NEWSLETTER
Number 108 March 2004
Chairman’s Contribution........................................................................................................................................................... 2
CFI’s Bits..................................................................................................................................................................................... 3
Drinking and Flying................................................................................................................................................................... 4
A View from The
Office............................................................................................................................................................. 4
Field Landing
Training.............................................................................................................................................................. 5
Trailer Tyres................................................................................................................................................................................ 5
Canoe Wanted............................................................................................................................................................................ 5
National Gliding
Week............................................................................................................................................................... 6
Club Parachutes.......................................................................................................................................................................... 7
From the Flying
Field................................................................................................................................................................. 7
John Abbott 1934 -
2004............................................................................................................................................................ 8
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Please send Newsletter contributions to: John and Ann Parry Holly Cottage Wentnor Telephone..01588 650379 Email……..John.Parry@Virgin.net |
Club Details: The The Long Mynd Church Stretton Office Telephone......01588 650206 Office Fax.................01588 650532 Members Telephone..01588 650405 Email……………….office@longmynd.com |
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Club
web site: www.longmynd.com |
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Chairman’s Contribution
Charles Carter
The discovery by the founders of the Midland Gliding Club of the west facing ridge on the Long Mynd led to the formation of the club as we know it in 1934. Simple arithmetic leads to 2004 being our 70th anniversary.
How should we celebrate this auspicious birthday? The thoughts at present are that during the National Gliding Week (19th - 26th June) we could take one of the days to provide the flying side of the celebration for the MGC and follow it in the evening with a barbecue or hog roast and a knees up. Our President, not to be outdone, also celebrates his 70th birthday during the same week which given his long and distinguished association with the club is a very neat twist.
Later in the year we thought that a more formal dinner held in the clubhouse and to which the great and the good could be invited would be a fitting celebration.
If any of you have any thoughts or ideas about furthering the celebrations please speak to Jon Hall or me.
Recently the committee in an attempt to cut costs explored the possibility of mothballing the K13 and using the DG 505 as the spin training aircraft. This idea foundered because of various issues including K8 conversion and spin training. During the discussions many rumours about the fleet were widespread and all of them very wide of the mark. Please feel free to discuss with me at any time any concerns which you may have and any rumours which you may have heard or even have started.
The committee will be returning to the issue of fleet costs in the near future because we now have the running costs of five two-seater aircraft to absorb and with our present membership this is too many.
The last few months have yielded a good batch of excellent new members and I welcome them all and hope that they are the start of a good membership recruiting year. We will be holding a membership drive on the first weekend of May and nearer the time will be looking for commitment from as many of you as we can to come along and sell your club to would be members. If we can up the numbers enough maybe we will have need of all our two-seaters.
The accommodation block conversion is going very well and is at the moment I am led to believe even on time. It was however the builder who told me that so I am somewhat sceptical. It is pleasing to see how much of an improvement it will make to our facilities.
Colin Knox has just phoned to say that during a blizzard last night someone driving to the club drove into the hangar doors and severely damaged them. You couldn’t make it up could you? Someone wrote to me during the K13 discussions to say that if we grounded the 13 he would be forced to chain himself to the hangar doors. Bet your glad you were not there last night, eh Mike? I now have to dash off and buy some timber to repair the doors to protect the fleet from snow. There’s never a dull moment.
CFI’s Bits
Neal Clements
Heavy landing of JGJ
The K21 JGJ has had to
have extensive repair because of a heavy landing. The damage was only discovered at C of A so
please let me reiterate the procedure to be followed on suspicion of a heavy
landing:-
If you suspect that damage may have been
incurred at any time to an aircraft then you are to inform the duty instructor
and the glider may not fly again until he says so, usually by referring to an
inspector.
So what is a heavy
landing and what other ways can gliders get damaged? If, when landing, you hit the ground rather
than slide onto it, i.e. you feel a bump/bang/thump from the mainwheel and the
wings flex alarmingly then it is a heavy landing. If you hit anything with the front,
especially with a nose wheel glider, then you may have damaged the nose and
surrounding area BUT your teeth may not drop out. This latter point is extremely important, if
you land heavily on the wheel then the energy will go up your spine and you
will know about it, this is not true for a nosewheel or skid impact, the front
of the glider absorbs the energy, if necessary by deforming the structure. In the air there are two causes of structural
damage, impact and stress. The former
will be by a mid air collision with something and the latter is via high
loading caused by speed and or by control movements at high speeds (remember
the flight envelope and the placard).
Exceeding speed limits in a glider is not a case of 3 points on your licence, you are in danger of deforming the structure.
If you suspect a heavy
landing or over stressing then you must ground the aircraft until it can be
examined. Allowing someone else to fly
in such a glider would be criminal, both morally and possibly legally. You will not be shouted at or penalised for
saying “sorry I think I may have overstressed it”. It is essential we look after our kit and
each other.
Syndicate changes and new aircraft
Can I remind everyone
that it is protocol to confirm with me that a syndicate you are seeking to join
is suitable for you.
