Norfolk Gliding Club Competitions: 2008

Monday, 14 July 2008

Additional Prizes

Cracked Pots were awarded to:

Phil Morgan - Water divining with a JCB, water found in pipe
John Tanner - Phaffing on the grid, included some laxative to speed up movements.

Prize Giving

2008 Uk Open Class Champion
Steve Jones - 110 - Numbus 4M

Runner Up
Ian Ashdown - 128 - Nimbus 3

Third Place
Pete Harvey - N1 - Nimbus 4T

Sunday, 13 July 2008

Steve Jones is UK Open Nationals Champion of 2008 - best of luck to Steve and Pete Harvey in the World Championships in Lusse!

Scores are on the web here

Many thanks to all the competitors and organisers for all their hard work ...

All looking good for a 1000 point day

... and Dave Byass has just rung in from Rougham to request an aerotow retreive. Boris was exceedingly happy to the news :-)

More finishers...

128 and 176. The rest are still up there and the day's starting to look a bit flat.

First finishers

N1 and 110 - 5mins

News

HLX - Landed out after 2 TPs - east of Mildenhall
M25 - landing back no news on why
FWW - landing back no news on why

Start times published

Start time are now on SoaringSpot

Starts and Land Backs

Y7 landed back - presumably for a relight

110 & 461 just started

13:00

All aircraft launched and start gate has been opened.
The some pilots have already declared a start.

Sunday 12:00

Launching has started.

Looking better

The pesky cloud is breaking and cu are forming. The task is on soaringspot.

Task

The tasks are set and all we are waiting for is the medium level cloud to clear. Two racing tasks will be posted on the net after briefing. The grid is out.

Sunday

While we have a ridge of high pressure over us the low we have endured over the past few days is sitting over Scandinavia dragging medium cloud down over the midlands and east anglia. This cloud is slow moving and the only real hope is that it breaks up. Rasp indicates the thermals will die by 1800hrs so a late task is not an option. We can only hope that we will get rid of this medium cloud in sufficient time to allow a task.

Saturday, 12 July 2008

After a hard days flying...(but not today)

A Special Evening

including a visit from a Spitfire Mk I from the BBMF

The crowd ...

Scrubbed

The weather has beaten us, low cloud, rain and no lift.

Saturday's task

A task has been set and all the aircraft are on the grid waiting for the weather to co-operate.

We have rescored day 3, Thursday, after a secondary logger was provided. This considerably increased his distance and made it a 1000 point day.

Briefing Delayed

Briefing has been put back to 1130hrs. Competitors have been told to grid before briefing. The latest weather forecast shows an improvement from 1100hrs with 5 knot airmass thermals. Unfortunately the freezing level is at 7000ft and the tops of the thermals bust this by a considerable amount indicating showers.

Saturday

The bad news is that we have 8/8 cloud, the good news is it is not raining. Hopefully the cloud will burn off but an early start is unlikely. If we do get a break it is likely to be showery again. No task as yet.
Dave, the tuggy from Biscester attempted to return there but had to turn back because of low cloud.

Friday, 11 July 2008

Open Posting

The facility to allow those who are not logged in to post comments on this blog was provided to allow sensible and informative comment to be made. It was NOT provided to allow snide attacks on individuals. If there are anymore such comments the facility will be withdrawn. It is a shame that such action would have to be taken because of the immature actions of a few individuals.

Preliminary Scores

Published on the web. Not a high scoring day but a result nevertheless. The showers spoilt the day for many.
Angus had an adventure today

Friday at 16:20

All aircraft now safely back on the airfield with another finisher, RC.
Awaiting the last 2 loggers.

Just in time, from my window the sky looks very black on the horizon and coming towards us fast.

Results

The results for most of the fleet have now been computed and published on SoaringSpot.
Awaiting 4 loggers, 2 of which we assume are still airborne.

