Flora’s trial flight

Flora’s heart hammered against her ribs, a hummingbird trapped in a cage of exhilaration and trepidation. Today was the day, the day she would finally taste the sky, not as a distant dreamer, but as a fledgling aviator. Her trial flight in a glider awaited, a baptism by wind that promised to rewrite the contours …

Bluebell flies again

Bluebell was our mainstay for instructing for many years, after she was supplied new in 1950 to Cambridge University Gliding Club (now Cambridge Gliding Club).  (New price £587.0s.0d). She has racked up nearly 80000 (yes eighty thousand!) launches and something like 10500 flying hours. Since then, she has had various periods of little or no …

Julian Bayford Memorial Fund for disabled and disadvantaged people to experience gliding

Dear All, Sue Bayford has asked that donations in Julian’’s memory be made to the club to help make provision for disabled or disadvantaged people so that they can experience gliding. We have set up an account where funds donated can be ring fenced for that purpose.   Those attending Julian’s funeral will be able to …

AIM HIGHER Soaring and Cross-country Ground School – Saturday 21st March

We are planning a ground school which will be of particular interest to early solo pilots keen to develop their soaring and cross-country skills.Gliding’s tradition of self-teaching of soaring skills can be a slow process.  Many pilots (myself included!) take years to build up the knowhow and practical skills to soar reliably and go cross-country …

Radio telephony course – starting Wednesday March 4th. Book now to reserve your place!

Dear All, Simon and Richard will again be running their RT course leading to a formal CAA RT operators licence. This is becoming more and more important as we are encouraged to talk to more airfields and airports. The course will run for five consecutive Wednesdays at 19:30 in the club house starting on March …

Inter Club League

It is coming up to Inter Club League time, and we are putting together our teams for this years’ competitions. The Inter-Club League is a friendly competition among small number of nearby clubs (in our case: Gransden, The Gliding Centre – Husbands Bosworth and London Gliding Club – Dunstable). It is distributed over several weekends during the …

Reserve your shares for the Single Seater Scheme and get an EarlyBird Discount!

Dear All There are some exciting changes to the Single Seater Scheme for next year. The Discus, DM, is being refinished and will be returned to the club in January 2020. In addition, a second Discus is being acquired to replace the ASW24. Although a few of us will miss FLY, the conversion step required …

Managing Flying Risk

As you are hopefully aware, the BGA collates the various bits of good practice guidance including relevant recommended practices that have been hard-learned over many years into a single publication titled ‘Managing Flying Risk’. This year, several topics have evolved resulting in further good practice guidance that also need to be ‘captured’ in the same place. …

Radiotelephony course

This October Simon and Richard will again be running their RT course leading to a formal CAA or EASA RT operators licence. This is becoming more and more useful as we are encouraged to talk to more airfields and airports. The course will run for five consecutive Tuesdays at 19:30 in the club house starting …