Seasons Greetings

kiesevernS

The magazine of Bristol and Glos Gliding Club

Winter 2013/14

We host the compwith a difference– it’s Enterprise!

Hunt is on for4 new cadetsFour lucky youngsters are being offeredthe chance to learn to fly at the club undera scholarship scheme.

Schools and Scout groups have beengiven information to get applications sentin before January 25 and will learn the out-come by February 28.

The successful candidates will be ex-pected to begin their training on the firstweekend in March 2014.

The new sponsorship will include alltraining and flying costs until the luckyfour fly solo or reach the end of the trainingperiod. It will not include subsistence ortransport costs to and from the club so par-ents or guardians will be asked to help out.

Applicants have to complete an appli-cation form and include a short article ofup to 500 words on why they would liketo receive the sponsorship. A shortlist ofapplicants will be asked to provide a pres-entation, which demonstrates their interestin general aviation and an understanding of gliding in particular.

held every year at gliding sites around theuK and occasionally in France.

The prime aim is to maximise the dayand the comp is open to any pilot with aSilver C, including Nympsfield members.Tasks accommodate all types of glider –glass and wood, small and big wings, withor without engines; BGA handicappingapplies. In 2013 aircraft ranged from aSlingsby Eagle to an ASH 25. Pilotsranged from pre-Silver C (but with CFIendorsement) to Nationals entrants.

Justin Wills will be Competition Direc-tor. Tim Macfadyen will be Assistant Di-rector, with Dominic Conway lookingafter things while Tim is in Africa.

Enterprise differs from rated contests,with rules and atmosphere more akin to atask week.

There is no grid, the pilots select theirown start times. There is no “line open-ing”, start procedure, or time recording(other than the usual take-off/landing log).There are no racing finishes. There is asimple bonus for pilots landing back onthe airfield at the end of a task.

The comp is organised by the EnterpriseClub, whose members consist of regularentrants. Entrants compete for six annual

trophies. Enterprise gives the host club ad-vice on task setting, assisting the local tasksetter, and it has its own scorer, Andrewreid, with his own computer and program.However, he needs a local back-up who is

Continued on page 2

to all our readers…

THE howling wind forced the postponement of thefireworks and bonfire when our two Freds, Hill andBallard, celebrated in November. Farmer Fred wasmarking 25 years of marriage and 40 years of glid-ing and Fearless Fred 50 years of marriage.

But the party with free beer and a buffet wentahead in Giuseppe’s and the tug hangar.

All members past and present were invited and agood crowd turned out, despite the weather. Enter-tainment was provided by Steve Eyles and therewere local talented guitarists to dance to. Fred Hillpresented wife Sue with the engagement ring thathe failed to provide before their wedding 25 ago!

The firework display will be put on, with dona-tions from the Freds and other members, at theChristmas dinner on December 7.

FredandSue,right,andFredandKatiebelow

Party on despite gale

THE club is hosting Competition Enterprise for the first time, from June 29 toJuly 6. The comp was conceived by Philip Wills in 1974 and it continues to be

Former club tuggie, Santiago Cervantes, right, who has won

two UK records –see page 3

Who’s our member all set hopefully for a trip into space? See page 4

Applicants will be asked to deliver theirpresentation to the scheme sponsors, theclub chairman, the Junior Gilding Co-or-dinator and the CFI.

November found us with a new cadet,Trai Glasspool, whilst four new applicantsare being sought for 2014.

Congratulations to Dan, Dorian andWill on their achievements. See photos:page 3. We are seeking grants for their on-ward development.

IT’S been all over the mediathat this is a “mast” year. Ihad always thought that thisreferred only to years whenbeech trees produced largeamounts of their seeds,which are called beech mast.However, I now know that“masting”, the production oflarge crops of seeds, fruitsand nuts, refers to quite afew tree species and nobodyknows exactly why it hap-pens, though weather andclimate certainly play a partand beech trees do, in fact,have a regular “mast” yearevery five to 10 years. Thisabundance of available foodhas knock-on effects. Seedeaters such as grey squirrelsand jays will have beenhoarding supplies and all thewildlife that feeds on forestfruits are generally morelikely to survive the winterso their populations will behigh next summer. Also, withsuch an abundance of seed,many more than usual willsurvive to germinate next year. Has anyone noticed the hugenumber of ash keys on the trees around the field? So, no slack-ing, Nigel and Simon – those saplings around our perimeterare just going to keep on appearing!

The bumper crops of hips and haws, etc has been notedaround the field, as has a good variety of butterflies and moths(not always identifiable even with a good field guide to hand!)plus bees, hoverflies and other insects enjoying nectar from ourstill blooming wildflowers. The last swallows and house mar-tins were seen on their way south and the first of the winterthrushes, a few redwing, have appeared. A prowl around anyberry-laden tree at this time of year may reveal some of thesewinter migrants. once they’ve stripped the trees though, theywill be on their way, possibly to a supermarket carpark nearyou, as such sites seem to go in for berry-bearing shrubs. The

autumn colours have beenspectacular when the sun hasbeen shining but as the finalleaves fall there is one advan-tage and that is that we canspot birds and mammals moreeasily through the trees.

The roe deer are about asusual; when the ridges areworking buzzards and ravens,among others, are using themand smaller birds, flocking inorder to take advantage of anyfood sources, are worth morethan a casual glance as theremay be winter visitors, suchas brambling, among thechaffinches.

