MIDLAND GLIDING CLUB
NEWSLETTER
Number 91 May 2001
Chairman’s
Contribution................................................................................................................. 2
The Motor Glider........................................................................................................................... 3
From the Flying Field...................................................................................................................... 3
Match........................................................................................................................................... 3
Gliding Through the Foot and Mouth Crisis...................................................................................... 4
The New Direct Debiting System, or Paying for it Bit by Bit............................................................. 6
Foot and Mouth 1967-68................................................................................................................. 7
Mynd Musings, or the X Factor....................................................................................................... 8
What Does the Mynd Mean to Me?................................................................................................ 9
A Towing Revolution in South Africa............................................................................................ 10
The ‘Lost’ Discus........................................................................................................................ 11
Trophy Awards 2000.................................................................................................................... 12
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Please send Newsletter contributions to: John and Ann Parry Holly Cottage Wentnor Bishops Castle Shropshire SY9 5EE Telephone..01588 650379 Fax.………01588 650596 Email……..John.Parry@Virgin.net |
Club Details: The Midland Gliding Club The Long Mynd Church Stretton Shropshire SY6 6TA Office Telephone......01588 650206 Office Fax.................01588 650532 Members Telephone..01588 650405 Email……………….office@longmynd.com |
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Selected items from this Newsletter will appear on the Club Internet site which is: www.longmynd.com |
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Please could we have contributions for the July issue by 23rd June. (Earlier if possible please!) |
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Julian Fack
I never though I would find myself being chairman of a ‘ghost’ gliding club, but that is one way to describe the situation we find ourselves in. We have everything we need to operate, yet we are unable to do so. At Shobdon last Sunday I was asked if I had any idea when we might be able to return home, of course I did not, but then neither has Tony Blair, or anyone else.
The committee have held four times as many meetings as normal, and we have also had help from Paul Garnham, Keith Mansell and Paul Fowler. It has been hard work, and that work is far from over. We have pared the club’s expenses to the bone, which has caused real hardship to some of our staff and helpers, but we had no choice if you are to have a club to look forward to when this epidemic is over. We have also cut down on the fleet insurance by insuring half the fleet for ground risks only, and we have looked at many other ways to reduce outgoings, such as reducing the heating to a minimum, and cutting all expenditure on advertising.
We have established a temporary home at Shobdon, and our tug is operating there. This involves some extra costs, since temporary membership (for individuals) and hangarage (for the tug and motor glider) are payable. Shobdon is a busy airfield and the launch queue can be quite slow, but at least we can fly our aircraft. We tend to forget that it is a very good wave site, probably at least as good as the Mynd. I had a nice wave flight in FWQ two weeks ago, there was lift to about 7,000 feet.
The importance of Shobdon is to allow us all to remain in practice, so that when we get back home we will be able to get on with flying as we know it. This is very important for a number of reasons, obviously for safety and for looking after our no claims bonus, but also to try and keep the club together.
Whilst I do not doubt that, provided that you do your bit by paying your membership for the year, we will be able to survive the crisis in financial terms this summer, the real problem will hit us this time next year. The reason is that, in common with other clubs, we fatten up our finances during the summer, and then live on that fat through the winter. If we have a lossmaking summer we will enter the winter in poor shape, and if we are to start the season next spring we need to spend on doing up the fleet, C of A work, and so on. This is bound to leave us with a hefty negative bank balance this time next year.
John Stuart is helping to get the weekend operation started at Shobdon, and with our own tug there we hope to have some midweek flying as well. John has a mobile phone (07974 585532) with him on the airfield, which will be handy if you want to check the situation. Janet is operating the office phone (01588 650206) from home, and will remain your main point of contact. Jon Hall is also updating the website, (www.longmynd.com), with the latest situation on a regular basis.
On the social side we had a successful dinner dance at Ludlow Racecourse in late March, originally set up by Alison Rowson and later taken over by Ann Parry when Alison was taken ill. Alison made a rapid recovery and was able to join in the festivities, for an excellent evening. There were some members who felt that we should show solidarity with the farmers and cancel the dinner, but Ludlow had called off the horse racing and were happy to have us. The costs of cancellation were considerable, so when we found that we had sold enough tickets to cover the costs we went ahead and a good time was had by all, thanks to Alison and Ann.
