March 16, 2015

Rest in peace dear friend

March 15, 2015

WALLY KAHN

IT IS WITH DEEP REGRET
THAT WE HAVE TO ANNOUNCE THE DEATH OF
“Wally” Kahn

 Wally Kahn's crowning achievement was the purchase of Lasham Airfield, thereby securing our future. Since gliding started at Lasham in 1951, Wally campaigned, chivvied and negotiated to buy the land from an intransigent Civil Service. At first the Society acquired a long lease after a battle with bureaucracy that needed a QC and questions in Parliament to resolve. During negotiations to extend the lease in 1982 the Ministry of Defence objected, saying that the work being done in its black hangar was so secret it could not even be discussed. The Society discovered that the hangar was virtually empty and was being guarded by a resting actor who had been sent from the local Unemployment Office. Wally created the Lasham Trust in 1983 to raise funds, and finally in 1999 the Society was able to buy the freehold of over 500 acres.  The effect of the purchase can be seen in the Society's new buildings, its winches, the smooth cross-runways and its fleet of gliders.

 
Wally first flew solo in a glider in 1946 after helping to set up an RAF gliding club at Oerlinghausen in Germany in the aftermath of World War Two. They rescued forty German gliders before they could be destroyed by American soldiers. He earned Silver C (number 85 on the UK register) in 1947 and Diamond Badge number 50 in 1975. He broke seven British records up to 1963 and competed in sixteen national championships up to 1973. He was awarded the BGA's Wakefield Trophy in 1953, having flown 222km from Lasham to Coningsby in a DFS Weihe. He also did 11,000 tows as a tug pilot.
 
Whatever you thought about Wally, you couldn't ignore him. He always had a project and he was difficult to refuse. He was a Council Member for the British Gliding Association from 1954-1990. He served on the Committee of the Royal Aero Club and was presented with its Silver Medal in 1995. In June 2011 he was awarded an MBE for services to gliding. The BGA presented him with its Gold Medal in 2014. He was a life member of Lasham Gliding Society. He published an autobiography  "A Glider Pilot Bold..."
 
He was commissioned as Pilot Officer 9th Dec 1950. After leaving the RAF he joined Joseph Samuel & Son Limited, a cigar importer, and eventually became its managing director. He married Margaret Moore, née Doran-Veevers, in 1954. She died in 1996, but he is survived by their daughter, Christine.
 
Wally passed away this morning at 0515 hrs in Basingstoke Hospital.
 
15th March 2015

March 10, 2015

LASHAM TRUST

Wally asked me to post this breakdown of income to the Lasham Trust for the period show below:

Income 01/03/2014 to 23/02/15

Monthly bank standing orders – 13 members     £ 1,600.00

Various and sundry – unidentified; from members and friends;  in memory of; etc. – £721.52

Saturday talks - £386.58

Restaurant bottle- £324.72

AGM - £218.59

Balloon landings -  £100.00

Fireworks - £74.71

Kronfeld Orchard (1st year) – £ 4.50

TOTAL  £ 3,430.62

March 03, 2015

MANDATORY FLARM UPDATE MARCH 2015

Who will this affect? Everyone who has a FLARM or PowerFLARM device of any make or model will be affected by a mandatory FLARM update by 31 March, 2015. This includes standalone models and integrated FLARM units.

Why is the update mandatory? Flarm technology GmbH, the original producer and license issuer for Flarm has mandated a series of free updates which improve performance and operation. To date they have had several Flarm updates the last being version 5.xx of the firmware released in 2011. From now on, there is likely to be a major Firmware upgrade every year and should form part of your annual maintenance. This latest update version 6 includes safety features that increase the effectiveness and robustness of collision warnings, further decreasing nuisance alarms by taking into account wind. It also includes new features to alert you about temporary danger areas such as skydiver drop zones, RC planes and UAV zones (requires an obstacle database). Position and message encoding has been changed with the introduction of optional “no-tracking” setting to address privacy from ground-based tracking solutions. Additional changes have been made to improve performance and system integrity.

 When do you need to do this? The update will be available from the beginning of March 2015 and needs to have been applied by the 31st of March after which, the existing Flarm Firmware will cease to work.

 How do you upgrade the Flarm Firmware? All Flarm devices have the ability to be upgrade either via SD/micro SD card or through serial connection to a PC. The majority of standalone or integrated Flarm units have an SD/micro SD card slot so the upgrade is very easy. You download the firmware update from either the Flarm technology website or the original Flarm manufacturer’s website and save it to the SD card from the Flarm. With the Flarm turned off, insert the SD card with the firmware upgrade file on it and start the Flarm. All Flarm’s look for Firmware upgrade files at start-up and if it is a more recent version than that installed on the device, it will upgrade. Once upgraded, the Flarm typically restarts, downloads any flights that are not already stored on the SD card and then finds a GPS position before listening for Flarm targets and transmitting the Flarm’s position with the new Firmware.

