see
what flying at Walney is all about
We have created a link page for The Lakes Gliding Club on
see
what flying at Walney is all about
December
2011.
Sadly Peter Midwood died yesterday. His sister Mary said it was peaceful.
The funeral is at St Peters Church Far Sawrey at 2.30 Saturday 10th December.
Peter only joined us in February 2010 and had never flown before, by October
2010 Peter went solo, by August this year he achieved his first Bronze leg and
was awarded the Dodd Trophy for most outstanding progress. Peter flew regularly
and visited The Mynd and Eden gliding clubs to get in some midweek flying. He
was an excellent new member we will miss him. Our last flying day in December
was wonderful, clear blue sky, bright sunshine, wind about 15 knots NW, snow on
the Lakes hills, wave, it brought a number of ladder claims.
Getting close to Xmas again. Some old gliding club
pictures from Rod Murfitt have been included in the Photo Albums. One struck me
was the old Capstan on the beach with the
tide coming in.The pilot was Keith Emslie from Bowland Forest. It was mid
July 1980 during one of the courses and he had come over to Walney to instruct
for a few days to fill in for Tony Knight who had to leave. Keith had a
T21, so the T49 would be a hot ship to him and he probably overestimated it’s
performance. Rod did the course and went solo the following week.
November
2011. Wave on the first flying day, summer weather on the second with lots
of gliders out and Peters Craven and Lewis leading a photo shoot from the top of
the slag bank off runway 30. As they wanted more ground in the pictures this led
to a number of enthusiastic tug and glider pilots vying for the lowest low pass
along Walney Chanel. We all considered this an open invitation as Peter Lewis
made the request and he is our new CFI. The truth will out as the objective is
to add to our YouTube videos and apparently his request was recorded. Julie
Jones, flying from North Wales, has gone solo - well done Julie - it is some
time since we had a new female solo pilot amongst us. Neil Braithwaite was
reliving his old memories piloting the Club's old Capstan, we have a picture of
him being instructed in the same glider when he was about 13 years old! The
simulator in the clubhouse is up and running so we can now fly even when its
raining.
October
2011.
The Club outing to Portmoak was wet
and windy with only one good day with lots of wave. It was nice to meet the
Dumfries and Fulgunzeon
team up there and special thanks to John McKiever for bringing aviation flu with
him. With his help we got two Diamond Colds, one Cold C with Diamond and 3
Silver Colds on the Friday after he went home. The first eBook has been produced
for the eBook Library......
A Glider Pilot bold.. (3rd edition) The annual Dinner was held at The Abbey House Hotel, what a good night it was. Full report and who won what with pictures can be found at Annual Dinner 2011. Dave North retired as CFI at the end of the month and was profusely thanked for his contribution over the previous 10 years at the dinner.
September 2011. Some good soaring to be had on the first weekend, Pete Seddon having his longest thermalling flight for ages. Then the remnants of the hurricane moved in for the next weekend. However it was put to good use, the tug was given it's 50hr check, the wheel brake was fixed on the K21 and the IS28 has had its ARC and Annual inspections completed. Don't forget our Annual Dinner, Saturday 22nd October at the Abbey House Hotel. Another good days soaring with wave, thermal and convergence coming and going throughout the day.
August 2011. Andy Tebay finally completes his
Silver with a 5 hours soaring flight, a number of members visited Eden Soaring
with the K21 and Peter Midwood completed his first Bronze leg. Well done to
both.
The French expedition to
Poitier was good fun with weather more like the UK, however the UK weather
was worse than usual. Five gliders went to Poitier, Roy Jones trailer made it
there and back and Peter Craven made his famous pies. Peter R found himself
camping in a French scrap yard for 3 days due to his camper van breaking down. A
new game chucking bits of wood around was played with Germany and a mixed
international team. Numbers were a bit thin on the ground at Walney due to
various holidays and inclement weather. Team Capstan put up a good show in the
two seater competition at Pocklington winning best wood and coming 13th overall.
July
2011. Off to a good start with a new member, John Collins. You don't need a
picture, just look for the tallest person on the airfield - 6ft 4ins. We managed
to get him in the K21 and room to spare in the IS28. On Saturday and Sunday 23
flew over Skelling Farm to see what John Martindale was up to, first time with
PR 23 they were stuck on the deck as the weather wasn't too good in their area,
second with PC 23 they were local flying. John for some reason thought we were
deliberately winding him up, perish the thought! The bus computer now has a
dongle so that we can check the weather and Notams online from the launch point.
Roy Jones asked that we report his trailer is now finished. Several pilots are
getting ready for their gliding trip to France at the end of July.
June 2011. Better weather with the Capstan continuing it's tour to Camphill where it found itself in the middle of 4 other Capstan's. The bowser is getting a coat of white paint to reduce evaporation of the avgas. Roy Jones trailer renovation saga is very nearly complete. Roger Copley was introduced to a marginal final glide in the IS28 by an ex CFI, Roger previously having said that they were the ones most likely to get him into trouble.
May 2011, windy, wet and windy. April turns up in May. The aero modellers competition failed to materialise. The BGA carried out an audit on club aircraft and the Capstan. Roy's trailer rebuild is nearing completion, well it might be ready for France. The Capstan is off to the Vintage Rally at Nympsfield followed by a week at Hus Bos, other members welcome.
April 2011, glorious sunny weather for the second weekend but not much in the way of lift. The AGM was on the 17th April with pie & peas after flying. There was a good turn out for the AGM which went very smoothly. The luxury pie and peas went down a treat and as predicted 4 weeks ago, it was an excellent flying day. Long bank holiday weekends, the last with glorious sunshine and strong winds that stopped flying. The drainage was improved outside the hangar.
March 2011. The tug is back, we are flying again. As it turns out we have not missed much flying due to continued inclement weather at weekends. One decent day maybe with a few thermals. The IS28 is rigged, the K21 has had it's annual inspection, we are ready for the flying season again. Roy is now rebuilding the bottom of his trailer. The mice have peaked at 12, 10 short of 2009's record. The new co-pilot check list is installed in the two seaters.
February 2011. The Tug has flown off for its annual check and will be missing for the weekend of the 12/13th Feb. The IS28 is nearly ready again and the K21 will have its annual check at the same time. The weather is not being very kind at the moment.
January
2011. Happy New Year. A near miss was reported on the first flying day in
the year, we got a photo but could not read the registration. If anyone
recognises it please inform the CFI. It was flying erratically and in a
northerly direction before the incident. The bowser was refuelled on the 6th
Jan. The snow has gone and we are flying again. The bus mice are getting wiped
out, 9 so far.
Back to Welcome Page Members Only Web Diary 2005