But – and this is where the“20-second task” of this arti-cle’s title comes in – we doneed to take that little bit oftime to note what we see onthe clipboard. This is not justas a record, it can alert otherpeople to what is out there,confirm something someonethought they might have seenand generally share knowl-edge about our bit of the

Cotswolds, which we are so lucky to own. In winter especially,written observations can be low as inclement weather andChristmas commitments keep even the most diligent contribu-tor away from the club for weeks, so please think of addingsomething as you pass through the clubhouse en route to theloo or the bar.

Nancy Barrett

Severn Skiesis the magazine of Bristol & Glos Gliding Club, Nympsfield, Stonehouse, Glos GL103TXTel 01453 860342; fax 01453 860060Email: office@bggc.co.ukWebsite: bggc.co.ukSent free in mono to every British gliding club. The magazine can also be viewed in colour or downloaded from the website

Editor: Bernard Smyth Tel 01454 329751Email: b.smyth(no spam)@blueyonder.co.uk (delete no spam)Printed by Arrow Print Services Ltd 01342 844255/01342 844055

Welcome to new members

2

Roger Cottee Junior memberJim Barclay Adult memberGuy Dutton Student memberAlejandro (Alex) Pradas Solo & BeyondGareth Graham Adult Solo & BeyondEllen Wong Student, pre-soloOliver Norman StudentMelvin Lim StudentJulian Goting StudentEric Eckstein StudentBen Schellenberg StudentLam Chang Student

S

‘Mast’ years and‘Mast’ years anda 20-second taska 20-second task

A redwing Daphne Malfiggiani

Enterprise from page 1computer literate.

Trevor Stuart won the 40th anniversary CE at North Hill lastJuly. More details about the comp and entry information is avail-able at http://competitionenterprise.wordpress.com/

Justin Wells said: “We want to encourage entries from clubmembers, and offer them reduced entry fees along with scholar-ships for any junior entrants.

“For those who cannot participate we will provide enhancedlaunching facilities for normal club flying and the chance to ex-perience the atmosphere of Enterprise, which is all about the en-joyment of gliding to the full.”

3

A thumbs up from Will Howitt on his first solo in the K-21 in August – our firstcadet to solo under 16 since the age limit was lowered in November 2012. Will wasone of the two cadets sponsored by Doug Jones since March. The other, Dan Smith,went solo in October and was congratulated (below right) by CFI Chris Edwards

BoB Bromwich came eighth out of 20 inhis DG 500M 20m in the Mountain Soar-ing Comp at the Deeside club at Aboynein September.

For this he won the “Novices Trophy”for the highest placed pilot on his/her firstMSC comp!

Bob wrote: “It was easily the most ex-citing comp of the year as compared to thecomps in the south.

“I would rank the competitions in orderof interest in my personal experience as :

l Aboyne Mountain Soaring Compl National Competitionsl Competition Enterprisel regionalsl Inter-Club Comps

“The reason for this ranking is the wave,thermal, ridge and convergence opportuni-ties at Aboyne, the importance of flyingamongst world champions at the Nation-als, and the emphasis on no held starts atEnterprise giving more competition daysat Comp Enterprise than are possible in acomp to BGA rules!

“I have never done a competition over-seas, but would assume it to be very highin relative ranking.”

SANT Cervantes, formerly of this parish,has broken two records this year, the uK300k o/r Standard Class speed record(and 15m.....just!) at 135.97kph on June28.

on September 10 he beat the uK 100kgoal distance speed record for the Stan-dard Class at 201.92kph, from Portmoak.

Both were done in his Discus 1bT andhad to be ratified by the FAI. Both flightsare on the BGA ladder.

Sant, who was the club’s first coursetuggie, wrote: “All were done in wave; it’sjust a matter of finding the right wavebars. Been at Portmoak now foraround 10 years and retired from com-mercial flying on 2011. Love Scotland forthe wave, which is why I live here.

“Have fond memories of Nympsfieldand loved flying from there.”

Sant breaks two UK recordsCadet Will achieves a first for the club

Bob winsmountainsoaringNovice cup

Andy Davis writes on pages 6/7 about great flying with champions in a hot anddry Namibia. Here he says he is unusually low over the Kalahari desert

Low over desert

STuDENT member Jocelino rodrigueshas been chosen from among 87,000 ap-plicants to be shortlisted for a space flight.

The aerospace engineering studentmade it to the last four in the process andwill have more tests at NASA before thefinal choice is made. He told BBC PointsWest: “It’s my dream to go into space.”

Jocelino, 19, who is from Portugal andhas been a club member since February,told Severn Skies: “I will be going toFlorida on December 1 for one week.

“I'm not sure but I'm assuming we'llknow the result by the end of the week.

“Some of the things we'll be doing in-clude a flight in a fighter jet, a zero gravityflight and a go on the centrifuge.

“Buzz Aldrin will be a part of the panelof judges during that week; meeting himwill also be a dream come true as he is oneof my heroes, not only for being part of thehistorical Apollo 11 mission, but also forall his continuous efforts since that mis-sion in bringing space back to the publicinterest.”

Bursary schemecontinues in ’14THE royal Aero Club Trust has an-nounced that its bursary scheme – part ofits Flying for Youth programme - will beoperating again in 2014. Bursaries areworth up to £1,000, and are available tothose wishing to advance from one recog-nised level of air sport to the next and/orwishing to upgrade existing qualifications.

Applicants must be British citizens,aged 16-21 and permanently resident inthe uK. Full details and application formsare on the Trust website at http://www.roy-alaeroclubtrust.org/bursaries. Applicationsmust be submitted via the BGA and shouldbe received no later than March 10.

