Thursday was cloudy with orographic over the hills, Nigel and I managed 35 minutes in some sort of wierd lift that isn’t quite wave, and then landed to find that Talgarth members had looked at the weather and decided to derig and go home, so we derigged, had a great meal with everyone in the airfield cafe and went home. Thanks to Talgarth members for letting us come along, and being really friendly and helpful.
Mike
Hi everyone, this is the regular Thursday posting to let you know what is coming up in the near future and give you highlights of the last week.
Resigning member
Unfortunately Tony Gould our treasurer is having to leave the club for personal reasons. The role of treasurer is not onerous nor does it require accounting qualifications of any sort. The office and the accountants do the donkey work so if you feel you could help out with this vital role then please do contact me on the email below.
Last week:
Llanbedr
Once again Llanbedr benefited from Easterly winds, the bane of the Mynd. Have a look at the blog and facebook for the fantastic views.
North Hill and Juniors
They have made the most of the less than perfect conditions and enjoyed themselves enormously.
Weekend outlook:
Your team this weekend is Steve Foster, Alasdair Lewis, Denise Hughes, Guy Hartland, Stephen Alexander. The forecast is for a very light Southerly wind, warm. Bring your flip flops and beach towel.
Forthcoming events:
Winter hours
The office will be available Monday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday from next week. We will be monitoring emails in the intervening days although you may not get a reply until the next working day.
Bonfire night November the 5th
Coming up very soon. Please can you phone the kitchen and tell them you are coming so they can plan the food.. This is always a fantastic evening but this year it is going to be spectacular. Denise Hughes is coordinating the evening entertainment and refreshments so please let her know if you can help out.
Christmas dinner
Please don’t forget to put December the 10th into your diary for this wonderful evening. The kitchen is taking reservations now and the list is filling up. Please call and make your reservation as soon as possible. We will be running a fund raising event, the social fund is now at the point where we can invest in something substantial to improve our social facilities. So far we have 2 suggestions: a permanent barbeque, re furbish the bar. Please would you let me know if you would like something else. The only proviso is that it must be for the social benefit of members. We will make a decision on November the 5th so please let me know beforehand if you have a preference.
Winter lectures
We now have 3 booked during February and March. We have Pete Harvey the BGA chair, Hugh Browning the driving force on the safety initiatives and the National Trust. We still need more ideas. These talks help keep the club active during the Winter and are very entertaining. Please let me have any ideas you have at the email below.
Chair.
Tuesday was a quiet, overcast day with little wind, the wind direction fluctuated all day, and set up bits of wave that disappeared as soon as they appeared. Both Duos took a launch but could only stay up for 30 minutes or so.
Wednesday started off dull and a bit rainy, it cleared up but orographic cloud stuck to the mountains all day. 494 took a launch mid afternoon and found come consistent wave around 2 knots that kept us airborne until they wanted to pack the hangar. Usual sunset over Tal y Llyn on the way home
Well I’m sure you will all be happy to hear that we had another fantstic day in the Welsh mountains. We pulled off the tow into 12 knot wave lift, flew all over the place for 3 hours, though couldn’t get above 6,500 feet. It took 30 minutes to get down, we tried flying at 100 knots, still going up at 4 knots, climbed at 5 knots with the airbrakes open, eventually pushed forward into the sink of the upwind wave, came down fairly rapidly after that, and landed on the 2.2 KM long runway. Might have to straighten the vario needles if this carries on.
Mike
A great start to the week, a good thermalling day on Saturday with 7 knot climbs, Sunday saw wave lift of up to 9 knots average to 9,500 feet. We had a trip over Snowdon, dived down through a closing hole and climbed back to 7,000 feet, climbed in wave over the sea. More Easterly wave forecast for tomorrow.
Hi everyone, this is the regular Thursday posting to let you know what is coming up in the near future and give you highlights of the last week. In addition I add the highlights of the last committee meeting.
Retrieve winch
We are replacing clutches on the retrieve winches at a staggering rate. Marc Williams has discovered that the root cause is winch drivers are using the clutch as a throttle. Surprisingly, experienced members are doing this. We will put a diagram on the winch but in the meantime please please ensure that you are aware which is the clutch lever and make sure it is either fully engaged or disengaged at the appropriate point. It takes quite a lot of effort to hold it engaged but it saves enormous bills.
Incident reporting
The CFI has increased the priority of the incident reporting. Please can you ensure that you report any incident you observe either to the office or an instructor on the ground. If you remember later then please feel free to send an email to the CFI (email address is on the web site). Don’t forget, an incident is anything that happens that shouldn’t have done or the reverse. The safest clubs have excellent incident reporting and we intend to join them.
