Instructors News. February 07 Also from the CFI Meeting it would seem that accident stats on Trial Lessons did not improve last year. The two changes needed are "reducing ambitions" and better supervision. Flights being too ambitious relate to soaring out of gliding range, joining gaggles, flying in poor weather or too strong winds and continuing in failing light. Supervision is really about having somone to say NO! February 07 Following the Regional CFI Meeting held at Bicester, I have been informed that new BGA Instructor Panel guidlines will require the winch cable release knob to be held during the early stages of the winch launch. I have expressed my concerns of unintentional release due to the nature of the surface of the airfield at Dunstable. I would like no change to our present policy of  clearly identifying the release, being sure that it is readily accessible and having a hand close to it during the launch. I fear that actually holding it will result in unintentional release just as the glider get into the air following a run over a bump at near flying speed. A recovery at this stage is one of the most difficult to achieve, particularly for non-instructors. This decision will be reviewed in due course. January 07 Following an instructor meeting of Full Rated instructors it has been decided to change the airfield management system. I will generate rosters for the next few months during which time two full rated instructors will be on duty and BI checks will be completed. August 05 Year 5 Refresher weekend. 17th & 18th August. Year 3 Instructors please contact me for year three check flight programme details. March 05 When I first joined LGC it was common practice to keep derigging kits for K21's and K23's in the gliders. I think at some stage there had been a change of policy and the kits were removed from the gliders. I don't know why and I prefer that the kits are kept in there orange bags and kept in the gliders. Then when the glider lands out it is known that the required kit is with the glider. I fully accept that this would be inappropriate whilst doing aerobatics. I would expect an aerobatic pilot to remove this and any other loose objects. I would however expect the derigging kit to be replaced after the session. January 05 There will be a presentation of "Soaring Weather" on Monday 17th January 2005. 7pm in the briefing room or in the restaurant if too many attend. The briefing notes can be seen on this link but are not intended to be a complete document. They are really my notes and an aid memoire to those that attend. link January 05 The jacking mechanism for the Duo Discus trailer has been damaged beyond repair. It is difficult to imagine how this could have happened and even more difficult to imagine that such force could have been applied to the assembly without noticing! If you have an accident please report it. There will be no recrimination for reported incidents. Blatant lack of regard for club equipment which might be portrayed by failing to report such incidents deserves the harshest of penalties! December 04 Dave Brown is our "ground training officer". He has rightly pointed out that we generally make a poor job of hitching up the buggies and driving off in any old direction! As P1 please ensure that the glider is turned in the intended direction - then hitch up to the buggy having ensured that the driver has positioned himself in front and in the intended direction of travel. Failure to observe these simple objectives results in massive side loads on the glider and "flying" wing tip holders. And NO! Rupert has not been grounded. This was a set up for demo purposes on "how not to do it" December 04 EVX is on its way to Poland on 16th December for a complete new outfit. Hans Schuricht and Lloyd Duhaney are making the trip and will be bringing back a glider for another pilot. EVW will go for it's new clothes in January or February 2005. December 04 I have been asked by a number of people if I will do a presentation on soaring met. If I can remeber what it is I will tell you all about it on the evening of Monday 17th January. please let me know if you wish to attend so that I can arrange for the briefing room or restaurant to be available. Reply here. November 04 If your instructor return is not with me now you are cutting it tooooooo fine! October 04 Instructor returns are due in by the end of the month at the latest. Please remeber that if you miss the returns date your rating will alpse and it is a real pain to get back again. Your good work is appreciated and we do not wish to lose you from the team due to poor admin. October 04 Trevor and Andy Mills now have assistant ratings - well done to both of them. May 04 I now have a "Ground Examiner Rating" for NPPL(SLMG) which means that I can set and invigilate on NPPL ground exams. It also allows me to sign up certificates of experience which will keep your licence current and up to date. May 04 EVY our yellow K23 has just returned from Poland following a complete re-gel and refreshed cockpit. The first layer of glass fiber has also been replaced. Please look after it as though it