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Firstly, a big thank you to our winch drivers Adrian Giles Johns Sadler and Paul Roberts. Thanks to their efforts we had,,what was for mid November, an excellent day's flying. UWE students Jah and Lin had their first ever glider flights - I think they enjoyed the experience. Diane and Domenika (spelling?) also acquitted themselves well. Tim Andrews demonstrated he could fly with out an altimeter and Adam Mayo gave an excellent demonstration of how to handle a simulated launch failure on the cross runway. Darren Edge took yours truly up for two aerobatic flights - five hours later and I still don't know which way is up. Thanks to instructors Ben Hilsenrath and Geoff Dixon for helping out and to Jonathan Apperley for the aerotows. It would have been nice if the wind could have made up its mind which runway it wanted to blow down, otherwise a good time was had by all.

The day greeted us bright and sunny with a moderate westerly which made runway selection very easy. Tom and Austin were tempted by the Nympsfield ridge and John Mac went wave hunting in Wales. UWE are still providing new students for us to fly for the first time, they are having a busy year! As there were no winch drivers available, we operated completely on aerotow with Adrian having a surprisingly busy day including collecting Tom and Austin from Nympsfield after their fun. Three trial lessons and a few club members completed the list and everyone had flown by 3.00pm.
Thank you everyone for turning up and helping to keep everything running smoothly.

Yesterday started with a lot of low cloud which cleared early morning to give a bright day with broken cloud and a couple of showers in the afternoon. Robin and I were the only instructors on duty to look after two ODCs, a group of students and Tim Andrews. Unfortunately, we were delayed by a minor incident with the bus which meant we didn't start launching until about 11:45. Consequently, with Robin looking after the ODCs, I flew with the students and Tim, but I decided that two flights each would be sensible to start with given the limited time available. This worked well with Luca and Alvin having their first flights and Dacy getting to grips with using the ailerons. Teddy, a near-Bronze student from Wormingford, had a couple of check flights and then flew the K-23 for the first time; unfortunately, a steamed up canopy and reducing light prevented a second. I finished off with three flights with Tim before we packed everything away as darkness descended! I think the day worked very well because the students got stuck in and helped run the launch point as well as they could. Thanks also to Martin Hayward for driving the winch in the morning and Stuart Thackeray for taking over in the afternoon. Last, but not least, thanks to Joe for helping the students with ground activities and keeping the log LEGIBLY, assisted by Tim. Another long, tiring, but rewarding day.

A brilliant autumn day with great visibility and even a few thermals appearing later in the day. With the first launch just after 10am, we managed to get everyone flown by 5pm with 34 launches in the day. Three new members flew as well as a few returning UWE students, Tim Bralesford completed some more instructor training, and Ben introduced 6 new people to our wonderful sport. A big thanks to Mike and Richard for driving the winch, and to Ben and Jonathan for looking after the trial lessons.

The competitions have just ended at Aston Down and it was an extremely successful week for all. We had full entry lists with 40 competitors in the Juniors and 30 in the Regionals plus 2-seater training in our own DG500 and other visiting gliders.

The week delivered challenging weather for the organisers who did their very best to fly as much as possible. In the end we had competition flying on five days. Launching 80 gliders is no mean feat but with an efficient ground crew and eight tugs this was generally completed in about 1 hour 20 minutes.

CGC was represented in both competitions. Ben Hilsenrath was our sole entry in the Juniors (seen below looking far too comfortable in his little black dress), finishing 38th. In the Regionals the club was represented by Steve Noujaim (5th), Chris Gough (12th) and Adrian Giles (26th). Congratulations to them and all the other competitors.

A huge thanks to Matt, Brian and their extensive team who organised and ran the competition. Various comments were overheard about this being one of the best run competitions ever and the competitors and crews had a great time. Well done all.

Rather a grey and dismal start but the forecast promised better conditions later in the day and with a full complement of trial lessons to deliver we set the field up in hope that the forecast was correct. The first couple of winch launches found cloudbase but we did manage to get to 2000' on later aerotows. We had a group on a Hen weekend in the Cotswolds who only told the Hen that she was going gliding on Sunday at 11 o'clock the previous evening, they left with some big smiles! Later flights in the afternoon found some gentle thermals for some extended flights.

BGA statement:

The Government is changing the law to remove most of the restrictions that were applied to address the Covid19 pandemic.

The BGA encourages clubs and their members to continue to comply with Government published guidance, and to consider others as well as themselves in maintaining a cautious approach to the ongoing risk of infection.

With this in mind, the club has prepared the attached document which is also on display in the clubhouse. Please stay safe and consider others so that we can continue to enjoy our sport as we come out of the Pandemic.

Despite solid overcast at 1,600' and an irritating cross-wind, we managed a full day's flying. Visitors Lyndsey and Alex enjoyed their introduction to gliding on the One Day Course. Cadets Jack and Brandon continued to progress well, both of them getting to grips the winch launch. Meanwhile, Martin Hayward and Tom J were working on their Friends & Family ratings with Simon Lucas and Mike Weston respectively. Instructors John Huband and Tony Parker flew an enthusiastic group of UWE students. Many thanks to Martin Hayward and Alistair Lomax for driving the winch.

More pics of ENK's progress

Here's a pic of ENK as it enters final preparation for return from Slovenia to the UK.