Having announced that the date for the hangar move was set for December, we were as surprised as anyone when told that the demolition would go ahead in October (with 7 days’ notice). The current arrangement seems to be adequate, giving us reasonable access to a somewhat crowded hangar, although we have had to derig a few gliders which would otherwise remain rigged.

The planning for next season’s operation is now well underway following the conclusion of the main planning meetings (around Christmas), the longer-term decisions will be documented and made available in the clubhouse and also on the revamped website. Of course, the best way to glean information is still to ask a committee member. The budget for next season will be set early next year.

Various expeditions are being proposed, ranging from weekends in Shobdon to multi-week trips to Spain. Keep an eye on the information sheet and notice board for further details.

At this time of the year, with the airfield so wet and muddy, the aircraft get covered in mud and if the mud is not removed before they get put to bed, the water in the mud starts to corrode metal parts and rot wooden parts. The effect of this is to shorten the life of the aircraft and increase the maintenance bill. Also at this time of the year the mud will not dry as the moisture content of the atmosphere is high and this will keep the mud damp and will accelerate the corrosion/rot.

Muddy tow ropes left in the tugs are detrimental to the inside of the tugs, ie more corrosion. Please hang the ropes in the rope store, it is the door half way up the blister hangar, this will also help to dry the ropes.

After my last note about the tow rope release cable, I had some comments that all pilots could read, but if this is the case how come the release cable on the Pawnee has become bent with people (we are all pilots) pulling on it.

Dave Sarney

From January 1st the new jarops will be in force. This means you will have to get your licence Certificate of Experience signed every two years. In this two year period you will have to show evidence of a skill test with an instructor and have done 12 hours P1 in the 12 months preceding the two year signature.

If you have your licence signed before 31st December you will not need another signature until 31st December 2001, when the rules will probably have changed again.

I strongly advise all Booker tug pilots to get their Certificate of Experience’s signed before, or as close to, 31st December 1999 as possible. You will need to show evidence of five hours flying in the previous 13 months. Dave Byass can sign your licence.

All our tugs have flight manuals which are kept in the office. During the winter months, instead of sitting around drinking tea, why not spend some time reading these books to increase your knowledge on the aircraft.

Most of the club glider flight manual copies are also in the office.

If you do borrow one – please return it.

Several members have asked if we could visit some other clubs during the winter.

Shobdon is an all aerotow site situated off the back of the welsh mountains and is the home of the Herefordshire Gliding Club. It is the best site in that part of the country to safely operate and tow into the mountains for wave/hill/thermal soaring.

The Long Mynd is basically a hill site with a very efficient winch launch operation and occasional aerotows. In strong westerlies they still bungee launch into superb hill lift which will get you into good welsh wave. The hills also produce thermal lift if the sun shines.

I have contacts at both places and can easily organise visits to both sites. If you fancy a weekend away during March/April please give your name and level of experience to myself or Jane Moore.

If any experienced private owners, who can supervise their own flying, fancy a visit to Talgarth, please give your name and phone to me.

David Richardson

As you will have seen the hangar rebuilds have started, this will involve some unavoidable disruption to our flying. Essentially we are now sharing hangar space with other airfield users. Please be even more careful when moving gliders in the hangar – damaging the gliders is bad enough, damaging other people’s aeroplanes is worse. If you are unlucky enough to do just that then please tell me about it. Unreported damage is the worst of all…. Also please now always shut hangar doors after removing gliders, the doors should stay shut as much as possible.

Booker members have had another very successful expedition to Aboyne. We had a substantial presence there; 45 members visiting over three weeks with 5 club and 16 private gliders. We flew on 15 days and amassed 21,000 miles of trailer towing with no incidents apart from an ASW 27 wheel up landing and a puncture to an LS4.

Week one started with miserable light easterly conditions – flyable but not soarable to start with and then some useful wave to 10,000’ for the last few days. During week two the forecasts kept promising strong westerlies but of course the forecasts were wrong; they eventually arrived for the last two days of the week giving wave to 10,000’ plus. The last week was fantastic with good and interesting wave conditions on every day until rising pressure brought the fun to an end on Thursday, leaving us with the light easterlies that had greeted the expedition three weeks before.

There were no badge claims as only three members out of the 42 had not been before, and the only pilot who had the chance to complete all three diamonds was instructing as he climbed through the required height. Bad luck….

