News & Events

PLEASE SEE THE NEW DOCUMENTATION IN THE MEMBERS AREA - Members must read this as it will affect everyone.

DG-1000 Baptism of Fire Conversion (30 January 2010).

Having been away for a while, and being the only Silver C pilot to not have converted onto the “Great Leonopteryx” to quote the Avatar movie, I came along with my old university buddy with the intention of getting him flown and maybe, just maybe grab a conversion…….

Seeing the DG on the flight line sparkling in the winter is always a nice sight, but has always been just out of reach whenever I have asked in the past to get a conversion – usually because the CFI or DCFI has been up in the air at the time, has been elsewhere or the DG has been on expedition or was U/Serviceable.

So having collared Roy who is busy staring at the sky ahead, his infinite wisdom suggests that there are lenticular clouds up there and that we should take a winch launch and get the engine running once off the top so we can surf the clouds. Sounds like a good plan to me, but neither of us were planning upon Irish Murphy and his laws intervening!!!

Off the top of the Winch, fuel cocks on, primer on and ignition on – could we get it to start?

Nil Points! , and more so the engine would not go away either!! A rather rapid workload adjustment and I suggest I land the glider in this format whilst Roy tries desperately to either get the engine to fire, or put it away and extend the flight time. The engine does not stow this time and it gives a good indication of just how much extra drag we are carrying around when I look at the angle as we pass low key – it’s not right and a quick check on the altimeter shows that regardless of how long a legged bird she is, the engine being stuck out counters most of this, bringing performance down to less than K21 territory. We get back on the ground, align the prop by hand, stow the engine and try again.

The same again happens next time albeit with the engine being put away before landing – Roy helps grind the rust off what little gliding skill I have in between times and we are able to grab 10 minutes of air time on the ridge to the south-west of the airfield (the one with a large pylon on it) because of the prevailing wind and the amount of heat coming up from the houses of Upavon Village.

Later on in the day – my uni friend has had several good flights with Gerry and thoroughly enjoyed the flying; I collar Roy again to repeat the exercise.

Once again my Jinx kicks in and the engine still won’t play ball on the next 2 sorties – I’ve now got the general idea for flying the DG-1000 and Roy, now annoyed at the engine not working suggests not trying again as the battery power is too low, but is prepared to allow me to fly her solo minus the engine. Great…….!

So a local solo flight later and a £20 bar fine has me leaving the airfield grinning.

To Summarise

Although we didn’t get the engine running or get to the “lenticuli” on the 30^th of January, I really did enjoy flying the DG-1000. I guess with all state-of-the-art sports cars you can’t rely upon them to start first time, but shall endeavour to try again when next at the club.

Regards

PG Beckett

Wyvern Flying Year Calendar

Get your Copy of the Flying calendar now and book your time off for AT or holiday. Document located in the members area or click here

Duty Roster

The up to date duty roster and events can be found on the club calendar:

Click Here

Chairman's Thoughts

The snowdrops are out in force in the hedgerows; therefore spring and the soaring season are just around the corner – a realistic claim or wild optimism? Hopefully closer to the former and less of the latter, and in which case are we ready?

The first Ab Initio course starts in a week’s time (8 Mar) and is being led by Roy and the two seaters should all be available. Danny has managed to fill the course with 10 soldiers which is a tremendous effort at this time of year and although on past performance it is unlikely that we will see many of these students back as regular members. The QinetiQ introductory course also starts on 22 Feb with John Bradley leading. From the intake last year we gained three new regular members with Tim Dutton, Alicia Carpenter and Paul Tribe. Let’s please be welcoming and encourage as many from both courses to return to us at weekends as well. After this flurry of activity, we then have a gap with the Easter weekend in between before WGC2 on 19 April which is already fully booked by Sandhurst, courtesy of Alec making the contact and selling gliding to their Adventurous Training team.

Of course instructor, winch and ground team support is always welcome for these courses, so if you feel you have some days spare then please add your name to the list on the noticeboard. Equally as important is getting the aircraft ready for both courses and the season. EKG’s return to duty is imminent with the LS8 next into the workshop. John Hull keeps the aircraft status board on the website up to date – please use it to see aircraft availability, but also which aircraft are in for inspection. The next question you should be asking is “where can you help”, particularly if the weather is rubbish. John is often looking for assistance – under his direction give your time where you can. On another positive note, as soon as we get the new Vertigo covers for the LS4 and the Junior we should be able to keep those aircraft outside as well.

On the admin front, we now welcome to the club executive team Neil Godson as the new Treasurer, having recently taken over from Roy. Please give Neil both your help and patience whilst he gets up to speed with the role. Could I also remind all members that membership renewal time is at the end of February. Notices have been published and are on the bus – please be prompt in completing your forms and giving them to the Duty Pilot at the end of the flying day.

With my Inter-Club League hat on, I have agreed the dates for this year’s meetings. Full details including the rules will be on the bulletin board, but the dates are:

            1^st/2^nd May                   Upavon
            22/23 May                    Park ( Bath and Wilts GC)
            26/27 Jun                     Northill ( Devon and Somerset GC)
            24/25 Jul                      Halesland (Mendip GC)
            21/22 Aug                    Reserve weekend

The Upavon meeting is the first May bank holiday and I would like to take the opportunity to make it a very active club flying weekend – you don’t have to be actively involved in the ICL, normal club flying will continue around it as well. We will also plan to have the tug for the ICL, so an opportunity to gain/regain your currency on aerotow.

As always I will looking for volunteers at Pundit, Intermediate and Novice levels to fly competitively cross country for their club in this regional competition. If necessary, I will follow naval tradition and press gang! This is a fine opportunity to be both introduced to cross-country (Bronze and XC endorsement is novice entry criteria) and to hone skills; all flights can of course be uploaded to the BGA ladder as well. We finished a very close second last year – I would like to go one better this time.

Wyvern Gliding Club

DG-1000 Baptism of Fire Conversion (30 January 2010).