Cambridge University Gliding Club

The date, time and place for the Winch Launch presentation has been set. Colin Cownden will be running it in the Wolfson Room at Lucy Cavendish College on Monday April 30th beginning at 7:30PM. The content of the presentation is mostly relevant to early solo pilots and trainee winch drivers and may well go over the head of ab-initios, but any member of the Club who thinks that they may benefit from it is welcome to turn up. A following social event is being organised by our most excellent social secretary, probably involving pubs. As usual.

The date, time and place for the Winch Launch presentation has been set. Colin Cownden will be running it in the Wolfson Room at Lucy Cavendish College on Monday April 30th beginning at 7:30PM. The content of the presentation is mostly relevant to early solo pilots and trainee winch drivers and may well go over the head of ab-initios, but any member of the Club who thinks that they may benefit from it is welcome to turn up. A following social event is being organised by our most excellent social secretary, probably involving pubs. As usual.

Hi guys.

After our recent speight of successful first solos and (more in my field) drive to get members trained on the winch, I thought that I would share a bit of useful experience which I gained in my early-solo days.

Some of you may know about the winch launch safety lecture/presentation given as part of the refresher course. Now, for those of you who have just gone solo you may be fed up to the back teeth of safety, but trust me, this is a good presentation that really gets your understanding of winch launching up to good levels. It did for me when I did it two years ago. And the understanding also helps you with getting the best height out of your launches. Again, it did for me. Thirdly, if you are learning to drive the winch, it gives you a great insight into pilot psychology and general launch methods which will improve your ability to give consistently good winch launches. That makes you popular :) . And like I have said, it worked for me.

Now onto the point of the posting...

I'm arranging for an instructor to come into Cambridge to conduct this presentation for us. I have asked some people if they'd be interested in attending and have got positive responses. It will happen sometime next term somewhere in Cambridge so we can all get there easily (and don't have to go haring out to the field for an evening). It would be great to see all solo pilots who havn't had the presentation and any intended winch drivers there. We havn't fixed a date yet because I've only just sent round a mail to the instructor lists looking for a volunteer. I'll keep you all posted on developments. If you are interested in attending, please let me know at the_psychohistorian@hotmail.com so I can fill you in on developments.

Adam