Talking of Ann reminds me that she has been very successful in attracting quite a following to her Thursday evening socials at the Crown at Wentnor. Most weeks there are over twenty visitors, which must say something about the social fabric of the club. I look forward to seeing many of you at the Crown from time to time, until we are able to return home, when we will certainly be arranging a big celebration. Let’s hope that comes sooner than we think, but in the meantime please make use of the facilities at Shobdon when you can, and I hope you can enjoy some safe local flying there.
John Parry
The motor glider is now based at Shobdon and is available for use seven days a week. John Stuart, Chris Ellis and Paul Garnham are only too willing to turn up if people wish to fly. Also Tony Danbury has been cleared by Nick to use the motor glider for site checks at Shobdon.
We have deemed it unwise to do field landing training as it involves flying low over farm land which is not a good idea at present. However there are plenty of other useful things one can do. Getting used to flying amongst power traffic and radio babble is one and doing it in a Falke may be more economical than taking an aerotow, and easier to fit into the normal Shobdon activities. Especially true mid-week when there aren’t all the people available to push gliders into line for aerotows, and fetch them back.
In the last week Chris has done a minor local navigation exercise and a simulated cloud flying exercise. Both greatly appreciated by the victims. You could ask Alan Reynolds to give you his impressions of what it is like to let down through cloud on instruments only, and on the joys of staying in a thermal wearing ‘foggles’.
When I accompanied Chris on the ferry flight from Rednal I was surprised how strange the circuit and approach seemed. I certainly regard the enforced move to Shobdon as a chance to keep in practice and become familiar again with a general aviation airfield. I wonder how many times I have landed out within gliding range of Shobdon, Sleap or similar because I did not know their procedures?
Ann Parry
Congratulations to Dave Crowson on becoming an Assistant Instructor.
Flying has taken place since 1st April at Shobdon, where we have been made welcome by the Herefordshire Gliding Club. John Stuart reported “not particularly good weather till the 16th, when we started with really good thermals from the northish, blue and white, that continued through the week. I flew the motor glider during the middle of the week, lots of engine off.” He says that 55 club members have flown so far. Steve Male talked of a 10 knot thermal over Presteigne on Easter Monday (16th). There have been some lovely looking skies (today, 29th April, being one, and there was wonderful wave over the Mynd during the week) and some flying in wave as well. Our tug is now at Shobdon, which eases the availability of aerotows. Shobdon is a busy airfield at weekends, and sometimes we have had to wait for a slot to launch. Various members have already gone abroad, mostly to Spain, to fly there on holiday, and even do some work. Chris Harris is flying his way home from Australia and was at Ahmadebad, NW India, on May 1st (it seems he did a non-Tigger landing), and Paul Stanley gained his American CPL on his recent trip to the US.
Ann and John Parry
Hazel Turner tells us that Chellie and Jason have got engaged and are hoping to get married in September 2002. We are sure you will join us in wishing them congratulations and much happiness together. Hazel also says, “please give our regards to everyone, we feel a long way away.”
David Rance
How frustrating can a hobby be? Your committee has worked hard over the last year to tune our affairs and to make the most of the opportunities we have on the hill as well as getting our finances back on the right road again. In my view we were succeeding on a number of fronts. For the treasurer’s part, we went into the winter with about £10,000 less in the bank than the year before and emerged this spring with almost £20,000 more. Well onto the right road again and then, pow! Foot and mouth. The following should give you a better feel for what has been going on at the club.
Flying was suspended immediately the outbreak occurred and the committee met, what felt like every Saturday night for weeks. Our initial position was simply that we had suspended flying to allow us time to assess the situation and would review our position on flying at the following meeting. At the time we hoped that this would be an isolated affair with a few cases in Essex and Northumberland and in a week or two things would be back to normal. The press picked this policy up and we were fairly savaged as continuing to fly with complete disregard to the local community and neighbouring farmers etc etc which wasn’t our position at all. We haven’t flown since the first day of the outbreak and continue, even now, to monitor the situation closely. Jon Hall then set up a press office in his kitchen and spent several days putting our position over clearly to anybody who would listen, including the press, radio and television, on which I am assured he has never looked smarter! His message was simple, we support the local farmers completely and have not flown at all since the start of the outbreak, but we too are a business which has been on the hill for almost seventy years. We provide employment for eleven people, make a substantial contribution to the local economy and were hurting badly because we were not able to trade normally. Even so, we received a number of strongly worded requests for us not to fly from various local farmers including the commoners, with anecdotal assurances of what might happen if we landed out on their property.
