December 2000
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December has started very well a good flying day on Sunday the 3rd. The weather was dry for most of the preceding week which meant the ground was dry enough to use the tug. There were 41 launches with the ridge working for most of the day. Jim Tait managed a marathon 3 hours 10 minutes in the Jantar on the ridge, Martin Knight took JMY to 9,500 ft and Steve Young managed over 10,000ft in his Ventus.
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Fulmar G.C. welcome Stuart Naylor who has just been posted to RAF Lossiemouth. Stuart who has a Bronze C and has had his site checks is keen to try out the local ridge and wave.
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December ended as it had begun, with a good flying day. Most of the rest of the month was however quite poor for flying. Saturday the 30th was a good day with a good turnout despite 4 inches of snow on the ground an sub-zero temperatures all day. Most people got some soaring on the ridge with a few getting into wave. Robert Tait had the best of it with a climb to 5,500 ft in his Astir. With the sun setting at 3.30pm the day was rather short although most people were glad to go somewhere warm for a light refreshment at the end of the day.
November 2000
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Rain, rain, rain. The weather in November was some of the wettest ever seen here with the grass runway very boggy for most of the month. In November there were only 12 launches with nearly 8 hours flying. By comparison in November 1999 there were 126 launches with nearly 27 hours flying.
October 2000
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Aerotow fees - Due to the increased price of fuel the the aerotow charges are as follows, effective from 1st October 2000. £2 per minute plus £1. Please ensure tug times are accurately logged, the take-off time is when the glider/tug combination starts rolling and the tug down time is when the tug lands, taxi back time is NOT included. The bottom line is this, if pilots are overcharged due to inaccurate tug times they will stop using it, if pilots are undercharged due to inaccurate tug times the tug will lose money and we will lose the tug. The future of the tug is uncertain at this time but one thing is for sure, USE IT OR LOSE IT.
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ASH WEEK REPORT - Sat 30th Sept: Rain, no flying. Sun 1st Oct: SE wave, lots of wave flying, gold height claim by Andy Anderson who reached 14,500 ft, silver height claim by Mark Brown of Fulmar. Mon 2nd: SW wind, small turnout, some soaring in thermal, weak wave and ridge. Rain stopped play at about 2.30pm. Tue 3rd: Strong southerly crosswind, no flying although the wave in the sky looked massive. Wed 4th: Strong SW wind, Steve Young got the best of the wave with a climb to 14,500 ft, ridge was working all day but difficult to get into the wave from it. Thu 5th: Fresh W/NW wind, mostly thermal soaring with the ASH getting a climb to 5,500 ft in wave and completed an O/R to Feschiebridge. Fri 6th: The day started with a light westerly wind that died to nothing by midday. Some thermal soaring in the afternoon, no wave to be seen. A BIG THANK YOU to John Dransfield from Aboyne who flew the tug for us most of the week and also found time to do a Motor Glider Instructors Rating with Angie Veitch and a Full Cat Instructors Rating with Geddes Chalmers as well. Well done Angie and Geddes.
September 2000
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September has been a month of awesome wave, mostly from S/SE winds. Unfortunately it has all been during the week when everyone is working. Weekend flying has not seen us with any fantastic soaring but we hope for better things next month when we have our ASH week from 30th Sept to 6th Oct.
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There was a meeting of the general membership of the club in the Birnie Inn on Wednesday 27th September. The chairman, Andy Anderson, introduced the meeting. He outlined the purpose of the meeting which was to; keep the membership informed of developments, answer any questions about Fulmar Gliding Club operations at Easterton. He also posed the question, 'how do we make the club better'. The treasurer, Anne Burgess, gave an EXCEL'ent presentation of the clubs' finances. During the informal discussion that followed the main issues raised were; duty pilot system; winch driving instruction; the importance of accurate log keeping. The CFI, Robert Tait, then gave a talk on just about every aspect of flying in wave that one could think of. The emphasis was of course very much on safety. The meeting rounded off with a presentation to Dave and Jacquie Webster who are leaving the area and moving to new jobs in Belfast. Dave and Jacquie are two very hard working members of the club and will be very much missed. The club owes a debt of thanks to Dave for winch driving, 'above and beyond the call of duty' and of course to Jacquie as club secretary and Soup Dragon. The position of secretary has been filled by Helen Chalmers. Jacquie is probably irreplaceable as Soup Dragon but if anyone would like to volunteer then please do so.
