Volume 37 No 2 Apr-May 1986.pdf - Lakes Gliding Club
Volume 37 No 2 Apr-May 1986.pdf - Lakes Gliding Club
Volume 37 No 2 Apr-May 1986.pdf - Lakes Gliding Club
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\.<strong>Apr</strong>il-<strong>May</strong> 1986£1.30
·<strong>Apr</strong>il Showers•••\ \ \ \\ \ \. \ \ \ 'e . '\ \ \ ~\ . \ { ~r • \' ~~\ \. \ \\; \ \.Can catch you out because they are always so unexpected.It's the same with accidents, they are the things that happen to otherpeople - until it's your turn ISo when a little rain falls in your life, it could he p to know that youhave a waterproof insurance policy. Something you can expect fromMowbray Vale.For a rain check on insurance, why not contact the experts?'\Contact Carol Tay/or or Stephen Hill onThirsk (0845) 23018 - 24hr. Ansaphone Service.Or write to:MOWBRAY VALE INSURANCE8 CastJegate, Thirsk, <strong>No</strong>rth Yorkshire Y07 1HL. Telex 587470Represented at Lloyds
Magazine of theBritish <strong>Gliding</strong> AssociationKimberley House, Vaughan WayLeicester, LE1 4SGTel' 'Leicester 0533531051<strong>Apr</strong>il-<strong>May</strong> 1986<strong>Volume</strong> XXXVII <strong>No</strong>. 2EDITORGillan Bryce-Smith261 Queel\ Edilh's Way; Cambridge, CBl 4NHTeI0223247725CONSULTANT EDITORRika Harwood66 Maisemore Gardens, Emsworth, Hants, POlO 7JXTel 0243<strong>37</strong>4560SUBSCRIPTIONSBev RussellBGA OfficeCOMMIHEEA. W. F. Edwards (Chairman)R. Q. Barrell, M. Bifd, F. G. Irving, B. RolfeADVERTISING MANAGERHelen RichieCheiron Press Lld7 Amersham Hill, High Wycombe, Bucks, HP13 60Tel 0494 442423PUBLISHERBritish Glding; Associanon(Barry Rolfe, BGA Administrator)Leicester Printers Ltd . The Church Gate Press· LeicesterCoVe!: Mike Eval\S photographed Ph~ and Oi8f1a Kingin, the Midland GC's K·21 aftef theif bungy launchfrom the tong Mynd ḷ
London Sailplanes LtdPair tt_ cdrbon ,tubelA jor re . Id55 u. stee,,,d . t listS .n g, plastICS' " wood.spec,d . forcedre ,nfibre .* A. SCHLEICHER GLIDERS AND SPARES: SOLE U.K. Agents* TOST WHEELS, TYRES (inc. 400 x 4), WEAK LINKS, RELEASE HOOKS (new and factory exchange units)* PRINTA NEOGENE DOPES AND PAJINTs: Main stockists* Agent for WINTER INSTRUMENTS. Most other instruments and radios availableMATERIALS FOR REPAIRS AND REBUILDSGLI FINNISH BIRCH PLY in a range of thicknesses from 0.8 to 6.0mmGERMAN STEEL TUBE for GLIDERS: Complete range* INSTRUMENT CALIBRATION AND REPAIRSAnd hundreds of other items available from stock - All at competitive pricesUS ..-~~:~~:.:U~t~:~~~~SL~~::EDTelephone: Dunstable (0582) 62068Or Open Monday to Saturday: 9.00 - l' .00 and 2.00 - 5.00•phocnae,, at:PEGASUS 101 CLUB TRAINERA SIMPLIFIED VERSION OF THE HIGHLY SUCCESSFUL PEGASUS 1.01 S1D, AT THE ViERY AHRACTIVE PRICEOF 122.000 FRANCS EX WORKS * PLUS UNBEATABLE DEFERRED PAYMENT TERMS-SUITABLE FOR FIRST SOLO OR 'EXPERIENCED PILOTS GLIDE ANGLE 40:1 ARDINTERESTED? FOR FURTHER DETAILS OR TEST FLIGHTS OF THE PEGASUS RANGE OF SINGLE SEATERS OR MARIANNE TWO SEATERSRing Steve White QI'I 0494 36888 Of Alister Key on 02406 2491, or write toNINE FOUR AVIATION LTD2 Hazlewood Cottage, Hor'ns lane, Marrow, Bucks50SAILPLANE 6. GLIDING
{\.".~. v/~Representmg famous names ~ :. .' :..carries a lot ofresponsibility. ,\ ~/So when we were appointed L ~Jl'-'L\ '.,,/..d~(J •Licenced Repair Agents byGrob and awarded an exclusivespare parts franchise for their gliders, motor gliders and light aircraft,it was a time for celebration, reflection and considerable investment.Similarly, being stockists for Tost launch equipment and exclusive agentsfor their winches, gave us a bit ofa lift.Havin~ the bits and the responsibility is now a pleasure-and ifyou ever haveaforced landing, it's comforting to reflect that Chiltern can take care ofthe problemsofgetting your aircraft back to base or into our fully-equipped workshops.Ourlarge stock ofparts, repair material and accessoriesthen comes into play. Whether you repair it yourselfor use our expertise, you can be sure that you'regetting the best.Every repair by Chiltern is backed by acustomer protection policy with full productliability cover - a mark ofconfidence in theirproducts and our workmanship.A telephone call will bring our recoverytrailer to your aid and all the backing you need.Licenced to repair all Grob products.Sole Concessionaires for spare parts forgliders. motor gliders and light aircraft..-:=::_----_----::::===-Booker Airfield, N r. Marlow, Bucks, SL7 3DR.0494 445854 (works) or 0865 890517 (outside office hours).Access and Barclaycard accepted with pleasure.Grob demonstration and sales - Tel: 0491<strong>37</strong>184<strong>Apr</strong>il/<strong>May</strong> 1986 51
Civil Aviation AuthorityIS YOUR CHART UP TO DATE?The following revised charts have been published by the"Civil Aviation Authority:-2171CD - SOUTHERN ENGLAND AND WALES - 1:500,000 - EDITION 11Sheet 16 - SOUTHERN ENGLAND - 1:250,000 • EDITION 11P,reviows editions of these charts are now obsolete.You can 'purchase the latest editions of all Quarter and half million aeronautical charts of the United Kingdom - eitherin person or by PQst - from:-and from the foliowing accredited chart agents:-THE CAA CHART ROOMTHIRD nOOR CAA HOUSEKINGSWAY lONOON WC28 6TETel: 01-<strong>37</strong>9 7311 ext 2569AOPA50a Cambridge StLondon SW1V 4QQTel: 01-834 5631AIRTOUR INTERNATIONALElstree AerodromeHerts W06 3AWTel: 01-953 4870Open Saturdays8RITISHAIRWAYS·AERADAERAD HouseHeathrOw AirportMiddlesex TW6 2JATel: 01-562 0795EDWARO STANFORO LTO12-14 Long AcreLondon WC2E 9LPTel: 01-8361321Open SaturdaysThey are also stocked by most Flying <strong>Club</strong>s and Schools.DON'T FLY WITH AN OUT OF DATE CHART.......r---~,Mg RJ i:J IIIi I::: 'Introduces the New-------..,M NAV 50 NAV/VARIOMETERSYSTEM£833+VAT - Complete (£951.95 ine. VAnG~ Cambridge. Aero. InstrumentsCambr,idge Aero Instruments, Inc.6A Dunham Road, Billerica, Massachusetts 01821Tel. (617) 275-0889; Te'lex 948503Check these features:* Altitude-Compensated,NAVand YARIOMEl:ER.* 'FE Compensation bv TE Probe.* An: VARIO and NAY electronics in theNAV unit.* VAfUO Readout Available In 80' or~8mm.* Varia scale change and dual sensitivityswitches.* Final-Glide and Distance NavigationComputer.*Bug Polars, and Variable Wing-Loading - adjustable In flight.* Full 4·Function Audio.* Speed Director.* Digital Averager.Contact your localCambridge Dealer,John Delafield,Cotswold House,Mill Street, Islip,Oxon OX5 2SYTel: Kidlington (08676) 2357RD Aviation LimitedTelex 265871MONREFG(Quote MAG 10189)The Cambridge MARK 4M hasbeen deveroped from the wellestablishedMKIV Variometer andMKfV NAV. It combines the latestin ,Micro-computer techllo'logywith tile I)hilosophy oftheoriginalMKIV system, to offer a reliable,affordable system for Competitionand Cross-eountry pilots.Cambridge Systemswere used byWinners of every World Championshipfor the, last 11 years,including Rieti.The Record speaks for itself.Dickie Feakes,11 The Poplars,Launton,Bicester, OxonTel: Bicester (0869) 24505252 SAILPLANE & GLIDING
• AUSTINAVIATION122 Main Street,Stillington,York Y061JUOG-300THE ONLY STANDARD CLASS AIRCRAFT WI1H ALL THE FOLLOWING FEATUREs.1. Boundary layer blowing turbulators on trailing edge under surface.2. Watar ballast tank in fin for optimum C of G selection.3. All controls auto connect on rigging.4. 42: 1 Glide ratio at 66 knots5. 11571bs Max all up weight - 4201b or 286lb H.O bags at choice.6. 5x5.00 mainwheel. well sprung with generous ground clearance.7. Best visibility to be found in any glider.OM 47,300 Approx. £12,000Short Delivery al PresentTelephone Eas·ingwO'ld (0347) 810-25524hr Ansafone takes 2 min message00-101Well known and loved Standard Class aircraft for club or compatition use.DG-101G CLUBwith fixed wheel and no ballast.OM :17,100 Approx_ £10,000DG-101G STANDARD CLASSwith sprung retractable mainwheel andH,O ballast of 220lbs.Glide ratio 39:1 at 57kts.--GLASER - DIRKSSAILPLANESUK Agent Since InceptionOM 38,200McLEAN AVIATIONTHE AERODROME,RUFFORTH,YORK Y02 3QA0904 83653* *Factory trained andapproved repair agentfor GLASER-DISKSSailplanes* * *SOLE UK AGENTS FORO/K BAROGRAPHS - THEWELL-KNOWN CLOCKWORKBAROGRAPH*PZL COMPASS £30+VAT*FOR SALEASW-20 - Complete outfit.Please ask for details* * *****POWEREDSAILPLANES UKBOB McLEAN 0904--83653JOHN ELLlS 0765-89431D-G400 Demonstratoravailable.DG 400 - Self-Launching, Highperformance sailplane<strong>Apr</strong>il/<strong>May</strong> 1986 53
THETB720AIRBAND'TRANSCEIVERFor rnal1Y years those inwlved i'l g8dlnghave been aware of the adV1llltages of airbandradio communication. However in thepest type approved equipment has beenprohibitively expensive.It has also beenawkward 10 position, heavy and the essociatedproblems of where to safely put the battery'considerable. Suitable secondhandcommercial transceivers have also been difficultto come by and to get them on the correct.aliocated lrequency has always been aproblem.The TR720 CM approved airbarid transceivercosts only £395.00 pluS VAT and, asyou see in the pholoQraph, is Ideally suitablefor glider openIIIion, liav!J9 its own internalpower 1IWlOIV... TR720 IS compact, lightweighterid...,transferable f!Om glider toglder.PIeaee telephone or write" us here at Matlockfor a full cololM' descriptive leaflet.LOWE .ELECTRONICS-CHESTERFIELD ROAD, MATLOCK, DERBYSHIRE DE4 fiLETELEPHONE 0629-2817, 2430. 4057, 4995We are pleased to announce that\ WESTL£Y l'!JRCRAF1have moved to a brand new purpose-built workshop atCRANFIELD AIRFIELDThe complete glider service under one roof* Glass fibre repairs in carbon, kevlar, glass, to all types ofsailplane in our enVironmentally controlled workshop withpost cure facilitieS and vacuum forming to take the largestcomponents.* Repairs to steel tube, wood and metal sailplanes.* On-site TIG, argon arc and gas welding to CM standardsin all materials.* Fly your motor glider in to US for a complete service, C of A.or brin~ it to us for repair, fUllairframe, engine, propellerand instrument service available.Bring your tug aircraft to us for service or repair.* We can manu'facture any cOl11ponents in our machineshop, full turning, milling, and sheet metal facilities.* Complete re-fabric and re-spray facilities.*' <strong>Gliding</strong> shop, material supplies and glider spares.* BGA, PFA, CM Approval... C of A to all types.'CRANFIELDAIRFIELDWharJey End. Cranfleld, Beds MK43 OALTel (0234) 751807 (works)(0525) <strong>37</strong>9567 (after working hours)JUMETRE CLUB CLASS SAILPLANEP f..T A MORE REAL.ISTIC PRICE...cINST~UM.EN:ts. . (, ... 'SPARES FO:RPUCHAC·Z,·JANTAR etc.REPA~RSC of AsWELDINGRESPRAYSMATERIALSFOR FURTHER INFORMATION, BROCHURES, .-QUOTA TIONS & PRICELlSTS,:CONTACT54 SAILPLANE-& GLIDING
The World's <strong>No</strong>. 1LS-61st & 2nd: Rieti1st: British Nationaletc etcor Standard Class L-S4<strong>No</strong>w with improved performanceEarly DeliverySPECIAL OFFERSPECIAL LOW PRICE0 4 so STD ON. 0..t-.,50 •fIID~.,.\ .'\1 9VOl.-001"«.•COM /C ,0CHANFSG 71 MOTX 0Details from:SPEEDSOARING6 LASHLAKE RD, THAME, OXON084421 4132 or 08692 4269124 HOUR ANSWERING SERVICESOUTHDOWN AERO SERVICES LTDSPECIALIST GLIDER REPAIRERS SINCE 1954NOW APPOINTED OFFICIAL REPAIR AGENTS BYROLLANDEN SCHNEIDER GmbHFOR THEIR LS RANGE OF GLIDERSREPAIRS AND C OF A INSPECTIONS UNDERTAKENON ALL MAKES AND TYPESTHERMAL EQUIPMENT LTDWINTER AND SECONDHAND AIRCRAFT INSTRUMENTSSOUTHOOWN AEROSTRUCTURE LTOCAA approved to build the GRP microlight PIPSTRELLE 2CLASHAM AIRFIELD, ALTON, HANTS GU34 5SRTelephone HERRIARD (0256 83) 359<strong>Apr</strong>il/<strong>May</strong> 1986 55
•Make Insurance problemsjust plane sailing ... ~,CONSULT THE AVIATiON INSURANCE SPEC ALlSTSFOR A COMPETITIVE QUOTATION CONTACT: JON SALMONGLIDERS, SAILPLANES,AND POWERED AIRCRAFTFACILITIES AT LLOYD'Sf~Member of RI.B.I\LOWN,DES LAMBERTAVIATION UMITEDLowndes Lambert House, 53 EastcheapLondon, EC3P 3HLTel (01) 283-2000 Telex 8814631AB-INITIO TO DIAMOND BADGEEnjoy motor gl'iding from Enstone in our newly exp,anded fleetA Janus CM and a PIK 20E have joined ourtwo Grob 109s. so now you can: learn tofly ab-initio and collect your SLJMGPPl* in the Grobs; convert from Bronze andSilver Certificates to SLMGPPL; learn basic gliding techniques. field selection andnavigation; develop advanced soaring techniques in the Janus CM, and go forcross-country soaring flights and Badge attempts in the PIK 20E and the Janus.Complete beginners are wel'come. Courses planned to suit your timetable andbudget. Friendly club atmospnete. Seven days a week operation throughout theyear.<strong>No</strong> membership subscription. TUition by CM-approved instructors. Book flying bythe hour. Pay only for f,lying. All aircraft available for private hire."Sell Launching Motor Glider Private Pilot's LicenceGive us a rinIJ. or, better still. come to see us:OXFOROSHIRE SPORTFLYING CLUB, ENSTONE AERODROME, CHURCH ENSTONE, OXFORDSHIRE OX7 4NP Tel: 060872 208Send for ourprogramme.Information inGerman andEnglishSegelflugschul'e Oerlinghausen, Flugplatz, D-4811 Oerlinghausen - Tel: 0049-5202-7232356 SAILPLANE &GLIDING
PZL-WILGA4 mlnvtes 10 tow a glider to 1000m1 mlnut. to descend from 1000rn5 minutes fQr the whole towIng operationMAY BE BOUGHT,HIRED OR LEASEDSZC-50 PUCHACZTwo-sealer all glass-fibre traininggliderGLIDE ANGLE 1:30FULLY AEROBATIC.--.GLIDERSMOTOR GLIDERSLIGHT AIRCRAFTAGRICULrURAL AlCHELICOPTERSENGINESINSTRUMENT~SPARE PARTSNEW15 METRE CLUB GLA$SSZD 51-1 JUNIORFROM FIRST SOLO'UP TO DIAMONDSJANTAR STD 3 520-48-3Glide ANGLE 1:40ANGLO-POLlSH SAILPLANES LTDWycombe Air Park· Booker . Marlow . Bucks(0628) 39690 (0494) 40911 Telex: 848341 CHACOM GTH E PIK 30 HIGH PERFORMANCE SAILPLANE with retractable power plantNEW -BY SIREN-FRANCESIREN has now in production a new Improved version of the very well known motor glider PIK 20e 2 F.The 17m span PIK 30 is going to become your best choice. It will offer you top performance, with all qualities ofthe originalPIK 20E and the best price for a motor glider of high technology (including carbon fibre).You can fly either Open Class or 15m ClassSo you get new opportunities with all the advantages of the auxiliary engineYour best choice will be PIK 30, already on order for THE FRENCH AIR FORCETECHNICAL DATA OF THE 17 m• Wing Span =17 m• Wing Area =10,63 rn' (114,4 sq.ft.)• Wing Loading =36/43 (7.42 to 8,86 Ib/sq.ft.)• Aspect Ratio =27,2• Maximum L/D =45 at 110 Kmlh• Min Sink=0,54 m/s• Weight Max. =460 Kg• VNE=280 Km/hELECTRIM SAILPLANESTHRUXTON RACING CIRCUIT, THRUXTON, ANCOVER, HANTSTelephone: Weyhlll 2089 STC 0264-77<strong>Apr</strong>fl/<strong>May</strong> 1986 57
BENWATSON('HAIRMAN'SREPORTweather was ghastly but in otherrespects 1985 was a remarkably good year.Tot"!l hours flown increased by 5% and pilotmembership of all clubs by 3%. However,cross-country distances flown were down by14% bom the 1984 record. A few soaringdays were excellent. Congratulations toChris Rollings for the first OK 150kmtriangle (Petersfie1d/WelshpooI!York), toTomDocheFty for the first 500km in Scottishwave, to Dave Watt for the r5rn 400kmtriangle speed record and Mike Jeffereysfor the two-seater O/R record. Furtherafield Pam Hawkins in Australia set a new·world female 750km speed record(110.5km/h) and A~an Sands in USA theBritish National goal and return distanceand speed records (1128km at 105.8km/h).Congratulations to both of t,hem.Our success in reopening access to wavesoaring at Portmoak represents a considerableachievement after ,more ,fhan two yearspressure and' negotiation by the BGA. Weare most indebted to our Parliamentaryrepresentative Mr Bill Walker and to thesympathetic attitude ofthe Under Secretaryof 'State for Transport Mr Michael SpicerMP. Within the BGA Tom Zealley, ChrisNicholas and Bill Scull deserve the creditand our warmest thanks.Financially the BGA had a satisfactoryyear with Ihe accounts showing a surplus of£14911 - a step towards the building ofadequate reserves as agreed at the AGMlast March.The Sports Council are a major financialsupporter of gliding to the tune of around£100000 annually when capital grants toclubs and contributions to our internationalteams are included. Their New Approach toGrant Aid requires all governing bodies toproduce a five year plan against which ourachievement will be measured when ourfuture grants are considered. The plan willinclude anticipated grants to clubs towardsthe cos't of site purit is essential to.ensure insurance pn;>tection for instruc,tors.However the BGA back-up policy is nolonger the cheapest way to achieve thissince the premium has risen from £2000 in1984 to £8000 for 1986. A sum that is loolarge to be met from general inceme.Accordingly the instructor rating renewalfee has been introduced, so that if a club'spolicy is out ofdate or inadequate in total orvoided on a technicality then the instructoris stil covered by the BGA policy. However,if we can improve overall insurancecover at club level by passing this newOperational Regulation at the AGM thenwe shall be able to review the BGA's ownback-up policy again next year, and also theinstructors renewal fee, to see if they arestill necessary.Training and safety standards have cont,inued10 receive close attention. The over(Continued on next page.)SAILPLANE & GLIDING
A. H. WARMINGE:RUNSCHEDULED ARRIVALWave flying in a mountainous area, Alf had few options whenthe ga,p in the clouds closed, daylight was fading and hisradio developed a fault.Sitting at 17000£: in my Ventus B overthe Dee valley to the lee of the Grampians Idivided my attention between the altimetershowing a gradual climb of 150ft/min andkeeping a weather eye on the stratus typecloud slowly thickening way below. Overcastskies earlier on that mid-October dayhad finally cleared sufficiently for the tug tostart launching at 3pm so that we could takeadvarntage of the few remaining daylighthours,Above Aboyne field the previous week,strong soulh-westerly winds had been regularlyproducing wave formations from the(Colllin"e,1 from previous page,)all trend of accidents continues to be similarto recent years and, sadly, there was oneglider fatality during the year. Researchinto tug \lpset accidents continued, includingflying tests by an intrepid group of pilotsal Booker, but there is not yet a reliable andfail-safe mechanical solution to the problem.Various modifications to hooks andother new developments are being progressed.It has been a busy year for the BGA staffparticularly our two seniorexecutives BarryRolfe and Bill Scull; and 1986 looks nodifferent, On behalf of all pilots I would liketo thank them and their staff most warmlyfor their work on our behalf. The hours of9·5 have little relevance in their lives.In addition to the permanent staff thereare no less than 84 glider pilots serving honorarily(and fairly voluntarily) on committees.In nearly every case this involves continuingresponsible work for the BGA andnot just attendance at meetings. We couldnol operate without them so I thank themalso very much indeed, particularly thesub-committee chairmen for all their workduring 1985.As we look forward to 1986 the issuesmost in our minds are the proposed airspacerestrictions around Upper Heyford and theHire and Reward case at Lasham. Anupdate on both will be given at the AGM.With your help we will continue the fight forfreedom from beaurocracy!<strong>Apr</strong>il/<strong>May</strong> 1986mountain contours which glider pilotsdream about - vast areas of strong smoothupcurrents of air wafting sailplanes toaltitudes verging on the sUb-statosphere.Earlier on this particular visit flights to9500ft and then 15500ft had whetted myappetite, so although the sun was now sinkingI was loath to break off climbing beforetopping Diamond height.Then it unhappily happened. The onesmallish gap underneath showing the reassuringmeander of the Dee near the homeairfield closed up in a matter ofseconds andleft me no alternative but to start descending.Below there was now a complete cloudblanket and at 6pm daylight availability wasbecoming an all important factor in thechanged circumstances.Putting out the airbrakes, I started to letdown slowly to avoid encouraging the formationof mist or worse still ice on thecanopy exterior due to a cold airframeencountering the lower warmer temperatures,and then switched on the artificialhorizon in anticipation of the passagethrough cloud.'... I then discovered the sethad developed a fault andwas unserviceable ontransmission. 'At 13000ft it became safe to dispensewith the encumbrance of the oxygen maskand thus use the radio. To my discomfort, tosay the least, I then discovered the set haddeveloped a fault and was unserviceable ontransmission. To add to my problems theartificial horizon had toppled and at fullrevs was showing an inverted presentation.However, it would only be at fault in pitchand the degree oferror could be assessed bythe aircraft's gliding angle.Loss of radio contact was disconcerting asit was of pa ramount importance to know thec1oud'base and general weather conditionsunder it. With mountains peaking to 3000ftin the vicinity and a 30-40kt wind upsettingone's dead reckoning, I was decidedlyunhappy about descending through theovercast without that knowledge andaocordingly cQnsideredthe alternatives.About i5 miles away to the NW and asimilar distance 10 ESE it appeared clear.To fly in the strong SW wind' to the formerwould give little chance of then returning tobase, so I elected for the easterly option.At 6.25pm, with the sun already set butwith the ground visible, I pinpointed theaircraft's lposition near Loch Skene andcould see the eastern sea boa,rd. UnfortunateIyit was not possible to verify my actualposition as Aberdeen, Ihough presumablyonly about eight miles away, was shroudedby the cloud layer.From 6000ft it was still possible to getback to Aboyne in the thirty minutes ofdaylight left but with the ground assuming amonochrome appearance, coupIed with apartly misted up canopy, any possible errorofnavigation would entail landing out in thesticks, a hazardous and daunting prospect atdusk.There was only one really sensibIe courseof action, make for Dyce Airport. So turningeast I rapidIy lost height to see if Aberdeenwas where it should be. Sure enoughwithin minutes the glider was under thecloud blanket and there it lay with theaerodrome on the north side invitingly litup.As anticipated a radio call to the airtraffic frequency elicited no reply, so flyingover to the east side of the field, away fromthe runway in use but well inside the circuitpattern, I quickly let down, picking a smallgrassed area by the British Caledonianhelicopter pads and landed as inconspiciouslyas possible; so successfully, I mightadd, that apparently no one was aware ofthe sailplane until after it had arrived at6.45pm.Relating my story some fifteen minuteslater to the somewhat cooI and correctsenior air traffic controller, it was pleasingto see him visibIy thaw out and when I'dfinished he smiled and said "Well as far aswe are concerned it was an emergency situation- above cloud, no radio, running out ofdaylight and in a glider, in such circumstanceswe were pleased to help."Whilst waiting for my very relievedretrieving crew I settled down in flying controlto enjoy Dyce's hospitality in the formof an Air UK packed meal, coffee and, ofcourse, a not so wee dram.At my rather ripe age, one ought to beconsidering a pastime with a softer option,but then it could never be the fun or havethe challenge of soaring in the skies!59
T.A.M.BRADBURY500KMDAYSTom tells you what to lookfor on Met maps so thisseason all the good daysmay be exploited, he ideal day starts off with clear skies.Strong thermals, marked by shallowcumulus, develop early and the cloudbaserises above 4000ft by mid morning. Cloudremains well broken throughout the dayand shallow cumulus persists till very late inthe afternoon. The wind at flying levelsremains light and the visibility is very good.There are no problems with showers, nospreading out of layer cloud to cut off thesun and no approaching fronts to send asheet ofcirrostratus to cut down the thermalstrength. The area we wish to flyoverremains unaffected by incursions of unsoarablesea air and any sea breeze fronts lieconveniently along our track during the latterpart of the day.Such days are so rare in England that it isa tragedy to be stuck on the ground whenthey come along. This article is an attemptto show how one may pick out the reallygood days using only the limited data providedby the BBC and the press.Where to find the dataThe larger dailies such as the Telegraph,Times and Guardian print forecast chartsshowing the pattern ofisobars and fronts fort200GMT. The BBC T/V broadcasts(which were much ,improved last year) generallyshow both the present chart and aforecast for 24hrs ahead. If one lives nearone of the weather centres (located in a fewof the major cities) ,these charts can be seellon display.What to look forr. Wind speed and direction. The directionis shown by the isobars. At 2000 to3000f,t the wind blows almost parallel to theisobars with (in the northern hemisphere)60lew pressure to the leH. The speed can bemeasured from the distance between theisobars if there is a geostrophic scale provided.Newspa,per charts do not give geostrophicscales, but one can find the approximatewind speed as follows:Mark out a distance of 300nm with a pieceof paper or dividers. This distance is equalto 5° of latitude. If your little map does notmark lines of latitude then pick some prominentfeatures such as Lands End 10 themouthof the Humber, (or ,if these marks areobscured on the map, then try the Isle ofMan to Cap GrioS Nel across the straights ofDever)'.Lay the dividers at right angles to theisobars and find the change in pressure fwmone end to the other. Mul,tipIy this by 2.5and you have the geostrophic wind speed inknots (see Figs 1 & 2). For example if thepressure change was 10mb the wind speedwould be 10x2.5=25kt.'Flg 1Fig 2Geostrophlc WInd FactorsTo use the table below:1. Measure off a distance of 300nm onthe weather map. This is equivalent tothe distance between 5° oflatitude or 10°of longitude al latitude 60.2. Lay ,this 300nm line at right anglesto the isobars and find the pressurechange between ends.3. Multiply the pressure change by afactor for latitude given in the tablebelow.For example if the latitude was 55°and the measured pressure change was5mb, then the geostrophic wind w0uldbe 5x2.4=12kt. (2.4 is the factor forlatitude 55.)Latitude70° 2.160° 2.355° 2.4500 2.6FactorLatitude45°40°35°3,00Factor2.83.13.43.9You can take half the distance instead ofthe full 300nm. If 'so the factor must bedoubled from 2.5 to 5 times the pressurechange to get the wind speed.Critical values: the ideal is about lOkl,more than [6kt begins to present diff,icultiesunless the soaring-day is vel)' long. 20kt isabout the limit.Best wind directions: When the air hascome from a more northerly point thermalsare likely to starl earner and finish laterthan in air which has come from the south.However air which has had a long sea trackis liable to be too moist, especially nearwindward coasts.2. CUl"vature of isobars. In the nor'hemhemisphere isobars curving 10 the left rounda low are said 10 have cyclonic curvature.Curving 'to the right (round a high) istermed aniticyclonic curvature. It is nearlyalways true that the best conditions occurwith anticyclonic curvature. Cyclonic curvature,.even if the nearest low ,is hundfeds ofmiles away, is apt to produce excessiveamounts of cloud and often 'stimulates"showers or longer periods of rain".Anticyclonic curvature is almost essentialfor 500km days. This means that a wellmarked ridge or an advancing anticycloneappears on the forecast chart foryour area.3. The dew point. If you listen to VOLMET broadcasts you will hear (after thewind, weather and cloud data) the temperatureand dew point. The drier the air thegreater the difference between temperatureand dew point. One may estimate the baseof cumulus from these figures provided thatthe temperature is rising (during the morningand early afternoon). Take the differencebetween the two values and multiplySAILPLANE &GLIDING