The problem with the Long Mynd is that it is effectively open farmland on which fourteen commoners have the right to graze sheep. Moving amongst this stock, either on foot or in vehicles, was and is completely contrary to all the disease prevention guidelines which have been issued by MAFF. Even driving along the road is a risk both with taking the disease onto the hill, and picking it up and taking it off again, if the sheep there become infected.
About this time all the roads onto the hill were blocked and remained so for some weeks. Investigation determined that although the council had the power to close all foot paths and bridleways onto the Mynd, they had no authority to close a public highway open to vehicular access, and had done so illegally in the hope that people would take the hint and stay off the hill. Meanwhile, they applied to central government for the authority to close the road officially. This was refused (“the countryside is open!”) and the roads are now open again, though the council and the National Trust are both actively discouraging people from going onto the hill.
As I write, there have been 500 sheep taken off the north end of the Mynd, as dangerous contacts with a farm which has been infected with FMD, and slaughtered. The Burway up to the fingerpost and down the Ratlinghope road have been closed and the area north of these roads declared an infected area. Asterton is still open.
This has been a difficult crisis to manage as events have unfolded all too quickly at times, making decisions on policy and procedure taken on Saturday night look silly by Monday morning. It is all the more difficult because we have not known how long the crisis will last and when we would be able to get back into the swing of things again. As a result, from the time it became clear that the crisis wasn’t going to go away in a week or three, our strategy has simply been one of survival.
Clearly with no income from flying fees, launch fees, trial lessons, courses, accommodation or the bar, our income has been slashed. On the other side of the coin, we have tried to stop as much expenditure as possible. The major ongoing expense is staff. Both John and Janet have volunteered to work for half pay from April 1st. John is organising the flying at Shobdon and Janet has relocated the Mynd office to their home, and continues to deal with the administration of the club, both effectively working short time. Martin Moss, our new course instructor, arrived, took one look at the problems and generously turned around and went home again to resume his old job until we call him. Peter Salisbury also volunteered to take half pay from April 1st and is retiring in late April, having reached the age of 65. Peter would like to resume working with us when we restart and I am sure the club will be keen to re employ him then, to try to wring a few more years out of him! From late March, Colin has been working for my business though he remains an employee of MGC and I am paying all his wages. Sadly there is no cleaning work for Rosemary at the moment. The new office lady who was due to start a week or so before the outbreak, didn’t show up, so didn’t create a problem there. Ian Butt runs the catering as a franchise and is contracted to provide catering services and so is not an employee. Clearly Ian is badly affected and I ask anybody who owes Ian catering money to pay him please. (Address: 81 Sandstone Close, Lower Gornal, Dudley, DY3 2EQ. Tel: 01902 882109.) Roger runs his glider repair business as a completely separate affair to the club and continues to do so from a workshop off the hill. Bob Rice is an employee of Roger’s.
We have stopped all work on the hill. There are lots of maintenance jobs that could be done, for instance in the club house, but in addition to paying the wages of the maintainer, we would have to pay for materials and since the name of the game is to conserve enough money to get us through the crisis, and then through next winter, we decided to halt this work.
The fleet insurance came up for renewal on April 1st and we have renewed again with Terry Joint of Joint Aviation Services. The premium turned out to be almost identical to the previous years, which sort of disguises a reduction in premium when viewed against the back ground of 10% premium increases across the industry. In rough terms, it costs 4.5% of the agreed hull value to insure a club aircraft for full flying cover, and only 1.5% to insure it for ground cover. We have reinsured two K21s, a K23 and the Discus, all of which are at Shobdon, in addition to the tug, which has just emerged from its C of A and is also based at Shobdon at the moment. The remainder of the fleet is on ground risk only.
We are still advertising the club and its courses as Jon Hall has persuaded the advertisers to continue printing our ads free of charge until we start trading again. How did he do that? Everything else is pretty much on hold.