Still airborne
RC
82
M25

Completers
110
128
176

Land Outs
hlx
461
954
374

Land Back
N1
Y7
Z7
48
FWW

Started

By 12:25 all gliders have call start and have dissapeared from view.

Friday's Task

The Grid has launched

The Opens are all launched and the start line will open at 1209hrs.

Todays Task

A 2.5 hour AAT north Suffolk to North Norfolk. We hope to get the task in before the weather from the West (Hus Bos) gets to us.
First launch scheduled for 1130 hrs

Friday

The weather today is much the same as yesterday with a more unstable airmass. There is a strong chance of showers today with Thunderstorms later on. It looks as though the showers will start earlier in the west so the task reflects this. The grid is out and one glider is on the way to the grid. The intention is to get the task underway as early as possible to try and complete the task before the worst of the showers and the thunderstorms.

I am wearing my bullet proof vest at briefing today as we have an AAT in mind

Thursday, 10 July 2008

Late evening

All loggers now in.
Just short of a 1000 point day with a winning score of 937 points.

15 Metre Nationals

Just seen the results from the 15 metres and it seems they did not fare as well as the big boys. We were all flying in the same general area but fate or the weather has not been so kind. Lets hope for a better day tomorrow for the inadequate winged :-)

Trust me people SIZE MATTERS lol

Tibenham

Looks like Tibenham is the place to be this week, scores are finished (2 landouts excepted) and on the net, planning for tomorrow has already started. 4 days flying so far with 3 contest days can't be bad, and maybe some to come.
Hot news, Angus only took one launch :-)

Thursday 10th July at 17:55

All loggers are now in except fo the 2 land outs.
Peter Harvey is the lead so far with 859 points though this will increase as both of the landouts have passed Y.

Pics from the day

Jacob (a cadet), Mike Tate (grid marshal)

Mike, Jacob, Phil Morgan (Tug marshal)

Mike Bean (S/F Radio), Dave Blythe (S/F radio)

Don Johnstone (Freeloader), Mike

Finishers

We have 10 finishers so far
RC
48
128
46
M25
82
N1
110
374
970

LO/LB
HLX at Littleport (Fens ooooooooooooooooooh)
Y7 at Ely (Fens again, will we see them again?)
Z7
954
FWW
One competitor left out there somewhere 176

**Stop Press 176 5 mins non comp)

Finishers

All aircraft away with only 3 land backs.
3 finishes so far with 3 just called 5 min.
Awaiting the loggers, first results expecter soon.

Start gate open

All aircraft away, no re-lights.
Start gate has opened, at 12:34. Max height 3000 feet.

Chris

Chris L, flying HC, has decieded not to fly today as he can not land at Newmarket racecourse.

Thursday 10th July

Flying has started with the first launch at 11:45.
The sky is currently looking good.
Just 3 left to go

Grid has formed

I don't appear to have as many spies as on Tuesday - my syndicate partner must have gone to work ... but the Team are now fully trained, task is faxed to me and the scorer is putting it up on SoaringSpot and Don has been actively blogging! Means I might have to do some work :-(

Interesting Met

Just had a look at the Met on SoaringSpot - they have this chart - looks suspect to me but quite interesting and useful if they can tune it for our conditions. Anybody fancy doing 100km on Anglsey?

Thursday 10th - Task

AAT - 3hours

CAS - Cambridge South - Sector 230/310 25km
OUN - Oundle - Circle 20km
LVN - Lavenham - Circle 20km

Distances: 213/277/350

Earliest 1st Launch: 11:30

Today

The sun is shining, the satpics look good so here is hoping.

Most forecasters seem to think that the air is unstable enough to produce showers, however the soundings from Cambourne at midnight do not seem to support this. Also the satpics show significant wave east of the Welsh hills and the pennines indicating that the air might be a little more stable than at first thought. Forecast cloud base seems to be between 3000-4000ft with tops to 9000ft, very close to the zero degree isotherm but not through it.

