Sat 30 Dec – Scrubbed

 6 Responses »
Dec 302017
 

Sorry, it’s a scrub. I guess my boyish enthusiasm just got the better of me. Only three turned up, so the day wasn’t really viable anyway.

There surely must be a better way in these internet-enabled times to handle these kind of days. This blog is a bit too clumsy and too much of a one way street. I’m thinking some kind of a text/email/Twitter group where interested parties could have a specific conversation about the prospects, deciding perhaps on a late start or a scrub from the comfort of home without the need to make wasted journeys.

Or do we just say “That’s gliding” and take it on the chin?

Anyone have any thoughts on the subject?

Mark

 

 

 

wasted journeys.

 

 Posted by at 10:57 am

Sat 30 Dec – We’ll give it a go!

 Make a comment »
Dec 292017
 

Tomorrow doesn’t look perfect, but we’ll give it a go!

The Good news: A decent westerly – We could probably bungee if enough of you turn up; warm by recent standards; an opportunity to work off some of that Christmas timber!

The caveats: Airfield field may be a bit slushy; wind may be too much of a good thing; cloud base may be an issue particularly early on.

Remember to bring some sandwiches!

Hope to see you tomorrow.

Mark

 Posted by at 7:47 pm

Club Closed Thursday/Friday 28/29 Dec

 1 Response »
Dec 272017
 

I drove up to the MGC afternoon of Wednesday 27 Dec. Ratlinghope was icy and there was some drifting across the road on top of the Mynd. Even with a big 4×4 it was not easy. The snow gates are closed. There is also water and slush on the road which is likely to freeze overnight. Asterton had snow and ice on it.

I think members should take it that the club is closed Thursday 28 Dec and Friday 29 Dec (when more snow is forecast). Hopefully it should get milder over the weekend.

There is no catering until next week, the clubhouse is locked.

Posted by Mark on behalf of Clive Crocker

 Posted by at 7:46 pm

Chair’s Thursday Blog

 Make a comment »
Dec 212017
 

Hi everyone,  this is the regular Thursday posting to let you know what is coming up in the near future.

This week.

Skylaunch Winch

The Skylaunch winch is losing power and is most probably a broken piston ring.  There are 3 options being considered by the committee:  repair the engine,  install a refurbished engine or replace the engine with a more powerful one.  I will blog the decision in the first blog of the new year.

Christmas wishes

I do hope you have a happy Christmas and let’s hope, as ever for a wonderful soaring year.  It’s a good time to reflect on the fabulous flights our sport allows us to enjoy and hope for more and even  better next year.  The next blog from me will be on the 4th of January.

Walter Baumann has written in with an idea for those stuck for Christmas ideas :- “Instead of (or in addition) to sending each other Christmas cards and presents, people make a donation to an agreed charity.  Given what our sport is, one of the Air Ambulance services might suitable charities.  So, if anyone wants to do this, the contact details of where to make donations are:”

Midlands: https://www.midlandsairambulance.com/how-to-support-us/ways-to-donate

Warwickshire/Northants service:  https://theairambulanceservice.org.uk/donate/form/

Wales: http://www.walesairambulance.com/donate.php

Your team this weekend is:

Saturday:  Rob Hanks, Peter Orchard

Sunday:  see opening hours

Forthcoming events

Club opening hours over the holiday

The club will be closed from the 24th to the 26th and then we are asking for volunteer instructors to help out until the 4th. Unfortunately this year we have no catering and we are seeking volunteers for that.  If you can instruct or help with food then please can you call or email the office.

Christmas dinner  and presentation evening

We are rescheduling the above to the 24th of March,  please put it in your diaries and pray for a snow free weekend!  If you have already booked and are unable to make the date above then please can you let the kitchen know as we have a waiting list.

Winter talks

Denise has worked out a superb schedule for this winter’s lectures. They all start at 18:00 and if we have a speaker then we do ask for a small donation on the night to cover their expenses.  Book the date,  have a few flights, enjoy the talk then have a superb evening meal.

January 13 – National Trust.  All of your questions answered (who does own the horses?) and the trust’s plans for the future development of the Mynd.

February 24 – Julian has very kindly offered to talk about Euro Glide with us.  More details closer to the time but I can assure you it is absolutely brilliant and will inspire you.

