MIDLAND GLIDING CLUB

Next weekend, 7th April, a few of us are going to Booker for their annual Easter egg aerobatics  competition. This is a very light hearted comp open to anyone, pre solo up to championship standard. For those that wish to try something above their ability level a safety pilot will be provided hence pre solo are welcome, the more the merrier. So if you would like to join Nige Lassetter, Matt Cook and myself please do, just let us know and who knows you may be on your way to becoming the next Guy Westgate.

Dave

Well, not a great Easter forecast. Saturday looks like a low cloud write-off, so I’ve moved my duty day to Friday, which seems a better prospect.

As for Sunday and Monday, a bit early to say for certain, but I’m sure the No 1’s will update you as the time comes.

The models aren’t in total agreement, but if we go with the more optimistic prediction, Friday looks like an early start, early finish kind of a day, as showers and strengthening easterlies move in during the afternoon. At this stage I’m saying we’ll open the hangar doors at 8:30, but I’ll keep you updated via a WhatsApp message at about 7:15 tomorrow when all the latest model runs will be available.

It’s that “Annual” time of year, so just a few reminders …
Remember your logbook – you always do, I’m sure
Get an annual check form from the office and fill in your hours and launches from the last twelve months and other details. (The form enables you to get part of your annual done on one occasion and the rest on another day).
Bring the form and logbook with you to the flight line
Make sure the checking instructor signs off the completed exercises.
Hand the form back in to the office when it’s fully signed off.
Remember that you can begin your annual checks up to 90 days before the expiry date and maintain that date 12 months on.

Look forward to seeing you tomorrow

Mark

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

This week.

The club is now accessible from all directions.  Hopefully we can now get on with the proper job of Spring flying!

March 24

AGM and Christmas dinner – presentation evening.  The AGM starts at 17:00

Lleweni Parc Expedition 2018

For the last 2 years we have been to Llanbedr in March and had fantastic flying conditions over Snowdonia. This year Snowdonia Aerospace wanted £4,200 in advance for the use of the airfield for a week for 12 gliders. We thought that this was rather too expensive, so arranged to go to Lleweni Parc  instead, partly because we kept seeing videos of Chris Gill flying at 23,000 feet or flying over Snowdon and Cader Idris.

 Lleweni Parc is a gliding site just outside Denbigh at the bottom of the Clwydian range of hills. It is not a gliding club as such, they cater for expeditions from other clubs. There is a club house, members kitchen, bunk room and you can camp or take your caravan. They have a Skylaunch winch, a Eurofox tug, a DG 1001M self launching 2 seater, and an LS7 single seater. 

Unlike Llanbedr there are no security gates, no FOD bins, you don’t have to go for a long discussion with the management every morning, and you only pay for the days you fly, and the costs are very reasonable. Chris Gill, the CFI/ winch driver/ secretary/ cleaner/ general dogsbody is very helpful and relaxed about everything which made the whole experience very pleasant.

Llanbedr has 2.2 km 50 metre wide runways, Lleweni Parc  has a single 850 metre tarmac runway. The slight difficulty is you can’t land on the grass, the runway slopes up if you are landing to the West, you have to taxi to the end of the runway in case there is anyone behind you, the winch is parked at the end of the runway. Did I mention that the runway is 2 metres wide.  This proved slightly more difficult to land on, with even quite experienced pilots struggling to keep the glider on the runway, especially in a crosswind.

Unfortunately the Tug was unserviceable after the first day so we winched for the rest of the week. This meant that those with turbos could light the engine and travel to the lift, while the rest of us without mechanical assistance struggled to get away. At least we got plenty of practice trying to land on that runway. The Arcus was the only glider to manage an epic flight over Snowdonia after using the engine to get going.

The ridge behind the airfield is 30km long. You have to take a dive at it from the top of a winch launch and hope it works when you get there, and that you have enough height to get back if it doesn’t. In practice this was a lot easier than it sounds, and the ridge is fantastic.

