News Archive > 2005 News Summary

DECEMBER 2005

We had the best wave day since October on Saturday 10th, with climbs to 10,500 ft and at least three flights down to the Dee valley.

NOVEMBER 2005

Roger Christie has completed his Basic Instructor course and Robert Tait is now checked out to teach gliding exercises in the Motor Falke.

OCTOBER 2005

A great start to the month with flying every day of the ASH week from the 1st to the 7th and some excellent wave on the 6th and 7th in particular. See the ASH week photo journal. Well done to Stuart Naylor, who took off from Feshie and saw the gap close beneath him, and decided to land at Easterton after going to 23,000+ ft for Diamond height close to Grantown.  Martin Knight also got to the same height, and took a few photos to prove it The same day the Ash went to 16000 ft
before going down the Spey valley to 11 miles short of Oban. Peter Goodfellow made excellent use of the week by getting both bronze legs and topping it off with silver height on the Sunday. Alan Stewart also went solo during the ASH week.

SEPTEMBER 2005

A much better month altogether with lots of wave flying. Roy Scothern managed 12,500 ft at the beginning of the month. Sunday the 18th was the best day by far with lots of people getting wave climbs. Congratulations to Kevin Dullaghan who got his 5 hours and to Billy Fisher of Fulmar who got his 5 hours and his diamond height on this day.

AUGUST 2005

Once again poor weather has meant that this month has not been particularly good for soaring. Our website has however moved to new hosting company so we now have plenty of space for expanding the photo gallery.

JULY 2005

Poor weather especially at weekends means there hasn't been any really newsworthy soaring this month. The Inter Club League held at Easterton on the last weekend of the month was also scrubbed due to bad weather. 

JUNE 2005

Sunday 26th: Congratulations to Ramsey Black of Fulmar on his first solo.

Monday 20th: The board meeting scheduled for this evening was cancelled in favour of flying after one look at the sky on arrival at the site. The wave turned out to be not as good as it looked but still we had some soaring and sitting in a glider was much more fun than sitting around a table. 

MAY 2005

Weekend 28th / 29th: Mixed bag of weather with some rain and a little soaring in weak ridge and thermal lift.

Friday 27th: Successful day doing trial lessons for pupils from Speyside High School. Thanks to everyone who helped out.

Weekend 21st / 22nd: On both days there was some good soaring this before rain and the threat of thunder and lightning stopped us flying.

ASH week - 15th to 20th: Very cold on Monday and Tuesday with SNOW showers and not much flying. Best day of the week was Wednesday with Thermal to 6,500 ft and quite a few cross country kilometres flown. Congratulations to Billy Fisher of Fulmar on his 50K to Feshie.  

Saturday 14th: Warm and dry but not much soaring under the slightly overcast sky. The new clubhouse facility was at long last officially opened today ..........more. 

Sunday 8th: Feels like winter again with strong cold northerlies.

Saturday 7th: Some strong thermals between big showers.

Wednesday 4th: A good start to Wednesday evening flying this year with ridge lift going into weak wave. The board of directors have decided to make every weekday evening available for group flying this summer.

APRIL 2005

Saturday 30th: Some decent thermal soaring to be had for the people that didn't go to Portmoak for the Inter Club League where there were no competition days over the 3 day event.

Sunday 24th: A similar day to yesterday with lots of soaring in blue thermal kicked off by the Dallas ridge in a SE wind. Again winch launching had to stop in the afternoon when the crosswind increased. The Falke that soared so well yesterday has gone to Kinloss for C of A and should be back near the end of May.

Saturday 23rd: The day started sunny with a bit of haze and a light SE wind. We had to stop winch launching and continue with aerotow only just after lunch due to the increasing SE crosswind. The Dallas ridge was kicking off some good blue thermal and eventually some cu formed over the Dava Moor giving climbs to over 5,000 feet. 770 and 767 went as far as Grantown and even the Falke managed to join in the soaring.

Weekend 16th / 17th: No flying, low cloud and rain on Saturday, very strong SE wind on Sunday.

Weekend 9th / 10th: The best soaring was on Sunday when the ridge was working in a strong westerly wind. some people made the transition into wave but it was difficult to go anywhere in the very strong wind. Launching stopped by mid afternoon due to the strength of the wind although it was late afternoon before HSE and 767 decided to brave the approach.

ASH week, 4th to 8th: The week started well with some good soaring, mostly thermal on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Geddes and Teresa got to 9,500 feet in wave and as far as Aviemore on Wednesday evening. By Thursday morning the wind was strong in the north and it was very much colder. There was still a strong northerly on Friday with snow showers and the temperature barely rose above freezing all day. 

Sunday 3rd: No flying, very strong southeasterly wind.

Saturday 2nd: By far the best day of the year so far with strong thermal and cloudbase as high as 5,000 ft. There was cross country flying as far as Loch Kinnord although David Chalmers did land out in his dad's LS-8 near Aboyne. Everyone was delighted to see the arrival of Fulmar's new Supermunk early in the morning. It was pressed into service almost immediately with Terry Cawthorne checking out the available tug pilots.

MARCH 2005

Weekend 26th /27th: No flying, low cloud and easterly wind again.

Sunday 20th: Yet another day with no flying, this time due to low cloud. Some members have been busy especially Roy and Billy who have been working hard on the K.21 C of A. 

Saturday 19th: We managed quite a few flights until the wind came too far round into the northeast.  The strip however was still very wet in places.

Weekend 12th / 13th: Once again no flying due to bad weather.

Sunday 6th: Ground conditions had dried out enough for flying and some soaring. 35 flights for the day followed by the AGM and prize giving.  We welcome Andy Barrett on to the board and congratulate all the prize winners.