Tonbridge Radio Flyers

 

Email Newsletter from Alastair Ramsay

No: 11/07 – 29th October 2007   

Club Website: - Tonbridge-flyers.co.uk

 

 

Hello fellow flyers,

 

Good News!

 

Our prohibition from using Leigh Park Farm during the Foot & Mouth outbreak is at an end.  The farmer has agreed that we can return to flying at the farm with effect from this coming Wednesday, 31st October.  I will ask Ken Dean to update the website home page to this effect.

 

Although Leigh Park farm remains the best location for our silent flight activities, the reserve site has proved to be quite a pleasant alternative.  It has the disadvantage of being too close to the A21 for comfort and also suffers from low level turbulence in breezy conditions.  This seems a small price to pay as it has enabled us to continue flying when many other clubs had to suspend activities for many weeks.  I believe we were lucky to have been offered somewhere to fly during the foot & mouth outbreak. 

 

In recent weeks we have had two more new members and several prospective members.  The new members that we welcome to the club are both very experienced flyers and will add to the depth of competitive talent that the club already enjoys.  They are: Colin Boorman and  Graham Wicks.

 

Since my last newsletter, your committee has developed a draft constitution for the club.  I will attach a copy to this newsletter for your consideration.  Those of you who are full members (as opposed to Silent Flight members) may already have received a copy from Steve Fysh.  If so, you don’t need to download it again and please accept my apologies for the duplication.  This constitution will be proposed for acceptance by the club at the forthcoming AGM in early December so please take time to read it in advance.

 

Summer is now officially over, the clocks have changed and flying on Thursday evenings is no longer possible.  This also means that the Summer High Time competitions are over and the book is open for any claims for a winter high time record in either Thermal or Electric versions of the competition.  The simple rules for these competitions have been specified on the club website under   ”competitions”.  In summary they are:

 

  1. Thermal high Time. -         An open class glider, bungee or winch launched.  Landing to be in same field at Leigh Pk Farm.  Timing from line release to landing and witnessed by another member of TRF.

 

  1. Electric High Time -           An open class electric glider using a max of 60seconds of power in 1st minute of flight.  Landing within the field and witnessed by another TRF member.  Timing is from leaving the hand to landing.

 

Congratulations to Bob Hope for a neck- achingly long flight to win the summer Thermal  High Time competition with a time of 80 minutes 13 seconds.  My own persistence in turning up every week until a favourable thermal came along, was rewarded with the Electric High Time record of 34 minutes 54 seconds.

 

At last I have been able to acquire new rubber and line for the club bungee.  Our first use of this produced a favourable outcome with numerous good launches.  Now that we are returning to fly at the farm I will store the bungee in the club box again.  Please use it carefully, the new rubber cost us almost £100.

 

You will only need to read this paragraph if you are interested in the thermal winter league scheduled to start on 18th November.  In my last newsletter I invited comment on the proposal to make a small adjustment to the scoring system.  I had little response to this but did receive a suggestion, which I will ask you to respond to, that we use winches for multiple concurrent launching.  This would ensure that competitors in any given ’slot’ would all share the same air.  It would however require sufficient members to volunteer the use of their winches and for these to be deployed early on a competition day even in the often wet and muddy conditions at the farm.  At first sight this seemed to offer the prospect of getting through 4 flights each round in a faster time but my own calculations, based on an entry of 12 using 4 winches, seemed to indicate  that there would be no time saving.  If an extra person turned up it would extend the competition considerably under winch launching whereas it would simply add approximately 12 minutes to the single bungee approach.  When considering this matter please remember that we only have use of the farm between 10 am and 2 pm on Sunday mornings. I am seeking to find a majority view on this subject in order to finalise rules and plans prior to the first round on 18th November.  Would you please make a short reply to this email, indicating your preferred method and also confirming whether you would be prepared  to bring your own winch (if you have one).  If responses are inconclusive or too few in number, we will proceed on the basis of the original rules.

 

 

Reminder – Diary dates for November.

 

  1. Electric League Round 1 – Sunday 4th Nov
  2. Thermal League Round 1 – Sunday 18th Nov
  3. Thermal League Reserve date – Sunday 25th Nov

 

Finally, if there are any of our new members who have not yet come to club flying days, why not come along either on Wednesday mornings or on Saturday afternoons.  If you want to ensure there is someone there to welcome you please give me a call before hand in order that I can arrange to be there (subject to weather conditions being suitable for flying).  My phone number is shown below.

 

 

 

Best wishes,

 

Alastair Ramsay - Secretary, Silent Flight Section - TRF

(Email: AandJRamsay@aol.com – tel: 01892 534532)

 

p.s. Don’t forget to download the attached constitution!