DEAEK ROBSONIn retrospect my coc'kpil workload wasquite high even though it was self-imposedand I probably did 'hitch' myself iJl ,the seatfrom lime to time. After approximately57mins from take-off I feh my seat backrestgive a little and I took a eautious look overboth shoulders to assess the problem. Thehorizontal tube s,ticking out both sides ofthe backrest had somehow s'lipped out ofone side of the previously considered veryadequate notches on the wall of the Cockpit.1paused only for a moment before decidingto land and while aH~mptingto alleviate thepressure on the backrest, I reached for theundercarriage lever. That is when the backrestcame completely out of the notches andclattered to its rear most position in thecockpit<strong>No</strong>t only rould I not low"r the undercarriagebut all the other controls were beyondreach, except the stick which I could onlyjust reach well enough to stop stalling. (Isuppose my sudden weight shift rearwardscontributed more than a little.) With thesud(\en strength and agility one gets in suchmoments of crisis, I was soon bolt uprightbut still too far back to get my feet on theWithout the backrestI kept slippingrearwards and downpedals. The problem was the carefully profiledfloor/seat made a bowl shaped welland without the backrest I kept slippingrearwards and down (rather like sitting on achildren's slide at the bottom and pu-shingyourself back up the slide feet first). Themovement involv.ed was only a few inchesbut enough to make me give lip worryingabout the rudder. Other !'Imblems loomed.(Isn't it wonderful how it steels the mind!?)lean remember pausing (while I 'lost height)to further assess my options and duly registeredthe pre-stall buffe,t caused, no doubt,by the above problems and compounded bysome of these:I. My'Straps had gone slack when the backrestSlipped and somehow seemed tohave caught up on something, stol'lpingme bending as far forward as 1 might.2. My parachute tended to pull my backstraight while I tried to bend and onlyadded to the load on my stomach muscles,which were all that were 'keep,ingme in the sitting position.3. Although you wouldn't think that withall the handles and controls in today'scrowded cockpits yoU' could have muchtrouble finding something to hang on tostay upright, I assure you that if you are5ft 7in and in a Jantar cockpit ,in such a<strong>Apr</strong>il/<strong>May</strong> 1986COCKPIT COITORTIOISDerek, of Borders GC, describes thea'larmlng problems whenhis Std Jantar backrest comes adrift after 45 minutes ofconcentrated scraping in the hope of finding' wave.predicament there is nothing, and I waslooking hard!I was being a bit vicious with the stick andafter avoiding another stall (or two) I managedto impose a little negative g. By this,time my stomach muscles were complainingand twitcbing - its not easy doing sit-upswhile flying a crash hunting for somewhereIto occur. I can remember thinking howr·elaxed I was in this crisis because my legshad risen off the cockpit floor momentarilyas I induced negative g during what I laugh;ingly call a stall avoidance manoeuvre.However, being still in possession of myurge 10 surviv.e, I 'Saw my chance and jammedmy erstwhile redundant legs up behindthe instrument panel, crawled up my owntmuser legs and hUl'\g on to the cable releasetoggle with my left hand. I did note the oddwhite knuckle or two! Clunk - down wentthe undercarriage and I completed my landingchecks - well, nearly.My stomach muscles were still playing alarge part in this drama and in the twominutes or so that it had taken to developmy little crisis to this stage they had workedvery well.'... I do pride myself on acertain bow-legged, wartystrength.'<strong>No</strong>w, while I have never been complimentedon my a'thletic physique, 1 dopride myselfon a €ertain bow-legged, wartystrength. Unfortunately, this was rapidlydeserting me.Ailerons only, 1 rounded the combinedcrosswind and final turn while lying downalmost blind in order 10 give I he old tummymusc'les a rest. As soon as 1 had partiallyrecovered I began the long crawl up mytrouser leg again and after securing the airbrakelever in my left hand, began to see thepossibility of landing without breakingCarol Taylor's heart. After that the landingwas ungainly but uneventful and thesteepened attitude allowed me the ,privilegeof the rudder now and agail1. I rolled 10· astop, laid back. and made a mental note toassure one of my comedy-prone associatesback at the launch point that under certainconditions certain sphincter muscles reallydo twitch "like a mouse's ear".Upon reflection -1. I will make better use of the so far disregardedtoe straps on the rudder pedals.2. (a) Iflhadspunin,al1dwerenotheretotell the tale, the reason for the accidentwould have been very difficult,if not impossible, to determine.(b) Have any unexplained accidentscaused by this or a similar problemoccurred?3. A simple mod is possible that would lockthe backrest home.4. The backrest probably freed itselfbecause at some point after taking upthe Seat in the aircraft I hitched myselfup. In tile Jantar this means that mypali3chute, being on my back, wouldconnect with the bottom of the headrestwhich is part of the seat back. After thiscontact is made, a further upward hitchof no more than the depth of the previouslymentioned notches on the cockpitwall is required to give you first handappreciation of the mouses ear syndrome.5. Even in flight (after being checked bysomeone else on the ground beforetake-off) it seems to me very possible,and all too easy, to dislodge the backrest.6. Should I have loosened my straps?7. Perhaps ideas about the best way tomodify the seat adjustment can be airedin S&G?63
JOHN BRIDGE'SO THEREI WAS•••John ruminates on thecoming season"... crop up to the horizon and nothing onthe clock but tine maker's name, when I feltthis dckJc under my left wingtip, cartwheeledinto a four knotter ilnd justscrapedtogether enough heighl for a straight-inglide back to base. Damned close thing;don'c, fancy doing thaC every day, t can tellyou'! Who's round is it, anyway?"Here we are, in the bar of just about anygliding club at the end of a Good Day. Thepundits have all taken photos of JohnO'Groats ,and got back in time to let theirpartners have a go, and badge collectors arewaving claim forms at Official Observets.New solo pilots are planning their 300kmsfor tomorrow, which Mr Met on the tellyassures us will be even better thall t0day.Meanwhile, strange looking boxes are beingtowed down unreasonably narrow countrylanes in attempts to locate the more ambitiousof the day's pilots.All things being equal, I would 011 thewhole much prefer to end the day back atbase rather than in 11 field a hundred milesaway with the night closing in. I might evengo further to suggest that had I been presentat the Creation I would have been temptedto offer some useful hints on the betterordering of the Standard British gliding season;you see, no matter how determined Iam to never land out again ever, I regularlyfind myself just outside a place likeAmbr,idge (one telephone, pubs all shut),waiting for my crew to arrive and wonderinghow I managed to cock it up yet again.Of course, the day never starts out thatbadly when one decides to do the Big Task.On the contrary, Che airfield comes alivewith enth.usiasm; cheed,vl cr,ies ring outproclaiming ''It's MY turn today''', whilethe poor old Official Observer is snowedunder with requests to sign every barographin the club (his own, irl(;identally, remainingul'ltouched), supply maps all pointingdownwind, lend his car 10 complete strangersso they can move their tniilers to the64rigging area and put together gliders henever even knew existed.Speaking for myself, should I manage toget to the launch point wilh an intact glider,all my maps and even a vague idea of whereI'm going, I reckon I'm riding my luck andperhaps I ought to start doing the footballpools as we'll. <strong>No</strong>t that just being ready to gois enough; the next problem is trying tolocate someone with both the ability and theintention to offer a tow during the soarablepart of the day. <strong>No</strong>w I am led 10 believe Ihalthe super clubs don't have this problem just wheel out another tug, insert a passingPPL holder in the correct seat and shout"Take me to that cloud!". However, thisain't necessarily so at the humbler end ofthe scale, where mere mention of the words"tug pilot" throws up nostalgic memoriesfrom the previous evening's session at theKing's Head. Naturally, this situation canlead to emotions running rather high." . . It will be possible towitness normally sane,responsIble human beingsgoing .bonkers ...'It becomes evident that the carefully preparedmammoth task of the sel\son is slippingaway; ~riQusconsiderationis ,given tothe challenge ofwire launching half-a-ton ofballasted glider to dizzy heights of up lo5QOft. Should one elect to play safe, it willbe possible to witness normally sane,responsible human beings going bonkersover the dilemma. The fun really startswhen a tug pilot is finally persuaded to leavehis hangover in bed and drive his machineonto the launch line. Severa1 gliders pull outat the same dme, each naturally expectingthe first launch. A scene develops very likethose found in "Rambo"; we are soon pastthinly veiled implications concerning eachother's airmanship/parentagefcarnal habitsand well into fulf-blooded physical warfare.It occurs to me tha.t it might be a good idea10 avoid thennalling with this lot, if it canpossibly be avoided.Eventually, something resembling sanityreturns to the airfield (usually, though notalways, in the form of a CFI) and gliders atlast start to get away. <strong>No</strong>w to turn my attentionsto the now unrecognisable task of theday. Last seaSOn I used to set myself thesemulti TP jobs, which I have subsequentlyfound to be somewhat double-edged. It istrue I didn't often find myself too far awayfrom home; nevertheless, it is also true thatthere was a far greater number of opportunitiesto lose hard-earned altitude by myrather erratic TP pbotographic techniques.The task progresses and what wereearlier on wonderful round topped, firmbottomed "up" clouds have now degeneratedinto flat, nondescript sheets with liftto match. After spending what seems likehours in a strong zero knot thermal at anindecently low altitude, the feeling growsthat perhapsonce more it might not be possibleto get back. A field becomesselected bysome mysterious process not yet fullyunderstood, as 130.4 informs me remorse·lessly ofother pilots final-gliding. "Blown itagain; should have turned back earlier.Where on earth am I,anyway?" This "WhoDares Wins" spirit is fine for some - theyeither make it back every time or !Ictuallyenjoy going QUX vaches. The best that can besaid for the rest ofus isChat it is good characterbuilding stuff.So, there's the field, that's the undercarriagelever and here's the one for thebrakes. A vain attempt is made to contactsomeone back at base; probably in the baralready. Tally-ho, down we go. As fieldselection is usually ,a headache for me, thesedays if I bave the choice I much prefer landingout at real airfields rather than FarmerBrown's wheat crop; airfields are easier tofind for the ,crew, and the chances of hittingunseen obstructions are that much less. Iquite like the idea of being able to driveaway with an intact glider (and, incidentally,an intact me). Besides, the cha,irman'sgot all my Polyfilla_Of course, another big plus for airfields isthat they are fairly used to aircraft descendingupon them. I call't speak for Heathrowor Westcolt, but at most of ITlY outlandings Ihave at least managed to locate fairlyquickly a telephone which works. There canbe few mOre frustrating situations in whichto find oneself than il'l the middle of thecountry next to an abandoned farmhousetrying to force lOp pieces into a vandaJisedtelephone as the night draws on.AliI can do iswait to be rescuedAt last I get lthrough to a semi-drunk backat base who seems to find my predicamenthilarious. After several more lOps, thedetails of my landing are allegedly with thecrew who cannot believe I could possiblyhave landed that far away - again. All thereis left to do is wait to be rescued.This generally takes, an inordinateamount of time, 'so giving me plenty ofopportunity to amuse myself. Of course, itmay be just possible that the landout hasoccurred in the vicinity of a country estate,_SAILPLAN~& GLIDING
MIKE GARROOat which I may be treated to an intrigu,ingcombination of pizza and champagne bytwo well-appoint,ed young females, orperhaps Instructed on the finer points ofbilliards and the subtleties of male Scotch inthe Earl's drawing room. Never seems tohappen to me, though - these are the storieswhich always originate from a biend of afriend.Eventually, the salldwiches nm out, andall the tapes In the Walkman are exhausted.In spite of the anorak brought along for theride, the cold oeg,ins to bite. Just when tnethought of a warm fire and something hotinside me becomes intolerable, a largeobject lit up like a horizontal Christmas ,treeappears out of ,the murk. The car holds aremarkably large numberofpeople who areeager to pull the glider to bits and get on tothe real business of the evening at the nearestpub.Once there, I reflect thatat least the landingwas safe (l~ I walked away from it) andthat my trailer is unlikely to fall to bits onthe way back to base. That hasn't alwaysbeen the case; it was as a result of myoidtrailer attempting to ,commit suicide on theM6 near Carlisle that I realised that theremust be a better way to, get a glider from Ato B. These wooden trailers are fine fortheir first few years, ibut one's faith in themdiminishes slightly when the floor partscompany wi,th the walls at 50mph.,So, I went to see this. bloke down Memburyway who not only built me a fine metaltrailer but also put back by several years myplans to buy a Nimbus 3T. U you're readingthis, Angus, thanks for the ibox - it did meproud last year (I've nol known gratuitouspublicity to do any harm). As for my crewyoucan relax; I've no plans whatsoever toland out this season. Just like last year."SOARING"The official monthlyjournaI 01 the soa fin gSociety at America.The only US periodicaldel'Oted entirely to thesport.For subscription sena$25 US by Internalionalmpney order or internationalcashier's oheqJepayable to lhe S.S.A.at PO Box 66071,Los Angeles. CA 90066CUMULUSA look at meteorological services for competitions, past,present and future, with fears that we are heading for acritical timeIt goes without saying that,gliding, in spiteof major advances in sailplane design,remains totally dependent on the weather.The pilot needs 10 learn some meteoro'logicalknowledge to achieve the best performanceon a soaring day,and in the ,competition,arena the professional meteorologist isthere to improve the chances of success.One would have thought that as glidingdeveloped the Met aspect would haveimproved too, and Indeed ,it has to somedegree, but in the Ok we have reached anextraordinarily precarious position. Itneeds to go back in history to see why.Competition flying before the SecondWorld War just did not exist as we know ittoday. Perhaps this was just as well, as Metknowledge of the upper atmosphere wasalso in ifs infancy, Weekend meets were acommon occurrence, during which pilotswere left entirely to themselves to decidewhether to go for duration, height gain ordistance. Prizes were awarded for what wasconsidered the most meritorious flight.After the war things began to change, ifonly slowly. The first ever task to be set in aNat'ionals was in 1950 at CamphiIl, the goalbeing Boston, Lincofnshir'e. It was the onlyone set at that meeting, but from then on itbecame an ins,titution.It soon became apparent that there was aneed for a ,professional meteorologist forNational events, and the Met office was, approached to furnish this need. It wasextremely fortunate that one volunteer forthe job was a Mr C. E. Wallington.By the mid fifties a working system forthe Nationals had been developed, led byWally. He usually brought along a traineeforecaster with him, and also an assistant toplot the essential ,information received on ateleprinter linked into the Met office communications'network. The only cost to thegliding movement was the data link, and inthose days it was relatively cheap. The mainexpenses were charged to the public purse,rfirst met Wally during the 1957 Nationals,my first gliding competition. It soonThe sudden, explosive development ofrated compe,titions in the early sixties mighthave been good for the gliding movement,but it raised problems in the Met area whichgot progressively worse. The Met officewere asked whether they could post in forecastersfor the Regionals as. we'll as theNationals., and it is not surprising that thiswas refused. They did, however, permitforecasters to attend the Regionals providedit was in fheir own time and not atpublic expense. There were volunteers, andas far as the gliding movement was concernedthe service was adequate.In reality though there were major difficultiesin providing forecasts at glidingsites scattered thmughout the UK. Regionbecamevery apparent that Wally was not anordinary man. His briefings were extremelydetailed and very well presented. HeeXUded confidence, and not without reason.He was usually right. His association withthe gliding movement resulted in the publicationof his famous book, Meteorology forGlider Pilots, and was probably a cornerstoneof w'hat has been a brilliant career.Others have followed, but none quite likeWally.During the fifties practically anyonecould enter the Nationals provided tlley hadthe required qualifications, and these werefairly minimal by today's standards. Itresulted in more and more entries, culminatingin 92 at Lasham in 1961. Postcompetition discussions suggested that thenumbers were getting too large for safety,and as a direct consequence the entry qualificationswere considerably raised. In 1962the Regionals were born.Rated competitions In theearly sixties raised problemsin the Met area<strong>Apr</strong>il/<strong>May</strong> 1986 65
CUMULUSMARY MEAGHERals attracted, at most, 20 entries, and as aconsequence the competition budget wasmuch tighter as compared with the Nationals.It usually meant the organisers couldnot sanction the cost of installation and rentalofa teleprinterand the relevant Met manwas obliged to look for other means ofobtaining information. The usual answerwas to travel to the nearest Met office in theearly hours of the morning, spend about twohours plotting and analysing data, andreturn to the airfield in time for a meetingwith the task setter. This mode Qf operationproved to be very unpopular and was probablythe main cause for the decline of numbersof volunteers. The Nationa'ls remainedsubsidised and insulated against this particularheadache.Regular volunteers _covering competitions can becounted on one handDuring the 'late sixties the format of lheNationals began to change, eventuallyevolving into two separate competitions atdifferent sites. Today we have three.Remarkably, the Met office continued tosupport all these Nationals, probablybecause the full brunt has never been felt. Avolunteer (not at public expense) has usuallyoffered bis services for at least one ofthese events each year, and recently no Metoffice staff have been posted in to cover aNationals. Fine but for one thing. Thenumber of volunteers who regularly covercompetitions can now be counted on onehand. Two, thougl1 still prepared to offertheir services, have now retired. The pool ofexperienced volunteers is drying up.Apart from this critical manning situation,the whole scene has been exacerbatedin an unexpected way. Quite suddenly, andlargely unnoticed except by those who useda teleprinter for a contest, the cost of installationand rental jumped tenfold. It costapproximately £1000 at the 15 Metre ClassNationals at Dunstable in <strong>May</strong> 1980, andwas to be the last occasion that organiserswere prepared to pay such a crippling cosl.This left the Met men in an extraordinarilydifficult situation. Very few people realisedhow serious it was, even at the top.Somehow or other, during the followingtwo years, forecasters managed to get by.For example, Competition Enterprise in1981 was held at Shobdon, and extremelysuccessfully, but it could hardly have been aworse site from the Met man's point of viewat Ihis crilical,time. It was resolved by spinninga few yarns to Rank Xerox, and Iborrowinga Docfax machine for nothing. A66telephone link was established with the Metoffice al Heathrow, and the chartsrequested sent down the line at relativelylow cost. The overall situation, however,was so critical and urgent that two individualsdipped into their own pockets and purchasedradio receivers, Facsimile and radioteletype equipment. It cost over £5000.This eliminated the need for costly tele·phone links and rental charges. The provisionof forecasts at many events nowdepends on these two private individuals,and for tbe time being the pressures are off.But for how long, one asks?Regionals and Nationals are here to~ta)',and we have not yet got to a position wherewe can say, with all honesty, that we candispense with the Met man. Some try, andsucceed up to a point. There are varioussources of information which the competitiondirector can use, such as Volmet, TVbroadcasts and, if lucky, have a satellitereceiving system to see the distribution andmovement of clouds. All this will not tellhim, however, the actual and forecast upperwinds, freezing level, start and end of convection,thermal strength, whether a cloudsheet will break up (to mention but a few ofmany relevant parameters). It is a shakybasis for running a serious competition.Telephoning a Met office for this sort ofinformation, for various reasons, is unproductive,apart from the substantial expense.What does the future hold? In the shortterm the situation is likely to become criticalagain, depending on how much longer thebroadcasts via radio will continue fromBracknell. They could be withdrawn at anytime. If this happens, then the Met men willagain be starved of their vital information.The Met office is being obliged to run onmore commercial lines, and has sufferedmajor cutbacks in staffing levels, and it isinevitable that the gliding movement willhave to pay soon for the data it receives.The posting of staff to cover a Nationalscould well become a thing of the past.The long term answer to both the problemsof manning and data reception must beresolved, and soon. Relying on the supportof a handful of volunteers would be veryshort-sighted. Could the answer be the employmentof a professional Met man tocover all competitions?The information we need is always therein the Data Bank at Bracknell. How do weget it? If it doesn't come by radio there isonly a telephone link. The answer must be aportable computer, capable of receiving aset programme at high speed down a normaltelephone line. Does such equipment exist?What will it cost? Who will pay for it? Allthese questions have to be answered, or wewill soon be "Up the creek without a paddle!"MARYONAE RI VEMary claims a sure way tofind some action is tovolunteer for a retrieveIt's possible in gliding to have adventureswithout necessarily hazarding your own lifeand limb, or going to great expense, simplyby volunteering to help with a retrieve. Iwas keeping the log one busy Sunday afternoon.[n fact it was so busy I thought itprudent to stay on the ground and build upcredit with the CFI by being conspicuouslynoble and useful, so when Brian SpreckJeysaid that Geoff Purbrick had landed outwith the orange K-8, I volunteered to goand' fetch him.Brian had told Geoff, just before he setoff on his attempt at Silver distance, toavoid Westcott. The week before one ofourmembers had landed out at Westcott, andthe Ministry of Defence had sent a formalletter advising us that Westcotl was forbiddenterritory, a disused aerodrome bristlingwith obstructions, wires, antennae, explosives,red flags, and big white Xs on the endsof the pitted and crumbling runway.He landed at the onlyplace he hadbeen instructed to avoid _Like a moth drawn into a candle flame,poor Geoff had landed at the only place hehad been instructed to avoidl He was completelyconvinced, until the reception (:ommitleeof military police informed himotherwise, he was landing at Cranfield!Don't laugh, it could happen to you.Mark Holmes and lan Langham were willingto come along and help with theretrieve. John had bent tbe club Astir duringa little encounter with an inopportunehedge, and he also wanted to built up cred'itwith the CFI. Young Mark came along toojust because he's a nice guy. We hitched up_SAILPLANE & GLIDING