New member
Welcome to a new junior member Holly Huszak. Please ensure that she is made welcome, show her the ropes and ensure she gets plenty of flying.
Last week:
Rubbish and old caravans
Our thanks go to Denise for spending many hours last weekend clearing out rubbish from old caravans in the hope that we can dispose of them. Please don’t forget, if you know of any way of getting rid of these things then please let me know.
Weekend outlook:
Your team this weekend is Steve Foster, Simon Adlard, Walter Baumann, Peter Orchard, Charles Page and Liz Adlard. Please be careful about poor weather forecasts. Last Saturday was forecast to be poor during the week but it became obvious at the morning briefing that the sky would clear about mid day and we were ready at the launch point for the clearance and got a good days flying out of the day.
Forthcoming events:
Llanbedr
Black Mountains GC, aka Talgarth, are going to Llanbedr from 22nd to 29th October, 2 Mynd Duos, 494 and FZ, are going, there is some capacity for P2s during the week. If you would be interested in coming along please email Mike Greenwood mail@mikegreenwood.co.uk with days when you would be able to come.
Cost will be £10 per day plus the cost of aerotows.
North Hill
We will be welcoming North Hill week beginning 22nd of October, they will be bringing their juniors as well.
Half term for Juniors
Just a reminder
The Club will be running a non-residential course during half term in October (24th to 28th) for junior members of the Club. There will be lots of flying if the weather is good, and briefings and lectures if not, but October weather often brings westerly winds with ridge soaring and wave, and even the odd thermal. This will be a great opportunity to have some concentrated flying training to prepare you for going solo, that once in a lifetime moment!
If you are interested, please call or email the office to book a place. You can join the course just for one day or all five.
You will need to arrange transport (a lift may be available from Church Stretton mornings and evenings) plus food.
If you are under 18 years, the consent of a parent or guardian is required.
Bonfire night November the 5th
Coming up very soon, please reserve the 5th of November in your diary. This is always a fantastic evening but this year it is going to be spectacular. Denise Hughes is coordinating the evening entertainment and refreshments so please let her know if you can help out.
Christmas dinner
Please don’t forget to put December the 10th into your diary for this wonderful evening. More details will follow but please get the date secured now. We will be running a fund raising event, the social fund is now at the point where we can invest in something substantial to improve our social facilities. So far we have 2 suggestions: a permanent barbeque, re furbish the bar. Please would you let me know if you would like something else. The only proviso is that it must be for the social benefit of members.
Winter lectures
We still only have 2 firm bookings for these and we really could do with more. Please let me have any ideas you have at the email below.
Chair.
Committee meeting 14 October 2016.
Prices
We are keeping the accommodation and course prices the same. The campsite charges will, for those who require the new electric hookup, be charged £15 per night. This is similar to caravan club etc charges.
Discus offsite.
Thanks to Walter Baumann for doing a clear proposal setting out why the Discus offsite pricing should be reduced. This was accepted.
Member complaints.
Bookings by visiting clubs: from now on all bookings by visiting clubs will be broadcast to the membership to allow them to book and pay for rooms on a priority basis. After 2 weeks the remaining accommodation will be given to the requesting club who will then pay for it on a non refundable basis.
Non Flying visitors. The chair will canvass more members on the issue.
Running projects
MT shed
Mathew Cook is doing a fantastic job with Dave and Roger to get the electrics to the stage of completion certificate. Estimated end date about 2 weeks. The next milestone is the transfer of the heater and the shelving from the old shed.
Caravan Park
Guy is really struggling with the disposal of the old caravans abandoned for us to deal with. The scrap merchants don’t want to know about anything over 20 years old. The last thing to do with the caravan park is to install the last electric stanchion.
Accommodation block roof
Getting quotes and estimates is proving a nightmare and Dave Crowson has had two contractors up already.
Access Road
Howard has met with a local supplier and briefed him. We are awaiting an estimate.
Staff Pension scheme for autoenrolment
The NEST scheme is set up , next step is the enrolment.
BGA Safety review
We have improved the incident reporting system. More detail below in the CFI’s report.
Land Rover and Vitara
Julian has the gas tank ready to fit and Rob Shepherd has the conspicuity tape ready for fitting. The next step is to fit the tank and the tape. The Landrovers are to be kept in running condition.
Sheep Control
The current system has passed its evaluation and Howard and Dave Crowson are going to another airfield to see how they fence off their sheep. Then we can plan how to extend the current installation.
Operational Plan and dashboard
The indicators at the end of the year are pretty much on plan with the exception of new members which is 5 above plan.
Finance
Despite the extra expenditure on the winches and the fleet maintenance we are looking at either a small surplus or break even.
