The Spring / Summer Edition of On Circuit! (This page) Interview with Mike Haynes, Technical Officer Cross Country Myths by John Gilbert (P. 6) Ground Equipment Officer (P. 6) Dave Aherne on flying novice at the Interclub regionals (P. 6) AGM Club Awards and new faces on the Club committee (P.8) Chairman s Outlook (P.9) Committee Dates Secretary (P. 10) Interview with Mike Haynes E&SGC Technical Officer On Circuit was pleased to take up the opportunity to spend time talking with the extremely urbane and mild mannered gentlemen who is the new Essex & Suffolk Gliding Club Technical Officer. Thanks for taking time to speak to On Circuit. When did you first start gliding. I first started gliding in 1984. I d not long finished Uni and had always had an interest in cars and before I started work I built a kit car. In fact it was the first car I d ever owned. I d got a job but my social life had become a little limited as my Uni friends had all gone their separate ways. I wasn t doing a great deal. Where and what did you study? I studied at Queen Mary s College, University of London where I got a 2:1 Honours degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering. Hence the Technical Officer role; do carry on. As I said I wasn t doing a great deal but my sister and her boyfriend (Philip, husband to be) went on a gliding holiday in Yorkshire. They loved it so much that when they came back they were desperate to find a gliding club. When I got bored they said Why don t you come along? I did and I got hooked too. That was pre- Wormingford days then? Page 1 of 11
Yes, Pete Wilby was the CFI and Paul Rice, Jonathan Abbess, Viv and Angus were instructors back then and I got to know them and the other members. I was a member for about a year when I was asked to become Technical Officer. I think I was solo but not quite bronze at that stage. I took over from Dave Gilder who moved away from Suffolk altogether. At that time I kept the role until the club moved here, (Wormingford). After the planning enquiry for the use of this site I got quite despondent about the way the noise issues had been used against the club. After we moved here the local residents complained and blamed the use of light aircraft for noise and there was a public planning enquiry. What depressed me was that Ron Banks and I had prepared a detailed noise report and according to the standards of the time the noise levels came nowhere near the threshold for being classed as a nuisance. However, in the enquiry the report was not considered on its merits and was not objected to but was treated as circumstantial evidence. Obviously, the planning restrictions meant no aerotow. We lost that and I felt despondent as it was lost based on nimby opinion. Consequently I took the glider to Tibbenham for a good few years. My syndicate partner, Robbie, flew less and less and I m almost ashamed to say I became a fair weather pilot. Robbie didn t fly two years and nor did I fly very much. Robbie wanted to sell the glider but I wanted to keep it so I approached Paul Robinson, (Guppy) if he wanted to come in on share and so we brought the glider back to Wormingford. I live at Chelmsford so it was a much shorter journey too. Have you had many different types of glider? First was a Standard Libelle. Standard Libelle (Best L/D 1:38) I had that for around 10 years. In discussion with my syndicate partner we decided to get something a bit better. We bought the LS6 from new at the time the fell out of the European Exchange Rate Mechanism, (ERM). The fell through the floor and so it cost us Page 2 of 11
hugely but I ve had it now for 19 years. Even after all this time I m not sure I ve really ever got used to the extra performance. From 4500 at Tibbenham you can glide back to Wormingford without stopping to thermal except that I don t trust it. I always feel I need to top up like I used to with the Libelle. It s what you learn in I think. You start on 1:28, then you move on to 1:38 with the Libelle and then a big jump to 1:50 with the LS6 and its hard to adapt to. Electronics help, especially final glide computers but I find it hard to put my trust in what it tells me. I used to have a John Willey Circular slide rule where you guess the wind strength and then read off the scale in kilometres v altitude on the ½ million scale chart. This was before GPS and LNAV or SNAV. Something easy to figure out. It was a really good rule of thumb as you only worked on what you could see. So did you use this in your early gliding career? Oh yes, my first 300km was Elmsett, Caxton Gibbett, Norwich and back to Elmsett navigation by map and look for where the roads were converging. I remember my first 50km. In those days, pre- GPS it was from Whatfield to Duxford as you could land there then and have a look at