Friday 28 September 2018

Whispering Wardrobes - finally......

After a wet weather postponement, the Wardrobes will be Whispering this weekend. The long awaited Vintage Glider Club meeting will take place on Saturday and Sunday, with some colouful gliders on display and flying. All welcome, come along and join in.





Sunday 9 September 2018

Easter Eggs, vintage aircraft and a show

It was a very busy day at Booker yesterday. As well as the usual trial lessons, and some basic instructor training, we had the long awaited Easter Egg Cup aerobatic competition, postponed from rainy April. With British Aerobatics Association judge Charles Baker judging and Graham Saw  acting as safety pilot, seven pilots executed a variety of aerobatic manoeuvres, some of which were recognisable as part of the prescribed sequences. Entrants could choose from Standard, Tricky or Joker - no-one attempted Joker!


After prolonged deliberation and abstruse calculations in the briefing room a winner emerged and the trophy  - and a selection of Easter Eggs - was awarded. The podium places were:

George Darby - 80.5%
Maddi Roberts - 80%
Andy Monk - 78%

George and William engaged in some arm wrestling over the trophy

Many thanks to judge Charles for sitting out in the cold all day and Graham for organising it all, and congratulations to all the entrants who gave it a go.

Meanwhile, CFI Richard was taking all-comers for rides in a Miles Magister from the Shuttleworth collection. There was a slight pause in the middle of the day when it took an awful lot of prop swinging to persuade it to start but all those who had a flight said it was a great experience.


In other news, at White Waltham, a team from Booker was giving people rides in our simulator as part of the West London Aero Club members' day fundraiser - the thrid year we have been invited to attend. Despite the grey skies they did good business, with queues forming - another opportunity to showcase gliding and Booker. Thanks to Chris Arnold, Henry Ross and John Lambie for working the stand and to Max Norfolk for towing there and back.



Sunday 2 September 2018

Inter Club League Final 2018

This weekend we have had the pleasure of hosting the ICL final, where the winning teams from the different regions come to battle for the title - we had 15 pilots (including two world champions) from 5 clubs on the grid.  Jim White directed the comp and also set tasks for each of the three classes - Novice, Intermediate and Pundit, while Pete Wyld did all the complex work of scoring, including sorting out the final tie for first place. We had two days of excellent weather and some equally good safe flying by all contestants - and no landouts - as well as a Saturday night BBQ.

In the end Bicester wrested the trophy from HusBos who had held it for the past 5 years. And good fun was had by all.


The winning team
Andy Mayer (Intermediate), Team Captain Miles Bailey, Pundit Jon Gatfield, Novice Olly Wheeler

ICL co-ordinator Chris Luton with Team Captain Miles

World Champion Andy Davis, day winner in the Pundit class

Chris and Jim mildly amused by it all


No caption needed