March 10 – Hugh Browning the BGA safety wizard.

March Expedition 2018.

We have not had enough interest from the Mynd or other clubs to make an expedition to Llanbedr viable, so we have decided that we are not going to Llanbedr next year. We have booked LLeweni Park in Denbigh from 10th March 2018 for a week for up to 12 gliders. 

If you want to go you need to book in your own glider, there is a £40 deposit, £20 of which is offset  against flying fees. It costs £8 per day per person, £9 per night for hangarage. There is a winch.

Unlike Llanbedr it has one narrow runway and you have to be able to land on it and roll to the end to be able to fly there, see this link.

If you want to fly P2  in a club 2 seater please email me at  mail@mikegreenwood.co.uk to put your name on the list and I will do my best to arrange it.

You can take a caravan and stay on the airfield for £5 per night. It costs £8 per day per person, £9 a night hangarage (limited) They have a winch. 

If you want to go you can book yourself in at office@denbighgliding.co.uk

Spaces are limited to 12 and Cosford are also going, so don’t delay, do it today.

Please email mail@mikegreenwood.co.uk to let me know you are going, and when you have booked in

Mike G

http://www.denbighgliding.co.uk/

http://www.denbighgliding.co.uk/rules.html

 

chairman@midlandgliding.club

Freedom!

 Make a comment »
Dec 152017
 

We got down asterton without drama and would get back up again in a 4×4, there are two patches of snow before the top bend which have plenty of tarmac showing. The top bend is completely clear and remains clear for another 30yds. The next bit will be ok for a 4×4 but a challenge for two wheel drive but at least you are safe by then and it will be a simple job to tow you up from there if you got stuck.

Do check for ice by phoning the club first as there is lots of water flowing down the hill

Getting down will be no problem with gravity on your side!

Don’t try any other route just yet, asterton is by far the best bet.

Dave

 

 

Weekend flying cancelled

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Dec 152017
 

After carful consideration it has been decided to cancel flying this weekend.

The roads up the hill are still blocked by snow, the hanger and the workshop are still blocked by snow, and if we did manage to get the winch and the gliders out the airfield is waterlogged.

If you fancy some exercise you are welcome to come up the club and have a cup of tea with Rob and Fay they will probably welcome the company, Asterton is a good walk.

Chair’s Thursday Blog

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Dec 142017
 

Hi everyone,  this is the regular Thursday posting to let you know what is coming up in the near future.

This week.

BGA news

Please use the link below to view the latest BGA news.

BGA-News-November-17

Airspace

There is a proposed set of changes around the Daventry airspace. We are part of a group of clubs helping the BGA analyse the impact. This does demonstrate the importance of logging ALL of your cross country flights on the national ladder.  Something I have been poor at in the past but will improve next year. Without ladder flights then we have no proof we need airspace.

Marketing

Shrewsbury winter festival

Santa joined us at Shrewsbury Winter Festival

Despite the snow and blizzards an intrepid band led by James manned our stand at the Shrewsbury Winter Festival this weekend. Even Santa came to see us!

Due to the weather it was quieter than normal, however we had some really good conversations with people about gliding and membership. We added around £1,000 to club coffers in trial lesson & gliding experience sales and also signed up our first person onto the new Weekend Intro to Gliding package!

The people who made the festival happen were:  Chris (Tigger) Harris, David Brown, David Rance (glider rescue and storage), Holly Harris, James Moore, John O’Reilly, Jon Hall, Mark Saunders, Mark Williams, Martin McCurdie, Roger Ellis, Sarah Platt, Tim Mason and Roger Andrews for the use of his ME7.  And Chris Ellis, Dave Wedlock, Geoff Minshull, Guy & Dawn Hartland and Neal Clements for trying to venture out into the blizzard to man the stand.  I hope I’ve not missed anyone out.

This comes on top of the previous weekend’s very successful stand at Much Wenlock Xmas Fayre.

Overall these events have made a big impact in getting our name out locally and building our reputation, and we look forward to keeping in touch with everyone we met with our emails and blog, to keep us in their minds.

shrewsbury 2 shrewsbury 1

CFI

There is still no more concrete information on Steve but he is at home helping the club and the committee so do keep in touch with him.