Clearly, we are not running any trial lessons at the moment, none of the logistics, politics or financial considerations make it sensible to try to run these from Shobdon, so they are all on hold. We considered relocating courses to Shobdon but rejected this notion on several grounds, not least that the people booked on the courses in the spring all seemed happy to come to the Mynd later in the year when we re-opened and as soon as FMD took hold, the phone stopped ringing.
What of our income? We have a full caravan park again this year and have banked the rents. Our appeals for you to renew subscriptions promptly have met with an excellent response with a quicker take up than normal. My thanks to all those who have paid or sent in direct debit instructions. To those who haven’t, please get your wallets out and get on the phone to Janet (01588 650206) today. The club is still owed about £2800 in unpaid flying fees, which bearing in mind we haven’t flown for two months on the Mynd is pretty shabby. Most of these are small amounts but some are not. You will shortly be receiving a letter if you owe more than three pounds. Sorry to chase such small amounts but if you multiply this up by a hundred flying members you will get the drift. Those who owe more than £75 will be getting a visit from the boys unless their accounts are settled very promptly. The club simply can’t afford to bankroll your flying.
For thirty years, the club has carried business interruption insurance which normally comes into effect in the event that our trading is disrupted by fire, explosion or some other insured major event. Keith Mansell arranged a cover extension to include disruption caused by foot and mouth disease as a result of the club being closed in 1967. We have made a claim under this policy, which should alleviate many of my financial concerns. After several weeks of deliberation however, the insurers, Allianz Cornhill, have decided that the claim is invalid and that they won’t pay. Don’t you just love insurance companies! We are, of course, fighting this decision and I suspect this will be a long game.
Meanwhile, there is club flying going on at Shobdon, with four of our own gliders and the tug so take advantage of the beautiful May weather and go get you feet off the ground!
David Rance
The new direct debiting system for paying for subscriptions has had an excellent take up amongst members. Remember, it was intended to take the sting out of paying for subscriptions in one lump, by paying for them over the summer in equal monthly instalments.
Our original intention was to charge six monthly instalments of £52.50 starting on May 1st with the last on October 1st. I anticipated that this might be quite a tight deadline for the banks to set up (they make snails look fast) and so it has proved. We will now collect five payments of £63.00 starting on June 1st with the last on October 1st. This the same total amount but over five months not six.
The good news is that anybody wanting to get on board can still do so by returning their completed form to Janet by the 14th May. Lost the form? Call Janet.
Now something new here. Flying fees by direct debit. Because you aren’t doing as much flying as usual, you will all be uncommonly rich for the time of year but the club still needs your money. With immediate effect, I am introducing the facility for you to pay flying fees by direct debit as well. This means that you can agree to pay any monthly amount of £20 or more on the 1st of the month and the club will collect it from your bank account automatically until advised otherwise. Your flying account will be credited appropriately giving you a fund to fly off as and when you wish. This completely cancels the need to sit down at the end of every day and work out exactly how much your flight has cost and then search under the seat in the car for the right money to put in your envelope. It also means that you can pay the same every month and even out the amount you spend on flying over the whole year, rather than face bigger bills in the summer and less in the winter. For more details and a direct debit form, please call Janet in the office.
Keith Mansell
In the summer of 1967 ‘Uncle’ Bob Neill was nearing the end of his fourteen year spell as chairman of the club and I was CFI. The club’s fleet comprised two Slingsby T49 ‘Capstan’ side-by-side two-seaters, two Slingsby Swallows and two Elliott Olympia 460s.
All was going well on the Mynd until a week in May when Shelley Curtis ran an instructors’ course for some of our members and some from the Coventry club. Shelley, our erstwhile secretary and deputy CFI, had moved to the Coventry club as deputy CFI and had become its CFI early in 1967. During the course on a day that was marginally hill soarable one of our members and a Coventry member were enjoying a mutual flight in one of our Capstans. Their beats along the ridge became ever lower eventually prompting the Mynd pilot, as P1, to tell the Coventry pilot to land. He mutinied, did another beat lower still and then hit the trees during his circuit. The glider was written off with both pilots unhurt. Thus the two-seater fleet was down to one Capstan.