MARY ON A RETRIEVEmy Escort 1300 to the open trailer for theK-.B, lurched on down the hill, circumnavigatedAylesbury, and found' Westcoll, linedby tall poplars and wide field's of winterwheat. Securely surrounded by an eight footperimeter fence, K-8 Josee reposed on thelong green grass next to the runway. Wedrove round and found the entrance and theresident oonstabulary."Did you bring the tools?" Geoff askedwith anxiety, as soon as we arrived. To besure, we had brought tools. Mark and Johnbrought spanners, tappets and wrenches,appropriate for wing detachment. But firstwe had to fill out forms and sign our namesand leave our cameras behind w.ith theguard on duty at the gatehouse. Forms·completed, assured that we had no sinisterintent other than removal of the smallwinged intruder, we were' escorted by twoofficers in a police car around the peritrackto Ihe scene of the landing.The officers remained in their car, watchingus as we pulled the trailer round to theglider and began to remove canopy, coverand tailplane. All went well, until it was- time to take out the mainpins. Geoff washolding up the fusel'age, Mark onc wing,t,ipand me the other, instructed by John, whoattempted to loosen the bolt. It wouldn'toblige. "Hold up your wing a bit higher,Mary". I heaved and struggled. Markheaved and struggled. John heaved andstruggled. The officers watched from theircar, impassively."We'll have to hit it with something" saidJohn. "Have we got anythin.g to hil it with?"We tried hitting it with a shoe. With theend of a piece of timber. With the jackhandIefrom my car. The perverse pinsremained obdurate!,y fixed in place. Theofficers in the car watched impassively. Thesun began to descend in the heavens andpurple dusk came creeping, as the air turnedblue over the cockpit of the K-8.I had no pride and _didn't mind asking for help _"<strong>May</strong>be the oops could get us a hammer"I suggested, helpfully. The others werereluctant to ask for help in any form, but Ihad no pride, and didn't mind asking forhelp, and the military police didn't mindbeing asked, and promptly went off to lookfor ahammer, came back with one, and theyeven got out of the car and helped us heaveon the wingtips, but despite all persuasionthe mainpins simply refused to emerge."I give up. Let's go home." Geoffwantedto struggle some more, but I promised tocome back the next day with a crew ofexperts and unwillingly he agreed to leave itup to us.At least we didn't have to worry aboutsecurity of the aircraft. <strong>No</strong> cows were goingto get in that field, nor small boys eit.her. Ihad four boxes of books that I planned totake to Oxfam next day in the back of thecar; these were left in the cockpit to weighdown the glider overnight, Geoff stakeddown the wingtip, and thanking the policefor all their help, we promised to return nextday to retrieve the K-8.Next day was Monday, of course. Geoffand John and Mark had to work for a living,so I showed up at Westcoll with Paul Brice,Mike Philpot and Chris Lyttleton. Webrought enough tools to take apart a Shermantank! Even so, even with this committeeof expert pundits on the job, it took amighty struggle under the watchful eye ofour friendly police escort to persuade themainpins to loosen up and let go at last."I bet this K-8 hasn't been taken apartsince last winter" gasped John Wills, afteremerging victorious from the struggle."Rusted tight, those pins were." He heldthem up for our appreciat,ion. We collectedall the bits and pieces. Loaded up the trailer.I was gratified that even the committee ofexperts had a hard time; made us duffersfrom ,the night before look a bit beHer.We drove round to Ihe g(jtehouse to pickup our cameras and sign oUI. The cops werereally friendly by now. "Yeah, we're gettingused to it" they told us. "You're not theonly guys who landed here by mistake" andwith considerable pride we were shownnewspaper clippings and a letter of thanksfrom a certain famous Booker pilot wholanded out It! Westcot
PLATYPUSTAILFEATHERSThe Bringing Down ofPlatypus"Tradesman's Entrance" is a very 1930sexpression. In those days such signs wereposted on the back gate, where a path led upthrough the kitchen garden to the cook'sdoor of any typical bourgeois residence inthe Home Counties. In the war, however,butchers and grocers made a point of com-Tradesmen treated like royalty.ing instead to the front door, if they came atall, wher'e they were treated like royalty bythe lady of the house in hopes of getting alittle something over the meagre rations ofthe period. <strong>No</strong>wadays there aren't anycooks or maids, tradesmen don't deliverand the signmakers, never short of somethingto extol or prohibit, have gone over toprinting savage threats against smokers.The fact that a hollow in the rolling Bedfordshirefarmland adjacent to our field iscalled The Tradesman's Entrance wouldgive away to a non-gliding social historianboth the date of the London <strong>Club</strong>'s originand the type of comfortable citizen whocould afford to glide. To have to arrivethrough this declivity, low and grovellinglyslow, is proof of a cocked-up approach,poor airmanship and altogether the mark ofa cad. By doing so you show yourself up asamember of the servant class, earning scornand demotion.Disgrace and ConsolationIt is the doomed attempt ;in 1950-somethingto throw One more circle in the club68ThiS landing is Ierrible.Prefect downwind of the site that leadsPlatypus to a desperate, heart-poundingscramble back through the Tradesman'sEntrance. There are no bad landings, onlybad approaches. This one is terrible: noplan, just a wretched slipping and drifting,with not enough speed to round out parallelto the rough steep slope of the first bit ofLGC soil that presents itself to the sweatingtradesman. Awful cracking noises as theskid decides it has just been turned into aploughshare and prefers to chew earthrather than remain part of a rich man's toy.Daylight appears suddenly through thecockpit floor. The other Prefect pilots givevent to their feelings. Whatever happenedto the stiff upper lip? What sort of peopleare they letting in these days? he asks himself.He is grounded and dejectedly takesthe bus to London, bereft of ways to amusehimself, so'totally does soaring possess him.Platypus takes fle bus to London.Back in Chelsea he rings up girls withwhom he had shared innocent passion whenan undergraduate (what they now call a student).The mother of the first tells Platypus,with evident satisfaction, that Katie is gettingmarried tomorrow, so there. He musthave made her day. The next one is on thephone like a shot, however, and Platexplains how busy he has been with onething and another Gust one thing, if he istruthful) and asks her if she will comeacross. Which she does.And that is how Platypus lost his virginity.(Look that up in the dictionary, too, youyoung people.) Mrs Platypus, whom sadly Idid not meet till many years later, has givenme permission to write all this on the tolerantgrounds that I .am no longer a serioushazard except as a pilot, and this is prettywell ancient history.So when in her splendid piece in S&G,August 1976, p158, (which he conceitedlyand absentmindedly ke,eps ta'king creditfor) she says to Platypus <strong>Gliding</strong> is a substitutefor sex" and be retorts "<strong>No</strong>nsense, sexis a substitute for <strong>Gliding</strong>!" he is not throwingoff an Oscar Wilde witticism, but statingwhat every glider pilot's wife knows to bethe plain and soher truth.Off to the PrairieI have given up mountain flying. My nerveswon't stand it any more. <strong>No</strong>r.can I take thefrustration and humiliation of being unableto get away frorn the nursery slopes on amediocre day, while watching the typicalAlpine pilot stick his wingtip into everylittle lift-yielding crevioe like a diner with atoothpick, to vanish 011 a 300km and reappearthree hours later to dump a full load ofwater on the piste. That sort of thing givethme to gnasn the teeth, pourdust on my headand generally vow to abandon the sportentirely.Why not, you ask, fly with one of thosemagnificent instructors in a Janus and learnfrom them how it is done?SAILPLANE &GLIDING
TAIL FEATHERSI've done that for as long as I could takeit. The trouble is 'hal (1) every such instruclortalks, withoul pause for breath, in veryrapid, impatient French. (Though that's alot better than when they try rapid, impatientbroken English.) <strong>No</strong>w my French isnot bad, and I can usually remember what arudder-pedal ora flap or an incipient spin ora downdraught is, but it is less than instantaneous.It is not helped by the fact that thePI is constantly on the radio to all his littlechickens, so his bellowing command to "getcloser to the rockface, you idiot!" may beintended for someone else, though if yourwing is more than a few centimetres awayfrom the mountain you can take it that hemeans you.(2). They all seem incapable of letting apilot make any kind ofmistake, but grab theHis oommand 10 "get closer to the rockface" may beintended for someone else.While the equipage plummelted towards the snows.controls immediately they feel that somethingshort of perfection is being achieved.This makes sense when you are glued to thegeology, so to speak, but the habit persistseven when you are thousands of feet fromanything hard and the odd mistake woulddo no harm. I could only deal withthi's bypromptly raising my hands over my head toshow toall was not in charge and would F10tfly the beast until I was asked. This had noeffect at all, so it seemed Ihat half tile timethe aircraf>! was being nown by two peoJ!)lewrestling for supremacy and half.the ,timewas, being flown by nobody at all, while theequipage plummelted towards the snowsand the chamois scampered nervously outof our p3'th.To be fair :to the French, the worst offenderin 'tbis latter respect was a German.(That's right, alienate everyone. ED.)So it's goodbye beautiful and altogethertoo exciting mountains, hello lovely flat andboring prairie. Prairie is French formead'owland and wide open country, andr,eminds us that tile french possessed mostof <strong>No</strong>rth America before the British muggedthem and took it for themselves.t()*~~tl!~! t'iJ:ttCt(!lt?!!!l ~~)Compromises have to be made.be made. Apart from occasionally fightingfor control of the menu and a few-quibbl'esover how to pronounce basic words likecorkscr..ew, room temperature, magnum,medium rare, cream and truffle sauce, It isaboul as different from mountain-flying asyou call geL Thank Heaven.8hoffmarwTWO SEAT GRP MOTOR GLIDERLOW INTEREST FINANCEBRITISH C of AFOLDING WINGSEXCELLENT PERFORMANCETHREE POSITION PROPELLERContact Airmark Avi'ation Ltd, 48 Crosslands Avenue, Southall, MlddxleI01·574-1603<strong>Apr</strong>il!<strong>May</strong> 1986 69
PHIL PHILUPSLham, with its 600011 main runway, ,has formany years operated a towcar launch systemusing two wires and two lowcars at peak times. Int1he dim and distant pasl, 1952 to be pre
WINCHING AT LASHAMDICK SHORTOey 7. SundayA fairly good day with no serious problems.Total launches: 87' in 7hrs 25min {11.23/hr).My findings were,t. The airfield requires more skilled manpower tooperate smoothly. The winch operator sh0uld, 00skilled and a launch point controller of someexperience is required. There should be a ,radiolink, and lights, to the winch and a radio link withthe towear to -oo-ordinate the two launchingmethods. We learnt tnis lesson" lack of coordination,on the Saturday with the accident.Lasham would probably have to employ a professionalwinch driver at weekends to achievethis if it converted to winching.b. The efficiency of launch largely depends on aneffective cable pUll-out syst~. We used an old 2litre Ford Consol with a boom to enable us todrive on the runway edge but have the cables onthe grass, ,but we found thalthe car was underpoweredand unreliable. Weak links at 1400lbsand 1000lbS were necessaJY and a "snap on"'system would have improved efficiency.Co* * *Rate of launch. fhe hi911est ,rate with one twolfumwinch and, sometimes, a motor launchbetween each pair of winch launches. was 20/):lr.The average over the wl:1Ole seven days, includingthe initial fumbles in operation, was 12.06/hr.The max full day rate was 14/hr. As acomparisondurng the previous week, usin9 one or two towcarsas required, a rate of 9.41 launches/hr wasachieved; the highest day rate was 10.21/hr.Moreover, on the best three weekend days inAugust and September 1985, with two towcarsoperating most of the day, the average ratelk:hieved was 1,0. 12/hr. This is an interestingcomparison. consequently, one cannot justifiablycomplain about the launch rate using thewinch. I1 Lasham moved 10 all winches, twowould be needed and when in use it would bereasonable to ·expect 1'8 launches/hr.d. Height achieved was variable on the skill of thepilot. First fligtilts were 1200 - 140011 using earlaunch techniques. SUbsequent launches wererwariably in the 1600 to 1800ft range and thehighest launches were 199911, or even slightlyhigher (witl\l altimeter errOf). During tlile wholeweek there was little or 00 headwind. An extra600ft could be achieVed on top of the average carlaunch height. Many instructors commentedfavourably on the ease of cooversion of thetrainee pilot and the advantage of the extraheight 10 the training.e. Areas 01 potential hazard in the system.Releasing uncIer tension at the top of the launchis the most likely cause of a cable break. The fivecable breaks experienced. during the: week werean caused this way. The max time to repair thepiano wire was about20min. Efficient winch driversare essential in this respect as they must beskiRed in dealing with the cable break at the timeofthe break and the subsequent repair. Initially atleast we would require professiooal winch driversto maintain the launch rate.f. Airfield shape,It has been alleged that Lashamis too narrow at the ends for efficient winchlaunching. Any glider that lands up the lield or isclose to the launch point stops subsequenllaunching. Also the proximity 01 Dan Air at thewestern endl and AAE at the eastern end adds tothis ,problem. 'However, this factor did' nol seemto cause too much problem in ~he weeks' trial,(see launch rates)', with Ihe notable exception ofthe cable over the RAE aerials.If we went to winching we would probably havefo,accept a 1200yd run toavoid this problem. Thelaunch point would be closer to the aerotow pointand the problem 01 visual, or other, communicationbetween the points would be eased. Thedanger of eable falling and being unobservedwould be substantially reduced. The heightachielled would only marginally lbe .affected, as<strong>No</strong>rth, Hill, using aOOyds of oable, achieveapproximately 15001t launches with 00headwindcomponent. Of course, with 01111' a headwind" alonger length could be l,J$ed.g. Parachute desi'gn. It was very noticeable thatthe parachute seemed uncOntrollable alterrelease. It could end up 90 0to the winch on theupwind side. The parachute had someaerodynamic lift when being pulled in a crosswind.This is why the RAE aerials were straddled.'Research into parachute design wouldbe essentiat.However, the normal distance the parachutelanded from the winch was only about 75 to100yds.h. Cross runway use. A strong reason for consideringwinches at Lasham is the very poor state ofthe unmaintained cross runways. Car launchingis almost impossible due to wheel spin on theloose stones. With a winch there would not bethis ,problem. I am sure Lasham would buy asecond-hand winch just for this need. Anyoffers? .i. Polypropylene covered stranded Wire is notsuitable. Apart from the problem of stripping offthe polypropylene on the Wednesday. On theone and only cable break, the strands, unwoundfor quite a distance and the resulting delay wasapproximately hall an hour.Costs. My figures are 6O/launch operatingcosts,excluding' any paid staff to maintain or operatethe winch, broken down as follows:Ca~~ ~pFuel8pPiano wire 2p (or multi strand 4p)Retrieve car maintenance & fuel ~pSundries8pfotal60pThis compares favourably with car launchingin which the operating cost is about 80p/launch.Concl'usions: We were very impressed with theSupacal. It is a well engineered, simple andpowerful winch. It does need a guillotine and wewould find a rotating beacon essential to warnthe remote aerotow point ofa Ilaunch in progress.Lasham is seriously considering a winch which isbecoming essential for the crosswind shorterrunways. However, such a change, with thefinancial implications involved, will take a littlelonger than a one week trial. We are continuing tolook and talk at present.My thanks to the Oevon & Somerset GC andespecially Nick, Ken, David, rony, Eddie and theothers who gave us their time, aAd effort todemonstrate the Supacat winch at Lasham.A NOVEMBERSILVERDick, of Welland GC,describes a late seasondistance fl'ight in an L-Spatzle day was bright and clear with a stiff NWbreeze. At about t 130 it looked as though thermalsmight be. developing with the possibility of adownwind dash.I,had my best ever winch 'launch to 15001t andalter searching around, contacted weak lilt at1300ft and drifted out over East Canton. Liftpetered out at 21 OOff so Iwent back towards thequarJY where contact was re-established. It wasonly ;kt lift but I was drifting 011 track for Duxford.Once over the southern -outskirts of Corby Idecided to press on, even if I only made the otherside of the town.NaVigation was no problem as the visibilitywas excellent and I travel that way ,to work. Ipicked up the roadworks from the mainBrigstockby·pass and the gravel pits 'at Thrapston,. I hadenoughl height to make Thrapston oot the liftgave out. Field selection was no problem due toan abundance of large recently sown fields and afield landing course at s.yerson - thanks Ivan.Just in time I contacted a 2·3~t thermal andwas away. I could now pick out Grafham Waterand there was a good cloud street all the wayfrom rhrapston. , worked' the thermal up to'40ooft, just below cloudbase, and flew at 44ktdown the street and up to 54k1 in the sink betweenthe clouds. Finally it looked as though theSilver was on.Grafham was a beautiful sight with hundredsof yachts. Over the. southern shore I identified StNeots and the offices where I work. One morethermal and I could make Duxford .but 11 wasunable to find bne. A large field near Gamlingayand down I went.The 57km, which took me 56min, completedmy Silver C and I was retrieved and back in timefor the club's 30th anniversaJY dinner. It was<strong>No</strong>vember 2.AWARDS FOR WOMEN GLIDER PILOTSThe British Women Pilot's Association havethree major annual awards wittlthe O. P. Jonescup specifically 'for glider pilots. It is presented to·the British woman who .has made a ooIeworthyperformance in gliding" either by an outstandingflight or her oontribution to the sport.<strong>No</strong>minations are invited fOf the 1986 awardand should be made to: The Awards Committee,eWPA, 25 Fouberts Place, London W1 V 2AL byJuly 31.The awards will be presented at the BWPAAGM in September.<strong>Apr</strong>il/<strong>May</strong> 1986 71
JOHN ELLlSIn the last nine years therewere fournon flying,days at Vryburg with many South African andworld recordS, nown from the site. It was withkeen anticipation that leonie and I set off from,ournew home in Natal tOQrive the 800km or so IQthe <strong>No</strong>rthem Cape for our first SA Nationals. Aswe got nearer we puzzled ovet ,great clouds ofsmoke in the sky. Enormous fires? <strong>No</strong>, just ,dustand top soil changing farms in the wind andthermals.As 'vIryburg came into sight over a slight rJse. abolt of lightning hit the town followed by the firsiheavy rain.in umpteen years. Webooked into thehotel and met lots of old' friends, including Pete(Boris) wyld and taura from Booker. iBoris hadagreed to crew tor me in the absence of MikeCarlton, who'd apparently believed all he hadread in the newspapers.Saturday and Sunday were practice days.After 45 minutes on Saturday, flying my ASW20F, I just beat the cu-nim before it hit the airfield'and on Sunday I didn't bother. At least mostthi'ngs worked, except the flap switch and theaudio bit of my expensive new vario. Borisshowed much persistence with the nap switchbut we gave up on the audio, letters to the manufacturerat Aachen over seven months havingproduced no reply.'A very sophisticated Met set-upcomplete withdaily radiQ sondes, a beehive thing and back upfrom Pretoria failed to predict the weather, butGeor.ge CQOPer tied very gracefully. Tugs wereSuper Cubs and a very powerful Cessna spamcan with an "interesting" slipstream. The pilotsincluded John Heath, ex BGA national coach,and also SOme 6f the CQmpetitors, which complicatedgate opening time. Landing areas aroundthe airfield are a bit spar~, mainly confined tothe taxi strip, the main runway and an ill defineddirt cross strip.Followed the wrong dirt roadfor quite a while.The 'irst day was a bit weak and I managed tocome not quite last. Apal1 from my usual fumbling',I followed the wrong dirt road for quite awhile. As Bobby Clifford said afterwards: "Takethe broad view anl;J ignore all the lQcal stuff." Thisand other Clifford information was most helpfUland ,I didn't get 'I.mcertain of position, again. Thencame a 369km triangle with 6r'!ormous thunderstorms.I outlanded after nearly crossing a 30mile gap. The successful returnees backtrackedhalf, way along the 1sI leg - ah wellNext day produced a shorter triangle, half ofwhich was just 'like being back In the UK, ! to 2ktthermals under an overcast sky. "I've seen thisbefore" I thought and went very carefully whileITlO$l of the others raced into the ground. Thentwo fantastic storm fronts, and 120kt to stay out01 cloud whilst trying, to pick a route aVOiding thevast number of lighmi"9 strikes, tOOk -me to 2ndplace for the day. Someone oughtto have beenplaying Wagner.Days 4, 5 and 6 aren't really worth talkingabout, except that I came across thermals whichcaused me seriously to consider giving up gOd-72VRYBURG 1985John, who Is now a member of a gliding club in Natal, giveshis personal impressions of Vryburg and the South AfricanNationals held from December 16 to 18iog. Bomber Jackson later said that they were awell known SA phenomena which he called "flatfaced thermals"; just right for circling in, until onedoes, when they contemptuously hurl onestraight at the groond.Day 7 was interesting. A 553km triangle inwhich 1did quite well until near the second turn. It'became completely overcast witll thel'mals fromlnowhere and a solid ,une of dust at least 300km'long moving across the last leg, atlOId or so. <strong>No</strong>Iproblem Ithought, I'll listen to the experts: "Klausfrom Timmy, whataboutthisdusl?" "Don'U
FRANK IRVINGGSIIVAIIIEIIPART TWOThe Technical PapersAfter three days of the Sailplane DevelopmentPanel, its members joined the rest of theXIX OSTIV Congress for a day-trip to Assisi,home of my patron saint, and Spoleto, where itrained. Quite apart from the cultural aspects ofthis trip, it took us into the mountains where wecouldsee some ofthe alarming terrain frequentlytraversed by wee tasks.Then followed three days of technical papers.The gentle reader would not thank me fordescribing all ofthem, but some were noteworthytor their interest/quaintness/novelty/eccentricity,etc.We started with Kensche talking about FatigueoCComposite Materials, a matter already discussedby the SDP. One Branko Stojkovic fromYugoslavia lold us about Semi-Dynamic Thermaling:apparently you can wring more energyout of astrong and narrow thermal by indulging inaseries ofswoops, amounting almost to a pair ofchMdelles on opposite sides ofthe thermal eachturn. As sketched by the lecturer, it lookedextremely emetic and he did admit that it introducedcertain minOl' difficulties like keeping cantered.Benefklal effects fromwing bendingProfessor Mai from Finland delivered a formidablymathematical paper on "The effect ofAeroelasticity upon Energy Retrieval of a SailplanePenetrating a Gust". This analysed theeffect of rigid body motions and wing flexibility onthe gains of height and energy :height for a sailplanepenetrating a sinusoidal up.-gust. Theamount of computation looked pretty formidableand ran to sundry programs with titles likeGUST3PLOT. The conclusions were that wingbending could produce very beneficial effectsand suggested that some tailoring of the wingcharacteristics, with caution, might furtherenhanoe the results.I gave my little ,piece onGlider/Towplaneupsets, a resume of most of Ihe UK thinking onthis topiC. Piero Morelli spoke about towplanedesign, including a survey of cur,rent aircraft. Hewent 00 to oonsider the ideal towplane' and' concludedthal it would resemble ani overpowered<strong>Apr</strong>il/<strong>May</strong> 1986motOlglider. There was, however, a generalleelingthatdesigning a totally-dedicated:towplane isSOInell1ing, 01 a waste of time: potential customersalways want a second seat, the ability to useit for touring, and so on. Altheend oftheday, yoobuy a standard production light plane and screwa hook on the back.Peter von Burg, from Switzerland, describedthe Delphin 11 variable-geometry sailplane. Overthe parallel inner part of the wing, about 60% ofthe span, it has a Sigma-type flap fitted to anEppler 644 section. I thought he was less thankind to the SB-11 by remarking "... there hasn'tbeen a succeed in any of the already realisedprojects". The Oelphin 11 flap, we were given tounderstand, was "done very simple" and doubtlesswould be a "SI,Iocaed". And so ended thefirst day.The tollowing morning"s session was largelydevoted to very light gliders, flexible wings andthe man-powered Musculair I. Ann Welch startedthe proceedings with, a powerful plea for lightineXPensive machines, as opposed to themillions-of-pounds-worth of advanced compositesbeing diligently.polished and watered OA theadjacent greensward. It you don't really want toLoad specf~umfor fatigue tests__know about flexible wiflgs, we will pass lightly onto the. aftemoon, when Wieslaw Stafiej of Polandspoke about "Pattern 01 Glider Operatio!}". Thiswas in the context of evolving a suitable loadspec-trum for the purposes of fatigue tests, cutrentlya matter of some importance, not least inour own ATC. Wolfram Gorisch contemplatedthe velocity distributions in a vortex ring and howto make the best of them in thermals: radial flowre-visited as it were. And then we gol on toinstruments, with Mr Brozel of Bayreuth displayinghis novel static head. We also had adecidedly curiQus address from a gentlemanwho had just discovered total energy.On the final day, Hans Zacher was one of themajor attractions with "Some Experience withSailplane Inflight Measurements over the past 40years". A great delight it was, coming from themost respected practitioner of sailplane testing.Captain Casu, of the Italian Air Force,explained the strange device on a trailer near theWGC Met Office, which.occasionally pinged. Initially,some of us took it to be one of those oddbits of sculpture which sometimes appear atWorld Champs (eg the crocodile in Poland). Infact it was SODAR (Sound Detection and Ranging),which could detect wind shears and suchlikephenomena. Aridthen Professor Pfenninger,he of the b'lown 'boundary layers, explainedLaminar Flow Control Glider Airfoils in somedetail.Of great interest was a presentation .relating tothe Braunschweig S8-13 tailless sailplane project.Conventional tailless aircraft either haveconventional wing sections together with considerablesweep and twist to provide stability(thUs producing an inefficient spanwise Iill distribution)0r, like the Fauvel devices, have nosweep but use wing sections with renexedcamber lines. This produces stability and adesirable spanwise load distribution at theexpense of fairly dreadful profile drag characteristics.However, with modem aerofoil designmethods, it is possible to produce a low-dragsection with a very small pitching moment coefficient.It is therefore possible to design a stableconfiguration with little sweep (about 16° in thiscase), a good spanwise lift distribution, and verticaltail surfaces used as winglets. It is estimatedthat the performance will be up to 10% betterthan that of conventional Standard Classmachines.Resonance tests andflutter calculationsAn immense effort has been applied to thisproject by the Braunschweig Akaflieg, including.using a Janus as a 'ree-flight test-bed for thewing sections, building a one-third scaleremotely-piloted model and carrying out groundresonance: tests and nutter calculations atDFVLR as a result 0' observing an instability inthe longitudinal motion 01 the model at lowspeeds.We were also addressed on the "FL SOO" HighAltitiude Soaring Project, an organisation whichpr~es to go rather high in American waves.The jargon of their presentation is largely borrowedfrom the astronauts and seemed, ratherbreath-taking by European standards: "Clearancefor take-off, the ground roll commencesand lill off fOllo.ws. The aerotow is merely formationflying with a\wo hundred foot umbilical cordbetween participants. low level rope break contingenciesdominate the thought process· at thistime". Let's hope they achieve success In theTerminal Manoeuvring Phase Energy Management(NASA-ese for getting the approach right).Purple prose apart, they do seem 10· haveachieved a very thorough organisation: we awaitresults.The Congress terminated with asplendid closingdinner, accompanied by flowery speeches inall known languages and 'Strine as well.BOOK REVIEWJilnes An the World's Aircraft 1985-6 editedby John W. R. Taylor, Published by Jane's PublishingCo Lld at £64.'11 is an· incredible encyclopedia of aeronauticalinformation from official reCOlds, correct onOctober 1, 1985, as well as covering; full details ofaircraft, honiebuilds, microlights, hang gliders,sailplanes, airships, balloons, RPVs, missilesand aeroengines. It.is sad to see that the UKentry has nothing to offer in the sailplane sectionthough it ,is represented in every other branch ofaviation.John Tay10r presents his owrl view of the stateof the art'2nd has some per1inenkX>servations tomake about the economics and poIiticso!militaryaircraft procurement. There is a beautiful colourfrontispiece photograph of the record breakingWallis autogyrooverflying the replica 01 theWallbro monoplane of 1910.B. HI. BRYOE-SMITH73
