Gransden times - the magazine of Cambridge Gliding Club - www.glide.co.uk. Editorial contact: gt@glide.co.uk

G i s a Jo b : 3 3 v a c a n c i e s - s e e p a g e 1 6

Sits VacAsk not what your club can do for you...

TEMThreat and ErrorManagement: it could save your life and gliding

Out of AfricaFrom the land of record

breakers - Karl Martin

Crash - what happens next?Phil Scott on when it all goes wrong

April 2010

Gransden timesCelebrating 63 yearsof flight with BryceCGC marks a milestone for the man and club

As this issue wings its way to hyperspace, the season finally started. Officially,

I reckon it was 12-30pm on April 8th. Confirmation came the following weekend.

The AGM was held in March and marked the end of Andrew Hulme's time after five years as treasurer. The past two years have been tough but the club is in a sound position as our membership grows. In no small part, this is due to Andrew's work.I had often

wondered how people react to a serious accident. By chance, we have Phil Scott writing on how he wrote off his Jantar: in contrast, Richard Maskell outlines his plans to introduce TEM, Threat and Error Management. None of us care much for forms, but TEM does put a structure into annual checks and has proven its worth in civil aviation. As a movement, we need to get our accident rate down.

Another who has proven his worth is Bryce Bryce-Smith. An aviator for 63 years and with 9,000 hours, the club gathered to celebrate his 80th birthday last January - see page nine.

The next big club event is the open day on Saturday, May 9th. Please come out and help if you can, it's great for recruitment

GT 3 April 2010 www.glide.co.uk

CGC is flying seven days a week from 29th March.Andrew Beaty and Robert Theil will be our full time instructors. Motorglider flying will be available every day, Please phone the office to book. 01767 677 077

the point of the issue is...

Spring 2010Contents

Gransden Times is produced by Moltenlight.com for The Cambridge Gliding Centre Ltd. (www.glide.co.uk) All material is the copyright of contributors. The views expressed in Gransden Times are not necessarily those of the Cambridge Gliding Centre Ltd or its editor. For more information contact: gt@glide.co.uk

flyWithCE

Paul Harvey, Editor, Gransden times

Club News and Events: Pages 4-5

TEM: Pages 7-8

Learning the Hard Way: Page 6

2010 AGM and Chairman's Report

Out of Africa: Pages 14-15

Sits Vac: Page 16All gliding clubs rely on volunteers to keep the cost of our sport within most people's means. CGC currently has 33 vacancies, from S&G correspondent to launch marshalls and winch drivers. Your club needs YOU

The world speed record for a glider over 300Km is 161Kph. Karl Martin didn't set it. But he did show that persistence pays off when he finally achieved his 300Km gold badge

Threat and Error Management is a structured approach to managing the risks inherent in flying. It is also used in commercial aviation. CFI, Richard Maskell, has adapted the system to be used in gliding in the hope that we can reduce our already good accident rate

The workshop has been hectic over the last month getting a new glider on line and putting a nose hook in DM. There's also the ICL and DIRSERA to worry about. Mike Smith remembers Frank Prime

We have all had the odd poor landing, but what's it like to write off your pride and joy? Phil Scott gives a frank account of the day he did

The Generation Game: Page 9There are few today who have not soloed without dual instruction: Bryce Bryce-Snith is one of them. Bryce has also held almost every position in the club, from CFI to honorary member. He has 9000 hours and rising, from Meteors to T21s

Andrew Hulme retired after five years as treasuruer: Bernard Madoff got off more lightly. Richard Brickwood highlights the risks from DIRSERA whcih threatens the whole gliding movement. However, he has some antibiotics to treat it with Pages 10-13

www.glide.co.uk April 2010 GT 4

Club news and events

Inter Club League 2010

Well, it’s that time of year again and the Inter Club Leagues are

being planned. For those of you who don’t know, the Inter-Club League is intended to encourage competitive cross-country flying on a much less formal basis than national and re-gional competitions, involving pilots at all levels of cross-country compe-tence. Special emphasis is placed on the performance of novice pilots in an effort to encourage cross county com-petition and often the spirit of a rule is applied more than the letter. Full de-tails of the pilot classes and this year’s fixtures are detailed here.

So this is the annual begging letter for competitors. Pilots of all levels of x-country experience are required. As a novice, flying in the ICL is a fun way to start your competition flying career, whilst being surrounded by more ex-perienced club members who can help out with advice, tips and hints. In ad-dition, with only 6 clubs taking part, giving a total of 18 competition glid-ers, the sky does not get overcrowded with aircraft. To fly in the ICL you should be cleared for x-country and be able to provide your own crew. Fly one day and crew the other is a very common arrangement for a weekend as you need only commit to a single day if you want. If you wish to use a club glider then you will need to ap-proach the club committee.

If you are interested in participat-ing in any of the rounds, which are de-tailed here, please contact me. 01954 268043 Julian BaneThe Soaring Centre, Husbands Bos-worth - 1, 2, 3 MayCranwell - 15, 16 MayFour Counties GC, Wittering - 5, 6 JuneLondon GC, Dunstable - 19, 20 JuneBuckminster GC, Saltby - 3, 4 July

ASW24 Replaces Discus

The tragic loss of a club Discus, HOM, last year left the club short

of a high performance single-seater. Cambridge University Gliding

Club generously helped out with the loan of their ASW19, CU, but HOM had to be replaced.

Three gliders were considered to replace HOM: an LS7, another Dis-cus or an ASW24. As luck would have it, an ASW24 was for sale by a club member and following an inspection

by Robert Verdier, £25,500 changed hands. We also got the comp number FLY. Whilst the glider is nearly 20 years old, it is in very good condition and when the work is finished (com-plete with Schleicher graphics) it will look suberb.

The glider has had to be transi-tioned (registration numbers applied and mafia-money paid to EASA) and a dedicated aerotow hook fitted.

The Neville Anderson Young Pilot Award

You will remember Neville Ander-son who sadly died last year fol-

lowing a short illness. Neville’s wife, Anna-Maria, and his sister, Delphine, have kindly donated an annual award of £200 to recognise and encourage young pilots in developing their fly-ing skills.

Any pilot may apply if he or she

is under the age of 23 and is a mem-ber within the cadet scheme, the CGC young adults scheme, or CUGC. Ap-plicants will be in at least their sec-ond year of membership and must be in full time education and not in full time employment.

Applications should be made by email to the Treasurer Rhod Turner at rhod.turner@gmail.com outlin-ing your current experience and why you are applying for the award by the closing date of 30 April 2010. It is ex-pected the successful recipient will be presented with a cheque which will be paid into his or her flying account by Anna-Maria in early May.

Peter Warner

Gliding to end in 2012?

