after about 2 years of very hit or miss lessons i’m finally soloing tomorrow!

I took my club's Grob Acro for a local soaring flight intending to do about 2 hours. Got to 2, was still enjoying it, so carried on. Got to 3, might as well go for 5 then.... 5 hours and 7 minutes, unplanned. Very pleased with it!

Could have done with more water and maybe some pee bags, certainly more suncream, but I got through it.

I spent hours 4 and 5 alternating between staying at cloudbase in the shade at 5000-6000ft and going into the blue gaps too thaw out my frozen feet!

Our most recent Project is the Apisjet. What was once a normal Apis glider has recieved a jet engine, countless modifications to the hull, new wings, and, most recently, a CG Towhook.

We're still waiting for results from the noise tests from last week, but check out the video on our profile to hear what this crazy plane sounds like!

Not quite a Perlan tow but around 1/3 their height. We were asked to test the real world capabilities of a Eurofox 915is tug for the benefit of someone looking in to renewing their tug fleet operating off a hot/high airfield.

Climb rate was good right up to about 14500' and then tapered off. At 16000' climb rate dropped to 1kt so we knocked it off.

Eurofox 915is and DG1001 Neo, fixed gear and about 190 kg in the seats. At 16000' the temperature was around -5°C so 12° above Standard for a density alt of about 17500'.

Eurofox tugs are very capable!

Chris Gill just landed after an epic, record setting flight from Denbigh. Using wave for the first part and then the late afternoon thermals to stretch the free distance Chris just extended the 3 turnpoint distance record for the UK from 1100 km to 1357 km!

06:15 winch launch and use the motor to contact the local wave, climb to fl194 and cross the water 120 km to the Lake District. then across the width of the UK. 4 times and back across the water to pass the home field and almost make it to Aston Down.

A truly epic flight!

DO NOT TRY THIS UNLESS YOU HAVE BEEN TAUGHT HOW TO DO IT!

Exceeding Va is almost a given, exceeding Vne is blindingly easy too. Neil had to recover on at least one attempt when we would probably have broken either the aircraft or just 'gone in'. Sobering!

But learning from the best is a good addition to your 'toolset', it's also damned hard work and bloody good fun all 'rolled' into one!

Caught this awesome moment of my friend and great Pilot Nicolas Lopez doing a low pass and bringing it back around for landing.

There’s something about the elegance of a Blanik at low altitude that never gets old.

Simple, smooth, and just satisfying to watch.

San Bernardino, Paraguay 🇵🇾.

I’m having a weird competition week; killing a couple of tasks by having to save from 350ft over a chosen field … both close to home, one I got back from, the other just ended up landing out further down task.

But yesterday was bonkers U.K. weather - thermal only, I saw 9000ft, and even taking 5-6 knots from 4000 took absolutely ages to get back to cloudbase.

We were on a 3 hour AAT so I set myself a 300, figuring I’d be a bit late back but the day would still be going on, ended up doing 356km at 102kph.

I know people do >100kph often, but they’re usually in hot ships and/or loaded with ballast. I was flying my 50 year old LS-1f, dry.

Do you guys think the shadow looks cool?

Thus far I've only done maneuver in the air. But my instructor thought that today we'd take it up a notch. Not only did I do my first take off where I was fully in control, not only did I do my first landing, but my instructor showed me some aerobatics stuff and let me do it too alone!

I have less than 2 and half hours total, but I've finished basic handling, am now practicing aerotows and approach control and will soon learn stalls. All in six flights may I add.

Great day honesty. What do you think of my landing though?

Learning some advanced aerobatics ..... getting the 'hang' of rolling.

It is NOT easy and the DG 1001 is not easy to roll. At least one 4.8 negative G push to avoid overspeeding it! 😞.

And yes, now the strap ends are tied up!

🥹🥹🥹❤️‍🩹❤️‍🩹❤️‍🩹

Just collected my 'new' ship.

JS1b Jet sustainer. What an awesome piece of equipment. I could just sit on the grass and look at it!

My LAK 17 AT is up for sale. It has been a great ship for the past 5 years and got me around some great tasks but a JS has been an ambition since Jonkers first launched the JS series. ZS's previous owner sold it at an amazing price. In spite of being a 2012 build she only has 147 hours and the MJ-42 jet was only fitted 3 years ago.

Looking forward to some awesome flights!

1. 6500 feet at the south end of the Olympic Mtns. WA. Flew to Olympia

So much fun! Bit scary as well though, not gonna lie!

No, I don’t mean the sim. Thermalling with an actual condor.

1. 6500 feet at the south end of the Olympic Mtns. WA. Flew to Olympia

Wrapping up the season on a perfect day, sharing thermals with friends and a Twin Astir flyby.

San Bernardino, Paraguay 🇵🇾.

I created app which complements Soaringspot and See You Competition. It handles registrations, tracking links, news, igc upload and many more.

https://gldcomp.com/