2011 LGC After Dinner Speech & Annual Prizes ably presented by our Chairman, Rose Saunders
Rose gave a comprehensive summary of the years activities. The weather had not been kind to us at weekends but we had a good year. The committee had been working very hard on everyone's behalf. Numerous people had visited numerous sites and had a good time. Rose welcomed all our guests in particular Andy Thornhill & Sue Webster from Pocklington and Mo Jordy, Net and Peter Burgoyne from Husbands Bosworth. Special mention was made of Dave North who has been our CFI for nearly 10 years and Dave was profusely thanked by Rose on behalf of the members. Rose related how she had joined the club with Dave as CFI and been delighted at the way he helped and encouraged her to progress from early training to obtaining her full Silver. How Dave had encouraged her and provided sound advice when she was having her doubts and kept pointing her forward. Rose also referred to the strong contribution Dave had made in re-establishing our relationship with BAE when it went through a couple of low patches in the last 5 years, particularly the Flight Information Book he had produced to allow us to integrate gliding and power activities.
Rose then welcomed Peter Lewis
as our next CFI for a couple of years whilst we encourage a new CFI from within
the Club. Many thanks to Andy Tebay for again organising the dinner, Rose
mentioned the Hotel's food and service as being yet again good.
Rose then presented the prizes with a certain amount of barracking and sometimes assistance from members present. In her best teaching style we can report the prizes awarded as follows: Second from the right in the picture of this years winners is Andy Thornhill who awarded himself "The Silver Bucket" as being the best ASH 25 pilot that had visited our club this year. When we asked about he was the only one!
· The Leighton-Hall Trophy for the most outstanding flight of the year
A 220km polygon in the Capstan is probably an exceptional effort in anyone’s book and leaves the other potentials way behind. Dave North was P1 with Pete Redshaw as his passenger/navigator. The flight was made at the Two Seater competition held at Pocklington in Yorkshire. Step up Dave North.
· The Lonsdale Trophy for the longest cross country flight from Walney
A rather cheeky 157km out and return from Walney to Eden Soaring, east of Penrith, by Peter Craven in the DG800 to wind up John Martindale who was flying from Eden at the time. It is probably fair to say that Peter R egged him on. Step up Peter Craven.
· The Dodd Trophy For most outstanding progress during the year in Lakes Gliding Club
This was a choice between Peter Midwood and Andy Tebay. The decision went in favour of Peter who has been flying regularly and visiting other sites to get in some midweek (excuse the near pun) flying. In August Peter achieved his first solo flight of over 1 hour to achieve part of his Bronze badge claim. Peter M was unable to be present due to illness and Rose accepted the trophy on his behalf.
· The Alsford Trophy for the greatest gain of height from Walney
There were several outrageous claims for this but the decision was based on actual gains submitted with barograph evidence to support them. You tube videos and bar stories were ignored. A 7200 feet gain of height in the two seater with a shared flight between John Burdett and Dave North was the winner. Based on the ladder claims for the flight, John B got 536 points and Dave got 612 points so Dave got to take it home for the first 6 months.
· The Duddon Trophy for service to the Lakes Gliding Club
Andy Tebay nearly won this for continuing with his role as treasurer whilst opening his new dental surgery. However after nearly 10 years as CFI there could only be one worthy winner this year, the man who has never awarded himself a trophy for 10 years, Dave North.
John Martindale has walked off with this trophy for the last 4 years. Several members had tried to stop him winning it again. It should be said that John M gave someone else a chance by not submitting any ladder claims this year. Step up Peter Redshaw who wins the Club Ladder this year.
· The Sir Leonard Redshaw Trophy for the most outstanding flying achievement by a non silver pilot.
This clearly went to Andy Tebay. Andy now has his Silver and can never win this trophy again. In September Andy finally managed his 5 hour soaring flight to complete his Silver badge. Andy, humble as ever, then tried to give the prize to every runner up in the room.
· The Wooden Spoon for the most meritorious clanger
The wooden spoon went missing for 4 years and we have finally managed to recover
it after every potential culprit denied all knowledge of its whereabouts. The
serious contender for this award was Peter Seddon w
ho nearly lost his glider
trailer when going up to Portmoak last year, one would assume that an engineer
would at least check that the steelwork at the front end of his trailer had not
rusted away to the point that it would fall off, that would have been a bad
assumption.
However Jean and Roger were with us again this year and Rose said it would be a shame not to cash in, we would like to jointly award this to Jean and Roger who between them for 4 years denied all knowledge of previously having the trophy. Jean was "pleased" to receive this on Rogers behalf. – We have a photo for evidence of where it went this time.
Now you can't keep a good man down, Peter Redshaw decided to do a closing act and pass the custody of the The Capstan Cup to Dave North. A trophy Peter R had refused to let Dave hold for 10 years. The trophy was initially presented by Peter R and Dave to the Wolds GC for the two seater competition.
The inscription reads…………
The Cup was presented to The Wolds Gliding Club by Peter Redshaw and David North of The Lakes Gliding Club. Two enthusiastic, Gin swilling, nicotine flavoured pilots with the temerity to prove that “an average pilot in a Capstan could compete with an average pilot in an Ash 25 measured over a number of flying days”.
Flying the lowest handicap glider, a Capstan, Dave and Peter beat all to become National TSC winners in 2002 and 2006. The little help from their friends wasn't mentioned much! Peter was on top form at blowing his own trumpet.
The dynamic duo have flown together at the Wolds Two Seater Competition (TSC) for 10 years and the two seater competition in France for 3 years. Peter claimed that they have had tremendous fun and many entertaining moments, that they had covered about 10000 km cross country together, spent about 250 hrs together in the cockpit, smoked about 25 packets of fags each in the cockpit and drunk about 40 bottles of gin each. (The gin was in the Capstan hospitality tent – not the cockpit)
At those 10 years at the TSC they had achieved, 1st wood 8 times, 1st open class twice, 3rd in the open class 3 times and that this trophy had only been taken off them once in the last 10 years. Peter failed to mention that that person was in fact at the dinner - Peter Burgoyne.
Following that rather long winded and embellished story Dave was helped up and became the official custodian of The Capstan Cup.
Dave took the opportunity to say what a great time he had had as CFI and thanked everyone for their support.
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