It is best to do this before a firm offer is made. I won’t comment upon the syndicate members but
I will be comparing your experience with the requirements of the aircraft and
if necessary can recommend a training programme you can follow to enable you to
enjoy the new machine. This also applies
if an aircraft is being brought on site for you to evaluate.
Motor glider and field selection
It is getting to that
time of year again; we need to think cross country. Please have a word with Chris Ellis, John
Stuart or Rod Hawley about getting your field selection exercises done. It’s a great start to the season to confirm
to yourself that you are in trim for selecting fields.
Drinking and Flying
Julian Fack
A new law on drinking and transportation recently made it onto the statute book. The Railways and Transport Safety Bill 2003 (part 5 refers to alcohol and flying) could easily spoil your day if you fly the day after a heavy night in the bar. Basically it lowers the existing driving alcohol limit by 75% for pilots, and adds draconian punishments up to two years in jail and/or a £5000 fine.
Introduced following the Marchioness
disaster on the
Traditionally we have worked to the “8 hours from bottle to throttle” principle, but the new law means this simple rule will no longer be rigorous enough. You might think that we are so low profile an activity that the police would be unlikely to get involved, but in fact there are numerous stories within the club of police interest following a field landing, including Simon Adlard being given a parking ticket, and the CFI being taken to the police station for a Major Incident Inquiry after a field landing in France.
How do the figures stack up under the new law? Each pint of normal strength beer adds around 25 mg to our blood, and we lose about 10 mg per hour after drinking, so a late night in the bar ending at 4 am followed by an early start the next morning leading to a field landing at midday will only allow the loss of 80 mg from the bloodstream. This is less than 4 pints or 8 small glasses of wine, so 5 pints could put you well over the limit and liable to arrest.
A real heavy night consisting of 8 pints, even with an early finish at midnight, would mean you could be over the limit until 7 pm the following evening, so flying will be out of the question.
Although there seems to be a universal acceptance in the UK of the principle that you do not drink at all before flying, unlike some other countries, there is a tradition within gliding clubs of hitting the bar after flying, but this new law looks set to change all that if flying the next day is your aim, so be aware, the latest alcohol limit is very low indeed!
You may be below the limit for driving the morning after a night in the bar, but you will most probably not be legal for flying unless you have been fairly abstemious.
Please note that all the above figures are very approximate, and will vary according to sex and weight. For various reasons women metabolise alcohol at around half the rate of men, and in both cases heavier people tend to be less affected by a given amount of alcohol, but the message is clear, the new law makes it much harder to stay under the limit for flying.
A View from The Office
Martin McCurdie
As you may or may not know we are now operating the accounts on Sage. To help with this it would be useful if when filling in the brown envelopes you would put your membership numbers in the place provided. Also can you please indicate when you have had an aerotow. The brown envelops have a space on the back which enables you to pay by credit card; can you please make sure that all the sections are filled in and that the numbers are readable.
Field Landing Training
Chris Ellis
During March and April we will be running a series of Field Landing Training and Refresher Sessions using the motor glider. These provide an excellent opportunity to complete your Bronze cross-country endorsement or brush up on field landing techniques prior to the cross-country landing out season.
Ideally we will have four members each day. We will start with a comprehensive group briefing followed by a flight which will last about one hour and end the day with a group debrief. The cost of flying the Falke is £60 per hour charged by the airborne minute.
Details of dates will be posted on the notice board shortly.
The Motor Glider Rated instructors are John Stuart, Rod Hawley and myself. I am usually available midweek as well as weekends should anyone wish to use the Falke for any exercises from circuit planning to navigation (Tel 01691 622788).
Trailer Tyres
Chris Ellis
I was interested to read Julian’s comments in the Newsletter on ‘blow outs’. He quoted the Daily Telegraph as wishing that the European tyre manufacturers would get their act together and date mark their products.
I fear it is the Daily Telegraph that needs to get its act together as some tyres have been date marked since the 1970s and all tyres since the 1980s.
Every tyre has on its sidewall a code which shows that it complies with American Department of Transportation requirements. This code contains information on country of manufacture etc including the date. It is very simple to interpret.
Following the letters DOT will be a series of letters and numbers at the end of which there is an ‘oval’ containing 3 or 4 numbers depending which side of the millennium the tyre was built.
In the 1980s there were three numbers - the first two were the week of build and the last, the year. For example: 045 = week 4 (January) 1985.
In the 1990s the same system was used but to differentiate and avoid confusion between the decades a mark resembling a diamond was added after the number.
After the turn of the millennium it was the same system but simplified by using four numbers. For example: 5102 = week 51 (December) 2002.
I suppose that not many people know this, including the motoring man at the Daily Telegraph.
Canoe Wanted
Chris Ellis
I am looking for a 2 seat canoe for my grandchildren to use when they come to stay. If anyone has one to dispose of or knows of one I would be grateful if they would ring me on 01691 622788.
