Friday 3rd February 2012 Club Annual Dinner

As we entered the bar at the Blacksmiths Arms in Lamerton, we were welcomed by a huge roaring log fire and friendly staff.

After tasting a few of their finest ales we made our way to our seats in the dining room, admiring the array of mystery raffle prizes on the way.The meal was excellent and the wine was flowing (sorry Martin, for splattering your shirt when I knocked over a glass!).

During some thankfully brief speeches Steve Lewis thanked Mike Keller for arranging the evening and we all agreed he did a good job and chose an excellent venue. Don Puttock then gave his presentation. He reminisced about the amazing flypast of the Lancaster at our Open Day last year. Don then presented the Spitfire Trophy for the best achievement last year to Nigel Williamson.

Don presents Nigel with his trophy

The Clubs' tea swindle has made an enormous difference to the social side of the club and provides funds for projects around the clubhouse and airfield. This has been made possible through the efforts of Pauline Puttock to whom I presented a beautiful white orchid in recognition of her work.

Pauline looks happy with her orchid.

The highlight of the evening was the fun-filled raffle with Chris Matten winning the booby prize of a stalk of Brussels sprouts and Mike Keller picking the star prize of a tin of Quality Street. Thank you to all who generously bought tickets and entered into the spirit of things. The evening raised £45 for the Clubs' project fund.

Does Chris know what to do with his stalk of sprouts?

Sandra

Thursday 2nd February 2012

It must be cold because the water is frozen in the pipes and there is ice on the inside of the windows.

The Kelly College cadets continued with "operation first impressions", and now one cabinet is ready to be shifted to its new home in the portacabin.

Gorse and wood clearance has created a reasonable size bonfire, which I have been told I should leave to those that know what they are doing--- last time I had to call the fire brigade.

Meanwhile in the warmth of the club room the cadets all learned about spinning and spiral dives. After a few less conventional attempts at recovery, they all got it bang on, so well done.

Don

Wednesday 1st February 2012

Blue sky with a bitingly cold wind from the northeast. Would there be wave today. It wouldn’t dare as Wednesday instructor is away in Portugal at the moment.

Richard Williamson , one of our younger pilots, spent some of his day trying out a new camera and long lens. I think his photos speak for themselves.



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Plenty of members at the club today kept instructors Don and David busy. the solo pilots gave both the K8 and Zugvogel a good workout. Every inch of the local area was explored as our pilots searched for the illusive wave but, despite all sorts "it almost” worked stories, they had to put up with extended circuits. Good effort – better luck next time.

Continuing my review of glider pilots headwear, I captured this photo of new club secretary Sandra Buttery sporting a faux fur hat. A puzzling choice for someone who was an animal welfare officer in her previous career?

Sandra sporting the winning hat.

Steve

Sunday 29th January 2012

After considerable efforts from Scratch, Nigel Williamson and Roger Appleboom to repair the Gus-Launch, flying commenced at 11oclock.

Richard Williamson flew with Dave Jesty to regain currency and went for a solo flight in the K13 DMX. Mike Keller then took DMX for a solo flight after which Roger Appleboom continued his training with Dave Jesty, before inclement weather brought flying to a stop.

Mike Keller looks relaxed on final approach

Don honed his gardening skills by cutting a substantial amount of gorse and bramble from the east end of the field, continuing the ongoing spruce up of the club. Lectures from

Don about flight limitations and altimetry followed, with Nigel, Richard and Roger all furthering their ground school.

Although only a few flights were had, it was a constructive day for all involved.

Extra thanks to the winch-repair team!

Richard Williamson

Saturday 29th January 2012

Today started with blue sky and a reasonably light NW breeze. However, looks can be deceptive; it was cold and the forecast gave a front coming through by late afternoon although in the event this arrived too late to stop the fun..

There were lots of members braving the cold and muddy airfield to take advantage of the chance to fly. One of the more notable features was the collection of somewhat strange looking headgear. Perhaps we should have a “Hat of the Month” competition.

A motley collection of hats? Or a motley collection of pilots? You decide

Among the 40 or so flights today was Steve Raine reaffirming his recent solo status. Well done. Also taking advantage of the day were Mike Gadd and Darren Wills, both using the benign conditions to convert to the Zugvogel and have their first flights on type.

Darren looks comfortable in the Zugvogel. ( We must finish the painting behind his head )

Mike looks very pleased with his efforts.

For some members the excitement was not quite over after the gliders were put away. Reports of groups of members extracting each others cars from the muddy car park provided a little light relief at the committee meeting which continued late into the evening.

Steve

Thursday 26th January 2012

Another great session with the Kelly College cadets.

