Members' area

A very busy day, thanks to Ian Hey for providing aerotow facilities, 25 aerotows in all today. Congratulations to Adrian Mears for his first solo in the the Sport Vega, to Andrew Fleming for his first solo, to Don Brookman for achieving his aerobatic rating and good to see Tony Chapman back at the club and flying again. Simon Lucas landed out at Cherington, thanks to the Hubands for the retrieve. a very good day.

Another day to make some of us glad we don't have to go to work. It didn't really get going till nearly two o'clock but then became really good. Several 350 k + flights were done in the time available.

I contacted Frank B today to ask him, as the key liaison point with the farmers, to alert the farmers to the need for a grass cut within the next week. Hopefully they can fit that in with their crop harvesting.
DGR

After the Chairman's exhortations of yesterday, ambitious flights of up to 500k were planned and declared on Wednesday. Unfortunately a subtle change of air mass with a much lower cloud base meant that nobody even attempted their tasks. Instead, two pilots used their recently acquired Cloud Flying Ratings to climb to 6000 and 9000 ft respectively.

For those stuck at work today, don't read any further.

Several private owners ventured south today to place like Blandford Forum, Dorchester, Cerne Abbas, and then went north to Worcester and similar TPs. Yours truly ventured to Portland Bill with the help of a slight sea breeze front taking the cloud base to 5,500 AMSL instead of the 4,400 experienced on the run south. Then westwards to Dartmoor and back via WIncanton. Others returned direct from the south coast to complete large tasks today - Doug G, Tom G, Tony P, and Andy S.
We are experiencing some really good XC weather at the moment, for a change. Take a day off work if you can !
DGR / chairman

The following is there for a day or so from 15 July 18.30.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b048rxq1/bbc-points-west-15072014

Go to 18 mins 12 seconds into the programme

DGR

At 10.00am, with a cloud base of about 5', I had just but about decided to cancel the one day course and head for home. But by mid-day the clearance went through and things started to improve, After a brief foray to the to the South end we decided that launching in to wind was a good idea and transferred to the north end. Kevin and Richard on the one-day course enjoyed some good soaring flights in the PW-6 and K13 - thanks to Matt for his efforts.
Hats off to the team from South Down - you couldn't wish to share the airfield with a nicer a bunch of people. You are welcome to come again guys.
Also thanks to the team that polished one of the PW-6s and to Adrian Giles for driving the winch

With a cracking forecast that tempted out a good number of private gliders and with 25 GCSE students on a 'practical physics day' to fly it was a busy day. Five 2 seaters and the Capstan were used and all of the students had soaring flights and went away with big grins. We also had a visit from Yvonne Elliott, the BGA Schools and Colleges lead who had learned about this initiative and wanted to see how we organised the day. The cross country pilots flew some fast tasks, we also had a few drop ins from other clubs including Justin Fletcher (who I sent solo last year) completing his silver distance from Rivar Hill. Two instructors made use of one of the Competition Enterprise tugs for some evening aerotows to complete their aerobatic rating.
We are hosting a group from Southdown for the next few days, please make them welcome.

...Mike W

We have been in touch with the farmer, Mr Clark, today to anticipate when the airfield grass will need cutting. Generally it is OK at present, but we expect growth in the next week to require it to be cut next week (commencing 7 July). The farmer has agreed to do this. Please remember that the farmer needs value out of the grass in return for the nil cost to us, so timing has to be balanced. It is also a two to three day operation with > 1 tractor and manpower. The last cut was 2-3 June. I met with Mr Clark on 14 June and once notes of that meeting are agreed I shall summarise them.
DGR / chairman

More than one pilot reported meeting clumps of hay going up in their 8 knot thermals today. The northern club triangle was flown by Andy Smart on cross country training in the DG500 with the CFI. Otherwise only one club member required instruction so several two-seaters and instructors spent a large part of the day on the ground and we packed up early.