Volume 37 No 1 Feb-Mar 1986.pdf - Lakes Gliding Club

COPING WITH WIVES
PLATYPUS
For those who haven't been to the
Cornish Gliding Club, the airfield is
perched right on the edge of the cliffs and
has hard runways, one p.arallel ,to the cliffs
and one almost at right angles, so that y,ou
can launch towards them. On a decent day
the view is IJlagnificent, but unfortunately
it was pouring down and blowing half a
gale as we bumped on to the desefted airfield
late at night Well, I had hoped I
could save a few bob by parking there
free/cheaply and spending the resultant
savings on something essential like flying.
Even I thought it looked a bit bleak, a
thought that was confirmed as the voice I
know so well said firmly, "There is no way
I'm going to be abandoned up here."
From long experience I know that ifs no
use arguing with thal tone of voice" so j.(
was head down in the ~amp site book and
her resul1ant choice of all mod cons plus
swimming pool cost me the equivalent of
two and a half launches a day. Still, it
proved to be worth it, fm she was content
to laze by the pool whilst I 'trotted off up
10 the club next morning to get checked
out.
I • •• , was having one
of my good days
and he was probably
feeling benevolent . . ~ •
Perhaps my reputation for displaying
superb flying skills had preceded me, for
the club chairman, John Trenchard, took
it upon himself to check me oul in their
K-13, probably on ,the basis that "the
buck stops here". Anyway, I was having
one of my good days and he was probably
feeling benevolent, the net result of which
was that he cleared me 10 fly their K-6cR.
They did have a course running during
the period ,tha,t I was there, but I felt that
it wasn't on to pinch the cab'les or aircraft
from people who had pai'd for the week,
so I didn't get airborne as much as I had
hoped. (f mention th,is ,to confound those
critics who swear I have no conscience.)
Hawever, they carried on flying late on a
couple of evenings and the weekends, of
COUFse, were business as usual, so I did
manage to get a few trips in. Flying along
the cliffs is magnificent and I can
thoroughly recommend i,t. If you can get,
take, make or f,iddle the chance then I suggest
you do so.
Like most people in the gliding world,
the chairman, CFI and members of the
club were extremely friendly and went out
of their way to ensure that I didn't have a
wasted journey. Even the treasurer
16
appeared human, and how often can you
say that My thanks to all.
All very well, I hear you saying, but
what's happened to this Bronze C you
were busy chasing Well, I've crac'ked 'it,
well almost- Remember those other
friendly natives at Aston Down whom I
threatened with a return visit McCormick
d'oes not jest. Accompanied by 20 other
North WaUans (,incase we encountered
resistance) we returned to hold Our dub
week there in May. The results were
superb, Silver durations and distance,
Bronze legs, new solo pilots, excellent flying
and a good sodal side in the bar when
we came off the field.
That's when I discovered the secret of
how to succeed with this Bronze business.
Pirst of all you've got to sof,ten up one of
the instructors so that he lets you go off by
yourself as soon as possible. Now this is
simple at Aston Down because they autotow
with damn great American automatic
pi'ckups. "Pass me out on the towcars,
Pete, and )'11 give your people a hand with
the launching," you say innocently, then
when you are going at a decent speed you
declutch, only there isn't a clutch, just a
brake pedal, and he does a good imitation
of someone trying to exit through the
windscreen. "Tuck your left foot behind
your right," he advises, "and then you
won't be able to use it", but he hasn't
allowed for my lightning reactions. I can
untangle feet and stamp on the brake a
darn sight faster than he can brace himself,
and once more he heads for the windscreen.
After the third attempt he is looking
decidedly ,the worse for wear and feels
thal he has had enough of these attempts
on his life, only to find that it's my turn to
fly and he is to do the check. Now he can't
wait to turn me loose; once up round and
down safe'ly is all the excuse he needs and
there I am with a whole week of K-g to
get this Bronze.
As you would expect of someone with
my innate skills (that's innate, not inane),
by the end of the week both legs were
achieved. It's true I fell out of thermals
more often than most, but this was due to
adverse meteorological conditions which
the other pilots were not sensitive enough
to notice. The written portion of the test
has been taken and passed and only the
flying test and short field landings remain
to be completed. I think we should now
wait for a day when we can get up to
12 OOOft in order to give me a reasonable
chance of getting out of the spin. As I say,
apart from that I've cracked it.
My thanks to Ruth Housden, CFI at
Aston Down, for her organisation and to
all her members for a very successful
week.
TAIL
FEAT,HERS
Mentioning the
Unmentionable
This, bit is for boys only. One of those splendidly
willy women who write forS&G nowadays
can describe their side of tbis prob.
lem, and I can't wait to see what they have
to say. I refer to the dilemma - no, a
dilemma is when their are just TWO unacceptable
alternatives: this is a positive
quandary, all the several answers being
uncomfortable in every way - of how to
have a pee in a glider. 'h never occurred to
me before that there might be some advantages
to hang gliding other than cost, but
now one advantage, of a sort, immediately
leaps to mind. How high you have to be
before you are free of any risk of prosecution
for indecent exposure I don't know,
though personally I'd worry more about
frostbite, or buzzards, than the Law.
-._ ....._~
• $-­
~4' ~
Most of the fluid we take in comes out as sweat.
To return to the challenge as presented to
the pilot of the conventional sailplane:
there seems no logic to it. Some,times you
can fly nine hours and have no ,problems;
sometimes it can get you after just 30
minutes, as happened to me in a Nalionals
on one ofthose epic flights round Wales and
back to civilization. (There go our three
Welsh subscribers. ED.) Seven and a half
hours of discomfort rising relentlessly
towards agony. No bags, bottles, tubes ­
total lack ofpreparedness. I began to regret,
not for the first time, the gap in my
education when I failed to make the grade
in the Boy Scouts. When I eventuaUy gave
SAILPLANE & GLIDING