IT HAS been an exciting year so far forBristol university Gliding Club. We haveseen a significant increase in membershipfor the second year in a row, and withmany of our established pilots working to-wards competition standard, the club is ex-periencing something of a resurgence.

Work started early for the committeethis year, as we targeted the Freshers’ Fairat the university as the primary means toexpand our membership.

our eye-catching display, featuring amodel glider and a big screen, seemed tocapture the attention of the newly-arrivingstudents. This year we already have over70 members signed up, more than we hadfor the whole of last year. This has pre-sented some challenges of its own; we stillhave a hefty backlog of new recruits wait-ing for their trial flights, a problem whichhas of course been compounded by the

disappointing weather since the start ofterm.

Many of our members, both those whohave rejoined after one or more years withthe club, and a few of the new members,have been working towards flying solo.

Meanwhile, some of the senior mem-bers have been taking their first steps incompetition flying. Jake Brattle, the newclub vice-captain, joined Andy Collings atthe Junior Nationals here at Nympsfield.

They both had rough starts to the week,as neither could finish the first two tasksin marginal conditions. However, as theweather improved, so did their fortunes,with Jake climbing up the rankings, andAndy posting an impressive second placefinish on the third task. BuGC was alsorepresented at the recent Winter Seriesevent at Long Mynd.

The club is now looking forward to re-turning to the Mynd for our inauguraltraining week, which is currently beingplanned for Easter.

Alex Fordham

Perk for clubinspectorsAFTEr negotiation by the BGA ChiefTechnical officer, Halfords have agreedthat BGA inspectors can be issued withHalfords Trade Cards, which offer signif-icant discounts on Halfords products.

BGA inspectors were to hear moreabout how to apply for the card from JimHammerton in due course.

4

Student member wins chance to go into spaceBirthday girl’scake surprise

RACHEL O’Hagan, left, cele-brated her 11th birthday at theend-of-season dinner at Giuseppe’sGourmet in September. Thedaughter of Greg O’Hagan, shehas flown on several occasions andis looking forward to learning tofly when she can reach the pedals!Forty one people were at the

dinner, organised biy Gill Starling,and Greg said: “I guess the nightwas enjoying a pleasant meal withother families/couples without toomuch heavy gliding stuff!”

Advertise in Severn Skies

l reasonable rates for all advertising of interest to our members and all glider pilots

l Quarterly publication that is available in colour online for the whole gliding world. Mono copies are also sent to every gliding club in the uK

Contact Bernard Smyth at bernie822uk@yahoo.co.uk

Uni club on the up

.

5

You wouldn’t get me up in one of those!SuNDAY September 8 found the K-8loaded on its open trailer travelling to Tet-bury’s Classic Car rally behind Dominic’sAudi with Dave Hallsworth riding shotgunwith Steve Tromans and me as followers.

We were met at Tetbury by AlanWilliams, roy upton and Steve Watson.As we entered, I could see heads turn,clearly puzzled by this new type of Classiccar.

We parked up hiding our non-qualifyingcars and had little interest shown as DHsupervised the unloading, rigging andplacement of our exhibit on the basketballcourt.

Some of the opposition on the court,‘hairy bikers’, soon wandered over as welooked up at a very threatening sky.

As well as genuine inquiries, we heardfrom the, ‘I flew one of these once’ and ‘Ihad a trial lesson with you’ and ‘I must doit again’ brigade and of course the in-evitable ‘what, me go up there without anengine?’ and the just curious came along.

As the sky brightened, DH and I armedourselves with leaflets and set off to do acorporate tour and look at the exhibits,stopping off for a burger and an excellentpint of cider en route. Trial lessons, corpo-rate evenings, mile-high flights, solo andbeyond were all variously discussed at ap-propriate points.

Personally the condensing steam cartook my prize, 20 minutes to warm and al-most silent motion on the move, with a topspeed of 35mph. Very elegant!

Fred BSee MY pulls in the punters: page 7

Roy Upton chats to a visitor to the club K-8 at the rally. Picture Steve Tromans

What goes on behind the scenesIT’S amazing what goes on behind thescenes at the club – do you know howmuch?

Below are just some of the events andwork that went on in 2013 and there areothers we might have missed – apologiesto anyone who feels left out!

The club wants every member to beaware of what goes on and we ask if youcan suggest more or could help us to domore.

We ran three coaching weeks with thehelp of some expert pilots and Sid ran hisusual well-attended task week. We hostedthe Junior Nationals comp and ran the Isleof Wight rally to St Catherine’s Point.

Two loads of motorcyclists paid us avisit as well as cyclists and folk onevening parties.

A few members took gliders to StroudCollege three times and once to the Tet-bury classic car show to try to attract newmembers. Staverton Flying Club and aScout group visited us and we have fivewinch groups – all of whom needed look-ing after.

There were two members’ dinners atGiuseppe’s and the Thursday eveningparty were busy on the workshop as wellas on the airfield.

This is all in addition to ridge runningand lectures, cooking courses and trial les-sons by the dozen.

The Terra Firma Syndicate held its an-nual walk around the field to inspect theflaura and fauna and we had a visit from athree-times world champion for a booksigning.

And all the while the instructors, in-spectors, tuggies and winchies were giving

their time to make sure flying took place.other members got involved by lookingafter visitors, parachutes, the met, market-ing, the finances, safety, the buildings andairfield, this magazine, the website, the barand keeping the grass cut.

Many members take on little jobsaround the place unasked and withoutthanks.

