April-May 2000
Forced by the demise of leaded petrol, we now have a huge bowser with Avgas on tap for the tug thanks to the efforts of John Burdett. The club fleet C of A's have all been completed, thanks to all involved.
Flying has been a bit sparse, but we've had a few decent ridge and wave days, one allowing Graham Welch to fly to Chipping to retrieve the picture which had been away for far too long! Meanwhile, we hear that John and Lyn Martindale have completed various 300 and 500s over in Australia.
Alan Dennis
February - March 2000
We held our annual dinner and prizegiving recently which was thoroughly enjoyed. The silverware went to: Peter Lewis (Services to the club), Peter Seddon (Outstanding Progress), Graham Welch (Best Cross Country from Walney), Peter Redshaw (Outstanding flight), John Burdett (Best Gain of Height), Keith Whitworth (Best flight by non-silver), Keith Butterfield and Andy Tebay (Best 2 seater flight), Peter Lewis and Andy Tebay (Best 2 seater gain of height), John Martindale (Club Ladder) and Peter Redshaw (Wooden Spoon).Congratulations to Dave Bull, the tug pilot at Aboyne through the summer and wave season, who returned to the club with a gold height under his belt.
Alan Dennis
December 1999 - January 2000
We had some terrific flying over the May Day Bank Holiday weekend. A couple of gliders made it across the Pennines with Keith Butterfield and Andy Tebay landing at Sutton Bank in the club K21 and Peter Lewis making it back to Walney. Unfortunately the tug engine expired the same day and was then out of the air for thirteen weeks - most of the summer.Graham Welch completed his 100km diploma on the club trip to Hus Bos at Whit week. John and Lyn Martindale completed 300km flights during the June trip to Spain. Keith Whitworth obtained his silver duration in thermals at Walney and Peter Seddon achieved both silver and gold heights and his five hours in one flight at Portmoak where Roy Jones also gained gold height.
We have discovered that Pilatuses (Pilati?) breed after a second B4 joined the private fleet recently. We left the two of them together on the trailer park and when we came back a week later we found a third one there... Obviously still a very popular glider.
Alan Dennis