W. G. SCULLAny club Which doesn't own its site but hasa long-term lease might oe described as havingthe ''fat, dumb ~and happy" syndrome. Fatbecause they are probably not paying a reaWsticrent, happy because the club's costs andfinances are -;tl1at mucn easier andl dumbbecause they are not making any appropriateprovision for the lateful day w'hen the leaseexpires. Even clubs with a long history of 'securitybut on a short-term basis - even onemonth's notice to quit - are to a degree lat,dumb and happy, but might be better describedmerely as complacent.Only il you look at the problem of clubs reallydesperate lor a site do you begin fo appreciatethe nature of the problems they face.Starting from scratchWhere do you start looking for a site?Twenty or 30 years ago the answer was a disusedairfield but these are now difficult orimpossible to find and, in> any case, do notafford the facilities they once did due to disappearingor decaying, runways. T,he only alternativeis "open" land which may vary Irom good'quality farming l
VIC CARRThis year I have been lUCky enough 10 visilQUfte a few of my favourite gliding sites after aconsiderable absence.I was impressed by the confidence so manyof the clubs now have. Ten or fifteen years agomany were only just beginning to be secure.For example, although there were new glidersthen many club fleets still had second-handmachines, some of which were fairly latty.Launching was mostly by worn winches, withprivately owned lugs operating 011 the side.This year' felt Ihere had been a big changealmost everywhere. New glass gliders almostoutnumber the rest in some places. Glasstwo-seaters are in a very high proportion of theclubs, and occasionally a really high performancetwo-seater. Most impressive of all isdecent launching equipment, mainly tugs, withwinches doing less of the work.For all these advances, however, a look atthe Association's statistics show that althoughwe have improved our lal1nches and hours, ourcrashing of these more expensive gliders is albest unchanged, but very much worse takingexpense or cost into consideration.In considering why this shou Id be I noticedan argument put 'forward by people who 1thoughl were old enough and experiencedenough to know better. The suggestion is thalhigh energy two-seaters are not necessary fortraining n today's environment. <strong>No</strong> one willdisagree with this statement If local soaring ofK-8s and K-18s is lheobjective. But if youbelieve as I do thal our training today should be ,to make safe ard competent pilots in today'snew gliders, then the suggestion in my opinionis rubbish.(Continued from previous page.)chase given by 83 Dorset GC members (totald 100 members) at a recenl EGM. As I saidbefore given the commitment. ...FinanceThe we-couldn't-afford·that state of mindmentioned earlier is largely refuted .by Iheactual evidence of recent site lPurehases. Theaverage investment per member is between£500 and £900. If these figures can beachieved 11 puts the purchasing power of acentre such as Lasham in the order of£500 000.The problem c:J raising and managing suchsums 01 money is considerable; keeping it maybe even more difficult if a site purchase ,is notImminent. "Why can't we buy some decent clubgliders?" But, once again, if the commitment isthere anything, is possible. Read the stories ofthe Cotswold, Borders and East Sussex GCs inS & G if you want convincing and ask the BGAfor a copy of their publication "Financial help forGilding <strong>Club</strong>s".At the present time there are three clubshotly pursuing site purchase which, it they aresuccessful, will bring !he total of club-ownedsles to 22. The clubs in question have memberships01 41, M and 101. The most recentsle purchase is the South Wales GC with 103members at a cost in the order of £80 000.Why not join the ranks and secure glidillg'sfuture!<strong>Apr</strong>il/<strong>May</strong> 1986'HORSES IFOR COURSE,SVic, a gliding enthusiast for <strong>37</strong> years during which he has heldclub and BGA Executive office and is currently chairman of theShropshire Soaring Group, casts a look at the state of ourclubs and makes some· suggestions about objectives andequipment.If I were to suggest that the RAF, in theinterests of better training, were going to reintroducethe Tiger Moth as a basic trainer that in the end it would produce better Phantomand Harrier pilots, that Tigers spin ,better andmake il easier for instructors - yoo would knowI was out of my m'ind. I will not tax your credulityany further.In the UK approximately 450 pilots a yearqualify to Bronze C slandards. Roughly hail of'these go, on to complete a SWver C, and ,in theprocess a high proportion are exposed to highenergy single-seaters, a proportion of thesewithoulany training on high energy aircraft atall.Some seven years ago the BGA with itsadvanced training programme recognised theapproaching problem, which was at that timedeveloping'. Today it is becoming more seriousas the crashery multiplies. Why more ser·ious?Because insurers are demanding an everincreasingproportion 01 the hull value as premium.Brokers will delight in taking the sameper,centage from ,a higher premium. They, forsure, have no interest in holding down theclaims. The responsibility is ours.In many clubs it is difficult, if not impossible,to satisfy all the priorities with which club managementare faced. I see three conflictingobjectives present in most club situations. <strong>No</strong>tPIGGOTT- -------Wind cones made in MinistryofDefenceHypalon", also in nylon and cambric.Landing Marker Sets in bright orange.National, Advertising Flags andBanners.Canvas. Covers for all requirements.Flagstaffs supplied and erected inSteel, Aluminium, Fibreglass andTimber - suitablelor WindcOl1es.Towing Cable Drogues.PIGGOTT BROTHERS & CO. LIMITEDStanford Rivers. Nr, Ongar. Esse. CMS 9PJTel 0277 363262all these objectives can be served by one decision.The first objective for many clubs is to maintain,or perhaps increase, revenue. This takesno account of the training needs but is totallyrelated to paying' for permanenl staff and overheadsie to keep the place open· seven days aweek, and 52 weeks a year. <strong>No</strong> other objectiveis considered. The cesult is that we find half thepopulation 01 tRe UK being half trained to thedetriment of overall standards.In some clubs there is a second objective to provide free flying for that proportion of themembers whose main and often so'le interest isto fly al 'Someone else's expense, ie pseudoinstr,ucting and passenger carrying. Many ofthe enthusiasts for this activity do no! put. anythingelse into the club, certainly not flying feesfrom their own pocket. They will, however, sincerelybelieve that they are ma~ing a great contributionto club funds.The last, and mosl important objective isoften sadly taken lor granted and neglected. Itis to train competenl pilots to fly today's newgliders not bn/y. well, but with more emphasison safety of the airera't.The first two ,6" these objectives can be metby using K-13s, Bocians and Blaniks, evenmotor gliders. But these aircraft do not andcannot demonstrate the characteristics of highenergy modern gliders. As a result, they instiltechniques and habits which have to be eliminatedlater on. Quite a few pilOts change theirways only after breaking their high energysingle-seaters. Another demonstration of thesame problem is the way so many clubs haverolled Iheir new high energy two-seater into aQall a few weeks after putting it into service.Surely the message is clear.High energy two-seaters are needed! Yesterday'strainers need training and real experiencebefore theY are let loose in the new aircrallto train tomorrow's pilots. If we serve thefirst and second objectives exclusively at theexpense of the last, by buying what are nowvery expensive wooden parachutes, we will:Iose the opportunity 10 make some cOlltrililulion10 our most serious problem. Whose interestShall we ·serve? Yesterday's instructors ortomorrow's pilots?We need "Horses for Courses", and weneed them now!75
IAN STRACHANTHEJANUS CMlan flight tests thisself-launching two-seaterand asks "Shall we go roundthe 500km triangle today?"~ glider is at the launch point, maps prepared,declaration and barograph signed,photographs taken. A big triangle looks "on".How many times have you been in this position?But how many times do you actuaRy completethe task? One complication is that this glider is atwo-seater and our local pundit has just consented10 show us the ropes. But how manytimes have you been round a task of any size in atwo-seater? And practised with one of theexperts well away from base?This two-seater is a Schempp-Hirth Janus andits claimed 42~:1 performance should ensurethat we go a long way. Even so in the UK on a bigtriangle in a two-seater there must be a goodchance of landing oul. But this Janus is different.It has a minimal chance ·of landing out, and amaximum chance· of completing the triangle. It isthe self-launching Janus OM with the fUlly retract·Ing S9hp Retax 535A engine which, when foldedaway, gives a performance just like a normalJanus carrying, ballast equivalent to the engineweight. "Engine ballast" can be significantlymore useful than waterbanast, particularly whenSUbsiding into that soggy field somewhere in theback of the beyond having just remembered thatyour retrieve car keys are in your pocket. TedAyling was kind enough to let me fly the OxfordshireSportfIying <strong>Club</strong>'s machine at Enstone.Suitably qualified pilots can hire it and if necessaryfly with a qualified back-seater, on anhourly, dailyor weekly rate. How about trying thatSOOkm triangle, or taking a look at that Welshwave?Cockpit Layout. Engine controls are on the rightand include rpm and temperature gauges, Ignitionswitch, a pylon extend/retract rocker-switch,and buttons for the electric starter and for testingthe two ignition circuits for rpm drop. There arealso circuit breakers for battery and generator, ared light and voftmeter showing electrical powerand a green light when conditions are ready forstarting. The green light is on when the pylon Isfully up and the propeller brake released, anduntil these two conditions are satisfied the startermotor is ,inhibited. 11 is therefore not possible tostart ir, the wrong configuration and as an addi-76tional precautiOn the electrical pylon drive is inhibitedwhen the ignition is on. Engine controls notshown in the photographs are afuel cock, throttleand choke levers on the left side of the cockpit,and a fuel gauge and prop brake lever on theright. Other points of note are the temperaturegauge is for the engine coolant, this engine beingwater cooled (see the sman radiator at the baseof the pylon), and that a fuel booster pump cuts inautomatically whenever the iginition is on.Take-off and climb. Take-off was straightforwardusing So of flap, giving a ground roll ontarmac of about 200yds into a 1Okt wind. Rate ofclimb averaged over the first 1000ft was·SOSft/min, with two twelve stone pilots and 30litres of fuel out of the max of 44 litres. Althoughthe speed for best rate of climb is given as 49kt, itwas safernearthe ground to climb at 60kt to givemore margin In case of engine failure and also toobtain a better \'lew over the nose. Attention has10 be paid to the sideslip string as the Janus has anatural tendency 10 wander directionally at lowspeeds and Ihis seems more pronounced whenunder power. There is little stall warning with theengine running, but at full power the nose highattitude at the stall is very marked. At the stall it isnot difficult to induce wing-drop but recovery'using forward stick followed by aileron is rapid.Retracting the Engine. Retracting the engineinvolves throttling to cool the engine for aboutone minute. Because there is no cylinder headtemperature gauge, unlike the air-cooledRotaxes in the PIK 20E and DG-4oo, enginecooling cannot be assessed directly. The ignitionis then switched' off and the prop is stopped bygentle application of 'prop brake. You fly themachine with the left hand, keeping the right onthe prop brake lever and your eye on the mirror tosee the prop.The second 'clunk' tells youthe engine doors are closedand you are a soaring gliderAt SOkt, the prop will slowly turn towards thevertical. There is a very useful bright red circlepainted on the front of the engine which, whencovered by the prop, ensures verticality for saferetraction. Before the prop reaches the verticalyou apply the prop brake and then nudge it offand on a few times, watching the red circle in themirror. When the red has disappeared behind theprop blade, pull the prop brake lever into itsnotch, then push the downward side ofthe rockerswitch on the engine panel, thereby retractingthe engine. Hold the switch down, and 11 seclater you hear two "clunks" about one secondapart: the second "clunk" telling you that theengine doors are closed and you aref10W a soaringglider.This complete process took <strong>37</strong>sec andinvolved a height 'loss of only 100ft from theheight of throttling back. However, on this JanusIf you went even Slightly past the vertical with theprop, infuriatingly it then proceeded to flick over acompression andl the angle became unsafe forA photograph of the Janus showing the general layout, with DI*retraction. I wondered if' by re-positioning theprop on its drive belt it could be ensured that thedesired vertical position was on a compressioncycle thereby making achieving the verticaleasier. It you missed the vertical position the firsttime round there was about a further 150ft heightloss for each 1S0° cycle of the prop. The answerwas a positive use of the prop brake wen beforethe vertical.The DG-400 is easier 'in this respect with liselectrical sensor of prop verticality and the abilityto perform a near-automatic retraction sequence.Mind you, height loss in getting the engineaway is not critical because you can anticipate itby taking extra height while under power, or if youmake a mess of it, just restart the engine, climband try again.Flying with the engine retracted. Once theengine was retracted the glider was simply aJanus with its superb soaringlper1ormance. Timefor 4So bank reversals averaged only 3.2sec withSO (soaring) flap, and 3.1sec with land flap;remarkably good figures for a big glider and sub-The front cockpit panel.
THE JANUS OMrek PIggoIIIIld Ba Henrlksson aboard.stantiaRy better than the 4.2sec quoted in theFlight Manual which 1suspected is therefore lor anon-motorised Janus with full waterballast (andtherefore more inertia in roll). However using lullaileron and full ,rudder there is residUal sideslipand thjs Is one of several indications that theJanus Is slack directionally and ought to havemore fin area or a 'Ionger tail moment arm.Other points about flight without the engine arethat aerobatics and spinning a~e nol permitted,presumably because the weight of the engineincreases the wing-root bending movementcompared to the normal Janus. Indeed if theengine is actually 'removed then these activitiesare alowed. However, on p31 of the Flight Manual,ag clearance of 5.3 tQ -2.65 appears to begiven with no qualifICations or warnings. Thesegfigures are the standard German CertifICationAuthority ones lor semi-aerobatic gliders and somany also appear in your glider's Flight Manual,but no explanation is given on how to reach- 2.65g (it you were daft enough to want to) in aglider not deared for inverted manoeuvres, andon the +5.3 figure surely a reduction should bequoted for the Janus CM, to be consistent withthe withdrawal of the' aerobatic clearance. Afterall, ifyou are allowed to pull5g, surely It is safe toloop, indeed ifyou have just pulled 5g with wingslevel you mayhsve to loop to recoversafely fromthe ensueing attitude!Re-starting the engine. The most crucial pointabout any motor glider is the CQnvenience ofre-starting in the air. You set the fuel, choke andthrottle before the decision is made to erect theengine. Having positioned for a possible fieldlanding, you press and hold-in the "erect" side ofthe pylori rockerswitch. You can hear the electric,motor worl
JOHNCADMANT'HE VEiTURBOTUSThe best compromise so far?The argument will probably go on for years "It's neither a glider nor a motor glider" Ican hearthe purist lobby proclaim, and "What's the point ifyou can't take-off?" the motor glider brigade willexclaim with emphasis. However, it is interestingto look back through old S&Gs and note thatevery so often there have been attempts 10design a glider with a sustainer (get you home if itworks) engine.You only need a very small horsepower andthe engine can be light and simple to operate.The main advantage would be to get you homewhen the weather goes wrong which nearlyalways happens.when you are furthest 'rom YOl,lrbaSe airfield and wtlen your standby crew areaway wasting their time on holiday In Majorca! there are facets of our sport which can cause .hegrey haired ones In our ranks to waver a little.When it comes to a cold, wet, long and tale.retrieve, fighting one's way through our overcrowdedroad system, the pleasure and beautyof the earlier flight tends to become hazy andsomewhat less desirable.Other more or less important advantage$include the ability to reach a patch of weatherwhicll is "working", exploration of oonditions inareas which lend,to be ignored because inadvettantlanding is too hazardous and the fuller I,lse 0«wave oonditions. (All these advantages haveactually been sampled in thefirst seasonof flying488 and have meant iA practice mal'ly more puregliding hours than wO\,lld otherwiSe have beenpossible.)The Ventus is a superb aircraft and I havebeen continually surprised by its long legged,performance.There are some reservations on handling,particularly in the landil'l9' configurationusing the landing flap setting. The ailerOll poweris iO$ufficientlowards the end of the lat1ding runto prevent a wing drop in light wind conditions Ofwhen there is a crosswind component. There aretechniques to overcome this problem and' theone I found: best was to set the flaps at "0"(neutral) and then during the "are out (or justbefore); use full airbrake. This effectively applieslanding nap setting to one-lhirdof the wing ~nand if the air speed is correct there is negligible"oat.The aircraft also requires more than l,lSUalconcentration to By accurately but this is really arelatively marginal matter. The airbrake$ are78John in the Ventus.powerful but strangely diff~rent to the Mosquitosystem although they look geometrically identical.Certainly new approach and landing techniqueshave to be learnt converting from a Mosquitoto the Ventus.I have tried a circuit and landing with theengine extended (propeller wind milling) andprovided one organised a modicum of extraheig~ fOt the final approach there was no pronounoedeffect on the handlingl characteristicsA photograph showing the position of theengine.for this phase of a flight. I do not anticipate landingthe aircraft in this ·configuration will increasethe tlazards· usually associafed with a field landing.Performancewise it could be described as.afairly abrupt switch to a K-8,The el'l9ine operation is simplicity itself withthe cockpit controlS well arranged, Enginedeployment aRel. retraction is electrically poweredandloperated by a three-way switch on, theengine cootrolunil. This unit consists of acircularinsert in the instrument panel 3lin in diameterwhich houses the deployment switch, tne(shielded) ignition switch, a green lightfor enginelocked up and a green and red light to indicateengine rpm. Green normal above 4000rpm, redbeiow normal less than 4OOOrpm (and you havea problem). l"he only othercontrol is the fuel cockonthe right side ofthe cockpit which incorporatesa thumb operated priming pump. <strong>No</strong>throttle control,ie two speeds, stop and nat out!Starting the '8ngine il'lvolves deployment atabol,lt 45kt \AS. The oompression relief valvesare automatically set open, and the engine revsare increased by raising the airspeed to about70-751d at which ,point the compression reliefvalves automatically close - there is a distinctivechange of engine note wt:len this occurs. Theignition is then switched on and the engineburstsinto life. The noise level is quite high but reasonablyacceptable. If the fuel line has notbeen bled:properly baYor'e take-off there can be one or twol1'lOrT1entary engine 'cuts - very disconcertingwhen it first happens but vigorous pumping withthe thumb pump ,puts things right and one canproceed to the nextphase of the flight whiCh Is toreduce speed for the best dimb (55kt) which willgive a still air rate of climb of a little under200fVmin. Flying at 75kt results in 'level flight andcan be .considered max cruising speed. 86kt isthe recommended VNE with engine running.Max range is 500kni on four gallol'lSol four starpetrol!TO retract the engine switch ignition off, closethe fuel cock and reduce the airspeed to somethingclose to40kt (+2 flap). The engine rpm willslowly decay and within 60sec the engine can bepartly relracted to lie back at abOUt 45'. This willstop rolation of the five bladed prop. in a matter ofa few seconds. The book of words then recommendsthat this position is held for a ·fiJrther halfminute to reduce the lemperature of the cylinderblock before completing retraction. A smalloockpit mirror allows ,observation of most of theretraction sequence up to about5f1' layback.One cannot aclually see the final: phase,including the engine bay doors actually closing.There is however a reassuring thump when theengine reaches its retracted positiQn and havingheard this the doors themselves will almost certainlybe closed. A curious psychological effect,after the engine retraction is complete, is thefeeling that the air flow noise levels are higherthan they were before the engine was used B(ldtherefore the doors must have failed to closeSAILPLANE'" GLlOING
