Members' area

Early conditions were tricky at Aston Down with almost no wind and low cloudbase but worth the effort as it turned into a cracking day.
The BGA ladder flights logged for yesterday - Andy Smith in the Ventus completed a 519km task, as did David Briggs and Mike Weston in the Arcus, Doug Gardner, after fixing a technical problem completed 409km, John McWilliam and Stuart Pepler in the Nimbus did 508km. Mike Randle flew 310km with Geoff Dixon completing several laps of the club 100km and Tom Gooch after a late arrival at the club did the club 100km.

Not bad for September! Let's hope that there are still more cross country days to come!

Thanks to the ground crew who helped us all get into the air.

Perhaps someone who was at AD all day could comment how the day went, I'm sure that everyone local flying had a good day as well.

Last week 's course saw a remarkable achievement. Robert, a course member well into his twenties went solo without any previous flying experience whatever, although not quite in the five days. As he was nearly solo on Friday he stayed on for the Saturday and Stan our course instructor flew with him so he could send him solo. Robert lives in Bristol and intends to join the club as a full member so congratulations to him and to Stan for his very effective instruction.

It his highly unusual for anyone not still in their teens to go solo on a five day course without any previous flying or sailing. The only other case I know about was a 25 year old Laser dinghy champion. Sailing experience does help.

We have acquired a new buggy, for use for example on trial lessons for ferrying temporary members from the glider to the bus when landing long way from the launch point. It is a four seater (!) and most important it is ELECTRIC, with a new extensive set of batteries within the purchase price. We are told that when in use on a golf course the charged batteries last 2 days, which should be the equivalent of 10 to 11 miles' use. But it is more prudent to put it on charge each evening; Richard is fixing a charging point inside the hangar on the LH side, and is modifying it by addition of a tow bar, yellow beacon light etc. Richard is also arranging for a charging point from the bus, should the buggy run out of charge on the runway. Also remember to disconnect the charging lead each morning before driving off. Big reminder notices will be displayed !
It is in excellent condition, only a year or so old from a golf course that changes its kit every year, and unmarked by any misuse. Please let's try and keep it in excellent condition........

DGR / Chairman

Cracking weather for our Sportability visitors to enjoy gliding and blokarting. A moderate westerly meant the blokarting was great fun and with some strong thermals and a 3500' cloudbase the gliding was fantastic. All 9 of our visitors had some great flights (including two who had never been in any type of aircraft before!) and the clear visibility meant some brilliant views of the countryside. Thanks to Graham Turner, Andy Smart, Roger Smith and Steve Purkiss for their valued help on the day to give people less able than ourselves the opportunity to enjoy gliding.

Well done also to Andy Smith who flew yet another 500km today.

Sunday 13th was good for both cross country and training achievements.

Plenty of very strong thermals were reported, both locally and further afield. I heard one reliable report of a steady 8 kts and many of over 5 kts.

According to National Ladder postings Cotswold pilots completed five tasks of over 300 km including two of the big two seaters flying over 420 Km at speeds of 93 and 96 Kph over the same course, one being credited with 3 Km less due to using 'Barrel' TPs rather than FAI sectors.

The club DG500 was used for its intended purpose of cross-country training, although requiring an aerotow retrieve from Shennington after running out of the wherewithal.

There was the usual training and trial lesson merry-go-round. Two members achieved conversions, one to the K23 and one to the Astir.

Mike

The plan today, apart from the normal course operation was to fly 12 cadets on the Cotswold Airport scholarship program but the forecast wasn’t great and the cloudbase was around 800’. The expectation was that it wasn’t going to improve much so Stan’s morning briefing was all about launch failures. The cadets were spending the morning at Brize Norton, so we had a few hours to hope that weather would improve and luckily from about 12:30 it did. Rather timely as I was just about to call off the event!

With Ed Foggin in the K21, me in the DG500 and with help from Graham Turner, Dave Hart and the course members we managed to fly all 12 cadets, some weak soaring was available so most had some extended flights with the ‘occasional’ aerobatics. We were surprised on one flight to see two Hercules passing not far in front and below us.

The scholarship program is interesting, it is a fully funded program for young adults from 14-18 from the area of the local counties and provides the opportunity to experience career options in the aviation industry. One of the cadets told me that for 2017 there were 400 applicants, reduced to 20 after application reviews with 12 selected after formal interviews. The 12 then get 10 days of activities including various flying opportunities at Kemble, gliding with us, visits to Brize Norton, Bristol Airport and Rolls Royce. Several of the cadets that I flew with yesterday hoped to have careers in commercial flying or in the services. It was a very interesting day.

We packed away the gliders just minutes before a torrential downpour!

Thanks to everyone that helped.

Back to normal after the competition. Both days were flyable albeit with thundery showers interrupting Saturday. Sunday was better than forecast and the thermals were ready almost before first launch. There were a couple of cycles of over-development but all the cross country pilots got away by lunch time and despite challenges along the way, everyone got back. A small band of club flyers made good use of the fleet with everyone getting a soaring flight. Very nice to be flying with members who've returned to Gliding after first sampling it in the 20th century! The Trial lessons included a "recovering stag party". Fortunately, sick bags, though available, were not deployed. ;-)

Interesting portrayal of where gliding is done in the UK. We know it already of course in relation to no-go areas of controlled airspace, but all the same, some gliding ventures to places we would not think of automatically ! Data from flights uploaded to the BGA Ladder since 2000. There are many more not recorded on the ladder of course, especially in earlier years.