The Lakes Gliding Club Dinner 2002 annual dinner on the 9th November was a great success. The food was probably the best we have ever had

 at our dinner. The night seemed to fly by and Gordon ( Taylor ) gave an excellent impression of two seater flying with Jean on his knees. He did

 however fail to use the command “I have control” at the right time. The accident is therefore classified as P1 failed to take over control in time.

I (Webmaster) was having difficulty listening to the speeches and taking notes. First, my table was well through about 10 bottles of plonk and

 second, the crowd in the room next door had obviously just won the third world war.

Here is a sample of my shorthand recording our Chairman’s and CFI’s speeches that I have used to help me compile this report.

 

ahkjashwfvndvnfjjw ciqixzm'\am  wdxjxbhsaccbsas jsgeyfigfuigc nsdil '[p\n c\ mscnv;s ssoonzjxzayqqyi .

 

The Chairman’ speech (First Person, as it is easier than saying he, The Chairman then said Etc. For "I" read Rog said. Certainly uses I a lot, Jean must be good to him.)

 

Ladies, gentlemen, pilots, crew & acolytes (did he say alcoholics?)– little did I know when I was listening to John Martindale’s address last year, that I would end up throwing myself at your mercy at this years dinner. Yes, John decided to stand down after 5 years as chairman – one can appreciate how tricky it must be balancing the responsibilities of chairmanship, tax exile & keeping Lyn under control. Clearly something had to go.

I would like to thank John for his statesmanship, dignity, humour, and most of all for the £20 he just slipped me at the bar. This isn’t the only change in the club this year - it has been a year of change.

We have a new Chief Flying Instructor!  Dave North has finally allowed himself to be cajoled into taking his Full Cat (not before time) & has now taken over from Peter Lewis as CFI.

Unfortunately Peter is unable to be here as he has been dragged into hospital for a minor surgical procedure, (no not a frontal lobotomy!) so I will ask Joan to pass on our best wishes from us all for a speedy recovery.

This change seems strange to me, because Peter has been CFI in the 11years I have been gliding. It’s a bit like having that old sofa in your front room – it’s a bit frayed round the edges – but you get used to seeing it around – and you can’t quite imagine life without it.

I have been trying to determine just how long Pete has been CFI – I have asked round the club, I have asked the BGA, checked up with the Imperial War Museum , but it was only recently that the Natural History Museum confirm that it was about 1990 when he took over from Peter Redshaw. {Who is living proof that old CFI’s don’t die – in fact they don’t even fade away gracefully!}

At this point I expect Northy is thinking – hang on a minute– if Peter Lewis is an old sofa, is he going to liken me to brand new couch – a bit flash? (Maybe) - more fashionable (arguably)? – a bit posier? (certainly) – less wear & tear? Until we break him in --- a bit of a pain in the a**???? Well, I will leave you to ponder on that one. So Northy is CFI!!  Will he last another 13years? I wish him every success.

We have a new tug master in the shape of Alan Meadows who has taken over from John Burdett in that role.  Alan is currently a bit of a minister without portfolio, because we now just need to find him a tug to go away and master. The uninitiated might think there has been no change on the tug front, when they see good old Oscar Lima zipping about over Walney, but nothing could be further from the truth. She is on loan from the people we sold her to at Aston Down.

The Bellanca Scout we procured to replace her was the subject of a slightly unorthodox landing on 24, and currently lies in bits in the hangar awaiting removal. I’m more than happy to report that the tug pilot escaped serious injury, and lives to fly another day.

We are currently scouring Northern Europe for a suitable replacement, so keep your eyes peeled.

Most of you will be aware that the good old Capstan has now returned following her restoration. She went away, an ugly duckling & came back as a……well, swan might not be quite the right word….but she certainly looks the part. Her new livery is certainly not for the faint hearted – glossy white & metallic blue, with a tinted blue canopy!! Her instrument panel would not disgrace a Euro fighter, indeed it is rumoured that lead ballast had to be put in her tail to counterbalance the weight of all the high tech wizardry. (Not the weight of her crew).

There is also talk that wing tanks have been fitted. Gin in one side and tonic in the other…..but this has yet to be verified. But the overall effect is superb, and well worth every penny of the £500 quid it cost to restore her.

This was all put to good effect back in July when Pete Redshaw, Dave North & Alan Meadows totally trounced the opposition in the 2 seat competition at Pocklington.

