Friday 27 March 2015

Wed 25th March

Looks like the midweekers have been having fun again....Wednesday certainly looked nice from Birmingham airspace....Mary reports that Phil A & Russell took the Duo JYR off cross country, while Graham took the Nimbus off and flew 346km of a 380 km task (look for Shenington on the BGA ladder site : http://www.bgaladder.co.uk/Enquiry.asp). Don Puttock was flying this week, with Dave Gould flying the tug. Alistair Frier was doing some midweek aerotow flying, Mary went soaring in CCC, and everyone had a great day. Thanks to Dave Smith for trimming the greensward and giving us the perfect surface for gliding.

Thursday looked pretty good too, hope all you retired/shift working/self employed folk made the best of it!

Tuesday 24 March 2015

Weekend 21-22 March 2015

Stuck in Birmingham last Sat/Sun as I was, due to work, I gather that I missed a lovely Spring weekend! 

Cold temperatures overnight then blue skies and some cloud meant that there was good soaring to be had. Dave Price, having done his LPC slot, had his just rewards with over an hour's soaring at what appeared to be cloud base. Paul Noonan went off flying in his glider,  Graham Paul went flying with Paul Mucha in 60, but couldn't manage a take off on the grass from the top field with the light winds (go karters being in residence). A second attempt on the North south run was apparently much more satisfactory! Robb Batty had his first 'real' awkward height cable break in CCC and made an excellent job of the recovery and landing. He flew the K8 later, together with other members. New junior member Alex Phillips was introduced to the joys of gliding and was a great help at the launchpoint all weekend. Meanwhile Christine and Clive were doing some training in the tug and we had some visitors to take flying as well.

Thanks to Alan & Trish for driving the winch most of the day, and Mary for cooking soup and cake. Let's hope we have more of the same next week. (NB. Last soup this coming w/e, then back to fending for ourselves, except for the 'juniors' weekend and the regionals week when there will be plenty of food and cakes! You have been warned..... ).

Wednesday 18 March 2015

Saturday March 14th

Saturday was a bitterly cold day - and the few brave souls who ventured out wore lots of layers. Many members decided that it was instead a day for fettling!
With the karters in residence we were flying from the top field, and just had triple Charlie at the launch point. John W and Danny did some training flights, and then the cloud lowered and the drizzle started. We all sloped off to the clubhouse to thaw out and eat soup and cake, courtesy of Mary, then back to the launch point around 2pm as it began to clear up. Aimee, Cat and Penny - key members of the Oxford Belly Dancing Group who entertained us in summer - came to have a trial flight each, and Paul Fletcher took each of them flying in turn. Cat was quite apprehensive before going up but came back grinning widely.

Rather more jumpers in evidence on this visit!......
 


Norman got checked out again after a short break, and Lucy went solo on the winch! A few of us took solo flights - Paul Fletcher gained longest flight of the day with an epic 10 minutes!

At the end of the day it was suddenly beautifully clear, and Rowan, then Christine, had short flights in the tug just for the sheer hell of it. We also had some surprise visitors in the field by the winch...
Thanks to Eric, Alastair and Lucy for winching, and John & Paul for instructing. Kit away, we barely made it to the AGM in time. There was good news for Paul F - someone else had volunteered to be Treasurer! So we have a new Chairman in Andy Linfield, Christine Bell as Treasurer, and Dean Batty has joined the committee.  It was also good to catch up with founder member (and President) Phil Brennan who is too busy competing in seniors international athletics to have time to glide at the moment!  Liz fed us tea & cake to complete the day. Now all we need is some proper spring weather.....watch this space, and get your glider ready. It won't be long now......