Wednesday, 9 July 2008

Tomorrow

I have just finished looking at the weather for tomorrow and it looks fairly hopeful. The ground will be a little damp although it has just stopped raining, it will have all night to soak in. Looks like it will be a day on the well drained chalk so get your geology maps out :-)
Thou shalt not phaff.

Oops I spoke too soon, the patter of raindrops on my caravan tells me so :-) however the rain radar shows an end in the next hour.

Comments

I opened up the comments so people who wanted to say something useful could without signing up to a Google account.

There have been some apparently misinformed comments that have been posted - you will glad to know that I am moderating the comments. If you want to question Don's directing please either post with a Name and Email address or direct the questions directly to Don.

A few quotes from the Comp Handbook 2008

- All gliders of a task group should have the opportunity of a competition launch within one hour. This can normally be achieved by having not more than six gliders per tug.
- Pilots who refuse a launch shall follow the relight procedure. A pilot who is unready for his grid order launch shall be deemed to have refused a launch.
- 19.4. Start open time. The start for each task group will open not less than 10 minutes, plus 1 minute for each 200 feet or part thereof by which the start height exceeds 3,000 feet, after the last competitor in that task group has had the option to launch.

On the other hand if you are a competitor, which I doubt, and know better then please take it up with Don in person ...

The forecast was right!

Rain, rain, rain - Which is why there were a few people in the bar last night - suitable captions required ...

Scrubbed

The rain has reached TIB and the day has been scrubbed. The cracked pots have been awarded to Angus, RC and Steve the RC P2 (see Fat Cat story below).

Briefing delayed

The forecast rain has not appeared and as I write it is thermic. Briefing delayed until 1100hrs.

Tuesday, 8 July 2008

Advertising

Some free advertising for It's a wing thing ...

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Even better, you can now help us to support the team by buying from our new line of "British Team Supporter" clothes - wear them with pride! 10% of everything in the range that you buy will go directly to the British Gliding Team funds and help support them in being one of the most successful British sporting teams of recent times.

Results

The results are published and on the web. After a long day we are closing down an off for well earned rest or a few beers.

Today on the grid and in the air

Bad news for somebody ...

One P2 and the blog author visited one of the finest pubs in the country last night - The Fat Cat in Norwich - as they were leaving the P2 passed comment about the staff. A hasty exit followed. Earlier this evening the non-guilty member of the terrible duo returned for some light refreshment to be informed that he and his companion were no longer welcome. One deep and sincere apology later and I have been allowed back - however my partner in crime is not so lucky ...

The Scorer is working hard ...

Finishers
128 - 2:20
374 - 2:08

Land Backs
461
N1
954
FWW
176
M25
48
82
RC
128
374

We have a finisher!

Ian Ashdown in 128 has finished in two and a half hours. Distance unknown but I imagine it's minimum.
No other finishers and everyone else accounted for.

More starts

374
M25

have started - I'm going to have to setup my spies with the ability to blog via SMS. Could be a long training session involving a few beers - I think I will be on my way down to TIB from ~~work~~ surfing the web this evening.

We have a starter

128 Started at 16:03

Returns and probable relights include
110
Z7
461
HLX
954

Comments

I have opened up the Comments section to allow comments from people without Blogger/Google accounts.

Sensible comments please ;-)

Fallen back

To a 2hr Task - 1st launch 15:17

Recalled and regridded

According to my spies the director has recalled those remaining airborn and has regridded the comp.

News

I'm told that the rain isn't as bad as feared but 3 land backs and the tugs being out of crosswind limits could mean a "scrub" in the air ...

Launching has begun ...

This is the view of the launch point

Sniffer is airborne

but showers to the west may dampen the grid.

A useful tool for Don here

Grid Closes at 13:00

Weather looking more reasonable at TIB - My syndicate pilot is rigging and covers apprea to be coming off Open Class gliders on the other hand the rain radar shows lots of showers - live link here

Tuesday 8th - Task Set

Don obviously knows more than I - well I am at work and working ...

