Members' area

Coming to the end of a fascinating week. 70 gliders and around 130 campers came to Aston Down for the rally. More photos and a blog can be found at https://vgcrally2023.com/

The first Sportability Day this year and we hosted 6 visitors for a blustery but fantastic days flying with strong thermals to over 5000'. All the visitors really enjoyed the day with some lengthy flights and great views.

It was a great team effort, so thanks to Stephen Cook, Steve Purkiss, Alan Thomas, Andy Keyte, Dave Freeman, Martin Hayward for your help on the day and especially to Adrian Hegner for the aerotows.

Photos courtesy of Stephen Cook.

Thank you to all who attended the club AGM last night, where we heard reports about the last year, plans for the next, and elected the new committee for 2023. Thank you to Chris Godding, Roger Banks, Doug Lawrence, Tim Barnes and Chris Gough for stepping forward to lead the club.

David Roberts is stepping down as treasurer, having served in a number of committee roles over the past 50 years. The committee wanted to recognise David's service and dedication to our club, and gliding in the UK and Europe, over many years. We were very pleased to present the 'David Roberts Lifetime Achievement Award', a new award named in David's honour. I'm sure you will all join us in congratulating and thanking David for all his work over the years.

Here's to a great 2023 with lots of flying, achievements and events. If you would like to get more involved in supporting the many things happening in the club, please get in touch with the committee.

Congratulations to Taisia on her first solo today! What a great day with visitors from BlackMountains Gliding Club and South Wales Gliding Club and a DG glider swap with Bristol and Gloucestershire Gliding Club for some spin training.

See more on the club Facebook page.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

A really nice day's flying today to kick off the new year. We did 38 launches, a mixture of winch and aerotow, and probably had a record number of members at the club for a winter weekend day. It even became sorable for a while with some extended flights in weak lift - not exactly the sort of thermals that could be climbed in, but just strong enough to hold altitude for a while. Ben Davies converted to the K23 and flew his first ever 3 flights in a single seater - well done Ben. The misting canopy effect stayed away today and the last flight landed 5 minutes before "official night".

A bright but cold start. No sooner had we pulled the gliders out of the hangar, their wings were covered in ice. With everything ready at the launch point we just had wait for the ice to melt and the cloud to break up and lift a bit. First launch hit cloud at 800 feet but with lots of holes it was enough to aerotow the first trial lesson into the clear blue above the scattered Cu. After 12.00 the sky cleared completely and a good afternoon’s flying was had by all.

After a keen start with a 9am briefing the airfield was all setup for a day of winter flying, though it seems the weather forgot to turn up! After a few hours of waiting the reluctant decision to scrub the day was made. Not all was lost though, Jack Helm sat his Bronze theory and passed, just leaving his flying test left to complete his Bronze badge. Chris Lee and Ben Davies spent a few hours starting to learn their Bronze theory too! We look forward to seeing them pass their theory tests shortly. A big thanks to everyone for helping out even with the bleak weather and to the instructors for taking the time to develop our pilots!

The day started with a quick morning briefing at nine in the clubhouse, here everyone expressed what they wished to achieve during the day. It was going to be a busy day with aspirations from first flights all the way to instructor training. First launch just after ten released early as cloudbase was still rather low, fortunately Craig required a few launch failures for the CFI acceptance checks for his BI rating, this allowed us to make the most use of the early low cloudbase. A few launches later and we are now getting to the top of the winch launch and training flights start in their earnest. Just shy of 40 launches later and the sun starts to set, and canopies begin misting, the flying day comes to a close. A quick wash of the gliders and they are all put to bed. Congratulations must be given to Craig Musto for completing his BI rating and becoming our newest instructor and also to Chris Lee who completed his winch driver training in a challenging cross wind!

A small but keen group gathered in the fog to get the airfield ready for flying should a window present itself. When the fog cleared we got strapped in only for it to start raining for a couple of hours. Perseverance was the name of the game and at 1pm the rain passed to give much clearer skies.
UWE student James had his first glider flights and his flight simulator use showed. Also from UWE John continued his early training with us. Tim, Elliot, Jack and Matt completed the flying list.
Unfortunately rain stopped play again at 4pm.
Thank you everyone that came out on a day with such a poor forecast, especially Doug for stepping in to drive the winch and giving us launches to 2000ft.

A short delay waiting for the condensation to clear on the aircraft (perhaps we need a heated hangar!) but then a really nice October day. The three mile-high trial lessons had really good flights, getting above the cumulus cloudbase of around 2000' and enjoying flying in and around the cloud on the descent. Paul L flew family members for most of the day, while other members made the most of the day in the K13 and K23 with Adrian Irwin logging the longest flight of 57 minutes.
The wind picked up a little later in the day as the top cover increased and the temperature dropped and as I drove home it started to rain, but not a bad day for October.

Thanks to Paul Roberts and Steve Purkiss for driving the winch and to everyone else that helped.