Dave Crowson and myself went there before the expedition to fly with Chris Gill in the DG self launcher, which was a really great experience. Several members flew with Chris in the DG while we were there and had excellent flights, it is well worth making the effort to do this and we all thought it was excellent value for money.

Lleweni Parc is a great place to fly from, it is challenging and you have to be good at accurate landing and good energy management to fly there, but the potential for wave, thermal and ridge flying in Snowdonia is enormous, so I’m already planning the next trip.

Mike G

Glide Britain

You may remember that we decided to help with the funding for this last year and the results are now being published.  There was a huge amount of footage and the club’s contribution is available below.  At the BGA conference they also showed a consolidated version which included several sections from the Mynd and was a superb advert for gliding.  As soon as that is available I will publish the link for it.  In the meantime look at our contribution below

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAsyazUSKdSl3yHjvzH5nag/videos

Your team this weekend is:

Saturday:  Neal Clements, Nigel Lassetter, Guy Hartland, Liz Adlard

Sunday:  Guy Hartland, Denise Hughes, Stephen Alexander, Tony Dietrich

Forthcoming events

Aim Higher at the Mynd 7-11 May.

Last year’s Aim Higher courses precipitated our busiest XC season at the Mynd with a best ever 79 flights totalling 14500km recorded on the club ladder, SIX Silver Distances during the season, and Dominic flying the first ever 500km FAI triangle in Wales (an achievement recognised by the BGA with an award at last week’s BGA annual conference).

This year we are running the full five day course from 7 – 11 May.

Aim Higher lead, Kevin Atkinson, will once again be taking the reins, with informative, entertaining and thought provoking briefings in the mornings, lots of opportunities for XC flying, both solo and dual, as soon as it gets soarable, and debriefs once the hangar doors have closed!

As last year, the charge will be a nominal £10 per person per day to cover expenses, with flying at normal club rates.

Build on your achievements in 2017; aim to take your flying to new heights in 2018; kick start your season with a group of like-minded pilots and get yourself booked in today by phoning or emailing the office – Aim Higher!

Easter Junior Camp

The Club will be running an Easter Camp for junior members in the week commencing 9 April.  All junior members are welcome to join for just one day or all week.  Flying training and briefings will be given, and concentrated flying on opportunities like this is a sure way to make good progress.  If any junior member is interested, please book a place through the office.

As with coming along to the Club on any day, the consent of a parent or guardian is required and you will have to arrange transport.  If you want to stay at the Club overnight, please speak with the office about the special arrangements for this.

There will be no extra cost and you will just pay for whatever flying you do in the normal way plus food.

chairman@midlandgliding.club

Thanks to a lot of hard work by the visiting Cambridge group digging considerable amounts of snow we managed to fly today, thanks to Orch for winching. There have been the usual large drifts blocking both the hangar and the MT shed with access to the airfield via the removal of a length of hitch rail.

The route up via ratlinghope is now ok with two wheel drive, there may be some ice if you aim to get up here early the worst part is below the cattle grid after that it is completely clear all the way to the clubhouse. Don’t even think of trying the burway or asterton.

Wednesday is a good westerly, 15/20knts with no significant weather to spoil our day. See you tomorrow.

Dave.

Hi everyone,  this is the regular Thursday posting to let you know what is coming up in the near future and the highlights from last weeks committee meeting

This week.

Parking at the club

Please be  aware that some snowdrifts are clearly marked for committee use only.  I was distressed to turn up last week to find my particular reserved drift already occupied.  see photo below.

