The lad in question was very excited – although he was in the ATC, he’d never flown a glider. I don’t think he’d flown much of anything to be honest. It all seemed very new to him. So the pressure was on to give him a good first flight.

This is something I really love about being an instructor. It’s the chance to show someone why I love the sport, and try to infect them with the passion too! It doesn’t work in all cases – some people are just there for the ride – but in rare cases you get someone hooked. It’s happened to me a few times, and I’m always over the moon when it does. I think this young lad could well be one of those I’ve hooked, but then again, it’s hard to tell with a sixteen year old sometimes!

Fingers crossed that I’m right, and that he has indeed got the bug. Watch this space!

http://www.freeflight.org.uk/gliding/relief.html

Must get something rigged up for this summer!

A big fuss was made over them by Paul Hudson, BBC Look North’s resident forecaster for Yorkshire. And there were some truly fabulous photos of them.

One or two of my friends from the Yorkshire Gliding Club managed to get up there and fly in the wave indicated by those clouds, but only George Rowden, flying his LS8 managed to put a height gain on the BGA ladder. He gained just over 8,500 feet. Well done George!

However it didn’t stop there. The wave conditions persisted over the following few days, but with high wind conditions which would have made wind conditions difficult, even if we hadn’t been stuck with visiting family over Christmas. *Sigh* Oh well.
Here’s a photo I took from a hill top in Huddersfield on Christmas Eve, when visiting my Rellies. Once again, it was positioned over the Leeds area. It was fabulous as we drove down the M62, looking at it from all sides. Shame about the pylons though.

Since I was on duty that day, I was given the great honour of flying the glider down to Topcliffe. Actually getting the glider down there began to feel like a pantomime, as I had to receive a briefing from their Commanding Officer, my old friend Steve Hughes (Squadron Leader!). A briefing? Surely it’s observe their runway in use and circuit pattern, talk to them on the radio, then land? But being the RAF, I suppose they had to do it properly.
I duly phoned them before setting off – they were landing on Runway 21, with left-hand circuits, and I was to join overhead at 1500 feet.

Les Rayment was due to fly the tug, so at 1.30 we set off for Topcliffe. YGC member Pauline Luty came along for the ride, as it seemed a shame to take a K21 with an empty back seat. We flew to Topcliffe and arrived to the south of the airfield at 2500 feet, which gave Pauline and I ample time to observe the ATC motorgliders buzzing around before joining circuit left-hand for 21.
The landing was one of the nicest I’ve ever done (if I do say so myself, blowing my own trumpet), and I do pride myself on my landings! I think it’s something to do with the tarmac runways, somehow they just encourage you to land perfectly.

We rolled to a stop and were pushed onto the taxiway by a bunch of strapping young men. Not the service I’m used to! Normally it’s just a golf buggy, and a (ahem) not-so-young man (only joking!)
Fred and Hazel strapped in, we pushed them back onto the runway, and attached the tow cable.

As the cable went taught, the glider rolled forward over the cable, trapping it between the nose wheel and the runway. There was no time to shout ‘stop’ before the rope went taught again, and then it snapped. Damn, now we had a snapped rope, on a strange airfield.
However, RAF to the rescue, one of the young recruits had a Leatherman with him, and managed to repair the rope by cutting off the frayed part and retying it, then re-assembling the Tost device.

That done, and glider reattached, they were soon on their way to Sutton Bank. All that was left was for Pauline and I to find Fred’s car, and find our way out of the airfield. But that’s another story.

Fred and Hazel also held their wedding reception at the club, and we had a great time. Fred loves karaoke, and had organised a DJ from a local pub to come and provide the music and songs. Lots of friends and family joined in, including me. But that really is another story…

More info and photos of the adventure, and the happy couple can be seen at http://www.ygc.co.uk/wordpress/

I did just spend 20 minutes writing an account of a lovely wave flight that I had the other day, but when I saved it, it lost most of it!

I’ll try and re-write it here again tomorrow, and hope that it saves all of it next time!

For the non-glider pilots, you must be thinking, surely a sunny day is a good thing?

