A cool head, diplomacy and a great dress sense are just some of the qualities needed in a CFI.

After five years as Chief Flying Instructor, Rod Ward retires

Rod’s five years are nearly up and he would do it again but for his years.

At the AGM in late Feb / March a new CFI will be voted in. In an interview late last year Rod told Gransden Times about his time as CFI and what he believes training can bring to member development and how it can help membership retention.

Richard Brickwood also brings up the issue of retention and operational efficiency

whilst Andrew Hulme highlights how impor-tant it is to cut down waste: the figures are a bit scary. Also on the issue of operations is the weighty matter of getting a second tug for 2009. Robert Bryce-Smith looks at the Robin DR 400 and explains why a sub-committee favours it. If you know little about tugs, the article is quite an education.

A lecture by Loek Boermans on boundary layer control will also be an education.

Gransden timesJanuary 2009

What tug should we get next? Robert Bryce-Smith goes tyre-kicking - page 5

A new year: and for some, new toys. The recession hasn’t stopped glider devel-opment with Schemp Hirth and Schleichler launch-ing new models Page 12

At the AGM this Spring CGC will vote in a new CFI.Current CFI, Rod Ward, talks about his last five years and offers some advice for his successor Page 8

We need two tugs at CGC.Robert Bryce-Smith goes tyre-kicking and thinks the Robin DR 400 is the best and explains why. Page 5

Changes in the office as Jan Ivory retires and Ni-cola Morgan takes over on weekends. Page 3

Fuel for thought. George Knight sniffs around the fuel dump to find out what goes into the tugs and becomes rampant when explaining how to fit a TE tube. Page 13

Boundary layer control has the potential to make every glider in production obsolete. Loek Boermans is the man who could make it happen and he’s speaking in London soon. Page 7

Fit for purpose? James Kellerman reckons new medicals will only make EASA’s bank balance healthier. Page 2

How fast did you go man? George Sanderson has built a new manometer for checking your ASIPage 15

Rod Ward in the back of HGV (a DG 500) on a late autumn 280Km flight with the editor in 2003

Gransden times is the magazine of Cambridge Gliding Club - www.glide.co.uk. Editorial contact: gt@glide.co.uk

GT 2 January 2009

Personal views

Whether the weather be hot or whether the weather be cold, we must weather the weather...

Which is pretty cold com-fort if you’ve been gliding in the UK for the last two

years. But instead of whining, per-haps there is some pleasure to be had grinding away at 900 ft in half a knot.

When I went to buy my first glider the owner said something which has always stuck with me: “on any flight you will get low and how you cope with that will determine whether you get back or not.” Nine hundred feet over Great Malvern is not the time or place to do your practice.

There are a few weeks before we can start picking the first crop of spring thermals. These feisty, unreliable, nar-

row cored delinquents offer fantastic opportunities to get back into thermal practice. They can also be great fun to fly and very rewarding to climb in. The other type of thermal lift worth hunting down is that which occurs on overcast days; the thermals typically are weak and broad. Gransden village will quite often generate a steady stream of rising air on these days with a cloud base of little more

than 1,300 ft. You can’t go anywhere in these conditions but they are as much a part of soaring as 8knt streets at 5000ft because they offer the chance to stay air bourne and to wait for better conditions. But thermals are like Leonard Cohen

lyrics, no matter how many times you hear them, they always take you by sur-prise and are impossible to remember.

The importance of practicing on poor thermal days was brought home when I took a look at Robert Welford’s trace of his 750Km diploma flight. Not much more than 90 minutes after launch, and miles from home, he was under 1000ft. My heart was pounding just looking at the

trace. For most, this day-of-days would have been over. We have poor weather in the UK but it doesn’t stop Phil Jeffery racking up the miles and trophies: it has made many British world cham-pions and Team GB number one.

So, how much practice should you do in poor conditions? Enough such that you come to enjoy it. Remember, the Juniors come with 15 minutes of soar-ing time included in the winch cost and you don’t have to rig them - Hallelujah.

Ed’s bit

Are you fit to fly? That all de-pends upon your perception of the certification process. Most

of us have a driving licence and know that there are some minimum medi-cal standards that have to be achieved. Oddly enough, some of these standards are more stringent than those currently used for glider flying! The system works well enough so it should come as no surprise that the whole thing is under threat from the dreaded EASA. Once again we are being forced to surrender to a purposeless, large, unrepresentative and expensive bureaucracy based somewhere in Europe. They need their jobs and your money more than ever before. You have already experienced the Joy of EASA Certificate of Airworthiness so it was only a matter of time before they would get their hands on the process of Pilot Licensing and Medicals.

The present medical certification is simple for the majority of club pilots. It’s based on DVLA driving standards 1 and

2. This declaration system has served us well. JAR 1 and 2 involve professional and other private pilot licences. Thanks to the internet all this information is available to you freely on the BGA web-site and I will dwell it no more.

EASA needs to encompass all aspects of your flying life and to make money in the process. The greatest prior-ity is safety and this can only be achieved by multiple layering of forms and other obstacles placed in the way of well heeled, law abiding, tax paying citizens. I may be a little cynical but I suspect that the net effect will be to deter per-fectly able bodied people with minor ailments from taking up gliding. The mountains of worthless legislation are simply a failure to understand the problem and the need to deflect blame when an accident occurs. Whilst human performance is fre-quently at fault, physical fitness seldom figures large in serious accidents. Serious catastrophic health failure whilst flying is unpredictable and seldom foreseen or prevented by health screening.

Again, the BGA is fighting on our behalf and if the common sense approach is followed then we need have no fears. The NPA2008-17c or Notice of Proposed Amendment sounds innocent enough. “Just a little ole notice to let you folks know what we’re up to.” The devil is in the detail and it will drag us into this

maelstrom of legislation which at best is inappropriate for the gliding fraternity and at worst will give a false sense of security, because you will have ticked so many boxes that you will believe that you are fit enough to pilot the first mis-sion to Mars.

The 66 pages of NPA 2008-17c make for terrifying reading. (www.easa.europa.eu/ws_prod/r/r_npa.php) It is a lawyer’s daydream loaded with definitions and qualifying clauses. Oh so much fun and what’s more all this new nonsense will

hit your pockets hard.Hopefully the Leisure Pilot Licence

(LPL) medical will be little different to the present system except it may cost more because of the pressure to use more specialised doctors. The EASA class 1 and 2 (not to be confused with DVLA 1&2) will be equivalent to the current JAR1 and JAR2 for professional and private flying.

