2024
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Between 24 and 28 June, we had the pleasure of hosting another Soaring Eagles week of adventurous training gliding for the benefit of RAF and Army personnel based at Lossiemouth and Kinloss. The aims of this exercise are to:
a. Develop the physical and mental robustness of personnel through exposure to a controlled risk environment, so as to support the operational effectiveness of the Armed Forces.
b. Provide flying training and instruction for tri-service glider pilots in order for them to progress their gliding qualifications.
c. To raise the standards of airmanship and flying skills to further contribute to flight safety across the tri-service gliding associations and the Armed Forces as a whole.
The course was planned for 6 ab-initio pilots to progress towards first solo but due to a couple of late dropouts, Matt Davidson took a reserve place to get back into gliding after several years off, and a couple of the RAFGSA instructors who came up to run the course took the opportunity to extend their qualifications. We therefore didn’t do as much circuit bashing as we normally do on these courses so the winch was used much less than usual – not helped by the south-easterly wind on Day 3. Monday was a glorious day with booming skies and a great start to the week with the last 2 flights of the day launched by the winch and staying up for 1 hour and 45 minutes. However, Tuesday wasn’t such a great day, starting with a low cloudbase and the wind switching from NW to NE, but we made the best of it until rain stopped play at 2 o’clock. On Wednesday, the wind was south-easterly and soon went outside limits for the winch …..and wasn’t that great for aerotowing either! However, we persevered and managed to get a reasonable amount of training done, with some flights being extended by weak wave just to the north of the airfield. On Thursday we had a howling southerly wind so we didn’t open the hangar doors. Instead, the students were given excellent ground training briefs from the RAF Central Gliding School and then some spin training in the club’s VR simulator. The forecast for Friday was for strong winds and rain in the morning so no-one was holding out much hope for the day. However, by our 0900 briefing, the rain had stopped, the sun was making an appearance and the wind, although strong and a bit gusty, was straight down the strip. We therefore decided to get the aircraft out and go flying while we could. By midday we had flown everyone and with the gusts getting a bit stronger we decided to call it a day. All in all a very successful week’s flying with all of the students making very good progress although the weather made it impossible for us to get anyone to that first solo. Stats for the week: 19 winch launches, 13 aerotows, 16 motor glider flights all adding up to over 21 hours of flight time. The “hog of the week” was Lance Corporal Levi Haddon, a PTI from Kinloss barracks who amassed a total of 4 hours 25 minutes flying time, but the average for all the students was around 3½ hours. Of course, we couldn’t do any of this without the support of volunteers from both Highland and Fulmar Gliding Clubs and a special mention has to go to Toni for flying the tug, Roger for driving the winch and Julian (with the assistance of Josh) running the launch point all week. Last but certainly not least, our own instructors Colin (who was there all day every day), Ellen, John T and Mike were instrumental to the success of the week.
Our next Soaring Eagles week is planned for 5-9 August and club members are welcome to come along to help out and maybe get some flying in your own machines too. For the August exercise, rather than having just 6 students we are going to be providing a one-day flying experience for up to 8 students per day – a total of up to 40 over the week. Let’s hope the weather plays ball!
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Every year HGC awards a series of trophies (shiny or otherwise) to various of its members, for things ranging from epic flights to epic fails. In a break with tradition this year we decided to split the awards ceremony from the AGM and hold a separate dinner instead. This was held at the Laichmoray Hotel, organised by Mike and Stuart, and turned out to be a great success with 30 members attending across all groups based at Easterton.
Prizes were awarded by our hardworking CFI Mike (who deserves his own award frankly) as follows:
Duration in a Club Glider - Alexander Naylor, who managed 4 hrs 52 min in CLOO, almost a Silver duration!
Honourable mention - Rob Douglas, for 3 hrs 14 min in JMY, and later completed his 5 hrs in his own glider.
Height - Robert Tait, for 13,773 ft attained in his Silent Electro at the UKMSC at Aboyne.
Honourable mentions - Colin Thomas and Mike Black in R1, and Stuart Naylor in the Nimbus, again at the UKMSC.
Ladder Distance - normally this goes to one the usual small group of elite cross-country pilots with excessive wingspans, but to shake things up this was awarded instead to an aspiring cross-country pilot, Ian Tait, for several noteworthy flights on the BGA Ladder (and threatening to dethrone his dad in the process).
Honourable mention - Ross Borland, who has also been making a name for himself on the BGA Ladder.
Meritorious Flight - Ian Tait, for a long hard attempt at a 300k in the Silent Electro.
Honourable mentions - Adrian Morgan and Rob Douglas for their respective 5 hrs.
CFI Shield - Stuart Naylor, for efforts in glider maintenance, instructing and motor-gliding, but in particular for taking lifesaving action at the scene of Geddes' accident last year which ensured he is not only still with us, but actively getting back into gliding again.
Honourable mentions - Martin Knight, for being a keystone member of the club and keeping everything from our website to our ground equipment to our actual ground in good working order; John Thomson for his tireless work as Safety Officer and enthusiastic instructor; John Bisset for a great deal of behind-the-scenes work to keep the airfield running; Anne for long service as Treasurer; Julian for cheerful support and excellent catering, and many others (basically the whole club, really).
Monkey - this is the one we are all most interested in, and this year a selection of (mostly) anonymous misdemeanours were put to a vote for the membership to decide which was the most egregious. The shortlist:
- Signalling “All out” instead of “Up slack” to the winch while distracted,
- Leaving the shower room heater on unattended for over 48 hrs and turning the room into a sauna which warped the door with its intense heat,
- Having the biggest hangar-hog (*cough* Nimbus *cough*) taking up space on the airfield,
- Simply being Adrian (although there was not sufficient evidence of specific misdemeanours to pin any one particular event on him),
- Landing R1 in a particularly difficult field for retrieval on the last day of the UKMSC,
- Failing to shut down the bus at the end of a training day and finding it still idling away the next morning,
- Forgetting to lower the glider trolley while putting an aircraft into its trailer, thus gouging three long scratches into the canopy, and
- Gently and gracefully groundlooping the CFI’s beloved glider after it was trustingly loaned to a competent instructor, fortunately with no damage…
After much consideration, it was decided that our long-suffering CFI Mike Black wins the Monkey this year, for leaving the bus running overnight for over 12 hours.
So he did get an award after all…
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The weather has not been kind to the club over the last few months, with what feels like rather more rain (and wind) than average thwarting our attempts to fly. However, let’s not forget the number of achievements by club members in 2023 – we’ve had first solos, Silver badges, conversions to single-seaters and even a brand new instructor to add to our team, not to mention several enthusiastic new members bringing positive energy to the place.
Our stoic members have been making the most of the recent downtime to crack on with all the invisible maintenance tasks that keep our club running. We’re very grateful to everyone who gives their time, whether they wield a spanner, spade, spreadsheet or sponge. Those who maintain the aircraft, service the ground equipment, mow the runway and keep the clubhouse lights on are our true heroes.
Just before New Year’s Eve a merry band of five cleaned the clubhouse and emptied the entire hangar in order to put two aircraft into the workshop, ready for their annual maintenance, so as to get 2024 off to a good start. And on New Year’s Day Messrs Naylor, Thomas and Fisher managed the first flights of the year in the Venture. With a spell of relatively dry weather in the forecasts, hopefully there will be more flying in the days to come, especially for our patient trainees.
So, a happy New Year to all, and fingers crossed that 2024 brings a positive change in the weather so we can get back to normal operations!