News from TIB is

"A task has been set

AAT - 3 hours

BSE - 10km Radius Circle
OAK - 20km Radius Circle
EDE - 15km Radius Circle
DIS - 10km Sector 130/230

Distances - 144 / 219 / 300km"

Looks like an exercise in dodging showers to me.

Monday, 7 July 2008

Today is Scrubbed

Next briefing at 10:00am tomorrow. Looks like we're back to traditional Norfolk weather.

Rebriefing is now at 13:00

Spot the ball

There might be a prize for the best answer to the question: Who is it and why ?

The Author is at work ...

As promised I am "working" but that hasn't had much effect on the weather.

Some photos and links to photos from Saturday courtesy of Keith Sowter

Sunday, 6 July 2008

Sunday 6th

Was a non scoring day

M25 an ASH25E landed out at Rattlesden - dunno why though

Sunday 6th - Briefing in progress

Prizes were awarded for Day 1

1st Kim Tipple
2nd Steve Jones
3rd Richard Smith

Cracked Pot for Al Nunn - who was at the grid with no batteries or parachute and had to be removed when launching started.

Task A is on SoaringSpot here

Task A - 202km
RAT
FAK
GRF

Task B - 165km
RAT
EDE
GRF

Late Arrival to breifing

Saturday, 5 July 2008

All loggers in

Preliminary scores available here

All gliders finished

All round, no landouts.

All but one...

All gliders have finished bar one. The scorer is beavering away.

Finishes are starting

128 has finished, with several more very close behind. No landouts as yet, except for Chris Lawrence in HNC flying HC, who's landed out at Newmarket. Deja vu...

Gliders have Gone

All gliders have now started on task, no relights, and conditions are good. Just been corrected, conditions are bloody excellent. Are we really at Tibenham? I guess we had plenty of rain this morning.

Day 1 - Task

2:00 Hour AAT

1st Sector - 12km Circle around STD - Stradishall
2nd Sector - 15km Circle around CAX - Caxton Gibbet
3rd Sector - .5km Circle around GRF - Great Ashfield

Min: 142km Max: 240km

And the sun is shining ... and gliders are gridded

First briefing is underway

Readers are reminded that Steve Pozerskis aka Poz55 is not to be believed ...

Although the weather is not special - Don is going to hang on to the pilots and won't scrub until he has no chance of getting a task out of it.

Friday, 4 July 2008

Registration in progress

Lots of people here already and many flew today lots of 300s done.

John Williams has already parked his Antares outside the club house so he has power ...

Thursday, 3 July 2008

Open Nationals 2008 Final Entry List

Correct as at 03/07/2008 19:21

Initials	Surname	Glider
I	Ashdown	Nimbus 3
D M	Byass	ASW22BL
D E	Findon	Nimbus 4DT
M C	Foreman	Nimbus 3DT
D K	Gardiner	NIMBUS 3
P	Harvey	Nimbus 4
R	Jones	Nimbus 4T
S G	Jones	Nimbus 4M
R	Kalin	Nimbus 4T
T M	Mitchell	ASH 25
A V	Nunn	Nimbus 3
G N	Smith	ASG29
R J	Smith	Nimbus 3DT
C R	Smithers	ASH25E
J A	Tanner	ASH25
K B	Tipple	Nimbus 4T
A F	Watson	ASH25
J D	Williams	Antares 20E

Tuesday, 10 June 2008

Swinging in to action for the Opens

The blog and the club are switching over to Opens mode now ... the silage areas of the field are being cut for landing areas and camping spaces, the blog now has the uptodate Opens information and the witch doctors are praying for a sunny start to July.

Monday, 2 June 2008

Caption comp ...

What do you think the kid is saying Padge?

Sunday, 1 June 2008

All over as the ...

