10th August 2007

XKEC Northern Flying Day

By Nik Antcliffe - XKEC Yorkshire Region Officer

I was overwhelmed by the response by members near and far that showed an interest in a days gliding at my home club the “WOLDS GLIDING CLUB” at Pocklington airfield.

The first to arrive was Derek (Del boy) Holmes who was a week early!! He was up from Poole near Bournemouth to attend a family do and who was I to deny him a flight in one of our gliders? , a great time was had by both of us and in the evening Jan and I met up for a very enjoyable meal with Derek’s wife Pam and a couple of their friends .

I prayed that the weather for the following Friday the 10th of August would hold out to enable all attending members to enjoy a glimpse of my sport . On the evening of the 9th Terry Brazier of T&T fame joined me at the clubhouse for a swift pint and a chat about the following days event ( we didn’t talk about Jaguars at all did we !! )

Friday dawned bright and clear and the first of the XKers started to arrive at 9.30 and we made our way down to the launch point for a safety briefing and to start flying. Winch launching entails a very powerful drum winch that has a steel cable running from one end of the runway to the launch point , this is attached via a releasable hook to the glider , when the glider is ready to launch the winch driver takes up the slack in the cable and then applies full power at which point the glider accelerates rapidly (0-60 in approximately 3seconds) and when the glider reaches a safe speed it can be rotated into a climb of about 40° until a height of about 1200 ft (this takes 25 seconds or so ) and can be quite exciting for the first time flyer !!

Aerotowing however is the “gentlemen’s” way of launching a glider and this is achieved by using a reasonably powerful powered aircraft (A Piper Pawnee ex- crop sprayer is one of our “tugs”) and towing the glider to usually 2000ft at a gentle climb angle whereupon the glider releases.

Motor gliding is exactly what is says on the tin, a glider with a motor that allows us to launch without a winch or tug. Terry (T&T) offered to be my first victim and we aerotowed to 2000ft for the first lesson in relatively smooth air.

Others got started in our motor glider (yes it’s a glider with an engine!) the day started to get a lot warmer and thermals were beginning to form. To enable the glider to climb in a thermal one normally has to bank the glider over quite steeply and I did not want to make any one airsick so I used as gentle a bank as possible (no one was ill all day !!!! ) Dave Redfurn (DaveR) volunteered to be XKEC official photographer (well, I cajoled him in to it!) and it is he who is responsible for all the great shots he took on his camera for this feature (thanks again Dave).

Dave receives a XKEC “SHORTEST FLIGHT” award as his second launch resulted in a cable break and lasted all of about 30 seconds! The shot he took of us thermaling above the club motorglider really captured the essence of the day.

After a lot of Aerotowing and Motorgliding had been done it was time to switch to winch launching (0to60 in three seconds and 1200ft reached after 30 seconds or so ) Beverley Cook (Dave’s missus) was brave enough to fly with me and observant enough to notice a RAF Hercules that was on a near collision course for our glider! (She gets the XKEC GLIDING “AIR MISSUS” award!!) .

Tony Gavin and I enjoyed a good flight as did Paul Lyon (The Prescott’s) although he did admit he was more comfortable scuba diving than flying in an aircraft with no engine so it’s Paul that gets the XKEC GLIDING “OUT OF MY DEPTH” (no pun intended).

It was fantastic to see Grand tourer (Karl) and his lovely wife who both stopped by to say hello and have a spot of lunch with us on their way to North Yorkshire and had just back from the Jaguar factory tour he organised for interested parties the previous Wednesday.

Doug & Sally Edmondson visited us in his truly beautiful rag top (fabulous colour guys, nearly as nice as Antigua Blue!). Andrew Jackson and Nicola both had a flight each and both appeared to enjoy the day, it was really good to meet you both.

John Hedges really got into the spirit of the event and it was difficult to prise him out of various aircraft (I hope you enjoyed the day John and Rosi!) Chris Cox also came along to support the day and it was great to have you along Chris.

Terry Brazier gets my “XKEC “MOST IMPROVED PILOT” award, by the end of the day his flying was nearly good enough for him to take some XKEC members up with him and save me a job. I am grateful to Mike Frith of Hatfield’s Jaguar in Hull for coming along with a colleague and the new XK convertible and one of the last generation XKs and allowing our club members to experience first hand the thrill of up to the minute ragtop motoring .

Kevin and Gill Dixon-Jackson both flew and by all accounts really enjoyed the day as we did their company. The Worcestershire contingency arrived, the Allridges and the Endicott’s, all flew and I hope the gliding was enjoyed by you all, good to meet you and see you again soon.

Some discussion took place about the next event I am planning for the “Yorkshire Region” and it seemed that indoor motor karting could be popular and as always all members and their families will be more than welcome.

Also another gliding day can be organised for next year with plenty of notice given for the southern contingency!