Safety
Safe Aerotowing. Following a seven-fold increase in tug upset incidents over the last 10 years, each of which had the potential to result in a very serious accident, the BGA has launched a Safe Aerotowing campaign. A leaflet on safe aerotowing has been produced, with a particular emphasis on avoiding tug upsets. If you aerotow, please collect a copy from your club (your CFI has stocks) or download a copy from the BGA website. The leaflet, together with advice and graphic simulations of what can go wrong and just how quickly things can get out of hand, endangering the tug pilot are available at http://www.gliding.co.uk/safeaerotowing
Space Weather. The CAA has published Information Notice IN-2013/089 which describes some of the possible effects of the 11-year peak in sunspot activity expected this autumn. The main likely effects on glider pilots are possible GPS malfunction and increased cosmic radiation exposure. The IN is at http://www.caa.co.uk/docs/33/InformationNotice2013089.pdf
Regulatory
End of Medical Exemption for JAR Licence Holders. The CAA is reminding pilots that medical declarations will no longer be valid for uses with JAR-FCL PPL, CPL and ATPL licences to fly aeroplanes after 30 September 2013. Pilots with a JAR PPL who use a selfdeclaration medical under the CAA exemption should read the CAA advice at http://www.caa.co.uk/default.aspx?catid=14&pagetype=90&pageid=14743
UK PPLs Issued Prior to 2001. The CAA has reviewed arrangements for SLMG rating revalidation and decided to extend authorisation for 13 month revalidations for a further year. Details are in ORS 4-960 at http://www.caa.co.uk/docs/33/ORS4 number 960.pdf. Note that there is no change for NPPL holders. This ORS expires on 30 Apr 2014. The BGA is not relying on any further extensions to this arrangement.
BGA
Schools and Colleges Lead. We are delighted that Yvonne Elliott, a former gliding instructor and, until very recently, a teacher and manager in schools and further education colleges, has taken on the voluntary BGA role of Schools and Colleges Lead. Yvonne will be working closely with others involved in developing opportunities for young people in gliding.
Badge Certificates. It has been suggested during discussion within the Aim Higher project team that the BGA should provide paper certificates (A5) for BGA sporting badge claims, etc. With this in mind, we would welcome A5 certificate designs to be used for a variety of BGA sporting badge achievements. Designs should be submitted as an email attachment to office@gliding.co.uk. The successful designer following the closing date of 31st August 2013 will receive a £50 BGA shop voucher.

Club Management
Another FLARM Grant. Staffordshire GC has also been successful in obtaining grant funding from the lottery-funded SportEngland Small Grants Programme to fit FLARM in their club gliders (as well as an Oudie to assist with cross-country training). This is the third such award to clubs this year that we know about (the others were to Bristol & Gloucester and Windrushers GCs). The BGA development team are always happy to assist clubs with grant applications. More details of the programme are at http://www.sportengland.org/funding/small_grants.aspx
Grant for Nene Valley GC. SportEngland has awarded Nene Valley GC a grant of £8560 to fund twelve year-long gliding scholarships for pupils from the club’s local comprehensive school. The scholarships are part of a wider relationship between the two organisations. As well as training 12 pupils to solo standard, the club’s embryonic flight simulator has been moved to the school for completion by engineering and IT students. Additionally, the school will carry out any engineering design and manufacturing of parts for ground equipment and other suitable joint projects. More details of this innovative scheme are in the NVGC club newsletter (section 10) at http://www.nvgc.org.uk/newsletter.html
Competitions and Cross-Country
Field Landing Video. The Ted Lysakowski Memorial Trust has sponsored the production of a new video covering all aspects of the field landing process. The 47 minute video is available as a single file or, alternatively, you can view individual chapters in high resolution. The BGA website Field Landing page at http://www.gliding.co.uk/bgainfo/competitions/fieldlanding.htm has full details and links.
