Members' area.

Wind rain and sunshine. We had it all today.

The usual suspects floating around the club and making sure it all runs smoothly.

Gill Dave and I are busy getting everything in place for the new course season that starts on Monday.

The weather for club day tomorrow is lloking a little problematic, but there will be classroom training available if flying is not possible. Dont be shy, come along and join in.

Meanwhile Mike and his team from skylaunch have been busy servicing the winches and Mike treated some of us to a mini masterclass in winches and winch systems. Very interesting, thanks Mike. The servicing of the 2nd winch will happen tomorrow and some trials are planned for Thursday.

Sorry, no chance of flying today, rain with strong winds later.

Well, today's forecast was spot on. At around 9.45, just as promised, the grotty low cloud and mist that had engulfed the airfield cleared and half an hour later we were able to get airborne. The first couple of flights were spectacular - launching to 1,500' we were bathed in sunshine 500' above cloud. Thereafter, the air scouts and UWE students had some interesting flights getting to grips with the strong breeze. John and Andrew on the one day course enjoyed their flights with Eugene in the DG. Many thanks to Craig Mustoe and David Howell for some first-rate winching.

A busy Wednesday with two K21's, K23 and K18 enjoying the bright sunshine, Given the forecast this looks like the last of the run of sunshine. The Wednesday group were joined by five UWE students who took advantage of the calm conditions to practice circuits.
Sam and Dan added to their solo count, George and Ben notched up more time in the K23.
After flying Ben passed his Bronze oral test to complete his bronze, We hope we will get more sunny weather soon.

A busy day with winch and Aerotow. Well done to Sam Winfield on his first Glider solo and Ben on completing his Bronze Flight Test, the last hour of the day was Aerotow only due to winch problems.
Steve Glassett's view from a 4000ft Aerotow.

Congratulations Gwilym

Forecast sunny all day so an early start with just about the whole fleet taken out and made ready. Fog had other ideas and for a while we could not see more than 25 metres. All cleared at 13:00 and we made the most of the afternoon with plenty of Winch Launches and Aerotows. A few more members were introduced to the delights of the K18. A first solo too so not a bad day all round.

The DG500 went away to Denbigh for the weekend to fly with young pilots from across the country as part of the UK Junior Gliding Winter Series. Over 80 Juniors attended the event, including a good number of our own UWE students. The weather didn't disappoint and we were able to give many Juniors their first experiences of hill and wave soaring. Many thanks to the club for letting us use the glider and for the continued support of UK Junior Gliding.

A very useful training day with lots of simulated cable breaks for the younger members. Grown ups experienced the delights of the new K18, some of whom managed to prolong their flights noticeably.

Low cloud delayed the start. The farmer ploughing next to the runway at the start was extremely cooperative. On hearing that we might only do one launch, he agreed to stop and only resume if we told him we had to wait for the cloud to lift, which is what happened. For this helpful attitude he was presented with a couple of bottles of beer.

Today several members took advantage of the fact that it was not raining or blowing a gale to get some Aero Tow practice.
The K21, Pirat, Olly, Arcus and LS3 took tows totalling 25000 ft, Cloud base was around 3000ft and varied during the day and later in the afternoon Doug Gardiner managed an hour and a half in his LS3 Landing a 4.00pm.
We hope to organise more days like this and intend to publicize then with a bit more notice in future