Members' area

They operated with hand-held radios to communicate with the winch because of further trouble with the bus.
Thanks to the all-day efforts of Simon L. and Jonathan H. it was going again Monday evening. This morning residual water in the fuel caused further trouble so after taking advice it was left where it had ground to a halt pending professional attention. It is important not to continue efforts to start it when this happens or serious damage could ensue.

Thanks to Jonathan Apperley, Philip Mead, Darren Edge, Matt Page and Emil Benson for taking the ASW19 to the Lechlade Duck Race, where several thousand people were gathered for a sunny bank holiday day out. Lots on interest, leaflets handed out, and many Dads - and a few Mums - saying "now the kids are growing up / I have more funds etc I want to try gliding". Watch out for new members. The top prizes for the Duck Race - gliding courses - were donated by CGC. A successful day.

It seems to have been a successful weekend at AD with the "Rockpolishers" event, even tough we only had two visiting clubs (Nympsfield and Long Mynd) to compete against. Lots of XC flying was done with meaningful distances, and the airfield was generally busy. We had a couple of problems to cope with. Firstly, because the mild winter has produced long grass earlier than normal we asked the farmer to cut before the weekend, but the cut could only be done Friday due to weather. And so the rotation and pick up of grass (for silage) was done over Sat and Sun, interrupting launching a bit.
Secondly, the bus went U/S because someone missed reading the notice on the diesel fuel filling point, saying 'Warning - Diesel only', and filled the diesel tank with water from the pipe at the tower. The bus is stranded on the runway and absolutely no attempt should be made to move it, or further damage will be caused. We plan emergency help to come on Tuesday to sort out the engine and fuel system. Fingers crossed it can be rectified and quickly.
There is a course running this week.
DGR / chairman

And it was good. Mike Oliver set ambitious tasks which a number attempted and and several completed.
Kevin Russell was deprived of Silver distance for his successful out & return to Edgehill in the ASW19 by logger failure.
The week's course concluded with a conversion to the Astir for Lars, our regular visitor from Sweden who went solo earlier in the week.
A successful UWE development week would have concluded with a solo for Josh, their new secretary, if he had had a medical.
There was a shortage of instructors for club members. Perhaps it is time we had an instructor roster for Bank Holidays.

A glorious spring day with wall to wall sunshine (after five weeks in Africa without a problem, I managed to get sun burnt at AD).
First launch was a 10.10 with 4kts to 2,200. This encouraged the private owners and there was soon a queue of glass.
By early afternoon there were some stonking thermals, but a lot of people struggled with the equally strong sink.
There were several late winter refreshers to complete, which resulted in the two-seaters spending a good proportion of the day getting retrieved from the far end of the airfield. Early in the afternoon, with two of us at the winch end, we figured it would be easy if the mountain came to Mohamed, and insisted every one swapped ends to join us.
Matt Page converted to the ASW19, resulting in an impressive grin.
Towards the end of the day there was a radio call from John McWilliams in the Pik " Am at 10,000' over the Black Mountains. Don't wait up". (We fed his dinner to the dog).

So far we have had 4 flyable days and today Friday is looking good ( ridge and thermal ), so far no classic wave but Tuesday produced some but with rapidly closing gaps it was only for the fool hardy. Sunday and Tuesday enabled Daren Edge and Jonathan Apleby to get site and ridge checks completed, Congratulations to Jonathan for completing his five hours yesterday.
Frank Birlison in his shiny refinished glider along with the rest of us have been making good use of the conditions to practice our thermaling in the narrow Scottish thermals

Went to AD this afternoon and was informed there had been two first solos this week - that's great ! Congratulations to them both.
Nick Cave, our new winch driver, was also airborne with Mike Randle to see the winch operation from the other end of the cable. He thoroughly enjoyed it, and also is enjoying winching.
Next week no course members, but two visitors from Dartmoor Club with us next Thursday-Friday and the following weekend, so Don Puttock is not there Monday-Wednesday - he is course instructor on a flexible basis.
Red team operation this coming weekend is thin on personnel so some additional help would be welcome. I am winching Sunday (if not wet)!

Monday this week saw the arrival of a new team - Don Puttock as the course instructor and Nick Cave as winch driver. Please give them a warm welcome.They will be on site Mondays to Fridays, so launching is available for everyone (but course members and gliders used on the course take preference). Nick, from Stroud, is completely new to gliding and winching but from all accounts has taken to it like the proverbial duck to water, under the watchful training eyes of a couple of experienced club members / winch instructors - many thanks to them for their help over the first two days. All we need now is for the proper Spring weather to arrive.
DGR / chairman

A useful circuiting Sunday with a bit of soaring but very poorly attended - perhaps some were still on GMT so didn't get up in time.
I was privileged to do the Chairman's Winter Refresher - naturally he passed. He was impressed the PW6 which he flew for the first time.