Welcome to the Lakes Gliding Club, Walney, Barrow, Cumbria, UK

uly/August 2010 and some good flying and fun had by all. Five gliders and 7 members set off for Louroux in France, 2 entered the 100 Chateaux competition. Rogers twin brother Bob joined

the trip, the one in orange in the photo. Three more entries for the wooden spoon, Bob made a special effort on Roger's behalf and reversed a trailer into a stop sign. The LS3 beat the DG800 and the Capstan broke the sound barrier - 70kph for a 160km triangle. Apparently a number of pics of the French trip are already on Facebook. Preparations are in hand and hopefully Lewis Alderson will be able to go solo on his 16th birthday. Yes he did, a number of members and about 20 of his family turned out on Wednesday evening. Congratulations Lewis. Team Capstan arrived back from the Two Seater Competition at Pocklington with prizes, 1st Wood and 3rd in the Open Class, best flight a 181km triangle. The Capstan orange jackets being a popular collectors item, note Max, the team security dog.

June 2010. An excellent month with new members and outstanding flights. John Martindale clocked up a 300km flight, Peter Craven was up in wave with an 11,000ft gain and Simon Hobson is about to re-solo. The Capstan visited Husbands Bosworth, Pocklington and Camphill with a number of club members joining in the fun. OUR Kate Frost married OUR National Coach (otherwise referred to as some bloke from the BGA), Jan has gone to the USA to line up his marriage. The CAA visit has lead to a few worrying moments as we try to reconcile our glider paperwork with that of Jumbo jets, Roy Jones is on top of the game in-between hospital visits. The Mike Fox syndicate has acquired a hangar. What fun warm weather with a northerly flow is. The gardeners amongst us would like some rain - forget it. New contenders for the Wooden Spoon Trophy, someone bent a winglet by banging it against his own glider in the hangar.

May 2010. High cloud base, NE winds and convergences made for good thermal flights early in the month with a number of excursions into the Lakes. The hangar was emptied of all gliders and they re-appeared on the runway end. We have a new syndicate, Peter Lewis has been joined in his Pegasus by Andy Tebay and Graham Sturgeon. Nice to see it active again. We now have two Pegasus syndicates and will be keeping an eye on them. Graham Sturgeon is offering a reward for the Pegasus aileron horn cover that "dropped" off in a field "during" a retrieve. The Capstan was given it's first airing for some time and given a good wash - it spent about 30 minutes soaring in rain coming out of a sea breeze convergence. The aileron horn has been found but the reward has now gone missing, very dubious. The photo gives a clue, wooden spoon entry at least!!!!!!!

April 2010. Lots of flying every weekend with reasonable weather. The AGM had a good turnout with pie and peas going down well. Rose thanked everyone for turning out. Flying had not been so good last year due to weather but membership was up. She thanked the committee and others who had helped and came to the meetings, she would like more to come. Thanks to the tuggies, instructors and all the others who had done work on club equipment. The Club is particularly grateful for the extra help given by Peter Lewis and John Burdett whilst two of our instructors are out of action. Our technical officers are changing with Roy Jones taking over from JE, thanks to Jan for all his work on the club gliders. Apart from these changes the committee was re-elected with the old/new face of Graham Sturgeon. Financially, we had some exceptional items in the year, particularly about Ł6000 spent on the tug. Fleet insurance is down again this year and has reduced significantly in the last two years. We should be in the black in the next two years if we carry on as we are. Rose presented the prizes for last years flying - the most attractive trophy going to Andrew Green for best flight by a non Silver pilot. Well done Andrew and thanks for your efforts in bring fresh members from Lancaster University.

March 2009. The first weekend was good with a great turnout on the Sunday which gave blue skies with occasional turbulence. New members from the Andrew Green led team from Lancaster University, this is great as they are from the younger generation. And a number of current members that we have not seen for a while for various reasons. Photo looking to Port Haverigg from the north end of Walney. Saturday 13th March, breaking news - Peter Seddon completes his silver with a 110km out and return flight in his Pilatus B4 - rose Saunders completes her Silver with 5hrs 30min in the Pegasus - both in wave with occasional cloud base down to about 500 ft in places and both subject to confirmation - see sat pic - Congratulations to them both. The AGM has been set for Sunday 18th April at 6.0pm with pie & peas plus annual prize giving.

