A great day for February.

A great day for February. Benign conditions, ideal for training, lead to us having 33 launches of which I did nearly half. Thanks to Tim Donovan for helping out with the instructing. and Jane, Phil and Paul who helped with the winching.

Graham P

Whittle Jet Open Day

What a great day!
A quiet moment (there weren't many) at the Midland Air Musuem display in the clubhouse on Saturday. It was good to see so many visitors, from near and far - we got through a lot of tea and cakes!

Over the last few weeks Mark Hampson has surveyed the airfield and its various sites and compared his findings with the original plans. The result is these fantastic new drawings of the site with the remaining buildings and hardstandings marked in colour. We plan to give these a permanent home soon, somewhere in the clubhouse.

There was a large audience for the flight of the jet

...and we all wanted a close up view afterwards.....

A perfect day for viewing the old control  tower during a 'guided tour', following the airfield plans.

The Jet...





Photos by Clive S

Videos by Ian A

Photos from our open day...





Remembering The Pioneers



An artist impression of the Pioneer running the Edgehil Ridge

 

Beautiful blue skies set the perfect scene for our 70th Anniversary Whittle Jet Open Day.  It is with pride that we remembered this element of the secret history of aviation and the part our airfield played in it.

The Gloster E28/39 Pioneer W4041 - the Whittle jet - had first flown at Cranwell in 1941. Edgehill was then selected as the base for secret flight tests due to its proximity to the manufacturer's Gloster and Power jets.  It is interesting to note that the first flight tests of jet engines were conducted by attaching the jet to the rear fuselage of a Wellington bomber - strapped to the tail cone. A hanger was built to house the jet in secrecy on the aerodrome perimeter between Christmas Corner and Shenington turn (near where the John Deere buildings are now).  The jet made its first trial taxi on February 4th 1942.  Flight testing began and it flew successfully until March 24th when part of a turbine blade broke away in flight and an emergency landing was made on the airfield. Flight trials of the Gloster were resumed in June 1942. 

As well as the open day events we had our busiest club flying day so far this year. Duty Instructors were by Paul N & Derrick S with Tez as LPC and Dave G tugging. Lots of club members were out and enjoying the fine weather, getting current and some even managed a bit of soaring! Refreshments were on hand all day, splendidly run by Mary and Jane.  

Sir Frank Whittle

We also had a fine 10 minute display from Tony Hooper with his model jet aircraft (the only other jet to date to fly from the airfield) to everones delight. There was also interest from the press with a visit from the Stratford Herold. A big thanks must also go to Jan A, Mark H, Tess W and all the other club members who organised the event.

It was to our delight that we had a clubhouse full of interested visitors the whole day ranging from interested locals to long established aviation buffs. We are particularly indebted to the representatives of The Jet Age Museum and The Midland Air Museum  who both brought excellent displays and exhibits to our event and to Barry Jones for his excellent lecture this evening. We are also much indebted to Eric Kaye, life-long local resident and author of the book 'THE STORY OF RAF EDGEHILL', who was just a small boy when the RAF appeared at Edgehill, for all his expert assistance and unstinting enthusiasm.

The season has begun...

Paul M (right) receives the SGC CFI's Award for 2011

Post cold front conditions gave good ridge and thermal lift providing a cracking day with lots of soaring, 3 K13s working hard, plus a K8 out and several private owners rigged with Graham flying over 100km+ in his new big-wings with Dave F from Bidford as P.2!



Gavin in the back seat again!

Lee was DI but sloped it on to yours truely so he could get the new Falke sorted and test flown. Bob W and I took the first winch launch and pinged onto the ridge which wasn't really working at that point, but at least it was a cheap (pre-11am) launch! Jan was LPC and Robin kicked off the winching with Paul M and Dave L-M also doing stints later on. John D was tuggy. Lucy took over as LPC for the PM stint and did an excellent job on her first outing in the role. Gav and I conducted his AFR and had a great soaring flight down the ridge and away in thermals to kick off the days soaring. Alan & Trish soared their DG300. Gary & Tim went off soaring for 1:40 then Gary swapped with John in the tug so JD could fly the 500, taking Lucy for a trip.

Others out flying included Gail, Terry T, Andy L, Derrick, Clive, Eric, and Geoff.