were new - it very nearly is! February 04 Following the new letter of agreement there is now an airspace rating requirement for pilots flying out of Dunstable. The rating consists of a lecture room briefing, a flight round the boundaries and the signing of an airspace book. There will be flights and briefings available on a regular basis. Please ask October 03 Instructor returns required by end of November please. Ensure all Basic Instructor checks are complete by end of this month. Forms will be sent out on Friday 3rd October. On-line form still not in working order - sorry! September 03 Two of our privately owned gliders had a mid air collision just one mile from Lasham. Both pilots parachuted to safety without injury. The accident is still under investigation but brief details are here September 03 Sadly "OO" has gone to the Dublin Gliding Club. It is part of our fleet renewal programme and we are currently seeking a new Robin to replace it. I am sure that Terry Mac will enjoy his new pasture. August 03 Well done to Simon Edwards who is now a Basic Instructor August 03 Andy Mills has his Basic Instructor Rating - Well done Andy - our youngest BI by far! 1st August 03 Schempp-Hirth announce grounding of Duo Discus due to a possible spar defect. July 03 KEJ now ready for use. July 03 The new K21 KEJ is now on site. George and Paul Shrosbree will be hard at work getting the instrumentation done so that it will soon be ready for use. July 03 Tome Sage is earning his keep! More Basic Instructor Courses. Tom will be running another course this weekend 19th & 20th of July with three people on it. I have given him launch priority over all others and he will be using the K13 on Saturday and a K21 on Sunday. June 03 Well done to all our aerobatics pilots. We had 9 entrants out of the 24 total. Gerald Davies won the beginners and Mike Woollard won the intermediate. May 03 Well done to Roger Stone who now has an assistant rating and to Russell Page who has just done his completion course with the Senior Regional Examiner May 03 Congratulations to Mike Makin, Peter Sharpe, Martin Hayden, Mark Davis and Max Morris, all of whom have completed their Basic Instructor Ratings. Also Jason Haines has completed the course but not yet done acceptance checks - come on Jason get on with it!! Thanks to the instructors that helped in their preparation and thanks to Tom Sage who ran the BI courses. May 03 Long delay in updating has been due to high work load, year end and Cerdanya. January 03 Bob King has now completed his NPPL and will soon be applying for a BGA Motor Glider Instructor Rating. Well done Bob. January 03 Welcome back to Robert John. He is now an Assistant Rated Instructor. December 02 Congratulations to Vic Blaxill and Pete Hurd. They are now both Full Rated Motor Glider Instructors. December 02 JJ has badly hurt his thumb by getting it trapped in the hangar doors. He has always made a point of  briefing others very carefully on this subject and knew that one day someone would get caught!! Please be carefull and advise others just how dangerous they can be. October  Congratulations to Russell Page who is now an Assistant Rated Instructor. He will now find out what "Bloggs" can really do to him!! 22nd September I hope that you have all noticed my cabbage patch, which used to be the North East Run. Please keep off it until Spring - I will have finished with the cabbages by then!! When setting up on the NE run allow enough space to aerotow on the Tower side of the patch and ensure that gliders are kept tight in and that the tug has room to pass in front of the glider. 28th August Our comittee has agreed in principle to allow NPPL(SLMG) training to be conducted from Dunstable. A suitable programme is to be developed for teaching the sylabus. There are some significant restrictions of course so as to keep noise nuisance under control and so as to restrict the training to existing members of the club. 19th August Another K21 broken by a heavy landing. This time the glider was flown solo, during the regionals but not in the comp. The pilot took a launch and landed down wind on the east run. Feeling that he was overshooting he forced the glider to land by moving the stick forward. This accident will come into the category of "post solo supervision" 8th August 2002 Now back from sunny Spain to a rather miserable UK. Feeling overdue for an instructors meeting. Full Cat Meeting      Saturday 31st August 8pm Assistant Meeting     Saturday 7th September 7.30pm Basic Ins. Meeting    Saturday 14th September 7 pm 19th July 2002 So how is the winch driver? When we have finished for the day we leave the winch driver to pack up and return the winch to the hangar area. If the winch driver fell and hurt themselves during that process would we realise? The proposal is that the launch point sends someone down to the winch when we have finished flying to help pack up and to provide backup. The winch master will ask the winch drivers to push this as a matter of urgency. Please be proactive and do your bit. 18th July 2002 What an awful week. We now have three broken K21's all of which were due to "Instructor took over too late" type accidents. Click here for safety section details. 