National Gliding Week
Jon Hall
The BGA has agreed to hold a National Gliding Week this year which it is hoped will become an annual feature of the gliding calendar. It will run from Saturday 19th to Sunday 27th June taking in the longest day.
It is intended that National Gliding Week will provide a focus that will enable clubs and the BGA to co-ordinate various marketing initiatives and which will be newsworthy in their own right. The BGA will promote the concept widely through the national press and to the public. It will target feature opportunities in a wide range of national publications (newspapers, lifestyle magazines, etc) as well as aiming for inclusion in ‘What’s On’ type articles.
The MGC wishes to support this initiative fully and so is starting
to plan what we can do. We are seeking
ideas from you the members for events that have public appeal and which we can
promote locally. We have already
arranged to have the BGA Cyberglide simulator on site over the second weekend
and are discussing an event with the charity Muscular Dystrophy Campaign that
will enable young disabled people to ‘fly’ in it. Other ideas that have been put forward
include an out and return attempt to the
A small working group of Jon Hall, Paul Stanley and Chris Ellis is organising the week’s events at the club and we would like to hear ideas from anyone, however off-the-wall, that could be incorporated. It also happens almost to coincide with the 70th anniversary of the Midland Gliding Club so one thought is that we have a grand hangar party and barbecue along the lines of the highly successful 60th birthday party. The last one was great fun but takes a lot of time and effort from members to get everything organised. If anyone thinks they can help in any capacity; running the bar, organising the food, providing music, putting up decorations, sending out invitations, please get in touch with me by email at jon@webz.co.uk or on 01454 617171 (office) or 07801 184668 (mobile). Or please contact any of us with other events ideas.
Club Parachutes
Chris Harris
I am pleased to inform you that we have had two more of our club parachutes, number one and six, renovated with new harness packs. The cost was just over £900 for the two so please take good care of them. The style of the new packs puts more of the parachute lower in the pack and seems to provide much more in the way of lumbar support. If you suffer from back niggles they are worth a try!
We have just worked out that the K21s are causing abnormal wear and tear to parachutes used in the front seat due to exposed screwheads on the front of the rear seat instrument panels. Denise has kindly volunteered (again!) to make some smart cloth covers to try and stop this happening.
Finally, I spent considerable time on a recent Saturday sorting out all the ‘chutes and bags so that each ‘chute was in its correct number bag and placed on the correct numbered shelf in the warm cupboard. I had a bitch and moan at briefing on the Saturday about putting them back properly as found. I repeated the bitch and moan on the Sunday morning at briefing. Guess what? Sunday evening two parachutes back on the right shelves but no bags in sight anywhere. A search was made of the glider wing roots - still no bags. After a bit of detective work the culprit was found. He had removed the two bags from the K13 prior to spinning exercises and had placed them on the retrieve winch. I guess the mysterious ‘someone’ would find them eventually and return them to the correct place. If you think I get rather p’d off about such things you are spot on - I do! In my view parachutes should be either in the glider or in the warm cupboard. Bags should be either containing the correct number parachute or in wing roots ready to do so. If YOU put a bag or parachute temporarily elsewhere for whatever the good reason is - PLEASE HAVE THE DECENCY TO PUT THEM BACK WHERE THEY SHOULD BE BEFORE YOU GO HOME!
From the Flying Field
Ann Parry
Welcome to new members Andrew Childs, Clare Couzens, John Davies, Leslie Potton, John Watt and Kay Whittaker. Congratulations to Dave Crowson on becoming a full category instructor.
There has been flying in between the low cloud, easterlies and snow we have encountered during January and February. The sky has looked enticing on a few days recently, and the Dutch visitors enjoyed thermals the week of 21-27 February, with cloudbase at 4100 feet on 25th February. The course season will start soon, with all week flying available again.
Non-flying events include the Saturday evening lectures. Thanks to Chris Nicholas (Regional Safety Officer for the South East) for running the interesting and useful safety forum, and to Simon Adlard for his talks on winching and approach control. Also to Chris Alldis for his talk on improving cross-country skills. Caroline and Lynnette held a joint 21st birthday party at the club, and there were celebrations last weekend for Simon and Liz, whose wedding is on 6th March.
John Abbott 1934 - 2004
Chris Ellis
John flew his first solo in 1948 as an Air
Cadet at
He had two hobbies – fishing and
aeromodelling – both of which he pursued with fanatical attention to
detail. In 1988 he returned to
gliding. He joined the Midland Gliding
Club and bought a share in the
It was around this time that the
Staffordshire Gliding Club was becoming established at Seighford which was only
a few miles from his home. He joined
S.G.C. and shortly afterwards was involved in forming a syndicate to buy the
At both clubs he is fondly remembered for his wicked sense of humour and barbed whit. He was very good at winding up the more self-important members and then deflating them mercilessly.
Following a very successful career with Allied Dunbar he retired four years ago only to be struck down by cancer. This was apparently overcome and he returned to flying and fishing. He was taken ill again just before Christmas and died peacefully, which is probably the only thing he ever did peacefully, in January.