Booker Gliding

It was a very busy day at Booker yesterday. As well as the usual trial lessons, and some basic instructor training, we had the long awaited Easter Egg Cup aerobatic competition, postponed from rainy April. With British Aerobatics Association judge Charles Baker judging and Graham Saw  acting as safety pilot, seven pilots executed a variety of aerobatic maneouvres, some of which were recognisable as part of the prescribed sequences. Entrants could choose from Standard, Tricky or Joker - no-one attempted Joker!


After prolonged deliberation and abstruse calculations in the briefing room a winner emerged and the trophy  - and a selection of Easter Eggs - was awarded. The podium places were:

George Darby - 80.5%
Maddi Roberts - 80%
Andy Monk - 78%

George and William engaged in some arm wrestling over the trophy
Many thanks to judge Charles for sitting out in the cold all day and Graham for organising it all, and congratulations to all the entrants who gave it a go

Meanwhile, CFI Richard was taking all-comers for rides in a Miles Magister from the Shuttleworth collection. There was a slight pause in the middle of the day when it took an awful lot of prop swinging to persuade it to start but all those who had a flight said it was a great experience.


In other news, at White Waltham, a team from Booker was giving people rides in our simulator as part of the West London Aero Club members' day fundraiser - the thrid year we have been invited to attend. Despite the grey skies they did good business, with queues forming - another opportunity to showcase gliding and Booker. Thanks to Chris Arnold, Henry Ross and John Lambie for working the stand and to Max Norfolk for towing there and back.

This weekend we have had the pleasure of hosting the ICL final, where the winning teams from the different regions come to battle for the title - we had 15 pilots (including two world champions) from 5 clubs on the grid.  Jim White directed the comp and also set tasks for each of the three classes - Novice, Intermediate and Pundit, while Pete Wyld did all the complex work of scoring, including sorting out the final tie for first place. We had two days of excellent weather and some equally good safe flying by all contestants - and no landouts - as well as a Saturday night BBQ.

In the end Bicester wrested the trophy from HusBos who had held it for the past 5 years. And good fun was had by all.


The winning team
Andy Mayer (Intermediate), Team Captain Miles Bailey, Pundit Jon Gatfield, Novice Olly Wheeler
ICL co-ordinator Chris Luton with Team Captain Miles
World Champion Andy Davis, day winner in the Pundit class
Chris and Jim mildly amused by it all

No caption needed

We continued our series of solos with Steve Goodhram. Steve went solo at Booker 35 years ago and came back with his son on a 2 day course, at the end of which he re-soloed. They would both like to continue gliding but as they live in Birmingham it will probably not be at Booker, although of course we would be delighted to see them again.

Steve with the traditional instructor handshake from RichardAll this week some of our pilots have been competing in a variety of comps, although the weather has not been kind to them. Tim Scott won the 15m Nationals at Aston Down, with Jim White coming in 6th. Meanwhile at Lasham, George Hunter was flying in the Junior Nationals where he came 9th in a field of 44. Congratulations to all of them.

Today new Ass Cat instructor Paul sent off his first solo student, Brooke, another Air League scholar. Congratulations both. It's been a very busy week!

The grins say it all

..........bringing the total to 5 in two days. Air League scholar Gurpal went solo yesterday, making the most of the weather before today's rain band. Well done Gurpal!

Strategically placed bucket shows that cleaning has occurred!

This week we have been training a group of young people who won Air League scholarships and yesterday three of them went solo. Then the Tuesday Evening Group arrived and 14 year old Ossian, son of member Brian O'Sullivan, brought the total to four. Not bad for one day. Congratulations to all of them.

Scholars Luke, Eric and Mark 

What a week it's been! Six contest days with two 300k tasks on consecutive days. We had a go on Day 7 but the weather went downhill and the Director scrubbed 2 minutes before the start gate opened as gliders sank towards relights and the sky darkened. Pilots were glad to derig before the rain. Saturday was very breezy so although a task was set it was scrubbed as it became clear that it wouldn't be practicable. Nils the Met Man had already spotted this and booked a holiday in Italy. The day ended with an excellent BBQ organised by the Director, plus prize giving.

