R22 finishing 2021 in wave over Nesscliffe

In the run-up to the New Year's Eve flying day there was talk of an amazing wave day. All the forecasts, including the daily cross-section, agreed that there would be fantastic wave over the area. However, the forecast early morning rain took longer than expected to clear, and the wave took quite a while to organise itself after the rain had passed.

The morning brought turbulent conditions, making aerotows and approaches tricky. However, Michael Atherton impressed us with his ability to handle the crosswind and gusts on approach. Everyone on the ground thought that they had been flown by his instructor, Ian Gallacher, before being told otherwise. Going solo must be just around the corner for Michael.

The tricky conditions cast doubt on whether John Pickard would be able to convert to the mighty Astir, after several months of waiting for the right day. However, the winds abated later on to provide suitable conditions for Nick Lewinton to be happy to let him go. After some final words of advice from Terry, he was off. Well done, John! Much to the bemusement of the awaiting panel of judges, he didn't even bounce the landing. This achievement concludes an excellent year for John, and I'm sure it won't be long until he has his Silver badge under his belt.

Another long awaited achievement was attained by Colin Haynes who, you will see from the previous blog post, received the final sign off on his Assistant Instructor rating by Senior Regional Examiner Ged Terry. Colin can now look forward to being terrified by our students once the paperwork comes back. Well done, Colin, and thanks to Ged for coming all the way to help us with this.

We also had the pleasure of introducing Liz and Elloise to gliding. Fortunately their trip was arranged for the afternoon, once the gusts had calmed down, and both had a wonderful time in Colin's capable hands. We look forward to seeing Liz and Elloise again soon.

The end of the first full calendar year of gliding at RAF Shawbury was rewarded by the weather gods. With the wind calming on the ground, we could see that the clouds were becoming more fixed in their positions and we started to hear our friends from Shropshire Soaring Group at Sleap discussing their climbs on the radio. The first RSGC member to contact the wave was Will Dean in the club's Astir, R66, who stayed up for an hour in lift up to 2800 ft over Shrewsbury.

Taking the promptings of those from Sleap, the Gallacher family took the K21, R22, for an aerotow to Nescliffe, to find the next wave bar in front. They climbed to over 5000 ft to meet up with Mike Fox and others, taking stunning photos in the setting sunlight.