Cambridge University Gliding Club

Aloha

 Thanks to a handy tip-off by an anonymous committee member, we have an excellent venue for this weeks social - the Cambridge Winter Ale Festival!! Its on from Thurs until Sat, in the university social club (opposite the Mill pub) see http://www.cambridgebeerfestival.com/winter/ for moe details.

We will be meeting in there to sample some fine ales, at 7.30 pm on Friday 25th Jan. The entrance cost is a mere £2.50!  I know some people wanted a social on Thurs, but unfortunately I have formal in Girton, so if you want to go 2 nights running I'm sure I'd recommend it (if it's bad blame Peter - oops)!

See you all on Friday - please come along even if you don't know us very well yet, we'd love to have a large contingent there.

Becca x 

Hello CUGC and Welcome Back to the wonderful sunny world of Cambridge!

 To kick the new year off to a good start, our 1st pub meet will be this Thursday 17th Jan 20.00 at The Castle.

If you're lucky, there might be a redistribution of stash, T-shirts etc.

Any queries, just give me an email/call/text/pigeon - rw339@cam.ac.uk or 07759 612400 or pigeon hole 27 in the college of far, far away.

See you on Thus!!

Becca x 

Hello everyone

 Our social next Tuesday 27th Nov will be skating on Parker's Piece followed by a meal (restaurant to be confirmed).

 Please let me know if you are interested - all welcome - by Sunday evening, so I can book the skating and table on monday.

 Hope to see you there

Becca (rw339) 

Hello everyone!

I have now entered all the events for this term into the calendar, hope to see you at one soon. Some dates for your diaries; formal at St Catharine's College Friday 9th November (I need names by Sunday 4th Nov), giant formal at Lucy Cavendish College Thursday 22nd Nov (I need names by Thus 15th) and our end of term do will be on Tuesday 27th Nov. Any ideas for what you'd like to do just let me know.

I'm intending to postpone the stash order until we have done our trial flight days, but will definitely have it ready for the expedition at the end of term.

Happy Flying! Becca (rw339) 

Heya guys, you know the drill. Everyone (and that means YOU especially if we haven't met before) meeting at 8pm at The Maypole (between the Round Church and the ADC) for some good old fashionned gliding banter and general gossip.

Looking forward to seeing you there

Becca (rw339) 

Yey - another CUGC Pub Meet. Where: The Cow (just off market square, closed to the Corn Exchange) When: 8pm

Come along and say 'hi'!! 

Just what it says on the tin - a good old fashionned pub meet, for faces old and new. Where: The Anchor, at the bridge on Silver Street, near Queens College. When: 8pm

Bring everyone 

Sorry about the short notice.

Hello everone and welcome back for the oh-so-fun term with unmentionnable 'E' words (for the proper students among us that is :-P). Our first social will be to follow the winch launch presentation at Lucy Cav college, please come along to both but if you can't make it don't worry, and just join us in the pub!

When: 20.30 (aprox, depends on presentation) until 23.00, Monday 30th April 2007

Where: The Sino Tap CB3 0AE (closest pub to Lucy) with The County Arms (castle hill) as back up if the other's shut

Hope to see everyone there. This is a fab chance for any prospective members/trial flight peeps to come along and find out what it's all about in a nice, relaxed atmosphere. Any queries to rw339 or my mobile 07759 612400

Becca

Today Adam writes: 

Day 3 promised much better weather, the sky was much clearer and the forecast was lacking the spells of bad weather we had on Monday. The wind was a 20 knot northerly with only some west in it, so the ridge looked like it was going to be quite dead. The ground had dried out completely after the previous morning’s snow covering, mostly because what hadn’t evaporated had frozen. I took a stroll out on the airfield to acquaint myself with the layout (having the place buried under snow on the day before hadn’t been conducive to working out what was where) and took some photos of the dewpond and tumulus (only the Long Mynd could have a small lake astride an Iron Age burial mound in the middle of its field). The three two-seaters came out to play and were pulled down to the south end of the ridge. The two instructors took the first flight in the K21 to get Peter O’Donald’s currency back again and we began flying CUGC members as soon as that was done.