Eurocontrol, the European Organisation for the Safety of Air

Navigation is currently consulting on its proposed Standardised European Rules of the Air. Given the nature of the proposals, we are asking that as many glider pilots as possible take the time to respond in order to highlight our very significant concerns. As the name implies, the proposals seek to unify rules of the air across Europe by cancelling all agreed na-tional differences from current ICAO standards. This will result in the re-moval of decades of appropriate and sensible national modifications and differences to the ICAO Rules of the Air. These national differences, as seen for example in the UK ANO and in the series of exemptions put in place by UK CAA - are appropri-ate and safe. The safety, operational and economic impact associated with inappropriate Standardised European Rules of the Air is likely to be signifi-cantly damaging to gliding.

For a start, normal gliding flight would be classed as aerobatic and would, therefore, be prohibited un-less specific permissions were ob-tained. There would be no more field landing training in motor gliders, no more ridge soaring, as we know it and potentialy, the closure of un-licensed aerodromes. We would also have to file flight plans with ATCIf established, these rules would affect all pilots from 2012.

BGA news release

Man Of Letters: Robert Verdier

Neville with his favourite glider, FVV

GT 5 April 2010 www.glide.co.uk

Frank Prime: 15 May 1922 2 March 2010.

Frank passed away on 2nd March 2010. With the exception of his

last 2 years, he had enjoyed really good health.

Frank was born into a Farming family and ran a farm in Farnham near Bishops Stortford for much of his life.

When the war came he joined the RAF and became a Warrant Officer. Serving in South Africa he learned to fly gliders which were to be towed into France behind Lancasters. Fortu-nately for him the landings took place in Europe before he was ready. He was also very lucky again going to Karachi preparing for taking on the Japanese, but the American’s got there first.

Whilst in his fifties, his daugh-ter gave him a gliding lesson for his birthday and from that day on, farm-ing wasn’t quite so important. Any-time the sky looked soarable he was off, saying you can manage without me can’t you.

I got to know Frank well when I purchased a share in a Dart 17 in the early 80s. Together with the third member of the syndicate, Peter Pool, we spent the winter recovering the wings and refinishing the glider. Frank always made a good contribu-tion, particularly on any manual tasks as he was a large man and as strong as an Ox. He was a good syndicate part-ner and friend.

Frank really enjoyed his gliding and flew solo into his eighties. The only thing that stopped him flying was the difficulty he had getting into and

Frank in a Grob II at CGC

Frank Prime out of the cockpit.He accrued over 1000 hours in

gliders and as well as flying with the Cambridge Gliding Centre, he en-joyed numerous expeditions to The Long Mynd, Sutton Bank, Portmoak, as well as other local clubs.

He and his wife Norma took sev-eral holidays in the Antipodes. He always managed to find an airfield where he could fly. Even on the last trip at the age of 84, to celebrate their 60th wedding anniversary, he still managed a flight.

He had several other interests. Making and consuming beer, old farm machinery, mostly steam driven, and keeping weather records, which were published monthly in the Parish Mag-azine.

One of Frank’s memorable com-ments was “hope springs eternal” which he used when he needed to be really optimistic about a particular outcome.

The other was “I can’t be doing with that” when things were happen-ing that he didn’t like or approve of.

Frank was a true gentleman with a down to earth approach to life. He was larger than life and always jolly and positive. He was a popular mem-ber of our club and we will miss his cheerful and helpful presence.

Our sympathies go to his wife Norma, son David, daughter Tuppa, and all his family and friends.

Mike Smith

Fronting Up

The front cover of a magazine is central to its success. This issue's

cover picture was created by Sarah Kelman. It is actually two photos blended together. One is of Andrew Beatty in our ASK21, KFY, and the other of the Robin tug coming in to land. After half an hour on the PC the two pics had been seamlessly stitched together. An hour earlier Sarah had completed a '300' on the best day of the year so far.

Nose Hook for DMIf you have been frustrated by

the absence of the Discus, DM, it should soon be back on-line. The reason for the delay is that it's hav-ing a new nose (aerotow) hook fitted. This is one mean job. It has involved

opening out the nose, re-plumbing the pneumatics, glassing in a frame for the hook, re-routing the release cables and re-assembling the kit. In addition, the blistering down the fu-

selage and nose has been repaired and the glider has had a new CofA. It will be worth the wait.

CGC has more double O's than GCHQ

If you thought that GPS and IGC loggeres had put an end to the

paperwork of badge claims, think again. The BGA still insists on your claim having a signature. And that means finding an 'OO' or official observer. Thanks to Martin Gregorie we now have a definitive list:Baker Peter Bridge JohnBryce-Smith RobertDavies JemDecloux ArianeDrury GrahamEvershed MarkGoudie GavinGregorie MartinHead AlanHead WendyHooson BryanKnight GeorgeLees DonLongland SteveMcIntyre RossO'Donald PeterPursey BobSanderson GeorgeSmith MikeWard RodWelford RobertWhitehead Martin

Nose Job: New nose cone for front release

www.glide.co.uk April 2010 GT 6

Crashing your glider is not fun, but sometimes it is useful.It was three years ago now that I

wrapped Weather Jack’s pride and joy around a tree, having owned it for less than a year. It was a fine example of Polish glider making, a shiny Jantar Std. 2 which, for the uninitiated is essential-ly a Junior on steroids. It was no ASG, granted, but it was ‘mine’. Overnight I had graduated from a poor glider-less student to a member of the gliding illu-minate. I was a professional now, one of those elite who would rock up on a bank holiday, throw on their wings and bask in the glory of the aerotow launch queue while the plebeians gazed on in envy as they fetched another pair of winch ca-bles.

Or at least that was the rather mis-guided sentiment tucked away in the back of my mind, as my confidence and ego overtook perspective and ability in a way which appears to be a unique phe-nomenon in twenty something young men who think they can spend a few quid and earn the respect of the world. All that was missing to complete the pic-ture was perhaps some blue neon lights

underneath the fuselage and an extra riser on the tailplane.

As you might have gathered, it didn’t work out so well.

Some friends had organized an ex-pedition to Denbigh, North Wales, and I was keen to flex the wings on my new toy. There wasn’t to be much in the way of instruction; there was a skeleton team at Denbigh to sign us off and launch us, but during the week the only local around was the winch driver. I had about 10 hours of ridge flying under my` belt

before I left, so obviously I was already a professional and so was not overly con-cerned. The first half of the week was splendid, the wind blew and I had hours and hours of fun polishing the rocks and terrifying walkers and sheep at 100 knots and 20 feet AGL.