Congratulations to the top three..........

Denis Campbell - the cup already has his name on it, lots of times
Jim White, who tried very hard to wrest first place from DenisSpeedy John Otty with his 3rd place prizes.....and congratulations to all the other competitors for making it a safe and fun comp.

Many thanks to all the people who made the comp a success.......


Richard - Director, BBQ chef and occasional tug pilotNils the Met ManPete the Scorer
Bob the Grid Marshal
Maddi and her team of cadets
Jim and the other tuggies - Bob and Rob
George for flying the Duo with club membersBob for Control, IT and lots of other stuff, including taking most of the pics

The forecast today was a hard one as the arrival of rain and sparky stuff was difficult to predict. Eventually a task round Calvert Jct - Oxford South and Brill was set. While we waited for cu to develop, Control's clock said it was 33.8degC so shade was at a premium.
Control, Director, assorted pilots and a couple of wilting cadets
Bob the Grid Marshal taking a break
That white stuff behind Nils is altocu, not much use for XCNils the Met Man finally managed to magic up some cu and the grid launched. Control barely managed to get back to its gazebo before Denis was back, with John and Jim hot on his heels.
The forecast looks uncertain for Friday but we will do our best to get a task out of it.

The competitors have been having a blast in these amazing conditions. Day 3 and Day 4 saw them nipping round 300k tasks , today's task was slightly shorter. George Darby flew 315 on the 300k tasks with club members who are just starting to fly cross country, giving them valuable experience on how it's done. Today he flew 318, the fixed wheel Pegasus, and did extremely well, beating a glider with much bigger wings and higher performance. It just shows how a handicapped distance task levels the field. The other benefit of the task format is that we can tell (unofficially) who the winner is from the task times on Control's log sheet, without having to wait for the Scorer to perform his arcane ritual with the traditional scoring system. Of course the Scorer has to pore over the traces but usually he agrees with Control.

Denis is still in the lead overall, with Jim White and John Otty close on his heels. There is more good weather forecast, apart from Friday when it might actually rain, so there is still all to play for.

Here are some pics of finshes

Nils and his LS4 with a Red Kite
Johns's ASG29
Nick in his Libelle
Denis in his VentusControl was much more comfortable today having been offered a very nice gazebo by Steve Gaze. Here are a couple of cadets exercising their engineering skills.

The Gaze Gazebo

It was a late start today as we had to wait for a stubborn layer of cloud to go somewhere else, but the grid finally got going after lunch. The task was 162k around Hurstbourne Tarrant and Brill, with the usual sneaky diversion round Huntercombe and Rockwell End at the finish. It was a bit of a tricky start with a few relights but it was a close race. Denis won again with Nils and Geoff on his heels

Here comes Denis
Jim took a relaxed attitude to launching but his competitive spirit became apparent later in the day.

On the grid

Nils the Met Man said today's weather was 'interesting', which is always a bit of a worry, but he managed to find a bit of the country to fly in, a task of 181k up to Buckingham, down to Oxford services and back to Stony Stratford. All the pilots got round, with Denis 370 romping home in just under 2 hours, closely follwed by Jim J1M who had to do it the old-fashioned way when his flight computer packed up part way round. Everyone seemed to have had a good time, tomorrow we do it all over again.


Day winner Denis
Denis and Jim exchanging notes just after landing

Nils the Met Man
Director Richard, 787 Captain Jan, Grid Marshal Bob, Chairman William and Tug Pilot Jim

Nice day out with strong and tight thermals but big areas of sink in-between. V66 syndicate of Jim and Bob went to Thame and the Lunak caused a bit of a stir with the tower who thought it was on fire (but always grateful for their help/concern) when his smoke system was still going after he landed.

What a fantastic day's gliding, and congratulations to Geoff Lyons on completing his first 750. People were glued to Spot the Glider as far away as Poland watching the final turn round Wisbech and the long trip back to Booker, especially the very marginal final glide from somewhere north of Milton Keynes. Those in the clubhouse rushed out in time to see him sneak in over the NE boundary and land straight in.