Champion is Peter Stafford Allen in Ventus B 16.6 - notched up 1000 points yesterday.

Full and proper here

Overall

Day 1: Task Result

Still waiting ...

Don is holding out until he has seen the latest sat pic.

Saturday, 31 May 2008

Preliminary Scores

Replaced with these result - click here

Waiting ...

Scorer is working hard and crews are busy retrieving.

Poz and James Bridges hav ecome to help us celebrate at least our first flying day

We have finishers

Unfortunately I landed out 15km short - always land out early or close ...

333
933
FBN
GT
H20
OM
RC
Y11
Z99 completed

Everybody else is accounted for either by landing out or landing back.

More later

We have weather ...

Task:

3:00 hours - AAT

Stradishall (45km) sector to west
Earith (45km) sector to west
Great Ashfield

Min 180km, Max ~290km

My glider is on the grid and full of water - all I need
to do is have breakfast.

Cheers

Friday, 30 May 2008

Friday 30th

Scrubbed again.

Thursday, 29 May 2008

Thursday 29th - Scrubbed

After holding out long enough for me to wash my trailer - Don saw the light and has scrubbed.

Next briefing Friday 30th - 10:00

Grid squatting

The high cover from the front to the South East is cutting heating - the sniffer has landed back.

Thursday 29th

Briefing 10:00
Grid Before briefing if possible
Grid closes at 10:30

Unfortunately there is threat of storms from 14:00 local so Don has had to fall back from the 500km task to

Task A: 123km
Great Ashfield
Newmarket
Diss

Task B: 81km
East Dereham
Garboldisham
Diss

I must go and grid now

Wednesday, 28 May 2008

Tonight was a competition night ...

The great Donut Eating Comp ...

Training to beat the world record - 6 donuts in 3minutes - without licking your lips

Task was: 1 donut as fast as possible - no licking

First - Ian Mountain - 33 seconds

2nd Steve Langford - 40 secs

3rd - Tim Davies 43s (licked)
4th - Angus Watson - 49s
5th - Kevin Atikinson - 54s
6th - Gwyn Thomas - 1:04 (licked)

7th Ian Campbell - 1:10
8th James Dean - 1:13 (licked)

9th & Highest Placed Female - Christine Davies - 2:17

10th - Steve the Barman - 2:48 (licked and nearly chucked)
11th - Jenny Novak - 3:03
DNC - Miriam Watson (supplied donuts & scoring)
DNC - Mike Bean
DNC - Bob "hoootsman" Grieve
DNC - Chris Lawrence - he will never finish all that before the comp starts ...

Wednesday - Scrubbed

But it hasn't rained here - a small mercy.

The grid squat continues ...

We are now on Task B.

Task C has been prepared - rumors are that it is Great Ashfield - Scoulton for 82km

Wednesday 28th

Task A - 166km

Lavenham
Swanton Morley
Diss

Tssk B - 117km

Great Ashfield
East Dereham
Diss

Some people are on the grid.

Briefing at 10:00

Don is confident that we will have a briefing today ...

Water problems

After discovering water dump issues on Saturday I discovered that RC had the necessary tool kit to extract the dump valve from my wing ...

F1 pilot and F1 7 RC crew assisted and then invited me back to help them dispose of some other liquid.

If you are short of a crew get Steve Langford along - as long as he brings his home brew ...

Tuesday, 27 May 2008

Scrubbed ...

I have gone to work - what fun.

At least it is warm and dry and the tea & coffee are free.

Briefing delayed until 12:00

A reminder of how it looked on Saturday ...

Monday, 26 May 2008

Monday 26th - Scrubbed

Scrubbed without briefing

Thanks to Kieth Sowter who took lots of pictures on the grid on Saturday - see them here

Monday 26th

Typical Bank Holiday weather - briefing at 12:00

Don is having weather hallucinations and is hoping that everything he sees on RASP is true ...

