The air is so silky smooth that I could take my hands and feet off the controls for minutes on end. There’s an airway above. Better move further north, to where the airway base steps up, giving more headroom. In just 20 minutes from finding this wave, I’m at 9,000 ft.
For a few moments, I forget about flying to take in the stupendous panoramic view of seemingly snow capped mountains and ridges as far as the eye can see. Wow, it looks a long way down! No-one else is in sight and I have the whole sky just to myself. I pinch myself to aviate, not spectate. I’m near the underside of the airway: still there is strong lift and I mustn’t go much higher. Bother. I could have gone way beyond Perth, or anywhere come to that. But, it’s now 5 pm and I must go back to the gliding site to put the glider back in its trailer for the return journey home to Devon.
Reluctantly, I turn the glider southwards and pull the airbrakes (they are like paddles that extend from the top of the wings) to lose height. After ten minutes of descending flight, I close the airbrakes, join the circuit for landing and make a radio call: “Portmoak, Delta Kilo Uniform, downwind, right-hand, to land north field”. I do the pre-landing
checks, lower the undercarriage and turn onto the final approach. I pull the airbrakes again for the final descent. The glider settles gently on the ground and comes to a halt. I open the canopy and sit for a few moments savouring an unexpectedly super three hour flight. A satisfied grin reaches from ear to ear!
I’m a member of the Devon & Somerset Gliding Club and also have a Private Pilots Licence (PPL) and fly the Club’s Piper Pawnee. That’s a 45 year old former crop sprayer with a 260 hp engine and strong undercarriage, making it ideal for glider aero towing from our grass field. I do about 80 of those a year, but that is all another story.
Our Editor said to make a connection between all this and surveying. Well, there are three things:
ll for 10 years I taught valuations to RICS and ISVA students part-time in the evenings, whilst working for Devon County Council during the day. And that additional income paid for the flying to obtain a PPL in the 1970s;
l l a gliding club is rather like ACES. They have serious purposes but
they are also inherently very social organisations. Whilst as members we each enjoy our private time when airborne, we rely on each other for mutual support in putting our gliders together at the start of the day, launching them and packing away at the end of the day. And then we natter and learn from one another from our respective experiences. That, together with my family life, was a fundamental part of my personal work / life balance. And now it’s my retirement life; and
ll finally, as treasurer of the Devon & Somerset Gliding Club, you may well imagine I encourage long term business planning and “strategic management”!
If you would like to know more about gliding, see the British Gliding Association’s website at http://www.
gliding.co.uk/. That includes links to all UK gliding clubs affiliated to the BGA: all very similar in the way they operate and all are very welcoming of visitors. Go on, have a trial lesson! You may find you’ll love the activity as much as I do!
THE SUFFOLK SCRIBBLER More Macca
I missed the Beach Boys first time round only to rediscover them a year or so ago. If you want to experience both the nostalgic videos and the updated Beach Boys experience, keep an eye on the SKY Arts channel where they are re-shown regularly or buy The Beach Boys: Stars and Stripes CD; mind-blowing!
Macca was giving yet another speech, this time at a function where Brian Wilson was being inducted into some Hall of Fame. He said some very nice things about his work then said; “One of the reasons you deserve this honour is that when we listen carefully to your lyrics it makes us cry.” And do you know he is right.
THE TERRIER - Summer 2012
I must also mention one little cameo within one of the Beach Boys films that is regularly shown on SKY ARTS. Speaking is a man identified as Brian Wilson’s High School teacher of musical composition. He is talking about one of the original hits, “Be True to your School.” He explains has set his class an exam task of writing a composition about their school. Brian wrote the aforementioned number and somewhat mournfully the teacher says, “I gave the song a B minus, and Brian made a million dollars out of it.”
Finally one little story about our other Knightly Ancient Rocker Sir Mick Jagger. Backstage somewhere Sir Mick and George Melly came round a corner from opposite directions and had a close up head to head confrontation. Then ensued the following dialogue:-
George: “Crikey Mick, what a lot of wrinkles and crinkles you’ve got.”
Mick: “They are not wrinkles George, they’re laughter lines.”
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