Posted on

Time for a change…

… of cable.  Wednesday 13th May was forecast wet and entirely unsuitable for flying, Thursday not looking a great deal better.  A call was put out for help to change the winch cables and, despite the forecast, a number of stalwart members turned up.  The old cable went straight into the skip and replaced with shinny new cable.  For good measure the monthly guillotine checks were also done and the roller boxes removed, cleaned and lubricated.  In the event there were only a couple of short (but heavy showers) but the accompanying thunder did not encourage us to get the gliders out and lift a metal cable near to the clouds.

After completing the cable change it looked OK to fly but the movement in the trees told another story.

Posted on

Shalbourne take on the inter club league


The Oxford Inter Club League was held at Bicester gliding club and Shalbourne’s keenest XC pilots put in a fantastic performance.

Day 1 was a head to head between Shalbourne and Bicester pilots. Strong winds made conditions challenging but both Alex J. and Tim R. made it most of the way around their intermediate and pundit tasks. Even though Alex covered the longest distance in the task, he closely missed out on first place after handicaps were taken into account. Tim secured first place in his class that day, beating competition from the (famous) Jon Gatfield and his ASG 29e.

Cloud cover on day 2 made for challenging soaring conditions. Andrew P. competed in novice task, I (Nickolay J.) was in the intermediate class and Chris B. and Laurie C. fancied the pundit class. Both Andrew and I scored points in our classes with me taking first place by choosing to carry on with the task while most of the other competitors chose to turn back for home after the second turn point.

Day 3 was probably the trickiest day. Although I wasn’t there, Chris has put a valiant effort and scoring second place in the pundit class, while Andrew took first place in the novice class.

The final results were Bicester 16pts, Shalbourne 14pts and Oxford 2pts. Thoroughly worth the short trip to Bicester and big thanks to Laurie who captained and organised the shalbourne team and Miles and everyone else who organised the competition at Bicester.

Posted on

A different kind of Easter

A bum deal all round

If you’ve been wondering what’s been going on, here’s a digest of events.

Round 1

The winch engine, which had been struggling to start for a while, finally croaked. A large hole was discovered in the inlet manifold, which even the least mechanically adept might appreciate is a major problem. The engine, already past its sell by date, was beyond economic repair. Our spare engine needed chassis modifications, etc. to make it fit, so there could have been a protracted period of down time. However, by fortunate coincidence we had just purchased a ‘slot straight in’ reconditioned engine. So engine out – engine in – ‘simples’, or so we thought.

Round 2

It had earlier been noted that on odd occasions the winch was failing to change gear, dragging gliders halfway down the field in the process. The new more powerful engine exacerbated the problem. Theories abounded, but on removing the oil pan, shards of metal were discovered in the oil. So now gearbox U/S! Manic ‘phone calls located a recon’ box at the Skylaunch factory. This was secured by an early morning dash up to Shropshire. Unfortunately it didn’t quite fit – so more work required.

Round 3

A lot was learned in the process of a major rebuild. Among other things this resulted in the addition of a cab mounted transmission oil pressure gauge. This might sound a bit geeky, but it should massively improve the quality of our launches and longevity of our launch equipment. More about that later.

We hope for the winch to be operational in the next few days, but it will still require some tweaking. So if all goes well it’ll be ready by Wednesday when launches will initially be sporadic, while adjustments are made.

To spare James H’s blushes I have not attributed names to every action, as all of them would include his. But our thanks should also go to the handful of people who shared in his blood, sweat and tears.