The real aspects of fitness to fly are about common sense health checks such as not being over tired, hung over, dehydrated, hungry or unduly stressed. You can tick as many boxes as you like before you fly, to satisfy EASA, but it won’t make you any safer in the air.Happy New Year

HeartbeatHot on the heels of Mode S come new medicals. Neurosurgeon James Keller-man casts doubt on the proposal’s efficacy

You can tick as many boxes as you like before you fly, to satisfy EASA, but it

won’t make you any safer in the air

...thermals are like Leonard Cohen lyrics, no matter how many time you hear them, they always take you by surprise...

January 2009 GT 3

Money, money, money

After nearly 18 months of “ short term cover” recommenced at short notice, Jan Ivory is retiring from week-end duties in the office. Thanks for all your hard work Jan - especially on some hectic Sundays this Summer.

We welcome Nicola Morgan whom some of you will have met by the time this issue of the Gransden Times arrives on your computer. Nicola has no experi-ence of a Gliding Club but brings some great administration skills and a lot of enthusiasm to the team. Please introduce yourself to Nicola, be a little patient while she finds her way round our sys-tems and if she needs a bit of assistance with non-member visitors please give her a hand with explanations (of what gliding involves) to the visitors. Nicola will be working mainly on Sundays and occasionally on Saturdays to cover Jo Griffin when she is not available.

The club non-flying facilities are very valuable to the whole operation but some aspects such as maintenance and energy usage are quite a drain on funds - funds you provide by subscriptions, facility fees and so on. Recent items of necessary expenditure have included about £1000 on re-sheeting the hangar doors (great team work in unpleasant weather by Julian Bayford and a small bunch of enthusiasts), new secure doors for the tug fuel store/workshop and clubhouse and so on. The committee are

Jan Ivory recieves a farewell bouquet from chairman, Richard Brickwood. Photo courtesy of Geoff Brown

The Office

keen to keep the buildings and airfield in order as well as the operational kit but we do need every member’s help to keep expenditure under control. Please treat everything, however insignificant, with care. Accidents happen, of course, but if they do please report damage so it can be fixed without further deterioration. The tug fuel door (relatively new) has already had impact damage and without a modest repair the door will quickly deteriorate. Someone could have reported it.

Bah HumbugOn the energy front too, we are

spending a good deal of your money in keeping the security lights burning, the clubhouse warm, batteries charged, and the office team from dying of hypo-thermia. Please do all you can to help, switch off lights, switch of battery char-gers which are not charging batteries and think economy - as you would at home.

Why am I raising this? Well Mark Collins did an “energy audit” recently and found our electricity costs (about £3000 a year) are contributed to at the rate of about £12 to £15 for each battery charger which runs for a whole year; by £50 to £60 for even the most modest heater in a parachute cupboard and so on...it all builds up. Money spent unnec-essarily on these things detracts from that which could be spent on flying related activities.

In the depth of winter it’s not easy to think so far ahead - but bookings are now being taken for group flying evenings and member’s flying evenings. These dates fill up fast........so why not get something arranged - details from the office. Remember the second flight for these evenings comes at half price so fix your numbers to allow for this high value flying.

A special price applies for member’s groups - all you have to do is be a full member - and arrange your own crew.

In 2009 we aim to have light refresh-ments available for groups on arrival. Many visitors will have come straight from work and would welcome sand-wiches. Details available from Joanne in the office. Andrew Hulme, Treasurer

But great value for group trial flight evenings

Money matters

The times they are A-changin’...

When our Chairman, Richard Brickwood, sidled up to me in the clubhouse kitchen two

months ago making a casual enquiry about what I was doing, his phone call two days later asking: “would you take over Gransden Times?” did not come as a surprise. “I will give it some thought,” I said.

When thinking about it, my first instinct was to position Gransden Times somewhere between “Nuts” and an Air Accident Investigation Branch report. So it should be entertaining, flippant, cred-ible, informative, useful, controversial,

educational and colourful. It also had to be accessible to those new to gliding and to CGC.

But any club magazine needs contributors: not only of words but of pictures and ideas for articles. Some ideas for future editions include: how to become a hot air balloon pilot, mainte-nance of the club 2-seaters, and how to become a tug pilot. We might even take a look at sailing and hang-gliding. I also want Gransden Times to take the ordi-nary member behind the scenes of club management and operations. To provide an insight into decision making (such as getting a new tug - P5) as well as report-ing on members achievements - Page 16. But there is a world of gliding outside the airfield boundary. New gliders are be-ing built, Page 12, and new instruments to go in them. Very occasionally, radical new ideas emerge on wing design - try and get yourself to the Loek Boermans lecture in London on 17th February - P4

Finally, I know all members will want to say thank you to Gavin Deane for his five years work on Gransden Times. As our Chairman points out on page 4, Gavin took Gransden Times from tree-ware to the web. Paul Harvey

...my first instinct was to position Gransden Times somewhere beween “Nuts” and an Air Accident Inves-tigation report.

From the Chairman

GT 4 January 2009

Before anything else – a happy, prosperous and enjoyable New Year to all members of Cam-

bridge Gliding Club. I hope that every-one has a terrific season, that you each achieve the goal you set yourselves for 2009 but, above all, have a great time at Gransden Lodge throughout the year – and, remember, that if Santa didn’t deliver that wizzy new glider that you so richly deserved there is always next Christmas to work towards.

If everything goes according to plan (bearing in mind that I am writing this in

mid-December for a mid-January pub-lication date) you will have noticed that this edition launches a “new look” for Gransden Times. This has been inspired by Paul Harvey who has taken over as editor following Gavin Dean’s request to stand down. Gavin has done a terrific job for over five years and we all owe him a huge vote of thanks for taking Gransden Times from tree-ware to the electronic age and thereby making it free to dis-tribute, instantaneously and easy to send worldwide - and archive copies are sim-ple to access though the web site. Gavin even managed to dragoon the regular contributors into providing copy before most of his deadlines. (How did he do that? Ed) This is no mean feat given the time management skills of some of us. Gavin is taking a break from gliding but, hopefully, he will soon discover that it is an unmissable sport and rush to sign–up again once he sees the error of his ways.

Meanwhile, Paul has been busy with the re-design and has generated a load of new ideas for this, and forthcoming, editions. We wish him well. Gransden Times is a vital part of the communica-tion plan for Cambridge Gliding Club and so the more it is read, and the more

that our members contribute to it, the better it will become.

The copy and publication dates for Gransden Times for the rest of 2009 will be published in the Club’s 2009 calendar, the first cut of which will be released in early January.