On the day of the crash, the wind had dropped and swung around 45 degrees or so. After launching and reaching the ridge I had been scraped around for half an hour or so just below the top, but I was getting a bit flustered – after all, I was do-ing this yesterday and it was working just fine. To make matters worse, I could see people who had managed to climb away heading out comfortably to explore the next bowl. I was getting hot, bothered

and flustered. I should have given in at this point and headed back to the field, but instead I decided to press on and try the next bowl along. I set off, lost another hundred feet or so and rounded the lip of the bowl. I held my breath, crossed my fingers and sure enough the vario went silent and then began to chime that de-licious ‘beep’.... ‘beep’.... ‘beep’... that only 0.5 knots of lift can bring. Not want-ing to miss an opportunity, I slowed right down to just above the stall, lapping up every bit of energy the air could impart

when all of a sudden it occurred to me that the main ridge ahead was becoming rather proximate, and decided that I had better turn away from it.

I sat and ate my sandwich as I con-templated whether, inconvenient as it was, the tree branch that now had me trapped

in the cockpit might actually have saved my life.

I had not been able to turn steeply enough away from the hill to escape and had performed a kind of mushy stall across the slope. The impact itself was not that severe and there was only mi-nor damage to the belly. However, as I had scraped along the floor the starboard wing had struck a tree, writing off the glider and spinning me around to face the valley floor. The hill was very steep, and I had I not had the tree holding me back I suspect I might have been found upside down at the bottom.

You can imagine the rest; the sheep-ish phone call to the club – the epic (ulti-mately pointless) retrieve. The chat with the CFI. The endless ribbing, soul search-ing and ridiculous insurance premiums.

For a nearly a day, I was unsure whether or not I should glide again. To have ended up writing off my pride and joy in an accident that could easily have been avoided made me realise that there was more to gliding than just learn-ing how to fly. I mean, that would have helped, for sure but really more than any-thing else... I just needed to grow up.

Learning the

hard wayRecently qualified BI, Phil Scott, learns the meaning of ‘never low and slow’

I sat and ate my sandwich as I contemplated whether the tree branch that now had me trapped in the cockpit might actually have saved my life.

Phil Scott’s Jantar wrapped around one of only three trees for miles. Excuse: “yesterday it was working just fine”

GT 7 April 2010 www.glide.co.uk

TEM:ACultural Change?

Most of you will probably be unaware of the gauntlet

thrown down by the BGA to club chairman and CFI’s to reduce the accident rate in gliding. This message was presented at Hugh Browning’s recent safety presen-tation and reinforced at the re-gional CFI’s conference. To cut a long story short the accident rate in gliding has remained unaltered over the last 25 years. However, the injury rate has increased, prob-ably due to the increased weight of modern gliders. Unfortunately the level of insurance claims has also increased, especially with respect

to trial flights and instructing ac-cidents. In recent years the amount paid out by the insurers has sig-nificantly exceeded the premiums collected, trail flight claims being by far the most expensive. This all sounds a touch monetary, but we are on the brink of becoming uninsurable as a sport. Besides the financial implications having acci-dents is “not a good thing” – for obvious reasons! The BGA’s mes-sage is rather stark.

The BGA stated that Leader-ship to a safer operation must be lead by the CFI and chairman, this means: no trial lesson accidents no serious instructing accidents, pi-lots able to evaluate and manage risk and fewer accidents in the six priority areas (winching, spinning etc.)

The good news is that our ac-cident rate is around two thirds of the national average and that we have already implemented most of the practical suggestions made by the BGA. But this leaves no room

for complacency. The BGA mes-sage emphasised that what was needed was a complete change in the safety culture at gliding clubs, not just a bit of fiddling with the instructing syllabus. Unfortunately they didn’t recommend how to ac-tually achieve this.

Last November I attended a motor glider seminar at the club run by Andy Miller – BGA mo-tor gliding supremo. One of the talks was new to me. It was given by Steve Oddy from the CAA and covered Threat and Error Manage-ment - TEM. It transpires that this is a technique used by the civil aviation world to systematically reduce risk. Over the last four months Robert Bryce Smith and I have been investigating TEM. We think it shows promise as a way of preventing some accidents before they happen

I apologise if this all looks a bit jargon ridden but it seems sensible to include a brief description of TEM.

The idea is to identify potential causes of incidents and accidents. These causes are categorised as either threats or errors.

Threats “come at” the pilot, whilst errors are “caused by” the pilot. For example some gliding threats and errors would be the weather such as low sun/misting, thunderstorms, rain, strong wind or gusty thermals - leading to ground handling problems. Human factors can also be threats. Most common are dehydration, fatigue, poor performance, personal issues (domestic or work worries) boredom and medical issues.

Glider pi-lots are (should be) well aware of the threats from winching. These include: wing drops on the ground due to cross wind or wing tip runner getting it wrong, cable breaks and ca-

ble hang ups. In contrast, some errors in

winching are a high rotation rate into climb, climbing too steeply, incorrect c/b recovery and not get-ting to the right attitude/air speed before manoeuvring. Pulling too hard at the top of the launch and over stressing the glider or flicking into a spin entry.

Having identified these the next step is to identify safeguards that will help to protect against these threats and errors. Taking winch cable breaks as an example, some suitable safeguards would be:

• Speed monitoring, awareness of nose attitude,

• Correct cable break recov-ery technique

• Accurate approach control • Judgement of whether land

ahead option available • Always maintaining safe

attitude for speed and height on launch

• Knowledge of correct cable break procedures

• Methodical eventualities pre take-off brief

• Recognising wind gradient• Correct critical height ca-

ble break circuit• Hand on release so that

cable can be released quickly, par-ticularly if wing goes down on launch.

Some of these safeguards are related to a pilot’s abilities, for ex-ample a pilot with poor situational awareness would have trouble rec-ognising a wind gradient, good de-cision making helps with judging

Threat and Error Management is used in civil aviation. What can glider pilots learn from it? CFI, Richard Maskell, explains

‘In recent years the amount paid out by the insurers has significantly exceeded the premiums collected’

Room for error: rotation, speed, recovery and decision making. TEM puts structure into assessment

what to do with a critical height cable break. A key aspect of this whole approach is to be able to catagorise safeguards by pilot at-tributes. So if a pilot is weak in a particular area then the related safeguards naturally form a tai-lored support program.

Prompted by this I recently introduced a Pilot Review Form to be filled in by instructors dur-ing refresher course and annual checks. I was rather caught out by the timings with a lot of the refreshers being run before the in-structors meeting. The idea is for the instructor to discus the form with the “refreshee” before start-ing, and to fill it in after the course or checks. It can be used as an aid to summarise the course.

The form has categories for skills, judgement, knowledge, situational awareness, workload management and decision mak-ing. Each category is assessed as being standard, very good, sup-port needed, or fail. I would expect most pilots to come out as ‘stan-dard’, that’s sort of what the name implies. ‘Fail’ would be extremely

rare, meaning that your flying wasn’t up to solo standard. ‘Sup-port needed’ means you are Ok to fly solo but a particular aspect of your flying would benefit from some tailored help. ‘Very good’ is pretty self explanatory. On com-pletion the forms would be sent to me. The forms should soon be downloadable from the clubs web site.

