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Winch Operating & Retrieve Driving ~ The Mid-Week Calendar ~ DW and Cross-Countries

 

August '08 Nationals etc

We've had a spate of 50km flights recently, and Jolien Chow, Seth Helstrip, Dan Grey and Seb Cassell have been added to the list. Some of these may be a full Silver - if you know, tell me.
Philippa continued her relentless XC flying with a 200km flight, then a 300+km one into a field. Sadly for the 300 she forgot to leave the logger switched on...

After the successful Regionals in July, we will be hosting the 18m Nationals. As aerotows are more likely than winching during this comp, the committee has decided to give full club members who are not taking part in the comp reduced rate launches - £20 to 2000' - to compensate for the inconvenience of the comp. If you are willing to help out during the Nationals, contact the office.

July '08 Comps and Stuff

Well, it's been a wet month so far, so let's hope it improves for the first of our comps, the Bicester Regionals. The web site is live now, so you can follow the adventures of the brave boy and girl racers. See the menu under Flying Programme, Regionals 2008. The 18m Nationals web site will be up soon, if I get a chance to sit down in between all the other things I have to do.

With 36 entries in the Open class and 38 in the Sport class, our little regionals seems to be quite popular...

After doing a 9000' Silver height, Philippa Roberts has done her Silver distance during the comp - 62km into a 20kt headwind! She likes a bit of a challenge does Philippa. Some of you boy racers may have to watch out if she does a comp.

Terry mitchell took 7th place in the Open class at the Regionals, and Bob King took 8th place, while in the Sports class, Sunay Shah finished in second place, with Ken Hartley in 10th. Well done to all of them, and the other club members who took part. And all those who gave up their free time to help run the comp.

June '08 More General Stuff

Dave Watt Talks - Saturday June 28th at 18:30 in the briefing room
This time the talk will be on "Your First Comp". This is about how to prepare for the competition, to avoid losing before you start. Parts will also apply to your early cross-country attempts.

The next (first!) inter-club league is scheduled for the weekend of 21st/22nd June at Oxford Gliding Club (Weston). We are looking for team members in all 3 classes (novice, intermediate and pundit). This is also a good opportunity to fly a competitive task even if you are not taking part in the comp. Inter Club League page

Jolien Chow has won one of the prestigious Air League Scholarships! This will provide her with 12 hours of motor glider flying towards her ppl. Well done.

May '08 General stuff

Tara takes to the skies solo!

ICL 2008 Dates Announced. - Team members wanted - novice, intermediate and pundit. First meeting is at Hinton on 24/25/26th May.
Other dates:

Contact Sunay Shah (sunay.shah@sharp.co.uk) to enrol into the team and
for further information. See also the Inter Club League pages

BBQ announced for 10th May. Flying accounts updated 2nd May and 17th May.

 

April '08 Committee Changes and Office PC Died

The club's Secretary has changed for various reasons, and John Wright is now temporarily filling this post until the next AGM/EGM. The office PC has died from old age, but a shiny replacement that was already on order arrived the next day, and is a much faster and more stable platform. Due to some prior planning, everything was backed up to an external hard drive, so LogPile's data is intact. Because of the workload of re-installing everything and copying stuff over, the accounts and flight log were not updated for a couple of weeks, but that has now been rectified. So check what you owe us.

The Portmoak Expedition appears to have been a great success, with Philippa doing a Silver Height gain of 9000' for example! She likes to be sure of things...

The latest version of the newsletter shuold be available very, very soon.

The first of the Go for Solo courses was well attended, and lots of flying and soaring done. They certainly seemed to enjoy themselves.

 

March '08 Mode S update and further consultation

The committee recommends you read the following news update on Mode S from the BGA. The management committee and directors are considering their own response, but individuals are encouraged to read the CAA proposal and make their own response as well.

Pete Stratten will be going to the important BGA/CAA Mode S event at Lasham on Friday 4th April at 7pm, and can take three passengers along as well. As some members have been rather vocal about Mode S, this is your chance to speak up. Glider pilots are being given a chance to express their worries over Mode S, so don't miss the opportunity.

The eavesdropping report on the March committee meeting is available now. Hopefully the full minutes will follow soon. And a new Newsletter is due soon as well. Read your email for our News Alerts - apparently some of you still don't know we have flight logs and accounts available online in the private members area. Contact John Wright if you don't know how to view your accounts.

So who will be the first Windrushers pilot to go cross country this year?

 

Feb '08 Soaring season has arrived - do you still say there is no global warming effect?

The soaring season started today 27th Feb. with cloudbase at 3,800 and 6 knot thermals popping everywhere! Our mid-week flying saw 10 members flying taking 43 launches. Three K13 flights of just over an hour each gave some much needed soaring practice. Our Astir and the Skylark were also flown. Despite having a winch driver and three instructors one member didn’t get airbourne through lack of instructors. Please – if you see a good day coming along on Wednesday or Friday and you can help instruct – let us know, you’ll be welcomed with open arms.