Unfortunately, although there was plenty of heat in the sun, the problem was caused mainly by the high-pressure weather system, which put in place an inversion. This in turn meant that thermals took a long time to develop as a critical temperature had to be reached before they could break through the inversion. And even when they did, many of them were ‘blue’ (invisible) and/or weak and broken.

Again for non-glider pilots, we generally get inversions when there are established high-pressure weather systems. In summer, you’ll see this on the ground as hot, hazy weather with Easterly, or South-Easterly winds. The longer the HP system is in place, the stronger the inversion gets, and the visibility becomes hazier. The inversion traps airborne pollutants and dust beneath it, giving rise to the smog warnings that some of the UK had over the weekend.

If you went up in an aircraft, you would be able to see the inversion at certain heights. It usually looks like a pale cream-to-yellow stain on the horizon, above which the air is usually a lot less hazy.

Why is it called an inversion? Because it does the reverse of the normal situation – instead of the temperature decreasing with height, it increases. Quite why this happens, I don’t know – you need to ask someone whose meteorological knowledge is much better than mine!

Anyway, the net effect is that the conditions are not good for gliding. Weak, scrappy thermals in a sky with no clouds leads to a very hot and sweaty cockpit, not to mention the pilot! At least normally when there are clouds, if you fly under them you can hide from the sun and cool off a bit!

Despite the weather, we managed to set tasks for the Inter-Club League on two days – Sunday and Monday. These days showed improved conditions, but they still weren’t perfect.

Still, there’s hope for next weekend.

For me, one highlight of this weekend was that I finally persuaded my Dad to fly with me. I’ve been flying for 17 years, and an instructor for 5 years and this was the first time he’d agree to fly with me. I think he even enjoyed it too!

We rigged on Saturday morning (heavy work after 9 months off), polished the glider and got it to the launch point. Hubby was first to have a go, with the promise that I could fly later in the day. The weather looked great to begin with, but it soon began to overdevelop, quickly cutting off the sun. However there were still thermals around, and the conditions were cycling so all was not lost.

By the time Hubby landed and we got the glider ready for me to fly, the sky had opened up somewhat. I strapped in, and sat waiting for my launch with a little trepidation. Why is hard to say, it’s not like the glider has changed, but I suppose there’s always a nagging doubt in the back of my mind that I’ll have lost my abilities. I think a little fear is healthy – it stops me becoming blase.

However once the glider left the ground, my fears melted away, as they always do. The grace with which the glider leaps into the air, the harmony of the controls, the whisper of the wind over the canopy… all serve to put my mind at ease. We released from the tow and turned immediately into a thermal, which went to cloudbase at about 4000 feet AMDL. The next hour or so was pure joy, just remembering the feeling of flying my own glider, and soaring in the early spring thermals, just brilliant.

Enough waxing lyrical. The rest of the flight was uneventful. A speedy de-rig due to the complaints of a hungry and tired baby boy, was followed by a takeaway curry for dinner, and I was asleep on the sofa before 8pm!

It was a good job too, as no sooner had I got back onto the ground than I was ‘booked’ by a couple of members, ready for my duty day on Saturday.

However, a few days later, I got a call from my CFI, saying that we would have to do a couple more flights before I could begin instructing. It’s really just to satisfy legal requirements – apparently I have to have had at least three flights within the last 90 days in order to instruct. So, first thing Saturday morning (weather permitting), I will be doing the extra flights with my CFI – to include spinning and more advanced exercises. I guess I won’t be putting the Instructor Manual back on the shelf just yet!

I had hoped to be flying earlier – my hubby joked before the birth that he wanted me to fly within a week of having the baby! I thought it wouldn’t be that soon, but I didn’t think it would be this long either! Not only have I not been physically fit to fly really, but the weather put a total dampener on it (literally!) The gliding club has been covered in several inches (and feet, in places) of snow since mid-November, denying me the opportunity to fly even when I have felt fit.

So, at the moment my duty day is on the 15th of this month and I’m neither in practice or ‘checked-out’ (for non-glider pilots, this means I haven’t been checked out by my Chief Flying Instructor and declared fit to fly).

I just hope that the weather co-operates and allows me to get checked-out before my duty day, or I’m going to miss it!

I’m keeping my fingers crossed that next weekend will be my opportunity… as long as the weather doesn’t let me down again! I’ll let you know how I get on…