December 1996-January 1997
We are very pleased to welcome Peter Spofforth as our new president. Peter is the Chief Pilot and manager of air operations at VSEL, who own Walney Airfield.
Congratulations to John Martindale for achieving his Gold and Diamond heights at Aboyne in the BGA Discus and also to his wife, Lyn for reaching 23,100 ft in the BGA DG-500. Lyn also completed her Bronze over the summer.
A number of members returned to Thouars, France, this summer including John Burdett who flew 300km for his Diamond Goal and Gold Badge.
We have three new Air Experience Instructors, Roger Copley, John Martindale and Graham Welch. Keith Whitworth has gone solo.
A. D.
October-November 1996
Stop Press: Our annual dinner will be on Saturday 16th November. Contact Andrew Tebay on 01229 889014 for more details.
A. D.
August-September 1996
Our tug has been out of the air for a couple of weeks which has provided the perfect excuse to re-introduce occasional winch launching to Walney. Many members have become current again, some experiencing their first winch launches. This should mean more members will be able to launch from our "summer" field near Kendal.
There have been a lot of achievements in the last couple of months: John Martindale and Graham Welch have completed their silver badges and David Bull, our ‘resident’ tug-pilot, his five hours. Rip Pearson now has his Bronze badge. Lyn Martindale and Keith Whitworth have gone solo, Lyn managing to pack all of the training into only ten weeks.
A. D.
June-July 1996
The spring weather has provided us with some good thermal conditions, John Martindale being the first pilot of the year to go cross-country in them. The Easter weekend was especially good providing several newer members with their first experience of thermals. Andrew Tebay seized the opportunity to complete his Bronze badge.
A. D.
April-May 1996
The week before Christmas proved very good for wave, with several members experiencing Oxygen for the first time in the K21. 18,300’ was the highest achieved with many more over 15,000’. John Martindale gained Silver Height.
Dave Grove and Andreas Robert have gone solo.
A. D.
February-March 1996
We held our annual dinner/prize giving recently. Awards were: Neil Braithwaite - Club Ladder; Peter Redshaw - Best Cross Country; Neil Braithwaite and Peter Redshaw - Best gain of height; Gordon Furness and Graham Welch - Services to the Club; Jim Storer - Best Progress; Roger Copley - Best flight by non-silver, John Burdett - Wooden Spoon.
In October a number of members went to Feshiebridge and several came back with gold heights: Roger Copley, Alan Meadows and David North.
John Martindale and Jim Storer have both completed their Bronze badges and Dave Grove and Julian Ronald have recently gone solo.
A. D.