Cambridge University Gliding Club

The day dawned grey and miserable – we were stuck in a cloud. Procrastination got to such high levels that a 1000 piece circular jigsaw, a yin-yang of the Lord of the Rings, was unearthed and started. Sporcle (online quizzes) proved quite popular, and in order to keep from going crazy we went out Christmas shopping in Stroud (leaving Will to his ladybirds and keeping an eye on the weather). Down below the cloud level it was a reasonably pleasant day, and we aimlessly wandered for quite a while, finding a few bargains, particularly in the Works, but managing to avoid the lure of the many bookshops. We returned, advanced the jigsaw a little more, and sent a hunter-gathering team for dinner – curry this time, and it was very good curry too! More use was made of the bar, with many pool games played (and lost, by me).

The day dawned grey and miserable – we were stuck in a cloud. The slightly-less-keen weekday instructor Dave advised us not to start getting anything out, then proceeded to show is why with a bit of a met brief. This was followed by an in-depth site brief, including ridge lift principles, both of how it is formed and how to fly a ridge. This was finished for lunch, then various levels of industry were shown, with Will studiously getting on with behaviour analysis of ladybirds (not kidding!) and the rest of us exploring the many procrastination options available. This shortly led to the set-up of a flight simulator in the bar, where mountain soaring was practised by all, with Oli-the-power-pilot probably doing best at it. We finished off the day with a lovely home-cooked Bolognese after the guys went hunter-gathering to Sainsbury’s, Waitrose and all of the roundabouts in Stroud, many times! We were also joined by Andy Jude, a Gransden member with many connections to CUGC (like giving lifts everywhere – thanks!).

The day dawned grey and miserable – we were stuck in a cloud. The keen duty instructor Sid had everything ready and everyone raring to go, unfortunately the cloud wasn’t quite as motivated and stayed put. Philippa and John returned in an Oxford direction, and the rest of us headed for Gloucester. We then proceeded to loose each other, but find a few Christmas presents, in a large shopping centre, followed by a walk around the docks and cathedral, before hitting the all-you-can-eat oriental buffet. Andy L, Oliver, Graham and I stuffed our faces and enjoyed challenging the all-you-can-eat tag, especially the bits brought to the table on large skewers! After dropping Andy at the train station we set off back to Nympsfield, where we were joined by Will Winter and briefed on the bar...but didn’t make much use of it.

We (Becca Ward, Graham Spelman and Andy Langton) left Cambridge bright and early, in good spirits despite an uncertain weather forecast, and managed the A14 and avoiding Birmingham with little trouble. Shortly after reaching the M5 we heard from the Bicester team (Philippa Roberts and John Verril), who were there ahead of us, to say that the airfield was stuck in a cloud. Assuring them we wouldn’t be long (hahaha), we made plans to walk somewhere for lunch if the weather didn’t improve.

We reached Stroud, and picked up Oliver Kay from the station, in perfect time, with no navigation issues. “I know the way from here” said Andy, so I trusted him (foolishly) as he drove us up the wrong hill, over the wrong common and down the wrong road. Frustrated map reading and a lucky signpost put us back on track, and we found the airfield just in time as the cloudbase was starting to lift.

All eager to fly, we started dragging gliders out without thinking to change from our trainers – feet were soon wet and cold (it was really cold out there), but smiles kept us going as nearly everyone got the chance for a quick flight. After flying (and having changed shoes and defrosted), we set out in two cars to hunt for a pub. Unfortunately, not having learnt today’s lesson, Andy was leading the way. We ended up in Minchinhampton (nearly to Aston Down-another local gliding club), at a pub that wasn’t doing food. He redeemed himself shortly after, finding a nice country pub doing posh, but very nice, food. This was, of course, the place he’d been looking for all along!

Booking for our three trial flight days this term has now opened. They will be held on Monday 2 November, Friday 6 November and Monday 16 November.

Remember it's just £20 to experience the thrill of gliding. Booking is online (follow the trialflights link above) and book soon to avoid disappointment.

Hope to see you there!

The Societies' Fair is taking place again at the Kelsey Kerridge Sports Hall. CUGC will be there in force with a stall inside the hall (upstairs with the other sports clubs) and a glider rigged outside on Parker's Piece (across the road from the hall). You can't miss it - it's the white shiny thing with long wings - so do come and meet us to find out more.

 

Emmanuel College, Gardner Room (turn left on entering the college and up the stairs facing you)

27-28 June saw members of CUGC flying at Bicester Airfield home of Oxford University Gliding Club in our annual varsity match. The weather was good, in fact it was almost too warm. Having got our site checks out of the way we started flying the competition. After a couple of failed get-aways from the launch we all had a good flights. However scoring that evening showed that Oxford were already significantly in the lead. The weather on Sunday wasn't quite as good and we were unable to close the gap.

It was a very enjoyable weekend gliding and I would like to thank OUGC for making us feel so welcome.

Day 7 (Saturday)

Unfortunately due to everyone else leaving early to be elsewhere, only Michal remained. However, it turned out to be an excellent day for flying for him: he spent all day airborne - in the morning he had two one hour long flights and proved he had learnt to land by landing safely two times). After lunch he started to do log keeping but after 5 minutes a sweet smile at an instructor going for a cross country flight in the 2-seater saw him airborne again "as ballast" for a looooong and free flight.
So a successful final day helped by great (sunny and warm) weather, uninterrupted launches and Irene and Sandra (the helpful ladies in the clubhouse) being nice as usual ;)

Day 6 (Friday)

Again the wind direction was not ideal but we all got flights of near an hour in length but the ridge that was working easily got rather crowded and all my attempts to use passing thermals weren't very successful.

In the evening we then joined the other uni clubs for a curry in Perth followed by drinks at the cottages they were renting. It was a good way to end the week for those of us unable to stay around for the final day of flying on Saturday.