I can understand that this may cause some unease. As a club we’ve never had to fill in forms like this so it seems appropriate to explain why I think these are a good idea. First the easy one, as CFI I am responsible for all fly-ing at the club. If somebody has an annual check and some aspects of their flying concerns the instructor, then I would expect the instructor to talk to the pilot and agree some remedial plan to help the pilot get

back on track. Without the form I simply don’t find out about this and have no opportunity to check that the support plan has worked or that it even happened. Sec-ondly, the categories on the form are designed to match up with the TEM safeguards, helping to gen-erate a support plan for the pilot. The forms can also help highlight potential instructors. Finally, we grew the club by around 40 new members last year, the size of some of the smaller clubs in East Anglia. I simply cannot keep track of new pilots progress without some form of feedback.

If you have any questions or concerns please feel free to email me at richard@maskells.net or talk to me on the airfield – if I am try-ing to rig and fly cross country I may say, “can we talk later”.

At present I believe CGC is the only club in the UK even looking at making TEM work in a gliding environment. It may all come to nothing, but in light of the BGA’s challenge it seems worth a go. Happy soaring

Richard Maskell, CFI, CGC

www.glide.co.uk April 2010 GT 8

Cu nims on a competition day at Nympsfield 2005. How many threats can you spot?

'I believe CGC is the only club in the UK even looking at making TEM work in a gliding environment'

GT 9 April 2010 www.glide.co.uk

On Sunday 17th January Bryce Bryce-Smith celebrated his 80th birthday by piloting a glider

at Cambridge Gliding Centre during a celebration of his 63 years in the air. For this special flight his glider’s tow-plane was piloted by Bryce’s airline-captain son Robert, with grandson, Toby, as a passenger. The glider was released at an altitude of 3,150 feet - 50 feet for every year Bryce has been flying.

Bryce was born near Cambridge in 1930, went to school in the city, and started training on gliders with the Air Training Corps’ 105 Gliding School at Cambridge airport on 12th January 1947, aged just 16. At the time the ATC still used the solo method of glider training, where the pupil was strapped into a single-seat “primary” glider and first winched along the airfield in a “ground slide” to learn about aileron use. This lead to a series of “low hops”, towed to 6-10 feet altitude but landing immediately, then successively-higher hops, with the instructor cycling alongside shouting advice. Eventually

the student was ready to tow to height, release, and fly a 30-second-long circuit, a feat Bryce achieved in April 1947.

Bryce joined the RAF for National Service in 1951. After initial training in Scotland, he was sent back to Cambridgeshire to convert to Meteor fighters at RAF Oakington, and then Canberra jet bombers at RAF Bassingbourn.. After completing National Service in 1953, Bryce continued teaching gliding in his spare time with the ATC at Marshall’s in Cambridge until 105 Gliding School closed in 1955. Meanwhile, he also joined Cambridge Gliding Club, where he taught civilian glider pilots until the age of 72.

As a civil engineer, Bryce was instrumental in moving the club from Duxford to Gransden Lodge in 1991, helping to re-commission the airfield from the farmland to which it had been returned after the war.

Despite a stroke in 2002 which robbed him of speech, Bryce is still an active pilot. In his lifetime of flying he has accumulated over 4,500 hours in gliders and another 4,500 in powered aircraft.

Bryce’s professional life was spent working for Cambridge City Council, latterly as City Engineer. In 1962 he married Gillian Maltby, who for many years edited S&G.

Robert Bryce-Smith, Bryce’s son, a training captain with Easyjet, said: “Flying has been Dad’s lifelong passion. He goes flying two or three times a week. He’s lost none of his ability to soar a glider and sometimes flies out to places like Bury St. Edmunds or Leicester and back. It’s great to see his enthusiasm.”

Club Chairman, Richard Brickwood,

said: “Bryce began flying while still a teenager, and spent over five decades helping others discover the thrill of gliding through his selfless work training new pilots. We congratulate him on his lifetime in aviation, and are proud to continue his work teaching young people to fly. In addition, Bryce was a key member of the team that moved Cambridge Gliding Club from Duxford to our current magnificent airfield at Gransden Lodge.”

Nowadays, Bryce is a man of few words. However, his son, Robert, managed to coax a few...

“Thank you all for my party - it was quite unexpected and it was great to see so many of you there.

“CUGC/CGC has been a very big part of my life. After 63 years of flying I enjoy it just as much as ever!

"I’ve seen some massive changes in gliding and in the club - but coming out to the airfield remains one of my biggest pleasures in life. If not flying, then seeing old friends and helping around at the launchpoint; on the golf buggy is good fun.

“I still fly my DG500. If that’s not available then I fly club two seaters, motor glider and Bluebell as P2. I enjoy trying to get the T21 as high as possible - especially when my son has forgotten to put his coat on!

“Thank you all for helping me enjoy what continues to be a great pastime.” Bryce Bryce-Smith

The Generation GameThere are few pilots today who soloed without dual in-stuction. Bryce Bryce-Smith is one of them. To mark Bryce’s 80 years (63 a pilot) the club gathered last Janu-ary to celebrate a milestone for the man and the club.Andrew Watson reports

Grandson, Toby, with father, Robert, in Robin. Pic:Colin Hinson

Bryce in the back seat of K21, KFY, with Andrew Hulme.Others (left-to-right): Rhod Turner, Martin Pointon, Gavin Goudie, Mike Smith, Cathy Prescott. Pic: Andrew Watson

www.glide.co.uk April 2010 GT 10

The accounts for the year end-ed 30 September 2009 taken together with those for the last couple of years illustrate

our heavy reliance on activity based income to cover fixed costs.

We have worked hard to reduce the impact of this link over the years and in some respects have had con-siderable success. The introduc-tion of the facility fee some years ago, the cross subsidy to aerotows/winch launches from that and, more recently, the increase in that fee with higher cross subsidy is the best ex-ample of fixed income which enables us to reduce charges on certain items of activity based income………and reduce our reliance therefore on that income which falls short in years of, say, poor weather.

Against that general background the following summary is presented in regard to the 2009 management accounts approved by the directors on 10 March – we start with the un-numbered pages at the back of the accounts:-

Aerotowing

With the insurance write-off of the Rallye in 2008 we suffered the maintenance of both tugs in the win-ter of 2007, and the insurance of both tugs for the whole year 2007/8 but the need to rent in a tug to replace the Ral-lye for a substantial part of the 2008 season. Given that the rental was at full rates reflecting maintenance and insurance we had unavoidably dupli-cated costs for 2008 season. Togeth-er with a poor year, and poor weather for the 2008 competition aerotowing only broke even. Perhaps we were fortunate to achieve that.

