NEWSLETTER
Number 109 May 2004
Chairman’s Contribution........................................................................................................................................................... 2
From the Flying
Field................................................................................................................................................................. 3
CFI’s Bits..................................................................................................................................................................................... 4
The Newsletter............................................................................................................................................................................ 6
Task Week 2004.......................................................................................................................................................................... 6
Trophies 2003.............................................................................................................................................................................. 7
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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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Charles Carter
I would like to start these notes by welcoming the new committee to the year of work ahead and to thank them for giving their time to the club.
Several committee members have retired this year and I would like to say a big thank you to Paul Stanley, Andy Holmes, Mike Whitton and David Rance who have all put in a tremendous amount of work on behalf of the club and who deserve a bit of peace in their “retirement”. Fortunately or unfortunately, whichever side you are on, we will not entirely be letting them all off the hook. David will be retaining responsibility for the insurance matters which as you may imagine is no small job and Mike will be taking up the reins on his return from China.
Sarah Platt has taken over the bean counting from David Rance. Clive Jones will take over MT from Andy Holmes and Allan Reynolds assumes Mike Whitton’s responsibilities for the buildings. Neal Clements will now attend committee not just as CFI but as a voting member. The rest of the officers and committee remain as last year. It looks like a well balanced team to carry on the excellent work of previous years.
One of the main discussion points at the informal part of the AGM was recruitment of members, their training, and their retention. The value of a frank discussion was evident and many good ideas forthcoming. The committee will visit the subject in the very near future when some of the thoughts may be put into practice.
In the meantime, and having regard to our two membership recruitment days which will have taken place by the time you are reading this, I would ask all of you to be aware that if you see a new face looking a little lost or unsure to go just a little out of your way to make that newcomer feel at home. I frequently try to help people whom I do not recognise only to be told that they are a member of several years standing. Better too much than too little.
Rosemary Middleton, who has been unwell recently, rang me this morning to tell me that she would be unable to return to her duties. She is recovering well but feels that she will not be up to the hard work which she has done in the past. Recently Rosemary has done all the cleaning and laundry at the club but her association with the club goes back many years and in a variety of roles. Her cakes are legendary among the older brigade. I know that you will all join me in wishing her a speedy recovery and to assure her of a special welcome whenever she visits us which I hope will be often.
I am now going to don my farmer’s cap and tell you about the agricultural side of the gliding club. Your gliding club or farm as I shall refer to it for the purpose of these notes is perched as you know at 1400 plus feet on the top of a very inhospitable mountain. The fact that anything grows up there is a miracle and left to her own devices Mother Nature would cover the whole lot in bracken, gorse, heather and scrub. If that were the case the only things flying from the site would be skylarks (not Slingsby’s) and buzzards.
Due to enormous efforts over many years, latterly Howard Bradley’s efforts, the surface of our airfield, whilst not perfect, allows us to operate on a year round basis in complete safety. That surface is grass which for those who may not know is a growing and vulnerable plant. If you disbelieve how vulnerable it is I would ask you to think of footpaths where only people walk and where enormous restoration projects take place to repair and prevent erosion.
We do not just walk on our farm. We take off and land all sorts of aeroplanes, we drive our cars over to the launch point and we drive the landrovers on an ad hoc basis. Some of the use and therefore the wear is inevitable but much is gratuitous and unnecessary. Every time that you jump into the landrover, lock the steering wheel around as hard as you can and tear off to retrieve a landed glider you are causing damage to the grass. If you disbelieve me look at the tracks on the airfield.
Please use the landrovers carefully. If you do not understand their dual gear box get someone who does to give you a briefing. Always drive on the hard roads whenever possible because that is why a great deal of your money has been spent on providing them. When you drive from the launch point to the clubhouse or vice versa do not go as most do in a straight line but follow the hard roads and finally and most importantly when you go from one end of the airfield to the other to retrieve from a cable break where the glider has landed ahead use the hard road until you are opposite the glider and when you have picked up the glider return to the hard road as soon as is practical for the tow back to the launch point. There is never a case to be made for towing up the centre of the airfield.
KEEP OFF YOUR GRASS.
If you do not heed the warning then at the best the airfield will be restricted while repairs are undertaken and at the worst flying will be suspended during wet weather and in the worst of the winter.
You will all be glad to know that I will, as in the past, be reinforcing the above whenever I see misuse of the airfield and if Bradders catches you then look out.
