Hi everyone, this is the regular Thursday posting to let you know what is coming up in the near future.
This week:
Congratulations! are in order for Geoff Dailey who has achieved some great things in his LS4. He had a wonderful flight around Wales gaining his Silver Distance (50km), Silver Duration (5 hrs), and his 100km Diploma – well done Geoff! If you too have had a recent achievement then do let us know.
This week has been a full course, with a real mixture of flying weather. We will also be joined tomorrow by the local MP Philip Dunne, who will no doubt be enjoying a trial flight – he has been involved with our project regarding the land-rates.
General updates:
Committee meeting – a full summary of the decisions from this committee will be circulated in next week’s blog, but you may wish to know that we are currently making enquiries (& an offer) into a replacement glider for the Discus as per the plan approved by members at the post-AGM discussion. Watch this space..
Incident Reporting – Safety in the air, on the airfield, or anywhere on site is of paramount importance – we personally don’t want to get hurt and we don’t want to hurt anyone else. Consequently, it is important that we develop a culture where we look after each other as much (or more than) we look after ourselves.
Part of looking after each other is to identify hazards and things which go wrong or don’t work the way they should then take action to mitigate the risks these things may present. At the Mynd we do that through the Incident Reporting system (The green book in Martin’s office, or you can download & complete the Incident Report online from our website)
In preparation for this week’s committee and instructor meetings I have been reviewing the Mynd Incident Reports from the book kept in Martin’s office: in July only 2 incidents were recorded. You may well say, “that’s great we are having fewer near misses”, but I do not believe that we only had 2 incidents out of over 700 launches and over 450 hours flown in the month of July.
To be clear, an “incident” occurs when either: 1) something happened which should not have, or, 2) something which should have happened didn’t, or, 3) when a piece of equipment malfunctions.
The purpose of the incident reporting system is NOT to tell tales or assign blame – make your report anonymous if you like.
It IS our mechanism to capture information on “near misses” so that we can take early action to review and improve our systems, improving our overall level of safety.
Please do not mistake me, making things safer does not mean having less fun, but it does mean running fewer unknown or uncontrolled risks.
If we are going to look after each other, which we want to do, don’t we? then it’s our duty as individuals to constantly assess what we see, or experience, and report those things which appear less than ideal.
So, if you see something you didn’t like, TELL US then we will know about it and be able to react to it. If you don’t tell us then we won’t know, in which case things cannot progress.
Please don’t leave it to “someone” to report incidents, if we all do that “no-one” will report anything, until there’s a serious incident or accident leading to our gliders getting broken and/or even worse our friends getting hurt…things which I believe we all want to avoid.
Steve Male CFI MGC
Access Road – In last week’s blog we raised the matter of the condition of the access road and the repairs which were carried out earlier this summer. Members will have seen that over the last few weeks, a number of the potholes which were filled in at the beginning of June have re-emerged and that new potholes have started to develop in the sections of road which were completely re-surfaced.
From the outset we made it clear that the resurfacing of particular sections of the road was a trial and that the filling of individual potholes could only be seen as a temporary solution. Some deterioration of the surface was to be expected, but it seems that if we want to prevent the road from returning rapidly to the condition it was in at the beginning of the year, we will need to start an ongoing programme of repair works sooner rather than later. The material for filling potholes is already on site, so if you are willing to give up some of your time on non-flyable days and are able to help with this type of work, we would like to hear from you. Please email Martin in the office to let him know.
In the meantime we should all make a particular effort to avoid causing further damage to the road surface. This means taking extra care when driving into and out from the club or when crossing the road, for example when taking equipment and gliders to and from the launch point. PLEASE DRIVE SLOWLY AND CAREFULLY AT ALL TIMES. Not least, we owe it to those who put in huge amounts of effort this spring to make the initial extensive repairs!
Marketing / Communications – We have a Twitter account @Myndies. Currently all the blog entries automatically go to twitter, but there is an opportunity for us to grow the engagement & increase the number of course/trial lesson bookings (& also members) resulting from it. So we are seeking someone who loves Twitter who may be willing to take a more active role in managing our Twitter account. Please contact Sarah. If you’re active on Twitter do give us a follow & if you fancy doing the occasional re-tweet that would be much appreciated.
Work experience – We are joined by Jack Withinshaw who has a great interest in aviation and is helping out around the club over the next few weeks. He is also a junior member so please make him feel welcome and take a few moments to explain things. He is really keen to learn.
Sunday: Guy Hartland, Ed Jones, Mark Wakem. It’s the second day of Task Week, but it may be possible to arrange for check flights & pre-solo training – see http://www.midlandgliding.club/club-duty-rota/ for more information & how to book).
Forthcoming events
This year we are introducing a new format to encourage less experienced pilots to participate with a real chance of achieving some flying goals. The new format sees the introduction of “classes” into Task Week, based on pilot’s previous Cross Country experience as of 1st June 2017. There are 3 classes: –Novice : Pilots who have completed the Cross Country Endorsement to their Bronze “C” but have not yet achieved a Sliver “C” distance flight.Intermediate: Pilots who have completed a Silver “C” distance flight but have not yet achieved either a 100Kms Diploma or a 300Kms flight.
Pundits: Pilots who have either achieved either a 100Kms Diploma or 300Kms flight.
NB: For those solo pilots without a Cross Country Endorsement, we will endeavour to provide 2 seat Cross Country experiences, so register your name with Martin, who will maintain a list of interested pilots.
Format: Each (soarable) day we will set separate tasks, tailored to each individual class, in the same task area. This will enable pilots to not only gain valuable Cross Country experience but also compete against pilots of similar experience. Each class (provided sufficient entries are received) will be scored separately to find an overall winner at the end of the week.
General Comments: This new format and class structure should provide some interesting Cross Country flying and will include the usual benefits of Task Week:
- Weather Briefings
- Task Setting
- Notam Briefings
- Retrieve crews available
- Very very landable fields.
- Will provide an ideal opportunity to have some fun and improve your Cross Country skills.
- Social activities (There is an opportunity for an informal party on 27th, probably some guitar playing, but nothing particular planned – so bring yourself & some good cheer).
The entry fee is 25 pounds and will be charged to your flying account upon receipt of a completed entry form.
Sat 25th November – Members’ evening
At the AGM the committee promised to come back to all the members with an update on progress & also more details and worked-up plans for the future of the club, taking into account the results of the survey, ad-hoc feedback, the projected finances etc. This is your opportunity to hear the recommendations & to have input into the future direction of MGC, so please put the date in your diary now. More details & timings will be shared nearer the time.