Our season ended with more than 15000km flown, an increase of 40% on 1979. Colin McKennan (Kr6CR) and Brian 6eale (Dart 17R) have their Gold distances and Bob Lock (K-8) has completed the first and only Silver C of the year with a flight to Booker. Mike Nield and Mike Beattie are on instructors’ courses this month. 16 The Blanik recently dragged 1000ft of cable across the dual carriageway and through some bedroom windows before dropping it in a local housing estate. We all learned a lesson and batmen now watch like hawks for cable overruns. Eric Winning has become Projects Officer (again) and is organising his 30 or so volunteers in various winter type jobs.

There are times when we have more instructors than pupils on ‘the airfield, no doubt due to the combined effect of the weather and the recession. Another factor is that the bar is closed and being rebuilt by Steve Foggin, John Baxter and others. At the AGM in December Pete Higgs was re-elected Chairman and there was a debate on the club fleet with the decision to defer a decision to next year (as we did last year!). Our annual dinner-dance is in February.

We had a very successful open weekend on June 20-21 with Club flying between 4am and 9am on the Saturday. Cooked breakfast was provided by Angie Higgs, Anne Bradley and Alison Lock and as a result of the weekend we have several new members. The Humbro task week wasn’t as successful as last year due 10 the weather but creditable performances were achieved by John Le Coyte. Eric Winning, Bev Hill and our CFI, John Baxter.

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.