We are implementing the credit card system for visitors this month. No bookings or visitors will be accepted without credit card details being given. They will be held securely and the process for storage, use and destruction has been published.
The Business rateable value from April 2017 has gone up by 300%. The Chair has requested a detailed breakdown.
Marketing and membership
Sarah has produced a very comprehensive marketing plan, the highlights are:-
Past members/new members recruitment day (Owner = Mac) – confirmed for 24th June.
Easter member recruitment day also planned for Sat 15th April
Calendars – images chosen. Just waiting to confirm Easter recruitment day, then Martin will print them. The aim is to ideally have them in stock ready for bonfire night.
Email has been sent to Martin for sending out to all trial lessons from last 2 years – “Remember what a great time you had, why not give the gift of flight to a friend or family member so they can experience that great time too”
Rob Shepherd is leading a team to produce a trial lesson usb stick/certificate takeaway, which will also include a new club promotional video shot by quadcopter. Timescale early next year.
Survey monkey is now set up to gain feedback from trial lessons
Steve Male produced a CFI report, the highlights are:-
No BGA reportable accidents or incidents, 18 Mynd incidents. Including 2 instances of gliders dropping a wing during take off and not releasing. PLEASE DON’T DO THIS!!!!! The Vitara has not yet got a radio and has caused 2 incidents as a result. See the report on ground radios for the resolution.
Our parachutes are getting old and Chris Harris has produced a report on their state. We will be introducing a phased replacement strategy (these things aren’t cheap, a new one is nearly £1800). In addition we are taking the parachutes out of their bags and leaving the bags in the store room before taking them out to the aircraft.
There are currently 2 candidates for a BGA Full Rating Test
The following Instructors are managing/co-ordinating specific activities on behalf of the CFI
Cross Country Coaching .Mark Sanders
Junior/Cadet Scheme. Paul Fowler
Aerobatics. Steve Lewis
A group of club pilots is considering entering the Dan Smith K21 aerobatics competition at Dunstable in April 2017.
Fleet
The K13 will have a tail wheel installed at ARC. The ARC schedule is being brought forward to try to prevent slippage into the season. The Icom radios will be installed in the rear seats of the two seaters.
Launching and MT
Marc Williams is producing the maintenance schedule for the winches and vehicles over the winter.
Buildings
The rodent exterminator contract has been renewed and a visit has been made
Grounds
The signs are looking grubby and some need replacing. Steven Gunn-Russell and the Chair will correct these after an inspection
Social
The fund is growing and the next step is to agree what it should be spent on. Clive is liaising with Martin and Peter re the accounts.
It was more “wondering what was going on”, some people got into the wave early on (Rob plus one or two others), the rest of us struggled and failed. I have never seen such a confused wave system and nearly didn’t get to see it at all until the second flight when it must have been a little more organised. Ray Lewis shared the unsuccessful flight with me and even though we were right next to Rob at one point he got in and we didn’t (I’m not bitter) . Steve Ward was next with me and this time we got lucky, his first wave flight, yet when we are established I still can’t point out the usual wave system pattern as I couldn’t make it out myself!. We broke off at 6800′ to return and change pilots to discover no-one was there to change so took off again but of course didn’t get back in!!!!. We had left at a point when the next move was told to push round the next bar such as it was to get upwind of corndon which looked epic, I will know better next time!!!
I will get a link from Rob who has some footage from 12000’+ (I’m not bitter or jealous).
A fabulous day with plenty of hours flown and the club single seaters working hard with plenty of members making sure the gliders were never on the ground for long.
Dave
Also known as the hunters moon”, the rare treat tonight due to the showers out to the west was a moon rainbow. Needless to say the colour definition was poor and the web cam couldn’t pick it up so you will just have to take my word for it, thanks Pete for dragging us out of the bar to see it.
Hi everyone, this is the regular Thursday posting to let you know what is coming up in the near future and give you highlights of the last week.
Member news
Roland Bailey
Many of you will remember Roland, if you don’t please have a look at the cartoons in the bar, he did those. Sadly he died last week, the funeral arrangements have yet to be announced. His friend Alison has asked for no contact at the moment so we will wait until we hear more.
Aerobatics
Following a course run at the beginning of the month 4 pilots, Matthew Cook, Tim Mason, Allan Reynolds and Mike Witton achieved the required standard for issue of the BGA Standard Aerobatics Badge.
K23
This is back in action after the completion and paperwork of the hours check.
Caravan park and disposals
Guy Hartland has been doing a fabulous job on re organising our caravan park. However we are really stumped on old caravan disposal. It transpires that anything over 20 years old is unattractive to the scrap merchants. If anyone has any experience of disposing this type of material please can you let me know.
