What happened to May’s newsletter ?? You might well ask, simple answer is I had it in draft format and then forgot.
Well was that summer we had a couple of weeks ago ?? it certainly was a spell of excellent weather, hot temperatures, blue skies, I even to fly my gliders for the first time this year with some excellent long duration flights and great altitude.
As I compose this newsletter the trees are certainly bending over with the wind, going forward the forecast does not look much better either, lets hope they have got the forecast wrong.
Now we have started the summer flying season could I remind everybody to take their litter home when leaving the field please. When I was down the other day there were several items of litter left in the pits and on the model assembly benches.
Battery Charging
Some of you may or may not be aware of an incident that happened on our battery charging rig which is outside the club hut door.
If it was not for a couple of members who were around the area at the time we could have had a serious fire, luckily it was spotted and dealt with swiftly.
A member had brought his own lipo charger to the field to charge his batteries, the charger was a fairly old charger and from what I was told when the charging cycle was activated the battery pack cell count did not match what the charger thought it was trying to charge.
This mismatch resulted in a problem that caused a fire which totally destroyed the charger and pack.
Thankfully no damage occurred to the charging rig with only some burn marks to the table.
Most of the modern chargers these days ask you to confirm what it has detected with regard to the number of cells in a battery pack.
I always look what the charger is telling me and that the correct charging parameters are selected.
It is so easy to just walk away from the charger without checking because we get distracted, forget or just assume the charger is correct.
Does not matter if you are charging at home or at the field take an extra minute to check what the charger screen is telling you (nearly all chargers have screens now)..
I always charge with the balance lead plugged into the charger, in fact I don’t think my chargers will let you charge without it plugged in but I am aware of some chargers that will charge without the balance plug connected to the charger.
If you happen to be walking towards the pits past the charging area and you hear a charger making any kind of noise then please let the people in the pits area know that there is a charger making a noise.
Likewise if you have batteries on charge and somebody has told you that a charger is making a noise then go and check everything is in order.
Better to be safe than sorry !!!!
Sunday 17th May was a Nitro day at the field, I could not make it so I have been sent some photos of the day.
Nitro Day
The day was not the best of days a strong wind was blowing albeit down the strip and from the photos people looked like they had many layers of clothing on.
I only know of one incident which was Josh with his Kangaroo.
The accident report reads like this ‘I was flying at full chat and something happened maybe something came off’
I am sure that the crash investigation board at Farnborough will evaluate that technical report.
Trainers/Trainees
The list of club trainers has been refreshed and their names are below.
A couple of the trainers are of an age where work does not get in the way and if contacted may be able to accommodate mid week sessions.
As a trainee get to know these trainers if needed ask for their phone numbers or use the Clubs messenger group to make contact with them.
Don’t rely on the same trainer all the time, all the trainers will offer the same amount of training and to the same standard/goal.
Training sessions are Wednesday evening and Sunday mornings weather dependant of course
Trainers :
Chris Vernon, Jason Reid, Jake Reid, Mark Conlin, Andy Harrison, Anthony Ollerton, Dave Hindley, Kev Watson
Regards Chris V