10 hours flying and all we could find him was a Diet Coke
Looking surprisingly cool after such a long flight
And let's not forget John Otty who completed his first 500 last weekend for Diamond Distance, we have only just caught up with him for a photo opp.

Congratulations John

After a cancellation earlier in the year due to bad weather, the club has now completed a successful day of flying (on Wednesday) with The Air League. As you will see from the pics, it was a busy day of flying.  One group of 20 + in the morning, a second group of 30+ in the afternoon; have had an introduction to gliding.  These are all youngsters that have, in one way or another, expressed an interest in flying.  This makes them a very important group for the future of gliding.  We expect to see a few of them back in August to complete Gliding scholarships with the club.  
Morning Group

Afternoon group
I built this from my own garden shed you know.
I wonder if he knows i'm listening to Heathrow Approach. 

Not sure what has caused these patterns in the fields near Enstone, but they were very clear today.  I'm sure there is probably a simple answer (my favourite theories, pattern of irrigation sprays or site for local fete). I haven't seen anything quite as fancy before.

After yet another excellent cross country day with temps in the high 20s, Symeon and the Friday Evening Group took over the airfield. It was a perfect evening for soaring and Paul Clarke was delighted to see his young son Stevie go solo.

Stevie looking relaxed after his first solo landing
Proud Paul congratulates his son 
Perfect sunset landing for Stevie

It is with great sadness that we have to report the untimely passing of Glyn Read on 3rd July 2018, aged 69.

Glyn was a long-standing member of Booker Gliding Club. along with being an extremely talented pilot, Glyn also spent many years working with the committee and Wycombe District Council negotiating lease and rent renewals.

Glyn was also a member of the Deeside Gliding Club and Lasham Gliding Society where he enjoyed many years of gliding, in particular at Aboyne where he formed his second home thanks to his love of wave soaring.

He will be sorely missed by his friends and business associates.

Below are some photos of Glyn in happier times:


Aboyne - flying with Nick
Aboyne - with Bob the logkeeper
Enjoying a laugh at Booker Regionals
Talgarth with Nick and William

A couple of photos from my Klippeneck trip:

Returning to Klippeneck from the NorthLooking South towards the Alps with the hangars on the right and 05 threshold next to the cliff at the top.

SchuchsleeOver Schuchslee lake in the Black Forest. Had great tea and cake there with Tracey on our day out.

Great trip for all levels of experience. Richard and Doug can provide great XC training and experiences to early pilots. The Swabian Alb and Black Forest provide challenging XC opportunities for the more experienced with fabulous views of Lake Constance, the Alps, hills, lakes and forests of the area.

Jim

The Solstice came with some stupendous weather, despite the 20kt wind - strong climbs and a high cloudbase. Geoff Lyons did 500k, and the sky was still looking good when he got back.

 The following day was rather more difficult, but Nils managed to extract himself from a work meeting and take an afternoon launch, heading south where he saw some dramatic clouds generated by heath fires. Amazing what you see when you're up there.

Aero Expo took over the airfield 14th-16th June with plenty of interesting aircraft to look at. We had another excellent display stand thanks to Chris Collett, and an enthusiastic team of club members to staff it. The first couple of days were a bit quiet - apart from registration spotters - but on Saturday we had lots of conversations with bored PPL holders who were interested in improving their skills and having more fun, so we hope to see some of them at the launch point in due course.

Ashley persuading Adrian Hegner of the benefits of gliding
Our display before the visitors arrived Many thanks to the team - David Fogden, Bob Sinden, Ashley Birkbeck, John Lambie, Nils Wedi, and a special mention for Nils's son Benjamin (age 11) who was brilliant, full of energy and very good with the visitors. Also to Chris for the stand, Graham Saw for helping with setting up the hangar and doing a stint on the stand, and to Bob Smith for trying very hard to get the sim running - and for helping to give it a good wash.

Squeaky clean - apart from the top which we couldn't reach
For anyone wondering about helping at events, it's a really good way to get more involved in the running of the club. It's good fun talking to visitors and other pilots and you will get a warm glow of satisfaction for helping your club to bring in more members. Ashley, for example, said he really enjoyed his shift and would be delighted to help out at future events.