Eric quickly moves his K6e off the landing area after his flight



Lots of flying, lots of soaring, good times and beers in the bar to finish.

THE PROFESSIONALS ARE BACK AT THE END OF THE MONTH...

...HOWEVER, THE SEASON HAS ALREADY BEGUN!!!

Derrick's Day

Just a brief update on flying to day, a good day with some 7 members
enjoying good but cloudy weather and a light WNW wind 10Knts. All the
members enjoyed either extended ridge flights or got themselves checked
for re solo and some AFR checks.
Clive and Eric had the K6 out and were able enjoy to ridge lift for
four 20min  flights.

Brian Hucker got back in harness again after a bit of time off.

My personal highlight of the day was watching with interest Clive and
Eric putting the new covers on their K6. I can't see though why Clive
had a red triangle stitched to the tailplane cover. Perhaps it was
remove before flight alert?


Overall a lot of fun which completed a good week of ridge flying,
weather forecast suggest Sunday as an even better ridge day, don't miss it.

Derrick

Posted on behalf of Derrick S

More fun on the ridge!



Bruno and Tony prep for a ridge flight


Bruno ran the day. It was a second good day for ridge soaring with Dave L-M getting the longest flight of the day clocking up 1 hour and 36 mins in the Ka8. Others out enjoying the soaring were Robin, Christian, Bob K, etc. with Martin L, Colin, Scott, Lee, etc organising ground maintenance.

Build it and they will come...

Tuesday turned out to be a cracking good club day, the busiest mid-week day we've seen this winter. When Phil B pitched up at mid-day he thought it must be a Saturday!

 

Passing Edgehill on the way out to the Water Tower

Jane J was the first to arrive and she and Robin set up the winch whilst Bob K and I set about unpacking the hangar with the help of Peter and Henry from Haddenham.

Jane then drove the winch for much of the day before getting in Q5, once Mick had finished with the Discus. Colin and Bruno completed the paperwork on DVX, then Bruno and Graham P completing the test flights and Graham's AFR. Graham then instructed in DVX with Martin J and  Henry.


Lucy Looks Out



The ridge was a bit "soft" to start with, but it picked up well after lunch and the last couple of hours were ballistic with easy trips all the way down to The Water Tower at the far end. I even managed some "ridge-running" with Peter B on my last flight and in all I completed 9 flights for AFR and ridge training, including an excellent 20 min ridge flight with Lucy followed by an excellent short field landing in the Club House Field with only a bit of verbal coaching from me.



It's a long way back!



Bob K set a personal soaring record on the ridge with me on the first flight of the day, then improved on that later this afternoon on his second flight. Others out included Christian, DaveL-M plus Alan and Trish flying their DG300, with Trish getting the longest flight of the day! It was also great to see Don Puttock who popped in to drop off his motor-glider.

Certificates and Awards for 2011 Season

First Solo Certificates (new for 2012) awarded to club pilots who have gone solo in the previous 12 months:
Michael Selby-Green,

Richard Allen,

Nigel Clarke (Motor-glider)

Alistair Frier,

George Mahon,

Bob King,

Charlie Milward,

Sven Goffart

BGA Club Ladder Awards:-th in the BGA National rankings for kms flown (19,561km in 99 flights) in 2011out of 67 participating BGA Clubs.th on overall points (103,000 points)

This year showed our club rising to 11

- Average flight distance = 197km

- 13

- 14 SGC pilots took part compared to 4 previous year.

This is brilliant, so why not add your flights in 2012.

BGA National Distance Ladder for a pilot who has flown the most KMs in UK during 2011:
Graham Paul (10,276km)

Shenington Distance Ladder:

Graham Paul (10,276km)

BGA SGC Open Ladder:

Graham Paul (14622 points)

Winner of SGC Local Height Ladder with a flight from Shenington:

Rowan Griffin (gain 6,129ft at Shenington)

Winner of the BGA Height Ladder for an SGC from any site:

Graham Paul (gain of 7,600ft at Aboyne)

Winner of the BGA Wooden Ladder (& 6th place on BGA National Wooden Ladder):

Bruno Brown (3029 points)

CLUB ANNUAL AWARDS

Shenington Gliding Club’s Highest Acheiver:

Graham Paul

SGC Best Flight Award (awarded to member who flew the most meritous flight of the year):
Bruno Brown & Gail Jackson for declared 200km O/R in K13 HVQ