Outside the cadets worked on tidying the wooded area near the trailer park and collected a heap of wood ready to be cut into woodburner size chunks.

Inside the lessons continued on the simulator, the more advanced cadets recovering from spins and spiral dives and the newbies learning how the controls work. Well done to all of you for some very good efforts and great progress.

Don

Wednesday 25th January 2012

I could really just write Wednesday weather as usual, i.e. low cloud and drizzle in a westerly gale. I cannot remember a winter with so much of this kind of weather.

The hardy club members were on the ball again with all sorts of work going on around the site. Steve Raine was  to be found happily doing a bit of pruning to the low branches of the trees at the entrance. Ged and Phil scraped the peat from the area in front of the trailers with the JCB to test the effect that this will have on the access here which has always been muddy and difficult. The theory is that the underlying layer will support vehicles better and be mud free once the grass regrows. They then went on to replace a gate post in the car park which seemed to require a lot of physical work - no fancy post machines here.

Steve happy with his work

Ged and Phil working hard as always.

Mike Gadd used his time particularly well by taking and passing his Bronze C exam. Well done Mike.

Mike is congratulated by CFI Don on passing his Bronze C paper in exemplary style 

After the work was done Phil flew the simulator with Don’s guidance with the aim learning to increase cross country speeds using different  “MacCready” settings. Good idea to practice this before the good weather comes.

Steve  

Sunday 22nd January 2012

A small band of hardy souls were greeted with the sight of the wind sock blowing in the horizontal position again, though not from an easterly direction that sends glider pilots misty-eyed in anticipation of the Wonderful Wave but from the north west.

Still that didn't stop instructor Ged from being kept busy in BVB with a steady stream of pre-solo pilots pitting their wits against the dreaded wind gradient. Amongst them was new member Leith Whittington who had his first flight in a glider since being a Boy Scout 'a few years ago'. Since then he has accumulated many flying hours in the navigators seat of commercial airliners. We wish Leith every success in his new flying career.

Roger Appleboom listening to Ged doing his Tommy Cooper impersonation with new member Leith Whittington stopping the glider from taking off by itself and Shrek lurking furtively in the background

As well as Ged ,many thanks also to a poorly Alan Ballard who gamely came in and drove the winch for us and later on in the afternoon Martin Cropper whose Ass Cat course at Yeovilton was postponed due to a problem with the runway [runway? who needs a runway?!]]. Best of luck next time Martin.

Darren Wills

Saturday 21st January 2012

Strong westerly wind, very low cloudbase, drizzle – no flying then.

The club was very busy though with Vic ( with clean, mud free face – see Saturday 7th January 2012 ) and Martin painting the tailplane of DMX which is now ready to be used as soon as the weather clears. Father and son, Rick and Matt spent the day filling in potholes on the track using the club JCB which seems to be slowly dissolving year on year and would now look good on the set of Mad Max  Robin spent some time trying to tidy the wood store.

Meanwhile Alan Carter had his SF27 in the hangar making use of the club load cell to weigh his glider. Alan seems to be obsessed with weighing his glider; perhaps this has something to do with the work he did when he was in the RAF which, in part, included weighing VC10’s and Tornados.

Thanks to Ged for manning the instructor duty today – no easy on a non flying day.

Steve

Wednesday 18th January 2012

Apart from grins on a couple of people's faces... and a battle-scars in the form of cows' (?) muck adhering to BVB's tailplane... there was little evidence of all the fun several members had wave flying at Brentor last Sunday.

For the Wednesday crowd, however, it's been a day of seamless cloud and drizzle. The ground around the clubhouse was reminiscent of the battlefield scenes in 'War Horse', but this didn't deter CFI Don and Phil the Farmer from wading around in the mud as they speculated what income might be generated for the club by coaxing one of our own old 'war horses' - the dumper truck - on a one-way trip to the knacker's yard (i.e. the scrapyard up the road).

" Waddya reckon about a spot of recycling, Phil?"

"Take up slack!"

"All out!"

"Result!" (...as the combo rolls into the scrapyard).

The photos speak for themselves! And the exercise was definitely worthwhile, with a substantial sum being raised for the 'Tea Swindle' fund, which pays for much-needed improvements to the club's equipment and facilities. Thank's to today's efforts, the purchase of a base station for the Skylaunch Launch Assistant System, is much closer to becoming a reality.

Apart from a discussion about NOTAMs, some daily inspection training and a lot of stoking of the woodburner, the emphasis remained on financial matters, with our two Field Treasurers in a huddle as they redoubled their efforts to chase-up some £600-worth of long-overdue flying fees from members.

Our Field Treasurers review an e-mail urging members to pay their flying fees (more than £600-worth of which are currently outstanding)

Bob Pirie