the museum and stay the day whilst waiting for the retrieve crew. When I went I flew to the left side of the airfield instead of the right side but was content to see Concorde. At that time there was no cross- country endorsement it was just a straight forwards Bronze handling badge. The silver badge requirements haven t changed. Where else have you flown? I ve been to Scotland looking for my gold height but I ve never seen Scotland at its best. That s to say that its always been chucking down. I ve been to Aboyne but we couldn t fly as the rota was just too strong. At Portmoak it just rained and rained so in the end had to give it up. LS 6 being winch launched Page 3 of 11 I did my gold height in the US in the end. I flew at Minden in Nevada which is 30 miles from Lake Taho,
close to the California/ Nevada border. It s a desert site airfield which is at 5000 and then there are mountains to 10,000 and controlled airspace at 16,000. The gold height was relatively easy thermal flying. There s good cross country potential there. I remember clearly, sitting in a 10kt thermal above a forest fire watching tanker aircraft water bombing and trying to put it out. This was the first time I d flown a flapped glider, and LS3. I liked it so much that I persuaded my syndicate partner that we should buy the LS6. So you like flapped gliders? Oh Yes, it s like having a go faster pedal. Change the flap setting and you can get a 20% performance improvement. Yes, I liked flying in the US and I d like to go back there again sometime. My wife doesn t like thermalling she gets airsickness but I hope to go out next winter and see if I can get a flight in wave. I have skied there and it looks like it s a more open sky than in Scotland. In the US it s never murky and you can easily see 70 to 80km away and not realise just how far away it is. You have to rely on maps and instruments rather than your own judgement. So what other challenges would you like to try? I d like to do a 500Km but my cross country speed is not good enough. You need to be able to fly at a cross country speed of around 100km/hr but at Tibbenham I got lazy and lost the ability to read the best climbs and now the idea of landing out I find too much of a pain and I d need to involve Cathy more I d love to get Cathy my wife more involved. Funnily enough I met her on a skiing trip with the gliding club to France. Paul Rice used to organise these skiing trips and Cathy was working there as a chalet maid and I got chatting to her. It turned out she lived in Chelmsford and so later that year after the skiing season we met up and got together back here. I have flown at Camp Hill but found that quite challenging as once you are below the ridge there s nowhere else to land. You have to get back up above the ridge to get back on the airfield. I d also quite like to try flying at Eden Soaring. What about the role of Technical Officer. What plans do you have there? I d like more people to take responsibility for stuff, after all there s 8 gliders and only one Page 4 of 11
technical officer. For example the single seaters; I d like to see more responsibility for cleaning and polishing the gliders from time to time. I d really like to see if I can make things better, for example some of the club aircraft have aging instrumentation and I m now working with the committee to revamp and if possible replace some of the older instruments. We are likely to have to spend out money on replacement radios due to the change to frequency separations that is coming in. The BGA has not secured a dispensation against the introduction of 8khz separation instead of the current 25khz. We can continue to use them for now but in 2018 the new separations come into force and we will have to buy new radios. We have 8 gliders plus the launch vehicle and at 1200 to 1600 each it will wipe out any budget we have for aircraft instrumentation. Generally the two- seaters are in good shape, the Grob will need to have its gel coat refurbished in a few years but the two single seat Astirs are in good shape. what the problem is. Also, if a problem emerges during the day please can people make sure it is logged in the DI book. If it s there I ll have a look and do my best to put it right as soon as possible but more specific details of the exact nature of the problem would be really helpful. I d like people to pay special attention to how they clean the canopies. I m going to see if I can get some proper cleaning materials the problem is, especially in winter, that people have dirty gloves on or they don t wash the canopy with clean water before putting a cloth on it and it results in micro scratches on the surface which make the canopy start to become opaque again replacing a canopy costs serious money. It would be really nice if those who fly the gliders would spend a little bit more time and take a little more care to clean them. Mike, I m sure we ll all say hear, hear to that. Many thanks for talking to On Circuit What really helps is if the DI book entries can be more specific as to Page 5 of 11
