The highlight of the clubs annual cross country season is our regional gliding competition, with participants coming from all over the country.

We hope the weather will be just as good as previous years which will only enhance the challenge to the compeitors.

You can see more details about it here

Every few years we like to host one of the National gliding compeitions. Due to the size of our field and the ever increasing performance of modern gliders, we are only really best suited for the Club Class or Junior Nationals.

2023 is the year that we host the Club Class Nationals. For many pilots, particularly Juniors, this represents the first Nationals they can enter as there is an upper handicap limit. Whereas the other national championships usually favour the best gliders in their class, the club class are for older gliders. This also means that this is generally the most accessible national competition as shares of suitable gliders can be as little as a few thousands pounds and even full ownership of suitable gliders is not much more than a few tens of thousands.

Like all the other cross country competitions, this is run in exactly the same way, with the winner being crowned the 2023 Club Class National Champion after the end of the 9 day competition.

In the past we have run soaring courses, task weeks and racing weeks at various times of the year. This year I thought we could kick of with something slightly different, early in the season.

Choosing the right week is not easy, a few of cross countries have already been done but it would be too early to count on a week of good weather.  However I would like to organise a week early enough to help people prepare for the main bit of the season. So I’m planning for the last week of April, beginning Monday, the 24th of April and ending on the following weekend. Whether we use the last weekend we can decide depending on the weather.

The format I’m suggesting is a bit of a blend of the types of weeks we’ve had in the past, a sort of tutored task week.

When the weather is suitable we will set tasks each day for the full range of abilities.  At the end of the day or the next day's briefing we will analyse the tasks and look for ways to improve.  On those days where cross-country is not possible but local soaring is, we can assist those who need it, with basic soaring skills and on the days when the weather does not play ball we will have a series of lectures covering all the basic issues around cross-country flying and any other issues that people wish to have covered, instrumentation, glider prep, retrieve prep, etc.  

The weather at that time of year can offer up some great days, but it can of course also give us the opposite.  However, even if the weather is not great I am hoping that we can help get ourselves prepared for the rest of the season. I’ll be running the course with the help of Guy Corbett (depending on the delivery of his grandson) and will also be looking for the help of one or two other cross-country pilots, if you’re interested in helping please let me know.

It is obviously only worth running the week if there are sufficient people interested, so if you are, can you please drop me an email to my personal email address, mark@urbanomics.co.uk preferably by the the 24th March.  Please do NOT hit "reply" to this address.

Mark Newland-Smith

Dunstable will be hosting this event. Visiting pilots compete at sports level to win the Dan Smith Memorial Trophy for Aerobatics. https://www.aerobatics.org.uk/contest/view/224

Andy Cunningham and Stefan will be talking all things aerobatics! From basic principles, through how to fly the manoeuvres and then out onto the airfield to put all the theory into practice in the glider! Guaranteed to be an interesting and exciting experience!

While the course is fully subscribed, there are still spaces for the classroom based elements

All the leagues have had their respective rounds, now we welcome all those winners and clubs who have not had a chance to participate to attend the ICL Finals.