We went into 2008/9 accounts year with the residual insurance

charges for the Rallye but a budget which reflected the need to rent in a tug for 2009 season and with clear management objectives for the tug-ging operation.

We had a very expensive annual inspection on the Pawnee in the win-ter of 2009 but so much work was car-ried out that we considered there was an investment in the Pawnee mainte-nance for the future. That proved to be the case with very much improved serviceability in 2009, resulting in less reliance on the hired in tug as the Pawnee was No 1 tug. Part of the cost of that ‘annual’ was carried for-ward and has proved to be justified by a very low bill for the Pawnee an-nual in the winter of 2009 (2009/10 accounts year).

The result of nearly £13,000 sur-plus on aerotowing is pleasing and returns us to the satisfactory levels we have seen in some earlier years.

Thank you Robert Bryce–Smith for your management of this facility and the good result!

Motor Gliding

The Motor Glider also had an acceptable year. Although we still only achieved about 200 hours split roughly equally between ourselves and the Scouts this was despite the Motor glider being out of action for a good part of the winter 2008/9 for a new engine.

The high maintenance costs in 2007/8 accounts year (winter 2007) were for an annual overhaul and part refurbishment. Because of the cost sharing arrangements the repairs on our accounts were high, and the in-come similarly high (including the recharge of the maintenance) but we did not cover our costs on operations for 2007/8 and ended up just below breakeven.

The 2008/9 non-flying winter, due to the new engine, did impact on hours achieved in the financial year and therefore there is not such a good return, but did not impact on the cost sharing arrangements – there is a separate engine fund. Accord-ingly operating costs are well down for 2008/9 compared with 2007/8 and income came down too, with fewer costs to re-charge.

There were motor glider rental charges (Tim Wilkinson’s Grob) in-cluded as well as the airframe hire charge/depreciation charge on the

Scout motor glider which we bear.Net result is a good year with a

surplus of £1,613 representing ap-proximately £13 per hour. About right - and will be better when we can get the utilisation up.

WinchingThere were no major changes in

costs and usage went up, from 6,700 to 7,500 launches, generating a sig-nificant net positive contribution (it was also positive the previous year).

Glider flying

Income up (despite the loss of HOM part way through the season) – in part due to the well subscribed single seater scheme. Maintenance costs up with “transition” to EASA and registrations for all the gliders. Net result up slightly on last year and up on budget.

CoursesA very welcome source of in-

come, but one where we don’t isolate the expenditure so it appears only as an income source.

Competitions Despite the low number of en-

trants, the good weather (and some very careful budgeting by Neil Goudie) helped to turn in a posi-tive contribution close to, but better than, the budget expectation. As the numbers of entrants were apparently not reaching expectation, he cut the costs: great work.

The overall result was negative the previous year when the flying was minimal due to bad weather - but we had experimented with some more expensive, but improved facilities too so had a poor result in 2008).

Thanks Neil – well managed 2009 result with difficulty of get-ting entrants after a couple of poor weather years.

Subscriptions and other income

There was a noticeable increase in subscriptions which Richard Brickwood will no doubt refer to. Not all the impact of new members appears as the new member sub falls

2010 AGMAndrew Hulme passes the reins to Rhod Turner after five years in harness. The last two years have been challenging but Andrew hands over a club in fine fettle

GT 11 April 2010 www.glide.co.uk

part into this year and part into next (first membership runs for 12 months from date of joining). The increase is despite the headline subscription be-ing reduced to £455 from £470 prior year. Very pleasing increase.

Miscellaneous income is Cam-bridge Broadband, Ordnance Sur-vey and Virgin Balloons. Last year it also included a write back of expired vouchers –where no write back is ap-propriate this year.

Other Income

£15,776 is a surplus over the written value of the Discus – depreci-ation allowed for which is now writ-ten back as we received more for the glider than it was written down to.

Bunkhouse and Caravans in-cludes a charge to the competition of £1,600 for the provision of the show-er and washing facilities reflecting a decision we made to build those fa-cilities and cut out “renting in” costs.

Catering shows a small profit, being the “Chiller café” in the office. The current arrangement is never go-ing to make a lot as there is no profit on the sandwiches, just a contribu-tion to delivery costs. BUT if we can continue this facility without losing money I think it is a good stand-in until something better comes along.

Donations includes those made at sub renewal time, just under £1,400 from 50 members. The rest is the donation of travel costs and the tax reclaim under gift aid. Gift aid re-funds run between £600 and £800 a quarter.

“Events” is a mix of things, in-cluding, fireworks evening, hog roasts, and the catering cost (less in-come) for the VGC – but against that extra flying revenue was generated.

Overheads and Establishment costs

Salaries are the office team and the flying team, together with, for the first time, paid log keeping in the height of the summer with three sixth formers helping out for a few weeks.

Heat and light is a huge over-head and has been the subject of re-cent email circulars. The last quarter (which falls in 2009/10) cost about £2000 in electricity alone! Please be vigilant, and if you are using club electricity – your own parachute cup-

board, your a caravan or what have you please contribute.

Travel expenses, though it looks high, is counteracted by the dona-tions…….only small amounts of travel costs for very specific journeys (delivery of glider for repair, that sort of thing) are paid and not donated back.

Interest – reduced with the gen-eral reduction in interest rates. As far as the element which relates to mem-ber loans, the rates will be restruc-tured from 1 April and the previous “interest free deposits” abandoned from 1 October.

Repairs – no track professional repairs this year.

Reverting to the Statutory ac-counts:

• The Balance sheet has im-proved from £123,800 to £132,400

• Prepayments are high as they include the prepaid deposit on the Robin £23,700 approx

• Bank loans look high as we consolidated the Toyota and winch loans in with the new tug loan to get the benefit of current lower interest rates and held the cash on deposit ex-pecting payment any day for the tug. I specifically asked the bank to leave the changes until after 30 Septem-ber………..did they, no! Bank man-ager now changed!

• Bank loan is now secured (subject of a bank debenture) (see note 11 on page 8)

• Note 14 capital commit-ments………. is the Robin

Cash is KingOf course businesses can be

profitable and still run out of cash. Equally they can show a trading defi-cit after proper provision for depre-ciation (which does not involve flow of funds) and can have generated a cash surplus. That’s where we are this year.

In 2008 we showed a significant deficit and only just positive cash generated from operations, (£1,300). That boils down to the fact that we covered our costs but set nothing aside for re-equipment.

For 2009 I am pleased to say that although we had a trading deficit (if you strip out the surplus on the dis-posal of the Discus), the provision we have set aside for re-equipment (depreciation) was partly (mostly)

covered by the cash we generated of £24,000 from operations.

That is a good number, ideally we would breakeven or better and then the non-cash expenses allowed in the accounts would mean genera-tion of cash roughly equivalent to de-preciation. We did not manage that ………….but we got a long way to-wards it.