THE VENTUS TURBOTRAVELLERS'TALESproperty. This has proved tQ be a pure figment ofthe imagination and is probably due to the factthat the air flow noise level on this particularaircraft is 8 Nttle on the high side even whenevetYthing is tucked away out of sight. It shouldbe noted that the installation of the engine isreallyexcellent and the layout seems to have hadmost of the bugs ironed out of it already resultingin a 1horCllJ!tl1y practical engineering arrangement(488'8 production number is 35).The Ios9 of height resulting from the startingprocecUe can vary between 300 to 400ft andthis gives rise to an interesting question. At whatheight should one try to start the engine? BrennlgJames wrote to S"&G some time ago suggestingthat starting a motor grrder in flight shouldbe commenced with a reasonable amount ofground clearance and he was advocating somethingin the orderof2000ft. I would agree with thisbasic philosophy except in the turbo's case Ihave found that 1500ft is reasonably comfortablealthough the decision point can be lowered to1000II agl if there is aGrade 11800ng area closeby.Of course with the engine han'vnering awaythe excitement of a low scrape is eliminated although they are usually somewhat higher thanthe pilot's animated description (whilst proppingLp the bar) would lead one to believe. You'veheard it - "I had to change the direction of mycircle to avoid the church spire!" - sort of thing!But tor those of us who are approaching theCBtegory ofgeriatrics anonymous, close encounterswith Mother Earth beCome progressivelyless entertaining, even if they end in success.AI this introdUces a new decision making elementto cross-country flight which has in a wayreplaced the excitement of a low level fight forsurvival. <strong>May</strong>be the ground isn't too close whenconsidering an engine start at at 1500ft but therehave been many oocasions when one had todecide whether or not to go on just a little bitfurther because there was an "obvious" sourceof lift a mile or so ahead. Thus, quite often the1500ft rule beoomes an adrenalin generator withsimHar perception intensifiers flOI'mally onlyassociated with a low level save.A further option is always available - leavingthe engine in and go for the purists' solution. Ibind myself makil:lg this decision during Enterprise'85 when I opted for a distant source of hilllift which would have ruled out the use of theengine if it hadn't been working and workingstrongly at thatTo be honest I am not completely convincedthat the~has sufficient advantages to outweighIts cisadvantages-Iam really one of the old(plrist) school at heart - but my traditional c0nscienceis greatly eased by the thOUght that thistype of aircraft requires close involvement with thegIdng movement because one has to have aconYenlional form of launch. The greater independenceof the motor glider must surely tend tolead to smaI pockets of C1ctivity unconnected withclub operation and possibly the BGA as well. Iwould hazard a guess that we will be seeing manymore Ventus BTs in the near future and it will notbe long belere other manufacturersfollow suit withtheir variations on the theme. Schempp-Hirthwould oertainly seem tG be the first to get theengineering of this concept just right.KENYAMax Bacon has recentlyvisited the Njoro Country<strong>Club</strong> first described byGeralyn Macfadyen in theJune 1984 issue, p128.After several years of attempts to get glidingorganised in Kenya, progress is at last takingplace. Richard Pollard, manager of the NjoroCountry <strong>Club</strong> (situated about 100 miles northwestof Nairobi), has for the last year been workingflat out to prOVide cross-country flyingfacilities from his 7000ft altitude airstrip.So far Richard has built an unusual but effectivewinch which provides 1200ft launches for hisK-13 and is steadily rebuilding the assorted fleetof gliders left by previous owners. Progress inJanuary 1986 was that a K-13, T-21 and Tutorwere serviceable, a Swallow nearly ready aftersome fuselage work and a Blanik was still someway from being flyable. With only two localworkmen to help him, Richard has worked longand hard to reach this stage and is now seekingways of acquiring a glass-fibre two-seater fUlly toexploit the soaring conditions. Other developmentshe is working on include re-engining a V8auto towcsr and formalising arrangements foraerotows.Njoro jsa very good soaring site within theKenya Rift Valley with c10udbase usually14000tt asl and is adjacent to peaks of9-10000ft. Soaring conditions are goodthroughout the year and it is easy to get awayfrom a winch launch.Gold, and Diamond distance flights are practicaldespite the rugged terrain as there are manylanding strips throughout the country.Njoro is about ten miles from Nakuru, the thirdlargest lown in Kenya and all main roads aretarmac. Accommodation atthe Njoro<strong>Club</strong>(about300yds from the airstrip) is better than most UKgliding clubs but booking is essential. Charges inJanuary included, daily membership 100/-.winch launches 100/-' and solo flying 36Q'-/hr.The Kenya shilling was 24/- to the poUld sterling..Anyone wishing to combine a holiday in thescenic splendour of Kenya with soaring In the RiftValley should contact Richard Pollard at PO Box323 Nakuru.NORWAYMartin Judkins tells ofexcellent and varied flyingLSl July I went north to visit friends in Oslo. Ihad previously sampled the spectacular <strong>No</strong>rwegianscenery by an earthbound holidaynearly six years earlier and the thought of glidingthere was very tempting. I contacted AngusMonroe. an English ASW·20 pilot. who took meto one of the Oslo Flyklubb Seilflygruppen'sevening meetings held in a converted cellarused for SOCialising and fettling.I was fixed up with a lift for the Friday evening- the intention was to fly down but lowcloud precluded this so we had to make thetwo hour journey by car. The airfield - the OleReistad Seilflysenter - is a small municipalone just outside <strong>No</strong>todden in the Telemark region,about 110km SW of Oslo. When wearrived the remnants 01 an Instructors' coursewere enthusing about the wave that afternoon.The end·of~ourse festivities left events for therest of the evening shrouded in haze! Sunset isabout 11 pm and it never gets really dark - aRichard Ponard's twin engined high altitude winch in action at Njoro, ph6tographed by Max.<strong>Apr</strong>il/<strong>May</strong> 1986 79
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TRAVELLERS'TALESfact which the <strong>No</strong>rwegians certainly make themost cj - and I did learn the secret of summoningup good weather. Some of the old<strong>No</strong>rsk cU$toms still linger on and at about2.3Oam we duly paraded in the middle of therunway to make offerings to the Great ThermalGod!He was obviously pleased fot the next dayturned out 10 be a gOod one. The Oslo clubshares the faalities at <strong>No</strong>todden with a fewother small clubs and some light power traffic.The airfield is in a valley and has a single tarmacrunway, aligned 120°/300. with a lake atone end - which made for one interestingdownwind take-off! A road crosses the runwayabout a third of the way along and only thesmafler part is used fot <strong>Club</strong> flying which is allaerotow. The Oslo club has a Bfanik, K-8, twoGt03S, an Astir 77 and a Std Jantar. I wasimpressed by the level of instrumentation - allhad multi-ehannel radios, averaging variosmor flight director.Incidentally, wooden trailers are banned in<strong>No</strong>rway - perhaps a sensible rule consideringthe state of a lot of wooden trailers over here!My "host", Tommy Ekeberg, took me for aflight in one of the G 1O3s to have a look at thearea. And what a view unfolded as we climbedout cj the valley! Under a 5000ft cloudbase, themountains, averaging about 3000ft, stretchedIn all directions as far as the eye could see. Tothe NW, the almost conical peak of Gaustarose to 62OO1t. The area is dissected by fertilevalleys, filled with small lakes and even smallerfields. The mour-.ains are wooded and rockyand although many of the fields would havebeen big enough to land in, virtually all wereurder crop. Cross-countries are carried outvery cautiously over there! The locals ensuredme that outlandings were possible (I didn'tbelieve them) but clearly a lot of local knowledgeis required to find some of the surroundIng small airstrips.Plentiful and vigoroustherma/s boosted by the highground and nearby smeltingplantThe terrain around <strong>No</strong>todden is such thatridge and wave lift can be found in nearly anywro direction. Thermals are plentiful and vigorous,boosted by the high ground and thenearby <strong>No</strong>rsk Hydro smelting plant seemed areliable thermal source.Monday turned out to be my best day withBkt thermals to 7200ft which allowed me confidentlyto explore a very large area in the Astir. Ihad another enjoyable flight in the Jantar onTuesday and when wave appeared in the even·Ing I just managed to get a launch before thellpm last-launch deadline. The wave seemed tobe sverywhere and was giving gentle 2 to 4ktclimbs to 56OOf1. I landed after 9pm - a veryrelaxing way to spend an evening and amemorable way to end my visit.Although there is no clubhouse, facilities aremore than adequate wiih fOur-berth rooms, all~/<strong>May</strong> 1986with fridge and COOker. There are meals at acafeteria or, more usually, at the restaurant Inthe airport building which provides huge"home-cooked" meals at very reasonableprices (for <strong>No</strong>rway!) Aerotows cost Kr12/100mplus Kr35 "start fee" which works out cheaperthan many British clubs. Flying fees are Kr31min (about 27p) which is expensive and mostclub members opt for paying a Kr2000 lumpsum at the start of the year, after which all flyingis free. There is gliding every w~ekendthroughout the year as wen as weekdays in thesummer. More details can be obtained from theOslo Flyklubb Seilflygruppen, Postboks 15,1330 Oslo Lutthavn or the gliding centre manager,Tel 036 11520.The cost of taking a car and trailer to <strong>No</strong>rwayis little more than the Channel ferries and thereis not much driving to do at the other end. Thesite is small, well run and very friendly and theywould certainly welcome more visitors.Although the area around <strong>No</strong>todden is not theclassic fjord terrain which one associates with<strong>No</strong>rway, the scenery is still very beautiful andthe flying is excellent and varied - all theingredients for a good holiday. I shall certainlybe back!IRELANDLlNDSEY ASTLE writesabout the safari to Co Kerryleryyear in late September a group from theDublin GC goon safari to Co Kerry and are joinedby several members of the Ulster <strong>Club</strong> and PatPiggott and myself from Coventry. The fortnightis organised by their CFI, Dan Begley, and hiswife, the aim being to ridge and hopefully wavesoar the hills and mountains in and around theDingle peninsular.We autotow off anyone of three possiblebeaches using our own cars and a length ofparafil. All three beaches, Fermoyle on the northof the peninSUlar, Inch on the south and Rossbehyon the south of Dingle Bay, have roughlytwo miles of hard packed sand on which to towwhen the tide Is out. The prevailing wind is fromthe west and one or other of the ridges availablewill work if there is an element of north 01' south init.It is possible to ridge soar from Inch the 11milesorsoeast to Castlemaine in the right conditionsand I am told on one occasion someone cliffsoared a similar distance west to Dingle. Flyingfrom Fermoyle can be less straight forward, asthe ridge here can be affected by the one in front.Rossbehy is the least explored of tile 1hree sitesbut cliffs fonm a WOrkable ridge in the right windmost of the way to Valencia. Ho.waver,1 onlyknow of one flight made alOng this mute.There is a story that a Spaniard once asked anIrishman if there was an Irish equivalent for theword "manana" to which the reply came' thatthere was nothing indicating that degree Ofurgency. Well, it is true1hat it can be slow gettingpeople started in the morning but once flyingbegins it continues come hell, high water ordarkness. With the runway flooding as it doesevery 12 hours or so, flying with a set of tidetables can be as importantas flying with a map.A few miles back from Inch there is a field thatis landable and at the backof Rossbehy there is asome-time football pitch but before landing onthe tatter It is adVisable to radio the ground crewto organise a round-up of the local cattle. Apartfrom these two, the fields are unifonmly small,steep and surrounded by dry-stone walls.So far as the wave goes, it seems that if thereis wind there is wave, generated by either themountains north Or south of Ihe bay. Unfortunatelycoastlines facing the Atlantic often havemore than their fair share of cloud and only theoccasional slot shows through. With cloud at15000 and mountains at 3400ft the slot needs tobe pretty constant to goupthrough it. Happily thecloud is not always there and on one particularoccasion two years ago glider after glider pulledoff tow, turned over the bay and contacted thewave. A number of pilots got their Gold heightsthat day. <strong>No</strong>t bad off an autotow!All airspace above 4000ft is controlled in Irelandbut this is handled with a typical Irish flexibility.If a pilot finds himself climbing towards thisceiling, he "holds", radio's back to the beach andsomeone drives to the nearest phone to contactShannon Air Traffic Control. On only one occasionthat I know of has clearance to keep onclimbing been refused.There is a little used airfield at Farranfore, afew miles inland from the Bay - "Kerry CountyAirport". For someone with Ihe meansand initiativeto organise a tug there must be great possibilities.The last Wednesday in September wasa typical example. The whole of Dingle Bay wascovered in low cloud an
ANNUAL RECORDS82Height GainAbsolute AltitudeStraight DistanceGoal DistanceGoal & Retum DistanceTriangular Distance100km Triangle300km Triangle'SOOkm Triangle7SOkm Triangle1000km Triangle1250km TriangleHeight GainAbsolute AltitudeStraight DistanceGoal DistanceGoal & Retum DistanceTriangular Distance100km Triangle300l
ANNUAL RECORDSHeight GainA/lsQtIle AltitudeStraight DistanceGoal DistanceGoal & RetumDistanceTriangular Distance3001un Goal .& Return50aun Goal & Retuml00km Tliangl&2001
IGA &GEIERAL NEWSENTERPRISING TASK WEEKYorkshire GC is organising a task week fromAugust 23-31 with the task setting based onthe principles of Competition Enterprise, theprime aim being to get the maximum flying timeout of each day.Scoring will be based on distance flown andenterprising flights with a bonus for landingback on site (there will be no speed points).Various TPs will be set to ensure every pilotwill be stretched and have the option to fly inareas where the weather seems better.Sutton Bank offers strong thennals, seabreeze fronts, many miles of soarable ridgesand excellent wave (some of our best heights,up to 30 000ft, have been gained around thistime of year).The ootry fee will be a bottle of wine andcosts will be limited to normal club rates formembership and launches, For more detailscontact Jon Hart on 0532 401445 (weekdayevenings).MOGAS OPERATIONSDick Stratton, BGA chief technical officer, hasissued a memorandOOl (TNSl1/86) which dealswith the effects on aeroengines of Mogas witha small per~tage (1 to 3) of alcohol added toil. Some fuel companies are tnreatening toproduce Mogas of this type and if youexperience any of the symptoms listed belowyou should investigate the condition of thecarburettor lIoat, which may be 01 a type ofmoulded cellular polymer based syntheticrubber which is susceptible to alcohol.1. Flooding.2. Rough or rich running (black exhaust).3. High fuel consumption,<strong>No</strong>te also that some fuel gauge transmitterfloats may also be made of moulded cellularrubber.INTER-UNIVERSITY TASK WEEKThis year Aberdeen University are the hosts forthe Inter-University Task Week which will beheld at Aboyne from July 12-19. It is open toUniversity and Polytechnic teams and forfurther details contact Robin Cutts, secretary ofAberdeen University GC, Aberdeen UniversityUnion, Broad St, Aberdeen AB91AWSTRUCTURE OF THE BGAThe membership structure of the BGA is nowmade up of 86 full member clubs, three ofwhom have affiliated clubs as follows: Anny<strong>Gliding</strong> Association with two clubs, RAF <strong>Gliding</strong>and Soaring Association with 11 clubs and theRoyal Naval <strong>Gliding</strong> and Soaring Associationwith three clubs,Operations. During the year endingSeptember 30,1985 (1984 figures in brackets),member clubs (civilian and combined services)flew a total of 152 995 (145 526) hours and1 024357 (1 180 943) kilometres cross-countryfrom 406 929 (457 120) launches from clubsites. <strong>Club</strong> owned gliders total 487 (435) andprivately owned gliders 12n (1180).84certificates. Certificates were issued asfollowS: A endorsements 1625 (1859), Bendorsements 230 (243), Bronze C 419 (446),Silver C 261 (296), Gold C 75 (76), Diamond.goal 100 (1 (0), Diamond height 48 (59) and,Diamond distance 61 (26),A certificates were applied for by 839 (1000)holders of the ATC proficiency certificate.A TOUCH OF CLASSImagine landing in a field and within 12 minutesenjoying, a hot meal of perhaps tur1
BGA & GENERAL NEWSOBITUA'RYFreddle WlsemanBGA ACCIDENT SUMMARY _Compiled by KEITH MITCHELL,Chairman, BGA Safety PanelFreddle WJSeman taught me to glide and I wasvery sad 10 Ieam of his death on ChristmasDay,He left Cambridge University GC to start theRidgewell Ostley GC on the old Ridgewellwartime airfield. With endless enthusiasm andhard wOO< he showed countless number ofpeople how to glide -launching the gliders byhis famousoomblne harvester,I am sorry I have only known him over thelast decade but I am preased to have so manyhappy memories. The first malf an hour soaringwith Fred In the T-21 , fJed dressed in his wellworn berret and boiler suit and the pleasure wehad together after a successful day's flying.Fred was a poetic and fluent writer andduring his illness wrote a book. I look forwardto the time it is in print.OlIve BarkerRef. Glider BGA §> Pilo~CrewDale<strong>No</strong>. Type <strong>No</strong>. E PlaceTimeg Age Injury ~HrsSummary117 K-13 2830 S 22.7,85 Challock P1 49 N 430 Ins1nlctor ftying appJOSch at 65k11n turbulent con-13.45 P2 25 M 0 dillona Savere lUrt>ulence caused right wing 10drop during round out. Wings were levelled but aheavy landing resuKed.118 SportVega ? M 28.5.85 BurlOn on Trent 32 M 210 Unable 10 soar during lead and follow exercise,17.00 Poor fteld selec1lon and poor circuli planningresulted in overshoot. and airCisft ran into unseenbaJbed wire lence, Wire ran up overcanopy belorebreaking through at middle,119 Vanlus B 2968 S 31.7.85 Lavanon 45 M 620 Pilot conlused wind direction and touched down,14.30 downwind. downhil just short of a hedge wKhwhich the glider coDlded immediately aKer touch·down.120 00·202 2736 M 31.7,85 Twenon 50 N 475 During slightly heavy field landing underside of14.20 port wing touched down causing minor damage tothe leading edge and ailaron,121 Twin Astir 3128 N 21.7,85 8k:kmarsh PI 67 N 90 Twin Aslir was.on final approach. ftylng Into rain1400 P2 ? N 0 squaW moving ac~ IIaI(j when a Blanlk ovanool
BGA & GENERAL NEWSHOggfeS(Marjo
BGA & GENERAL NEWSHAROLD DALEReI. Glider BGA W DatePlacePiloVCraw<strong>No</strong>. Type <strong>No</strong>. ~ ,meAge InjUry PVHrs0Summary133 ,' 1t with limited SOlO 8J1tperience. having com-15.40 pleted a 2tv nighl, noted that rough and turbulen'cordilions had developed since lake-off andcoped well with circuit and approach unlit duringhoId-off at abouI a foot above fhe ground, theglider was balloooed by a gust 10 10ft. A heavylanding followed.134 1nT'IW groundt6.ooTun, the glider swung almosl9O' to right. Tow ropethen began to pun nose to left and ellhis point thehug released the rope. Glider conlinued to rise andtum to left, eventually striking ground lail first andbreaking rear fuselage.138 80cien .14<strong>37</strong> M 29.7.85 Naseby, PI 61 N 1454 The dual aerotow took off on air experience nights1S-21l2e 2206 M t9.<strong>37</strong> Clipston PI 47 N 80 in overcast conditions with drizzle at times. Thetow conlinued with patchy st cu at low levelincreasing untU sight of the ground was occasion~any lost. Glider on short rope released et t 800ftand Ihe second glide< released soon after. Bothgliders found their return to the airfield obstructedby cloud, so descended in clear patches unlil clear01 cloud al about 700ft. Each landed, with veryminor damage, in lields some two miles apart138 K-18 176? S 22.8.85 Booker Pt 5t N 52 Slrong sink was encountered at 700ft one milet2.25 from airfield. Pilot attempted 10 reach airfield.When he realised he would not make if, helried toland in crop. Spun in.140 Olympia 463 1275 S 25.8.85 Enstone PI 22 M 150 Pik>l returning from a cross-country night encount4.5Oleredheavy sink end selected a field. Then. findinglift, he decided he could reach base. Further sinkwas encounlered when two fields from the boundary.The aircraft struck a tree on the airfieldperimeter with left wing, rolated, and struck theground sideways.141 Ubello 16<strong>37</strong> N 7.7.85 <strong>No</strong>rth 53 N 2066 During short field landing pilol chose to run Inlo16.30 Humberside PI standing crop to avoid possible damage Irom vergesof a farm roact Flekt selection left loo lale.142 FaikBI? M 21.8.85 Trevellas PI 67 N 55 At lake-off speed the stick was pulled lully Dock.11.35 P2 45 N 0 P1tailed to regajn control and aircraft stalled fromabout 5ft. Tyre burst and propeller tip damaged.143 00·101 2826 S 19.8.85 SUllon Bank Pt 42 M 775 Winch launch at hill top site. Pik>t lowered nose15.55 and released. then cable parachute innated andpassed over slarboard Wing. Pilot heard cable onwing and increased speed to 80-851ridge P2 16 N - its effec1 on retum 10 $irfiefd. Heavy sink causooundershoot\ wingtip touched llee. lop and aircraftfell ·to ground. Queries on vafidily of inSlruclOr'Srating, hrs, etc.<strong>Apr</strong>Il/<strong>May</strong> 1986COCKPITERGONOMICSHarold, of Bartdale, HumanFactor Specialists, points outthe danger of confusingcontrol levers and lists therecent accidents related tothis problemIn the October 1982 issue of S&G, p211, Iwrote abOut the problem of confusing controllevers and described some research Into waysof making the levers feel different. The piecedid not seem to raise much interest, leavingme with the impression that most glider pilotsbelieve themselves to be rather superior beingswho are incapable of being so stupid as to pullthe wrong lever,The BGA appear to have made some moveto reduce the risk of confusion by introducing astandard colour coding for airbrake, flap,undercarriage, trim and cable-release controls.This should reduce the error rate when cockpitchecks are being carried out on the ground,where the lighting will be good and when thepilot is free from time-pressure, The crucialpoint, however, is when the pilot is in the air,with a bright sky outside and little light inSidethe cockpit and when time is at a premium, Allcontrols look grey in a dark cockpit when theeyes are adapted to the light level of the skyoutside. So the colour coding will be of littlehelp when it matlers most.Scanning through the accident reports forrecent years confirms that these errors dooccur from time to time, The relevant reportsare reproduced on this page. Fortunately noneof the accidents has resulted in injury althoughtwo led to serious damage to the glider, Fromthe hours of the pilots concerned it can be seenthat such accidents are not confined tonovices. As might be- expected the problemappears to be related to aircraft type, theASW-19 being Involved, in three cases.The numbers of accidents related 10 controlconfusion is 001 high. Over this period a tolal of51'8 accid'ents were recorded, so the incidenceis only about 1%. The. prOblem with accidentreduction, however, is that there are manyways of having an accident, so any particular, factor will only make a small contribution.What is noteworthy abOut accidents due to,control confusions is that they are related tococ~pit design .. Therefore something cal'l bedone to minimise them in advance, while onthe ground and free from any pressure,1982Report <strong>No</strong>. 19, ASW-19, 77Ohrs. Damage M,injUry N.Pilot was doing cockpit check prior to makingfirs! nght on type and on reaching "airbrakes"thought to himself "The ASW-19 hasn't got. a87
COCKPIT ERGONOMICSBGA & GENERAL NEWSretractable undercarriage". He then pulled theU/C lever which is mounted on the same sideof cockpit as airbrake lever and undercarriagecollapsed.1983Report <strong>No</strong>. 38, ASW-19, 195hrs. Damage S,injury N.Second flight on type. Lowered U/C and withairbrake lever on same side, pilot selectedwhat he thoughlwas full airbrake but in factraised UlC. With excess speed and the upwindboundary rapidly approaching an attempt wasmade to put lhe glider 00 ground. A wing dug inand the glider cartwheeled. .Report <strong>No</strong>. 56, Blanik, 152hrs. Damage N,injury N.On approach selected half flap thinking it to behalf airbrake. Attempted to open full brake andflap lever jammed by downwind (downward?)pressure normally used with airbrake lever.Assumed airbrake malfunctioning, toucheddown with excess speed, took off and turnedthrough 90° to avoid hedge and landed crosswind.Report <strong>No</strong>. 141, ASW-19, 170hrs. Damage S,injury N.First flight on type. Pilot briefed on possibility ofconfusing undercarriage and airbrake operatinglevers. In circu~ pilot lowered undercarriageand then raised it believing he was operatingairbrakes. SidesJipped, overshot landing areaand landed up at high speed, groundlooping.1984Report <strong>No</strong>. 22, Kestrel 17m, 314hrs. DamageM, injury N.Pilot landed normally, using flaps and tail'chute. As speed of ground run dropped off andleft wing touched the ground the pilot, reachingfor brake lever, pulled flap lever by mistake.Aircraft ground looped 90° and ran downhill,com ing to rest with the nose against a stonewall.Report <strong>No</strong>. 27, Pegasus, 50hrs. Damage N,injury N.Pilot carried out normal downwind checks buttook hold of U/C rather than airbrake lever.Realised her mistake but was forced to land infield adjoining airfield."PiIo~CrewRef. Glider BGADatePlace<strong>No</strong>. Type <strong>No</strong>. f TimeAge InjUry PVHrsClSummary149 Olympia 463 1<strong>37</strong>3 M 29.8.85 lasham PI 57 N 46 Pilot wes making an obseNed Sleep approach18.40 using side-sJip and airbrake. The side-slip wasstopped at about 75ft but the nose was not low·ered. and the airbrakes were opened fully. Gtiderdescended fully S1a1led. and 'hen enlered a spin.fortunately only 10-15ft from ground.150 Foka3 1090 M 17.8.85 Slelching"'" Pl 31 N 148 Pilcllocal soaring new out of gliding range 01 air-14.30 field. failed 10 oonlacl lift and selected a field. Alence of posts and wire running across the middleof the field was not noticed until crossing theboundary hedge on linal approach. Towerds lheend 01 the ground run the por1 wing hit a fencePOSI.151 K-13 1627 910 22.8.85 Usk PI 27 N 514 On instrucltonal winch launch glider's right wing14.58 P2 45 N - was low causing glider 10 drift to the right. Inslrut·tor managed to level wings atter glider was airbornebut starboard wing struck branches of treeon edge of air1iekj. Glider rolled inverted ., about15ft end sank 10 ground slin inverted. Substantialdamage to wings and fuselage.'52 K·23 2999 S 12.8.85 Holton-in- Pl 58 M 112 Soaring course pilot selected grass lield smeller14.00 lvinghoe 'han edjacen' fields cl slanding crop. but in seffingup approach became disoriented end made f"",1approach downwind. With high ground speed.round out was half way across the chosen fieldand Ihe aircraft stalled inlO the standing crop of theovershoot field.153 Venlus B 2743 M 14.9.85 Dunl1fab&e PI <strong>37</strong> N 150 After ridge ftylng IQ( two hours the pilol decided 1015.36 land. butran inlocurl overand low levelturtlulencehe had nol anlicipated. Glider sank inlo QOI'l8 ontop 01 the ridge. Holes in fuselage and demage lawings.154 K-8 2718 M 9.9.85 Challock PI 18 N 0.3 On Ilrst solo made good circuit and approach end14.46 rounded out correctly but dived into the groundIrom abou' 2ft. Thought glider was ballooning.(Why not solo in K-13? A,K.M.)155 Dart 15 1268 WIO 22.9.85 <strong>No</strong>rth Hill PI 34 M 630 Pilaf abandoned winch launch when speed17.45 decayed. <strong>No</strong>se was lowered, but air speed did notincrease due 10 low altitude and wind gradient. Ananempt was made 10 round out but gltder struckground at an angle of 30'.156 Mosquito B 2<strong>37</strong>8 WIO 22.9.85 Lothersdale PI 39 M 630 Cross·counlly hHI soaring over quite rugged ler-14.15 rain. Could not see way out of valley when unableto soar and below hill top height Boffom 01 thevalley was unlandable. so selected field on upperthird 01 hill. Triad 10 soar hil up to last minute. andended up Undershooting field and slalling into theI--dry stone wan on downhill boundary. Wind direc·lion affected by wave and valtey. Speed perceptionaftected by slope.157 K·7 2223 S 27.7.85 Winlhorpe PI 57 N 49 Having experienced strong wind gradient on two? previous lIights, pilol selected approach speed of55kt On linal approach alrbrakes were openedand speed dropped suddenly. Brakes were closedand the glider was dived in an anempt to gainspeed and pull up over boundary fence. Speedwas insufficient and aircraft stalled onto the fence.158 Kestrel 19 1944 M 27,7.85 Winthorpe P1 41 N 402 During pre·landing check undercarriage was low-17.18 .red and locked. After a noonal approach andsmooth touchdown the wheat retracted during theground run and the glider slid on its belly 10 a stop.Inspection revealed IhatlheundetC8tnage aclual·Ing lever had fractured along a walded horn tha!maintains lhe locked down position.s= serious; W/O= wrlle-ott; M:::: minor; N:z nil.ALTON HOUSE HOTEL27 Modern Bedrooms all with En SuiteFacilities, Swimming Pool, Tennis Courts,Restaurant, Bar.4 Miles from Lasham <strong>Gliding</strong> Centre* Completely refurbished during 1986 ** Ample free car parking *ALTON HOUSE HOTEL, <strong>No</strong>rmandy Street,Alton, Hants. rei: 0420/8236988SAILPLANE & GLIDING
