Essential Skills –
keep them flying
Useful guides describing many of the skills needed by gliding club members.
Whilst flying skills and training are well documented, and will be passed on keenly by your flying instructor, there are many other skills needed on the ground to keep a gliding club running smoothly.
Studies regularly take place into disappearing skills and trades in the UK; for instance handwriting, tying knots, using a compass and wainwrighting. Hopefully the guides below will help keep much needed gliding club skills alive.
These user guides are also available in a folder (or displayed) at the launchpoint. Please contact compiler, Jane Moore, for amendments.
Move gliders without damaging them and park safely and securely. Additional information is available in the BGA Student Pilot Manual.
Glider canopies are expensive and made to order. They need to be kept free of scratches and cracks. Just one careless wipe with a gloved hand can cause scratches that reduce visibility.
Keeping the launchpoint flying log. Keeping the log is an operational necessity. Keeping it accurately contributes to a safe and efficient operation for you and the club.. This document also explains how Course and Trial Lesson paperwork are dealt with at the launchpoint.
There is plenty of airspace around Booker that is open for our Gliders to fly in. However, our proximity to Heathrow air traffic does mean that we have restrictions in some directions. These diagrams may help alongside your instructor briefings.
Well people have asked for this in the past. The bus is a diesel and you need to wait for the glowplug light.
The bus battery should be charged once every two weeks or so during the winter season.
Where to find the chargers and which batteries to use for club gliders.
Inspecting and repairing aerotow tow ropes. Recording maintenance and defects. DOCUMENT REVISION IN WORK..
Procedure to follow when hooking on and running the wing for aerotow launching at Booker.
The official source for glider tyre pressures is the glider Flight Manual. We have extracted the figures here for convenience. There is often a label on the glider fuselage adjacent to each wheel suggesting a presssure. This document is also, sometimes, alongside the pump.
Some club gliders have controls that need to be manually connected when rigged. There is a demonstration Hotellier connection in the briefing room that all pilots should use as part of their Daily Inspection training.
Handy conversion chart kilograms, pounds and stone.
Flight Tracking. Launchpoint document primarily for use with visitors to the club. QR code link to view local glider tracks on mobile device. For more tracking options see this webpage section in the Booker website members area..