What to buy to replace the Capstan? At the end of May I went to Lasham to sample the K13 and for the 16/17 September weekend John Jeffries brought a demonstrator K13 to Shropshire. On the Saturday at Sleap we did some aerotow launches in the K13. I flew it solo and with Louis Rotter, Ernie Ainscough (our next CFI) and towed back to the Mynd with Mike Valentine who some years later became the Australian Gliding Federation’s senior coach. On the Sunday we winch launched the K13 at the Mynd and I flew it with Bobby Neill and Jack Minshall. Later that day the club held its AGM at which I won a contest with Ric Prestwich to succeed Bob Neill as club chairman.
We all liked the K13 and so one was ordered. On 23 October (Christine’s birthday) following a cable break during a short-west launch our remaining Capstan was spun in and written off with minor injury to the P2 but none to the P1 who was also the P1 in the Capstan write-off in May. As newly elected chairman and still CFI I was in charge of a club which did not have a two-seater glider. Oliver Hardy would probably have described our predicament as ‘another fine mess’! We ordered a second K13. Soon more troubles arose.
At the end of October the foot and mouth outbreak began. From the local farming community the club came under considerable pressure to cease its operations thereby avoiding members travelling to the Mynd from all points and possibly bringing the disease with them. We closed the club but the golf club did not close and incurred considerable bad press as a result. Foot and mouth did not reach the Mynd.
Our closure lasted for four months from the end of October to the beginning of March. During that time the red K13 (cost some £1,350) was collected from Schleicher’s in Germany and delivered to Bobby Neill’s Birmingham home. A few weeks later the second K13 joined the red one and both were duly instrumented to await the resumption of flying on the Mynd.
Flying resumed on 2 March 1968. We were all four months out of practice and all members needed check flights but before any such flights instructors had to familiarise themselves with the K13. Following a well established instructor practice I checked myself out by solo flying the first two flights in the brand new red K13. Then I checked out some of the instructors who in turn checked out their fellow instructors and then mass check flights commenced. Quickly the club’s operations returned to normal. Ernie Ainscough took over as CFI on 3 May 1968.
If the club had to close for four months but could choose when then four winter months at the start of which we had no two-seaters would seem a good choice.
Rather different from the present circumstances in which, with the club fleet intact, the outbreak started at the beginning of the soaring season rather than at the end as in 1967.
Interestingly (to an accountant at least) the club’s accounts for the year ended 31 March 1968 (i.e. covering the foot and mouth closure period) showed a surplus of £513 whereas those for 1967 and for 1969 showed deficits of £485 and £700 respectively.
Ann Parry
Over Easter I allowed myself to go up to the club, to help keep an eye on the place. The first time I had been there since the foot and mouth crisis took hold. I had heard that the public were beginning to drive and walk over the hill, but that there was nowhere for cars to stop, and of course all the public rights of way are closed, so nowhere to walk except the road. And the weather had turned far nicer than the earlier forecast had suggested. The disinfectant mat at the entrance was about to blow away in the wind, so I anchored it with more stones. The fake herons are still by the dew pond, haven’t taken flight yet. Curlews are back for the season, even if we aren’t. And the buzzards carry on soaring. Even now I forget sometimes and glance up at the sky, searching the clouds for gliders until I suddenly remember. I hadn’t realised how ingrained this habit has become since moving to Wentnor six years ago. Sometimes I switch on the radio to hear who’s in what, and with my binoculars I feel I can almost tell anyway. If I’m not at the club and flying myself, I love being aware of the wings above the hill. Memorably once I stepped outside at just the moment that a glider came racing low over the house from the west, speeding for the ridge. I watched with interest to see if the ridge were still working, and at what height they would arrive. About half way up, and then pulled up, exchanging speed for height and curving up above the hill. John Stuart has calculations about this sort of thing from Wentnor in a K21. But back to the club. I had a good look round, but only outside, being locked out. Denise and Gill, your daffodils were flowering at the back door. The line of trailers is full of gaps, as people have taken their gliders elsewhere, and even a couple of caravans have migrated to Shobdon. I peered through a gap in our hangar doors, and looked at the K8 and K13 left there. That K13 was the glider I learnt to fly in and went solo in, and the green K8 is the one which looked after me so sweetly on my first Silver attempt and inevitable field landing at Ludlow. Why inevitable? When I set off on that cross-country it wasn’t really with the intention of getting to Nympsfield, my supposed goal, I just had that feeling I was ready to go and do a first field landing, and wanted to cut the tie with the Mynd. It was Denise who came to fetch me, as I’d encountered an awkward landowner, and it seemed wise to fetch us promptly, though the day was still good and hence the course busy, and I was prepared to wait.
