From the CFI

Anybody seen March around here?? Shouldn't we be having a little bit of weather? You realise its not been a great month when you had done more x-country km's in Feb! Despite Mother Nature trying her hardest to thwart us, March has not been without it successes. My first piece of good news is to report Jeremy Gilbey has achieved his first solo in time for the season. Well done to him.

Over the last six months I have been working on a programme to train new instructors, and help to progress our existing ones. We are now beginning to see more and more results of this work. My congratulations go to Bob Sinden and Nick Garland on completing the Basic Instructor course. Both have been working hard with me over the winter, and as a result will be joining the team of instructors this season. Also Mike Collett, Martin Ffoulkes and Gary Nuttall are (at time of writing) in the process of completing their Assistant rating, with Mike Richardson completing his Full Cat rating. Congratulations and well done to all these guys.

Whilst staying on the instructor theme, I would like to welcome Tony Gee to the flying staff. Tony has been gliding for over 30 years and brings his wealth of experience to our club for this coming season. Please be sure to extend him the usual warm Booker greeting if you see him around the launch point this summer.

Booker Easter Egg Cup

Saturday 10^th of April saw the Easter Egg aerobatic comp take place. Despite the rather typical bad weather it was well attended with some good flying taking place. The in-club "fun comp" was run by Graham Saw and judged by himself and Nikki Mills. A big thank you to the guys for running it, and my congratulations to all the pilots who took part! The results can be seen on the back page!

MAYDAY competition training and task week

Not just a task week!

Yes! We will be having the daily task briefings, but also post flight analysis. The duo will be available for x-country and soaring instruction. There will be lead and follows taking place to enable people to focus on and practise competition flying for the coming season!

Comp rules and theory will also be discussed.

Task weeks are for anybody with a goal, not just x-country! Got a goal? Come and join in!!

Regionals 12th - 20th June 2004

Some places are still available in this FREE competition, but they will not be around forever. Get yourself registered NOW by filling in a form from the office. A £50 deposit, which will be set against your aerotows, is all that is required!

The Booker MID SEASON PARTY!!!

A long time coming! Saturday the 19^th of June will be party night to celebrate the middle of the season. We have a professional disco, with food available (B-B-Q) with tickets available at around £3 per head. Bitter / lager will be available at around £1 per can, with any fancy booze on a "bring a bottle" basis! A proper marquee has been booked allowing the party to happen despite the weather. Hope to see you there!

WWW.BOOKERGLIDING.CO.UK

We are in the process of revamping the web site and so are asking for any recent photos of Booker or gliders at Booker. If you can help with this please drop a line to either Alan Smith or Richard Garner.

Have you seen the sight recently? Are you aware we now have forecasts on line under "Daves weather"- Take a look. Very accurate! Also remember- you have a forum.

Booker X-COUNTRY soaring group

A group is being formed by like-minded pilots to enhance their soaring and x- country skills. The main emphasis will be on flying faster and further, whilst practising competition rules and working on general task setting skills. The group will be focusing their flying at weekends and task weeks. If you are also like-minded, have completed a 100km flight, and aim to get faster, fly further, or just get round more, the group is open to you too!

A forum has been set up for discussing the weather and pilot availability on days, and can be found at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bookergc-xc

Alternatively, go to the Booker web site, members section forum, and look for the x-country listing. The address is there.

WINNERS OF EASTER EGG COMPETITION

1st Mike Philpott 63%

2nd John Dredge 60%

3rd Mike Andrews 55%

Mick Cooper 53%

Robin Willgoss 49%

Richard Gerrard 42%

Gary Nuttall 41%

ABOYNE 2004

The list is now open in the office for this year's expedition to Aboyne - don't forget to put your name down. Places are limited.

EVENING GROUPS

Please note that the evening groups Monday - Thursday are now fully operational for the summer.