VGC News/Newsletters - Lakes Gliding Club

Air Travel Tweety Style
(Even T.3ls get you to the party on time)
by David Ormerod
Neil SCI1'U>, and I (Captains Screaming and Barking respectively)
had heard that great parties took place at Husbands
Bosworth on competition weekends. So we decided we must
arrive in style by flying our T.31 'Tweety" down for the party
that evening. After watching the club gliders struggling to
stay airborne for more than half an hour we decided a big
helping hand from our tuggy would be much appreciated.
There was a short debate as to whether we were, in fact,
crazy enough, then a line was drawn on a map and off we
went.
We pul'led off tow at 5000ft after a fair amount of ground
had been covered, and after we had descended back past the
€lauds we could see lots of competition gliders coming the
other way at top speed. We had worked out that with this
much height it would be a simple final glide to get to Hus Bos.
Neil's new OPS confirmed that we were on track so we sat
back and waved to the big wrnte 50: I, gliders going the other
way_ What brave men they are! We arrived over site with
1800ft to spare so could l11alce our arrival look even more
impressive by conducting a high final turn followed by a
special, T.31 style side slip. After basking in an hour or so of
glory, we decided to come clean, but only after we made some
hot ship pilots embarrassed that ,they had landed out when we
had flown 50k with no problem.
It was a truly great party with fine food and a live and quite
exce'llent band. (Thanks to Nonnan with the Motor Tutor for
letting us borrow his caravan for the night)
After a hearty breakfast and a period of time recovering from
the night before, we thought we would set off back to Saltby.
Once again the intrepid aviators donned their silly hats and
goggles ,and strapped themselves Ito a bright yellow flying
machine.
We pulled off at 1800ft str3,ight into a whopper. In fact, all
rhe thermals were whoppers that day, the only problem was
the lO-115kt headwind and what seemed like several miles
between thermals. We spent a frustrating couple of hours
flying back and forth between Bruntingthorpe and Leicester,
losing 'I 500ft between each thermal. It looked like we were
not goiJlg to get to Saltby at this rate and when we looked the
other way, guess w~hat. We didn't have enough height to get
back to Hus 80S. There was nothing for it, we sn()].Ild just
have to lallld on that tiny little runway beneath us, Bruntillg~h·
orpe. We selected a suitable blade of gl'ass on a nicely mown
strip by the side of tha1t rather small runway, andllanded. After
spending an enjoyable few hours browsing around a display
of various civil andl military aircraft our friendly tuggy picked
us up and took us back home.
Although we may l1ave done things a littile different to
most Ihat weekend we both had a vast amount of fun. A huge
thank you goes to the people of Husbands Bosworth, our
much loved tuggies Pilil Walsh and Val Oreene, my best chum
and co-pilot Neil and, of course, Tweety, who helped make
this a memoFab'le w.eekend.
(How nice to hear of members using their old gliders to go
somewhere, and to have so much fun in doing so. A lovely
story, David and Nei!. Ed)
T3J "Tweety" at the back ofthe grid at Husbands Bosworth.
David Ormerod.
Pegasus Microlight with Olympia 2b during the rowing trials.
Keith Nurcombe.
33