Volume 34 No 4 Aug-Sept 1983.pdf - Lakes Gliding Club

gross expenditure approaching £200 000albeit with back-to-back on-sales. Tofinance this comp:Jicated acquisitionprogramme required some nimblefootedness and also a very understandingbank manager. Our bankers prior to theauction were frightened off by the complexityof the situation and the perceivedrisks. At the 11th hour Larry Bleakenfound a new banker willing to back us(Lloyds, Bristol). They were extremelyhelpful and saw us through £100000worth of bridging finance. The finalfunding structure was as follows:Club surplus funds at December 1980Club surplus funds 1981 and 1982Sports Council grantSports Council 5yr interest free loansBGA Phillip Wills Fund loanMembers airfield loan fund -interest freeLife membership soldMembers debenturesAeromodellersBank loan (after bridging finance paid off)t Available before auction:j: Promised before auctionBATTERY SAVERTERRY JENVEY£30000t£25000£20 000£8000£5OOO:j:£7000t£6000t£4700t£2000:j:NIL£107700What is the yearly cost to your club ofdry cell batteries for the club fleet? Thechances are you don't know. Petty cashitems like these are not usually itemisedon the balance sheet, but the standard4 t h V Bell batteries are about £1.20 eachand with five or six to a glider the cost isquite sigliificant. Very often the batteriesquietly flatten themselves while theglider is sitting on the ground waiting inthe launch queue, or worse all week longin the hangar with the vario left on!Flat on sunny morningslOne solution is to fit rechargeable battcrieswith a high initial outlay includingcustom built chargers, not to mentionfinding someone to be responsible forcharging them. Someone else made a lawstating that rechargeable batteries willalways be flat on sunny summer mornin!!s!Not the best answer at all.The fol1lowing circuit was designed as atrouble-free, even foolproof, solution tothe problem and has proved successful ingHders at my own club. With a cost of lessthan three Bell batteries per unit to build,the device should soon pay for itself.The drcuit shown is for a typical two162The Spor.ts Council assistance was ofconsiderable help and at the time of ourapplication, backed up by a 28 page"prospectus",the maximum gran! availableunder the rules was £25 000. Wehave subsequently learnt that otherregions of the Sports Council havebeen more generous (S&O last issuepl12). Bill Scull's help, particularly inthe pre-auction stages of political lobbying,was invaluable.Throughout this process we haveobviously made a few mistakes, such asallowing the plot boundaries fixed bythe PSA prior to auction influencing ourthinking after the auction when negotiatingfurther purchases and on sales. Wewere also a little naive to start with concerningthe negotiating abilities of farmersand their agents. Legal and taxaspects had to be looked at carefullybefore commitments were made andgenerally this aspect has worked outsatisfactorily, although we did end upwith two companies holding the landbecause of a change in legislation inDecember 1980 as regards companieslimited by guarantee.Perhaps one of the most importantfactors in our success was that in theJ±I... IIBatteryIBattery2 1I--L~SwitCh 1IN 4148instrument (variometer and T &S indicator)system with independent batterypower supplies. If you have only onebattery powered instrument simply omitone of the MCR102 thyristors and itsassociated resistors, and with a one batterysystem the 1N4148 diode isunnecessary. If you have more than twoinstruments, add on more thyristorlresistor combinations and include adiode in each circuit as shown.SWI is a micro switch, or better amagnetic switch of the type used in burglaralarm systems, fitted to the fuselageso that it is switched on when the canopyis closed. SW2 is a push button switch,non-locking, mounted on the instrumentpanel. SW3 and SW4 are the existinginstrument switches.With the pilot in position and thecanopy closed, press the push buttonautumn of 1980 the club membershipgave blanket authority to John Holland,Larry Bleaken and myself to deal withall aspects of the auction and negotiationsand finance without reverting tothe club membership for ratification ofeach stage. This meant that a small teamcould act discretely and quickly in thebest interests of the club and take criticaldecisions. There is no doubt that itwould have been totally impractical tohave referred to the club's membershipon all the important points that aroseover the course of a year and a half.That is not to say that the club membershipwas not kept informed from time totime on where we had got to.On a personal note I have found theacquisition a most satisfying experience,obviously with its frustrations, but thesense of achievement at having securedthe site is perhaps only tempered by thethought that we could have retainedmore of lot 8 had we had more equityfinance from within the club before theauction. The three team members aremost willing to pass on their experiencesto any club that is contemplating anacquisition and of course can be contactedthrough the BOA. ItInstrument 23kIN 4148switch. The MCR102 thyristors will nowbe held in the conducting state via the Ikholding resistors and the instruments canbe switched on and off normally. Whenthe canopy is opened to get out after theflight, the circuit is broken and the thyristorscease to conduct even when thecanopy is closed again. The instrumentscan only be on when the canopy is closedand the push button pressed. The1N4148 diodes are included to preventone battery discharging through the othervia the thyristor gate resistor chain.A word of warning - the thyristorsused can only handle 800mA, more thanenough for variometers and T&S indicators,but if you want to include yourartificial horizon in the system use aCI26M or similar thyristor, and replacethe 1k holding resistor with a 300n0.5w type. 111kSAILPLANE & GLIDING