And we should not forget the committeemembers and officers, who give up muchof their spare time, and the office staff,who work valiantly in the background.

Andy Davis in World OpensANDY Davis and Pete Harvey have beenchosen to fly in the open Class in the 2014World Championships at Leszno, Poland.

The rest of the British Team for the2014 World Championships at ryaskala,Finland, has been selected too. In the un-flapped and 20m classes, we will be rep-resented by Pete Masson and G Dale(Club Class); richard Hood and Jez Hood(Standard Class); and Steve Jones (20mMulti-Seat Class).

In the other flapped classes event, atLeszno, Poland, apart from Andy and Pete,our team will be Leigh Wells and PhilJones (15m Class); russell Cheetham andMike Young (18m Class).

2014 coachingweeks fixedTHE following are the confirmeddates for the coaching weeks in2014:G Dale – Monday May 5-SundayMay 11.Chris Rollings – Saturday May 31-Sunday June 8.Andy Davis – Saturday August 30-Sunday September 7.The weeks have proved very pop-

ular so get your entry in early!

Calling all young aviation artistsTHE 2014 FAI Young Artists Competition has been launched. The 2014 theme is Flyingto Save Lives. Gold, Silver and Bronze FAI Medals will be awarded to the winners forthree age categories (6-9, 10-13, 14-17 years old) in April 2014. Entries must be sub-mitted via the royal Aero Club and should be received by March 14. More informationis at http://www.fai.org/ciea-projects/fai-young-artists-contest

6

IF IT’S Monday it must be 1,000km –Flying With The Champions, Kiripotib,Namibia, writes ANDY DAVIS.

Pami and I arrived in Namibia at theend of october in readiness for a seven-day coaching assignment with “Flyingwith the Champions” at the beginning ofNovember. our first impressions ofNamibia after our arrival at Windhoek In-ternational were that it is hot and dry. Very,very dry as Namibia is suffering from a se-vere drought.

The one and a half hour drive fromWindhoek to Kiripotib Farm gave us a fineview of rugged mountain terrain and as thetarmac road became a dirt road through theKalahari for the final 30 minutes of ourjourney we enjoyed an impromptu gamedrive as giraffe, baboon, warthog, spring-bok and kudu could all be seen grazing onthe parched grass alongside the road.

Kiripotib Farm itself is a huge (40,000Ha) sheep and cattle farm. The difficultiesand economics of farming in the Kalaharidesert encourages farmers to diversify. AtKiripotib, guests can enjoy a 10,000 Hawild park on the farm with zebra and allsorts of antelope, a craft shop, a pool, com-fortable accommodation, a daily menu ofhome grown food and of course the 1.5kmmain runway. Kiripotib Farm at 4,500ft el-evation is situated just to the south of theWindhoek TMA airspace with the rectan-gular shaped Namibian Gliding Area laidout to the south. To the east lies theBotswana Gliding Sector, which allowsflights to extend across the border deepinto Botswana. overhead Kiripotib, theairspace ceiling is Flight Level 145, but ashort way to the south and generallythroughout the gliding sector the airspaceceiling is FL195.

A couple of days were spent helping tounload the two containers full of exotic glid-ers newly arrived from Europe and after ahot rigging session I was assigned an ArcusM for the week and immediately had a quickArcus familiarisation flight with Janusz Cen-tka, Polish team pilot and former open Classworld champion. In broken blue conditionswe flew a 180km triangle with TPs at Bitter-wasser and Pokweni, the other Namibiangliding centres. The climbs mostly toppedout about 3,000ft agl and Janusz, who hadflown in Namibia the year before, com-mented that it is very unusual to get such aclose view of the rolling Kalahari sand dunesas we would normally be flying very muchhigher!

The first couple of flying days with ourstudents were hot with blue skies and no cu.Conditions were good by European stan-

dards, but operating at between 2,000 and5,000ft above ground level over almost to-tally unlandable bush and desert, even in amotor glider, certainly focuses the mind. Asmy student flew the task I spent my timemonitoring landing options. It was a sensiblesafety precaution not to trust the engine startreliability and manage the flight so that wewere always within gliding range of some-where landable. If we got low, we could di-vert to the closest landing option and attemptthe engine start overhead in relative safety.Landing options included the occasional air-field, some farm and game lodge airstripsbut often were simply dry lake beds, knownas pans, on which we could put the gliderdown without injuring ourselves. outlandingin a remote spot in the desert is not to betaken lightly and we carried essential sur-vival equipment on board, including trackersand plenty of water.

The first day of coaching with my allottedstudent, we flew a task of 405km over theKalahari to the south of Kiripotib. The nextday saw us flying a task of 509km alsomainly to the south of Kiripotib. Valentin,my student, had a considerable amount ofexperience of flying in Namibia and at onepoint after some prolonged sink he made thesensible decision to turn back towards a pan5km behind rather than press on over thedesert. Approaching the pan and planning hiscircuit and subsequent engine start we raninto lift. After climbing back to a safe alti-tude we were able to continue with the task,catching up with the other gliders in ourgroup 50km further along track.

on the third day whilst the others flew a600km task towards the Botswana border tothe east, Valentin and I experienced sometechnical problems with engine systemswarnings and decided to return to Kiripotibto investigate further. Two hours of trou-

bleshooting and spanner work and we wereairborne again at 3pm to fly a quick task fora total of 450km for the day.