 For older Flarm’s that may not have an SD/Micro SD card or card slot for upgrade you will need to connect the Flarm unit to a PC via a specific serial cable. Depending on the manufacturer, there are dedicated cables available that provide both a serial connection and power to the Flarm. In some cases it may be necessary to remove the Flarm from the glider to do this. If your PC does not have a free serial port you may need a good quality USB to serial port converter to connect the serial cable too. With the right cable and a Windows PC with a serial port you can download (from the beginning of March) an application called the “Flarm tool” complete with the Version 6 Firmware update from the Flarm Technology website.  http://www.flarm.com/support . Configure the tool to use your PC’s serial port and then update the Flarm using the software tool.

 For PowerFlarm devices there will be a specific firmware update available from the Flarm Technology website. Please make sure you use this specific PowerFlarm update loaded via SD card or from a PC and serial cable.

 For built in Flarm devices such as those found in the LXNAV LX8000 or LX9000 there will be a new major firmware release including the Flarm update firmware. Upgrading these devices is the same as any other firmware update on the device and will be available from the manufacturer’s website.

 How to get support and assistance if you have problems? The central point for assistance is the Flarm Technology GmbH website http://www.flarm.com but there will also be details on your manufacturer’s website specific to your Flarm.

 Flarm’s not updated by the 31’s of March 2015 will no longer provide Flarm warnings.

February 26, 2015

Social Calendar

SOCIAL CALENDAR

 

 

Date

Activity

Remarks

27 Feb

Wine Tasting

Naomi House Raffle

21 Mar

AGM

 

3-6 Apr

Easter Comp

 

18 Apr

Volunteers BBQ

 

9 May

Horse Racing

Juniors Training event

5 Jun

Lasham Guest Evening

 

20 Jun

Longest Day

Naomi House fundraiser

24 Jul – 2 Aug

BHPFC Rally

 

15 – 23 Aug

Nationals Comp

Various activities

31 Oct

Halloween & Fireworks

 

7 Nov

LGS Awards Dinner

Black Tie

19 Dec

Members XMAS Dinner & Panto

 

31 Dec

New Years Eve Party

 

 

February 24, 2015

EXTENDED launches until the end of March

The cheaper launches have now been extended to 31st March 2015

All winch launches £8
All Aerotows above 2000' – you will get a free 1000' ie a 4000' tow will cost you the price of a 3000' tow and a 3000' foot tow will cost you the same as a 2000' tow.

February 10, 2015

Talk on Saturday 14th March

Saturday 14th March

Thanks very much to Mike Bird, not only for his fascinating and highly amusing insight into his derring dos all over the world, but also for his incredibly generous gesture of donating the proceeds from selling signed copies of his book, 'The Playtpus Papers' to the Lasham Trust. Through his kind efforts, we raised a whopping £105 last Saturday!

This coming Saturday, 14th March will be the last of our winter talks season for the time being. The following week, 21st March we had been due to have a talk by Chris Marren about the Zulu conflict but this has had to be deferred to a later date because the Society's AGM will be held on that date.

Meanwhile, this coming Saturday 14th March, Glyn Bradney will be delivering a talk on British Gliding up until the end of World War 2. Glyn has done a lot of research on this subject and has written a book about it. It will be interesting to know a little about what has brought gliding to where it is nowadays.

As usual, the talks will be in the Brown Elephant briefing room and will start at 6pm. Dinner in the restaurant will be available afterwards and will be waiter service so those who wish to dine should make reservations with Matt or Dan on cateringmanager@lasham.org.uk or 01256 384910. As ever, both members and non-members are very welcome to attend.

Hope to see you there!


February 09, 2015

Vulcan to the Sky

You may wish to help these guys with their fundraising activities....

 

http://www.vulcantothesky.org/

 

February 07, 2015

Rising Air - Articles required

Rising Air

John McCullagh is still aiming for the end of February for the next issue of Lasham's on-line magazine, Rising Air. All contributions of text and photos will be gratefully received, but please don't leave it to the last minute.  Email John directly - john@mccullagh.biz

 

January 29, 2015

Saturday 14th February

Steve Grant will be playing a classical guitar recital in the Brown Elephant commencing at 1800hrs.