording a video with my iPhone (main camera batteries had died). Then after clearing away into a large blue hole I had a nice fast final glide directly back to Lasham, diving under the FL65 airspace when I reached it, then cruising back for a nice competition style finish. I landed at 16:14, 4h16m after launch.

Back on the ground I could see showers building to the Northeast. The toys were put away and then I headed home. Before I left I also cancelled the Monday booking, having had such a good flight today. On the way I drove under the shower which was brief but sharp. Then in London there was quite a spectacular thunderstorm flickering and banging away giving a rather nice display as I drove along the A40 and then across suburbia to get home.

LAS-CHV-BRL-MEM-HUR-BGW-MAR-LAS is actually 270km in about 3h45m. However for the ladder I removed CHV and HUR which took it down to an official 253km. Still a decent flight and awesome to have such high cloudbases.

You can see the video I took on You Tube.

The forecast for today had been good and it looked like the best day of the week. So I booked SH4 again over the weekend. After a 6AM start and busy rush hour traffic I got to the airfield at 7:50AM. It was a quiet slow cloudy start but after breakfast I found people who wanted a demo of rigging a Discus. So they helped me rig while I explained what we were doing. Then they decided to rig SH3 with my supervision and fly that glider themselves. At 9:30AM there was a cross country briefing - the first of the year. By 11AM I had parked SH4 by the peritrack opposite the launch point as a movement was imminent. Soon to be joined by SH3 and Grob 103 SH9. The jet finally took off around midday. By now the sun was breaking through nicely and the trigger temperature approaching. All the gliders were brought to the launch point.

I took off at 1:15pm after joining a busy winch queue, and having planned the primary task of Lasham - Abingdon - Westcott - Chieveley - Lasham Start 5 - Lasham for 174km. The visibility was again dreadful - maybe 7-8km. But it was already nicely soarable and soon was up to height. I teamed up with DG1000 776 and we tiptoed our way northwards. Further north the vis was slightly better and cloudbase about 3300 feet and slowly rising. A nice romp to Abingdon followed, and then another nice run into Westcott. On the way back from Westcott we had to cross a sticky blue hole, and were down to 2000 feet at one point. But having erred on caution, I stayed up without too much problem and near Oxford I soon climbed back up under a cumulus cloud. Then cautiously plodded Southwards crossing other gaps and staying high. The further south the better the conditions, with cloudbase peaking at 3700 feet and thermals as strong as 4kts. At Newbury I hit the wall of bad vis that surrounded Lasham. Conditions were still good though. I soon reached final glide, but then local soared for a while before coming down after 3h10m. Task time estimated 2h30m for 70kph.

On the ground we put all the toys away as well as chatted about the day. I was given some useful advice about radio chatter when reporting my position - to refer to distance to the next turning point rather than relative to a location as this is more useful to others on the same task and reducing the less useful calls to avoid confusing people. Thanks John! Much appreciated. I was away off home by about 6pm. At last! Some 2011 XC km. Quite early in the season too. The ClearNAV worked excellently in my first genuine use of it, especially when running close to airspace. I ran my Garmin II+ alongside but didn't really use it. The ClearNAV was also very useful in the poor vis in keeping track of my position. This was also probably my last weekday flight before the new job starts in a week.

I saw potential for today a few days ago with cold air advecting in breaking the low blue inversion and producing cumulus as high as 3500 feet. With Thursday afternoon evening free I decided to come to Lasham and stay overnight. I arrived mid afternoon and immediately set up the caravan. Despite losing a sheet and the pillows to mould I still had enough to have a cosy night's sleep (used cushions instead). Then in the clubhouse I caught the office before I closed and booked Discus SH4 for Friday. Then after relaxing a while I went to the Fur and Feathers pub for supper (nice Sea Bream!) and then set up my laptop back in the clubhouse where I updated my stats and carried on writing an article. Soon enough it was time to sleep so I retired to the caravan, got the heater going as it was getting cold, and got cosy for the night. The morning started frosty. I woke up at 6AM to the dawn chorus but snoozed until 6:45. My gas canister ran out while I snoozed. I'm glad it lasted through the night! After packing away I ended up in the clubhouse some time before 7:30AM. Another pilot arrived wanting to fly a Discus too. So after the ballot we went out and helped each other rig both Discuses (SH4 and SH3 that I had flown on Tuesday). Then we went back for breakfast. I got SH4 to the launch point by about 9:30AM as someone expressed an interest in flying it before it got soarable (that never happened in the end but never mind). Then the long wait began for the thermals to pop. It was already warming up nicely. I helped out while I waited.