My thanks to everybody who made the expedition such a success, especially to the volunteers who towed gliders up and down and to David Richardson for doing the bulk of the organisation, both before and during the trip. Next year’s trip is from 24th September until 14th October inclusive, so get your diaries out and start planning. Those of you that don’t know about Aboyne and wave flying in general come and talk to me about it; it would be a lot of fun to have some new pilots at Aboyne next year.

I am planning a meeting for anyone who would like to help me run the cross country training on Saturday 11th December at 10.00am in the Clubhouse. I have written to a lot of you but if I have missed you, for which I apologise, or you wish to be involved, please contact me as soon as possible.

Competition pilots; a date for your diary. George Moffat will be visiting Lasham on Friday 3rd December and giving a talk on the psychology of competition flying. I don’t hesitate to recommend that you go and listen to him even if it is at the other place!

Winter flying; there are one or two things worth mentioning about our winter operations worth reminding you of.

The field will get soft, so often we will be using the caravan or just a buggy as a base of operation for the day. As a bare minimum take a fire extinguisher with you, from the van or bus, and a hand held radio.

Don’t forget to wash the gliders at the end of the day, the mud does not improve the performance or the longevity of wood, steel and fabric.

Safety – remind yourself of the effect of wet, soft grass on your take off roll, and also don’t fly with misted up canopies.

Winter is coming. Enjoy!

The dates for our Aboyne visit next year are:

Bookings for club accommodation in our log cabin "Birkelunn" will start on Saturday, 4th March 2000. There may be up to two spaces each week for private gliders/pilots.

Booking aircraft into Aboyne for the wave season is becoming more difficult every season. I have already booked for next years trip, along with 6 private owners. I have a number of booking forms from Aboyne and strongly advise any private owners who want to go next autumn to book in now. The fee is £30.00 per week.

The new Booker web site has just been published, so why not take a look.

I will update this site on a regular basis and hope to have up-to-date news, information and any changes to our club as and when they happen. (The newsletter will be on line every month as soon as I get it - it's already there for September). Most of you know me, so if you have any observations, criticisms or any material for addition, particularly good pictures, then please let me know - I'm usually around the launch point or in the clubhouse!

A large part of the web site is password-protected so that members only (hopefully)

can see our newsletter, instructor rota and contact numbers. To get this password ask either myself, or at the office. You can e-mail me on alan.smith@virgin.net or phone me on 01494 512911/22, 07836 239543 (and no, the password isn’t 1013!)

Anything you want published, ideally should be either on disk or e-mailed in Word format. Disks can be left in my pigeon hole in the office in an envelope and clearly labelled with your name. Ideas for the web site could be a 'flea-market' page where we could buy & sell things - not necessarily gliding related; a forum page; ‘how-I-dun-it’ stories; 'I learned about gliding from that...' type articles or anything else - I'm open to suggestions. Of course, all articles submitted for publication will be subject to editorial control - namely me - and anonymous items will not be considered.

If you would like to be automatically notified as soon as the newsletter appears or if there is any significant change to the site, then please e-mail me putting 'send web news' in the subject box. There is an instructors page on the site and a current rota. I have also included provision for a ‘weekend swap’ if you can’t make your allocated day to instruct, post a message here to swap with somebody else. If you are an instructor, I will include your e-mail address and/or telephone number only with your permission so that we can contact each other directly. If you would like me to do this then please let me know either by e-mail or in writing.

Alan Smith (http://freespace.virgin.net/alan.smith)

We would like to take this opportunity of reminding all members that we require your flying account to either be settled at the end of each month or kept in credit. The penalties for not doing this are that we impose administration charges at the rate of £15 for amounts of £50-£150 in debt and £30 for amounts over £150.

Christmas Cards We have a supply of Christmas cards from Mary Meagher. The card is a reproduction of one of her paintings entitled ’Competition Finish’ and is being sold at 80p per card or 50p per card if you purchase 10 or more.

Please ask at the office if you are interested.

Christmas Instructor Rota It has been decided that we will not be taking Course and Trial Lesson bookings between Christmas and New Year this year although there will still be flying for those who wish to turn up.

For anyone who wishes to contact me by e-mail I now have my own address as follows:

gdale@glider.fsnet.co.uk

Alternatively you can still e-mail me on – office@bookergc.nildram.co.uk

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