Your team this weekend is:

Saturday:  Mike Witton, Peter Orchard, Laurent Couval

Sunday:  Simon Adlard, Paul Fowler, Peter Orchard, Dave D’arcy

Airspace

I was at the BGA conference in February and the two key areas of concern were airspace and participation.  An example of the airspace issue is below,  this is important, please read the following from the BGA :-

“As you will aware, RAF Brize Norton and Oxford Airport are currently consulting on a number of proposed airspace changes within two Airspace Change Proposals (ACPs) that are linked, but are presented and being consulted on separately. If taken forward and approved by the CAA, these airspace changes will significantly increase risk to the majority who operate outside the proposed controlled airspace, significantly limit freedom of movement across south central England, directly negatively impact the operations at a number of nearby clubs to the point where it’s possible that some will be fatally damaged, and negatively impact all clubs whose members fly cross-country.

There are many reasons why the proposals should be rejected, including re safety, proportionality, and the damage they will do to others. There has been no meaningful engagement with GA stakeholders by the airspace proposers. The consultation process has been poorly executed, particularly with non-aviation stakeholders. The ACP’s are taking place under the CAA’s now discredited CAP725 process. It is apparent that the Brize Norton and Oxford airspace change proposers are uninterested in overall airspace safety. A ‘solution’ has been produced in advance of understanding the needs of others, and taking no account of the effects of their proposals on those in surrounding airspace. Inward-looking airspace developments do not contribute to overall airspace system safety.

The BGA is working with the GA Alliance to respond to the two consultations. There is a lot of work underway. A number of people from gliding and the wider GA Alliance are involved, led by Steve Noujaim of BGGC. Alternative proposals are being considered within that work.

The deadline for submitting responses is 5th April 2018.

Together, we need to encourage as many pilots as possible who are opposed to the proposed airspace changes to submit their views in a meaningful way ahead of the 5th April deadline. We will be promoting the need to respond by email and social media from Wed this week. We’d be grateful if you could strongly support that approach in conversation with your members.

In addition, we need to ensure that gliding clubs, which of course stand to lose a lot if the proposals are approved by the CAA, also submit a club response.  We understand of course that this may not be an issue for clubs much further afield than the southern half of the country. And we appreciate that some clubs will already have consultation response plans underway. All support is welcome.

We recommend that in addition to responding to the consultation, your club submits a one-pager to its constituency MP explaining in layman’s terms why the proposed airspace changes are a significant problem for your club and seeking your MPs support in rejecting the airspace change proposals. You might want to point out that a safe and proportionate outcome can only be achieved if airspace change proposers have a common understanding of all needs BEFORE an airspace design is proposed. That has not occurred in these two cases. You may want to express concern that the CAA is still utilising the discredited CAP725 regulatory process that from 1 Jan 18 was replaced by a new process under CAP1616.

The information for pilots is at https://members.gliding.co.uk/representation-and-consultations/oxford-and-raf-brize-norton-acps/ . We may update this as new information emerges, but that should not delay anyone from submitting their responses.”

Forthcoming events

Aim Higher at the Mynd 7-11 May.

Last year’s Aim Higher courses precipitated our busiest XC season at the Mynd with a best ever 79 flights totalling 14500km recorded on the club ladder, SIX Silver Distances during the season, and Dominic flying the first ever 500km FAI triangle in Wales (an achievement recognised by the BGA with an award at last week’s BGA annual conference).

This year we are running the full five day course from 7 – 11 May.

Aim Higher lead, Kevin Atkinson, will once again be taking the reins, with informative, entertaining and thought provoking briefings in the mornings, lots of opportunities for XC flying, both solo and dual, as soon as it gets soarable, and debriefs once the hangar doors have closed!

As last year, the charge will be a nominal £10 per person per day to cover expenses, with flying at normal club rates.

Build on your achievements in 2017; aim to take your flying to new heights in 2018; kick start your season with a group of like-minded pilots and get yourself booked in today by phoning or emailing the office – Aim Higher!

Easter Junior Camp

The Club will be running an Easter Camp for junior members in the week commencing 9 April.  All junior members are welcome to join for just one day or all week.  Flying training and briefings will be given, and concentrated flying on opportunities like this is a sure way to make good progress.  If any junior member is interested, please book a place through the office.

