Usk - Sunday 18th May 2014 - Astir gliders

The airfield at Usk is a couple of miles to the north east of the town of Usk, Monmouthshire in south Wales.

The South Wales Gliding Club is based here with a number of two seat trainers plus some K8 single seaters too.

As with many gliding airfields a lot of the based gliders reside in metal glider trailers.

A quick stop mid morning on a beautiful early summers day found the club busy preparing for a days flying. In addition a pair of single seat Astir gliders were being prepared for flight beside the row of glider trailers.

G-DEOD is a Grob G102 Astir CS77 built in 1977 with c/n 1614. The Astir was a very succesful Club Standard glider with over 1,200 examples being built by Grob in Germany of which approx 250 were of the CS77 version. This example was originally registered on the BGA register as "BGA 2859" before becoming "G-DEOD" in June 2008.

G-DDKX is a Grob G102 Astir CS built in 1976 with c/n 1331 - the original production version of the G102, over 500 of this version were built.  This Astir wears the competition code "353" on the tail.

Even after nearly 40 years there are currently 115 examples of the Grob G102 Astir series gliders on the UK CAA aircraft register. 


Click here for a web link to the South Wales Gliding Club




 Steve
  

Kingston Deverill - The Park 6.12.09

At last we had some blue skies, so I managed to get out to visit the gliding airfield at Kingston Deverill known as "The Park", just south of Warminster.

The airfield is home to The Bath, Wilts and North Dorset Gliding Club - a friendly chat with club members gave permission to access their hanger area.


G-DFLL SZD 9 Bis Bocian 1D c/n F-877 painted in a very warm red colour scheme. This Bocian was built at SZD Krosno in Poland back in 1965 and was originally delivered to Finland as OH-KBP before becoming OH-336. In 1988 it was imported into the UK and became BGA 3345 "FLL". With the CAA now administering glider restrigrations it became G-DFLL in September 2009. Perhaps the best looking Bocian in the UK. The clubs Piper Pawnee G-BUXY can be seen in the background.



The club also operate G-DCEB a SZD 9 Bis Bocian 1E - the 1E version has a sprung center wheel which is better suited for the heavy landings it encounters as a training glider. This Bocian is c/n P-433 and was built at SZD Jezow in Poland in 1968. It was exported to the UK in 1968 and became BGA 1474 "CEB".

The club has two other Bocians which are not currently airworthy - BGA 2034 "DDN" and BGA 4090 "HPH" stored dismantled in their hanger.





G-DBNH Schleicher Ka 6CR c/n 6115 is a single seat glider used by club members. This example was built in 1963 and was sold to the UK as BGA 1098 "BNH" and became G-DBNH in July 2008.


G-CJAZ Grob G102 Astir Jeans c/n 2073 was built in Germany in 1975 as D-7586. It was imported in the UK in 1997 and became BGA 4371 "JAZ" and became G-CJAZ in 9.08.


External Link below to The Bath, Wilts and North Dorset Gliding Club website

http://www.bwnd.co.uk/