This is a third topic of conversation to be avoided at all costs with PR, after (a) flying the Oly 2B, and (b) the 500Km from Walney.

You have been warned!

One thing that hasn’t changed is our Social Secretary Lyn, who has continued to do an excellent job, providing pies, sandwiches & sundry victuals for our starving glider pilots.

She should also be thanked for all her time & work spent organising this dinner – I am sure you all agree it has been well worth the effort.

Thanks Lyn……………..

It has to be said that the club has not enjoyed the best of fortune in the last couple of years when it comes to decent flying weather, or the tug. Nevertheless we have continued to fly whenever possible, and I am glad to say we have had an influx of new members for our instructors to ‘play with’. We must now build on this and given a little help from the elements I am certain we can survive and grow as a club. The acquisition of a new tug must remain our number one priority.

In fact it ought to come a close second, as always FLYING SAFELY should be our No.1 priority.

Unlike a certain American gentleman back in 1984 who had a certain yearning to go flying……   (See Darwin Awards web page, for the longer version of this. www.darwinawards.com/stupid/stupid1997-11.html  as our Chairman went into ramble mode at this point. Sure enough, listen on)

Anyway, I’m sure you’ve heard quite enough of me rambling on, so I shall now hand you over to that new piece of furniture – sorry – CFI - to present the trophies.

–       I give you, the one and only - Dave North.

 

The CFI’s annual award of our numerous trophies was gracefully aided and abetted by Jean, our Chairman’s better half and senior partner. Dave (Northy) having decided from the outset that as CFI he wasn’t allowed to award himself anything. He is wrong he can and will get the wooden spoon at sometime in the future. Northy’s eloquence was getting beyond my shorthand at this point as the Chairman’s speech had lasted about 2 hours, my table had consumed another crate of wine, I had run out of paper and was using the back of my fag packets and the room next door was now embroiled in the fourth world war.

Three prizes were not awarded this year due to a combination of bad weather, tug problems and what I perceived to be the CFI’s lack of imagination and generosity with his interpretation of the rules. Put another way, I failed to win anything but seemed to be a close runner up for the wooden spoon again.

This is how I remember the key parts of Northy’s speech.

 

The Prizes

 

The Duddon Trophy for outstanding services to the club went to Peter Lewis for a remarkable and sustained contribution over his 10/12 years as CFI. Joan (PL’s better ½) collected this on PL’s behalf. To be honest she probably deserved it more than PL.

 

The Lonsdale Trophy for the best cross country from Walney went to John Martindale for a trip through and over the hills to Skiddaw and somewhere else before creeping back to Walney. 168km.

 

The Alsford Trophy for the best gain of height went to Neil Braithwaite who managed to clock up over 9000ft. I believe Peter Craven was considered for this but due to reporting his position was disqualified.

 

The Sir Leonard Redshaw Trophy for the best flight by a non Silver pilot was awarded to Alan Simmons for his consistency and constant flying. Keeping the Astir up when most have landed.

 

The Club Ladder for the pilot with the most points claimed went to John Martindale. John has requested that this should be a men only competition, until then would we keep slipping Lyn the sleeping tablets.

 

The Elegant Windows Trophy for the best flight in a two seater went to Neil Braithwaite and John Martindale (sit down John) for a 222km flight in the K21 at Pocklington. This is a club distance record for a two seater on a predeclared task.

 

The Wooden Spoon for the most meritorious clanger. Various references were made to member’s indiscretions but eventually this was awarded to Roger Copley for his wheel up landing in the IS28. He thought he’d got away with it, claimed he didn’t know when challenged. The wheel was found to be up a week later in the hangar, the flight sheets studied and the culprit found---Gotcha.

 

The Party Games

 

First we had a quiz sheet with trick questions on it that made a bronze C paper look like a walk in the park and designed to give John Martindale a chance. Such as how many different glider types does Lyn have on any one page in her log book? The tie breaker was “name the 8 different gliders on the one page in Lyn’s log book”. I ask you was this fair. You can see I didn’t win, in fact I don’t know who did. It was getting late and I had already missed my bus.

 

Next was the guess the baby competition. Now this had a few wild cards in it, with RIP putting in two pics, Roy Partington putting his grandfather’s pic in and Peter Lewis putting a pic of Joan in. Mind you that was the easy one as she has not changed over the years.

 

Thanks to Lyn, Roger and Dave for their efforts to make the evening a success.

 

Report by The Webmaster. 11th November 2002

 

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