FUSHIEBRIDGE
GOREBRIDGE
MIDLOTHIAN
EH23 4QG
Tel: 01875
820102
Email: gordon&jill@eosmicrolights.flyer.co.uk
16 December, 2001
Dear
Member
Some
of you may realise that I (Jill) have done the actual writing of club
newsletters in the past and this time Gordon has decided that it’s probably
easier if I write it from me rather than from him. Flying comes a bit easier to him that writing – hence my input
here!
Firstly,
an apology for not having written to you all before now – for those of you who
are new to the club, we normally write twice a year to let you know what has
been going on, and what is planned for the next few months. This year, however, has been particularly
difficult. Mary, Gordon’s sister, died
in April and I hope you will understand that one of the effects of this was to
put club matters on the back burner.
April is the time when subscriptions become due, and most of you have
been good enough to respond to the notice that we put in the clubhouse asking
for funds. If you have not paid for the
year 2001/2002 there will be an extra note attached to this letter and you can
decide whether or not you wish to remain a member (for those of you who fly
from East Fortune, this is not a matter of choice!). Your money goes towards paying rent (for the runways, grass areas
and where the clubhouse sits), electricity (a huge amount so please turn off
hangar lights when you are not in there), rates, water rates, lawnmower
maintenance and fuel, clubhouse equipment, radio licence, CAA publications, and
loads of other incidentals.
As
well as losing Mary, who was an active member and who was on the verge of going
solo when she was taken into hospital, we lost another friend and member in a
tragic heli-skiing accident in March.
Crawford Thurston was a lovely man (a GP) who had relatively recently
got his licence and was really starting to enjoy flying his family and
friends. We miss him and his wry sense
of humour.
On
the plus side there have been LOADS of babies!
Since last writing, off the top of my head, we have had Mark Capewell,
Harry Ferguson and Noah McNaught. There
are bound to be others and I’m sorry if I’ve missed you off, kids!
Well
the inevitable happened this year - the Rates Department discovered our
existence and came visiting. Luckily we
got a nice chap who realised that the scrapyard severely undermines what the
value of the place and has rated us quite kindly (so there IS a benefit to the
scrapyard after all!). We only had to
pay one year of back-rates too, so it could have been worse.
It’s
been a bad summer weather-wise, though Gordon and George have not been too bad
overall. Gordon missed a lot of flying
in the early summer due to having had a wrist operation, but the boys are now
busier than ever before and, as their students will know when trying to make
bookings, the world seems to want to fly microlights! We’re not complaining – we just need more hours in the day!
The
year has not been helped by Foot & Mouth disease which luckily did not
affect us too badly. A lot of schools
down south had to close down, with all the knock-on effects that would
have. It has only really affected us at
the school by stopping us using Charterhall and West Linton for cross
countries. The benefit has been that we
are now using Glenrothes and Perth which is great practice for using radio and
also having to fit in with other aircraft etc.
While
on the subject of radio, Colin Rodger has been doing masses of RT exams and has
run quite a few courses. A good number
of club members now have their RT licences – so useful if you are flying any
distance.
There
was the annual Gigha trip …. Naturally
the weekend we had put aside was dreadful, but nothing ventured, we set off
anyway on the Saturday. A few folk
drove over (sensible!) and the rest of us set off in less than wonderful
conditions (westerly wind, lowish cloud etc).
We struggled against the wind for two hours, it getting stronger and us
getting weaker! Eventually we realised
we didn’t have enough fuel to go further than Strathaven and the conditions
were getting worse by the minute, so we spotted the runway at Strathaven and
started our descent. To our amazement a
windsock started making its way rapidly up the runway (there was a person
attached, but we couldn’t see him!) and was run up a pole – a fabulous sight. Then, just as we were worrying about all the
sheep on the runway, a Jeep came out and chased them all away! We landed, got a marvellous reception from
the kind souls at Strathaven, and sat it out for a while (and waited for Davy
Renton to arrive, but that’s a really long story! He does get shortfield landing of the year award, however, having
landed on a 30m (model aircraft!) runway.)
The
weather got worse and worse, so the Gigha trip was aborted for the day and we
headed for the fleshpots of Strathaven.
A fine night was had by all, and the next day we flew back (there was
still a strong westerly). Of course
conditions were fabulous at East Fortune …
Now, there’s no point in having friends in high places without being
able to ask the odd favour or two, and we were DETERMINED to get to Gigha that
day. So we rang John Bain who came to
the rescue and flew three of us over in warmth and comfort (in a Cessna) –
sorry to Davy Renton who had to drive – next time we’ll need to ask John to get
a bigger plane! So we all got to Gigha
eventually and a fine time was had by everyone (Graeme Ritchie and Fran Renton
have the photographic evidence!).
Three
members tried to get to Eshott – not too difficult you might think even though
conditions were less than ideal, but no-one made it there (at least in one
piece). Bryan Smy had an engine failure
(oh, so those 912s never stop, do they?) – he (naturally!) got it down fine,
even managing to land next to the gate in a field by a handy road. He apologised to the farmer whose field he
landed in, though no damage had been done, and offered the chap a flight once
he’d got it fixed. The farmer sensibly
said “You’ve got to be ******* joking!