AND Kirsty went solo! First of the new year.
Followed a couple of days later by James Krautgartner going solo.

Feb '08 Trouble finding the launch points?

Sometimes it's difficult to find the launch point and park the vehicles in the right place. Or to find other clubs when on an exped. But not if you use a Sat-Nav system. Just right click and download these two files, unzip them and stick them in as a POI file and off you go. Launch points and gliding clubs were produced by Alan Smith. he missed out the bar as most people seem to be able to find that without Sat-Nav.

As well as the Mid-Week Flyers calendar, we have added a general calendar for flying events to the site (see the menu under Flying Programme). This has been incorporated into the Mid-Week calendar so you can see what else is on at the same time, but only the Office and webmaster can edit the general events. Instructions on using the Mid-Week calendar, however, are in the members' area.

Eavesdropping on the February committee meeting is also online.

The Agenda for the Management Committee Meeting on Sunday 2nd March on now available in the Members Area.

 

Jan '08 Going for Solo and XC Courses, Committee emails

The club will be running several Going for Solo courses and some Cross Country courses this year - see the courses page for more details. Only a limited number of spaces are available, so make you mind up soon. Notes from Dave Watt's XC meeting are available now - talk-1 summary, questionnaire and general summary. All as Word docs. Note the new links above

Useful contact emails for the committee members are now available in the private, members' area as well.


Jan '08 Cross Country Talk and YOUR Plans for the 2008 season

Dave Watt, one of our top Nationals (and International) pilots, will be hosting a Cross Country talk in the briefing room on Sunday 20th January at 17:00. We would encourage all pilots to attend, but in particular those who have just gone solo working towards Bronze, Bronze pilots wanting to get their Silver, and pilots aiming at 300 and 500k's this coming season.

We look forward to seeing you there!


Jan '08 Happy New Year, and New Newsletter

A group of members had a "civilized" New Years Eve party in the club house bar to welcome in the year, at least I'm told it was civilized. We also have the first edition (a rare collector's item!) of the new club newsletter, Helios, produced by Dan Grey. This is a 458 kb pdf file, so you need Adobe Reader installed (but you probably have that anyway). Dan would like more articles from you sometime for the next edition (news, exciting flights, expedition reports, whatever) to cut down the workload of producing it. Remember, an article in the newsletter could lead to a career as a writer (it did for me after I had an article published in S&G, so why not one in Helios?), so get to work now!

More eavesdropping on the January committee meeting for those who can't wait for the official minutes.


Dec '07 The OUGC Training Week + the Holiday Period

The week was marred by bad weather and strong winds. Those who turned up had some fun for a few days, and then spruced up all the MT, fixed flat tries and prepared the vehicles for winter (it seems to have arrived as I type this).

There are plans to fly on New Years Eve (during the day!) then celebrate the coming great season (during the night). A notice will be made discussing arrangements for this.

The Online Shop has come online (on the Trial Lesson page), so now you can buy Trial Lesson vouchers at any time!


Nov '07 The AGM is on November 17th, 7:00pm, in the Bar

AGM Update: You should by now have received your email from the chairman giving details of the election results. A brief summary is: Directors - Nick Kelly, John Delafield and Pete Cadle all voted in. Committee - Secretary - Dan Grey; Estates - Carol Winfield; PR - Alan Smith; House - Marie Mitchell; MT - Ken Hartley; Operations - Terry Mitchell; and Treasurer - George Tvalashvili. As you can see, some new blood.

Club Trophies Awarded

Chairman's Trophy

Awarded to the Member who, in the opinion of the Chairman, has made a major contribution during the last year to the Club Operation
Clive Dalzell

Most Meritorious Flight of the Year

This trophy is awarded to the Club member who, in the opinion of the Management Committee has made the most meritorious flight during the year
Jed Edyvean for his 750 km flight in his Nimbus 3

Member of the Year

The Member who, in the opinion of the Management Committee has made the most progress during the past Year
George Unpronounceable (Tvalashvili)

CFI's Trophy

The CFI's Trophy is awarded to the Club member, who in the opinion of the CFI, has been the mainstay of the flying operation during the past year
Alan Smith

The Alfar Memorial Award

The Alfar Memorial Award is awarded annually to the Windrushers Gliding Club member who, in the opinion of the Management Committee, has made a significant voluntary contribution to Club operations without thanks or favour.
John Wright

The LX Cup

Awarded to the Member who, in the past year, has completed the fastest handicapped 200km closed circuit task
Dave Watt
203 km in 1hr 50 min 14 sec at a handicapped speed of 106.3 kph (actual speed 110.5 kph)

Forum link moved to the Member's Area used to view your online flights and accounts details.
And the flights and accounts have been updated on 15/11/07, as has the flight search option.

Xmas party news for those that missed it.

Eavesdropping on the November committee meeting (not the official minutes)

Older News can be found here