Your team this weekend is:

Saturday: Guy Hartland, Matthew Cook, Geoff Dailey

Sunday:  Alasdair Lewis, Charles Carter, Geoff Dailey, Tony Dietrich

The hill may be inaccessible please call before you set out.  Dave is blogging conditions so keep an eye on your emails.

Forthcoming events

 

Christmas dinner  and presentation evening

We will reschedule the evening, probably in March, as soon as we know we will publish the date.

Winter talks

Denise has worked out a superb schedule for this winter’s lectures. They all start at 18:00 and if we have a speaker then we do ask for a small donation on the night to cover their expenses.  Book the date,  have a few flights, enjoy the talk then have a superb evening meal.

January 13 – National Trust.  All of your questions answered (who does own the horses?) and the trust’s plans for the future development of the Mynd.

February 24 – Julian has very kindly offered to talk about Euro Glide with us.  More details closer to the time but I can assure you it is absolutely brilliant and will inspire you.

March 10 – Hugh Browning the BGA safety wizard.

March Expedition 2018.

We have not had enough interest from the Mynd or other clubs to make an expedition to Llanbedr viable, so we have decided that we are not going to Llanbedr next year. We have booked LLeweni Park in Denbigh from 10th March 2018 for a week for up to 12 gliders. 

If you want to go you need to book in your own glider, there is a £40 deposit, £20 of which is offset  against flying fees. It costs £8 per day per person, £9 per night for hangarage. There is a winch.

Unlike Llanbedr it has one narrow runway and you have to be able to land on it and roll to the end to be able to fly there, see this link.

If you want to fly P2  in a club 2 seater please email me at  mail@mikegreenwood.co.uk to put your name on the list and I will do my best to arrange it.

You can take a caravan and stay on the airfield for £5 per night. It costs £8 per day per person, £9 a night hangarage (limited) They have a winch. 

If you want to go you can book yourself in at office@denbighgliding.co.uk

Spaces are limited to 12 and Cosford are also going, so don’t delay, do it today.

Please email mail@mikegreenwood.co.uk to let me know you are going, and when you have booked in

Mike G

http://www.denbighgliding.co.uk/

http://www.denbighgliding.co.uk/rules.html

 

chairman@midlandgliding.club

Still stuck

 1 Response »
Dec 142017
 

We had another go at Ratlinghpoe and got a bit closer before loosing the will to live (read loosing the will to dig!). We carried on from yesterdays efforts which got us to Boiling Well, then after further snowfall last night it was quite a challenge to get back to there. The Hanks/Crowson expedition team started digging then bashing on with the car, then it was largely Hanks digging while I drove the car, well it was my car and Rob seemed to be enjoying himself!!

By the time we got to the top of the rise just passed the shooting box we were presented with another expanse of drifts (see photo)we thought b–g-r this and came back, expeddition over for the day.

I did have a look at asterton with a quad (thanks Phil), a steep hill with snow on it is not the best way to learn to ride one of these. The last time I remember trying to control something that had its own ideas about where it was going I was on a horse, this was equally scarry.

In short, good 4×4 offroad from the park to the shooting box, i’ve no idea what the offroad bit is like, from then on the road is passable if you are used to that sort of thing. All very exciting!

Asterton should be ok for me to get down tomorrow there are a couple of interestring bits of snow which means I wouldn’t try comming up. There is no snow on the lower half and the top corner is clear but two or three interesting patches inbetween and a very interesting long patch this side of the corner. So don’t try Asterton just yet though it is an easy walk but watch out for ice if it is freezing as there is plenty of water.

Another hurdle to flying that I forgot to mention is that there is a little bit of digging to get the gliders and winch out, all good character building stuff

20171214_140712

One drift too many!!

Stuck on the hill !

 1 Response »
Dec 132017
 

Well sort of stuck, we managed to drive just past boiling well (just short of the finger post) after two sessions of digging. We will try a bit more tomorrow and have another look at asterton.

So for the time being it’s quad bike or biped.

I will blog an update tomorrow

A good westerly tomorrow but the airfield will probably be slushy so phone before you set out.

Dave.

 

😚

We are not alone

 1 Response »
Dec 122017
 

Just when you think you have the place to yourselves!

