Your duty teams this weekend are:
Saturday: Steve Male (No 1), Mark Sanders (Intro/No 3), Walter Bauman (TLs), Geoff Dailey (winch), Charles Page (LD)
Sunday: Steve Male (No 1), Mike Witton (Intro/No3), David d’Arcy (TLs), Geoff Dailey (winch), Mark Wakeham (LD)
The weather for this weekend looks doubtful, with Easterly winds being forecast. However we will still go ahead with the second of our Bronze Progression weekends even if we can’t fly. This weekend we will be covering the following topics in detailed ground school: Glider Performance, The Slow Flight Exercise, Stalling and Spinning. Of course if we can fly we will do.
CFI’s Get Checked Week 13 – 22 April 2019
Get checked out for the new soaring season.
- Annual Checks
- Spin Checks
- Launch Failure Refresher
- Field Selection and Field Landing Refresher
- Promotion to your next MGC Stage
- Working towards Bronze or XC Endorsement
The club two-seaters, the motor glider and additional instructors will be available for you. You don’t need to attend the full week, just pick a couple of days to suit.
Book your place It is important to book your place, so that we can gauge demand and spread the load evenly over the week. Contact the office on 01588 650205 or email to office@midlandgliding.club
Junior Team Workshops
The British Junor Team held one of their series of workshops at the club last weekend. It was well attended including several of our own members. Part of the reason for the series is to raise money to support the British Junior Team in competitions across the world. If you would like to contribute to their crowd funding efforts please click here.
Trailers
This is the time of year when you should be making sure that’s your trailer is in serviceable and roadworthy condition before embarking on those epic cross country flights. Of course you expect to return home but just occasionally, you know, it just doesn’t work out. You will of course have already arranged for someone to collect you if you don’t make it but remember that if your trailer isn’t fully functional and safe you may be asking them to break the law. And they won’t thank you for getting points on their driving license and a fine when stopped by the Bill. So check the wiring and make sure that all the lights work, check the brakes to make sure they are properly adjusted and especially check the tyres. Tyres should be C rated for a trailer, C stands for commercial and generally means they have tougher side walls. There are recommendations about how often you should change tyres even if they have low mileage, generally about every 5 or 6 years. You should check for cracks or delamination on both the outside and the inside of the tyre walls as they will degrade due to UV even if you never move the trailer. And of course check the pressures and that you have a minimum of 1.6mm tread depth across three quarters of the width and around the whole circumference. Having had a flat tyre once towing back from Spain I can assure you it isn’t much fun, especially when late for the ferry.
Although it doesn’t feel much like it this week with cold east winds, rain and snow the clocks have changed and the days are getting longer so here is looking forward to a great soaring season.
Happy landings
Jon Hall
Chairman