Aim Higher. Aim Higher is a BGA initiative designed to help pilots of all abilities and experience raise their sights on what is possible given the necessary skills, knowledge and confidence. The Aim Higher web page (http://www.gliding.co.uk/bgainfo/aimhigher.htm) has been updated with a wide range of new resources and with details of activities taking place at clubs around the country which are open to members of other clubs.
European Gliding Championships. The European Gliding Championships (flapped classes) concluded at Vinon in SE France on 21st June. Phil Jones finished in an excellent 4th place in the 15m class, behind a French trio that benefited from in-depth experience of the local mountain conditions. Team mate, Stephen Ells, flying in his first international championship, was 11th. In the 18m Class, Russell Cheetham and Derren Francis finished 9th and 18th respectively. Steve Jones, our sole representative in the Open Class following the withdrawal of Pete Harvey finished just out of the medals in 5th place. Full results are at http://www.soaringspot.com/egc2013/. The European Championships for the unflapped (Standard and Club) classes began on 5th July at Ostrow Wielkopolski, Poland. After three competition days, Liz Sparrow and Tim Milner lie 7th and 8th respectively in the Club Class; in the Standard Class, Sarah Kelman is 14th and Howard Jones 20th.
Women’s World Gliding Championships. The Women’s World Gliding Championships got under way on 29th June at Issoudun, France. At the time of writing, with 5 competition days remaining, Ayala Truelove is lying 8th in a very closely contested Club Class with Claudia Hill and Helen Hingley 12th and 16th respectively. In the Standard Class, Kay Draper is in strong medal contention in 4th place and Gill Spreckley is 9th. The competition web site is at http://wwgc2013.aeroclub-issoudun.fr/
Sailplane GP - You Could Still Qualify. The final qualifying event of the 5th Sailplane Grand Prix Series will be held at Zar in Poland from 27th July to 3rd August. Due to poor weather at the

recent Slovakian SGP, the top three finishers in Zar can qualify for the World Sailplane Grand Prix final at Sisteron in spring 2014 and the chance to compete head-to-head against such gliding stars as Sebastian Kawa, Giorgio Galetto, Uli Schwenk, and our own Andy Davis. More details and an entry form are at http://www.sgp.aero
General
Joe Fisher MBE. Joe Fisher has been awarded the MBE in the Birthday Honours List for services to disability sport. Joe is the founding member and technical director of Walking on Air, the Portmoak-based charity that has made gliding available and accessible to hundreds of people with disabilities. Many disabled pilots, including the ten or so solo disabled pilots trained by WoA, owe Joe a tremendous debt of gratitude for helping them enjoy equal opportunities in aviation. Joe was instrumental in the development of the K21 disability conversion, particularly by insisting on and assisting with the development of a rear seat hand control conversion to ensure that disabled pilots had the opportunity to become instructors. Many congratulations, Joe.
Play Golf with the Red Arrows. The aviation charity Fly2Help (http://www.fly2help.com) is running a golf day on 18th September at the Kendleshire Golf Club near Bristol. Enter your team of 2 or 3 players and you will be joined by a member from either the RAF Red Arrows or Battle of Britain Memorial Flight. Following the golf, there will be a Spitfire display before dinner. More information at http://fly2help.com/events/upcoming-events-golf.htm
RAeC News. The summer edition of the Royal Aero Club newsletter has been published. At the time of writing, it is not available on the RAeC web site, but you can download a copy from http://www.gliding.co.uk/documents/raecnews-summer13.pdf
Human Powered Flight Competition. Following the success of the first RAeS Icarus Cup Competition in 2012, the second Human Powered Aircraft Icarus Cup will be held at Sywell Aerodrome from 19-28 July. This year, the competition has been recognised as an FAI Category 2 (national) competition. Competing teams will attempt to complete the following series of challenges designed to test all aspects of human powered flight: duration; 200m sprint race; 1km race; slalom course; take-off performance and landing accuracy task; distance around a triangular course. Flying will take place daily between 5am – 9am and 7pm-10pm. Entry is free. More details are at http://aerosociety.com/Events/Event-List/811/Icarus-Cup-2013