Whilst the aircraft hold their value and can be sold (or paid out on insurance) we will “get away” with not covering depreciation………but it does not apply to vehicles and winches, hangars etc so we cannot be complacent and DO need to cover the depreciation every year if we are to re-equip as and when appropriate.

SummaryMuch improved result compared

to 2008. Strip out the adjustment on disposal of the Discus and the ac-counts would show a deficit of £8696, budget deficit was £9282 – but there are many ups and downs in between headings:-

o Tugging positive varianceo Motor gliding positive vari-

anceo Winching positive varianceo Gliders positive varianceo Courses on budgeto Comps positive varianceo Subs etc positive varianceo Expenses – negative vari-

anceo Net result, roughly the bud-

geted deficit!

And finally……………………..

I hand over to a new Treasurer this year. Rhod Turner has stepped forward – although there is some relief in making the change it has been very rewarding, and, yes, enjoy-able………..all the more so with the great support of Richard Brickwood as Chairman and the background support of David Howse, John Birch, and other officers …………and it has been good working with Joanne Pre-sland in the office.

I am sure the new treasurer will find it hard work at times, but equally rewarding. His, undoubtedly differ-ent, approach will be refreshing – which is why we have officers chang-ing at five year intervals!

www.glide.co.uk April 2010 GT 12

Chairman’s report

Welcome to the new season! – We went to seven day a week operations on Mon-

day March 29th – it rained - and is still raining today as I write this; (and as I edit it, Ed) cloudbase at GRL was 300’when I was there this morning and even Robert Theil and Andy were looking to future soarable days rather than getting out there and on line for a launch. It must have been dire.

BUT looking at the stats for the year to date and the launch sheets for March puts a whole different face on the picture. Robert and the winter crews have been having a pretty good time of it; they even delivered ALL the flights ordered under the City Uni-versity scheme and the students were so enamoured with the flying program which we have developed for them that their tutor, Dr Douglas Green-well, is already talking about repeat-ing it next year. March also produced some pretty thermic days and a num-ber of 200k X/C flights have already been completed.

Could this be the start of another great year? Let’s hope so. What else? Just as I keep thinking, “yup – up to date – lets go and do something else”

something else comes along and de-mands lots of attention.

Last week a briefing arrived from Pete Stratten (Chief Executive BGA) on a 600+page Eurodocument which has the snappy title of “Draft Imple-menting Rule on Standardised Eu-ropean Rules of the Air”. OK – so Eurodocuments are a) dead boring b) nothing to do with gliding and c) someone else will deal with it. Sadly only a) is correct.

At this point gliding needs YOU to do something and you only have until April 12th to get your act together.(If you have already responded to my e-mail of March 30th , or previously and directly, thank you, skip the next paragraph and go to the next interest-ing bit of GT. If not – read on. please.

The bottom line is that DIRSERA was drafted for commercial air traf-fic and completely ignores private aircraft and (in our case) gliders and gliding sites. The BGA have sum-marised the main issues in the letter from Pete Stratten which I attached to my original e-mail – or you can find it on the relevant portion of the BGA web site. The problem is that if adopted (as drafted) gliders and glid-ing sites will have to comply with these new regulations. So, no more spin checks (=aerobatics=new regula-tions), no more ridge soaring, no more water ballast etc etc. The BGA re-sponse is excellent (but then it would be; not least because George Knight helped write a lot of it) but I URGE you to go to the BGA’s response site, read their draft submission, and para-phrase it in your own words. Sadly, despite not being sent personal copies of the proposed Draft by Eurocontrol, they will NOT accept an equally ge-neric response from us - so we can’t cut and paste. Seems pretty inequi-table to me - but that’s Euroland and we need to play by their rules (and use their forms).Could you let me know when you have sent your response in as I would like to keep track of how many CGC members do so - not least because a potential next step is to get our MEPs involved and it would be good to give them some specific idea of who in their constituency is ac-tively involved. All have been invited to our Open Day (May 9th) and there is no such thing as a free lunch (or coffee and trial lesson in this case). I

know that this request will provoke a groan - but nothing like the one that will emanate from the land if we do NOTHING and the regulations are imposed. I’ll be doing one on behalf of both CGC and myself -which will be kind of tricky given the no cut and paste rule.

The AGM was well attended with nothing too controversial on the agen-da. A presentation by new committee member Jason Holloway on the work he has been undertaking, in conjunc-tion with Richard Baker, on getting CGC further up the results of various search engines, such as Google, was warmly received. It is already bear-ing fruit with a measurable increase in the number of hits to the site and increased activity to the “shop”.

Dave Tew and Neil Goudie were also elected to the new committee, with Neil taking a specific role of organising the Regionals and ensur-ing that they fit smoothly into normal Club operations.

Rhod Turner has agreed to suc-ceed Andrew Hulme as Treasurer as Andrew must step down under the “five year” rule for key Committee posts. He has agreed become a Direc-tor of Cambridge Gliding Club Ltd

where his corporate knowledge and memory will be invaluable.

I would particularly like to thank Andrew for everything that he has done over the past five years (and his family for putting up with his evening and weekend work load). We have new kit, including duplicate tractors, winches and tow out vehicles. A fabu-lous new primary tug in the shape of the Robin DR400, an ASW24, bunk

Membership is up and 200 looks on. Sadly so are dings to club kit. But the biggest threat comes again from Europe with DIRSERA. If that sounds like a tart with syphilis, you’d be right. Richard Brickwood prescribes some antibiotics

Charming the punters: Peter B (left) and Phil Scott, Open Day 2009

“He has gently and firmly dis-suaded me from bankrupting the Club with my more wild spending ideas...

Richard Brickwood in ASW19, HLV

GT 13 April 2010 www.glide.co.uk

houses, showers and toilets.He has gently and firmly dissuad-

ed me from bankrupting the Club with my more wild spending ideas and been a great support and valued advisor on more occasions than I can list.

Somehow he has consistently delivered a good financial result and hands over to Rhod a club on a sound financial basis. So, a final AGM for Andrew, heartfelt thanks from all of us, and the recommendation that he now goes and flys the gel coat off HGV, his DG 500. I suggest a lot of 5,000’ aerotows – Rhod wants the revenue.

Membership – the work of the Recruitment and Retention team lead

by Tony Cronshaw continues to bear fruit with something like 40 new Full Flying Members recruited in 2008/9 – and a further five this year already. Depending on how you count the numbers, current membership is in the region of 170 which is nicely up from about 150 at the same time last year. This is a fantastic result and puts our target of 200+ clearly in sight.