Many members are working to deliver a vibrant flying program for 2009. This will aim to offer as many organised opportunities for each of our members as possible whilst trying to attract, train and retain, as many new members as we can. In 2008 we recruited over 25 new members and we need to maintain this momentum if we are to continue growing. The more mem-bers we have, the more we can achieve, whilst keeping our flying costs under control. We really do need to build our full flying numbers up to a stable number

in excess of 200 and the huge amount of work put in by Tony Cron-shaw, Andrew Watson, Julian

Bane and others of the Recruitment and Retention Sub-Committee is delivering much of our current success. They de-serve your active support and are always looking for willing volunteers for ev-erything from helping out at recruitment opportunities such as the Little Gransden Airshow or the glider exhibition in Cam-bridge, as part of the University’s Fresh-ers’ Week, to instructors and ground crew for the Evening Classes – or simply the provi-sion of bright ideas. We need all the bright ideas we can get – and help in delivering them.

In 2009 we will be hosting the Vintage Glider Rally (May 24th-30th) and have applied to host two BGA AssCat Courses in April and September. We also have an application in for the Inter-Uni-versity Task Week to be held in the early summer and are planning formal five-day gliding courses for the first week of each month and a cross-country course on the last week of each month. Then there’s the Gransden Regionals from August 22nd-29th, a Club Expedition to a wave site in

the Autumn, the “unofficial” trip to Jaca in April which is being organised by Bill Bullimore. And if you don’t have your own glider, remember the Single Seat Scheme (which Neil Goudie has taken over from Julian Bane after seven years – thank you Julian and welcome Neil) – which will enable non-private owners to take part in many of these events. And if

all that is not enough, we have the Kel-man Clock Competition running until the start of British Summer Time (Sunday, 29th March). A number of winter lectures are being finalised and the AGM in late February/early March at which we will be raffling the second of the Virgin Hot Air balloon vouchers – but you will need to be there to take part. Dates for these events will be posted to the Club calen-dar and on the web site as soon as they are finalised.

In addition, we are reviewing some of our administrative procedures with the overall aims of capitalising on the hun-dreds of trial lessons which we provide each year and improving the efficient use of Club assets, not least by improv-ing the launch rate and improving launch point etiquette. One significant, and easy to implement, improvement will be the re-launch of the Assistant Launch Marshal role as Launch Point Assistant. This will be unveiled in late January and all members who are not currently on

another roster, including those who are pre-solo, will be invited to participate. A Cadet and Young Adults Roster, with a similar role, will be launched at the same time. We simply need to improve the launch rate and accuracy of log keeping. The Launch Point Assistant will be a way of achieving those goals and that will be of benefit to all Club members.

I hope to see you at many of these events – or at least on the flight line.

Have a good season – I intend to.

Richcard Brickwood, Chairman CGC

...improving the efficient use of club assets, not least by improving the launch rate and launch point etiquette.

In 2008 we recruited over 25 new mem-bers and we need to maintain this mo-mentum if we are to continue growing.

Richard Brickwood outlines a vibrant

flying plan for 2009 and improvements in

operations

...formal five-day gliding courses for the first week of each month and a cross-country course on the last week of each month...

Is this the perfect tug? Low fuel consumption, good rate of climb and simple construction, the Robin DR 300

Batman’s choice Tug news

It’s not been a good year for the tugs at Gransden. The Rallye collapsed and the Pawneee failed more than once. Even a new Grob 109, on loan, decided to play the Joker. So, what tug to get next? Robert Bryce-Smith thinks a Robin DR 400 is the answer to the riddle

Left: The Rallye in bits. The front nose-wheel collapsed while taxi-ing at low speed. The impact meant the engine had to be “split” (a technical term for a detailed inspection) and the aircraft written off. The insurance money will allow us to replace it. The new owner is rebuilding the Rallye and has gener-ously offered us the use of it as a tug, from time-to-time, this season.The Rallye: Legless

As you know, this year has seen a few changes on the tug front.

Until last June we had a Rallye, which we bought in 1990, but it’s not suited to wet conditions due to its complex slats (leading edge high lift devices), flaps and undercarriage; all suffer damage in the mud. Also, being a nose-wheel aircraft, it is vulnerable to prop strikes in soft ground. And though it’s adequate for 20m modern gliders (Duo Discus, DG 1000) it’s not efficient at the higher towing speeds demanded by these high performance gliders. A fully ballasted standard class or racing class glider also needs a higher towing speed to provide a margin over raised stall speed. A glider, off tow sinks, and in a funny sort of way, the vertical component of its drag acts as lift. On tow this doesn’t happen. This is why a Discus that would normally fly happily at 50kts off tow hangs uncontrollably below the tug on tow at similarly slow speeds.

We own a Pawnee, which is very practical and powerful with its 235 HP engine and it’s good on wet ground, having been designed for agricultural use with large wheels and no nose-wheel. Its cross wind performance is also good with a low wing and large control surfaces. The downside is it’s thirsty being very draggy and having a big engine.

But we have about 80 privately owned gliders on site and that dictates we’re a two tug club: the facility fee (£225 per year per glider) effectively enables us to offer two tugs capable of towing modern and sometimes heavy gliders. We also run a major competition each year and occasionally a national competition.

The Club bought the Rallye in 1990 to cope with the first of these big gliders. It was also good on the better drained field at Duxford.

We need a tug with a minimum of 180 hp to cope with current demands.

The Robin DR400 has been

January 2009 GT 5

chosen as its wing is optimised for the higher towing speeds of modern gliders. This better performance at 80 kts gives a shorter time to release height and hence better fuel economy. It is easy to fly and is a comfortable tourer with a good range for four adults and a good training aircraft. It has a simpler construction, relative to the Rallye, and lower maintenance costs. The resale value should also be good due to its popularity and it has the best fuel economy of all 180hp tugs.

The DR300, pictured on page 5, on loan from The London Gliding Club,

is very similar to the DR400 but with a narrower cabin and d o o r s , r a t h e r than the one-piece

canopy. It does not have approval for the 4 bladed props that we need for our planning permission but recent developments in propellor technology, focusing on noise reduction, have made modern 2 bladed props almost as quiet.

For those not familiar with powered aircraft, a little bit about propellers.

Four-bladed props, with their lower tip speed, are quieter than two-bladed propellers and their greater drag helps descent profiles and short landings. In addition, their shorter blades give more ground clearance. Four-bladed props can “screw” the same amount of air whilst being shorter than two bladed props. The Robin DR400/300 also

has a proven track record at Lasham, Dunstable and Booker. But what else should we consider?

The Super Cub 180 is a wonderful aeroplane though vulnerable in strong winds and unable to take a 4 bladed prop. Then there’s the Bellanca Scout but there are very few around and it’s not really a touring aircraft so we would not have access to that revenue stream.

The Supermunk, basically a Chipmunk with a big engine, is fun to fly. They are non aerobatic (a shame as it might then have been used for private hire) and they are not ideal for club towing unless all pilots are very current on type as they are more complex and require more training.

