markfgilliland

With four Silver duration flights completed already this season, we are off to a very good start. These have been achieved by David Hart, Peter Trenchard, Graham Hinder and John Bundy. The last three of these were all local soaring flights, while the first Was flown at Portmoak, where David also reached 10,000 ft. in wave. The elusive South Marston wave has also been flown at last. After all the talk by our wave “experts” it took one of our younger members to fly it to almost 7,000 ft. In March we held our ninth annual Dinner and Dance, where we welcomed our new President, Charles Morrison M.P., who, in spite of art arduous evening arrived at the airfield for his introduction to gliding the next morning. We are interested in the possibility of using diesel tow vehicles and we would appreciate information from any other clubs who are operating them.

Down in Wiltshire nothing very much has stirred, other than our several successful film shows; special thanks due here to Our hard-working projectionist and his crew, also to those who organised the Christmas and Twelfth Night parties. The winch, which was mentioned in our previous newsletter, has now been tried out and proved a success. This will be a great asset when using the local ridge, which until now could only be reached by aerotow. The club fleet has been improved by the addition of a Skylark 4, which we hope will be put to good use in the coming season.

The club held its first open day on Sunday, 22nd May, at the South Marston Airfield. Miss E. C. Millin, the Mayor Elect of Swindon, made the inaugural flight of the new T-3J, watched by some 2,000 spectators. Brian Porter of the Parachute sub-section made four jumps and the visiting Olympia syndicate from Coventry delighted the crowd with aerobatics culminating in a beat-up which put Farnborough in the shade. After the departure of the Auster tug for Eastleigh the T-31 passenger flights were continued by auto tow until late evening. Eventually, the call of the bar and sausage and mash supper enticed the diehards from the airfield. We now hope to fly every Sunday and will be delighted to receive visits-intentional or otherwise.