Sadly we lost four members, Nev-ille Anderson, John Mcnamee and Frank Prime during the year and, of course, Douglas Brooks. The AAIB report into the accident to G-CHOM (in which Douglas Brooks died) is still in draft form and will take a couple of months to finalise, but our understanding is that the report cur-rently contains no recommendations, negative comments, or substantive conclusions

Our Open Day is on Sunday May 9th. This is THE major recruit-ment event of the year and where we will make the biggest step towards that magic 200 members. If you can only help out on one day of the year – make it this one. Its good fun, hard work, drives new members and fills the evening classes. Last year we had c12 helpers which meant that we were running around like maniacs – and that did NOT give a good impression of our ability to deliver.

There is nothing like a field full of

enthusiastic pilots talking to the pub-lic to recruit new members and we all need all the new members we can get. The long term benefits of increased membership and asset utilisation for CGC and gliding generally are im-mense. There will be a general briefing for helpers at 0900 in the Club House. If you cannot be there by then don’t worry, simply find someone who was to get the details. But, please, don’t stay away.

The calendar has been widely cir-culated and I would urge you to sup-port the numerous events which are listed. These range from the regular cross country courses, an advanced Cross Country Course being run by Sarah Kelman, the Inter Club League to the Gransden Regionals for which Neil Goudie has promised perfect weather, task setting and catering. Bit like last year really. It is not (yet) sold out –but Neil is working on it. Get your application in soon to avoid dis-appointment.

We sent the Grob off site for its annual, to have the front canopy re-placed and the rear hinges reset. It is back and perfect. The “wind noise” that made EWP a hangar queen has gone and she is a delight to fly. Try it, you will be delightfully surprised. DM is having a nose hook fitted as part of its annual and will be out of the workshop within a week a so. All this has taken a little longer than an-ticipated not least because Robert got side-tracked by a couple of minorish incidents of the type mentioned be-low.

We are having a significant num-ber of minor incidents with damage to kit. These all cost time and money to repair and incur loss of revenue whilst the kit is out of commission. We’ve broken two canopies (which cost be-tween £2,500 and £5,000 each to re-pair), run over x2 K21 seat backs, hit the bus with a Junior, the Romany Hut doors with the winch, the rear lights of both Toyotas, run over the Grob tow-out gear and driven off the bus whilst attached to the charger. Worry-ingly not all such incidents are report-ed. None of us really wants to launch in a glider that has been stressed in a minor crunch or heavy landing; miss a launch because of broken gear or stand in the wind because the bus is u/s. If you do damage something (or

notice something has been damaged) please tell an instructor or the Office. Then we can fix it. No blame will be attached or personal cost incurred; but we simply do need to know – it’s so much safer that way.

As part of an on-going process of formalizing routine management of the Club we have recently created an organogram which shows all the jobs that need to be done in order to keep things running as smoothly as possible and who does them. This has already high lit a number that are NOT currently being undertaken and a “SitsVac” column (page 16) will be a regular part of GT in future. Could you please consider taking one of the vacant roles if you are nowhere on this chart and not performing a regu-lar rostered duty. Some of them, such as the S&G correspondent, will only take an hour or so yet make a signifi-cant contribution to the Club’s visibil-ity in the wider gliding community. Others might require specialist skills or knowledge; but the Club really does need everyone’s help and coop-

eration to keep it running and launch-ing gliders safely.

Finally – one of our members, Ross Macintyre, joins a long list of esteemed and internationally famous glider pilots by being awarded the FAI Lilienthal Gliding Medal for services to gliding. It’s worth a look at the FAI web site to see just how esteemed that list is. Congratulations, Ross.

Have a good season - and see you at the Launch Point.

Richard Brickwood, Chairman, Cambridge Gliding Club

Julian Bane in back of KFY with trial flight

“The bottom line is that DIRSERA was drafted for commercial air traffic and completely ignores gliders and gliding sites

www.glide.co.uk April 2010 GT 14

All my earlier attempts at a 300 Km flight had resulted in landing-out. There is no

greater evidence of failure than landing-out. I should know. I’ve made six so far and none of them show any ambiguity about my soaring prowess; merde.

The location for success was Bloemfontein, capital of the Orange Free State in South Africa. It is just south of the tropic of Capricorn on a vast plateau, mostly at 4,500 ft asl. In December with temperatures well into the 30s, density altitudes of 7,000 ft are common on the surface. Although I was flying a light hot single-seater, an LS7 with a 43:1 glide ratio, aero tows take significantly longer than they would at sea-level.

Hereabouts, much of the land is used for growing maize on enormous fields, hundreds of hectares in area.

So, landing-out on stubble or ploughed fields is not difficult or dangerous. However, it has been my experience that retrieval by road takes forever not to mention being expensive. One of my three land-outs took nine hours, even though I was only 100kms away from the aerodrome. I walked for two hours to a dirt road and was eaten by bats and bugs for another six hours before the crew found me. Then the crew wanted me to buy them dinner. Luckily for me, it was so late that all local restaurants were closed. Lucky for them, I was too tired to kill three people in one evening. Instead, I enjoyed the charitable thought that I could give them rabies from my bat bites and they would suffer long slow painful deaths! I digress.Departure

I had chosen to be at the back of the glider grid so that thermals would be better developed by the time I was due to be airborne. Generally, this works to the advantage of a novice like me but has the price of a shorter flying day, about an hour on this particular day. It takes that long to launch six gliders

at this altitude. When my turn came, I took a tow towards puffy cumulus clouds against a blue sky, a perfect soaring day. Soon I noticed that my ASI was reading zero. Tapping the instrument did no good. I advised the tug pilot of my situation and released over the airfield. I kept my approach speed constant by keeping the whistle from the air-vent constant. It worked well and I landed without incident. Back on the ground a bug was found to have blocked the pitot tube. Apparently, pitot covers are for wimps in South Africa. Forty minutes later, I was airborne with a working ASI. Now it was 1:30pm, quite a bit later than planned.First Leg

I released in a thermal at 6,500 ft and reached 10,000 ft fairly quickly. The cloud base was another 3,000 ft higher. If I could cruise in this band 10,000 to 13,000 ft, I would be following the advice of my parrot: “Get high, stay in the top one third of max height”. If I descended close to 10,000 ft, I would have to find a thermal even though I was still about 6000 ft agl. With this plan in mind, off I set for Hertzogville, 110 kms away. By the time I reached it, I was exhausted from so much turning in thermals. I had taken ten thermals to

Slowly does itSouth Africa is the home of record breakers. Karl Martin keeps up a fine tradition

Under African Skies: Jonker JS1enjoying what S. Africa is best known for, huge distances at speed

keep as high as I could, so keen was I to stay much higher than my parrot’s minimum. But it had taken me more than two hours to travel 110 kms. At this rate it would take at least another 4 hours for the remaining 200 kms. I would land in the dark at 7:30 or later. I must do better: take fewer thermals for higher climbs and fly faster, i.e. reprogram parrot.Second Leg