So what about a motor glider, such as the Grob 109 we have on hire? The downside is they lack “grunt” on the initial ground run which can be a problem with heavy gliders. Also, they have not been tested on multiple towing operations over a season. However, they are economical to run especially if dropping the glider overhead the airfield – due to its powerful brakes. As an aside, in order to reduce “shock cooling” on an engine that has climbed at slow speed and at full power, we descend with gently reducing power and slowly accelerating. We take 30 seconds at CGC to get from release point to descent. With the Grob you simply open the brakes and because it’s engine is water cooled there is no risk of engine damage. Motorgliders are also very good at towing slower gliders. The Grob will tow happily at 50 kts whilst the Robin is nearer 60

kts minimum. There has been a lot of discussion about using diesel engines in tugs, but the size we need have not

yet been developed. Perhaps they will be available in 10 years time when the Pawnee needs a new power plant?

We have formed a sub-committee consisting of Andy Jude, Andrew Hulme, David Howse and myself to find a replacement for the Rallye and we have agreed on the Robin DR400. We are still searching for the right one and hoping to take advantage of a buyers market. In the meantime, should we not find a suitable example, we will lease another tug, probably the Robin DR300 we operated this year.

By the way, the Rallye salvage has been sold to a local Rallye enthusiast who is repairing it in the back of our hangar. It should be finished very soon and we have been kindly offered its use during busy occasions next season as a spare/third tug.

We know what we want – but due to the availability of spare tugs right now – we don’t feel the need to rush into a purchase. We will, however, operate two tugs for next season.

Above, the Pawnee: draggy, powerfull and thirsty but just what you want in a fully ballasted 15m glider or Duo Discus. Photo courtesy of Robert Bryce-Smith

Left, The Grob109: not a lot of grunt but good economy, rapid descent capabil-ity for fast turnaround and proving popular with motorglider pilots. But as a regular tug is unproven

the Robin’s wing is optimised for the higher towing speeds of modern gliders.

The downside of motorgliders is they lack “grunt” on the

initial ground run

GT 6 January 2009

About the author: Robert Bryce-Smith is a training captain with easyjet, our chief tug pilot, full CAT, former club CFI and founder of Bluebell Airways.

January 2009 GT 7

Diary

Every year the Vintage Glider Club (VGC) holds a National Rally, and for 2009 we are the host Club

- 23rd to 31st May at Gransden Lodge. That means an influx of wonderful gliders from all round the country, and probably from abroad too. Most of them wooden, all of them colourful, some no doubt equipped with the latest in struts and skids, Cosim variometers, open cockpits and other delights unknown to the present generation.

Loek Boermans is one of world’s best know low-speed aerody-namicist and Associate Professor

of Aerodynamics at Delft University of Technology and President of OSTIV.

On Tuesday17th February 2009 he is giving a lecture at The Royal Aeronauti-cal Society in Hamilton place, London - entry is free.

The lecture is in two parts. The first part covers recent aerodynamic develop-ments in wing, winglet, wing-fuselage junctions and tailplane design as applied to high performance gliders such as the Antares and Concordia (an advanced de-velopment of the ASW22) and ASH-30.

The second part looks at the devel-opment of boundary layer control and the use of suction to reduce drag. It seems a new low-cost method has been devel-oped to drill the tiny holes in the wing skin so a suction can be applied to con-trol the boundary layer. This technology could radically improve the performance of gliders. This lecture is a rare opportu-nity to learn about what is happening at the cutting edge of sailplane design.

The lecture starts at 6 pm with refreshments from 5-30 pm. Whilst there is no charge for attending, the organisers have asked that you let them know if you are going.

Conference & Events Department Royal Aeronautical Society No.4 Hamilton Place, London W1 Tel: 020 7670 4345 Email: conference@raes.org.uk www.aerosociety.com/conference

Last year at the Southdown Club 23 gliders attended, the oldest being a 1935 Scud III and a 1937 Rhoenbussard. Plen-ty of Slingsby wood, from Kites I and II and a Sky to Swallows and Skylarks, and of course a T21b to keep Bluebell company as well as a Capstan. Elliotts of Newbury (did you know that was what EoN stood for?) were represented by two Olympia 2b’s and a 463. And there were two Huetter H17a’s.

See what fun can be had with these older machines. Perhaps even cadge a lift in a two-seater, or talk one of the owners of a single-seater into letting you have a go. Come and learn how to park a proper glider on a windy day. Windy or not, there will be plenty of opportunities for willing hands to help with the gliders on the field.

Gentle tasks may be the order of the day, but without a hill nearby just staying airborne can be quite a challenge, with length of flight (measured in hours, not miles) once again being scored.

Last year we hosted a VGC weekend during which I gave an evening talk on the history of the Cambridge University Gliding Club. We had only a few visitors then, but in May we can expect a good turn out, and I’ll happily try again. And if it rains and rains I can always polish up my talk on the history of the best-speed-to-fly theory.

So put 23 – 31 May in your diary and look forward to a Gransden week with a difference.

For information about the VGC, including membership details, visit www.vintagegliderclub.org.

Anthony Edwards

Leave the ASG-29 behind

Robert Bryce-Smith gets some early practice in Bluebell for the Vintage Glider Rally in May. Picture courtesy of Robert Bryce-Smith

Could boundary layer control become a reality in gliders?

And if you can’t hack it in the UK...

Then there’s always Jaca in the Spanish Pyrenees. Bill Bullimore has been arranging this trip for

many years with regulars such as James Kellerman and Robert Welford. This year they have access to a Duo Discus for the first week through Brian Spreckley: the cost for the Duo is £55 for a half day or £110 for a whole day. The dates are 18th April to 3rd of May.

Bill reckons there will be about a dozen members going and four private gliders. However, with a Duo Discus (very reasonably priced) and people cleared to fly it, this could be an excel-lent chance to do some mountain flying in what are generally good conditions in spectacular surroundings.

Gliders are typically shipped from Portsmouth to Bilboa in northern Spain with an easy days drive to this well equipped gliding site. Ryanair fly to Zaragosa, about 100 miles to the south of Jaca. For more details, please contact Bill Bullimore (bill@multihulls.co.uk)

Bill Bullimore flying his Mosquito in the Spanish Pyranees: Picture courtesy of Bill Bullimore

Theory and practice

Members of the British Gliding Team, including coaches, will be at

Bicester on Sunday 8th February to pass on some tips about flying faster. These theory sessions will cover task setting, weather and instrumentation.

Following this there will be a practi-cal flying weekend at Lasham starting 25th April putting the theory from Bices-ter into practice and the organisers hope to have a 2-seater available. Most will need to take thier own, or a club glider. Priotity will be given to those attending the workshop in Bicester.

To register your interest and book a place, email Liz Sparrow -

ebertoya@iee.org

GT 8 January 2009

Cover story

Chief Flying Instructor is one of the big three jobs in gliding.

