News & Diary

Members Area Login  (incl. Committee minutes) ~  Older Committee Meeting Minutes  

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

March '10 General News

At the end of this month we go seven days a week, so now there wil be no excuses for missing a great soaring day (apart from being at work). Dave Watt will be making his soarablity reports again this year as well. And to celebrate the great weather that's coming, we are having a Start of Season Party on 27th March.

February '10 Happy New Glider

We have invested in a new glider, to give club members a higher performance glider for those wonderful cross-country days we are looking forward to this year. Say hello to T19, the Discus. By now you should have received a newsalert detailing the experience level required to fly this great machine.

27th Feb - Mexican Night - food, drink, party. Talk to the Office about tickets, £10, so that they know how many to cater for. Sombreros are optional.

January '10 Happy New Year, Winter Lectures

The New Years Eve party was a success, we flew on New Years Day, as usual, and soon the Winter Lectures will start. Danny Lamb will be giving the first lecture, on 16th January, discussing Air Law, Airspace and Navigation. These lectures are for pre-solo and pre-Bronze pilots, and the full list can be found on the Winter Lectures 2010 page. Do come along, as these are extremely useful for any one expecting to get through the pre-solo exam or the Bronze exam.

Some brave souls (and soles) decided that they wouldn't let the snow stop them flying.

Oh, and we've had some pilots thermalling already - Lukas, on 24th January appears to be the first.

Meanwhile, entries are coming in for the Fabulous Bicester Regionals 2010. Don't be left out...

December '09 General News and AGM

I don't think we've mentioned this before, but if it's old news to you, sorry. Several of our members are keen photographers, and have an account with Flickr where they upload lots of pretty pictures. (Search Flickr on bicester gliding or bicester regionals or windrushers to find them). Well, there is now a Flickr group specially for pooling the best images you have. That doesn't mean lots of piccies that are really a private joke only a very few people will ever understand, or dozens of pictures of the same glider (no names necessary, just think jet), or silly people doing stupid things. The club does not administer this group, it was set up by one of our members, and we wish them every success.

The AGM has taken place. The minutes will be published online soon, in the members sections. Paul Jessop and Roger Wilson were both voted in as directors. The following club trophies were awarded:-

Chairman's Trophy

Awarded to the Member who, in the opinion of the Chairman / CEO, has made a major contribution during the last year to the Club Operation
Richard Chapman - for all his work on the winches and their engines.

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
Bob King for his successful 757.6km flight in his ASW27b, in 9hrs 11mins.

Member of the Year

The Member who, in the opinion of the Management Committee has made the most progress during the past Year
Mary Jullien - for her recent re-soloing after a long break.

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.
OJ Garrity for his continual help.

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.
George Tvalashvili, for turning up so regularly to help out in many ways.

The LX Cup

Awarded to the Member who, in the past year, has completed the fastest handicapped 200km closed circuit task.
Derren Francis, achieved 120.7kph actual, 109.7kph handicapped, around a 251.4 km task in 2hrs 5 mins in his Ventus jet.

November '09 General News

The AGM this year will be on December 12th, at 7:00pm in the briefing room.
You should have received notification of this by post - if not contact the office and they will send you details, including how to apply for a postal vote and the deadlines involved.

The Course dates for 2010 are now available. Includes NPPL courses.

October '09 University students expected soon

Yes, it's that time of year again, when, with a bit of luck, we will have a whole bunch of new students to train, from Cranfield and Oxford Universities. The Cranfield students should be arriving first, from 10th October onwards, followed sooner after by the Oxford students from the 17th October onwards. Do give them a warm friendly welcome, and please remember that as they are new to the airfield, they don't yet know what to do. So be patient and helpful with the new set of faces you will see each week for the next month or two. (You were once a beginner too.)

You might think the cross-country season is over, but we've had several good flights in late September and early October, some of which are mentioned in the Bicester Blog

Meanwhile, George Tvalashvili and Pete Cadle finished their Basic Instructor course on October 11th under the tutelage of OJ and await their acceptance flights from the CFI.

September '09 More visitors and comps

This month is starting with a visit by 20 members from a power flying club, coming to experience real flying.