Weekend outlook:
Your team this weekend is Neal Clements, Mike Greenwood, Denise Hughes, Peter Orchard, Ed Jones and Tony Dietrich. The weather looks like it will be a mixture of showers but don’t be put off, if you need any work doing toward Bronze then we will oblige between the flying. Look on the bright side, it will probably be a Southerly wind.
Forthcoming events:
North Hill
We will be welcoming North Hill week beginning 22nd of October, they will be bringing their juniors as well.
Half term for Juniors
Just a reminder
The Club will be running a non-residential course during half term in October (24th to 28th) for junior members of the Club. There will be lots of flying if the weather is good, and briefings and lectures if not, but October weather often brings westerly winds with ridge soaring and wave, and even the odd thermal. This will be a great opportunity to have some concentrated flying training to prepare you for going solo, that once in a lifetime moment!
If you are interested, please call or email the office to book a place. You can join the course just for one day or all five.
You will need to arrange transport (a lift may be available from Church Stretton mornings and evenings) plus food.
If you are under 18 years, the consent of a parent or guardian is required.
Bonfire night November the 5th
Coming up very soon, please reserve the 5th of November in your diary. This is always a fantastic evening but this year it is going to be spectacular. The office is now ready to accept donations for the fireworks. Denise Hughes is coordinating the evening entertainment and refreshments so please let her know if you can help out.
Christmas dinner
Please don’t forget to put December the 10th into your diary for this wonderful evening. More details will follow but please get the date secured now.
Winter lectures
We have a firm booking with Hugh Browning on the 4th of March and Pete Harvey the Chair of the BGA has kindly volunteered. Please liaise with Denise Hughes if you have any ideas of speakers. The more the merrier, these lectures help keep us active over the Winter.
Chair.
Hi everyone, this is the regular Thursday posting to let you know what is coming up in the near future and give you highlights of the last week and tell you the results of last week’s committee meeting.
Sheep
The experiment with the sheep fence outside the hangar has been a great success and we owe a great vote of thanks to Howard Bradley for organising this. We now have to decide what to do next. There are several options being described and Howard welcomes your input. We will review the options in October and decide on the way forward.
Member news
John Kingsley, one of our powered members is starting some pretty serious treatment soon and we wish him all the best and a speedy recovery.
Last week:
MT shed
The power is connected and we are installing the lights and getting ready to move the heating over.
Weekend outlook:
Your team this weekend is Chris Alldis, Clive Crocker, Paul Fowler, Mike Rogers, Nigel Lassetter, John O’Reilly, Laurent Couval and David Brown. If you are a new member please try to come to the briefings in the morning and introduce yourself as a new member to the number 1 instructor of the day.
It looks as if the high pressure will still be in charge but the wind should be lighter than we have seen this week.
Forthcoming events:
Half term for Juniors
Just a reminder
The Club will be running a non-residential course during half term in October (24th to 28th) for junior members of the Club. There will be lots of flying if the weather is good, and briefings and lectures if not, but October weather often brings westerly winds with ridge soaring and wave, and even the odd thermal. This will be a great opportunity to have some concentrated flying training to prepare you for going solo, that once in a lifetime moment!
If you are interested, please call or email the office to book a place. You can join the course just for one day or all five.
You will need to arrange transport (a lift may be available from Church Stretton mornings and evenings) plus food.
If you are under 18 years, the consent of a parent or guardian is required.
Bonfire night
Coming up very soon, please reserve the 5th of November in your diary. This is always a fantastic evening but this year it is going to be spectacular. The office is now ready to accept donations for the fireworks. Denise Hughes is coordinating the evening entertainment and refreshments so please let her know if you can help out.
Christmas dinner
Please don’t forget to put December the 10th into your diary for this wonderful evening. More details will follow but please get the date secured now.
Winter lectures
We have a firm booking with Hugh Browning on the 4th of March and Pete Harvey the Chair of the BGA has kindly volunteered. Please liaise with Denise Hughes if you have any ideas of speakers. The more the merrier, these lectures help keep us active over the Winter.
Chair.
Well what a fantastic club day we all had on Sunday. Strangely enough there were plenty of annual check flights taking place which resulted in lots of cable break practice. However, since the thermals didn’t turn up till after lunch this wasn’t much a problem. I counted four new members joining in with plenty of our regulars at the launch point helping out when not in cockpit learning more flying skills themselves, and was great to see. When the thermals did turn up, sometime over lunch, conditions were actually good for the time of year and merited going somewhere, although I didn’t – but maybe 493 or 494 did. 882 was also out and about too. So a really excellent day was had by all, in stark contrast to Saturday where even when it looked to have had stopped raining and a allowing for a walk we returned drenched!
Darce.