markfgilliland

We were pleased with our performance in the Southern League, coming second to Lasham. Recent achievements include a Silver C for Josie Butcher, Silver distance for John Hanwell and a five-hours for Brian Payne. Ian Collingwood has gone solo and Phil Gaisford came third in the Lasham Regionals, flying the club’s Astir. Our barbecue and second open day, both in August, were very successful due to a great effort by the organisers. We were shocked and saddened by Don Sharpe’s field landing accident; an unfortunate end to a skilfully flown 300km. He is recovering in the Sturges Ward of the Nuffield Hospital, Oxford.

Members redecorated the Clubhouse during the winter and the new entrance means we no longer have to go through the workshop. Phil Martin has gained his Bronze C and a K-18 has replaced our elderly K-8 and Skylark 4.

A sudden heavy shower of glass ships, one afternoon in May, turned out to be 28 National’s pilots falling to earth on our second runway with three more a couple of fields away. (see Nationals report, p164.) South Marston has never seen so many gliders at one time and we had visions of a, dramatic increase in membership. Minor miracles were worked by Jeannette Martin in the kitchen and Mary Blunt in the bar to feed and water the visitors. Congratulations also to Mary on going solo. A replacement Blanik brings the club fleet back to full strength of a K-13, Blanik, K-18 and Astir CS. Another newcomer is a recently refurbished Rallye tug” though our primary means of launch remains the trusty tow car.

As you can see, we have acquired a new tug. We are pleased with its performance-it’s capable of launching the entire fleet (including the hangar) to 2000ft in two minutes. Its only drawbacks are a rather high fuel consumption and certain difficulties getting aerotow retrieves from New York. For the record, our club Skylark 4 landed at RAF Fairford in the summer. It was flown by Tony Bullock who, although he denies it, we are sure was thoroughly lost. Since it was late in the evening, HAC allowed him to store it in the hangar alongside Concorde. It was aerotow retrieved the following morning. Incidentally, Fairford don’t like gliders very much so it’s not a recommended practice.

Our CFI, Ray Nicholas, scraped home after eight hours in the Phoebus on May 7 to complete 500km. A Gold distance attempt to Land’s End by Dave Scholfield on Easter Sunday in the club Skylark 4 fell short at Launceston. Anne Bradley, Steve Huband, Philip Turner and Dennis Badham have gone solo, Pete Higgs and John Baxter have their Bronze Cs and Eddie Foggin achieved Silver height on May 7. Since last appearing in these columns, we have boosted the club fleet with a Skylark 3F from Keevil, Also certain of our members have developed a fetish about antiques – the Tutor has been dragged from the back of the hangar and given a C of A and Tony Bullock has flown his K-4 for five hours on Inkpen ridge. The highlight of our social year was surely the dinner-dance. As a final point, visitors to South Marston are asked to note that we are now restricted to Ihe use of runways only, so please keep off the grass. 

After many months’ absence from these columns, here is a short account of our activities. Launch is by Specialist built diesel tow cars cared for by two Willing members, David Huband and Alec Thompson, who act as launch contractors to the club. This system works Well and relieves members of tow car maintenance. Aero-tows are however coming into their own. We have a visiting Auster and a club-based tug owned by David Schofield which offers aero-towing on a full-time basis. The club fleet consists of a Capstan, a K-I3, a Swallow and a Skylark 4 with private owners much in evidence. At our dinner-dance cups were awarded by our new chairman, Fred Butcher (the Flying Farmer) as follows: the Whitbread trophy for the flight of the year-Eric Winning for a gain of height of 13,000ft; the Return trophy for a 170km out-and-return-David Schofield and the Dayson trophy went to Christine Day for her seven-hour epic flight around the Cotswolds. The Cadet cup for best progress was awarded earlier to Gay Gilchrist who was visiting from the States. This year we have at last realised the potential of local wave in the lee of the Cotswolds and to prove a point the club fleet headed by Alan Chester sat for most of one afternoon at 7,000ft. Jonn Trenchard continues as CFI and Ray Nicholas as his deputy. The weekend catering staff headed by Jean and John Wright are providing consistently hot food most of the time. Len Morris keeps the fleet airworthy.

Having fully recovered from our Hippie party, our flying is now back to normal with “DoDa” landing on the front lawn of Woburn Abbey, and so emulating Bernie Keogh’s effort last year! Our friendship with Watchfield was cemented at a recent “Orgy” (return match for our Hippie thing! ) Swindon and Watchfield. Gliding Clubs challenge allcomers to beat them at bottle walking. We had Bob Cunningham visiting again (if this keeps up, he will have to become a member!). He was first observed by Bob Lucksford who had been in contact with an SHK for several minutes and having given him careful instructions on where to land, he discovered Bob Cunningham had no radio, and therefore apologises to the pilot We talked into landing …wherever it was! D. Trenchard completed his Silver C and. D. Laurence and M. Dugmore their Silver heights. Miles Dugmore did his five hours in the Swallow at the same time, winning the bottle of champagne kindly donated by Eric Winning. Richard Cole obtained his assistant instructor rating at Bicester.