After a good prowl round, and peering through the windows (saw a previous newsletter lying on the table), I sat on the bench outside, feet up and basked in the sunshine, admiring the view to the west. Cader Idris was clear on the horizon, and there was smoke from fires in the Welshpool area, which is particularly badly hit by foot and mouth. So strangely quiet. No walkers, mountain bikers, horse riders, hang glider pilots. No cars parked outside the gate to watch our flying. Just the hill as always, maybe taking a rest from us and our activities. In the grand scale of things we are a mere blip in its existence; what is nearly seventy years when you’ve been around for 400 million years? The Long Mynd rocks are so old that they predate living things, so there are no fossils in the oldest parts. But I remember reading that in places in the Mynd rocks are fossilised rain pits, formed by showers on beaches 590 million years ago. And that about an inch may be eroded from the hill over a human lifetime, to give an idea of geological time scales. (From Peter Toghill’s book Geology in Shropshire.)
I found I was remembering times at the club, and all the friendship, companionship and team work that happens as a result of us gathering to fly from this hill. When we had moved to Wentnor I went to fly one mid-week day, and JS talked about my exercising the X factor. The other day I was washing up, looking at the hill and the sky, and realised that if things were normal, I would be asking myself if I had any work deadlines to meet that day? If not, then respond to the call of the sky and go flying. The X factor? In my imagination it was the work of a few seconds to gather my kit, drive to the club, rig the Pegasus with the help of whoever was around at lunchtime, and there I was, strapped in and waiting for the cable, studying the sky. In reality it takes a bit longer. I have had some lovely flights thus. Once I spent most of the day working, watching the cloud-covered hill, and the way the cloudbase crept up the hill. As it cleared the club I went up and rigged, and managed to get a launch late in the afternoon, on a day when most people had given up and gone home. And got into wave for a delightful flight into the summer evening. Most recently when I did that, I got into wave at the south end, and was soon at 10,000 feet above our house, my best ever height so far. Without a barograph. So I stopped climbing, and went travelling, finding even better lift on the way to Oswestry. Came home as evening approached, but was still at around 7,000 feet. So I nipped off south towards Clun to loose height, only to find I was flying at 90 knots and going up. What fun. Exhilarated, I raced for home, flying faster than I ever have for miles to pull up over home, still at some silly height, knowing I was alone up there (Chris Harris and Ian McArthur had gained their trophy-winning heights earlier that afternoon, unknown to me) and wondering at the beauty of it all.
Have you watched the sunset while flying on the ridge, the glorious colours of the sky reflected in your wings? One day I was flying on a mostly grey day, and saw an intense flash of blue from the ground. What on earth was it? On my next beat south I realised it was the fishpond at Myndtown, reflecting the only blue bit of sky in all that grey. It was some years of flying before I even noticed the pond’s existence. But then it took me about two years to notice the averager in the Pegasus. Another time I was puzzled by the curving line of lights across the hill, until I realised they were the reflectors on those trailer-catching stumps the National Trust have lined the road with. They were surprisingly bright as the low sunshine reflected off them. In the autumn I was walking home from the club, and had paused on the side of the hill. Gliders were ridge-running, including Richard in the Pegasus. I’d not experienced this from half way down the hill, and enjoyed the sight and sound of these gliders batting to and fro round me, especially to see my own glider. And have you seen the ancient field workings at the south end of the Mynd, only easily visible when the sun is low? Again, it was some time before I noticed these. Then of course, there is the Mynd seen from afar, on return from cross-country, trying to work out which lump on the distant horizon is actually the right hill, and that special delight of knowing that you are going to get home.
I look forward to seeing the windsock raised again at the club (Charles Carter took it down), and gliders wheeling in the air above the hill, and to resuming my social life there, and walking the hill. Like so many of the course people who had booked to fly with us, I wish to fly at the Mynd, and other places just don’t mean the same to me, even though there are good reasons for flying elsewhere. I have flown at other clubs, and been power flying as a passenger, and know there is a wider world of aviation beyond the Mynd. But it was the Mynd John and I moved to, and where I hope to see you soon. Let’s see, what sort of a party shall we have to celebrate our return?