And our competition successes continue, with Dave Watt coming second in the 15m Nationals, a mere 10 points behind the winner, while Fran Aikten finished 8th in the Junior Nationals.

August '09 Cross countries, visitors and comps

After taking first place in the Europeans, Pete Harvey has added the UK Open Class title to his list of successes!

We have had a spate of long cross countries recently, 6 or 8 300km flight being flown two weekends in a row, and lots of 200km flights too. And Andy Smith has been notching up 500km flights a bit regularly.

We have visitors from Portmoak (Aboyne visited earlier in the year).

July '09 Competions!

Pete Harvey has won the European Open Class Championship - for the third time in a row! After a titanic battle between Pete and several former World Champions, the Windrushers pilot finished in first place. Congratulations from everyone.

The Bicester Regionals are running from 18th to 26th July, with lots of club members giving their free time to make this the premier Regional Championships in the UK. As usual, club members will be able to fly when the competition gliders are not about to be launched and after the races have started.

Regionals Update - Congratulations to the following Windrushers pilots in the Sport Class
First * Sunay Shah * Second - Mick Boik / Ian Smith * Third - Cris Emson / John Staley
and to those in the Open Class - * Second - John Roberts * Third - Martin Durham

June '09 Warm weather and more flying

We had a reasonable result at the first InterClub League this year, and hope to do well in the remaining ones - the next one is 13th / 14th June, at Bicester itself. Midweek flying is now a good opportunity to get in some practice and even some cross-country flying, so we hope to see some more of you coming out. Our full time staff are eager to help you progress your flying.

Club member Pete Harvey is off to the European Championships soon, to represent Britain yet again. We wish him luck. You can follow his progress at Nitra, Slovakia. The Comp dates are 27/6/09 - 11/7/09.

The aerobatic boys and girls (the BATS and the BAGS) are off to the National Championship on 12/13/14 June.

Update: Maz Makari wins Sports Aerobatic Comp, while Corbin Davies was 4th in the Beginners, only 0.22% short of a medal. Well done to both pilots, and to the rest of the team.

May '09 Interclub League Dates

The dates for the ICL have been announced, the first event being at Hinton, on 23/24/25 May. Contact Sunay Shah if you are interested in this informal, friendly but competative cross-country event. See its entry in the menu for the basic details.

April '09 Newsletter, Badges, Buses

The latest Spring edition of the Newsletter is now on line.
Although the lovely Nancy is having a holiday over Easter, alternative catering arrangements have been made for that weekend.

The large group who went to Portmoak for a week's flying have returned with smiles on their faces, and persuaded a group of Portmoak pilots to come visiting us in the summer months, and we are also hosting a group from Aboyne and a group from Portsmouth over the summer as well.

We have had a string of badge claims recently, mainly cross country claims and heights. Congratulations to Corbin, Rogier, Charlie J, James B, Jeremy H, Marko (300km!) and many others who I have forgotten about to mention. Non-badge flights of note include 500km by Dave Watt, Owain Walters and Ken Hartley. Plus many 300km flights as well. And it's still only April!

Our Luxury Launch Point Facility has been seen out at the launch point and is looking good.

And the Bicester Aerobatic Team will feature on Radio Two, Chris Evans Show, 6:45pm Friday 1st May !

March '09 - Trips away, and work in progress

With Spring finally sprung, a group of members are going to Portmoak for Easter, along with several University students, including groups from other Unis, not just our own favourite one, Oxford. Work on the briefing room is still progressing, new lighting has been fitted, the ceiling updated, the walls plastered and the skirting board on the window side vastly improved. The big bus has had the seating re-arranged, with tables and side-seats now in place, and mainly just the back end remains to be re-styled. But help is still needed for these projects, so contact Pete Cadle or OJ and lend a hand.

We have had a good set of Fridays recently, with a fair amount of winching, soaring and even cross-countries being done. The new soaring group have had a couple of pep-talks from World Class competitor Dave Watt, and a new mailing list has been used to pass on good weather / good cross country reports.

You can read regular reports on what we have done flying-wise at The Bicester Blog

Hugh Browning's talk at the end of February was an eye-opener to some members, and we can safely recommend any club after an evening talk to book him. Computer simulations of winch launching clearly drove home the safety points.