YOUR LETTERSFlYING BACK INTO POSmONDear Editor,"Back to Basics" by Derek Piggolt containedaD the OK stuff, however in the December8IIic1e, p271, it appeared to be a bit sketchy asfar as the main' problem is COIicefned, namelyhow to tIy back into position. Derek wrote: "ItInvolves initiating a smaU turn towards the tugand then reversing neatly as the correctposition is reached. Until you can manage thewhole two unaided you will find it easier just tobring the wings level and let the glider do therest,"<strong>May</strong> I recall another and by far easiermethod:SLIP: ie just "think" shallow bank into the tugand use opposite rudder as a break. Thus youwill slip into line astern in slow motion and uponarrival neutralise controls and Bob's your uncle.(Fig. 1)SliP<strong>Apr</strong>il/<strong>May</strong> 1986Fig 1Fig 2f\-.';\ Reversal point'0 " ".S-TURN \Your suggestion to reverse neatly as theOlllT8Cll106itioo is reached Is a bit vague. Doyou refer to a vert ShallOW S-tum? When usingU11s method it is important to execute thenwersal before reaching (he line asternposition in order to prevent overshooting andhaVing to start all over again. S-turns are forthe experts and unless flown exactly they getyou into that rather unpleasant and possiblydangerous pendulum motion with the studentpilot always one stroke behind. (Fig. 2)W. VENNER, Goch, W. Germany.Derek Plggott replies: You are quite right. Idid cover the problem rather too briefly.However, !his was not entirely accidental. I findthat unless the student has already done aconsiderable amount of normal flying, only thelIinpIest advloe Is of much help In the earlystages of aerotowing. Stabilising the positionand allowing the grlder to fly back into line mustbe the easiest way to stop the often violentoscIlations In the early stages. Briefings andexplanation have very little real value to thebeginner, and it is almost a waste of time to try10 get them to fly back nto position with anS·tunl. That requires a high degree of skill andICCUI'8te timing to get the glider back into line.Because of this, I avoided a completedeecription of how to get back and I agree thattha text was Inadequate and did not describe8X8CUy what is required. But neither, I think, is• much good telling a beginner just to slip hisway back. Unless he has a great deal of8ide8lipplng experience, it is almost certain thathe will start with a oo-«dinated sticlc: andrudder movement before stopping himself andapplying the opposite i'Udder. This happenswith almost every pilot leaming to sideslipalthough, unlike areotowing, in normal flight heis under no abnormal stress,In many of the gliders during even a mildsideslip the rudder loads will change as therudder tends to OV$rbalance and this willcertainly add to his confusion. Althoughslipping into position is effective with mosttypes and is easy for the skilled pilot to do, it isalmost always a mistake to teachunco-ordinated flying as, it can so easily lead tovery ruddery habits. In the case of rudderingback into position, whioh is still advocated by afew misguided instructorll, it definitely leads toruddering problems In normal flight. Also itdoesn't work unless the lateral stability of thetype Is fairly strong', The problems of towing aremastered by most students suddenly indicatingthat it Is a "knack" - the knack of almostanticipating the movements of the towplaneand immediately responding with the correctmovements and without overcontrolling.Probably any student having real trouble willhave solved it after another two tows using thevery simple advice given in the article. Eventhis Is quite difficult to get over to the studentwhen he Is doing an actual tow. Once the pilotshave leamed to tow reasonably smoothly, I findthat they are able to master flying back intoposition correctly and this seems to me a bettermethod than slipping back. I do hope you willaccept this explanation and find it helpful.REQUEST FOR BRITISH CALENDARDear Editor,I wonder whether other readers were, likeme, disappointed to discover that the 1986calendar on offer from the BGA was in factAmerican. I am sure an all British calendarcould be produced; even using just the coversfrom SaG would make a fine calendar (Octoberexcepted!). <strong>May</strong>be this year ...LUKE CRADAN, Stevenage, Herts.Barry Rolfe, BGA admInistrator, replies: Wehave previously produced British glidingcalendars but unfortunately the demand hasnever been high enough to allow an economicprint run. Therefore we were pleased toco-operate with the SSA in making available a1986 calendar which at least featured fourexcellent European photographs.PEN-FRIENDS WANTEDDear Editor,For the first time in my life I have been luckyenough to own a copy of S&GDecember-January 1980- so would like to sendmy late but hearty congratulations to the BGAon its 50th anniversary (now already 55!),I am 33 years-old and live in Poland on alittle farm among the forest by the Wisla riverwith hills on the north side. In the summer I liketo look at the blue sky where the white cloudssail and disappear beyond the horizon. Thereis often a sailplane making his noiseless circlesunder the clouds.When I look at him, deep in my soul I hearthe forgotten melody of a waltz and I thinkabout my love of soaring and how I would liketo have pen-friends so that I could discuss withthem my love of clouds, the shining sky andgliders. Perhaps I will have a bit of happinessand this letter can be in your wonderfulmagazine. So please write to me dear friends!MIKE NOWICKI, 87-132 Pedzewo, woj. Torun,Poland.THE APPROVED TALCUM POWDERDear Editor,Platypus' store of gliding lore (what afelicitous phrasel) is Quite extensive, but by nomeans as accurate as mine. He tells an, apocryphal tale about the retrieve of anOlympia 463 conducted with a trailer alreadyfull of glider and goes on to say it that it actuallytook place eartier at the Mynd with an Olympia2. (See the December issue p270.) Let me tellyou that it really happened in 1949, so it musthaVe been one of the original Olympia Is, andthe participants were the then Lord Lieutenantof Shropshire as pilot and the then Captain ofImperial College <strong>Gliding</strong> <strong>Club</strong> as retrieve driver.Quite within living memory, the former hasbeen flying a Vega and the latter Is now employedby Lockheed Georgia. contemplatingrather bigger aircraft. The writer will confirmthat thEl "oaf in question" - just for once - didnot belong to Cambridge University but toImperial College,You, the innocent reader, may have thoughtthat Platypus had exhausted thepharmaceutical aspects of soaring flight. (Alsoin the December issue.) By ,no means, for informer times the chemical reSQl,l~S ofKirbymoorside were recruiledby Fred SlIngsbyon at least two occasions, The story of 1he offerof the dye used ,to mark sheep as a potentialwater-paint for competition numbers in thedays when they changed every comp is ratherdull and about as tortuous as this sentence.But the tale of the talc is otherwise.A long time ago (the mature Q$ntle readerwill recall, and see p301 ofthe DecemberS&G) it was thought that WW3 could be wonon the playing fields of England by projectingSlingsby Grasshoppers hither and yan,impelled by keentexhausted/bored/strongpupils, hauling on bungys. Slingsby'S had thecontract for the Grasshoppers, which werereally primary A-frames with "Cadet" wings.But what about the essential bungys?The Air Ministry, or whoever dealt with suchmatters In the early 195Os, put out aspecification. From now on, the tale may wellbe apocryphal but I seem to recall that it wastold by Fred Slingsby himself; it Is however justpossible that the passaQ$ of about 35 yearsmay have embroidered it a little. The bungyitself was easily come by; but the rest of thespecification foresaw that it would baconsignedto some MU, there to languish andperhaps even perish before ,being despatched89
YOUR LETTERSto an English playing .field or perhaps even toForeign Parts. So, the bungy was to be woundupon a drum of some specified minimumdiameter - also easily come by - and, whilstbeing wound upon the drum, it was to bedelicately sprinkled with talc. <strong>No</strong>t just any oldtalc, perfumed, as for babies' oottoms, .butApproved Aeronautical Powdered Talo with aRelease <strong>No</strong>te, a substance which no longerexisted.<strong>No</strong>thing like this had happened since WlNt ,when bungy was commonplace stuff for thespringing of undercarriages - as indeed it still90CANOPIESPerspex replacementunits for most glassand wood gliders. Allcanopies aremoulded stress freewith a new techniqueand with superboptics.Size range - fromas wide as a MotorFalke to as long asa K-13.Immediate fittingservice if required.BOB REECE, RematicSchoolHouse<strong>No</strong>rton, Nr Worcesterlel Worcester(0905) 821334is fOf the remaining Austers and suchlike.Slingsby's desired the contract and were not tobe defeated by the lack of a Release <strong>No</strong>te. Bydevious means not revealed iby Fred, theyacquired a genuine WW1 Release <strong>No</strong>te forpowdered: talc: It looked like a Dead Sea scrollbut a Ilittle phOto-copying even In those preXerox days produced a sufficiently convincingfacsimile.So the Approved Bungy was duly woundupon the Approved Drum, carefully sprinkledwith talcum ,powder from the local chemist,'babies' bottoms for the application to, backedup by a perfectly genuine historical Release<strong>No</strong>te.Did any cadet come to grief. because theRelease <strong>No</strong>te pre-dated the talc by 35 years?A moral somewhere, perhaps.FRANK IRVING. LondonSOLID CABLE WELDINGDear Editor,<strong>May</strong> I express my heartfelt thanks for all thereplies to my request for information on solidcable welding.in the December issue, p295.I have been highly amused by the "legend ofthe full trailer" over the last few issues. (SeeOctober, p224 and December, p270.) I believethis has happened at every club throughout theUK with the exception of Lasham. Had ithappened there Derek Piggott would of coursehave written a book about it.My own variation of this is that a Skylarklanded at Doncaster. The owner club (whoshall be nameless) sent an Olympia trailer. Theantics of the crew trying to fit a glider with athree-piece wing into a trailer designed for atwo-piece wing was worthy of both Dad's Armyand Basil Fawity.MIKE USHERWOOD, Huntington, Yorks.TO ANSWER YOUR QUESTION . ..Dear Editor,Platypus wonders, and he's not the only one,how does a lady deal with a call of nature,miles high in a non-loo glider? (See the lastissue. pt6.) ,I did go into coosiderable detail onthis subject last year, as the problem presenteditself in a K-21 flying P2 with Wiltol1-Jonesround a' task at the Book.er Regionals. TheEditor, however, did oot consider the SUbjectsuitable for a family magazine. and ,deleted thedetails. Platypus can get away with anything. Itisn't fair!I've always admired the elegant simplicity ofthe plumbing arrangement enjoyed by theopposite gender. As the little girl said, "That's ahandy thing to have on a ,picnic." Never mind.We have advantages too, one of which is sheerendurance. And, over the years, if I had anypride or modesty, I .have lost them both. Thelast time I ended up under pressure ofnecessity, having entered at 800ft the smokefrom a large stubble fire, the subsequent ride toSOOOft was so terr,ifying that I had to land atBicester and dash to the 100. "You could havemade it back to Booker" the Sergeant said, ashe hitched u.P the ,K-1a Jor a relight. I didn'tcare. It cost a £6.50 launch fee to spend aJ>enny at Bicester loot it was worth lit.Best story at Booker on this theme was toldby a modest chap who went to Aboyne fOf aDiamond height. There he was, ina sleek glassglider, oxygen mask and moon boots, serenelyriding ttle wave to a glittering flpog&e in theheavenly blue. Reminded, after a time, thathumble needs must be met, he neatly uSeQand knotted up a plastic bag and cast it to thewinds and thought no more about it. Some timelater, he came down at last and landed. Perf.ecttydecent landing, so why was everybodylooking strangely at his glider?"What is that funny lump on your yving?" theyasked, and he realised, blushing, that the funnylump ·of yellow ice on the wing of the glider wasa bag of frozen pea, brought l>ack intact from20000ft.In the United States they advertise somethinghandy for pilots. They call it a "HumanElement ,Range Extender". They do somefunny things over there, especially in California.Warm climate. Lots of wide open spaces.There is, can you ,imagine, a freedom-lOllingbunch that ,practises parachuting in thealtogether. <strong>No</strong> kidding, they had it on the telly.. Back ,to basics. Of course the sensible gliderpilot should include on the checklist a lastminutepee before strapping in. J used towonder why certain Booker pundits knelt inprayer beside their gliders befor.e launching.Hadn't thought of them as reverent types.My own favourite ploy is a quiCk trip to thePerimeter hedge. behind the O8F, confident thatthe. remarkable' vision of my exposed posteriorwm not distract the pilot .on approach. Thestudent intent on landing Ms eyes only for theglideslope. And I've never had any complaintsfrom instructors either. From the perspective ofthe passing pilot. YOu may think you're big, butyou're not so big. A speck with two legs, a tinyblack dot on the ground, rlQ bigger than an ant.The sky is so big and we are, despite our pride,minute bipeds. So dOn't worry abovt it.So much for pre-f1ight checks on the ground.Once aloft, strapped in for a Shr flight on aturbulent day, what can a pOOr gir1 do? In 1971,Sheila Soott flew alone over the <strong>No</strong>rth Pole in aPiper Aztec lwin; She had to manage WithTupperware! What on earth did Amy Johnsondo? And imagine arrivil'l9 at last, simply bursting,to be met by twenty thousand people!History does not record the humble. details ofhow these brave women coped, but times :havechanged. If yOIll would like to know how thisparticular pilot solved that particular problem.you'll just have to buy my book. £6.60 from theBOA, including postage, and they'll send it in: aplain brown wrapper.MARY MEAGHER, OxfordANOTHER TRANSLATIONlDear Editor,Surely both translations of the Howard familymotto "Vo/o non Va/eo" quoted by The ArmChair Pilot in the last issue p17, are wrong? Ithought it meant: '" wish I didn't needtranquilisers".TIM GODFREY, LondonSAILPLANE & GLIDING
YOUR LETTERSWEAK UNKS AND FLYING CABLE 'CHUTESDear Editor,Following my description in the last Augustissue, p181 , of being let off lightly when thecable 'chute fouled my tailplane after the weaklink had operated (AcciOOnt Ref <strong>No</strong>. 85/16,reported in the same issue, p186), I have acouple of oornments arising from subsequentcorrespondence/events/thoughts.In asimilar incident elsewhere (Accident Ref<strong>No</strong>. 85/56 reported in the December issue,p292) the slrOpl'cbute again appear to havefouled the upper surface of the tailplane. Wehad seen such damage before but assumed itto be due 10 unreported ground (mis) handling(see John Stone's letter in the December issue,p294). I am now wondering how many suchIncIdenls remain undetected and therefore\IlI'ecorded.Putting the weak link above/behind the'chute as Messrs Batty and Mills suggest intheir letters in the October issue, p224, andDecember, p295, respectively, may exchange"my" problem with a flying 'chute for a numberofolhers.1. With the weak link well above/behind the'chute, the latter will remain attached to thecable when the weak 'link operates. Then,trailing as much as 10m of strop rope with ametal attachment flailing, it will be ready to foula passing aileron or tailplane, particularly if the'chute billows.2. Moving the weak link down to just abovethe 'chute gets rid of the flailing strop ropewhen the weak link operates but with it goesthe 'chute lop-load. The untensioned 'chute willnow be very volatile, prone to billowing andfouling the glider.3. If, desp~e hose covering etc, the strop/cablefchute wraps around the mainwheel, aweak link located above the 'chute will be aftof, or wound into the ensuing tangle; either wayKwill be rendered inoperative. A hang-up isextremely dangerous at the best of times andanyone nol convinced of this should read NigelPringle's account (December 1983 issue,p256) and Derek Piggott's comments on theproblem there and in his "Back to Basics"series (the last issue, 1).14). A glider launchedw11h the cable attached at the mainwheel (orllkid) tends IQ climb near-verticall'y and may beoverstressed to the pOint where the wings foldup, unless there is a weak link to save il. If thegilder does get to a safe height, and the cablereleased or guillotined Dy the tow car/winchdriver, it then has to contend with severalhllldred$ of feet of cable dragging along theground. If this gets fouled and pulls down thegilder, only 8 cable break is likely to save thesituation 10 once more having a useable weakInk is crucial.4. On sites shared with powerful 'ets, theirvacuum cleaner action requires that anythingctopped on or near the runway be qUicklytraced and removed (for reasons .of life, limb8Ild site tenure). A 'chute attached to the stropand failing slowly, following weak ,linkoperation, can be readily tracked; a free-fallingpiace of rope or cable Is another matter.Over the )'ears I recall hearing or reading ofanumber of accidents or hairy incidents (the<strong>Apr</strong>iIl<strong>May</strong> 1986difference usually being fortuitous) due tocables fouling wheels, skids, tailplanes oraileron/wing gaps. I suggest that putting theweak link above/behind the cable 'chute willincrease the frequency of such occurrencesand their severity. If it was ordained that I hadto tangle with a cable 'chute, my preference ismost definitely for the free-flying variety; pleasekeep the weak link below the 'chute!TONY GEE, Godalming, SurreyPRAISE FOR MYND WINCHDear Editor,Peter SalisbUry's letter in the last issue, p36,failed to stress the really superb turn-roundtime of the Midland GC's winching set-up.I was introduced to it in 1962 when it was inits infancy and it was astonishing how quicklybeginners picked up the system. Where elsecan a system offer two K-21 1 s pretty well nonstop,launching on a five minute circuit day?<strong>No</strong> mUlti-drum set-up is going to comparewith the launch rate over the Mynd's terrainand l,om convinced that on airfietd sites it wouldalso, show a more rapid launch.-rate. There isno possibility ot cable over-lays which canhappen on the multi-cable set-up if the retrievetractor doesn't steer a dead straight course,The Mynd system will also reduce the wear tothe grass in wet conditions.The clever use 01 a VW car engine currentlyrun on LP gas driven through a standard VWtransmission into a cable winding gear hasbeen mechanically proved tor over 20yrs what surprises me is that more clubs haven'talso adopted this highly effective system.I only wish I, could get to the Mynd moreoften to, appreciate the "fastesllnthe West!"M. J'. WILSHERE, Watford, Herts.HANG GLIDERSDear Editor,I liked the opening to 'Harold Vales' itemabout hang gliders in the February issue, p35.He managed to include a surprising amount ofvaluable data in a single, column. We all needto know about the flying characteristics of thosewe share the air 'with.I've taken SaG tor a number of yearsbecause It helps me understand cockpit glidercharacteristics. It's also enjoyable and hasoften helpecl '0 improve my hang gliding skills.NEW!from JSW SOARINGFlight planning folding ruler:- miles & kilometres- turn point template I'- metric conversions- cross-country check listOnly £2.50Also JSW Calculators £5.50 & £9'Dolphin' Vario conversions £30 & £48Vario test kits £2.50Soaring Game (48K Spectrum) £8+ tubes, connectors, valves etc. forfastidious fettlers!clo LASHAM GLIDING SOCIETY.LASHAM AIRFIELD, ALTON, HANTS.There is much in common between the twofonns of aviation.Both fonns of glider are flown by pilotsattempting to understand and use the elementsto fly, whereas other aviators put their faith inpower and seek to avoid the very conditions weenjoy and exploit. In my experience, this generatesconsiderable kinship between us, andmakes for very interesting conversations. Ihave never met a glider pilot whose company Ididn't enjoy.Harold has had to simplify his description ofhang glider characteristics. There are a lot ofdifferent hang gliders flying today, sogeneralisations are difficult. Almost as difficultas generalising about cockpit gliders! Mostmodern high performance hang gliders begin togo into "mush mode" at 18mph. (They do notstall radically if slowed down gently, as there isno tail to continue flying when the main wing isbegining to go.~ They are capable of speeds ofmore than 5Omph, but the glide angle at thissort of speed is ,poor - still useful for getting outof those excessive areas of sink thoughI Thesink fate and handling, qualities are much betterin the mid 20s, and the air slips pleasantly by.At more than SOmph you can begin to wish fora cockpit!There is an area above our heads thatrestricts vision. It's"not much of a handicap, aswhen we are thermalling upwards we are circling'with enough bank to reveal where we aregoingl. I doubt that even another hang glidercould remain hidden, above' for loog.The comparative speed of a cockpit glider issuch that it would not 'be able to stay in ourblind area for a significant time. A hang glidercan only oulclimb a cockpit ,glider where thereis rising air that only the hang glider can getinto. It may t>e the more power'ful part of alarger thenmal, of, course. When both glidersenter the 'same big' thermal (they must be duesoon!) the lighter craft Iias less 'inertia and willrespond to the rising air more quickly. That is abrief advantage. SuPerior sink 'rate soon makesup this mifference.There is no blind spot to, a hang glider pilot'srear, except during the landing flair. A positiveeffort is reqUired to turn and look back. Isuspect this is another similarity between thetwo sports?DAVID BEDDING, Chaffont St. Giles, BucksC OFA OVERHAULSTO ALL TYPES OF SAILPLANESBY BGA INSPECTORJOHN SMOKER9ANSONWAYBICESTER, OXONTel: Bicester 0869 245422RESTORATIONSand repairs to wooden glidersof all ages a speciality91
