From the CFI

September has seen a late flurry of activity at the club due to the reasonable weather. Several flights in excess of 300k were made. The club had run a bronze course this month and that also proved to be a huge success with everybody who attended it completing the qualification. Well done to those guys. Some more potential good news. Thanks to the good work by Bruce Cooper and his team on the airspace committee, he has been given approval from LATCC to raise the height limit above Booker from 3500 QNH to 4500 QNH. The proposal has now gone forward to “consultation”, allowing any questions or objections to be raised. Subject to this being OK, we should have the approval by the new year.

With winter fast approaching, it is very easy to start to wind down. There are still some good soaring days to be had right up till December, often with thermals starting again in February. My first x-country's were in Feb this year! Also, please remember that if it is a good north westerly, the ridge will work. I am hoping to operate from the ridge field in the darker months if I know people will be coming to fly. There will be a lot of activities happening at the club over the forthcoming period. For example, I hope to run another winching day, bronze and cross country lectures, and hopefully a club dinner dance! Keep your eyes on the notice board! Congratulations to Chris Wilson on re-soloing, and John Spencer on his first!

Bronze lectures

These will be taking place once again just before and after the Christmas period. Keep your eyes on the notice board for dates.

Winching day

I am hoping to run one of these late November early December. Venue and date to be decided. If you are interested in attending please put your name on the list in the office.

Dinner Dance

Off the back of last years success, I am looking into running another dinner dance for the club. This was a great night last year and I hope everybody who was there last year will return! It was a sell out last time so if you are interested, please let the office know. As soon as I have enough interest, I will book the venue.

Log sheets

I have received a couple of complaints about charges being made to people’s accounts after flights have been logged down incorrectly. To be sure that you are going to be charged the correct amount for your flying, please check that A – your on the log, and B – your time is correct. People make mistakes, and often the person doing the log has just as much interest in getting airborne as you do!

Ref Luton Western Extension

Luton have applied to extend their western airspace just north of Aylesbury. At the meeting on 30th September Luton pointed out that our agreement to fly in the area known as the Aylesbury box has hardly ever been used. Can I appeal to all soaring pilots to start using this more frequently. If we do not use it, we will lose it. CLICK HERE

Bruce Cooper

Weekend tugging

This last season has proved to be problematical in respect to the tugging situation at weekends. Often, we have found ourselves short of tug pilots for most if not all of the day. This has ramifications for us servicing the amount of flying which has been booked in, and more importantly, launching the members in their private gliders.

We are the only club which I know that does not operate a weekend tug rota. I believe it important to keep this flexibility, as many members can not commit to a rota, and as it tends to limit the amount of flying any individual can do.
To remedy the problem encountered this season, whilst maintaining flexibility to allow as much flying for everybody as possible, we are going to try the new tug priority list.

The list will at weekends, prioritising the pilots with their names down for the period displayed. The periods will be:

10am – 12pm
12am – 2pm

This then allows pilots who are not on the list to fly the tugs before, and after the said periods, thus allowing people to still fly ad hoc.

Whilst I think this will be of great benefit during the summer, we have started it this winter as a trial period, and to see how well it works. During the summer months, a second tug list will run, as the professionals will be in the priority tug.

Any questions or ideas on how we could get a program to run, please let me know.

Matt