The DG505 was showing us all how it was supposed to be done, thermalling away and not coming back for an hour at a time, but they were old hands at the game, so our attempts to mash our way through the circuit patterns in conditions we wouldn’t normally be flying in were always going to be outclassed. First up of the students was our alumnus, Phil. Last time he flew he put his glider through a tree so we were somewhat apprehensive of the outcome, but it seems the man becoming known as ‘the Cat’ had decided to keep as many of his remaining lives as possible. Myself and Martin were playing about with the two winches at opposite ends of the airfield, he on the retrieve and me poking round Colin Knox’s custom-built winch. We were having two each, one for demonstration and the second for our own practice. After Phil’s pair it was Becca’s turn to fly, and she took good advantage of the backing wind which had become a good west-north-westerly, causing the ridge to be working to a limited extent.

There were also some weak thermals, and both together got her and Peter Warner a 25 minute flight. After Becca it was my turn, and the conditions changed again for my flight; the wind went north again and dropped off to only(!) 20 knots. The ridge had no effect on the north wind, so this meant that there was only thermic turbulence to contend with, but that was tricky enough. It didn’t help that I was flying a K21 after getting myself used to the attitude the Discus takes when flying. Neither of the two final turns I pulled were at the correct height (my defence being unexpected lift and sink and the instructor can testify before any comments leave mouths!) After lunch break we returned to the field and Peter finished off the rota. I spent the afternoon back on the retrieve winch, Becca spent the afternoon complaining of the cold, and the rest of the crew worked the launch point between flights. Paul had an go at positioning one of the retrieve trucks on the upwind side of the retrieve winch to keep the wind off the crew, and Peter Warner succinctly summed up Paul’s driving performance; “He’s had one flight in the K21 and he’s already better at flying it than he is at driving that truck.”

After Peter we began the rota again with Paul, then Donnie again. The wind went back west and dropped to 10-15 knots, giving just enough to work on the ridge. It also was now low enough for the K23 to come out to play, and Phil snuck a flight in it after I passed up the opportunity in favour of another check flight. After Donnie’s second flight the sun was low in the sky and behind a cloud making it even colder, and although all of the gliders were on the ridge, we’d had enough of the cold and were ready for the pub. We sent up Phil, disconnected the retrieve cable from the main cable, and dragged the two winches back to the hangar. Gliders began flying in (the DG giving us another show-off pass downwind at VNE, next time we expect him to park it in the hangar for us the way it’s been flying), we put the gliders to bed, and retreated to the bunkrooms to change for a meal down the pub. Now in the warm, we were able to put our minds to the next great challenge; getting seven glider pilots in a Ford Focus. It promised to be interesting - but using our pilot's cunning we managed to get around it...

As it was, me and Martin had to get very personal again. We tried fitting us all in side by side but it just barely didn’t work. I had no choice but to sit on Martin’s knee. Peter’s map reading combined with Phil’s navigating made sure that our journey was twice as long as it needed to be. When we finally arrived at the intended pub we found that they weren’t serving food that night, so we had to pile back into the car to find another pub recommended to us. We found it the first time we tried (more by luck than by skill) and piled out to find that not only was there food, it was damned good food and we were the only ones in there. The table struggled a little to get seven glider pilots around it but we managed. Most of the group ordered a very tempting (and cheap) burger, and we finished off with various desserts, the conversation taking intellectual turns which only Cambridge University students could execute with such passion! We also generated a CU style bill. Seven of us spent nearly £100 (though in our defence, and I’m not sure whether this is good or bad, Peter managed to single-handedly account for £30 of it!). We then had to face the prospect of getting back to the Mynd with a) Phil driving b) Peter navigating! Somehow we managed and pulled back up at the clubhouse at 11. Becca, Paul and Donnie went straight off to bed and the rest of us followed at midnight – we were due a briefing the next day at 8:50.

Hello to all from your new Social Secretary!!

The next pub meet, and last for this term, will be on Wednesday 14th March (after the trial flight day) in The Castle on Castle Hill. Starting at 8.30 and going on until we get sick of each other (or they kick us out)!

I hope to see lots of new (and old) faces there, please come along and meet us if you've any interest in gliding. We're not all that scary, honest!

Any queries, or suggestions for events, please email me rw339 

See you all there

Becca