August 2000
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CONGRATULATIONS this month to Ian Thomson of Fulmar who went solo on the 19th and to Julian Mainstone who converted to the Junior on the 20th.
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The Robin belonging to Robbie MacKay has now moved into the new hangar.
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Unsung Heroes - there are some people who work quietly away on the gliding site to make the gliding lives of the rest of us that much better. Tony Butler has spent a lot of time this summer fixing broken drains on the site, the result of which is that the tug traps (boggy bits) have virtually disappeared. Ted Murphy has spent many hours cutting the grass to give the site a bowling green finish. By the way Ted, you know now that driving the mower over 12in diameter boulders with the blades rotating is not the best way to sharpen them! Jacquie Webster, our soup dragon, continues to do a marvelous job of keeping us all fed and watered.
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Malcolm Parsons is now flying the tug. There are also a couple of pilots from Aboyne who fly the tug from time to time as well.
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There was a task week from 7th to 11th. For all the details see the task week report.
July 2000
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A barbecue was held on the evening of 1st July. This was an opportunity to informally welcome Fulmar Gliding Club members to Easterton. A presentation was made to Mike and Karen Seward who will shortly be leaving for airfields new.
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The new hangar is almost completed. All of the concrete floor and the hard-standings at each end are complete. The doors have been put up and all that remains now is for the electrician to do the wiring and CLUB MEMBERS to paint the steel structure. It is hoped the new hangar will be operational by the start of out task week, (7th to 11th August).
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Fulmar Gliding Club are now operating at Easterton. Their Grob Acro and Astir have moved from Kinloss. The tug has also made a welcome return from C of A. The Highland and Fulmar clubs will retain their separate identities but share their resources and in effect operate as one club. This will give enormous benefits to both clubs.
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Congratulations to Angie Veitch who is now checked out for aerotowing at Easterton. Be very very nice to her as she is the only tug pilot we have at the moment, although there are another couple 'in the wings' so to speak
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Angie at the controls of the tug |
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The weekend of 15/16 was one of the better ones we've had of late. Most people got some soaring at some point, especially on Sunday. CONGRATUALTIONS to Julian Mainstone who flew his first solo on Sunday, also to Mark Brown of Fulmar who converted to the Junior and Pete Smith, also of Fulmar, who got his Bronze signed off. Angie did an excellent job driving the tug for all those who wanted aerotows.
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More CONGRATULATIONS, this time to Colin Borthwick who flew his first solo on Wednesday evening, 19th July.
June 2000
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A successful course was run from the 5th to 9th June. Congratulations to Martin Birse and Ted Murphy who both went solo again after approximately a 2 year break. A BIG THANK YOU to Angie for all her hard work as course instructor.
May 2000
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At last work has started on laying the concrete floor in the new glider storage unit.
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We are now gliding on Wednesday evenings. Trial lessons will take priority but lots of opportunities for training and solo flying too. Even if it's not flyable try and come out anyway as there is lots of work to be done around the site.
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The price of a Trial Lesson / Temporary Membership will increase on the 1st of June to £20 but will stay at £15 for groups of 4 or more who book for evenings in the summer. A Temporary Membership now lasts 3 months (changed back to 1 month as of Sept 2001).
April 2000
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The C of As are completed on the K.21 and Junior. Many thanks to Steve for his efforts there.
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The weather for the flying weeks at the start of April was really poor, the first 4 days were a write-off with 4 inches of snow lying on the airfield on Monday the 3rd. There was flying each day from Wednesday 5th to Monday 10th with the best day being Thursday 6th when there was some good thermal and a wave climb to 8,000 ft by Phil in the Jantar. There was no flying for the rest of the second week due to bad weather again.
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Three days of continuous rain at the end of April caused flooding on the strip when the stream that crosses the strip in the culvert, overflowed.