Cross Country Myths by John Gilbert 1) You should fly faster into wind and slower down wind. Only on a final glide, otherwise you should fly the right speed for the soaring conditions. 2) You should put water ballast on windy days. Not unless conditions are good enough and you usually do see myth 1 above! 3) Water ballast will make you faster. Only if you can already achieve good speeds without it. 4) You will make up time lost going into wind when you fly down wind. A simple calculation will show this not to be true. However, it is still usually quicker to fly tasks aligned with the wind, though. (Stolen from Lockett s brain) 5) A certain glider does not penetrate well into wind. A true statement but nothing to do with the wind directly. The glider in question has a poor high speed performance all the time, so progress into wind will be even slower. 6) Expensive instruments will improve soaring capability. There may be good varios with lots of useful functions, but a low- priced accurate vario with an averager and a leak- free system with good total energy compensation is all you really need to help you make the best of climbs. The thermal centering, selection and routing is down to the pilot. Final glide info and nav info is very useful and can be displayed on a PDA for total cost of about 60. 7) All flapped gliders go better than unflapped ones. Flaps usually make a small improvement on the designer s standard class unflapped design; the next generation standard design will be as good or better. 8) A clean glider will go faster than a dirty one. Probably true! Club Ground Equipment Officer The Committee are to create a new post to ensure the requisite level of attention to maintaining our vehicles and trailers and invite members to volunteer for this important function. Please approach any Committee member to advise of your interest. The new post will carry responsibility for organizing the budgeted maintenance of Club vehicles namely, Club Trailers, launch point trailer, buggies, tractor, land rover and Jeep. Including all running gear and towout equipment but excluding radio equipment. Page 6 of 11
It would be expected that the responsible member would recruit one or more additional nominated members to assist in this function. Flying Novice at the Interclub Regionals: Dave Aherne After having been drafted in rather unexpectedly after the original club s entrant had to pull out at the Interclub Regionals on 5 May 2013, and with some comforting words from Guppy "We need some points, he said, and you re in the frame I tried to palm it off onto Richard Robinson, but he had developed an instant headache. I must admit I wasn't that keen to rig the Jeans Astir HKM and fly the club s bird; although the old girl didn't let me down, I have to say I became slightly D and checked my connections several times, getting half of our team to do the same. After that I thought I better just get on with it, so I launched with an aerotow and then climbed up to approximately 4000 to 5000 ft with the aid of a thermal marked by some birds. I then made a dash for the start line at subsonic speeds, crossing the start line below 3300 ft, and pulling up into a thermal marked by some other gliders. A good start, I thought. Next, I moved to the first turn point, but while searching for it I managed to get a little low and had to pick a field. I tried a little harder, moving to another more promising area and luckily it worked, allowing me to climb away. Next challenge was to find the turn point using the combination of a map, GPS and local knowledge of the roads. I made my way round and back past Tibbenham, trying to spot en route places to land, as well as figuring out the way back. I went past Eye Airfield, which had a car practicing for something; I discounted this landing spot, then moved onward and forward, starting to get low near the A14, searching the sky and searching the ground again. I then spotted Rattlesden in the distance. "Can I make it? l wondered. "Yes, I believe I can!" I made a beeline for Rat, in hindsight probably ignoring lift that could have taken me higher. "I made it," was all I could think. Then I tried to thermal nearer Rattlesden Airfield, now feeling safer knowing that I could put down whenever I wanted, but it was no good. If there had been any lift, it was gone now and I made the decision to land. Three points in the bag combined with the rest of the Wormingford team scores was enough to beat Tibbenham but only just, so it looks like it will be a closely fought year after all. (N.B. Dave recently won his class in 'The British Glider National Aerobatics Championships' held at Buckminster GC, Saltby.) Page 7 of 11