Some sad news I'm afraid, Gordon Taylor died at 5am 25th March. He joined the gliding club in 2002, it meant a lot to him and he always looked forward all week to his flights. He found gliding very relaxing, we will miss his mid afternoon phone calls to see if we were flying and to check if he could slip a flight in. He won the Dodd Trophy in 2007 for the most progress, considering his age and the limited time he could spend on the airfield it was quite an achievement. The most recent picture we have shows Gordon modelling his latest hat.

Happy soaring Gordon – you got to fly solo after all!

February 2009. Our tug is back complete with annual, the K21 is ready, GBW is fixing the IS28 seat, Roy Jones has been on holiday in the local hospital, Jan Eldem went on holiday to the USA and returned with a bad back and engaged to an American Lady and the weather is good. Then the weather was bad! Congratulations to Jan.

January 2010, Happy New Year to you all. An absolutely fabulous day on our first flying weekend with the Lakes and Pennines covered in snow. The renovated Pegasus J7, with the new syndicate, was test flown by Dave North. Rose then had her first flight in it and was ecstatic. Mid January and our equivalent of the Australian Morning Glory arrives, wind SSW off the sea with the wave set up across the mouth of the Duddon Estuary, picture from Andrew Green in the IS28 looking towards Haverigg. Double room can be had at the Abbey House Hotel for Ł49 via booking.com, they will give you the same if you book direct. Jan 24th and the tug is flown to Blackpool before the rain starts, Hopefully it will be back by next weekend. The K21 is serviced, needs rigging and the paperwork completing.

See the Web Diaries within the Archive section for previous months updates on activities.

The Lakes Gliding Club was 80 years old this July. The Club was founded in July 1930 and was originally called The Furness Gliding Club. Some 50 clubs were started in 1930. The Lakes Gliding Club was in there early and was considered to be the Wasserkuppe (German gliding centre) of England due to the numerous hills and their gentle slopes. The club was formally operated as The Furness Gliding Propriety Ltd. The original brass plaque is on the wall in our clubhouse. We are still the same Ltd Company but with a different trading name ----- The Lakes Gliding Club. To record our history in more detail and in electronic format, the club's regular contributions to the Sailplane and Gliding magazine that started in September 1930 are being scanned and converted to PDF format. See the new section on Sailplane and Gliding News within the Archive section.

Wondering what to do for some excitement? This is what gliding is all about. Read the story of a wonderful flight from Walney by Justin Wills, an internationally renowned glider pilot.

IMPORTANT --- Airfield access, Visitors and Members, for security reasons our landlords now require that the airfield gate is kept closed at all times. Sometimes you will find a security guard at the gate and sometimes it will be locked. All members will be given a code for the combination lock on the gate following an airfield briefing. Contact the Webmaster for details. Until you have the lock code you will need to phone the club mobile as you get to the gate to have a member come and let you in. Bring some change because if you forget your mobile or don’t have one there is a payphone at the airfield end of North Scale. The number to phone is on a notice on the gate. It is 07860 135447.

Check the What's New page if you are a regular visitor, or go directly to Members Only. Contact the Webmaster if you need a password.

We are an enthusiastic friendly group of people all dedicated to flying, mainly gliding but we also have power and hang gliding types in our midst. Our club is based at Walney Airfield, Walney Island, adjacent to Barrow in Furness in Cumbria, on the edge of the English Lake District. Walney Island is in the Irish Sea on the West coast of England, about half-way between Wales and Scotland. The area provides us with some spectacular flying as well as spectacular views. If you've explored this area on the ground and thought it was awe-inspiring, imagine what it's like from the air! Have a look at the Scafell picture.

If you're already a pilot and want to find out more about the Lakes Gliding Club then start at "The Club" section. If you're new to gliding and want to find out how you could learn to fly, or have a TRIAL FLIGHT to find out what it's like, then start at the Trial Flights section.

The Lakes Gliding Club is a year round training and soaring site, has a range of gliders available for club members and a well proven training programme. So whatever flying experience you have, you will be more than welcome to experience soaring flight in a glider at the friendliest gliding club in the UK.

The Lakes Gliding Club, Walney Airfield, Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, UK. LA14 3YJ If you have any problems viewing this site please e-mail The 'Webmaster'

Welcome to the home of the Lakes Gliding Club