The weather was improving rapidly andtraining day 4, Monday November 4, wasforecast to be good for 900+ km flights if wecould get to the cumulus conditions in theconvergence region to the east intoBotswana. So we set a 1,000km task with afinal turning point 40km west of Kiripotib toallow us the option of cutting the task shortand landing at Kiripotib if our task ETA wasafter nightfall. More technical issues with theengine prevented us from getting airborneearly with the other gliders and then somedifficulty getting established in the blue con-ditions delayed our departure until midday.The first 150km were flown in good blueconditions, climbing to around 12,000ft amslwith the distant cumulus beckoning us on.

Arriving under the cu progress was ini-tially frustratingly slow as my student wasunable to locate any really good lift. It wastime to take control and demonstrate; a smalldetour to a classic-looking cu resulted in an 8-knot average which took us to cloudbase ataround 14,000ft.

I continued to fly for a while around the firstTP to demonstrate the required tempo in suchconditions and with the next thermal nicelycentred and a classic sky full of wonderfullydeveloped cumulus streets lining up perfectlywith the second leg, handed control back to mystudent. We crossed the border into Botswana,the terrain now completely devoid of roads orany sign of cultivation and we continued overalmost totally uninhabited bush. The next500km were the stuff gliding dreams are madeof, streets lining up nicely with the track lines,amazing energy in the sky and thermals re-maining strong virtually all the way up to the14,000ft cloudbase. The task average

What is Steve up to now!?

Mayra Codo De Oliveira, who went solo in September, is congratulated by instruc-tor Steve Eyles, who looks as if he’s being electrocuted. Mayra has just completeda Masters at Bristol University and went home to Brazil before returning here inDecember to start a Doctorate. Send your suggestion for what Steve is saying/doingto the editor by November 24. Details on page 2

The best answerwins you a pint!

Flying with the champions in Kiripotib

Continued on page 7

speed slowly picked up to 140km/h and as wecrossed back into Namibia with 300km remain-ing the task ETA was showing 1845, 20 min-utes before nightfall.

Ahead towards Kiripotib we could see theclouds petering out but a final perfect cumulusgave us 10 knots to 15,00ft asl and we set outtowards the final turn west of Kiripotib underscraps of cu still requiring some 3,000ft forfinal glide. A couple of long climbs in 3 knotsgave us the height we needed with a comfort-able margin and we set off towards the last TPwith the task ETA showing at 7pm, 5 minutesbefore sunset. The sky was blue for the last100km but still remarkably active and we wereable to increase our final glide margin so thaton finishing our declared task we were able tooverfly Kiripotib to the east by some 20km toadd another 40km to the total distance flown.As we turned back towards Kiripotib we wereable to watch the blindingly bright sun set be-fore landing in perfect visibility as darkness ap-proached. 1050km flown at 148 km/h.

Day 5 was initially forecast to be even betterthan day 4, but overnight the forecast changedsignificantly and with a sky full of alto-cumu-lus and with overdevelopment and storms pre-dicted to spread from the north east into theKiripotib area by mid afternoon we were ad-vised to plan our flights to return to Kiripotibby 4pm. our task was 800km, initially westinto the mountains that divide the Kalaharifrom the Namib Desert and then south for300km hoping to connect with the forecast con-vergence along the mountains into the drier airto the south before returning home. Getting air-borne at 11am it was clear that the showerswere developing much faster than expectedwith total cloud cover to the east and some rainalready falling to the north and west ofKiripotib. Dodging between developing show-ers, we arrived at our western TP and headedsouth. The mountains were already covered inwidespread shadows from extensive showersand my student elected to route around thewestern side of the storms. We were rewardedwith fantastic contrasting views: a wall ofcloud and rain to our east and completely blueto our west with the Namib desert stretching asfar as the eye could see. Far to the south wecould see a perfect sky of high flat based cu andwe slowly worked our way around the stormstowards them. Just as we arrived under the firstof those perfect cu and started to climb, myphone burst into life. A text message fromKiripotib, “heavy rain surrounding the airfield,recommend attempt immediate return to theairfield.” That was a pretty clear instruction sowe climbed to the 15,000ft cloudbase and setoff north-eastwards towards Kiripotib and thestorms ahead. Initially we made very goodprogress with strong thermals and some fantas-tic lines of energy around the edges and be-tween the storms. The raw power in the skywas spectacular, awe inspiring and intimidat-ing. At cloudbase, soft hail and snow wasfalling from the clouds and the leading edgesof the Arcus were soon covered in a layer ofice. on occasions we were flying as fast as wedared just to stay out of cloud, sometimes hav-

ing to use the airbrakes. We could see virga allaround with heavy rain and hail reaching thesurface. Blowing dust and sand could be seenall around marking the storm gust fronts. Theair was either descending in a torrent or risingin off-the-clock lift. With a good final glidemargin established and one more storm block-ing our path we elected to skirt around thenorthern edge of the storm over the airfield atPokweni and glide home in the clear air behindthe storm. We encountered unexpected sink onthe northern side of the storm and our finalglide margin rapidly disappeared as the 20-knottailwind changed to a 35-knot headwind.

With the altimeter unwinding rapidly, weneeded to climb and soon! We turned to thenorth where there was a small patch of sunshineon the ground and some scrappy decaying cu-mulus. After some work a turbulent thermal waslocated but it fizzled out about 3,000ft aboveground. So did the next and the next, and boththe patch of sunshine and the scrappy cumulusrapidly disappeared. All the time we were drift-ing rapidly away from the safe landing optionat Pokweni so we had no option but to headback towards Pokweni for an engine start andmotor the 40km back to Kiripotib. Shuttingdown the engine as we approached anothershower some 20km west of Kiripotib, we raninto strong lift ahead of the shower and climbedup to a cloudbase now much lower at about10,000ft asl. Further east over the wet desert,the sky was completely lifeless and we soon re-turned to Kiripotib for a welcome cup of tea,having flown a rather exciting 680km.