Finally can I remind you that if you have any queries about what is happening at the club or things that you think should be happening at the club then please contact me or a member of the committee either of whom may know.
Good soaring.
Richard Platt
It finally feels as though spring, and the thermal soaring season, has arrived. Monday 19th April was probably the best day this year so far but no private owners turned up to make use of it – John Stuart did three flights totalling over 300 km in a K21. The following Friday saw lots of privateers turn up for weaker conditions (too much reliance on web forecasters?) but several cross-countries were made by Rose Johnson, Dave Rance and Dominic Haughton amongst others. Last weekend (24/25th April) was soarable on both days with several 100 km flights achieved plus lots of local soaring in good thermals.
Earlier in the month we had the annual
visit by the Dutch who had a good time and again were
able to bungey. Easter weekend followed
tradition and was pretty duff. On 16th
March Richard Bennett and Paul Garnham in Duo Discus 494 went to
Gary Boyce soloed on 2nd April and S. Salter on the 8th.
We welcome new members Heather Clark, Andrew Childs (750 to solo), Donald Sinden and Nigel Astell.
Neal Clements
You may remember Dave Crowson recently
passed his Full Cat assessment and I am pleased to be able to tell you that now
Alasdair Lewis and William Brewis have also passed theirs. They went to
I recently spent a
very enjoyable weekend at Cerdanya in the
First what is
low? I think a good definition is final
turn height or lower. So why would you
be turning low down? Good question and I
think that there are three reasons:-
1) You are turning over high ground that is next to relatively low ground, the ridge is an example, or Hay Bluff near Talgarth, this is why you break off a thermal that is drifting you back over the hill, you will go from comfort to panic within one turn if you are too low. Sometimes, when flying cross country, your chosen field may be in a valley or depression and you may have to turn over high ground to reach it.
2)
You are
turning to land, this is the most usual time we turn low down and it shouldn’t
involve a 360 degree turn, however if your circuit is low then both the turn
onto the base leg and onto final may be below normal final turn height.
3)
Thermalling
low down. This may be because you are
over unlandable territory and a thermal appears to be the only non-crash exit,
you are in the hills and trying to climb a seemingly gentle slope up which you
are drifting, (it can rise faster than your thermal) or you are on circuit and
decide that the lift you have encountered is so good that it is worth abandoning
the safety of a planned circuit and smooth field for the uncertainty of a
drifting circle in lift or sink to an unplanned destination.
So given these situations what are the dangers
and what can we do to minimise them?
In priority order:-
1) Do I have to do this? For instance you don’t have to drift back behind the ridge, you don’t have to throw away a perfectly good circuit for an unknown strength thermal.
2) Is this thermal working, if you haven’t got an averager then you will kid yourself that you are climbing when you are not and if there is any drift it will usually be taking you into trouble so abandon it and head for landable territory.
3) What is happening to your right hand? Unless you are extremely experienced then it will be creeping backwards and don’t forget, the desire to lift the nose increases exponentially as you get lower and your ability to overcome this desire diminishes in the same proportion. You must force yourself to move the stick forward even though the view over the nose will look horrible for a short time. If you don’t then you are getting close to the stall, and don’t forget you are in a turn and the stall speed is increased.
4) What is happening to your legs? Once again, unless you are very experienced
then they, like your hands are getting stiff and one leg, usually the in-turn
one is moving forward and the string is tending to move towards the down
wing. It’s no good saying to yourself,
“the nose isn’t high”, if the string is pointing at
the down wing you have a big problem. Try to keep it central or slightly pointing to
the upward wing.
In summary then, don’t get into the position
where you are turning above the ground below final turn height, don’t drift
into ground that is rising faster than you are, review the averager to confirm
you are outclimbing any disadvantage of drift, keep the string in the middle
and maintain a safe speed ensuring the stick is not creeping back, I suggest
that low down you should never go below 50 knots.
All gliders registered in the UK since 28 September 2003 require CAA registration and a CAA C of A, this will come into effect sometime soon and it is very important that you make no modifications to your glider that may not be approved as CAA compliant, Roger can advise. For gliders registered before the above date then the situation is much more complex, I suggest you watch the notice board and the BGA web site.
For some time now the position regarding no-shows at weekends has been causing concerns. Lately it has got to the point where it is a surprise if a duty crew turns up and this cannot continue because we will lose members, the last thing we can afford to do. At the AGM we had complaints from new members bemoaning late starts and no instructors available.