Copy and photographs for the JuneJuly Issue of S&G should be sent tothe Editor, 281 Queen Edlth's Way,Cambridge CB1 4NH, telephone 022324n25, to arrive not later than <strong>Apr</strong>il 8and for the August-september issue toarrive not later than June 10.GILLlAN SRyeE-SMITHFebruary 12ANGUS (Arbro8th)Mike McGreavey was thanked at the AGM forhis hard work as chairman. Our annualdinner-dance was a great success thanks to<strong>No</strong>rma's organisation. Awards were presentedby our new chairman, Mike Davidson, as follows:club ladder, Ron Smith, with Martin Davisas runner-up, and best up and coming pilot,Karen Rodgers.Mike Davidson and Ron Smith had goodwave flights in December reaching 9500tt and7500tt respectively.M.K.AQUILA (Hlnton-in-the-Hedges Airfield)Our overriding concem at the moment is theproposed Upper Heyford special rules zonewhich threatens a number of local clubs directlyand practically every cross-country pilot tosome degree.However we struggle on giving our winch arefurbished pay-on gear on one side and hopefUllyweatherproofing the cab. Our second K-7is being re-covered and our hangar workshopsecurity is improVed with a new door.R.D.AVON (Bidford on Avon)Our membership has doubled in a year andwith course bookings looking healthy a megayear is in prospect. We have another autumneXpedition to Feshiebridge from OCtober 4 to<strong>No</strong>vember 2.The arrival of our pool table in the clubhousewas celebrated with a tournament. We lookforward to seeing old friends from other clubsduring the year and welcoming new ones.Finally, congratulations to John Jones ourfirst solo pilot in 1986.0.0.BANNERDOWN (RAF Hullavington) .We had a successful Christmas party and keptour tradition of flying on Christmas Day.At the AGM in January trophies wereawarded as follows: Navigation trophy, BenBennett; Best Flight trophy, Colin Masters forhis 300km in the Skylark 3; Best Ab-initio,Rachel Barns; Most Progress trophy, DerekFindlay who became an assistant Cat, did a lotof instructing and flew a 300km and <strong>Club</strong>Member of the Year was Pete Butt for ground-92work and' instructing. JOhn Bum was presentedwith a RAFGSA Cer1ificate of Merit for tenyears' continuous service to the RAFGSA. TheAspirants' Irophy went to the RAF Locking contingent,Whose ab-initiOs are trained al Bannerdown,for being the statkln with the greatestnumber 'of solos In the year.We had a successful week in January whena contingent from Cranwell flew with us. OnDecember 24 Geoff Stinchcomb stayed up for35min for a Bronze leg and congratulationsalso to John Char1ett-Green, eFl, on going so10in the Motor Falke. We welcome Martin andWep(fy !Durham.Met, lDawsoA, John Joiner, Trevor HQPe andColiI'! Masters !lave completed a RT licencecourse and aroused so much interest, anothercourse is being ofgal'!ised. We are installing CBradios in tile retrieve trucks to give us winch/bus/retrieve communication.V.R.D.BICESTER (RAFGSA Centre)For the first time for years we flew on ChristmasDay and had a party and fireworks displayto see in the New Year.Congratulations to Duncan Smith, WolfranKahl, John <strong>May</strong> and Liz Tabor on going soloand to Bob Birkett who has soloed in theChipmunk to become our newest tug pilot.At a lively AGM, the <strong>No</strong>vice trophy was presentedto Paul "Muppet" Welch; the Delafieldtrophy to Gary Buckner and the Daniels' trophyto Bruno Brown for his unselfish and unceasingwork on the new airfield bus.S. &J.BLACK MOUNTAINS (Talgarth)An important recent event was the formal hearingin December into the planning restrictionsimposed on our operations by the BreconBeacons' National Park. We are still waiting forthe outcome but thank the BGA for its help andBill Scull in particular.Despite some very wet weather we flywhenever possible and Sunday, January 12,was the best day with strong westerly wave.Numerous pilots stopped their climbs at14000ft through lack of oxygen. Mike Costinhad the best climb to 20 000fI and JohnathanKingerlee the most enterprising, collecting aDiamond height and then flying downwind toEnstone. (See also Enstone report.)WD.MBLACKPOOL & FYLDE (Chipping)We have had three rare events during the lastsix months. Bob Pettifer, CFI, gained Goldheight recently over the site, which was justreward for the many months of patient negotiationsbetween us and NATS, and our gratefUlthanks to Bill Scull for his help. Happily, intheory, we may now get Silver height at anytime - a phone call to Manchester ATC (whohave been most co-operative) will open up AIto FL140.Then we were presented with a plaque bythe Scouting movement in thanks for the airexperience flights given over the years toscouts and guides who attend nearby Wadicorcamp.The third event was the arrival of a Nimbus26 - the most expensive glider we've ever had.The syndicate is I'lQw saving I,JP for the insurance.V.H.BOOKER (Wycornbe Air Patk)After an' exhausting 1985 which saw the newhangar and new clubhouse sorted out toaccommodate the bigger fleet and worseweather, respectively, we look forward to theodd foreign trip such as Aboyne.By the end ()f January the postal barrage ofMPs. in the battle for Upper Heyford resulted inover 120 members expending nearly a quarterof B million words, with 40 personal visits andsome 200 stamps.Our courses are nearly full, so if 'interestedwrite soon.M.F.C.BORDERS (Milfield)A new hangar is top of the shopping list for ournew Galewood site. At present mains waterand electricity are being installed and drainageproblems are still being tackled. Permissionhas been granted for a small caravan for clubmembers.We continue to put a great deal of effort,both practical and financial, into the project andhope to be using the site this summer, so anyonepassing to and from Scotland will be welcometo sample this excellent soaring area.T.P.BRISTOL &GLOUCESTERSHIRE(Nympsfield)We flew during the February snow on somelovely clear scenic days. The Cs of A are progressingwell and the new winch is being fittedwith Tost parts to give it two drums.We have a summer expedition to Gap,France, are making preparations for the 15Metre Class Nationals in June and our newmanager, Gordon Bishop, has made a goodstart.M.B.BUCKMINSTER (Saltby Airfield)It's about two years since our last report. Lastseason wasn't good but six pilots went soloand Hamish McDonald and Peter Colemancompleted their Silver Cs. Our pilots also didwell in Regionals but our Inter-<strong>Club</strong> Leagueperformance can only improve.Rob Cook took over from Bruce Cooper asCFI. Our thanks to Bruce, whose job took himaway, for all his efforts.A group of keen new members are convertinga bus for launch point use, fettling the clubSkylark 3 and helping with the new winch.Three of them have bought a K-6E which is ourfirst new syndicate for several years.Another group have taken the club's Astir toSutton Bank for an extended stay in the hopeof finding wave.There is a renewed interest in winch launchingand Bill Munns is supervising the building ofa new twin-drum winch. An impor1ant aim is toprovide cheap, efficient launching for novicesSAILPLANE & GLIDING
CLUB NEWSand early solo pilots. The cross-country punditswll stillalJ"lCh behind the Scout and we hopeIhey wit also fly in the Saltby Regionals fromAugust 2-11). Frank Cox and the comp committeehave put a lotof work into this week and wewould like to see you here!R.N.C.CHANNEL (Waldershare Park. Nr Dover)We are pleased to have gained planning consentfor Waldershare Park as a permanent glidingsite.We have nine new members since Christmas.Winter projects haye included completingthe first Falke hangar, giving one of ourex-RAF Wilde winches a Daimler engine anddoing the new three year Cs of A on both themob' gRders.LS.CHILTERNS (RAF Halton)Wave has been contacted and there have beenextended soaring flights on our ridge. RogerEDwood Wade and Trev Sadler have their 5hrs,Roger in !he K·7, and congratulations also toLes Fellows on his full Cat rating.The informal winter lectures, covering a widerange of subjects from ground handling toc:ross-eoontry flying, have been most successful.Our newest private glider is John Allison'sT-21 which is eagerly anticipated by us all.We welcome Jerl'Y Neild from Germany andSam Edwards "on loan" from Fenlands andlaY farewell to Tim Dickinson; our DCFI,posted to Cyprus. Tim has given us muchenthusiasm and experience and will be greatlymissed.T.S.COTSWOLD (Aston Down)Mo the AGM in January, Larry Bleaken retiredas chairman atter three years. Larry has beenwith the clUb since the mid 1960s and wasresponsible primarily for the acquisition of ourlite. We owe him a great debt of gratitude andat our olllner-dance we showed our appreciaIon by presenting him with a painting by JohnColeman at himself flying a Dagling when hewent solo by mistake in Germany in 1950 afterone ground hop. We have a new committeeundefthe chairmanship of Ken !Joyd.We art nearing completion of the last roundoflransaetions to rationalise our land holdingsand have started erectingl the hangar (12 ooosqI) Ihat has been in bits fOf four years.Last year we had more ,than 200 crosscountrieswith Jonathan Beard and StevenFerguson collecting Diamond 'goals; Dave<strong>May</strong>o ftew Silver distance in September andcross-countries and Bronze legs were nown in<strong>No</strong>vember. Congratulations to Derek Darlow,Mike Levitt and Mike Gribble on going solo andto Oavid and Vanessa <strong>May</strong>o on their BronzeCs.D.G.R. &L.M.B.COVENTRY (Husbands Bosworth)To provide more winter activity. mid-week flynois enoouraged, particularly TuesdayThursday, and we have cheaper flying rates for<strong>Apr</strong>il/<strong>May</strong> 1986members working on the airfield before 8.30,which has brought new enthusiasm and earlierstarts!Our holiday courses, which start in March,include aerotows and winch launches at a fixedprice. The task week is <strong>May</strong> 24-June 1.New arrivals include a K-13 and a recentlyqualified instructor called "Slasher" - we aresure they will both be assets. For those whowant to keep their feet on the ground, we havean aerobics class in the clubhouse on Sunday.D.L.S.CRANWELL (RAFGSA)After o\Jr AGM in <strong>No</strong>vember the chairman'swife, Penny Smith, presented the trophies.We held a fund raising auction In the clubhousewhen members donated various items.Julia Shearwood and Dave Montgomeryhave gone solo and Graham Pitchfork resoloed.We welcome back Liam McErlean whois now secretary.S.J.H.DARTMOOR (&ento;)We had an Interesting winter talk on the locallydesigned SAH 1 light aircraft by the designer,Syd Holloway, and test pilot, AVM GeoffCairns. '" is hoped to start a production line inPlymouth within the year.With our site deep in mud we have been flyingfrom other club fields such as <strong>No</strong>rth Hill andPerranporth.As soon as the winter rains ease we will behard at WM dOUbling the width of our landingarea which should improve the launch rate.Our dinner-dance was a great success.F.G.MDEESIDE(Aboyne Airfield)Annual awards Included Steve Walker (distance),Chris Marren (height) and Dave Stewart(best novice, including night rating - but that'sanother story!). The height of 22000ft wasquite mediocre, achieVed by chance north ofthe Cairngorms during a cross-country insoutherly wave. Many experienced pilots climbonly as necessary 10 achieve the task, oftenleaving Z-3k1 even though this could take themseveral thousand feet higher. Several pilots,Chris included, have agreed that the cup cannotin future be won for a mere 22oooft, so willhave to devote at least some flying to the (tedious?)business of going high.Winter flying has been less curtailed thanusual and we have operated off snow on severaloccasions. There has been plenty of wave,though often mid-week. (In the depths of winterwe ny mainly weekends only.) How about a220km triangle on December 22, the day afterthe shortest day? Can any other club matchthis?K.A.H.DEVON & SOMERSET (<strong>No</strong>rth Hill)Cold and sun conspired to pop thermals likechampagne corks on January 25 when manygliders were launched to 1500 to 2000ft by ournew winch, showing a 50% improvement in thelaunch rate.Hedging and ditching for the NE extension isunderway; a Sports Council grant decision isimminent. A small extension to the mainhangar for improVed hangar packing is progressing.Dennis Gosling, John Middleton, FrankSmith and Carolyn Garnham have soloed;Eddie Bromw.ell, Dave Brummitt ~nd JohnPursey have their Bronze Cs and ChrisDavison Silver C.At the December AGM, John Fielden presented"Pop's Pot" fot the second task week inmemory 0' his father who had' a I'ongassociation with the club Including 24yrs asvice-presideot; the first holder is Phil Hogarth.Other awards were: progress, Stephen FilZgeraldand. Jonathan Smith; height gain, SimonMinson and lan Mitchell (Eagle); best crosscountryand first. task week, Tim Gardner; clubladder, Dave Rellly (who else?); best competition,Gordon Peters and Tony Price andtwo-seater challenge, John Barrow and lanMitchell (Eagle). Last year's "Wily Old Bird"was tugmaster Ken Jenkins.I.D.K.DORSET (Old SaTUm)There is still winter flying at the weekends andwe've even had a "soaring" day caused by afrontal wave sitting bang over the airfield.Congratulations to Barry Thomas and JohnGoddard on attaining their full Cats.J.B.Obituary - Jim L1negarSadly I must report the untimely death lastautumn of our secretary, Jim Linegar, Jim wasa member of the club for four years and wasqUick to involve himself in all the jobs that keepa club going from painting our assortedvehicles and caravans to glider maintenance,and for the past two years as secretary. We willmiss him. Our sincere condolences to hisfamily, particularly to his wife Win.JiII Burry (chairman)EAST SUSSEX (Ringmer)We have had some good winter flying dayswith Steve Riley and Malcolm Sheppard completingtheir Bronze Cs, Godtrey Herrin hastreated himself to a DG-3OO, Alan Hall aVentus and a L-Spatz syndicate has joined us.Due to a shortage of funds we have put offour plans fOf a new clubhouse but haveplanning consent to convert our workshop Intoa temporary one to replace the caravan. Ourthanks to Margaret Batchelor, Joyce Head andhelpers who are raising funds for theclUbhouse. The New Year's party was a terrificsuccess.We hope to have more courses this year andair experience evenings. We have twoexpeditions to Talgarth, the first in <strong>Apr</strong>il.J.S.ENSTONE (Enstone AIrfield)We have SUddenly found ourselves amongstIthe fortunate (?) few with our airfield up forsale. The committee is working feverishly to93
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CLUB NEWSraise the required cash in the short timelVaiIable.On January 12 Jonathan Kingerlee gainedDIamond height at Talgarth and flew downwindback to Enstone, arriVing with plenty of height.The two Talgarth expeditions were alsorewarded with a Gold height for Tony Cox.Jane Nash completed her full Cat rating tobecome the ~est woman to do so and sheIIso found Gold height at Dishforth.Anew look committee was elected at ourAGM wltn Ken Sparkes as chairman. Ourflanks tl Eric Giles who, retired from the postaIIer many years on the committee.Our new introductory course has produced anumberofsb-initios and the Regionals' bookingsn more advanced than ever before.GoD. &R.J.P.8.ESSEX (<strong>No</strong>rth Weald)CM expedition to the long Mynd in Decemberproduced some excellent flying including wave.MaIk Newland-Smith landed at RAF Shawbury,after turning ludlow!Geofl Lynch completed his 5hrs at Dunstableon JanU8/Y 12 and Ariane Dearden her BronzeCayear to the day she joined the' club. TonyHookway, AleoMalyon and Mike Stringer nowhave their SLMG PPls.I'm told that if I want a C of A on my glider Imust retrospectively mention that Pete Manley(00-202) and Tony Manwaring (OG-200) flewDIamond distances during 1985.Sid Smith has moved away and is instructingBI Nympslleld and John Buckles has retiredIrom Instructing after nearly 20 years.We are replacing our aged club K-8 with anew single-seater.p.aESSEX &SUFFOLK (Whstfield)Congratulations to our new solo pilots, WallyKing and Peter Cross.Wrth two operational tugs again we are ableb loan one to Rattlesden on a regular basis togive them aerotow experience from their site.R.C.AT-21 which we, look forward to flying when thesnow stops.J.P.HERON (RNGSA Yeoviltofl)We stopped gliding l for two months to wait for anew hangar access road. With an Easter taskweek at Merryfield, IIminsler we hope 10 makeup for 10$1 time. At least we had the opportunityto work on the gliders and have gained twomore glass-fibre experts.We aim to continue, the spurt of crosscountryand badge flights which began lastsummer and to organise mo expeditions toencourage our growing enthusiasm.W.W. .HIGHLAND (DaIlachy)--....,-:~-.-=....--.Robert Tail of Highland GC, who went solo on his16th birthday and 1hel'l oonverted to the K-8, isphQIographed with his father, Jim Tait, an instructor,by the <strong>No</strong>rthern &or,Iis one of the keenest for a long time and theyare even helping out with trailer fettling. Ourinstructors have been busy with a successionof weekend courses.We had a successful expedition to SuttonBank before Christmas, taking the K-8 andASW-19. The ASW-19 is back at Talgarth butwe can't find anyone brave enough to go thereand fly it.M.B.J.INKPEN (Airfield)As If the weather hasn't done enough, leavingus well down on launcheS last year; strongwinds lifted the Blanik against its peket ropesSO hard the Wings were written off and a newfin and rudder have had to be fitted.We have :booked an extra tug and K-21 for alarge air experience party in <strong>Apr</strong>il. Coursebookings are going well and the task weekstarts in late July to which other clubs areinvited.There has been an expedition tQ Talgarthand congratulatioos to Bill Murray on completinghis Gold C with a, height gain at Aboynein October, also to Andy Durbin, an expatriatein the USA, who completed all three Diamondswith a distance flight.We hope to have a Motor Falke for a week inJuly for the benefit of the Bronze candidates.I.D.KENT (ChaJlock)Our Christmas party at the clubhouse was ahuge succeS$ - Our Ihanks to Jean Austen andher 'staff for the exce'Uent meal,Some took advantage Of the strong southwesterlywinds 1n December to fly the standardridge run to Rochester and ba~k, both singleand two-seaters achieving the flight.Plans are underway to cerebrate our 30thbirthday this year. The club in its present formwas founded in <strong>Apr</strong>il 1956 at Detling prior to itsmove to the present site at Chanock.Finally congt'atulations go to Richard Davieson going solo.J.W.FULMAR (RAF Kinloss)We have a new winch which has allowed ourbus winch a well deserved service. We have~oyed new hangar facilities this winter nowbeing enscooced with the car club,Alan Clarke is still CFI and Carol Simmondslie deputy. We are having a bonus - an airfieldII1ut down for four months from July for runway/8P8irs.W.G.HAMBLETON$ (RAF Dishforth)we had some varied weather during ourextended tJytng over Christmas and the NewYear. Congratulations to Mick Bowman, Goldheight, Peter Wilson, Silver height and Bronzeleg, Damian leroux, on going solo, and MandyWalker on her marginal Diamond.We had a successful western evening and aIPIendid Christmas dinner. We are pleased towelcome Leeds University's smartly paintedHUMBER (RAF Scsmpton)We congratulate Vinca, and Deanna Rooke ongoing solo, Deanna beating Vince by a week she has now graduated' tQ the K-8, hotlypursued by Vince.Al the AGM in <strong>No</strong>vember Irophies were presented10 TQny Smith (hardest worker); AndyGibson (af>-in1tio 10 achieve the higheststandard). who was awarded the tray and theVicar's pot for'the first completed Bronze C ofthe year and Chris Gildea (for the fastest100km). gained the CFI's 'trophy.Kev Atkinson has taken over as treasurerfrom Dave Cockbum who has disappearedoverseas. Our thanks to Dave for doing such a~ job, We are hoping to arrange passengerevenings and an expedition to Portmoak.T.J.IMPERIAL COLLEGE (Lasham Airfield)Despite a '1on9 absence fromS&G we continueto flourish. lasl October's intake of "freshers"I'KESTREL (RAF Odiham)Our chairman, Brigadier Peter Swinhoe, Is retiringfrom the S.erviCes and we welcome our newchairman, MajQ/' Alao Thompson. Many thanksto Peter tor aft' he has done on our behalf aur·ling his term of office.The autumn expedition to Aboyne resulted ina Gold height tor ferry Jaggers.In December we ran a very successful "inhouse"Instructors' course resulting In sevengaining, their Assistant rating.In January the K',23 was damaged on Iandiogand the pilot, "Andy" Causer, was taken tohospital; we hope she will Soon recover.The bad weather and other factors have soaffected our inoome our charges must beraised 10 recover the deficit.T~ K-6CF! (Echo 'Echo Whisky) syndicatehas disbanded but the aircraft remains atOdiham haVing been purchased by RamsayBrown.P.W.A.<strong>Apr</strong>il!<strong>May</strong> 198695
CLUB NEWSLAKES (W8Iney Airfield)Our new clubhouse was completed In time to. ensure the $lJCC8$$ 0' the summer courses lastyear. Our thanks as ever to the course cook,Pauline Reeve.Peter Lewis gained Gold height, MichaelSacller went solo and Rod Murfitt won the clubladder trophy.We welcome Jim Cook and friends with theirSkylark 4 and congratulate Chris Dobson forhis achievements In his lovely Dimona. Bookingsfor the courses organised by Peter Lewisare going well.M.S.LASHAM (Lasham Airfield)Despite the bad season, our flying results werealmost as good as in 1984. For example, fullflying members are up by 50 to 770 (inclUdingcolleges), launches nearly the same at 32200(inclUding 13100 aerotows) and club crosscountriesonly slightly down at 95000km comparedwith 102000km in 1984 with four flightsof over 600km.Despite the weather we've had a crop ofsolos, notably Derek Trice (Hilary Stewart'sfather) after a very short period of instruction. Anumber of members have been on expeditionsincluding Sam Mummery who sampled glidingin India.We miss Pete Disdale, a full-time instructorfor eight years and the last few as deputy CFI,who left in the autumn. Our best wishes also toBob Bickers on a speedy recovery from motoraccident injuries.A. J. R.Obituary - George TruscottIt is with great sadness we record the death ofGeorge Truscott at Lasham at the end of 1985.George will long be remembered for his floralcreations in the clubhouse as well as fornumerous other contributions to club life.He was a member for many years and flewsuch exotic things as Swallows and hot-airballoons. He will be sadly missed and we offerour condolences to his sister, Frances.A. J. RobertaonLONDON (Dunstable)Our van Gelder winch arrived with the snow,thus preventing its Dutch chaperones from givingus any Instruction. The next weekend, evenwithout full power, it hurled a K-21 to previouslyunheard of heights. We are now re-educatingourselves in the new launch technique requiredfor this powerful beast.We have a new tug pilot, John Edwards fromBicester. We have been visited by membersfrom Duxford, Lasham and Booker for winterhill soaring as well as one hardy <strong>No</strong>rth Wealdtype who did his 5hrs, and Frank Pozersklswhose ASW-22 has been wintering with us.We have instituted PI training courses andreceived over 4000 inquiries about ab-initiocourses following a national advertising campaign,so will experiment with 15 man courses.Congratulations to Derek Sear on becominga regional examiner and to Roy Wall, MartinMeyers and Warren Gibbs on first solos.D.S.96MARCHINGTON (Marchington Airfield)The atrocious weather in 1985 is reflected inour returns with launches well down on 1984.Our congratulations to John Skinner ongoing solo.The January gales worked the upper boltsloose on our hangar doors but fortunately DonStevenson was passing and spent an hour gettingthem closed.Christmas present flight vouchers went likehot cakes and gave a boost to our winterincome.P.A.W.MENDIP (Weston-Super-Mare)Hilary Perry gained her Silver height on a BGAcourse and Derek Halkyard his Bronze legs.Our height record was broken in October whenChris Crabb and Bob Merritt exceded 10000ftfrom a winch launch, both without a barograph,Bob making 11 600ft.A PIK 20e recently Joined our syndicate neet.February started well with our north ridge giVingmany Bronze legs.When Phil Hogarth landed in a field he metthe farmer's daughter, Gill Coles, and theyhave become engaged.R.P.MIDLAND (Long Mynd)Despite "Tuggy" Bradley's continuing efforts torevel the airfield to a billiard table like surface,this is not the reason why the next edition ofthe South of England 1:500000 chart will showthe Long Mynd as being 100ft lower than itused to be!Present charts show our airfield as 15000'but it's clear from large scale maps this is inaccurate.This has been pointed out to the CCAwho have determined the site is 1411 ft amsl.The difference isn't large but it could meanthat aspiring Silver distance pilots now need tofly 2.5km less under the 1 '% rule from this site!We flew a record number of hours in 1985.Our task week is from July 19-27.Congratulations to Mike Morris, StefanRatayak, Soot! Mansell and Tom Jurdison ongoing solo.N.B.NENE VALLEY (RAF Upwood)At our AGM in December we welcomed twonew committee members, Jim Rignall and MikeHaddock, and thanked Lee Parker, PR, who isleaving for the USA. We hope to update ourclub fleet with a glass-fibre glider and anotherK-7.We want to improve our facilities and havehopes of getting offices and classrooms forground school studies.Six have gone solo, Tim Wiltshire, BillBarnum, Mike Haddock, Launce Fox, MikeChandler and Paul. Our only female ab-initio,sara Haddock, is progressing nicely.W.8.NORFOLK (Tibenham Airfield)After winter planning, it appears the race is onfor the first 500km flight from our site. TonyWalsh and Brendan sargeant have reequippedwith an ASW-20FlP and ASW-20Lrespectively and <strong>No</strong>rman Clowes hopes toorganise a 20 strong syndicate to buy a T-31for fun flying. .Our dinner-dance in February was a greatsuccess as usual. Our task weeks will be <strong>May</strong>26-31 and August 25-31 when visiting pilotswill be welcome. The combination of eompetitivebut fun tasks, low launch fees, a small dailyentry fee and no airspace restrictions make ourweeks enjoyable. We have camping and caravanfacilities and some clubhouse accommodation.To reserve your place please write to theCF:I, Tibenham Airfield, tong Stratton, <strong>No</strong>rfolk.8.5.NORTHUMBRIA ~CurlOCk Hitl)When Oavld MOS$ started gliding at the <strong>No</strong>rttunbriaGC as an eight year-old his grandmother promisedthat as soon as he was allowed 10 carry passengersshe would be one 01 the ,first. .And in <strong>No</strong>vember 'David,now 19 years-old, took his 85 year-old grandmother,Mrs Jeanie Anderson, lor a flight in the club K-7despite the lact she now has two artificial hips. Thephotograph was taken after the flight by DaviQ'slather, Tony.The weather has given us very few flying daysthis winter. We are therefore eagerly awaitingspring with Wednesday flying and instructioncourses beginning again in <strong>Apr</strong>il.Martin Davies and Keith Macgreggor havesoloed and <strong>No</strong>rman Crawford has re-soloedwith Bronze flights by lan Blackie and BruceGrant.S.M.H.OUSE (Rufforth)At our lively annual dinner, complete with Morrisdancers, the awards were presented as follows:<strong>Club</strong> Ladder and Wilt Coulsey trophy(longest handicapped distance), Mark Thompson;<strong>No</strong>vices Ladder, David Jones; AnthonyFoster memorial for most promising youngpilot, Moray and Meg Stark; Alan Simpson trophy(longest Silver distance), Neil Ashworth;Buck trophy (best gain of height), GeorgeBroadhead; Spanner award (for two crosscountriesof 5 and 1 mile), Alan Meredith andChairman's award, Richard Challand.Andrew Batters has taken over as CFI fromJohn Mawson. Our thanks to John who hasserved two terms as CFI and has been ourchairman.SAILPLANE & GLIDING