Day 6 brought me a student who asked if hecould observe how I conducted the flight. So Irubbed my hands with joy and with a goodforecast for the mountain area and a 1,000kmoLC task as our objective we were airborne inthe Arcus shortly after 11am. Conditions werealready good in the blue and we climbed up to12,500ft asl overhead Kiripotib before settingoff west towards the mountains. This was an-other fantastic soaring day with cloudbase ris-ing to 18,000ft at the southern end of our taskarea and with the best thermals averaging 8knots and occasionally peaking at over 10knots for several turns, yet with stable air fromthe Namib desert pouring into our task area the

day presented a number of challenges. Fortyminutes before sunset we were climbing up onto final glide at 3 to 4 knots about 100km outwith the mental arithmetic going overtime tocalculate how high we climb to maximise thefinal glide distance around a last variable TP toarrive at Kiripotib 10 minutes after sunset allthe time leaving a bit of safety margin for thelast 20km in the gathering darkness. . . And soit worked out, we watched the sun set 30km outon final glide and landed almost exactly 10minutes after sunset. 1,074 km flown at130km/h. It was pitch black before we got theArcus secured in its parking spot.

The final day, day 7, was perhaps the mostsatisfying from a coaching perspective. My stu-dent Andreas, who had observed most of theprevious day’s flying apart from some shorttime in control, was to fly the day’s 400km+Grand Prix task all by himself. Andreas had notflown a glider for over 20 years before goingto Kiripotib and his handling of the Arcus, par-ticularly his thermalling was initially veryrusty. Yet apart from two thermals early in theflight in which I demonstrated thermallingtechnique and a lot of nagging from the backseat about lookout, turning tighter and trim-ming he flew the entire task in the blue withoutassistance and his flying noticeably improvedas the flight progressed. We didn’t win the stu-dent race (we later found out that the othercoaches with honour at stake did most of theflying), but just to complete the task was amajor achievement for Andreas.

So with an early finish we had a chance todrive into the desert for one last opportunity towatch the Namibian sun set but this time withfeet on the ground and a beer in hand.

The next morning Pami and I were back atWindhoek airport to start our journey home butthere isn’t enough space here to write aboutthat particular adventure. We certainly had aninteresting time at Kiripotib. The flying inNamibia is truly awesome, 1,000km days occurregularly, but it is eye wateringly expensive ifyou are paying for it yourself. How much areyou prepared to pay for virtually guaranteedflying in fabulous motor gliders, six or sevenhours every day?

Would I go again? Maybe…

7

Four members took LS4 MY to Stroud College Freshers’ Fayre in September. FredBallard chats to students, above, and Dave Hallsworth explalned gliding to an in-terested lad. John McWilliam and Bernard Smyth were the other crew members

MY pulls in the puntersNamibia flying: Continued from p 6

Trading in the style of Sydney Charles UK LLP, authorised and regulated by the FSA

Our task. Your security.

The security you get with the best value gliding insurance

Established by prominent �gures in British gliding and formerly Joint Aviation, Sydney Charles Aviation Services is the leading, independent sailplane insurance agency in Europe.

Sydney Charles Aviation Services has an in-depth knowledge of gliding and gliding insurance, as well as providing the personal contact that ensures every sailplane client receives the same high standards of services and competitive prices.

For enquiries, please contact us on:Tel: + 44 (0) 1420 88 664fax + 44 (0) 1420 542 003email: o�ce@sydneycharles.co.uk

Sydney Charles Aviation 7 Old Ayles�eld BuildingsFroyle Road, Shalden Alton, Hants GU34 4BY www.sydneycharles.co.uk

8

By Tim MacfadyenWE have had a few good ridge days re-cently. A few people have used them –why not you?

All the people I have flown with haveenjoyed the experience, whether early soloor three Diamonds, it is a fun thing to doas well as instructive. Don't be embar-rassed to ask for a two-seater ride tolearn. I had a most useful flight learningfrom Andy Davis this year. We all have alot to learn from each other. Trevor ishappy to do "lead and follow" ridge flightsas well as taking people in the Nimbus. Ifind it much easier to teach in the two-seater. Everyone to their own. There areseveral club instructors who are very ex-perienced at ridge flying. Next time theweather is suitable why not make sure thatthe DG is not left in the hangar – fly it.Ask Trevor to put you on his email list totell you when suitable days are expectedand which two-seaters will be available.

There is always the possibility of land-ing out, sometimes with little warning butif you avoid showers and the wind is atleast 20 knots and betweenwest and NWthe Cotswold ridges are as guaranteed aform of lift as you will find anywhere. My

outlandings have all involved the wind notbeing strong enough or storms/showerspulling the wind round and stopping theridges working. With a bit of commonsense, care and patience flying theCotswold ridges can be a safe and fun oc-cupation. Common sense is knowing ex-actly what the wind direction is so that yougo to the bit of hill with the wind blowingat it not along it. Care is not hitting the hillor each other. Patience is needed to climbhigh enough to cross the gaps. Barry Ipromise I will never try to cross theWinchcombe gap with 600ft (1300ASL)ever again. on that occasion when the fe-male voice in the LX 7000 computerthought that the ground was too close andsaid "Lower your undercarriage" she justdid not understand the situation we werehill soaring not landing. The great advan-tage of flying in the two-seater is that yourinstructor has done it wrong a few times,hopefully learned from his/her mistakesand can teach you how to do it properly.He may also be able to get you out of thes..t that you should never have got into butyou can't guarantee this, even Andy haslanded the two-seater out a few times.