Our dinner and dance went off with its usual finesse with more people than ever attending. The raffle was a great success, in spite of the fact that the CFI, tug pilot and chairman’s daughter-in-law tool! the first three prizes. Some merriment occurred during the flying achievements awards. A special award for the most publicised” flight was made to Bernie Keogh for landing at the Duke of Bedford’s estate rather close to the animals. We have had a poor start to the year because of the weather. Our launch rate so far is down on last year, but we hope that our two “flying weeks” and a really old-fashioned summer (with sun and not just warm rain) will put this right. Bob Cunningham and a friend of his brought their SHK from Keevil (their runway was being re-surfaced) and spent two enjoyable weekends with us. Bob brought his dog on the second visit. It was a Great Dane, with the emphasis on great, and proceeded to eat my lunch. Bob commented On how friendly we all were and how willing we were to rig the SHK (little did he know we wanted to fly it ourselves). On behalf of the club, I would like to say a heart-felt thank you to our retiring tow car syndicate, David and Eric for all the time and effort they have put in the job. The new team Alec and Godfrey are fired with enthusiasm, and have already ripped out, repaired and replaced the engine of the Yellow Peril inside one morning.

Since our last club news, we have had a very eventful time. One Saturday Harry Daniels and Tug Wilson, flying a Blanik, set a new UK record for the 10Q km. triangle fur a two-seater, South Marston. Shipton Under Wychwood-Aston Down-8outh Marston, travelling 104 km. in 1 hr 10 mins. at an average speed of 77 km/h. The following day, leaving South Marston and flying via Long Marsdon and Halton, they accomplished yet another feat by also setting a UK record for the 200 km. triangle – 214 km. in 3 hrs. 25 mms. at an average speed of 62.5 km/h. Back in 1966, Harry and Tug gained the 300 km. record, so here at South Marston we are all feeling very proud of them indeed. Our recent Flying Week has brought a good number of individual achievements – the most notable being a Diamond goal and Gold distance triangle; this was South Marston-Kidderminster- Bognor Regis-South Marston, flown in 6t hours by Peter Trenchard. Christine Day flew to Booker to complete her Silver C and also collected the return trophy. Congratulations, Chris our first lady Silver C. Sally Hargrave and Ian Powdrill, both of whom are sixteen and our youngest solo pilots, also gained their Cs on their first solo flights, Bill Foddy and Ralph Childs gained Cs on solo flights, Dave Elliott achieved his A and B, John Trenchard completed his Bronze after converting to the Skylark 3 and Mike Clarke – who soloed recently – completed a Bronze leg. Successful conversions during the Week were Sue Harbour to Olympia and Rex Collins and Henry Devonshire to Skylark 4. The Club played host some weeks ago to the then Mayor and Mayoress of Swindon and the Mayor and Mayoress elect. Unfortunately, the weather was not good but the Mayor very sportingly elected to fly and was launched to 2,000 ft., piloted by George Turner our CFl and acro-towed by Fred Butcher in the Terrier. Both glider and tug disappeared very quickly into the murk. The tug soon returned but, after an anxious 45 minutes and still no sign of the Ka-13. Fred set off to comb the countryside and there they were, sitting calmly in a field some four miles away. 12 The Mayor’s face was wreathed in smiles and apparently, he had thoroughly enjoyed his first flight in a glider. The weather improved slightly after this and the rest of the party had their flights and were given tea and refreshments in e Clubhouse where, by now, several members of the Press had arrived to take photographs and notes, so that the events were duly recorded in our local paper the following day.

Our Tenth Annual Dinner and Dance, at which the guest speaker was the Mavor of Swindon, Alderman Bown was held at Blunsdon House Hotel during February. The Club trophies were presented by the Mayoress. Many thanks are extended to our Social Secretary, Christine Day, and to her willing helpers for a most enjoyable evening. Since our previous report we have acquired a new Chairman, Dr. David Hart, who has tackled the job with great energy and enthusiasm and we wish him a happy term of office. The season got away to a good start with lots of soaring during the Easter weekend. Our T-21 has been replaced with an ASK-I3, which has proved to be very popular, and the rest of the club fleet consists now of a Swallow, Olympia and Skylark 4. Two new syndicates have been formed recently. Gordon Gulliver, our Secretary, and Graham Hinder now own a Ka-6, and Bernie Keogh and John Bundy have a Ka-6E. We wish Bernie much success in competition flying this year.