At midday a movement was about to occur. I wasn't sure if it was soarable yet or not. There was one last pair of cables with only one glider in the queue. I decided to rush my glider into line and take the second cable, and take a gamble. Otherwise it would be a long wait for a launch. Fortunately it paid off! I found a weak thermal marked by a Ventus 2. A short while later a second better thermal got us to 2500 feet in the blue. Meanwhile down below the runway had closed and two jet movements occurred. I saw one come in to land followed by a second taking off. The launch point stopped for lunch while they waited. Up above though the inversion rose steadily, and as the forecast cool air advection occurred small wispy cumulus started to pop somewhere above 3000 feet. The inversion, and cloudbase, continued to rise, and later in the flight the cumulus got bigger and I was able to reach cloudbase a few times. Best climb rate was about 4kts and best height was 4700 feet (cloudbase 4500 feet but went up the side slightly - still 1000 feet higher than expected). The main problem with the flight was the very poor vis. Only 6km away Lasham Airfield was no longer visible. (Although up the side of the cloud I was just above the 'gloop' and could briefly see for miles again!) The thermals were also often broken and hard to use. So I decided not to go cross country, and was glad to have the ClearNAV clearly showing my position at all times. The haze also made it extra bright at flying heights, enough to give me a slight headache through the sunglasses. The cloudshadow later on saved me though. Eventually I got tired and descended to land 3h56m after launch. So a well chosen day to fly, and a great way to finish my second last free week before the new job starts. Later I saw that max temp was 18C which was higher than forecast. That explained the higher than expected cloudbase. Nice!

Having just secured and accepted a job offer, this week and next are my last hurrah of weekday soaring before I become a weekend man again. With it looking reasonable today I decided to give it a go. I had a plan of arriving extra early and giving the caravan a clean. Having got up at 6AM I arrived at 7:30AM and spent an hour cleaning the caravan which was covered in algae and other dirt. By 8:30AM I had 2/3rds of it done, and went for breakfast. Then after helping unpack the hangar, someone helped me rig Discus SH3. I then helped a private pilot rig before taking the Discus to the launch point. It was a cloudy start though so while waiting for the sun to burn through the cloud I went and finished the caravan clean. That's better nice and shiny now. By this point (11AM) the sun was trying to break through and cumulus was popping under broken top cover. So I headed back to the launch point to get the glider ready. I was ready to launch by midday but a problem with the winch delayed things by a few minutes. I launched just after 12:15pm. What a nice winch launch. Nice speed, and released at 1600 feet straight into a thermal which took me up and away (and 2nd cable meant I could stay with it). Soon enough I was up at 3000 feet and heading East. To the north and west it looked dead under thick top cover. Cumulus was spreading out badly and the sky was filling in. I played along a line of cloud south of the airfield where some sun was getting through and found up to 4kts at times. South of Fourmarks I peaked at 3700 feet, although cloudbase was lower elsewhere. While over there I spotted a stone circle down below. Curious... Then the sky filled in here too and I started to lose the lift. So I headed back to the airfield. I was down to 1500 feet under a dead looking sky resigned to landing when I found lift almost over the winch. Thankfully they'd stopped for lunch below so I was able to stay with it and climb back up to 2000 feet plus. I did climb a few more times and extended the flight but I never reached cloudbase again and thermals were weak and broken mostly. Eventually I finally fell down after 2h33m. Still, a nice flight for the time of year and again nice to be weekday soaring once again. By 4pm I had put everything away and set off home again happy but tired as usual.

Having gone current on Monday, I returned today as it was looking like the first reasonable soaring day of the year. Over the winter I had kept the caravan battery and solar panel in the shed at home to keep trickle charged every time the sun shone through a window. I returned these to the caravan early on before breakfast. I got Discus SH4 rigged to find it had not been flown since October and had since had its instrument panel upgraded. I got the glider to the launch point very early, which I then handed over to Gordon the mechanic (and ex CFI) for a test flight. He towed to 4500 feet and then found wave to 4700 feet! Curious... A while later he was back down and signed the glider off, before handing it back to me. I then winch launched some time after 11AM but I managed to break the link by pulling back too hard when I went off like a rocket. An old schoolboy mistake from the past that was! Oops! No problem I was off at 800 feet and able to complete a circuit and land back at the launch point after just 2 minutes for a relight. I launched again fairly quickly, and this time got it just right. Good practice in a rather fresh breeze anyway. Indeed it was already soarable, with cloudbase at about 2800 feet above the ground. I found it a struggle to climb until I got above 2000 feet, then a bit easier going but still a struggle, and drifted rapidly in the strong wind. Eventually I got to cloudbase and pushed a little upwind, but incoming was a huge hole caused by bad spreadout and some top cover. Cloudbase seemed to peak at around 3000 feet. For a while I was seeing maybe 2-3kts average. After an hour the hole was no longer avoidable. It was too big to cross and eventually after struggling lower and lower in weak lift I fell down after 1h46m. But still a lovely flight after a long grey winter. Back on the ground conditions were deteriorating as the wind picked up. Another guy who landed back with me had another go and fell down straight away. I decided it wasn't worth launching again. Around 2pm I towed the glider back to the trailer, during which a moderate shower hit. During the afternoon, before I put the glider away, I went to the caravan to check it over. I did a bit of fettling, and tested the generator and gas heater which hadn't been used for months - all OK. By 4pm I was knackered, and headed home having had a cup of tea to pick me up for the journey home.