As with coming along to the Club on any day, the consent of a parent or guardian is required and you will have to arrange transport.  If you want to stay at the Club overnight, please speak with the office about the special arrangements for this.

There will be no extra cost and you will just pay for whatever flying you do in the normal way plus food.

March 24

AGM and Christmas dinner – presentation evening.

As usual we will be publishing the calling notice and the accounts for the meeting.  After the meeting there will be an opportunity for members to voice their opinions.

Booker Aerobatic Competition

(15th year running!)

The late “Easter Egg Cup’’

Date: Saturday, 7th April (or Sunday, if weather duff)

3 Sequences:     ‘Standard’, ‘Tricky’ and ‘Joker’ levels

‘Standard’figures to be flown:    45 degrees down line

                                                                                                Loop

                                                                                                Humptybump (canopy down)

                                                                                                Chandelle

                                                                                                45 degrees up line

180 degree Turn (60 degree bank)

‘Tricky figures to be flown:           45 degree Down Line

                                                                                                Loop

                                                                                                Humptybump (canopy down)

                                                                                                Stall Turn

                                                                                                Humptybump (canopy up)

                                                                                                Chandelle

                                                                                                ¼ Clover

                                                                                                90 degree Turn

‘Joker’ figures to be flown:           Awesome rolling figures !            

Note:  If you are safe to fly the Standard sequence solo, it qualifies you for the BGA ‘Standard’ Aerobatic Badge, which gives you the Aerobatic Rating on your EASA License.

Huge prizes for the top 3 places

Who can enter:                 Anyone who wants to have a go !!

A safety pilot will be available for anyone not cleared solo for these aerobatic figures

chairman@midlandgliding.club

Committee highlights

GDPR: The secretary is confident we will be compliant by May 18

Skylaunch Winch upgrade:  The engine has been ordered but is in America waiting shipment.

Medical recording:  The forms are ready the next step is to try to change the culture to ensure compliance

Flight logging: The current system is not supported, the office and Steve Male are evaluation an alternative

The proposal from the motor glider syndicate is to be revised and re presented

A proposal for electricity generation was received,  there were some questions of clarity which will be addressed before being re presented.

AGM: The treasurer has resigned and we are seeking a replacement

The Astir is next in for ARC

The Shogun clutch is failing, we are seeking a heavy duty replacement, if not then we will use a standard.

The club will be open for flying tomorrow. Orch has kindly offered to launch us. Hangar doors will open at 11am so you can have a lie in, or get some chores done first. Dual and solo flying available. Should be a soarable afternoon in light SW winds. (Rest of the week not looking too promising)

Note: Limited catering for tomorrow. Only tea and cakes available for purchase.

Mark

Hi everyone,  this is the regular Thursday posting to let you know what is coming up in the near future and the highlights from last weeks committee meeting

This week.

Accessibility

Helen, Dave, Allan and Jon have all worked their shovels off to clear a path up the Burway and have tested it with 2 wheel drive.  We have cancelled the Saturday lecture and will reschedule it for the next series.  Come up and re acquaint yourself with the club.  Hopefully the forecast rain will get rid of the drifts.  If you are coming early tomorrow morning be wary of ice first thing.

Hot and cold

Definitely one of the coldest spells I have known up the hill put a huge strain on the club utilities.  Without the skilled intervention of Dave Crowson we would be facing broken boilers and heating systems.  Thanks also to Paul Shuttleworth and Roger Andrews for braving the elements and taking up much needed supplies and equipment.

Your team this weekend is:

Saturday:  Neal Clements, Peter Orchard, Charles Page

Sunday: Chris Alldiss, Peter Orchard, Dave Cole.

Forthcoming events

CFI meeting

We took the decision on Wednesday to postpone this.