Far Point Trophy (awarded to the member who, in a flight originating from Shenington, lands the furthest straight line distance away in a glider):
Eric Lown, 161km

Most Improved Pilot (awarded to the member who has made the most progress in their flying during the year):
Sven Goffart

President's Triangle (awarded to the member who flew that fastest handicapped speed in a pure glider around a 100k triangle set by the President, currenlty EDG-BIC-NOS-EDG or reverse):
Ian Atherton

Geoff Webster Memorial Trophy - Clubman of the Year, (awarded to the 'clubman of the year' who in the committees opinion deserves recognition for helping the club run smoothly):

Kath Barnes

Paul Gibbs Trophy, Service to Shenington Gliding Club (awarded to recognise outstanding service to the club, usually over a long period of time):

Mary Meagher

Paul Gibbs Memorial Scholarship (New Award awarded to the member who in the committee's opinion is most deserving of a bursary towards their flying training at Shenington):

Lucy Wootton

Spring Soaring Week Trophy (New Award awarded to the member who scores the highest number of points in one day during the Spring Soaring Week):

Clive Smith

CFI's Achievement Award (selected by the CFI for the club member who in the opinion of the CFI deserves recognition for flying achievement and/or in aiding flying operations):
Paul Mucha 

 

CFIs, Ice Pilots and Brilliant Bash!

Today we hosted the Annual Regional CFI Conference with John Garrett (Thames Valley SRE) and Andy Miller (SRE SLMGs) presenting on a number of topics including BGA Annual Safety Report, EASA Licencing and Cloud Flying in the post-EASA environment. Big thanks in particular to Liz and Mick who provided an excellent spread for lunch arrangements, and many delegates complimented the club on the refreshments and on the excellent New  Briefing Room facilities...Thanks to everyone that has helped SGC achieve such substantial progress over the last couple of years, you have done us proud.

More importantly, despite the bitingly cold weather we had a productive flying day with Ray as DI assisted by Geoff and Phil. Brent was LPC, Gary was tuggy and Robin did most of the winching providing some excellent "evil sim-power failures" for training purposes! Nigel C passed 2 more of his SLMG PPL ground-school exams. Others out included Martin L, Richard, Mary and myself.

Tonight we met up at The Whatley Hall Hotel in Banbury for the clubs Annual Dinner where we enjoyed good food and good company with some new faces and old friends form far and wide. Certificates for achievements and club trophies were haned out, which included a focus on the new solos, the BGA Ladder, and 2 new club trophies awarded to encourage soaring achievement and cross-country flying. Clive's Band provided the entertainment and a good time was had by all. Thanks to Jan for organising this year...volunteer(s) for next year please!

How many CFIs does it take...?

Pictures taken at the Regional CFIs conference showing off our new briefing facilities and Liz's excellent culinary skills!

Photos by Mary Meager

Andy Miller updating us on EASA

Dave Bullock, Ray Brownrigg & Dave Watt

Mike Fox, Jane Nash, Andy Roch and Pete Stratten

A room full of CFIs, DCFIs, REs and a National Coach 

Liz preps the refreshments

SRE John Garrett

Teamwork, Tows and Terrific Times

 

Dave G ready for some towing...it's a piece of CEKE!



A fantastic bright winters day and there was a good mix of flying to be had. I completed Lee's Year 3 Instructor Check in DDB. Meanwhile Tim D flew with Bob K in HVQ, Bob flying solo later and making a lovely landing. Jane organised getting the K8 out and it proved to be the most popular glider on the field completing 12 flights with Jane, Gail, Terry, Clive, Derrick, Robin (who also did some Falke-ing) and Tim all taking trips in her. I continued in DDB with Peter B completing his SGC BI acceptance and AFR, Dave S spin Cx to complete his AFR and flew 2 A/Ts with Clive S to work on his BI patter prep. Derrick and Dave also flew the G109 for a trip round the Cotswolds.

At the end of flying the team rig DVX

After flying the team all pitched in to help Colin rig DVX and switch round some aircraft in the workshop  and derig the K21 for its annual. Special thanks must go to Kath who drove the winch all day. We than retired to the bar for a well deserved beer!

And the K21 is de-rigged for its ARC inspection