The bar ceiling and lighting has been given a make-over recently and has brightened the place up considerably.

February '09 Briefing Room Redecoration and other items

Work on redecorating the briefing room is progressing well under the leadership of Pete Cadle. Volunteers to help are always required - this isn't a one-man job. The entrance foyer area is also being redecorated, after the room is completed. So don't feel you missed a chance to help out, when you can also help in the foyer - these sort of special offers don't come along every day.
AND the new "Luxury Launch Point Facility", aka The Bus, has arrived and OJ is leading the work on that - again, don't feel left out of things, if you ask OJ nicely, he will let you join in the work. A list of tasks will be available soon.

On Saturday 28th February, at 18:30, we have Hugh Browning coming along to give a talk on safety - a subject where you can't know too much. See you there.

The British Aerobatic Association running a training weekend in Bicester March 7 till 8. The aim is to promote glider aerobatics and to train pilots in it. There will be training available for beginners and intermediate pilots. For the beginners training, the Oxford University K-21 will be available. Please contact Lukas Brandt lukas.brandt@merton.ox.ac.uk if you are interested in using it. There will be also an informal judging school.

January '09 Happy New Year

Advanced notice - Hugh Browning will give one of his well-respected gliding safety talks on Saturday 28th February at 18:30 in the (new) briefing room at Windrushers.

Our motor glider G-CFMW is proving to be so popular that a nearby club has added a picture of it to their blog! Obviously trying to present a good image.

December '08 Latest News

It's cold outside. And the latest addition to our web communication system is now on line - the Bicester Blog - check out the menu under Members. It will provide short news items such as what we did today flying-wise. It will have two editors - Mike P and me - to reduce the workload I have running the main site. Main news items will still be posted here of course.

The new Falke 2000 - G- CFMW - is now ready to fly.
Notes for those with an SMLG have been prepared by Alan Smith, outlining the differences between this aircraft and the other Falke, which is still available. Check with Alan, Dave Watt, Mike Pettican or OJ before flying this aircraft.
Currently G-CFMW costs £54 an hour to hire.

November '08 Latest News

Agenda for next committee meeting
Nominations required for committee posts before the AGM
And there will be food by Nancy at the AGM - buy your tickets soon from the office.

And the results of the elections at the AGM are as follows:

Directors - Cris Emson and Dickie Feakes were re-elected
Committee - John Wright (Secretary), Alan Smith (Marketing) and John Staley (Treasurer) were elected.
Due to a lack of candiates for some posts, we may co-opt some assistants to the committee.

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
John Wright - for all his web design work, regular instructing and stepping in as secretary

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
Debbie Thomas for her 262.2 km in a Ka6e (a handicapped distance of 323.7km)

Member of the Year

The Member who, in the opinion of the Management Committee has made the most progress during the past Year
Seth Helstrip - soloed 6th Sept 2007, Bronze July 08, then got his 50km this year

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
Tony Cleworth for endless help mid-week

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.
Gail Stevens for turning up so regularly to help out in many ways

The LX Cup

Awarded to the Member who, in the past year, has completed the fastest handicapped 200km closed circuit task.
Dave Watt, in his Ventus 2A 15m - Bicester - Stockbridge - Shrivenham - Alton - Bicester, 304.5km in 2hr 48mins 24secs, actual speed = 108.5khp, handicapped = 104.3kph

October '08 Bonfire Night

It's official, says Rachel, we will have a bonfire, yet again. All welcome.

Lots of new Uni students learning to fly - instructors, this is your chance to help them.

September '08 New CFI, Diary Dates

Dave Watt has taken on the role of CFI.
The replacement Robin tug has proved to be popular.
Motor glider joins the club fleet.

Instructors meeting - 27th September
Bonfire Party - 8th November
AGM - 22nd November (provisionally)

Pete Cadle has finally managed his 50km flight

Flight logs were updated on 18th Sept, and will be updated two days after the last flying day in September, to help instructors with their annual returns for renewals - had your Year 3 or Year 5 checks done yet boys and girls?...

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.

Older News can be found here