jan01

BOOKER GLIDING CLUB

WYCOMBE AIR PARK, MARLOW, BUCKS SL7 3DP

INFORMATION SHEET June 2001

Within 24 hours of writing last month’s information sheet the BGA changed the rules, rendering most of the information relating to cross-country flying obsolete. The current instructions are promulgated well enough elsewhere, so rather than tempt fate I will not reproduce them here. Suffice it to say that it is a welcome relief to be allowed even limited cross-country flying. We continue to lobby the BGA to enable each club to take the best advantage of its own situation in consultation with other interested parties (not least farmer). The objective is to enable some less restricted activity with the intention of letting less experienced pilots complete their Silver ‘C’, Cross-country Diploma etc.

On the domestic front, there is little to report. Predictably, funds are tight and likely to remain so, so minimising spending is the order of the day. We do not, however, expect any long term ramifications on this front.

There are lots of booking slots still available for 316 in Spain – speak to the office staff for details.

Operationally, this year’s shortage seems to be able bodies at the launch point – not really surprising given that many people have been staying away owing to the flying restrictions. If you are on-site it would really help us all if you could spend an hour or so at the launch point rather than the tea bar; heaven forfend that we finish up employing somebody to fetch ropes/fill in the log etc.

Welcome to the summer. Firstly apologies about the state of the airfield grass on some flying days. The duty crew have actually been very helpful and worked hard at cutting it, given their limitations on time and budget, and the growing weather, so it has been a bit of a battle. However, I think we are there now.

We also still have the obstruction right in the middle of the 25 landing area. The airfield management has not yet seen fit to remove this safety hazard, so you’ll have to continue to live with it. You will have seen me experimenting with different launch point layouts and different locations for the bus: this is an attempt to find a way of getting the K21’s back towards the threshold in order to improve the clearance over the hedge when taking off. Please bear with us whilst we experiment with different ways of arranging the operation.

I am still hoping to run a Booker task week of sorts from 23rd to 27th July. This will depend on the F&M situation but we should be able to achieve something useful and fun.

The rescheduled Nationals start on 25th August. This unfortunately coincides with the Junior Nationals, which will affect us because so many of our staff will be flying at the Juniors. We still do not know whether or not we will be able to run a proper, rated BGA national competition; but we will certainly be doing something. We will need more volunteers if we are going to put together a decent event. Anyone at any level of experience is welcome to help. I especially need someone with good computer skills and the spare time to run the scoring programs. Anyone interested?

Built in 1978 15 m3543 (carbon wings), flapped glider with large comfortable cockpit. Instruments include Cambridge M-NAV; Garmin GPS; Becker 720 radio; fitted large capacity oxygen system; Schofield trailer with AMF fittings. Strong parachute.

The glider is light to rig with self connecting controls; approach control is superb on trailing edge flap/brakes: this makes for much less stress in field landing situations and at sites like Talgarth.