Alison Rowson
It means a life-time of friends and companionship, who are there at times like I’ve just had, while I was ill, and they came from everywhere. Almost all of my visitors have been pilots! Thank you all very much.
Friendship when the club is buzzing with activity at weekends, during the courses, or at times like Task Week, which is fun!
It also means solitude, when perhaps the cloud is down on the hill, or it’s covered in snow, and there are very few people about, just the skylarks, the lapwings, the swallows and the curlews, which I learnt to recognise when I was very young. Or fine evenings, when almost everyone else has gone home, or early in the morning with the sounds from the valley - or silence - just the smell of the Mynd, which is unmistakable.
I could go on, but we all have our own ideas.
Vic Carr
A high performance
gliding camp at Gariep Dam Airfield Christmas 2000.
Gariep airfield is on the eastern side of the Karoo Desert some 200 km south of Bloemfontein. It was built for those constructing the hydro electric scheme on the Orange River some twenty five years ago. Located in the very dry sector of the desert it is ideally placed for 1000 km flights, of which three were completed this year. The airfield consists of two concrete runways in good condition, 15-33 and 10-28, each exceeding one thousand meters.
I was there at the invitation of Michael Stather Hunt, co-founder of the Coventry Gliding Club, and leader of the team who bought Husbands Bosworth site in 1960. He emigrated to South Africa some thirty years ago. He has an ASW20 which he generously shared with me during my visit over the Christmas holiday. I was totally new to desert flying and was therefore cautious on my first visit. Nevertheless we had some exciting flying. Michael has already completed his 1000 km in his 15m ASW in 1995. In addition to my solo flying, I had the good fortune to enjoy a flight well in excess of 600 km, in Walter Binder’s ASH27.5 with Oliver Binder, his nephew.
However the real purpose of this article is to alert gliding clubs in the UK to a revolution in aerotowing which I witnessed there. Due to unforeseen circumstances there was no tug when we first arrived. Peter How of the SASA, the site organiser, eventually arranged for a micro light tug to come down from Pretoria via Mafikeng on the third day. It was the third aeroplane of its type to fly and the first to be imported to South Africa. Made by Urban in Czechoslovakia it was called the Samba and it had not towed previously! Of glass fibre construction, 11 meter span weighing less than 300 kgs empty, low wing, comfortable side by side seating, a tricycle undercarriage and a one hundred horsepower ROTAX 912S engine. It proceeded to launch all the gliders there in no uncertain fashion. All the pilots on the site including myself were astounded. I understand since it has towed at other airfields in South Africa confounding all who saw it. In addition to its towing capability it proved very easy to fly and to have remarkable fuel economy, for example the two and a half hour delivery flight flight, from Mafikeng to Gariep plus 21 tows over 3 days, used slightly more than 80 litres of petrol which is only 80% of its capacity. Two more aircraft are being delivered to South Africa in July 2001.
I am sure that we in the UK need to assess this opportunity quickly, to achieve certification and assure ourselves of its reliability. If we succeed it will change for ever the economy and efficiency of launching gliders like no other factor affecting UK gliding in the last fifty years.
This has been published elsewhere.
Julian Fack
A few years ago during task week I actually managed to lose 173, my little Discus. It happened like this. The task was very difficult, something like Mynd, Hay-on-Wye, Hereford Racecourse, Mynd, and the weather was not cooperating.
Hereford was covered with low cloud, and the path back to the Mynd looked impossible. By tracking East from the racecourse towards Shobdon I eventually managed to work my way back towards Ludlow, but the last thermal evaded me, and I ran out of steam at Woofferton, right by the big aerials alongside the A49.
The railway runs alongside the A49 at this point, on the east side, and I noticed a long stubble field which had just been cut, in fact the farmer was still working on the combine harvester parked near the gate. In spite of hearing Nick call “Long Mynd 5 minutes” during my circuit, I managed to the landing OK, and ran across to the farmer without making a note of my coordinates.
