Members' area

Winds starting 190/25 and shifting to 270/15 by the end of the day. Low cloud and rain brightening in the afternoon.

The field still a little soft, so we are taking great care not to damage the surface with vehicles.

Winch Driver david had a day off, many thanks to Chris Power and Eric who stood in to cover him. launch failure practice during the morning after a briefing on tephigrams am. Thanks also to Robin who has now unravelled the mystery of ENK canopy closing problem and that is now back in service.

looking forward to a reasonable day tomorrow.

Winds 220/25 with low cloudbases to start and rising to 3000ft and strong thermals for a while.

We welcome Tony onto the course to join the others. Tony is a silver C pilot who has not flown for 12 months.

Well done Andy who is now flying the Astir as part of his bronze C development and prep for the GFT.

The evening groups have just started and it was good to see Paul Lazenby ready to get going after the course flying day had finished.

Class in the evening covered winch launching and how to reduce the risk of yaw on the ground run.

Nile is seen here coming to the end of his ground run.

low cloud and winds 180/20 and some light shower.

Welcome Gemma Jefferies, Andy Davey and Nile Austin. the morning was spent in the briefing room looking in some detail at how the controls work and their effects in flight.

Meanwhile David didnt think the tyre on the K21 wing dolly was good enough for an MOT. I suppose it was worn through the tread, canvas and the inner tube has long since worn through. We now have a posh new tyre, much betterer, wheely good.

After lunch the course guys took to the air, learning how to deal with cloud, and landing on a tarmac runway. Everyone did amazingly well.We look forward to approach control tomorrow.

rain showers forecast throughout the day, winds 150/10.

The course guys ventured out in the rain for their last day. High spirits and laughs all day, Matt had a whole load of young visitors, curious to see what he was up to at the airfield.

Matt was ready for solo but the weather didnt play ball so it is always better to be down here wishing you were up there, than being up there wishing you were down here. The other course members are also now very close to solo.

Rain finally stopped play and we packed up after a very interesting day.

Gerald has been spotted, Im sure its because David gives him his sandwiches.

Winds 150/20 at 2000 ft. No rain until late am and then heavy showers.

Good fun flying with 800ft cloudbases while the course guys started to polish their skills. They are all now flying unprompted flights.

Winch Driver David (bailey) took some arty pictures for you to see.

The day finished with dinner in the clubroom and a few beers, while David nursed his cold----bless.

On March 19th I was privileged to visit UWE and the Gliding Society AGM.

There were 13 students there, not a big turnout but enough to provide candidates for all the roles. In fact there were no less than three people vying for the president's role. The successful candidate is Dan Williams, well known at Aston Down as he has brought parties of students to the airfield in his red Micra. I took my simulator (it's been a busy week) and the students took turns to race to Nympsfield. Dan Hayday was the fastest. The biggest gripe at the meeting was the weather, many of them have not flown for many months despite coming to the club on planned trips. They were all very excited though, and are looking forward to the coming months. They are very keen to do their bit to support our club and be active members, even wanting to get involved in the workshop with the Ka13 restoration.

Adrian Giles

Winds forecast 300/20, rain sleet and grains of snow, with lowish cloudbases.

Not a great interest from the club members today, they know what a poor day looks like.

The course spent the morning in the classroom covering the ab-initio briefs, meanwhile Robin Birch was attempting to fix a sticky canopy on ENK.

Flying started about 1.30, an efficient team made it possible for us to fly 18 times in between some very intersting showers.

Well done everyone.

Winds forecast 300/20, rain sleet and grains of snow, with lowish cloudbases.

Not a great interest from the club members today, they know what a poor day looks like.

The course spent the morning in the classroom covering the ab-initio briefs, meanwhile Robin Birch was attempting to fix a sticky canopy on ENK.

Flying started about 1.30, an efficient team made it possible for us to fly 18 times in between some very intersting showers.

Well done everyone.

Winds were forecast as 3000/20 at 2000ft. rain grains of snow and showers of rain.

The morning for the course was spent looking in more detail at Winch launching and a range of other gliding topics.

Meanwhile Robin Birch was busy trying to fix a sticky canopy hinge on ENK.

There wasnt too much interest in flying from the regular club members---they are not daft, pretty wet after all.

first launch was around 1.30, and an efficient course team manageda slick turnaround giving us the opporttunity to complete 9 launch failures and 9 circuit flights! Well done guys

Lets hope for less sleet and freezing rain tomorrow.

Winds 300/20, low cloud to start.

Welcome to the course members Neil, Rhys and Matthew. The day started with launch failure practice, when the drizzle arrived, Neil produced some amazing sausage baps which were very welcome, nothing like comfort food to cheer us all up.

Cloud bases lifted later to allow us full height launches and even some soaring. Then its back to the classroom to talk about stalling.

Another great day.

Neil Gilbranch produces a sausage roll for everyone