February was a total washout for me. The few nice days I either got the forecast wrong or had other things on at the time. So after one of the most relentlessly grey months, it was so nice to be back on a totally clear day and soak up some sunshine. I arrived early (still -2C outside and frosty) with the aim of simply keeping current. Grob102 SH7 was in the hangar and after breakfast managed to extract it with the help of another pilot who shared the glider with me. By about 10:30AM the glider was in the winch queue with me getting in. The first flight was a standard up, round and down 10 minute affair which went smoothly. Already getting bubbly low down though. The second flight had a bit of a slow winch launch but I still got to 1600 feet. Now the air at height was bubbly too and I tried to make use of weak broken lift but still fell down after 10 minutes. A better launch again on the third flight. Although I managed to break the weak link at the top, which I thought was a back release until I was told it was a break. Curious... I did catch a couple of weak thermals this time on the south side of the airfield. Firstly weak from 1200 to 1400 feet. Then from 1200 feet I turned tight to stay in a narrow core and climbed at 1.5kts to 1600 feet. Then fell down after 22 minutes. So my first soaring flight of the year which not only got me current but was a relief after what seemed like a long cold and very grey winter.

It was a very frosty start with slippery roads especially near Odiham. Having safely made it to Lasham (and hearing of lots of accidents along my route behind me) the first task of the day was to pay my membership fee for 2011. I decided to pay for unlimited again as well as renew my caravan plot lease. Meanwhile SH2 was in its trailer as it was just back from having a ClearNAV fitted. Very nice! There was help a plenty in rigging which was much appreciated. The glider needed a test flight though. After inflating a flat tail wheel I got the glider to the launch point, cleaned it up and helped out on the ground while waiting. Eventually CFI Colin took an aerotow for the test flight at about 11:30am. I then flew from about midday onwards.

My first launch was a good one, nice and fast, to 1800 feet. I enjoyed floating round in the area near the Northwestern corner of the airfield. Above the inversion (about 1500 feet up) the wind was pretty strong. Someone reported 30kts Westerly and indeed on the way up there was quite a kick on the launch. I played with the ClearNAV briefly before I dropped back below the inversion. Then on the way down, between 800 and about 1200 feet I found a few weak thermals that served to delay my descent, extending my flight time to 13 minutes. The second launch was delayed by a winch problem during which I played with the ClearNAV and got more familiar with it. It seems pretty easy to use and I was able to set and declare a small cross country task on it (LAS-BIC-DID-LAS). Then I had a fairly poor and slow launch to 1500 feet. Again on the way down a few weak low thermals delayed my descent, extending this flight also to 13 minutes. I cramped my circuit a bit on this flight and approached too high but full airbrake got me down close to where I wanted. I put the glider on the back of a long winch queue and was looking to hand it over. But nobody took it off me so I took it for a 3rd flight. This launch was even poorer and slower, repeatedly having to drop the nose. So I only got to 1400 feet. It was now 3pm, late at this time of year, but there were still a few very weak thermals just above circuit height, enough to delay my descent again and extend the flight to 10 minutes. A much better circuit this time (that's what winter is for, practice the basics, wipe away any rust and improve ready for the soaring season) but I was still just a touch high on approach. However it was a better and well held off landing just where I wanted it. That's better!

I then handed the glider over to another pilot. Then I went back to the clubhouse for food and tea before heading home as it got dark. So a good crisp clear winter's day with lots of sunshine - not something that has happened much lately so nice to blow the cobwebs away and stay current too. Now I have seen the ClearNAV I am itching to take it on a cross country flight to try it out peoperly. So even more reason to look forward to the new 2011 soaring season as soon as possible!