July has brought mixed weather, but again the tiling has proved worthwhile since so far we have always had a good runway to fly-off following a day or night of rain.
The cadet camp was a success, all 4 reaching solo. Three finished their 20 solos during the course, the 4th will come back in August to finish the last 6.
One HK student also came in July, he went home having finished his licensing requirements.
Currently we have a new course running, with 3 HK Air cadets and one ex Canada Air Cadet.
The first course was poorly supported by instructors and members. Sometimes having to muddle through during the week with only one tow pilot and one instructor and one ground support member. This puts future cadet courses in doubt.
We finally had a great Saturday during the month with 47 flights, and hopefully membership will turn out to fly in August. If not, we may have to reconsider the size/composition of our fleet. currently: 11 club gliders for 53 flying members (plus the 9 students on the two courses).
As posted on this forum elsewhere, flight sheet accuracy has fallen short on the busiest days, with certainly lost revenue from unrecorded flights. We need more discipline at the launch point, which may result in a small decrease in operational efficiency (making pilots record their own flights BEFORE PUTTING AIRCRAFT ONLINE) but counterbalanced by revenue increase and less work for the office (Sarah remotely and myself and Sharon on-site).
I will propose to the board next week that all intro-pilots (whether instructors, Board members, tow-pilots or regular members) be rostered as line-chiefs at weekends. If you don't want to be a line-chief, then don't aspire to flying intro's.
The fly-in is still a go for Saturday 12th ... thanks to all those that have volunteered. The attendance numbers are an unknown, we hope for a max 1000 people in a max of 400 cars. Advertising is largely restricted to a 30km radius.