CLUB NEWSTom Stoker completed his Gold C with aheight galA in mid December when there wereseveral other good flights inclUding Gold heightIorBryan Taytor. Chris Edghill. Roy Nuza,Brtan Robertson and Jenny Webster havegone solo. Sadly Jaroslav Nyc, who was readyto go solo but had been delayed for medicalreasons. collapsed and died from a heartattack while on a skiing holiday in France. Hewill be missed by many members and oursympathies go to his wife, Carol.R.T.OXFORD (Weston on the Green)Our original proposal to erect a hangar waslUbmitted nearly two years ago and afterrunerous meetings and the consideration ofbJrdi"er~t locations, work has at last startedIIld should be finished by the spring with agand q>ening planned. Our thanks go to <strong>No</strong>rmlrlMachin and JOhn Giddins for their work onIll. project, with Jane Randle assisting in thepolitics of the situation.We had a successful AGM followed by adisco. We have a new committee led by ChrisEmson as chairman. John Giddins retiring afterfw" years and SElveral years on the committee.Since the autumn we have had to rig ourgI1ders daily which ,has affected our launchesbut not ourenthuslasm. Four gliders weretaken on 1YI expedition to Talgarth but therewere amumber of non flying days.We have been writing to MPs regarding theUpper Heyford zone which is the thin edge ofthe wedge and mum be fought.H.J.S.PEGASUS (RAF GOters/oh)We have flown during the winter with quite afew launches on Christmas Day. Congratulationsto Denise Ford on going solo.Terry Ackerman and Richard Hill had enjoyableleaving pMies and we are also sad to saygoodbye to lan Smith and Mark Grace. Oursympathy goes to BOO Bicker who is in hospilaI.R.D.G.H.PHOENIX (RAF BrOggen)After long winter flying our Tost winch is beingserviced. We havQ a mini expedition to Blsperode,W. Germany from <strong>Apr</strong>il 1-11.Congratulations to Frank lindop, PaddyYOlmg and Pete Smart on going solo and toSue Cavener and Andy Hyslop on flying SOkmIn September for their Silver Cs.P.M.SHALBOURNE (Rivar Hill, Nr Hungerford)Mark Flower had Ihree flights on the morning ofhis marriage to Jeanette in, the New Year.The new quarterly review system shows thatIn the first quarter lTom October 1 the launchrate has increased by nearly 80% comparedwith the same period last year. As well as betterweather, a big factor is Improved groundhandling. The cash position Is correspondinglyhealthier.R.S.~/<strong>May</strong>1986SOUTHOOWN (Parham Airfield)For the last two years we have successfullyused a Honda three-wheel ATC (All TerrainCycle). for towing gliders about our field andhave just added another one to the fleet; lessdamage to the field and safer than tractors. Weare purchasing a second Pawnee and may endup with a Pawnee only tug fleet.The club gliders have been given Cs of A bymembers in groups. Our red K-13 fuselage hasbeen re-covered with excellent spray work byJohn Ward.Congratulations to Henry McGuinness andJohn Brandhuber on going solo, also to PaulWhite for his 5hrs on a very cold north windridge day. The year started very well with wavedays (over 5000ft), thermal conditions and verygood ridge days, one of these producing thefastest time yet for our Harry Harting ridge runof 128km in just under one hour.R.W.SOUTH WALES (Usk)The mountains gave some autumn flying withsteady 8kt thermals off Ihe Brecon Beacons.A small hardworking band have beenupgrading the clubhouse, installing a bar andwood-buming stove. <strong>No</strong>w we own our airfield ithas become worthwhile improving our facilitiesand we hope for an improvement in the qualityof our flying this year. One encouraging fact isthat we have a larger than usual group of keennew pilots.We have a K-10 coming to bring our trainingfleet back to two two-seaters.J.O.S.SURREY & HANTS (Lasham Airfield)There have been various winter expeditions insearch of ridge and wave soaring. In <strong>No</strong>vemberKen Stewart and Andy Lincoln visited theSouth Downs for trips to Devil's Dyke andLewes while October 7 and 11 were the bestdays for the Portmoak pilgrimage with Goldheights for Cynthia Chambers and John McCullaghand Diamonds for Vernon Spencer andPaul Davis. Of course no Portmoak reportwould be complete without an epic crosscountryby Alan Purnell - this time a 459kmtour of the Highlands on Ihe 11 tn.Talgarth now vies with Portmoak in popularityand numerous g~OI,lps have sampled thelong ridge runs. Badge heights are harder tocome I!ly there, even so Dave Sawdon gained aGold and John Cruttenden a Diamond in lateOctober.We have sold a Sport Vega and replaced itwith a Grob G1 O~ which has proved a delightto fly and an ideal first glass machine.We are sorry to ~e the valuable services ofKeith Lines after many years as technicalofficer. We thank him for all his efforts and welcomehis successor, John Bastin.C.G.S.SWINDON (Sandhil/ Farm)After a year in the wildemess, we are at lastestablished on a site which we can call home.The field is half a mile NW of Shrlvenham, onthe 64000. It is only rented at present but wehope to follow the example of East Essex GCand buy the site in due course.We are very familiar with the area as we areless than three miles 1T0m our old base atSouIh Marslon. We are rapidly adapting towinch launching techniques, after years oflaunches from a 6000ft runway - we now havetwo Dodge F100 towcars and a reel of Parafilfor sale.Visitors are welcome at SandhiU Farm, withthe exception of powered aircraft, as we haveyet to obtain planning consent for power operations.If landing from the south. beware of Ihepower wires 30ft above ground on the southemfield boundary.P.M.TRENT VALLEY (Kirfon-in-Undsey)Roger Mills has retired as chairman and DerekHousey as secretary and we thank them bothfor their services. Dick Hannigan is now deputyCFI.Belated congratulations to Ruth Flint, our flyinggranny, Brian Hodgson, Richard Kemp andLen Leonard on going solo; to Val Carter onher 5hrs and Steve Crust, Roy DeU and DaveCollins on gaining their Bronze Cs.We thank Vin Marchant who. with helpers,has spent many hours building a new winchand coping with the problems of lifting a 2 tonengine and gearbox.Our annual dinner-dance is on <strong>Apr</strong>il 11 at theFour Seasons at Dunholme and our flyingweeks are <strong>May</strong> 26-30 and August 4-8.L.W.TWO RIVERS (RAF Laarbruch)At the RAF Germany <strong>Gliding</strong> Association AGMwe were presented with the NATO challengetrophy for members' efforts to keep the club intop position for the third successive year.Our fleet is immaculate, thanks to John Annstrong,and the gliders no longer look out ofplace in our shiny new Cobra trailers. Our radiocontrolled shuttle retrieve winch launching systemis giving a fast and efficient launch rate.EXpeditions have been planned to Sisteron 'and Romorantin in France and our Friday eveningair experience trips are again popular.We say ,goodbye to Trevor Brown, SecttNapie,. Hymie S1evens and "Spike" Sheadwho retum to the UK and Roland who tlas'retumed to PhOenix and welcome "Porky"COnyers and 'Martin Pengally lTom Fenlands.P.J.S.ULSTER (Bel/arena)The maiden flight.of the Monerai - the first tofly In the 'UK and, we believe, in Europe toowasin mid-week. privacy on Janual)' HI, MervynFarrell soaring for an hour watched only byco-buildeF Louden Blair, tug pilot IlaurenceMcKelvie and photographer Alan 'Sands. "It'svery light and highly controllable" test pilot FarreUreported on landing. (An article on theMonerai will be in the next issue.)Two days later the aircraft was rigged. on anon-ftying day for Bill SCUll's Inspection whenhe flew over as ,guest of honour at our annualdinner which Mairo McI
--==5~~·==-~GlidervvorkC of A OVERHAULSand REPAIRSBy L. GLOVER senior inspector0==;;;1---=Husbands Bosworth Airfield, Near RugbyTel. Market Harborough 880<strong>37</strong>5Lutterworth 57544BUCKMINSTERGUDING CLUBinvite you to fly in theSALTBV REGIONALS2nd - 10th August 1986Entry Fee: £80Details from: Mrs Sue WhiteIvy Cottage, Wat,rendHQ1me-on·Spalding MoorYork. Y04 4HA. 0696 - 61044gliding hollidaysfor both beginners and experu.Professional instruction. full groundcrew. tropical aun and superb soaring.together with excellent accommodationand food, from £15 per day.BLACKMOUNTAINSGLIDINGCLUB(TALGARTH)Situated in the Brecon Beacons National Parkamongst the highest mountains in South Wales,Talgarth has more soarable days than any other UKgliding club. Longest ridge routes; wave In all winddirections.In 1985 the <strong>Club</strong> average flight duration was 11hours. Surely the premier location for any soaringcourse. Courses run from mid March to mid Octoberand include holidays. introductory and advancedmountain flying cross country courses.Bookings: Secretary, B.M.G.C.Lower Penylan, Glasbury-on-WyePowys HR3 5NTTel: 04974-583/0874·711254FLYTHE NORTHERNSThe <strong>No</strong>rthern Regionalswill be held atSUTTON BANK26th July to 3rd AugustTwo classes. Entry fee £85including VATLaunches at normal <strong>Club</strong> rates<strong>No</strong>rmally over-subscribedWhy not join us for some enterprisingflying in our Task Week - 23rd to 31stAugust 1986. Contact: Jon Hart YGC.Enter now. Details from:The SecretaryYorkshire <strong>Gliding</strong> <strong>Club</strong> (Pty) LtdSutton Bank, ThirskYorks Y07 2EYTel 0845 5972<strong>37</strong>100 hr INSPECTIONSANNUAL CHECKSC of A RENEWALSREPAIRSBOWKER AIR SERVICES LTORush Green, Hltchin, HertsTel. 0438 355051Holiday course members and visitorswelcome at our scenic club.Courses from £110 to £145 withaccommodation (flying extra). Fordetails write to Bristol and Glos<strong>Gliding</strong> <strong>Club</strong>, Nympsfield, Stonehouse,Glos GL10 3TX, or phone0453860342. .Open all week <strong>Apr</strong>il-OctoberSTORCOMMTWO-WAY RADIOTA7603 Air Set TR7804 Vehicle SetEach sel littecl w~h all lour glidingchannels 130.4, 130.125, 13O.t and129,.9.'Volmet' 128.6 optional' on channel 4... Full power transmitter w~h excellentspeech quality.* Highly sensitive and selectiVe receiverworl
CLUB NEWScannot be seen from in front of the towingFiesta.Other new arrivals are a PIK-208, replacingthe syndicate Libelle, and William McNair's00-400 which he collected from the Maker'spIanIend which is the second on the field.Amajor C of A bash began in February,ilcIuding fie tug which is down for a th~ee-yearIllfit. AN equipment should be back on hne forOlI"traditional Nine Days at Easter. Aft are welcome- call 0232 790666 it you'd like to join in.Aclub presence at the BGA conference at Harrogateis planned; Mike Miskimmln and HarryBc7t1e are swotting up f9r an instructors' coursekI <strong>Apr</strong>il at Bidford while Ken Bell and Ron Lapslayhave gone solo.R.R.R.WEST WALES (Temp/eton Airfield)We stopped fOf part of the winter due to a hugebacklog of minor repairs, Cs of A etc. The onlyproblem is that four-fifths of ,our membershilemate and no number of phone calls willwake !hem. If other clubs have this problem wewould like to know what they do about it shortof imposing a military regime.Two instructors are going on a course at UskkI February to get their full rating.Af.J.G.WOWS (PockJington)The dismal winter has at least resulted in manygood ideas from members and ~ high 8?tivityIwe/. The Falke has a new engine and itSwings refurbished. (The Falke is used fOf ~~iIIt/os'first two hours which cuts down training*ne.) Two of our three K·7s have been convertedto the K-13 type.Another winch is being built and we hope toaoon have four cables. There are plans toextend tie hangar and provide a vehicle pitand our engineering workshop will soon bedelivered.We now have a resident manager and propertyequipped office so we can be contacted at..times.Our task week starts on Monday, <strong>May</strong> 26(why not come and join us) and the two-seatercompetition on August 11. You can bring yourown glider and fly aJongside our holidaycourses on NI informal basis and we shall bepleased b see visitors at our memorial danceon <strong>May</strong> 16 - bring a tent and stay theweekend.D.S.WYVERN (RAF Upavon)Several postings have brought changes to thecommittee. Phi! Wood has gone to GermanyW1d Roger HoUiday takes over as treasurer;Bob UO','d, bar member and k~ worker ongIder maintenance, has returned to Kinlossand been replaced in the bar by Epny Darnbrookand our chairman, Alan ThQmpson,whom we congratUlate on becoming a full Cat,hes become chairman of Odiham and PatHemsley has taken over at Wyvern.John Ashcroft and "Stormy" Fairweathergained Gold heights at Aboyne and Pete HowII\h and Steve Welsh are now instructors.Congratulations also to Pat Hemsley, Bob Pre-ston and Marc LeGresley on going solo andthanks 10 Pat fOf his invaluable MT help.P.AS.YORKSHIRE (SuttOr:l Bank)On one of our better days during the long hardwinter Derek TaylOf gained 19000ft forDiamond height.A new 00-101 has been added to the clubfleet and our equipment is in good shape. Inaddition to the <strong>No</strong>rthern Regionals, we have atask week, run on competition Enterprise principles,at the end of August. (See BGA News.)We are pleased to be hosting the BGA Conferencein March and hope everyone enjoystheir stay In Yo~hire. Our thanks to HelenHayes for her Of9.anisation.PLGLIDERStlckplnsfor lapels, lies, elc,AlsoGLIDER PENDANTSIn9ct gold al £24 eachIn Sil.ver at £10 eachSupplied in a presentation box. The aboveprice includes post, packaging and insurllnce.Please allow a maximum of28days fordelivery.Cheq ues payable to:CRADLEY JEWELLERS87 High St, Cradley Heath. We" Midlands 864SHATel: (0384) '35808The Name may sound a trifle excl usive,but the Cambridge University <strong>Gliding</strong><strong>Club</strong> is open to everyone.We winch and aerotow from Duxfordall year, most,ly al weekends, andaerotow only from Cam bridge. We runholiday courses from <strong>Apr</strong>il to Septemberfor beginners and solo pilots.For generalinformation write toThe Sec reta ry55 Moorfield RdDuxfordCambsFor Coursedetails write faCourse Secretary6 CamsideChesterton, CambridgeTel. Cambridge 67589Motor Glider PPLsand ConversionsandHoliday <strong>Gliding</strong> Coursesfor Beginners(£90-£140)Everyone is welcome at our small friendly club atWaldershare Park, near Dover. Farmhouse Accommodationavailable. Ring 0304 824888or084363234or write for details to:The Secretary, 22 Masons Rise,Broadstair., Kent cno 1AZDEESIDE GLIDING CLUB1986TASK WEEK24TH-31ST MAYBOOK EARLY FOR THEAUTUMN WAVE SEASONAS NUMBERS MAY BE LIMITEDDlNNET, ABOYNE, ABERDEENSHIRETel 033985 339or 033985 236£160-£200ENTRANCE FEE£15 PER GLIDERFOR DETAILS WRITETO THE CLUBIlenl GUD..G CUlBChal/ock . Ashford . Kent TN254DRRing: Chal/ock (023<strong>37</strong>4J 274 or307Provides gliding holidays for both thebeginner and the more advancedpilot, inclUding: professionalinstruction in club gliders and full
LAUNCH/HIS YOU INTO TN£ 2J~fCENTtlRY./. ,The practical experience of 25 years and 1960- • t •150,000 Launches hav 7 gone in~o the design 1985and manufacture of thiS new winch.'Keep your launch costs to a minimumenquireabout the reliable Supacat Winch.Supacat Ltd. ~ 108231 680<strong>37</strong>9Holcombe House, Hemyock, Devon EX t5 3PXCOME FLY ATTHE BESTCOVENTRYGliDING CLUB• Good launch facilities• Aero tow Winch• Good field• WE HAVE THE BEST BAR ANYWHERE. REAL ALES• Beginners welcome• Food· Accommodation·Video & TV-{:{ Why mess about· Come to the Best -{:{COVENTRY GLIDING CLUB LTDHusbands Bosworth Airfield, LuttelWorth, Leies LE1] 6JJ1el: (0858) 880429 . (0858) 880521with theCORNISH GLIDING CLUBatPerranporth, CornwallCourses from <strong>May</strong> to SeptemberUnder BGA instructors, Beginners w~lcome,Trevellas Airfield is only one mile f!'OmPerranporth's golden sands. one ofCornwall's favourite family holiday centres,RUTH B. PHILLlPS14'14a, KENWYN STREET. TRURO0872 73892 (day) 087255 2430 (evenmg)COTSWOLD GLIDING CLUBHOLIDAY GLIDING COURSES INTHE PICTURESQUE ANDFRIENDLY COTSWOLDS WITHCOURSES TAILORED TO SUITYOUR NEEDS.FULL DETAILS FROM:ALEXANDRA PENTECOST45 THE QUARRYCAM, DURSLEYGLOUCESTERSHIRE GL11 6JATel: Dursley 45631HEREFORDSHIREGLIDING CLUBShobdon Airfield, Nr. Leominster• Wave • Thermal • Ridge• Minimum Air Traffic Restrictions• Hard Surface Runway• All Aerotow • 2 Two Seaters• Grob 109B Motor Glider• Caravan, Camping, Trailer Spaces• Canteen, Bar, Airfield Facilities• Full membership from £35Please Enquire• Holiday Courses • Visitors WeeksMARCHINGTON GLIDINGCLUBSituated in the Midlands. Offers holidaycourses from <strong>Apr</strong>il to September 1986.Good local soaring and cross-eountry,Courses to suit your requirements.Private owners welcome.Please contact:Course SecretaryMarchlngton <strong>Gliding</strong> <strong>Club</strong>Marchlngton Airfield, Morton LaneMarchlngton, NI' Uttoxeter ST14 8LPTelephone: 0283 222046SOAR YORKSHIRESUTTON BANKFor your COURSE! For yo'ur EXPEDI,TIONI For your HOLIDAY!We offer top class accommodatioll, instruction facilities and opportunitiesRIDGE SOARING - 12 miles ill suitable "'ConditionsTHERMAL SOARING - <strong>Club</strong> record 'is 582km from aerotow, 524km from the winchWAVE SOARING - <strong>Club</strong> absolute record is 30 200ft. <strong>Club</strong> record gain is 29 500ft. Both from the winchOur rates are amongst the best - £8.00 for aerolows to 200011. Visil us and stay in our fully licensedresidential clubhouse. Full catering avaitable In season. Self catering at other times.COURSES - <strong>Apr</strong>il to October Visitors always welcomeYORKSHIRE GLIDING CLUB, SUTTON BANK, THIRSKTel: 0845 (Thirsk) 5972<strong>37</strong>100 SAILPLANE & GLIDING
OVESEAS NEWS========AUSTRAGUDESIx rJ the British team squad competeQ inAusltaglide 1986, held at Benalla, site of the1987 World Championships. from January19-31 to get soroe experience of flying In thearea. And considering they hired the glidersavailable, oot what they would choose to fly,they didi remar1
Advertisements, with remittance, should be sentto Cheiron, Press Ltd, 7 Amersham Hill, HighWycombe, Bucks. Tel 0494 442423. Rate 35p aword. Minimum £7.00. We can accept black andwhite photographs at 0.00 extra. Box numbers£2.40 extra. Replies to box numbers should besent to the same address, the closing date forclassified advertisements for the June/July issueis 2nd <strong>May</strong>,.FOR SALEIMBECILES RECOGNISE this opportunity when you see illThe Std Austria prototype <strong>No</strong> 003 at Nympsfield for £4000.K, Aldridge, I Hawkesbury Rd, HiJlesley, Dursley, Tel 0453844314 or ,toe club 0453 860342.SKYLARK 4, full panel, radio, parachute and trailer. All insuperb condition, inc rigging aids for two-man rig. CofA to<strong>May</strong> 87, £4400 ono. Tel 03917 5463.EAGLE, TANDEM two seater, basic instruments, glideangle 31 :1, new K-7 canopy, closed trailer (requires repaintbut roadworthy) parachutes, Cof A, £1995. Tel Office 0703333822 Home 0329 221230.FAUVETTE 905 SA, closed trailer, basic instruments, BGA2768. £2500 ono. Tel 0790 52635 eves and weekends.BLANIK, EXCELLENT condition, basic instruments frontand rear. CofA. Very good tailor·made open trailer. £4500.Tel Wellingborough 678595.PIK 20E Motor Sailplane, 1 share based Warwickshire.£3250. Tel 021 359 1934.DART17A. exceptional condition, fully equipped. Rigs easily,towable tail trolley. New Wooden trailer painted tomatch. £4800. Tel Mansfield 34002.TALGARlll BASED 1S·32, 'I, share, own hangar. Trailer,fUlly eqUipped cockpits, 720 channel radio and VOR, year'sCofA and, insurance. Fantastic area. Daytime 045387 2252.BLANIK. FIRST class condition, low hrs, Prefect, Excellentexample ofthis vintage type. New Cs of A if required. Alsotwo winches. Realistic offers Invited. Plymouth 77259&'Saltash 6654.K-7, RECONDI110NED and re-covered, new front canopy,with new timber/glass trailer. Will sell separate. Tel 076389460 eves.TRAILER, OPEN German tubular steel with fittings for K-8.£150. David Connaway, tel Langton Green 2527 or 0906621<strong>37</strong>.PAWNEE 235hp+Super Cub 15Ohp, current C. of A.Equipped' for towing, view Parham. Offers invited. AngusBuchanan, lodsworth 215, Storrington 2n7.PILATUS B-4, full panel, radio, .udio, parachute, riggingaids. trailer etc. All in .excellent condition. New Cof A. Glos(04521 1406791TM-61' RADIO. boom mike and speaker included. Offers toJon Han 0532 401445 (evenings).V8-53, two-seater, completely refurbished. Excellent condition,CofA June 86. Two full panels. £2500 ono. Tel 0642765408 ', 06977 2476.GROB G,102 Mk3b CLUBSingle seat fixed wheel, early solo or crosscountry sailplane. Schleicher ASK-13 twoseatertrainer,Details Chiltern SailplanesTt! 04$4 445854VENTUS 8 with lips. Le~s than 1'0 hrs total time since new.Fabulous package including factory fitted full competitionpanel, chute. baro, 720 ,ground and airborne radios, etc.Plus new Cobra traile•. Owner retiring due ill health. Forfurther detail. or viewing tel Steve Wh~e 0494 36888.RICO VA variomete. nelto director etc £210. Tel TonyManwaring 10279120964 or 013411113.TRAlLER, ALUMINIUM, approx 30ft x 4.5ft. <strong>No</strong> filtings,little used. Suit two"seate•. Tel 0608 810536 (eveningsl.Offers over £1200.ASW·2O, newest 20 in the country, excellent condition,complete outfit. Tel D Walt 0628 25869 or A Kay 024062491.•••••••••••••••• ••••••••••••••••NIMBUS 28 (Comp <strong>No</strong> 95) almost complete panel; completeoxygen equipment; ell rigging aids; Merlinaluminium trailer. Offers £1 5000 ono. Tel F Pozerskis 0536710119 (home), 053685552 (workl.AUSTER JIN. new annual, half life engine, 720 radio, longrenge tanks, hangared, excellent condition. £5000 ono. Tel0273 452733.SKYLARK 4. Immaculate, cream with red flash. Fullinstruments, brand new all metal fitted trailer. £4600. TelClacton-on-Sea 0255 860598.CABLE DROGUE parachutes for your auto towing orwinchapplicetions. We can supply a strong proven design inbright colours. Tel 0454 22755.OLY 460-
COMPUTER PROGRAMSNew "CROSS COUNTRY SOARING"for 48K SpectrumSupplied with own map. Practise vour speed to fly,navigation, thermal selection, skyreading, turningpoint and final glide techniques. Choice of gliders.nd tasks. Also available "FINAL GLK>E" for 1181
ADVERTISERS' INDEXIW.F EnterprisesAero Marketing AssociatesAJr Apparatus & ValveAJnnark AviationAlton House HotelAnglcrPolish SailplanesAustin AviationBlack Mountains GCBowker Air ServicesBristol & Glos GCBuekmlnster GCBGACMCambridge Aero InstrumentsCambridge University GCChannel GCChiltem SailplanesClassifiedsComish <strong>Gliding</strong> & Flying <strong>Club</strong>Cotswold GCCoventry GCCradley JewellersDeeside GCDevon & Somerset GCElectrim SailplanesForest GladeGlider InstrumentsGliderworkHobbiesHT CommunicationsHerefordshire GCIrvin (GB) LldJSW SoaringKent GCLasham <strong>Gliding</strong> SocietyLondon GCLondon SailplanesLowe ElectronicsLowndes LambertMarchington GCR. L McLeanMidland GCMowbray Vale InsuranceNine Four AviationNjoro Country <strong>Club</strong><strong>No</strong>rfolk GCOxfordshire Sportflying <strong>Club</strong>Perry ClampsPeterborough & Spalding GCPeterborough AJrcraft Co LldPiggott Bros & CoRD AviationRematicSailplane & Engineering ServicesS&GSchofield AviationScottish <strong>Gliding</strong> UnionSegelflugschule OerlinghausenJ. L SmokerSoaring MagazineSoaring OxfordSouIhdown Aero ServicesSouthern SailplanesSpecialist SystemsSpeedsoaringSpeedwell SailplanesBrian WeareWestley AJrcraftC. P. WitterYor1
RD Aviation LtdService with ChoiceThis is only a selection from our extensive stocked range.VAT is included in prices shown (exports normally VAT free). Carriage extraELECTRONIC VARIOMETERSCAMBRIDGECAV 50 compact audio/vario £264.50CVS 1500 mini vario £258.75AU 20 duel audio with mute £97.75CPT 50S transducer vario electronicTIE (no flask needed) £431.25CMP 150 director/averager £351.80CNav 50 director/nav £899.30MNav 50 audio vario/director/nav . £957.95RICOVAS audio vario/director £572.70RicoAudio dual tone compact audio formechanical vario £239.20AVlONICDITIELlXl00 compact audio/vario £247.25LX1000 audio vario/director £499.10lX2000 audio vario/director/nav .. £914.25Secondhand electronic varios normally availableWESTERBOERVW900 mini audio/vario (no flaskneeded) £296.70VW910 mini audiolvario electronicTIE (no flask needed) £598.00VW920 advanced nay £632.50NEWCompact audiolvarios for hang gliders andaudiolvario/altimeters now in stockMECHANICAL VARIOMETERS525380mm Winter vario £139.985253FP 80mm Winter vario with heat sinkedflask and MacCready £171.645233/F 80mm Winter extra sensitive vario 5453 57mm Winter vario £159.39:!:4kts with 2 flasks £171.35 VF1000 flask with integral heat sink £13.25MacCready ring......... .. . £19.26Secondhand mechanical varios sometimes availableElECT-RICAl SUPPLY ANDBATTERIESU/C WARNINGNP6/12 12v 6AH Yuasa gell cell £1'.99 CHA 3 automatic gell cell charger .. £25.30 TH 35 electronic klaxon £10.35NP15/12 12v/5AH Yuasa gell cell £45.94 CHA 3/2 dual outlet gell cell charger £35.65 RD/US u/c warning kit - complete .. £41.40RD/BB 12v GAH gell cell in box with test Al2000 Avionic DiUel short circuit proof RD/SR sealed changeover magneticmeter, plug & fuse £66.70 multi input voltage charger £52.90 reed. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . £4.60We stock a complete range of wiring and connectors - see price list or please askFLIGHT INSTRUMENTS INSTRUMENTATION ATR nOA no ch Avionic Diltel ... £730.25(all new unless othetwise stated) ACCESSORIES ATR nOB 720ch Avionic Diltel with 4 ch6513 AS1 1 turn £94.59 PVCIT Instrument tubing per metre .. £0.45 memory £862.506423 AS1 1 turn ..........•...... £108.10 5W 5 way pneumatic Quick-connect £24.96 ATR 720C 720 ch Avionic Diltel with 10 ch513 Mini AS1 1 turn £101.20 4W 4 way pneumatic Quick-connect £14.89 memory £994.75423 Mini AS 1 H turn £108.10 TE/FiV TE probe, fin or ventral , . £12.65 AR3201 720 ch Becker mini radio. 4 ch mem-TF 1100 Altimeter from £184.00 IUFll P f fit £1 84 ory £POATF 1050 Altimeter (used) from £79.98 neuma IC I er FSG 70/71 M 720 ch Waiter Diltel mini radio.TF 1020 mini turn & slip , £339.94 RICO/F Advanced water, dust and gust filter (71M has memory) £POATF 1000 Turn & slip (used) .. .from £79.98 - in line £40.25 TR no 720 ch Handheld - can be p'anelPNNI Pneumatic on/oH switch :. £16.10TF 2010/20 Artificial Horizon and inverter PVC/l Tubing locks for instrument tubing mounted £454.25......................... .from £299.00 (pack of 5) £0.29 IC-A2 720 ch ICOM handheld-l0ch memoryTF 1070 Mini Accelerometer £102.35 RO/D Cockpit labels (on/oH etc.) £2.60 & scan £454.25C2300 Airpath compass £45.95 AV7600 720 ch STS handheld (no UK46MFK 1 Bohli compass from £271.40 TRANSCEIVERS _ FIXED AND warranty repair) (115v charger) . £356.50RV/S Mini voltmeter from £6.90 PfusOM111 Slip indicator £17.25 HANDHELD We have a wide range of accessories forVC1,OO Hamilton compass £159.85 Gl72A 720 ch mini radio £523.25 handheldsWave pilots - VOR by MF Controls with &teering and frequency memory - special oHer £4<strong>37</strong>BASE STATIONSMF6/AM Pye Reporter '6 channel .. £198.95W15/AMN Pye Westminster 6channel £178.25T401!A403 Pye VHF Groundstation 25 wattsoutput -new £499.10MF5AMN Pye Pilot 6 channel £143.75GS1/A ATR 720A 702 channel portable(new) 00 00 £977.50GS2 ATR 720C 720 channel portable (new)(available with 720A at reducedcost) £1320.20ANTENNAAA 2060 Base Station fixed antenna £52.90AA 1020 Magnetic base antenna ... £28.75GS/AR/RD Helical portable antenna £10.93BAROGRAPHSRB 8 Replogle Bhr barograph £273.70UHS Winter barograph £284.91UHSZ Winter Motor Glider barograph......... 00" •••••••••••• £351.90RB/P Replogle papers (20) £3.68Winter foils (50) £4.03Carrying case for barograph £39.96Other types of barograph supplied onrequest at competitive prices.PARACHUTESG0850 Small backpack £598.00G0350 Slimline backpack £646.30RD/R Customer's canopy packed in newslimline container from £343.85Par.achute repacked by BPA rigger .. £9.99E and OEPlease add carriage to above prices. All goods supplied under our standard terms of trade. Exports are normally free of VATOickie Feakes11 The PoplarsLaunton, BicesterOxon OX600WTel: 0869245052Brochures. Advice & Price Lists - Free!TelexJohn Oelafield265871 Cotswold House(Quote MAG 10189) Mill Streetanswerback MONREF Islipor 83138 Telkay GOxon OX5 2SYTel: l
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