Sunday, 25 May 2008

750km set

All pilots round at just over 100kph

Bored as ...

a plane spotter.

Some of the custom G-Regs on the grid

Sunday 25th - Scrubbed

Weather is pretty poor.

933's crew is probably glad after last nights curry ...

... it was a bit much for him - but he did manage to go clubbing 'til 3am.

RC and F1 came to briefing muttering something like "we came prepared"

Sunday AM

The BBC aren't very optimistic ...

Saturday, 24 May 2008

Scrubbed ...

... some time ago.

Some people launched out of need to see that it wasn't really on. I did the same and then discovered that my balast didn't dump from the starboard wing. After some time in the workshop all now appears ok.

Still Grid Squatting

Yawn ...

Day 1 - Task

Task B

TIB
BS1 - Bury St Edmunds North
CAM - Cambridge N orth
CAB - Cambridge South
DIS - Diss
TIB

166km - first launch tba

Friday, 23 May 2008

ER 2008: Registration

Registration is currently in progress ... a much quieter affair than the Juniors last August

Bob Grieve is so desperate to fly his LS8 that has been workshop bound since January that he is out taking a launch as I type.

The bar has Old Speckeld Hen on draft so I there will be some good nights in the bar this week.

I can hear Don discussing tomorrows weather - better than Sunday which looks much better now than it did yesterday!

My paper work has arrived so time to register ... now where did I leave my map

Thursday, 17 January 2008

Open Nationals 2008

The Open Nationals 2008 will be held at Tibenham between Saturday 5th July and Sunday 13th July.

Late Entries please email Tim Davies

25 Entries as at 10th June 2008

Initials	Surname	Glider
I	Ashdown	Nimbus 3
D M	Byass	ASW22BL
C	Cobham	ASH 25
D E	Findon	Nimbus 4DT
M C	Foreman	Nimbus 3DT
D K	Gardiner	NIMBUS 3
L J	Gregoire
K J	Hartley	Nimbus 3
P	Harvey	Nimbus 4
J T	Hitchcock	DG1000T
R	Jones	Nimbus 4T
S G	Jones	Nimbus 4M
R	Kalin	Nimbus 4T
T M	Mitchell	ASH 25
A V	Nunn	Nimbus 3
G N	Smith	ASG29
R J	Smith	Nimbus 3DT
C R	Smithers	ASH25E
L	Sparrow	Nimbus 4DT
J A	Tanner
K B	Tipple	Nimbus 4T
A F	Watson	ASH25
D	Williams	Duo Discus
J D	Williams	Antares 20E
S L	Withall	ASH 25

BGA Entry List available here

Eastern Regionals 2008

The Eastern Regionals 2008 will be held at Tibenham between Saturday 24th May and Sunday 1st June.

Entry fee will be £160 and we will be offering a 50% discount to any Junior Pilots wishing to enter.

To enter please email Tim Davies with the following details. Glider Type & Reg, Home Club. many thanks.

22 Entries as at 19th May 2008

Surname	Forename	Glider
Campbell	Ian	LS8 (15m)
Clowes	Norman	ASW 20C
Codd	Steve	Grob 103?
Davies	Tim	ASW 27
Dean	James	Discus (w)
Freeborn	Albert	ASW 27
Grieve	Bob	LS8 (15m)
Hart	Ray	Nimbus 2C
Hay	Hannah	LS4
Hayward	Phil	DG200 (17m)
Hill	Andy	Duo Discus XT
Hood	Rich	LS8 (15m)
Hughes	Mick	K21
Lawrence	Chris	ASW 19
Nash	Steve & Jane	Mosquito B (w)
Pointon	Michael	Discus B (w)
Ryland	Peter	DG 400
Stafford Allen	Peter	Ventus (16.6m)
Thomas	Gwyn	Nimbus 3(25.5)
Watson	Angus	ASH 25
Williams	David	Libelle
Whiting	Tess & John	Discus B (w)

Average H/C = 99.7