Easter Junior Camp

The Club will be running an Easter Camp for junior members in the week commencing 9 April.  All junior members are welcome to join for just one day or all week.  Flying training and briefings will be given, and concentrated flying on opportunities like this is a sure way to make good progress.  If any junior member is interested, please book a place through the office.

As with coming along to the Club on any day, the consent of a parent or guardian is required and you will have to arrange transport.  If you want to stay at the Club overnight, please speak with the office about the special arrangements for this.

There will be no extra cost and you will just pay for whatever flying you do in the normal way plus food.

Winter talks

March 10 is cancelled. 

It’s always tricky deciding when and whether to cancel and we are really grateful that Hugh has immediately offered to talk to us in the next series

March 24

AGM and Christmas dinner – presentation evening.

Spring and Summer

Don’t forget that March the 1^st was the first day of spring so bring your beach towel and flip flops next time you visit.  Please can you pay for your caravan space in the office and prepare yourself for subscription renewal.  We need to invest in the future of the club and early and prompt payment of renewals will help us enormously.

Wood week

Week beginning July the 7^th,  we would like this to be a celebration of the best of the Mynd and wood.  Unfortunately the original instructor cannot now do the whole week so I am asking for a volunteer instructor to take on that week.  The marketing resource is in place we just need a number 1.  Please email me directly if you are interested.

chairman@midlandgliding.club

Having been on two expeditions to check out the various routes to the club the picture so far is not great. The only route open is the off road option, Pole cottage to stanbatch.

Tomorrow we will check out the burway from the church stretton end, we have got down past the devil’s mouth bit and past the corner beyond it then it all looked a bit iffy. We will attack this bit from below which is the best way to avoid getting stuck.

Ratlinghope has one big drift just up from the gate, we could clear that with a team of 6 or more with shovels.

Asterton has an even longer drift just down from the top corner, we would have checked this from the bottom but by the time we got there it was either asterton the pub so we had a pint in the crown.

More info tomorrow.

Dave

The BGA 2018 Turnpoint database is now available. Lots of quite significant changes. See here for a full list of amendments http://www.newportpeace.co.uk/waypoints/97al21.htm
 The best way to obtain the TP list suitably formatted for your particular device is via the “TPSelect” program. It will already be on your computer if you downloaded last years TP List, but if this is your maiden year, then Google “TPSelect” and follow your nose!

BGA Ladder – MGC Club Tasks. Some changes for this year.
MYN-SHW-LMW-MYN 100km Tim’s Triangle
MYN-WLL-GTW-MYN 135km FAI triangle (New for 2018)
MYN-TAL-DRO-MYN 203km FAI Triangle
MYN-EDG-MYN 213km O/R (New for 2018)
MYN-SHW-BRE-LCL-MYN 304km 304km FAI Triangle
(Modified for 2018 (was SHS) to give 300km+ even with 0.5k barrels)
MYN-AYL-MYN 315km O/R
See the full list here: http://www.bgaladder.co.uk/ClubTasks.asp
Why, or how to, use a club task?: http://www.bgaladder.co.uk/PopUp20.htm

Aim Higher at the Mynd 7-11 May. When you fly Cross Country, the number of times that all the necessary “ducks” (the weather, your availability, glider availability)  line up over a season can be scarily small, so you need to make the most of every opportunity. Proper training will enable you to capitalise on those opportunities. Aim Higher is the training opportunity that no (budding) XC pilot should miss – and it’s here at the Mynd, 7-11 May. Call the office and book a place!

Mark

So, at the risk of stating the bleedin’ obvious, but for the avoidance of doubt, there will be no flying this weekend – the duty teams may stand down.

As Dave said in his Chill Factor post yesterday, you can still have all the adventures you could wish for just by walking up to the club via Asterton (I suspect the lee-side drifts might be quite spectacular – all that snow that’s blown off the top must have gone somewhere!). If you do, I know a warm welcome will await you, as always.

Stay safe, Mark.