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.
New member
A huge welcome to Dimcho Todorov who has joined us.
Last week:
Once again a brilliant and busy week with 2 course members going solo. Congratulations to Mike Dodwell who achieved his gold height in wave earlier this month.
Weekend outlook:
The start of task week looks a bit dubious but then the pressure builds which is a good sign. Your team is Alasdair lewis, Clive Crocker and Guy Hartland instructing. Simon Adlard and Dave Brown winching. Charles Page and Dave D’Arcy launch directors. If you are new to cross country or would just like to get ready for it then come along on Saturday with your map and PDA and if the weather is poor we will do a session on pre flight planning. Getting in the cockpit is the end of the flight planning , not the beginning.
Forthcoming events:
Task week – Sat 20th to Mon 29th August
We are trying to arrange more 2 seaters and places during task week so please call the office and see what is available. It is not too late to enter your glider, task week is brilliant for fields, guaranteed retrieves, tasks tailored to your aircraft. It really is the way to improve your cross country skills.
Please can you submit your pictures for the calendar before or during task week. We will judge the best 12 and go to press straight afterwards.
First aid course
On the 7th of September we are offering a first aid course. This will be run by Mark Rogers a current paramedic and will be £30 a person, for a full course. Each person will be issued with a certificate which is valid for 3 years and the course lasts a day. If you are interested in obtaining this certificate then please contact Sian Leavesley at sianleavesley@yahoo.com to book a place. We only very occasionally get an opportunity to host beneficial courses like this and places are limited.
News from the committee meeting on the 12th of August.
Running projects
MT shed
The only outstanding items now are the commissioning of the roller door, the cladding of the main doors and the completion of the electrics. At that point we will close the budget.
Caravan park
Now the building is up and the access road is laid we can start to move the
existing vans around so that we have a more modern and standard layout. Guy Hartland will be running this project over task week.
Accommodation block roof
Nigel Lasseter is organising the repair to the roof and, hopefully, we will
progress this over task week as well
Access road
We await the grant decision at the end of the month
Club fleet
The current CFI is taking forward a plan from the previous CFI regarding
improving our fleet. The detail will of course depend on the finances (see
below) but now is the time to evaluate the options to satisfy our requirements now and in the foreseeable future. Currently the K21 will run out of hours in 2029 and the K23 may be even earlier than that. In addition, of course, we have the K13 glue threat.
Pension auto enrolment
The committee have authorised the Chair to set up the scheme according to the government regulations
MT vehicle replacements
Julian Fack is organising a valuation of our existing Land Rover fleet so we will know how much it will cost, nett, to replace them with the Vitaras, providing that they pass their tests. The gas tank and radio need fitting to the Vitara to complete the tests
Operational plan and dashboard
The next large item on the plan is task week which starts on Saturday. We still need volunteer instructors to offer to take 2 seaters cross country so please call the office and volunteer your services.
The dashboard is being amended to include the trailer hitches. We have gone for a trailer registration system so we can plan the hitch rail better and also find if there are any non member trailers being left on site. Martin will be looking for the hitch sticker to be on your trailer.
Finance
September will be the month when the treasurer gathers all of the information needed to do a forecast which will enable us to plan our capital expenditure for the next 12 months. Our strategic priorities are Recruitment and Retention and these will be the driving force behind our expenditure plans
Marketing and membership
We have 2 new members this month as blogged during the month. The advertising list is being updated and expanded ready for the next membership push. We are looking at getting the Aim Higher course run at the Mynd next year as well. Rob Shepherd has very kindly offered to create our “video” offering. This will involve videos of first flights, a new introduction video for first flights and a new video for the web site showing the club in its best light.
Nigel Holmes has also kindly volunteered to organize a Farmers evening later in the year. This will be where we thank the community for their outlanding opportunities and of course, sell the club to them.
CFI report
This was the first meeting attended by Steve Male in his role as CFI and Steve is moving ahead on the priorities agreed with the BGA at our safety review. In particular we are extremely pleased that more incidents are being reported.
Please remember that an incident is either something that has happened that shouldn’t have or something that didn’t happen that should have. Either way we want to hear about it!
Fleet
We are still looking at ways of satisfying the new radio requirements, Simon Adlard has a recommendation which we believe will satisfy all the regulations. The maintainers course is going to be run again. Last time it was oversubscribed, more news in future blogs.
Buildings
We have a couple of insurance issues to clear up involving the vent in the kitchen and the wiring in the entrance hall.
IT
Aerolog is not supportable so we are evaluating Glidex which is used by many clubs throughout the country. We have an evaluation system and will be demonstrating it over the next few weeks.
Sage is causing us problems and we need to upgrade it at a cost we can afford. At the moment we are double keying logs which is a waste of office time.
Neal Clements
Chair.