9th June 2010 Committee meeting minutes

Present: Colin Baines, Steve Barber, Chris Bessent, Richard Greenaway, James Hunneman, Phil Morgan, Alan Saunders(to give guidance about website),Pete Smith, James Walters
Apologies:Nigel Burt, Richard Greenaway

Correspondence

None received

Outstanding actions from previous Minutes

• Chris B still to copy flight manuals and put new copies into caravan.
• Notice boards and white boards still need to be put back up in the clubhouse. James W offered to move the socket/light switch that is currently in the way of where one of the boards is to go.
• Previous meeting's minutes accepted.

Matters Arising

• The Me7 has been sold. It is being shipped to Australia. Thanks to everyone who has made this happen.
• The possibility of

Officers’ Reports

Aircraft Officer - James Walters

• Nothing new to report.
• James W to obtain an dimensioned enngineering drawing of the Puchacz'w wheel brake assembly to allow a thorough condition check to be done.
• Colin mentioned that we should check the club glider fleet's compasses for accuracy. James H to liase with Andy Brind to organise a day to check them. James W thought it best to replace all compasses with new.

Treasurer - Steve Barber

• The income so far this year seems to be similar to last year. There were 10% fewer launches in May 2010 compared to May 2009, but the total flight time was similar.
• Some flyable days have had to be scrubbed due to a lack of members turning up.

Equipment Officer (James Hunneman)

• Skybrid Winch
  • Thanks to Steve Barber for fitting a replacement seat to the winch cab.
  • A new roller has had to be fitted. Can all winch drivers please take care not to pull the end of the cable through the rollers:- I recommend taking the gearbox out of drive with the parachute being 50-100 metres away from the winch. The drum's momentum will often be enough to get the cable end the right distance from the winch.
  • The right hand (when viewed from the cab) half shaft sheared its keyways and taper. A re-engineered shaft and new drive flange has been obtained from Skylaunch and fitted (thanks to all who helped). These have been re-engineered such that the taper is of a larger diameter, and with a shallower taper. The damaged shaft had been replaced in early 2009 - this new shaft should solve this weakpoint.
  • The LHS cable was removed from this winch and fitted to the RHS of the bus winch. A new cable was installed. Thanks to all those who helped with this.
  • The RHS cable needs replacing with new cable too.
• Bus Winch
  • The cable shields on both sides of the winch have been replaced or fixed.
  • The drum and cable were re-installed on the LHS
  • The RHS cable was replaced with a used cable from the Skybrid. However, this cable is almost worn out.
  • The winch was used for two weeks whilst the Skybrid winch was being repaired - generally it worked well, however:
  • The cable roller boxes on both sides of the winch are quite worn. The one on the RHS has enough play in it that the cable can slip to the side and cut through the side plate. The cable joining ferrules seem to be catching on the pulleys
  • Skylaunch can supply 2nd hand roller boxes with custom made brackets to outfit the winch with standard Skylaunch rollers. The price would be £1000. Roller parts only (would need a fair amount of metal fabrication) would be £600.
• Pajero
• Blue Land Rover
• Green Land Rover
• Generator

Airfield Officer (Richard Greenaway)

• The Hole & Cone: Richard would bring topsoil and finish off filling the hole and thus be able to remove the cone.
• Richard would get an estimate for tarmacing the hangar floor, and investigate the possibility of re-housing the generator outside in a separate shed.

Publicity Officer (Chris Bessent)

• The response to the Valentines Day promo had been exceptionally disappointing, with no identifiable uptake. The next push would be around Easter and/or Open Day

Chair (Colin Baines) (in absentia)

Notes from Colin:

• Club house decoration is now complete at a cost of around £250. Remaining jobs are:

1. Chris/Rod deliver chairs
2. Fix Equipment Officer’s white board in place of the chalk board.
3. Pick the best notice board and mount it next to equipment officer’s white board. Only current info to be displayed. No permanent items. Yahoo is a much better repository for reference material.
4. Fix other white board in middle of North wall for briefings.
5. Mount Chris’s pictures in remaining spaces.
6. Reroute telephone system and fit outside bell.
7. Set up computer.
8. Liz to provide a three drawer filing cabinet. She also has a couple of desks, but they need to be picked up in Bromley.

• We can now use the club house for all meetings and briefings (we have extra plastic chairs if required). The paraffin heater is very effective if lit for an hour or so. If we keep day to day activities close to the entrance it should remain fairly tidy at the other end. Aircraft repairers must clean up their space.

• Next focus attention on the toilet block and at least find a handle for the Gents’ door.

Any other business

Replacement glider

• The returns from the questionnaire had been circulated to the Board Members. All members were of the opinion that the majority of respondents were in favour of a club class glider. The two instructors also felt that it would have the further advantage of being available to more members . A higher-performance machine would have a better XC capability, but most XC-qualified and motivated pilots already have access to a syndicate aircraft; whereas significant proportion of those expected to fly the new glider would not take advantage of the XC ability. It did not seem justifiable to spend extra money, even if finances could be raised.
• Geoff Grayer had reported that money seems to be available from the Awards for All (A4A) fund, and with the Board’s agreement, made a start on the application process. However, it was felt that even if successful at the maximum level of £10k, it would still be a strain to raise the funds required for the high-performance glider.

Other possible purchases from a grant were briefly discussed, but it was quickly agreed that the rules of the A4A fund needed to be better understood. It was agreed to progress discussions regarding the offer of an ASW15 by a club member. Action Steve Barber.

Course/Task/Open weeks

There is considerable doubt about the uptake for a course week, but it was felt a course could run in parallel with an Open week: agreed to open for week 26-30 July, followed by Task week 2-6 Aug.

Open Day

Sat 19 June, to coincide with Longest Day, with evening BBQ

Sale of Me7

No contacts from the previous advertisement seemed to be leading towards a sale. Agreed that it should be re-advertised at a much lower price. Action Chris Bessent

Flight Manuals

To meet EASA regulations it is essential that the Flight Manuals held at the club are identical copies of those held in the main file. The easiest way to ensure this is to produce new copies. Action Chris Bessent.

Winch cable mod

The BGA winching adviser had responded to our enquiry about inserting a black link below the chute (to break in the event of pulling the cable in too far). The adviser did not consider it to have sufficient advantage - there would still be a shock load of 1000N on the rollers; it is better to improve drum brakes and winch driver awareness.

Next Meeting

tba