On Circuit! Club AGM Trophies & Presentation of Pete Wilby ladder trophy The Club saw a real changing of the guard at the AGM with several long serving committee members deciding to pass over their responsibilities having served the Club loyally over many years. Bob Godden has taken over the role of Chairman from Graham Wright and Andy Booth has taken over as Treasurer from Vernon Bettle. Mike Haynes is now Technical Officer after Rob Lockett held the post for a number of years. Paul Rice has handed over the Membership Secretary role to Dick Skinner and Eddie Leach has taken on the role of safety officer from John Bone. Clive Stacey is now the Site Officer. Trophy Awards John P Gilbert made the awards as follows: 100km triangle - Paul Robinson The Jeff Cork Trophy (longest handicapped flight) Eric Richards 200km triangle trophy Paul Foulger 300km Trophy John P Gilbert being presented one of his numerous trophies by Andy Sanderson Robbo wooden glider trophy John P Gilbert himself won several of the available trophies On Circuit! No. 8. Spring / Summer 2013 Page 8 of 11 John Gilbert Senior
On Circuit! Bob Adams Tiny Triangle Bob Ivermee Rose Bowl Andy Sanderson Mark Butcher Jerry Newbery Trophy (1st 300km) Members Cup Jerry Newberry Adrian Tills Instructors Cup t t t Chairman s Outlook Clive Stacey On Circuit! No. 8. Spring / Summer 2013 Page 9 of 11 I see the chairman s job as being very challenging with most current issues emanating from external events. Behind the more obvious effects of the weather the continued flatness or slow growth at best in the economy is threatening revenues from Commercial flying ( which in
good years accounts for about 30% of our revenue) as well as the flying revenue generally. Impending changes in the instructor licencing regime and the associated EASA driven rules regarding Authorised Training Organisations are also demanding attention especially as, in line with what passes nowadays for strategic thinking, the desired result is announced first and the logic as to how and when to implement comes a distant second, the why in many cases having become almost irrelevant. In all seriousness we shall be doing our utmost alongside other BGA clubs to ensure that our training regime is preserved. The unpredictable weather patterns, exemplified so much during the past twelve months or so, turn our attentions to maximizing flying days both by runway utilization / maintenance and maybe by being more flexible in choosing flying days, another idea which will be developed. We need also to expect more of the same, build reserves if possible and be careful on expenditure. I would like to see the running of the Club broadened so as to involve more issues and developments as well as jobs being dealt with by smaller groups of members or by individuals who then make recommendations to the Committee rather than having most issues debated and decided by the Committee all the way through. An example is the work currently being done by Jerry Newbery on launch point generated information systems. Maybe members could volunteer to assist a Club Officer in their role either generally or specifically, for example by offtaking the buggy maintenance role from Clive Stacey, now Site Officer. There are a few jobs on the airfield which would benefit from someone taking them under their wing such as mowing the grass around the Clubhouse and periodically clipping the hedgerow around the entrance. Many hands and all that! We shall be looking at developing the opportunities for post solo pilots in line with a current BGA initiative. It must be said however that any avenues that might be opened cannot replace initiative and motivation on the part of the pilot. In this vein it is good to see the revival of the Inter Club League competitions headed up by George Green and Dave Aherne. On the face of it there are five competition weekends in the offing so try to go along at least for a day even if not participating as pilot. All in all I hope for a period of regeneration. We have a largely new committee with plenty of ideas so let s see where we can go. Bob Godden Page 10 of 11
Committee & AGM Dates for 2013 2014 Members may wish to make note of the forthcoming dates for Committee Meetings and the 2014 AGM. Wednesday 19 June 2013 Wednesday 24 July 2013 Wednesday 11 Sept 2013 Wednesday 30 Oct 2013 Safe Flying Everyone! Wednesday 4 Dec 2013 Wednesday 8 Jan 2014 Wednesday 26 Feb 2014 SATURDAY 15 MARCH 2014 *ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING* Wednesday 9 April 2014 Note: All committee meetings commence at 19.00 hrs. Unless otherwise notified. Page 11 of 11