He indicated that if I wanted a lift to Wooferton crossroads, where the Salwey Arms and the Little Chef are located, I should jump into the Land Rover right away. With the beacon flashing on the roof, we followed closely behind the combine in order to warn the following traffic, and immediately climbed a steep railway bridge. Once over the bridge we pulled out onto the familiar A49, and within a few minutes I was jumping out at the entrance to the Little Chef.
I phoned Hazel in control, and Meg phoned me back to say that Debbie had gone out on another retrieve, and she would see who she could persuade to lend a hand. After a couple of hours Mike Whitton and Meg turned up in Mike’s VW Golf. I had spent a some time in the pub carpark waiting, and had consumed a couple of pints in the late evening sunshine. We set off up the road, and turned off the only likely looking turning to the right. Immediately we found a level crossing, which I had not remembered, but no bridge.
We backtracked to the A49, and tried all the other turnings nearby, but had no luck finding a railway bridge. We asked locals, looked at a map, but railway bridges were remarkable for their absence. By now things were getting a bit fraught, Mike had come out of the kindness of his heart, and here was a silly pilot who could not find his glider! Meg was cursing me roundly, thinking we would be searching until dark, and might miss dinner.
We dropped the empty trailer and explored the locality. We tried everything, but had no luck until we found some rising ground and followed a winding lane to the top of a small hill. We got out and, looking over the hedge, saw the Discus sitting exactly where I had said it was, about half a mile away, alongside the railway.
We made our way back to the main road, took the turning which leads to the level crossing, and immediately realised that the route lay not over the level crossing but through a farmyard before it, then into a grass field and finally over a private railway bridge designed to allow access to the fields on the other side of the tracks. As soon as we pulled into the landing field on the other side of the railway it started to pour with rain, oh the joys of field landings!
John Parry
The trophies were awarded at the annual dinner.
Task Week: Liz Sparrow.
Pat Moore for the first cross-country flight of the year: Iain Evans flew 126 km on 4th March.
Ladder based on the pilot’s 4 best flights of the year: Paul Stanley with 7209 points comfortably beating the runner-up, Rose Johnson with 5914 points.
Sheffield for the best gain of height: Chris Harris and Ian MacArthur both reached 12,000 feet on 6 September with an unspecified gain but must have been greater than Ann Parry who claimed a gain of 9,000 with max height of 10,800 on the same day, all from winch launches.
Siam for the longest flight from the Long Mynd: Nick Heriz-Smith covered 554 km out of a planned 606 km turning Newport Pagnell, Ely, Longleat, landing at Hereford.
Hardwick for the best closed circuit flight from the Long Mynd: Nick Heriz-Smith with 528 km.
Long Mynd for the best flight in a club glider: Rose Johnson flew 336 km, turned Aston Down, Deddington and Welshpool and returned to the Long Mynd in a K23.
Golden Jubilee: Iain Evans for motivating members to install the caravan electricity supply, and decorate the clubhouse.
Two Seater: Paul Stanley and Paul Garnham for 504 km closed circuit Didcot - Rutland Water - Blenheim, shared with Paul Stanley and Jeff Rowson who covered 512 km Lasham - Cerne Abbas - Swindon but only got back to Shobdon.
Silver Jubilee for the best Silver Distance: Elizabeth Tusar flew the K8 to Moreton -in-Marsh, a distance of 100 km.
Tim’s Triangle: Iain Evans beat Chris Alldis by 6 minutes. Nick Heriz-Smith did it twice in one day but not as fast.
Neill for the best ab-initio: Andrew Sherrington.
David Bailey for the most promising young pilot: John Roberts.
Tony Spicer Barograph for the person most likely to use it: David d’Arcy achived his Silver height with a comfortable margin - in fact his gain of 8200 feet was well on the way towards a Gold.
Daisy Hardwick for a female flying achievement: Elizabeth Tusar for her Silver distance in the K8.
Bill Hardwick for a male flying achievement: Iain Evans for doing the fastest 500 km from the Long Mynd so far.
Maxam for services to the club: Liz Platt.
Ozee Winter for contribution to winter flying: Allan Reynolds and Ray Harrison.
Golden Shovel: Julian Fack managed to fill his very new and expensive car with mud while trying to get out of a field, in which he had got stuck looking for John Stuart who had landed out. He got out of the field by letting most of the air out of his tyres, and then proceeded slowly down the A49 to the nearest garage.