May 08
4 Counties Easter Expedition
The expedition by Four-Counties to Dishforth during the Easter week was very successful. Despite the weather we faired pretty well and the opportunity to fly was taken by everyone on the expedition. Northerly winds prevailed and brought a lot of snow showers in off the North Sea. On Easter Sunday and Monday we watched expectantly as large showers took out Sutton Bank at pretty regular interval and at times looked like they would take Dishforth out too. But the most we got were a few snow flakes, even though a heavy shower seemed to swerve around Dishforth and dumped its contents on Marton-le-Moor. With Sutton Bank under 8 inches of snow we took the advantage of a bonus day’s flying out of Dishforth and, despite having only 3 instructors, managed 48 winch launches, a handful of aerotows and 5 sets of field landings/navigation tests. Only one day’s flying was achieved at Sutton Bank. The weather cleared up late, however, several of the visitors took the opportunity to go spinning in the DG1000. Due to the poor forecast for the second weekend it was decided that the 4-Cs chaps would return home rather than sit in bad weather and become disillusioned.
Overall, lots of flying was done with some reasonable soaring flights. Several conversion flights were done on both the K18 and Discus and a significant number of field landing training and tests were carried out. Notable achievements by Dishforth pilots were K18 conversions for Robin Woodhouse and Mike Wallace from LUUGS, and Bronze exam and field landings for Matt Woodhouse. Well done to you all.
Caravans
I am happy to tell you that the CO of 9 Regt has lifted the restriction on us using caravans at Dishforth. The impact this restriction has had on the Club cannot be understated and the Chairman has discussed this at length with CO 9 Regt. There are conditions to this use and further details will be published by KK very soon – until then, please do not use or bring a caravan onto site.
Inter-Club League
The 2008 Yorkshire Inter-Club League is now underway and the first meeting took place at Sutton Bank over the last Bank Holiday weekend. Suffice to say that the weather was typical Bank Holiday stuff and no competition days happened. The next meeting is at Pocklington over the May Bank Holiday weekend and then we host the Dishforth meeting over the weekend of 7th/8th June. As in the past couple of years Clevelands has a joint team with Bowland Forest GC and the team manager this year is Mike Blocksidge from BFGC. My thanks to Al Fox who has managed the ICL efforts for Clevelands over the past few years. I will publish more details on the ICL in a separate notice.
JSAT(G) Course at Dishforth
The RAFGSA Centre staff will be running a Joint Services Adventurous Training (Gliding) course at Dishforth during September. This course will be aimed at Service personnel from local units, with the emphasis on Dishforth and Leeming. This will be an ideal opportunity for these personnel to experience gliding funded by the Services, while flying form their regional club. This course will hopefully raise the Club’s profile amongst the local Service units whilst acting as a potential recruiting tool for the Club. I will publish more details as they are known.
Ventus and Discus at Sutton Bank
The Ventus is now living at Sutton Bank during the week. Dick Cole is taking it up there on a Monday and returning it on a Friday. CGC now has a locker allocated to us in the clubhouse to put glider equipment in, the key for which is held in the YGC office. If anyone wishes to fly the Discus mid-week at Sutton Bank then they may arrange to take it up there at anytime with my permission but must ensure it is returned to the Club. The only caveat on flying the Club gliders at SUT is that I need to be made aware and authorise you to do so and you must be under the supervision of an RAFGSA full cat. Please use this excellent opportunity to use the kit mid-week – we must increase utilisation on these gliders.
Phil Kellman
For those of you who are not aware, Phil has secured a job as the summer tug pilot at Bidford Gliding Club. Many congratulations to Phil, who assures me that that he will still find time to get up to Dishforth for the odd weekend during the summer.
Field Landing checks and Navigation tests.
There are still a good number of Club members who have not completed the required field landing checks (and navigation tests where required). These are an annual RAFGSA requirement before flying cross-country from an RAFGSA site. For those of you who should be prepared for your 50km flights you need to get yourselves sorted out soonest when you have a motor-glider instructor available – the Venture will be going off line soon for its annual check.
Accident Procedures
How many of you are aware of the procedure to follow if there is an accident or an incident on the airfield? Apart from the instructors, probably not many. All Club members should make themselves aware of the contents of the Accident Reporting procedures which are held in the control wagon in a red folder. This is a step-by-step guide of what needs to be done and who needs to be informed. You might just find yourself helping the Duty Instructor by starting off the paperwork so it’s worth a look through.
And Finally.........
Since my last newsletter there have been a number of achievements such as first solos and K18 conversions by students other than those mentioned above. Sorry, folks, I don’t have a note of all your names but many congratulations to you all.Grinner
Derek Smith
CFI Clevelands GC, RAFGSA
Mob:07941 570413
16 May 08
