Hi everyone, this is the regular Thursday posting to let you know what is coming up in the near future and give you highlights of the last week.
Last week:
Roland Bailey
The funeral will be held on the 24th November at 14:00 Barham crematorium on the A2 between Canterbury and Dover then after at the Jack. Howard Piper is arranging everything so if you wish to attend it is important, please, to contact the office so that he can know the likely numbers.
Emails
For more years than I care to remember Paul Shuttleworth has hosted our emails and given us a really fantastic service. Now we are even more dependant on the digital world we are moving to consolidate everything onto a commercial service. You will notice that emails from the office come from office@midlandgliding.club and I would be grateful if you could amend your contacts to reflect this. More will be transferred over in the winter.
Sheep plan
We have called a halt to the experiment regarding the electric fence in the front of the hangar. It has been judged by all the members to be a success and Howard is drawing up plans to extend it. The extension will allow access for bungey launching and give a greater sheep free area for Daily Inspections. There have been several requests for an even more ambitious expansion. Howard is looking at this as well but we are mindful of costs so will wait until we have a very clear understanding before going ahead with such a significant expansion.
Bonfire night November the 5th
Unfortunately my photographic skills weren’t up to the job of capturing the wonderful show that was the Mynd Bonfire night. The route to the bonfire was beautifully lit all the way down to the mulled wine stall, then to the huge bonfire (still burning the next day). The fireworks were tremendous and Dave Crowson remembered to let go of the rockets on launch. This was all followed by a superb supper. What a brilliant night. We all owe a great deal of thanks to Denise Hughes and Rob and Jean Shepherd for organising such a fabulous night and the kitchen staff for laying on such a great supper.
Vitara
The Vitara has new livery and a flashing light on the top! Thanks to Rob Shepherd and Peter Turner for installing this. The next step is to finish the gas installation which Julian has ready and install a ground radio. More on the latter after the committee meeting.
Weekend outlook:
Your team this weekend is Chris Alldis, Charles Carter, David Brown, Mark Sanders, Denise Hughes and Dave D’arcy. The weather looks tricky for Saturday morning but then getting steadily better. Don’t forget if you are in training then ground school will be offered if there is no flying.
Forthcoming events:
Christmas dinner
Please don’t forget to put December the 10th into your diary for this wonderful evening. The kitchen is taking reservations now and the list is filling up. Please call and make your reservation as soon as possible. We will be running a fund raising event, the social fund is now at the point where we can invest in something substantial to improve our social facilities. So far the suggestion are:- re furbish the bar or refurbish the patio furniture. If you have any other ideas then please let me know via the email below and in the meantime we will work up these proposals.
We will either have an auction or a raffle (or a mixture of both!) at the dinner so please can you let me know if you are willing to donate a prize of some sort. Anything will be appreciated.
Winter lectures
We now have 4 booked during February and March. We have Pete Harvey the BGA chair, Hugh Browning the driving force on the safety initiatives, Mike Groves of Skylaunch and the National Trust. We have also had an offer of another interesting talk from a member. I will start publicizing the dates from the next blog. Please do make an effort to attend, it’s a great night and the trick is to fly in the day, have the talk then a really good supper.
Thinking of summer
Mac is organising the “longest day, open day” recruitment drive on the 24th of June. In addition we want to increase the activity and the interest for members. Years ago we used to run a “dawn to dusk” day and we are going to combine the two. It is fantastic fun, we run in shifts and do “shedloads” of launches (or words to that effect). Please drop me an email at the address below if you would like to help out for a shift, everyone is welcome and I guarantee you will have a great day.