8th July  The BGA would like to see instructor check flights carried out whilst it is still soarable and in any event by the end of September when the returns are due. Please see the proposed programme. 6th July Sorry about the delay in updates since the Cerdanya Trip. I came back to rather a high work load. 21st March We will be using new weak links on A/Tow ropes as the old ones are no longer available. There will be a single TOST weak link at the tug end at first. Please remind your pupils to hang onto the rope at the glider end in the event of a break. 21st March  Robin May will be looking after my CFI duties whilst I am away in Spain. JJ will be doing the usual good work during the week. Have a good and safe time whilst I am away. 10th February A really good weekend - for a change. Dave Starer was seen glued to the motor glider providing airspace exercises to five pupils - thanks Dave. Nick Tillett and Peter Claiden completed P1 rating renewals. 9th February All Lectures for Bronze Programme now covered - Thanks. 23rd January 2002 Full Cat instructors meeting, Sunday 24th February. Please attend if possible and let me know if not. 20th January 2002 Not Quite an Accident!! Please read this important reminder to us all - thanks Vic for the quick thinking and action. 12th January 2002 Congratulations to Graham Pursey for completing his acceptance checks. He is now an Assistant Rated Instructor. 12th January 2002 Thanks to Robin May for stepping in at no notice to cover the Bronze Lecture on Met. (Cock-up on the admin front!) The "Beat Ups" meeting concluded that: a) Competition finishes are OK during organised comps. b) Senior instructors in the club do not see eye to eye on the matter. A meeting of Full Cats will be held to arrive at a consensus. c) The need for better airmanship is required and will be communicated initially through a pre-season cross country meeting.   11th January 2002 The almost unreadable local regulations are now partly formatted. Please try them out and if you think that I am going the wrong way about it let me know before I get any further!  <<<Local Regulations>>> 11th January 2002 C of A's going well but neither HLG or HUD will be ready for the weekend. HLG  our second newest K21 is on a 3000 hour check!! See Equipment Status. 7th. January 2002 Andy Jude is helping out in the workshop. Two gliders HLG & HUD have gone in for CofA. Only 6 flights have taken place over the past three days due to fog and low cloud. The forecast is showing some improvement. 2nd January 2002 A cold and blowy South Easterly. Remember to choose your lessons carefully in these conditions. Not all tests are as constructive as they might be. Winch power failures and aerotow ropebreaks are not for these conditions!! 1st January 2002 Happy New Year to you all. It has been a wonderful days flying with the Didcot power station about half way to the horizon and Canary Wharf showing through the low mist. (Who had a flight in a T21 today after 27 years?) 30th December Two first solos today. Phil Lewis was sent solo by Alan Harrison - a first for them both! and Michelle Appleby was sent solo by Bob King. Congratulations all round. 24th December Another excellent hill soaring day. Watch out for the low sun on the beat to the south west. You - or your pupil should be doing "most of the giving way" but you - he or she - can see very little. 20th December Congratulations to Russell Page and Trevor Mills. Both have attained their Basic Instructor Ratings having completed their acceptance checks. 1st December This is the start of "free" airtime. This condition will remain to full flying members of the club for the first hour of flight in a club glider through Dec, Jan & Feb.. It does not apply to Probationary or Reciprocal members 25th November Our Cadet scheme is undergoing a revamp. Robin May has agreed to look after the scheme with the help of  Robin Hodge and Alan Harrison. One of the main changes is that it will be instructors looking after the cadets which I hope will help to keep them involved and interested. cadets 8th November Instructor returns are now overdue. Please send them in as soon as possible as a failure to get the returns compiled and back to the BGA by 31st December will result in us having no instructors! 20th September Some of our basic instructors have been to Bicester to take part in an assistant rating course. They have been told that on release from aerotow it is the slowing down after release that gives the required separation from the rings...... It is not... It is the combination of slowing and turning that provides adequate separation. See BGA recommended practise 13 in the new Laws and Rules for glider pilots. If you do not turn away the tug pilot will not know that you have released. You will be charged for the height at which the tug pilot realises....... or more to the point is able to confirm that you have released. 9th. September Snow today. Remember that a build up of snow on the leading edges can dramatically change the characteristics of the wings.