Cairngorm Gliding Club
Latest news from the Club
Friday 21st March
The mountain waves were impressive today, but unfortunately the surface winds at our airfield were too dangerous for safe flying. When the wind is in the south-east quadrant it can become too rough and unpredictable near the ground.
Only a few members were here anyway, working on maintenance tasks, and we were fascinated to watch the GPS tracks of several pilots from other Scottish clubs taking advantage of the mountain waves generated by these strong winds.
The wind direction is right to left. The bubbly clouds at the lowest level are being broken up into odd-shaped clumps and drifting downwind, while above them are the classic flying saucer shapes of lenticular clouds with sharp pointed edges. Higher still a vast feathery edge hints at a huge wave system that stretches for miles. Photo by Fiona Hawkins.
The view from 19,000 feet while flying along the upwind edge of the wave. Lift strengths were reported at 1,500ft per minute, and several pilots were tracking at high speed all across the highlands on this remarkable day. Note the frothy convective cells at the lowest level, shepherded into alignment with the upper waves. Wave clouds are often stacked in this way, the upper levels casting shadows on those below. Photo by Roy Garden from the Deeside club at Aboyne.
Weekend of 8/9 March
It was a wonderful Spring weekend for humans and eagles alike.
Imagine you are an eagle, soaring lazily on a Sunday afternoon. You pity the poor earthbound humans, who are forced to fly in rigid plastic gliders with clunky controls, whereas your fingertip feathers and swiveling tail give you almost infinite manoeuverability. You can feel the air flowing softly over their surfaces.
You are flying in a left-hand circle to stay within the confines of the rising air of thermal lift, with your wings locked in a comfortable glide. It's effortless. Your high right-hand wing is pointing up to the sky, but the left-hand wing is pointing down at the human settlement of Aviemore, hazily visible about a mile below. Looking at your left wing, there is the illusion you are flying backwards, but this is merely a reflection of your circling flight.
Video provided by the human Stewart Hills. Many other good flights done this weekend, including an expedition to the west almost as far as Ben Nevis by Nick Norman and Tony Cresswell. Their GPS track over the ground is shown for interest. Also a stunning shot of the Einich cliffs by Rosie Adams, during another flight in the ASH two-seater with Nick.
Welcome to Feshie!
The eagle's eye view of Aviemore. Video by Stewart Hills. Can you spot Loch Alvie and Loch Pityoulish? The beeping noise is an audio signal telling the pilot he is still within rising air, and note the finishing frame showing the height as almost 5,500 feet.
Ground track showing Nick Norman's flight with Tony Cresswell on Saturday. They reached a point over the mountains beyond Spean Bridge, just short of Ben Nevis, before turning back. Shades of yellow and orange show climbing flight, while blues indicate descent. The return trip from the furthest point was done at high speed and took about 20 minutes.
Soaring the Einich cliffs on Sunday. Photo by Rosie Adams. This is not a view that we get very often, as it depends on a fairly limited range of wind directions.
The new pilot licensing scheme will require all pilots to obtain occasional instructor checks. Here we see Phil landing, with our newest instructor Paul Maddocks in the back seat. Photo by Fiona Hawkins.
Weekend of 1st & 2nd March
Members of the Club are currently in the process of building a full sized gliding simulator. Many of the larger Gliding Clubs have them, and they quickly become a useful tool for the instructors when teaching new student pilots. Remarkably we now have at least seven new members who are under 18, and we need to keep them enthused regardless of the weather.
We recognise two potentially big advantages of using a simulator, which are ~ firstly, a significant reduction in the number of flying hours (and therefore the cost) before the student reaches the solo flying stage, and secondly, the ability to provide basic lessons for new members even if they are dogged by successive weekends of bad weather.
The basic idea is to start with a written-off glider fuselage without wings, and to find a realistic space in which to install it. The fuselage is equipped with electrical step motors to detect control movements, which are linked to a computer using flight simulator software. This projects realistic views of flying from Feshie airfield onto screens surrounding the installation. We are using a large re-furbished caravan to contain the system, which should provide space for pre-lesson briefings, spectators and document storage as well as the pilots themselves.
The system isn't yet finished but the elements are slowly coming together and it should be working within the next few months. Many members have contributed their time and effort, and donated materials etc, but we would particularly like to thank Nick Norman for leading the techie side of it with computer wizardry, and Tony Cresswell for leading the team re-furbishing the old caravan. The photos will give some idea of the challenges they faced. Photos by Tony Cresswell and John Smyth.
Initially somewhat dilapidated, "The Hilton" as it was affectionately known, has been completely stripped down and rebuilt without windows to provide a perfect darkroom inside which the simulated flight views will be projected. Here at the very beginning of the project, club members are assessing the problem of shoring up the bank, trimming trees and clearing debris from the interior.
An inside view of the "Simulator Hall" with the reconstruction work well under way. The floor, walls and roof have been extensively repaired and strengthened as required, and most of the windows have already been blocked off. A whole new interior shell has been made with studding and insulated panels. When the glider fuselage is installed, the remaining windows will be covered, creating a pitch-black auditorium space.
The basic shell, from an insurance write-off. The wings were damaged beyond repair but the cockpit, seats and instrument panels will become the core of the simulator. One of the original push-rods can be seen sticking out of the truncated fuselage on the left. This and other controls were linked via step motors to a computer running flight simulator software.
A temporary scaffold frame has been built to assist with the manhandling job of "posting" the glider fuselage sideways through the window.
The old glider "PK" is safely installed. The team members on that day included Tony, Stewart, Nick, Craig, Stephen, Howard, Mike and Gaby, but many others have contributed to this essential project.
Weekend of 18/19 January
We don't normally expect January to be any good for gliding, but there was one notable weekend this year. We share two of the best photos here, from Saturday 18th, although the following day was brilliantly sunny too.
In the first photo by Stewart Hills we see the afternoon shadows falling across Glen Einich from about 4,500 feet looking east. Almost all of the loch is in shadow, and we can see low cloud encroaching from the southern side of the mountains.
New member Rhona Paton (14) from Aviemore, who attends Grantown Grammar school, was lucky enough to hitch a ride in the mighty ASH two-seater with Nick Norman for a memorable trip around the Cairngorms. She took the second photo, showing the low cloud hugging the southern slopes of the mountains.
She writes: "Everyone at the club was really welcoming and even managed to make Mum feel (slightly) comfortable with letting me go flying! I was spoiled rotten with the blue skies and stunning views. It's amazing how small everything looks from 6,700ft! It was fantastic to fly almost as far as Braemar. I loved every moment I spent up in the gliders or at the club itself, and I am well and truly hooked!"
Later the same day, Rhona had an instructional flight in one of our two-seat trainers, and apparently enjoyed learning the basics for herself. See you again soon, Rhona!