Rounding Hertzogville, I headed east for my second turn point 80 kms away. Aha, an instrument told me I had a 9 kph tailwind. I slowed down to a little below best L/D and headed straight for the waypoint. About an hour later I reached it having taken only 5 thermals. That was better, 16 kms between climbs as compared with 11 kms in the first leg.Final Leg

I had 120 kms to go on the final leg to make it back to my starting point. Now heading for home, I was

facing a crosswind, much better than a headwind (parrot says: “think positively”). Also, along this route was an airfield 30 kms ahead which I could use as an alternate. As I got closer to the airfield I noticed that the clouds, which had been all around me thus far on the flight, were disappearing rapidly. The sky was turning blue and I was getting nervous. After the airfield I would have no clouds marking out thermals, just blue sky. I decided to go past the airfield as high as possible and if I got low after that I would turn back to land on it. My parrot advises 10kms glide per 1000 ft alt loss. I reckoned I could travel about 36 kms beyond the airfield and back if I found no lift, providing I could start at 13,000 ft. Using every bit of lift under the next cloud, I reached a little higher than 13,000 ft before accelerating into the blue. This was a calculated gamble. However, the air was so buoyant that I lost only 1000 ft in the next 17 km glide. Then I gained 200 ft porpoising through a blue thermal. Likewise in the following 16 kms, I lost 900 ft but gained 300. Decision point: do I

go on or turn back? I was at 11,600 ft and had 60 kms to go. 60 kms would require 6,000 ft altitude if I found no lift. That would place me over my destination at 5,600 ft, giving a margin of 100 ft (about a 1km glide) over the circuit height of 5,500 ft. That’s tight, very tight if I hit sink of significance. Naturally and illogically I pressed on. Within 5 kms I found a thermal which I took for a 1,500 ft climb. Gaining confidence with altitude, I pushed the stick forward and made an average IAS of 120 kph over the last 60 kms. Also, I averaged 24 kms between climbs for the whole leg. That’s more like it. When I landed at 6:30, just before sunset, I was tired but satisfied, ok I mean knackered!“Hey Dick, have a look at my log-ger. I think I have done my first 300 kms.”

“Hmm yes, it looks like you’ve quali-fied for Gold distance. Well done.”Later he said: “I don’t believe it. Do you know that you had an average speed of about 65 kph for your 300 kms” “That’s the slowest ever on our records. It doesn’t affect your claim for Gold, or the fact that you will buy beers tonight, but if you want to do 500 kms for a Diamond XC it will take you about 8 hours at that speed. We don’t have landing lights here, nor do our gliders have lights!”Later I discovered that the world speed record for 300 kms is 161 kph on average. A New Zealander, Jenny Wilkinson, holds it. One hundred and sixty one kph, wow! What a mover.As for me, it is time to re-programme the parrot. That is what winter is for.Next, I am up for Diamond. Will that make me a geezer?

GT 15 April 2010 www.glide.co.uk

Attie Jonker getting on board his 'home-built special' Pic: Francois Caffa

“Do you know that you had an average speed of about 65 kph for your 300 kms? We don’t have landing lights here, nor do our gliders have lights”

The Cambridge Contingent: Robert Verdier and Matt Handke in ASH25

www.glide.co.uk April 2010 GT 16

Elf ‘n bleedin’ safety officerLove form filling and telling people what they can and can’t do? This is for you.

Grass Cutter (x3)Lost your driving licence? Want to get back behind the wheel? Can you drive in a straight line? THIS IS FOr yOu! CGC needs 3 grass cutters to maintain the airfield. Members of AAA, grass lovers and the visually

challenged need not apply

Winch Drivers WantedFailed at Top-Gun? This is the next best thing. Get behind 450hp and accelerate (others) from 0-60 in FIVE seconds. What is there not to like? (Gentlemen's literature supplied)

Into Watersports?You’d be surprised how

many are!CGC need someone (rabies free) to take care of cold water supply for ballasting gliders and washing equipment..

Coffee, tea or me?Tired of being on strike? Had your travel perks stopped? Then CGC has the job for you. We are recruiting TEN launch point assistants. you must be good with people and able to cope with tantrums from cross (livid) - country pilots when the dew point drops to 5 celsius in August. Ryanair terms and conditions of employment apply.

The Ultimate Mc’Job

Do you suffer from MRSA or dysentery? Are you a carrier of botulism? Then maybe this is not the job for you. Otherwise, CGC is seeking a catering and kitchen organiser

Benefit claimant needed

Are you living in a mansion in St. John’s Wood on benefits and sick of the Daily Mail hounding you? Well, CGC need a Sources of Grant Tracker. You will be a highly experienced benefit-cheat able to spot a freebie from 6,000 ft. Preference will be given to appli-cants with more than 10 children from multiple partners.

Air Traffic Controller(Aka Launch Marshall)

Can you walk and chew gum at the same time? CGC needs five launch marshalls to prevent aircraft landing hitting those taking off. Would suit recently retired Cabin Services Director from national flag carrier. Terms and conditions of employment may differ from expectations. Generous strike leave for right candidates (x5)

Looking for a BrIGHT futureDue to promotion (he became treasurer) we now need a Ground Equipment and Airfield Officer. Basically you will take care of anything that doesn’t fly. Because members keep breaking things, this is a vital and busy position

Spin DoctorNothing to do with medicine or aviation. But can you lie like Peter Mandleson? CGC are seeking a dynamic communications professional to communicate the many and diverse activities of the Gliding Club. You will be conversant with email and posters

Jobsworth WantedWe urgently need a Planning Permission Officer. You will likely be a retired parking warden or head of planning at a dysfunctional council. A track record of removing illegal garden sheds or garden gnomes would be helpful, as would an obstructive personality. It is unlikely you will be a club member

Willie WantedThis is a fantastic opportunity for someone who wants to start their own airline or has just been sacked from a national flag carrier. You will be a natural blond-haired entrepreneur or a ruthless gobby Irishman able to extract maximum utility from aircraft and cash from punters. (OK, it’s actually a motor glider coordinator - but we all need to start somewhere)

TO APPLy for any of these jobs please contact the Chairman of Cambridge Gliding Club, Richard Brickwood, stating where and when you heard about them. You will then be offered the position with an immediate start.

Desperately Seeking Susan?

Well look no more, we’ve found one for you. As the CGC S&G Co-respondent you will write to her six times a year. BuT Can u spel, right, and luv wurds? We need sumwon (anywon) to tel the world about CGC threw S&G (the UK’s second best gliding mag). Good knowledge of libel law essential

Sits VacDespite Gordon Brown’s best efforts to trash the economy, CGC has 33 vacancies. Whilst the pay is lousy (none) there’s fresh air and you get to reduce the running costs of the club. Paul Harvey takes a creative look at what’s on offer (and ignores employment law)