Some clubs have paid full-time professionals but Cambridge has been lucky to have found

volunteers for the role

Good Finish

Former club member and 18m world champion, Phil Jones, finishes the Gransden GP 2006 in a Ventus 2a, E4. Photo courtesy of James Kellerman

Former club member and 18m world champion, Phil Jones, finishes the Gransden GP 2006 in a Ventus 2a, E4. Photo courtesy of James Kellerman

Rod Ward retires after five years as CFI and offers some adviceto his successor

Rod was first captivated by flying at the age of five. For 35 years it was a dream until a flight in a Grob 109 in Devon.

Now, a further 21 years down the line, in his violin workshop in Burwell, Cambs, Rod is prepar-ing to hand over the role he has fulfilled for the last five years.

Rod soloed at North Hill, Devon, in 1987 in a K13 and spent many hours ridge soaring before he knew what a thermal was. “It [ridge soaring] did me an awful lot of good because I learnt a lot about turbulence.” It also gave him one of very few memorable scary moments. “I was coming back in a DG 100 on a very marginal final glide and landed wheels-up.”

Rod started on an instructor course at North Hill, becoming a Basic Instructor in late 1990 and with some chutzpah applied for a summer job at London Gliding Club, Dunstable. In early 1991 he did an instructor course with Chris Rollings at Booker.

“Chris was the best instructor of instructors - superb, a good instructor [he adds] is one who can see what a student needs and can help them.” The comment comes despite Rollings failing him at first attempt for a Full CAT rating. But when Rod did get his rating (with Chris Rollings) he ranked it as a highlight of his gliding career - along with going solo.

The job of CFI is a big one. Only the roles of treasurer and chairman compare in terms of workload. Rod Ward had five years as CFI and now reflects on what he achieved and how instructing can help improve membership.

January 2009 GT 9

... and defends his decision to move the launch-point.

Rod Ward in his violin workshop in Burwell: Rod started making violins aged 28 and moved from Dunstable in 1996 because of the high reputation of East Anglian violin makers.

Cover story

GT 10 January 2009

The high quality of local violin makers prompted a move to the Cam-bridge area in 1996 and Cambridge Gliding Club. He admits that becom-ing CFI of “one of the top clubs in the country” has been one of his proudest achievements. So what advice is there for the successor? Rod is clear: “Treat everyone the same and delegate. One of the worst parts of being CFI initially was the constant correspondence on minor issues but I soon learnt to delegate and the flying committee was a great help as was Richard Maskell, the club’s deputy CFI, and Mike Smith, the club’s Safety Officer.” Nonetheless, being CFI took up a substantial amount of time. “But the best bit was flying with instructors and teaching people how to teach. And I got to meet a lot of members - a pretty good bunch.” Philippa, Rod’s partner, brings in some tea and carrot cake. Refreshed, I decide to tackle Rod on why he moved the launch point forward on “22”.

The argument [against the move] is that the new position gives lower launches, gives the illusion of safety, when going to the launch point and reduces safety for pilots because the op-tions for landing ahead or going around are reduced..

Answering the “illusion of safety” question: “I had to consider public safety. There is also a BGA recommendation that the aerotow and winch launch points are ‘well separated’. As for lower launch-es, well the launch height is a bit less but remember the runway length of “22” is the same as “04” and no one has sug-gested we move the launch points back to the airfield boundary. There is also the question of opera-tional efficiency. Everyone remembers the launch point being blocked because of gliders overshooting and the time wasted dragging them out of the way. That is rare now. When we first moved to Gransden, it was always the intention to site the launch points where we have them now.”

Among Rod’s other initiatives were installing radios in the 2-seater fleet and down-wind calls. He also persuaded the committee to have C3 flight computers fitted to the Pegasus and Discuses.

But what of the future and life after CFI? “I plan to continue as an instructor and Regional Examiner: instructing is half the fun of being in the club. But the

time to stop is when you become unsafe or stop enjoying it.” There will also be more time for flying his LS7, 7R, on his favourite route, Great Malvern out and return (300km) which he’s flown in three hours and 10 minutes - a flight he rates as one of his best. As for the worst flight, “failing to get away after three launches on a 300Km day.”

And ambitions? “To keep on enjoy-ing it and get my diamond height”. There is no desire either to get a new glider reckoning the best glider is his LS7, “on an eight knot day.”

There are things which were not achieved. “I would like to have seen a structured cross-country scheme.” But his passion returns when it comes back to instructing. “I would like see more theory taught and earlier, on a more for-mal basis to encourage new members.”

At the AGM, you will have a chance to vote for a new CFI.

the best bit was flying with instructors and teaching people how to teach. And I got to meet a

lot of members - a pretty good bunch.”

From the archives

JOHN BIRCH writes: “For those who were involved, the construction of Gransden Lodge seems a very recent event, and we can assume that every member is familiar with it. In fact about two thirds of the current membership have joined since we moved from Duxford, so the following may give some idea of what went on, and how we come to have the facilities we have today”

Building Gransden Lodge

At Duxford we had the use of a blister hanger for the fleet, a Romney hut for the winch, tow-

out vehicles, a brick built workshop and clubhouse. It wasn’t the world’s greatest clubhouse, being a Portakabin previously used as the sleeping quarters for the work-ers who constructed the M11.

We set our sights quite modestly at Gransden. Just the same buildings but per-haps bigger and better. Step up, the newly retired Bryce, previously a civil engineer with Cambridge City Council into the role of Obergruppenfuhrer.

The only problem was money - we didn’t have anything like enough. Howard Franks (of blessed memory) had a father who knew of a blister hanger going beg-ging at Biggin Hill for £50. All we had to do was dismantle it, transport it 70 miles and re-erect it.

Although the framework was put up professionally by two builder-members, the cladding was done by volunteers. It was at that point that we discovered some-thing strange about most of our members. No - they weren’t workshy, far from it, but 80 per cent are afraid of heights.

Standing on a scaffold tower with our then CFI, Robert Bryce-Smith, looking quite uncomfortable at being 15 feet up, was a shock.

The Romney hut was more entertain-ing. It came from a scrap merchant’s yard in Cambridge and was a real bargain - it was pretty cheap at £800. Again all we had to do was take it away.

This time we didn’t use professionals. While the frames could simply be un-bolted into sections (by the 20 per cent of members prepared to go up a ladder), it had a brick end wall that had to be demol-ished. Those of you who have never seen Richard Maskell handed the controls of a JCB with the suggestion that: “this might just bring that wall down” have not seen a man on a mission.

Sadly, although there were probably 30 of us there that day, there were probably no eye witnesses to the demolition itself. Richard having decided the best strategy was to knock a hole in the wall, put a chain through it and simply pull the wall down, proceeded to do so. The rest of us ran away very fast.

