A new year and a new beginning for the gliding club. 2005 had provided some superb courses but we were hoping 2006 would be even better. And the first course of the year didn’t disappoint….

The line-up this time round: Oli, Mike and Chris D back for more, and Katie, Helen and Chris R along for the first time. Dave joined us on the Wednesday and demonstrated it is possible to prepare frantically for exams and glide at the same time. We had a new course instructor as well, Ron, but our old friend Rory was instructing too. A mix of old and new across the board.

With the airfield pretty much to ourselves, the beginners on the course made rapid progress. None of them had more than a single day trip under their belts, yet by the end of the week they had all begun to fly by themselves and attempt their own landings. Helen’s efforts were particularly notable. Flying her own circuit, it appeared as if there was some uncertainty over what the intended landing spot actually was. At one point it was looking very much like the launch point we were all gathered around! All we can say for sure is that the glider landed safely a bit further down the field. However, the progress all three newcomers made over the week was very impressive compared to the progress made by many beginners on previous courses and we hope they learnt a lot from the experience.

It was one of those weeks where odd things somehow just happened. On Monday afternoon for example we had the potentially tricky situation of a crosswind at 90 degrees to the landing strip. This gave us a golden opportunity to practice something we rarely get to try - downwind landings. This is normally a bad idea - it’s hard to stop when the tailwind behind you propels you forwards like you’ve raised a sail! But with the wind at 90 degrees it’s the same effect whichever way down the field you land, and so only under these conditions can you overtake the tractor on your final ground run!

It didn’t stop there though. The week was filled with other interesting attempts at landings. With the wind direction moving around all over the place we got to try cross-field landings, landing circuits the other side of the field to normal, and a demonstration from Chris D of how to make your final turn perpendicular to the ground as though the glider were pirouetting on its wingtip.

There was no film-making to occupy ourselves with on this course, the video camera rather flatter than before after it had an unfortunate encounter with a tractor and a concrete floor. But that’s not to say there weren’t many other sources of entertainment. Monday evening, attentive people that they are, Chris D, Mike, Oli and Helen sat in the clubhouse totally oblivious to the fact that some club member had set his caravan on fire with an electric blanket. It took the arrival of the fire engines to get their attention. Thursday night saw the briefing room turned into a screening room as the club learnt night time aerobatics from the masters (I.e. watched Top Gun in the early hours of the morning). And as for Tuesday night, well….. Only those there need to know why a conversation about The Boar became a conversation about boars. It’s best if you don’t ask….

Ultimately though, this course will go down in club history as the one with some of the worst landings ever perpetrated by Warwick pilots. Chris D had already earnt his reputation as a terrible lander of planes, but choosing to fly a circuit down the wrong side of the airfield and turning finals on his wing-tip was a good demonstration of how to unnecessarily complicate a landing. Then Mike joined in, trying very hard to give a couple of old club members a free hair cut passing mere feet above their downed glider on his approach. But the real honour is Oli’s. Most people would be happy with getting the glider to touch the ground once when landing. Twice, well it least it’s down. Three times, well it’s a bit embarrassing. When the number of times the glider touched the ground is somewhere between 5 and 8, you know you’re going to be hearing about it for a long long time to come! Defeated in his quest to be worst glider of the week for the fourth course in a row, Chris D instead ended the week with a perfect spot landing by the budgie box. And then, to show it wasn’t a fluke, he did it again. Well - someone needed to show the beginners that we could do it properly occasionally!

Looking back, the Easter 2006 course was unpredictable, entertaining, and a course on which we all learnt a lot about landings! It was the perfect start to the summer, and the June course was only round the corner.

A short and simple video of the day is available here.

2005/6 is a big year for the club - it's the year of the first ever Loughborough-Warwick Inter-Uni Gliding Contest! A normal gliding competition might involve being fastest to fly round the UK or something equally grand, but we have something far more fun to do - flour bombing! Strafing runs down the airfield in the open-topped T21 aiming at the fluorescent jacket that's doubling as a target. We have a day not only to show Loughborough who's boss but also show the flour producer that "Ideal for cakes and scones" is a woefully inadequate description for the possible uses of their product.

The day begins like any other merely-ordinary gliding trip - unpacking the hanger. The problem with the T21 is that its kept at the back, so this takes a while..... Arctic winds are blowing directly across the strip so when we get the plane down the other end we are surprised to see a novel setup for the day - the budgie box practically wedged in the fence as we take off diagonally down the field. There's also a crowd of club members and instructors gathered around. Before the day is out more than one of them will comment that what the students get to do looks like much more fun than normal gliding.

The crash test dummy for the day is Oli - it is a presidential responsibility to lead from the front, but also because we volunteered him when he wasn't in earshot. And so for the first of 20 bombing runs, we hook the T21 onto the winch line, and gasp in awe as the flying shed climbs gracefully into the air. Gracefully isn't a sufficiently good word to describe all the launchs though - even the instructors who flew with us took time to get used to the awkward angle of the wind. But up the glider goes nevertheless, releases the cable.....and stays exactly where she is. The winds are strong enough that the glider just hovers in the air, an odd sight no matter how many times in one day you see it.

With a little coaxing the glider turns down wind and begins the bombing run. We gather around the budgie box in eager anticipation as we watch the glider come flying down the strip aiming at the target - the unmistakable sight of the fluorescent jacket held down by a bag of flour worryingly near Tim's car. We hold our breaths as the bomb drops, falls towards the target and explodes in a puff of white smoke as the packet hits the ground. Armed with tape measure, score sheet and golf buggy the measuring team goes to investigate. 12.5m was to remain one of the closest shots of the day (obviously a fluke!) and an excellent start for the Warwick team.

And so the competition was on, Loughborough's chairperson Tim flying next. His 56m effort not only improved things for the Warwick team but also lead to moving the target a lot further away from the parked cars! One by one, alternating between the two unis, we all have a go, and Oli's initial 12.5m rarely looks challenged. The worst recorded score was yours truly's abysmal 81m misjudgment, but Loughborough had the real shame - Rob's shot disappeared over the fence and landed in the neighboring field. No score was recorded. In my defense - at least I hit the right field!

The second round saw great improvement all round. Not only did Rob get the correct field this time but his 9.9m was the closest anyone got that day. Loughborough's aim improved a lot and we had a competition. The author of this report is ashamed to admit his average distance was the worst of the Warwick team and the worst of all who managed to hit the right field, but overall honours were even. Neither uni's aim was clearly better than the other. To resolve who is the greatest we'll have to have another round of competition next term..... watch this space!

We would like to thank Tom Burton for helping put to together these Inter-Uni competitions (and providing the flour!); Tom, Alan Foxon and Brian Burgess for flying the glider with us; Loughborough Uni for turning up, giving us a competition, and being good fun; Coventry Uni for not turning up and thus ensuring neither us or Loughborough can come last; and Tom's son James for temporarily joining Warwick's team to even the numbers up and actually aiming an awful lot better than certain members of the Warwick team (sorry guys).