Roger obviously packed in a hurry!!

IMG_20171212_102105

Pooch was keeping some lovely mince pies warm.

IMG_20171212_102049

 

A winter wonderland

 General  5 Responses »
Dec 112017
 

Just a few piccies with a couple of sheep to give it some scale!.

We have had one visitor on a quad bike, but you will have no chance in any road vehicle, I will test the road when it is sensible (unlike the other day when I got stuck, ask Rob or Guy!) and let you know when it is doable.

IMG_20171211_132240IMG_20171211_132145IMG_20171211_132029IMG_20171211_131350IMG_20171211_131410IMG_20171211_131632IMG_20171211_131529

Christmas dinner cancelled

 2 Responses »
Dec 082017
 

The snow is too difficult to negotiate so the meal and presentation on the 9th is cancelled.  We will announce the rescheduled date for the presentations and meal in due course.

Neal Clements: Chair

Chair’s Thursday Blog

 Make a comment »
Dec 072017
 

Hi everyone,  this is the regular Thursday posting to let you know what is coming up in the near future.

This week.

Marketing

We took a stand at the Much Wenlock festival and we sold ten trial lessons (plus 3 in the office) and added £780 to the Club’s bank account.  The members’ who manned the stand were:- James Moore, Chris Harris, Martin McCurdie, Sarah Platt, Tim Mason.    See the section on Shrewsbury below and do help out if you can.

Webcam

Our Webcam IT team have fixed the webcams, all we need now is the good weather to show on them.

Your team this weekend is:  (Weather depending)

Saturday:  Neal Clements, Allan Reynolds, Peter Orchard, Glyn Macarthur

Sunday:  Clive Crocker, Peter Orchard, John O’Reilly

If the Mynd is inaccessible we will be emailing,  updating the web site and blogging.

Forthcoming events

Marketing

As part of our campaign to increase membership and sell trial lessons as Christmas presents, we have taken a stand at Shrewsbury Winter Festival on the 9th & 10th of December.   If you can help with any of the following, please let Sarah know asap by emailing her at  marketing@midlandgliding.club or calling 07754 070357.

  • Setting up (Fri 8th),
  • Taking down (Sunday 5pm),
  • During the show itself (the show is open 10am-6pm on Sat, and 10am-5pm on Sunday HOWEVER we are only asking people to do a morning or an afternoon slot).

Many thanks!”

Christmas dinner  9 December

The weather looks like it might be against us so we will be providing updates as above.

Winter talks

Denise has worked out a superb schedule for this winter’s lectures. They all start at 18:00 and if we have a speaker then we do ask for a small donation on the night to cover their expenses.  Book the date,  have a few flights, enjoy the talk then have a superb evening meal.

January 13 – National Trust.  All of your questions answered (who does own the horses?) and the trust’s plans for the future development of the Mynd.

February 24 – Julian has very kindly offered to talk about Euro Glide with us.  More details closer to the time but I can assure you it is absolutely brilliant and will inspire you.

March 10 – Hugh Browning the BGA safety wizard.

March Expedition 2018.

We have not had enough interest from the Mynd or other clubs to make an expedition to Llanbedr viable, so we have decided that we are not going to Llanbedr next year. We have booked LLeweni Park in Denbigh from 10th March 2018 for a week for up to 12 gliders.

If you want to go you need to book in your own glider, there is a £40 deposit, £20 of which is offset  against flying fees. It costs £8 per day per person, £9 per night for hangarage. There is a winch.

Unlike Llanbedr it has one narrow runway and you have to be able to land on it and roll to the end to be able to fly there, see this link.

If you want to fly P2  in a club 2 seater please email me at  mail@mikegreenwood.co.uk to put your name on the list and I will do my best to arrange it.

You can take a caravan and stay on the airfield for £5 per night. It costs £8 per day per person, £9 a night hangarage (limited) They have a winch.

If you want to go you can book yourself in at office@denbighgliding.co.uk

Spaces are limited to 12 and Cosford are also going, so don’t delay, do it today.

Please email mail@mikegreenwood.co.uk to let me know you are going, and when you have booked in

Mike G

http://www.denbighgliding.co.uk/

http://www.denbighgliding.co.uk/rules.html

 

chairman@midlandgliding.club