The Romney hut was re-erected on the base of what had been some pig sheds. The storm of 1987 had conveniently re-moved the roof (and parked it in Caxton 3/4 mile away) and we simply had to remove the three foot high breeze block walls between the stalls. It’s surprising how much pent up frustration there is in the average professional by Saturday morning. Sledge hammers were clearly wielded at more than walls and Sue Bell (Mrs. Dave Howse) looked like taking off every time she swung. It must have been a bad week.

Re-erection was a fairly easy - bolt the frames together and to the concrete and replace the cladding. This was done in the evenings by teams, one for each evening of the week. It became a contest of course to make the most progress.

Nick and Mark Robinson, who had the advantage of being light enough to walk on the roof, (and not afraid to be more than 6 ft up) set the pace for the rest of us. Incidentally, look at how well the Rom-ney hut fits its concrete base - pure luck.

And so to the clubhouse and workshop. These were built in sections recovered from an industrial timber framed work-shop at Newmarket, and came to us via Anne Walker at £150. Again, demolish it and we could have it.

John Glossop appeared one evening after finishing less well than usual in a Nationals and accelerated the pace (isn’t adrenaline a wonderful thing?). Enough panels were recovered for three build-ings (the rest are still in the Romney hut). Re-erection was pretty simple, once the concrete bases had been laid, and the vol-unteer crews managed the internal plas-terboard ceilings, but the professionals had to the finishing touches including the superb brickwork in the bar.

And finally - the roads. All those tarmac chippings - around the clubhouse, the car park and the base of our entrance road were once the A604 (now A14). Procured by Andy Walford and Bryce, these were again free, provided we could accept them on site in the middle of the night.

Andy stayed up, we got our chippings (most of them, although there are probably some well made up farmer’s tracks near-by now) and the residents of Longstowe seem to have forgiven the procession of 32-ton lorries.

If it seems that Gransden Lodge was built for nothing, don’t let the above fool you. Concrete footings, labour, transport, drainage, electrics, and goodness knows what else set us back over £80,000. The grass seed cost over £7,000.

And so we moved in. On October 12, 1991, our last flying day at Duxford. The last glider over was the K-6 flown by Ja-net Birch, and we opened for business as usual the next day.

John with the Grob

In the first of an occasional series, Gransden Times looks back to earlier years in the club’s history

January 2009 GT 11

Caught in the net

Alexander Schleicher stop production of ASW-22 and ASH-25

In the end, not even Michael Som-mers’s victory in the Open Class World Championships last year in

an ASW22 BLE could save the ASW-22. The end of ASH-25 production had already been announced to make way for the 26.5m ASH-30 of which over 40 have been ordered.

What was not expected however was that AS would develop their self-launch-ing ASH-26E to take on the open class ships. The latest offering, branded ASH 31Mi, has the option of tips to take the wing out to 21 meters from the original 18 and uses a Wankel engine. This is no simple extension to the ASH-26 18m wing. The wing is new and draws on the development of the ASG 29.The maiden flight is expected this year with produc-tion starting in 2010. No performance claims are made for the 31 Mi. Start saving.

However, AS have clearly taken account of a crashing sterling and have extended their range so we can all afford something with an AS badge on it. In the new line-up are caps, watches, shirts, models (of their gliders) and posters. All pretty poor substitutes for an ASG-29, but beggars can’t be choosers.

Schemp Hirth announce the Arcus, a new 20m flapped 2-seater

New product planning is obvious-ly a challenging discipline. Who would launch a new glider into

the worst recession since 1929? Having just got the Duo-Discus right, with an undercarriage you can operate from the rear seat and airbrakes that work decent-ly, Schemp Hirth have just released the Arcus. Though the wing looks like that of the Duo, SH say it is all new with full span flaperons.

The fuselage however will come from the newly launched Duo Discus XL which will take either the self sustainer Solo 2350 or the Solo 2625-2 for the self-launching variant. There will also be a pure glider version.

Last year SH announced a tie up with

Lange, the maker of the self launching, battery powered, 20m Antares. The first fruit of this tie-up will be an electric self-launching version of the Arcus. The Arcus prototype is expected to be flying this year.

DG produce self-launching 1000Not to be outdone, DG have made a self-launching version of the DG-1000 and added the option of an electically retract-able undercarriage. The new undercar-riage system can also be retro-fitted to exisiting DG 1000s.

GT 12 January 2009

Insurance costs to rise

Secretary news

This (below) is the club’s “Slazenger” trophy, which I think is one of our

more stylish trophies. It is awarded each year for “For the fastest, handicapped flight around the Slazenger triangle: Turn-ing points at Newport Pagnell and Rush-den (110Km). For novices only. A “nov-ice” is defined by the inter-club league rules as “Not having taken part in a rated competition,” and “Not having done a flight which would qualify for Gold Dis-tance.” There are a few other limitations which are defined on the club web site.

So why am I telling you all this? Be-cause no novice did the Slazenger last year and the trophy therefore remained un-claimed. Now I’m not particularly sad about that. When I was a novice I never managed to win the trophy, and now I’m technically an “Intermediate” and therefore unable to compete for it. But I now get to put it on my sideboard for the next 12 months. Someone’s got to look after it, and as Sec-retary I see it as one of the perks of the job.

In all, four trophies weren’t claimed last year (and yes, I could’ve made an at-tempt at the other three myself). It may be relevant that all four were for tasks where the turning points are pre-defined (the other 2 trophies for pre-defined tasks were won by Phil Jeffery). That coupled with the poor season could explain the lack of entries. However we have a new sea-son upon us and I’d like to encourage all of you, including pundits, to have a look through the list of trophies that the club awards and see if there’s one or more there that you’d like to have a go at winning. There are a few trophies that are restricted to novices and intermediates, so those pi-lots shouldn’t feel that they’d be up against the more experienced pilots in the club.Geoff Brown, Secretary CGC

! The unclaimed Slazenger trophy

Poor weather in 2008 leaves some trophies on the shelf

The crash of sterling against the Euro has not only made gliders more

expensive, it has also raised the cost of insuring them. And it’s not only down to the increased costs of spares, hulls and trailers.

According to the BGA: “The ex-change rate has slipped so much recently that £1.3M is now insufficient to satisfy the EC 785/2004 requirement for single seat gliders with a maximum take-off weight between between 500 and 999Kg.”

The European Commission have a mandatory insurance requirement based on “Statutory Drawing Rights” (SDR), a type of insurance currency (Euro based). Basically, in 2004, a SDR was worth 80p - 68p bought a Euro and you got £1.2M of third party cover. Guess what. To con-tinue meeting the cost of EC 785/2004 will mean: “an increase in premiums of about £15 per year,” a broker said to the BGA.