Always clean the canopy really thor-

oughly before you fly. Coming down theridge from the north in the afternoonstraight into sun it is very difficult see any-thing with a clean canopy and impossiblewith a dirty one.

Don't let Trevor sucker you into goingto Bath with a 15-knot wind that is "only alittle bit south of West". When I got there Ifound a 10-knot SW wind and looking upat the golf course my pupil casually ob-served that it was Ladies day, not very use-ful information in a pretty desperatesituation (somehow we got back, but nei-ther of us expected to).

When close to a hill always have an es-cape strategy should you suddenly hit aload of sink (hole in the sky). This meansflying faster when close in and never aim-ing at the hill, always be in a positionwhere if it all goes wrong you can diveinto the valley (not the trees) and if neces-sary find somewhere to land.

When Trevor goes past above you andstarts his engine, pick a field – NoW. Thesituation really is as desperate as you thinkit is but are busy trying to kid yourself itisn't.

Low-level ridge flying is very tiring, es-

Some thoughts on flying our ridges

Continued on page 9

9

pecially if you are new to it or if it is atricky day (parts of most days!). Be verycareful landing, it is easy to think "I amhome now and can relax". Don't relax untilyou are safely stopped on the ground. Sev-eral people I have flown with have madevery elementary and serious mistakes withtheir circuits and landings.

Tuesday 29 october may be of interestto amateur Meteorologists. At 10.15 thewest ridge was barely working and wecouldn't get above 800ft, not high enoughto go anywhere. The wind was 14 knots255 degrees. Feeble thermals thenstarted but they were enough to mix theupper and lower air. The wind went to 19knots 285 degrees and Alan Montague andI hill soared to Broadway and back withno real problems. Serious optimism (over-confidence) then took over and I tried togo again, this time with Ken Pile.

All went well until we were nearly home,near Brockworth. It was now the end of thelate october day, 3.45, the thermalsstopped, the wind just below hilltop heightwent to 11 knots 255 degrees and we se-lected Ken's first field – a nice big one.

I clearly should have anticipated thiswind change and been home before it hap-pened, hopefully I live and learn. The re-trieve had its moments: We went to find

the farmer and were outside a neighbour-ing big house when the owner drove up inhis Bentley. He said “they” had sold thefield to a consortium who all lived milesaway and were impossible to contact,would not mind, and would never know, ifwe lifted the locked gate off its hinges anddrove in to remove the glider. Not exactlypermission but 30 minutes before dark thesensible thing to do seemed to go ahead. Ihad just got the gate off its hinges whenthe farmer turned up – excruciatingly em-barrassing! He could have been reallynasty, in fact he was unbelievablyfriendly and helpful and thoroughly earnedthe bottle of whisky that Ken later deliv-ered to him via Pete Bray, who knewhim. Alan Montague arrived verypromptly with the trailer and his Land-rover with just enough time to de-rig be-

fore dark. Alan Moorcroft also came andhelped and got muddy – thanks. The po-licewoman who arrived as it got very darkcould not have been nicer but she did pointout that trailers were supposed to havenumber plates and the lights were sup-posed to work (who disconnected all thelights on the sides of the DG trailer?!). Igrovelled and”promised to make the lightswork before the trailer was used again andshe said “Drive home carefully”. I willnever be rude about women police everagain. New lights, plug, connector and anew wire to replace the one eaten by micekept Dave and me busy for an afternoon.Ken asked if field landings normally re-sulted in this much hassle. I think gettingback by 6.30 was very good comparedwith some people's three-day epics.

Have fun.

Authorised and regulated by the The Financial Conduct Authority Security Ratings from Standard & Poor’s

aviationinsuranceservices ltd

AA rated securityCompetitive premiumsNo hull excess to payProtected no claims discountEstablished reputation and experienceSpecialist insurance supporting our sport

The natural choice

01765 690777hillaviation@btconnect.com

www.hillaviation.comUnit 1a, Sycamore Business Park,

Copt Hewick, Ripon, HG4 5DF

The Belgians show how to recruit youngsters into gliding!

From page 8 Flying the ridges

10

Better careneeded for club ’chutesTHErE has been no improvement in look-ing after club parachutes. The parachutesare the ultimate safety device. They mustbe handled with care.

The following procedure will be used totake parachutes to and from gliders. Thereare no exceptions:* Club parachutes will be taken to theglider in their parachute bag.* Parachute bags will be stowed in theglider. If you don’t know where the stor-age is in the glider ask an instructor.* After use parachutes will be placed intheir bags, returned to the parachute loftand stowed in the correct parachute slot.* The office must be informed of any un-serviceability, saying what is wrong andgiving your name. The office will pass themessage on to Ken Brown.

Fees raisedSoME BGA fees have been updated. En-sure that you enclose the correct fee whenapplying for BGA services. The details areat www.gliding.co.uk/forms/bgafees.pdf

Sometimes: a novel by Rex Garland,who was an active club member formany years and was secretary for ashort time in 1992. For many years hewas in a Skylark 3F syndicate.

rex, now in his 80s, was editor of SevernSkies in the early 1990s. He took up writ-ing to have a new goal in life and this ishis debut novel. The title comes from thesaying "Can the ends justify the means?Sometimes”.