In the immediate term I will implement the measure below, then I will discuss the issue with instructors at the next meeting. We must agree as a membership that operating the field is a commitment to be fulfilled and enjoyed.
From week beginning 26th of April Martin will email the duty team that appear on the rota in the clubhouse (this, of course may be amended by swaps so it is the only master we have at present). If you receive an email then please reply that you will be attending. If you cannot attend then it is essential that you try to arrange a swap as soon as possible, Martin cannot do this for you, he can however, forward emails on your behalf or supply you with contact details.
I know that some people resent this hectoring and it is one of the reasons why it has lapsed, however I cannot think of any other way at the moment and would gladly accept your input.
There can be nothing more frustrating for a new member than to watch a perfectly flyable day disappear because of “breakfast” and “sorry there is no one to fly you”. Please, for all our flying sakes turn up on your day.
Ann Parry
The newsletter has become slim recently, and so is this issue. It would be very happy with feeding in the form of contributions from you. I have not been at the club much for the last few months, so have not been commissioning items for the newsletter (and then chasing them up). Nor have I been flying, for various reasons. I hope to change that in the next few weeks.
Meanwhile, we always welcome contributions to do with gliding and all that goes with it, from complete beginners to experienced pilots. This year is the club’s 70th birthday, so we are especially interested in anything to do with the history of the club. If you have been a member for some years, when did you start flying, how did you come to the Mynd, and what was the place like then? Any memorable flights or retrieve stories? What about I-learned-from-that episodes. I think we all have flying moments like that, and they can be of interest to other pilots. So, please don’t be shy and think no-one is interested in what you have to tell. Contact us and discuss any ideas you may have if you don’t feel like writing something without encouragement.
Now then Mike, I remember there were some good stories about the contenders for the Golden Shovel, which you presented so well at the recent club dinner (the stories, not the shovel). How about them for the newsletter?
Which reminds me (I don’t think that it’s been mentioned elsewhere): the annual dinner held at the Long Mynd Hotel. It was excellent, so congratulations and thanks to the organisers, led by Sarah Platt. Numbers attending were up on the last few years, and it was lovely to see the club in such good heart. Lembit Öpik entertained us with a wonderful talk after dinner, and Sian Lloyd presented the trophies.
John Parry
As in previous years Task Week will be the week leading up to the August Bank Holiday, so it will run from Saturday 21st August to Sunday 29th August (with the option of extending onto Monday 30th if people want).
Once again I will be Task Director and scorer, with the clever bits being done by Nick Heriz-Smith setting the tasks based on the weather as forecast by Dominic Haughton – the usual team.
We aim to provide the organisation of a Regionals but with the relaxed atmosphere of a Task Week.
Don’t forget the club aircraft, if you are suitably qualified how about showing someone the way in a K21 or even the DG500, and if you are not, why not find someone who is and form a team?
John Parry
The following trophies were awarded at the annual dinner.
Task Week: Dominic Haughton.
Pat Moore for the first cross-country flight of the year: Ian MacArthur.
Hardwick for the best closed circuit flight from the Long Mynd: John Roberts.
Two Seater: Rod Hawley and Dave Crowson.
Silver Jubilee for the best Silver Distance: Mike Witton.
Tim’s Triangle: Chris Alldis.
Neill for the best ab-initio: Nicky Jackson.
Maxam for services to the club: Mike Whitton.
Ozee Winter for contribution to winter flying: David Nickolaus.
Golden Shovel: Caroline Roberts
The Ladder, Long Mynd, David Bailey, Daisy Hardwick, Bill Hardwick, Golden Jubilee and Mad Allan trophies, and the Tony Spicer Barograph, were not awarded this year.
Please, if you have done any worthwhile flights do record them on the record sheet in the clubhouse. Even if you don’t think it is very remarkable it may win a trophy if nobody else has bothered to submit a claim! We can only award trophies for flights we know about.
If you are coming up to do your Silver remember there is a trophy for the best Silver distance.
If you have any views on the trophy system please let me know. Are people still interested? Do we have too many or too few? I have felt for some time we should have something for the rising club pilots who cannot yet aspire to the big ones, maybe something like “the best 100 km triangle by someone who would qualify as a Rockpolishers novice” or perhaps “the best 200 km triangle by someone who would qualify as a Rockpolishers intermediate”. But what do you think?