Bannerdown News - From July 2013

Bannerdown club member Gaz Baker is currently competing in the 16th International Military Gliding Competition being at Holzdorf, Germany.

The results after Day 7, put Gaz in second place in his class on 5522 points, 262 points behind the leader but only 49 points ahead of 3rd place.

To follow his progress through the last few days of the competition – click here.

Given their age and condition of gel the RAFGSA is making plans to refinish both R12 and R3 over this coming winter. There is a catch, the RAFGSA makes an assessment whether or not a club will repay its investment by looking after gliders, whether refinished or not so we must look after them!

Round 4 of the Interclub league was hosted at Upavon by Wyvern Gliding Club this weekend.

Results will follow soon.

The airfield was baked in sunshine on Friday with temperatures in high 20’s for our Friday Evening Group Trial Lesson flying.

With the RAF having Hercules drops planned for the morning and again late evening – we had a limited window in which to fly the thirteen guests.

With that in mind, and the opportunity to get in a launch or two before the start, the airfield was setup with the K21, K13 and the Duo Discus ready at the launch point – well in advance of the visitors arrival.

After the flying, our guests joined us for a BBQ on the clubhouse deck.  An enjoyable evening in the sun with a Hercules doing a couple of drops in the background.

All,

Last Monday I had to move the Duo from Keevil to RAF Halton. As I pulled away from the junction at the bottom of the lane from Steeple Ashton on to the A350 the trailer dropped off the Centre van. Fortunately I was doing about 2 mph and the trailer brake worked perfectly, stopping the trailer within its own length. The approaching traffic managed to stop in time and our Duo was safe although I think I have probably aged from the whole experience. We had taken the trailer off the back of the Centre van to put kit in the van. When I put the trailer back on the van I checked everything including that the ‘indicator’ was proud and that I couldn’t lift the tow bar up off the hitch; an experienced Chilean glider pilot also did the same and was happy. The only explanation we could find was that whilst the indicator can be seen to be ‘up’, it has to be ‘fully up’ otherwise the trailer won’t be properly locked on. ‘Fully up’ means around 5 mm or more. I have replaced the break-away cable and, if need be, will replace the jockey wheel as wheel. Learn from my near miss!