You don’t have to be a sailor to sharethe emotions of the two people in lovewho are drawn into dubious activities bythe Intelligence Services. The action takesplace along the West Country coast andthe Isle of Wight and over to France – asailors’ playground. The story has a charmand, because it is a romance adventure inwhich perhaps the sentiments are “oldfashioned”, it reminds us of a happier,simpler time.

rex, now living near Chichester, sayssailing at sea sifts ability, both in planningand in execution. It teaches respect forpowers greater than the arrogance of manlays claim to. It helps you find yourself.The same is true of gliding, he adds.“once one has achieved the ability (andthe learning is a great journey) to stay air

borne without an engine for hours on end,then the flight becomes a spiritual experi-ence.”Arthur H Stockwell Ltd ISBN 978 0 72234312-8 www.ahstockwell.co.uk

Annual checks still requiredTHE end-of-season instructors’ meetingagreed that the existing policy would beretained. All P1 pilots must complete an-nual launch failure and spin checks. Theoption of spinning your own or clubglider, as an alternative to a check with aninstructor, is retained, but has to be wit-nessed by an instructor. Check flights mustbe completed by the end of March. Pleaseupdate (pilot or instructor) the check flightlist posted on the main noticeboard.

FLARM info availableAN item on a FLArM briefing/trainingpresentation, produced and circulated toinstructors, is available now athttp://bggc.co.uk/images/Documents/briefings/training/BGGC_Flarm_v1-1.pdf

Book review

Debut novel by former club secretary

CArLA McKenzie went on a once-in-a-lifetime motorcycle tour of the uSA withnine wounded and injured service person-nel, most of whom have lost limbs servingin Afghanistan. one has injuries from Iraqand another is a young rAF officer withterminal cancer.

Carla, sister of Mike Young, 18mBritish team member, wrote: “It is a hum-bling experience, watching these extraor-dinary human beings gain so much frombeing able to access the joys of motorcy-cling. It’s fantastic.

“The American Legion have escorted usmost of the way and I am proud to say thatmy pillion and I rode as wing man to theLegion chapter leader across the Arizonadesert – something I shall not forget in avery long time.

“The various Legions have been wel-coming and hospitable. Last night theypicked us up from the wigwam hotel in avintage army truck complete with ladderto reach the seats.

“It will probably come as no surprisethat all my fellow bikers are chaps andthere was some gentle Micky taking goingon. However they have been great fun andvery caring. on arrival at the Legion therewere presentations and prayers of appre-ciation for the losses suffered. I think wewere all on the brink of tears.

“Today the wonder of the GrandCanyon left the solders speechless (whichis a first) but boys will be boys and it was-n't long before artificial limbs were dan-gled over the edge. I could not watch I feltabout six years old and looking to hide be-hind the sofa!”

Carla has done one of these trips beforeand added: “There is however no doubt inthe value they bring, to both the Englishand the Americans. I have met so manywho were posted at Lakenheath andGreenham Common and have very fondmemories of their postings to the uK.”

Explaining her link to Nympsfield,Carla added: “The first non-motorcyclingholiday we had as kids was in the earlyseventies, dad (John) flew in a competitionat Nympsfield (he landed out every day!).Anyway we got to know the area quitewell that week as mum and dad’s old carstruggled to make it up the steep hills witha trailer on.

“Before the Nympsfield comp all holi-days had been spent on the Isle of Man atthe TT races watching legends such as(Mike) Hailwood and (Giacomo) Agos-tini. Later mum and dad joined Nymps-

field for a while but the majority of theirflying was at Lasham, where mum ran thecatering, and latterly at Booker. Dad wasan active accomplished competition pilotfor many years so we regularly visitedNympsfield.

“Twelve years ago we were looking fora new location for our family businessesand for a number of reasons we choseGloucestershire. I have very happy mem-ories of the area as a child and have notbeen disappointed as an adult.”

Cloud flying offerCHrIS rollings gave a talk at the clubabout cloud flying and plans to give tuitionit is next year. He has offered to provideinformal cloud flying training in the ClubDG505. This is actual cloud flying (notsimulated) using a turn and slip. Chris in-sisted that all participants must have at-tended his cloud flying lecture as aprerequisite.

BGA conference dateTHE 2014 BGA Sporting Conference, ex-hibition, awards ceremony, AGM and din-ner will be on Saturday March 1 at theNottingham Belfry.

More details will be made available atwww.gliding.co.uk/bgainfo/notices/con-ference.htm but it’s recommend that, ifyou are plan to stay overnight, you makeyour hotel reservations ASAP in order toget the best deal.

online booking for the gala dinner aswell as hotels is available at the above site.

Carla with one of the Legion members she met on the Route 66 bike ride

11

Carla with Mark Lamplough, whohelps to organise bike tours for thewounded, and his pillion for the tour,Josh Campbell

Route 66 ride wows wounded veterans

Rigging issues alertIN THE past 40 years, there have been 117glider accidents and incidents in the uKinvolving disconnected or insecure con-trols, an insecure wing or an insecuretailplane.

Watch out for shortcomings like distrac-tion, forgetfulness, making unjustified as-sumptions and rushing to complete a task.

We also manufacture bespoke aircraftperformance improving lightweight carbon

aerodynamic components -Visit our Website: (new address)

www.targettaviation.comor Phone: 01453 860861 / Mobile: 07850 769060

Specialist Sailplane& Sport Aircraft

Repair andMaintenance Centre