The galling part about this is that there has never been a gliding claim anywhere near £1.2M and any claim on a glider flown in the UK is most likely to be settled in a de-based sterling anyway.

Arcus is a term used in medicine to de-scribe a narrow opaque band encirling the cornea, a condition common in old age. The origin is late 18th century latin and means ‘senile bow’: I’m sure Schemp have given more thought to the glider’s design.

What’s in a name?

Knight time

We use around 20,000 litres of fuel a year - somewhat less than two or three years ago

when we used to get gliding weather in the summers. We usually take four 5,000 litre deliveries per year and the tank holds 7,046 litres: enough to fill an aver-age car about 170 times.

The fuel is for club and member use only and is not for resale so we can still have a pump in imperial gallons, without joining the metric martyrs.The price per gallon peaked at £1.23 per litre (+ VAT) last summer.

100 LL means 100 octane Low Lead and contains a maximum of 2 grams of lead per US gallon, which is actually a rather high lead content. However it is half of that which was in avgas 100/130 which it replaced. Avgas is a portman-teau of Aviation Gasoline. (You can look that one up!)

The fuel tank is dipped weekly with water detecting paste, which changes colour from green to red if water is pres-ent at the botom of the tank - Avgas is less dense than water and is dyed blue. The fuel is also sampled daily to check the quality visually. To avoid condensa-tion build up in the tug’s tanks in winter, they are re-fuelled at the end of each day.

Fuel weights about 7 lb per gallon so a tug with full tanks is carrying upwards 200 lbs of fuel. But how far does it go?

In the Pawnee we use about 2.1 gal-lons per 2,000’ tow, in the Robin nearer to 1.1 gallons per tow. The Rallye’s consumption was somewhere in between.

And the quiz: So why do we earth the tug when re-fuelling it - but you don’t earth your car at the filling station?

Fuel - another thought. Members may want to know why we don’t use mo-tor fuel since it is approved for a lot of aircraft. First, it has a lower upper tem-perature limit due to it being more vola-tile and likely to have vapour locks on warm days. Second, it must be alcohol free - which means every batch must be tested. The government pressure on oil companies to add biofuel to ordinary mo-tor fuel means that increasingly alcohol is present. The problem is that aviation engines, not being designed for motor fuel in most cases, do not use alcohol resistant materiels in the fuel system so can be damaged by parts that swell and soften in the presence of alcohol.

Whether to be rampant or to dangle? Most pilots with ILEC fin-installed

TE tubes insert them with a droop so that the probe head is below the tube’s hori-zontal shaft. The official ILEC guidance for their tubes states: “The position high on the vertical stabilizer is best”. The probe head should be in line with the top of the vertical stabilizer, or in the case of

T- tailed gliders, in line with the hori-zontal stabilizer. Positions half way up the vertical stabilizer are normally not as good because of the airflow interference with the fuselage, tailplane, fin and the wake of the wing and fuselage. So lets see more rampant gliders at the launch point with their TE tubes pointing up.

Fuel for thought.

George Knight goes sniffing around the fuel dump

January 2009 GT 13

Sweet music for twoOur Puchaz (JEC) gets a new variometer with repeater and Microair transciever. Paul Harvey tunes in

The Puchaz may spend most of its life in a nose-down attitude but it can also climb after launch. The old Dibdin vario has provided years of excellent service, but as the Puchaz has taken on

more thermal training duties, and even some cross-country work, there was a need for a new vario.

The vario chosen is a Tasman, made in Australia, and perhaps better suited to a glider which spends a lot of its life up-side down.

Not the choice of champions per-haps, but the Tasman’s simplicity, clear display, low cost and “pleasant tone,” won the day.

A major advantage of the new vario is a back seat repeater, so the instructor has a better idea of what the student is up to in front.

Another new toy for the Puchaz is a Microair transciever which will allow ra-dio practice and enables downwind calls to be made bringing JEC in line with the rest of the fleet. Thanks go to Robert Welford for fitting the new kit.

New Tasman vario: it may be a few weeks before you see 4knots up

One less excuse for landing out

How fast do you go?

George Sanderson with the new ASI calibration manometer he built for club use

If you own your own glider, you need to check the ac-curacy of your air speed indicator each year as part of the certificate of airworthi-ness. George Sanderson has just made the job a little bit easier

Anyone who has had to put their glider into a field on a blustery day with a sharp wind gradi-

ent, will know the importance of get-ting the airspeed right. Too fast and there’s a risk of overshooting. Too slow? Well, let’s not go there. And whilst experienced pilots can judge the airspeed on attitude, when the day demands 65knts it’s good to know that you can trust your ASI.

George built the manometer at home and reckons it is accurate to within half a knot, with the accuracy improving just where you need it most (for thermalling and landing) at the lower end of the speed range. He has also provided a full set of instruc-tions and calibration chart. But if you need help using it, do ask.

The calibration of an ASI relies on the equivlace between a column of water, air pressure and airspeed.

The device consists of a sealed container of water, a pressure pump, kindly donated by Dr Steve Gibson, some instrument tubing and a vertical speed scale.

How to use the manometer.

Without the ASI connected, en-sure the water meniscus is level with zero knots on the scale. You can change the “zero” by loosening the wing nuts on the scale and moving the board up or down. Then connect the free tube on the black water container to the total energy port on the ASI and gently increase the pressure with the black pump, stopping every 10knts to record the ASI reading. There are blank ASI calibration certificates next to the manometer one of which needs to be completed. Robert Verdier can take you through the paperwork.

Tales from the workshop

George checks the Discus’s (HOM) ASI at 110 Knts. “A dye in the water would stain the tubing.”

Increase the pressure slowly, recording the ASI reading and the meniscus level on the manometer

GT 14 January 2009

Date Day Instructor 1 Instructor 2 Max number of pilots

1st February Sunday Alan Head Richard Hardy 47th February Saturday Jem Davies Peter Belcher 411th February Wednesday Rostered Instructor No Second Instruc-

tor during week.2

15th February Sunday Rhod Turner Peter Warner 420th February Friday Rostered Instructor No Second Instruc-

tor during week.2

21st February Saturday Martin Whitehead Ian Noble 425th February Wednesday Rostered Instructor No Second Instruc-

tor during week.2

28th February Saturday Julian Bayford Ian Noble 44th March Wednesday Rostered Instructor No Second Instruc-

tor during week.2

8th March Sunday Mike Smith Julian Bane 414th March Saturday Julian Bane Wendy Head 420th March Friday Rostered Instructor No Second Instruc-

tor during week.2

22nd March Sunday Richard Hardy Julian Bayford 4

A refreshing roster for 2009, these instructors are in addition to the duty instructors

Belt and braces

Mike Smith is the club’s Flight Safety Officer and provides details on the club’s annual refresher courses

Safety First

We are so close now, you can almost smell the first thermals of a new

season.The trouble is a lot of members have

not flown for quite a few months - a lay-off that would require even commercial piots to take some “check-rides.”.

