Hi everyone, this is the regular Thursday posting to let you know what is coming up in the near future. Please accept my apologies for the late arrival, this was caused by the early arrival of my second grandchild.
Last week:
Weather station
Thanks to Guy for replacing this and getting us back on line. Not having any weather is a real pain. The other good news is that we have a brand new windsock.
BGA conference
I attended the BGA conference this year, a great event as always and I urge you to respond promptly to any requests the BGA make regarding airspace, this is now probably the number one concern for gliding.
Signs volunteers
As you may be aware we have done a lot of work at the South end introducing informal paths which guide the public away from our operation. All that is left of the project is to erect some signs. Paul Fowler has organised the signs all we now are some volunteers to help install them. The completion of this project will give us a significant benefit when launching North or South so please could you email the office with your offer of help.
Access road
Howard is now at the end of his research and is ready to propose a variety of solutions, short, medium and long term. I will let you know as soon as we have them.
Weekend outlook:
Your team this weekend is : Paul Fowler, Guy Hartland, Charles Carter, David Brown, Liz Adlard, Roger Andrews, Matthew Cook, Laurent Couval.
Forthcoming events:
Summer is only 2 weeks away!
The club goes full time on the 20th of March. The get checked week coincides perfectly with the start of the season and I am confident that it will be the start of a superb soaring season. Please start booking dates in your diary to come and enjoy the greatest sport in the world.
Winter lectures
Patrick of the National Trust has very kindly agreed to reschedule his talk to the 4th of March. This will give us an understanding of the environment we fly from and I urge you to come along for an extremely interesting talk.
We now have 1 booked during March. Mike Groves of Skylaunch. Please do make an effort to attend, it’s a great night and the trick is to fly in the day, have the talk then a really good supper.
11 March Mike Groves from Skylaunch. This will be a fascinating talk about our winches and winching.
Juniors over Easter
The Club will be running a course for junior members over the Easter holidays from 10 to 13 April with a dedicated instructor and glider. Junior members may attend for just one day or more. Any members interested should book a place through the office
Llanbedr Expedition
The MGC expedition to LLanbedr has had to change dates and will now be from the 18th to the 24th March 2017. We will be taking the Twin Astir for club flying, and there are a number of Duos going that may have spare seats. If you want to go in the Astir but have not had an email with dates allocated please email mail@mikegreenwood.co.uk with which dates you are able to attend.
20 March get checked week
This is really filling up so I recommend you make your booking as soon as you can. Steve Male is running this popular week, it’s a great opportunity to come along and make sure you are ready for the soaring season which I guarantee is going to be brilliant this year. Don’t forget as Andy Holmes told me “April is when all the records are set” so you will be ready for the great weather. We have circulated the details separately. Contact the office if you haven’t yet received them
AGM
8 April 17:00. Please put this into your diary. We intend a slightly different format this year with the AGM, followed by presentations on the options for going forward. We have had a couple of good years but we face stormy times ahead. We must strengthen our position now while we can and your input and feedback are essential. At the February committee meeting we agreed our 3 main goals and will be publishing them before the meeting so once the formal part of the meeting is over you can contribute to the discussion regarding the priorities of the club over the next few years.
Aim higher course
18 -19 March.
We have 15 attendees but there are still places available. Please put this date in your diary, and book in with the office now. We are so privileged to have Kevin Atkinson to do this course for us. He will cover:
How the sky works
How to work the sky
Going further and faster
Self-teaching skill drills and self-tasking
And will be the best preparation you could think of before the cross country season starts in earnest. This is proving very attractive to visitors from far and wide so I do encourage Mynd members to book up while you can.
June the 3rd 4th and 5th. Aim Higher practical
I am absolutely delighted to tell you that Kevin has agreed to provide a “practical” aim higher course on the above dates. This means we get the best of both worlds, the theory then followed by the practical after we have all had a chance to practice. We are really privileged to be able to offer this combination this year so get your bookings in to the office as soon as you can. We are already getting applications and I think this will be a popular one.
Thinking of summer
Mac is organising the “longest day, open day” recruitment drive on the 24th of June. In addition we want to increase the activity and the interest for members. Years ago we used to run a “dawn to dusk” day and we are going to combine the two. It is fantastic fun, we run in shifts and do “shedloads” of launches (or words to that effect). Please drop me an email at the address below if you would like to help out for a shift, everyone is welcome and I guarantee you will have a great day.