As you know we are a little short of tug pilots at the moment, due to a couple of our tug pilots having to give up tugging, and current issues with the CAA/EASA making it impossible for us to bring new tug pilots on board at the moment. Because of this we only are currently rostering one tug pilot for during the week, and one (morning and afternoons) at weekends, with the occasional standby pilot. The rosters can be seen at https://members.camgliding.uk/ops/ShowRoster.aspx?role=T (weekends) and https://members.camgliding.uk/ops/ShowWeekdayTugRoster.aspx (weekdays).
We recognise that this can cause particular frustration to keen cross country pilots on good days, especially when one tug pilot is on duty all day, which means we can’t bring the afternoon tug pilot out early and thereby create additional launch capacity.
Our professional staff do try to keep a lookout for good cross-country days, and to bring on an extra tug pilot (or start the afternoon tug pilot earlier) on those days to help keep launch queues down to a minimum and to make use of our two tugs. However, they are not infallible, and we recently had the case of members having to wait a long time in the queue on a good day, which limited their ambitions for the day, when with a little bit of planning ahead we could have got a second tug plane out to reduce the wait.
So to help the club help you out, if you are planning to do a big cross country the next day or day after, please ring the office on 01767 677077 and they will do their best to get a second tug pilot out on the big days we all look forward to.
Whilst we can’t guarantee finding a second tug pilot every time one is requested, calling the office beforehand will certainly make it more likely that we are able to do so.
Many thanks for your help.
Kind regards
Pete