I’ve just watched you land in my field because your engine gave up, and
you want to take me up there? You’re
******* mad!” and got into his Jeep and drove away!
Graeme
Ritchie saw turned back, having lost the other members of the party and arrived
back at East Fortune unscathed.
Charlie
Stott made it to Eshott!….. But he
crashed on landing, writing off his aircraft and giving himself a nasty smack
in the face. Dave Gray, the instructor
at Eshott, saw what happened from the back seat. He had a new student in the front seat (last he’s seen of
him!). Poor old Charlie!
Fly-in:
We
had a fabulous fly-in in September and, although we hadn’t told anyone about
it, people actually flew in! We’d put a
notice up in the clubhouse and loads of club members came along – we had 15
teams for the competitions and generally had a wonderful fun day. Joint winners were David Bayne and Ian
Forrest and the only person with a nil score overall? John Bain (in his Motortutor, so he has got an excuse!). The club now has a fabulous gas BBQ so we
ended the afternoon with a barby and a beer.
And Abroad ….
John Bain makes the news again! Gordon and I went to Italy for our summer holiday this year, partly to celebrate our first wedding anniversary and partly to go and fly the Polaris Flying Inflatable Boat. For those of you not familiar with this, it is a rigid inflatable boat underneath a flexwing. Polaris is based in the Umbrian region of Italy (next to Tuscany) and is run by a guy called Aimaro Malingri. We stayed in one of the houses on the Malingri estate (!) for a week, and John Bain flew out to join us. Not in a Cessna this time, but inGordon’s 582 Quantum!!! He flew down Britain, over the Channel, down France and instead of going round the Alps, he flew over them too (at 15,000 ft – chilly!). It took him 3 days to get to Umbria, where he spent two days in the sun and then spent 4 days getting back, with a headwind all the way, taking off and landing in the dark! Gordon thought it sounded like a great adventure and was jealous as hell (I thinks he’s insane…!).
FOR YOUR DIARY
Christmas Dinner – Saturday
15th December at 7.30 pm
After
looking at a few places, we have booked a restaurant in Haddington called
Poldrates. It is really nice, with a
lovely big room (all wood panelling and dried flowers) with a bar at one end. It is a larger room than we have had
anywhere previously and so we don’t need to put an upper limit on numbers this
year (within reason). The menu looks
tasty and the price for a three course dinner with coffee is £20. For those of you who don’t know where Poldrates is, here are the
directions:
Come
off the A1 at the big roundabout at the end of the dual carriageway and go down
the main road into Haddington. At the
traffic lights by the Ideal Garage go straight over. Where the road bends sharply to the right, go straight on (ie
don’t go round the bend!), past the Maitlandfield Hotel on your right (there is
a small car park just near the Maitlandfield in case you can’t get parked at
the restaurant), and on past the Tyneside Tavern on your right. Poldrates is a couple of buildings further
on, on the right, set back from the road.
There are a few spaces in front of the restaurant and, for those in the
know, a private car park round the back (my sister Caroline lives there!). The only risk of it not happening is if it
gets flooded between now and then (this is a real risk as it happened a couple
of times last winter).
Please let me know as soon
as possible if you would like to come and let me have cash or send a cheque for
£20 per person, made payable to “ESMTA” (the club account). I will not cash the cheques until December, but I don’t want to
be left getting money from everyone at the last minute. As in previous years, we have an arrangement
with the restaurant that drinks etc are paid for as you get them, so there
should be no bills at the end of the night.
(Memories of Pierre Victoire …).
Hope
you can all come along – we are hoping for a special treat this year – a couple
of video clips of club members. If you
haven’t heard about Colin’s impression of a premier division goalie, you’d
better come along!!
Each
year between Christmas and New Year we try to get to Holy Island, or Beal on
the mainland, for a pub lunch – sometimes we make it and sometimes we don’t,
but Gordon and I have set aside 27th December as the day when we
will make the attempt. Anyone who’d
like to join us will be extremely welcome.
We’ll be letting the Geordies know about the trip and hopefully some of
them will meet us there.
More
and more of you are getting on-line and we are sending this newsletter out to
about 35 of you by that wonderfully quick and cheap method (saves a fortune in
printing, stationery and postage). If
you have received this by post and you have an email address, please could you
send us an email to gordon&jill@eosmicrolights.flyer.co.uk
and you will be automatically added to our address book for the future.
Some
of you will know that we got very excited recently about the possibility of
buying some fabulous modular portacabins to replace the dilapidated ones we
have, which really are not going to last much longer. Unfortunately we were outbid for them, but we will keep our eyes
and ears open for anything else which might happen along. If you hear of anything which might be
suitable please let Gordon know.
Well,
I think I’ve prattled on for long enough now and can’t think of any more
earth-shattering stuff to tell you (I’ll remember more as soon as it’s too
late), so thank you for your contribution to the club, we hope you enjoy being
a member – let us know if there is anything we could do to improve it for you!
With
best wishes for safe and happy flying over the winter months.
Bye
for now!
Yours
sincerely
Jill
& Gordon Douglas