Gransden’s answer to the formal “check-ride” is refresher courses which run from the begining of February to 22nd March. However, there is nothing to stop you booking an instructor on-line (www.glide.co.uk) and jumping the queue, but

the dates below must be booked via the office - Tel: 01767 677 077

Whilst there are some standard elements to the courses which include winch launch safety, aerotowing and stall/spin prevention and recovery, the course can be tailored to meet your spe-cific needs.

These short one day courses (introduced by the CFI, Rod Ward, a few years ago) have been designed to replace and improve on the Annual Check with less emphasis on “passing” or “failing“, and much more on coaching, and preparing for the new season.

The courses will have, as always, one instructor to two students per glider and up to four course members and two instructors each day. The flying will consist of a minimum of one aerotow and two winch launches, interspersed with talks and discussions on the flying content.

Reliable thermals should start around the middle of February and whilst there will be many landable fields, some field

landing practice is a great way to boost your cross country confidence in select-ing and appraoching a field without all the hassle of actually going through a retrieve. Whilst there is no roster for the motorgliders, you can check availability with the office. Just make it clear that you want to do field landing checks, as

not all motor-glider instructors are cleared for them and none of those ros-tered below are cleared to teach

them. Another way to make field landings

less stressful is to brush up on your side-slipping technique. It is often assumed that the airbrakes on modern gliders are so powerful no one could overshoot a field. History teaches us that that is not the case and even top level competitors can make an error of judgement under pressure and literally explore new bound-aries.

These courses will help get you ready for the season, get you current and they are fun as well.Mike Smith, Flight Safety Officer

even top level competitors can make an error of judgement under pressure and literally

explore new boundaries.

January 2009 GT 15

My one-man diamond-height hunting expedition to Deeside Gliding Club was the first

where I seriously hoped to get high enough to use supplemental oxygen. Having read about hypoxia on the Inter-net I decided I needed a Pulse Oximeter to monitor my oxygen saturation level (%SpO2) at altitude. I found a finger oximeter on the web for under £50 that displays both pulse rate and %SpO2. I learned that saturation below about 91 per cent would lead to a significant dete-rioration in performance and by the low 80s you are in very serious trouble.

The Aboyne airfield is on the North bank of the Dee, a couple of miles to the West of the Aberdeen CTA. It has two parallel East/West tarmac strips and a short grass strip running NW/SW. With hills to the North and South it can be ‘in-teresting’ when the wind is not directly down the valley. The nearby Black Craig at over 2,000’ enables hill soaring in both Southerly and Northerly winds. The club’s facilities are generally very good, and so is the wave.

On the Friday there had been wave to about 15,000’ and the Saturday fore-cast was even better so I had my glider rigging and at the launch point early. After strapping myself into my glider and declaring myself ready I was pushed

backwards onto the runway, as is custom at Aboyne, for take-off.

The early part of the tow was excit-ing. Although straight down the exceed-ingly narrow runways the wind was about 45 kts at 1,000’ so until I reached the wave it was very turbulent. I released at about 2,500’, over Loch Kinord, upwind of Aboyne, in smooth air, and dived a couple of hundred feet to put a notch on my trace. I then set about finding the extent of the wave I was climbing in. The previous, and first, flight of the day, a Lasham two-seater, had given up after about an hour below 5,000’. Being my last day at Aboyne, I thought that if the wave was going to get high the place to be was sitting, waiting, in the wave and not at the launch point.

Unexpectedly the lift was strong and I was able to report passing 5,000’ at 6 kts (this resulted in all three tugs scram-bling to launch the other gliders) and a short while later I passed FL080 at not much less. I had set the Mountain High electronic oxygen delivery system to start at 12,000’, but decided to see what the oximeter indicated. It showed about 88: which is low. I thought it must be my age – so I changed the start height to 5,000’ and it started to deliver a pulse of O2 via a cannula into my nose on every breath thereafter.

By now I was well above the broken cloud that reached up to 7,000’, in glori-ous sunshine, sparkling visibility and nothing above but blue. No lenticulars, vapour trails or anything else. The mov-ing map kept me out of the airway at the Southern end of the beat. By now the club was on the phone to ATC to open the Aboyne wave box that goes from FL195 to FL245. I thought I needed to reach about FL200 to be sure of a valid diamond claim. By now other visitors from Lasham, Booker, Camp Hill and Crowland were in the wave below me and chattering on the radio.Time to check my %SpO2 again.

Seventy-four! Well I felt all right, I was getting pulses of gas, I was breath-ing through my nose, I was conscious – the oximeter must be wrong. I took it off and put it on another finger. Same result. Oh well – something to sort out on the ground.

Passing FL170, and still climbing

well in the same wave, the clubhouse radio announced that entry to the Aboyne box was denied. I couldn’t go above FL195 – the diamond height was not possible. Somewhat disheartened I

decided to continue as high as I le-gally could. The rate of climb was now decreasing to only a couple of knots. I think in retrospect that I allowed my-self to be blown back behind the best lift. Eventually at FL193 I flew to the Northern end of the wave and decided to fly upwind towards Balmoral at about 90 kts.

I lost 6,000’ before getting into the next wave bar upwind, climbed 3,000’ and pressed on. The next bar was reached at 12,500’ and I stayed with it to nearly 16,000’ before pressing on to the turn point ‘Linn of Dee’ (LOD). The 25 miles or so back to Aboyne only took ten minutes with ground speeds exceeding 150 kts at times.

Time to loose some height by open-ing the Vaselined airbrakes and land (in fact it was only about –5º C at FL190 – remarkably warm – so the Vaseline was not needed). As always the Deeside Club’s runways looked small as I flew downwind. Turning final they seemed to shrink even more.

Expedition over. Time to get the trailer ready for the 13-hour drive home. The high points: six days (and eighteen hours) wave flying out of seven with hill and thermal soaring as well. The obvious disappointment was missing my diamond height by 260’. Will I go again? You bet.

In the end, there was nothing wrong with the Oximeter. I was reading my pulse rate instead of oxygen saturation.

Finger trouble

What I did in my holidays

George Knight goes to Aboyne armed with Vaseline, a Discus 2cT and a new toy - but comes away empty handed

...broken cloud reached to 7,000’, in glorious sunshine, sparkling visibility

and nothing above but blue.

The Pulse Oximeter George used

GT 16 January 2009

The runway at Aboyne, autumn 2008