Heading back to base in my high performance sailplane I approach the high moor above Dore and realise that without the assistance of another thermal ( a rising air current ) I shall not have enough height to clear the hills and complete my aerial journey. So I circle above the familiar landscape of the Village hoping to find a thermal. All I find is sinking air, so it's time to turn back towards the playing field off Limb Lane and prepare for landing.
I had selected the field as an alternative landing site well beforehand, so it was relatively easy to plan the approach and landing to avoid the surrounding woods (no engine so has to be right first time), cricket pitches and people walking their dogs.
Turn onto finals, airspeed 55 knots, well clear of the trees, select landing flap, air brakes deployed and the sailplane settles gently onto the grass. A phone call to base to alert the retrieve crew, then the inevitable questions about gliding and sailplanes from passers?by and kids who love to sit in the cockpit, operate the controls and press every button in sight. A great opportunity for PR work.
So how did the journey begin. A 10 second burst of power from a winch on the airfield at the Derbyshire and Lancashire gliding club near Great Hucklow in the Peak District launched the sailplane 500 feet above the west facing ridge overlooking Little Hucklow. Having located a thermal I climbed to the base of the clouds at 2000 feet then set off to Kinder Scout via Ladybower and Edale. The views from the air are spectacular!
On then to Buxton tracking along the edge of the air corridor feeding traffic into Manchester airport before turning east for Bakewell where preparations for the Show were clear to see even from 3000ft. Then off to East Retford via Chesterfield and Worksop. At this stage it was clear that the journey back to base would not be easy as the cloud had spread out reducing the thermal generating radiation from the sun. I set course for Sheffield and using weak thermals on the way maintained height until approaching the hills. The rest you know. The flight lasted some 3 hours covering a distance of 150km.
If this story has stimulated your interest in aerial adventure then why not visit the Club and take a trial lesson. Maybe you like me will become addicted to the freedom, peace and beauty of riding the energy in the sky.
For more information contact the Derbyshire and Lancashire Gliding Club
Tel.01298 871 270
email : dlgc@gliding.u-net.com
or visit our web site www.gliding.u-net.com
John Potter
Ed. I was one of the passers-by, who having seen the glider descending over Dore on the 1st August, was intrigued to know where it would land. If the picture I took comes out, you can see it on our Internet site at www.dorevillage.co.uk
A country tale
Once upon a time there was a shepherd looking after his sheep on the
edge of a Derbyshire country road. Suddenly a brand new Jeep Cherokee
screeches to a halt next to him. The driver, a young man dressed in an
expensive suit, posh shoes, Ray?Ban glasses, and a flashy tie gets out
and asks the shepherd: "If I guess how many sheep you have, will
you give me one of them?"
The shepherd looks at the young man, then looks at his grazing sheep and
says: "All right".
The young man parks the car, connects his notebook computer to his mobile
phone, enters a
NASA site, scans the ground using his GPS, opens a data base and 60 Excel
tables filled with algorithms, then prints a 150?pages report on his high?tech
mini?printer. He then turns to the shepherd and says: "You have exactly
1,586 sheep here".
Impressed, the shepherd answers that this is correct, and that he can
have his sheep. The young man takes the sheep and puts into the back of
his jeep.
But the shepherd then looks at him and asks: "If I guess your profession, will you return my sheep to me?" The young man answers confidently: "Yes, why not".
The shepherd says: "Well I guess you are a business consultant!" "How did you know?" asks the young man. "Very simple", answers the shepherd:
"First, you come here without being asked; second, you charge me a sheep to tell me something I already knew; third, you do not understand anything about what I do, because you took my dog!
Ed. With apologies to the original author, whoever they were.
Missing possessions
Lost those glasses again, you only had them a moment ago. Where did I
put those car keys?
Believe it or not, the average person in Britain spends a year of their
life looking for lost items, with Mondays being the most likely day to
misplace vital possessions.
Recent research shows that technological advances have not helped people find, file and organise things more easily. Instead there is an increasing likelihood of people losing money, handbags, wedding rings and other important possessions.
Britons most commonly lose money, followed by keys, the remote control
for the television and underwear. Take-away menus, cigarettes, wedding
rings and reading glasses all fell in the top 10 most frequently lost
items, as did address books and mobile phones.
It seems that in today's fast-paced society, we have more and more things
to lose, more and more places to lose them and less time in which to find
them; all resulting in more stress when we do lose somethings. The fast
pace and stress of modern life is also causing people to over-react when
they cannot find something, with more than one in five women stating that
they cried when they lost something and more than one quarter of men swearing
in frustration.
People are least likely to lose contraceptives, their car, passport or laptop computer. On a lighter note, when asked, nearly half of the survey's sample were keen to lose boring friends, more than half wanted to lose weight, and a quarter their inhibitions!
Now where did I put the report?
Written in stone
If any town deserves to be in the limelight it is Wirksworth, Derbyshire, from which many a ton of limestone was quarried and burnt to produce lighting for 19th-century theatres and magic lantern shows. This method of illumination was actually so brilliant that limelight signals could be exchanged between Ireland and the west coast of Scotland.
But limestone, and indeed every type of stone, has moved with the times. As remarkable as it is commonplace, our entire modern way of life depends upon stone. Endless surprises emerge in the telling of its 4,600 million-year-old story, presented by the National Stone Centre at Wirksworth.
The venture is an educational charity, working with a wide range of national organisations including major firms in the quarrying industry and environmental bodies. An exhibition centre is set within dramatic site trails around six disused quarries and, naturally, Peak District stone has a high profile.
Throughout earth's creation, each period has left its mark in rocks and fossils; this very site contains one of the best fossil reefs in the country. Visitors can stand on the brink of the once wave-pounded reef and see evidence of volcanic activity, or wander around Sea Lily Meadow to marvel at unimaginably old fossils.
The continuing discovery of numerous pointed teeth gives tangible evidence of the small sharks which once prowled in tropical lagoons. Exhibits in the visitor centre show how deserts and glaciers also took turns in shaping the landscape, while the activities of hundreds of active volcanoes remind us that the earth's crust is still on the move.
Man entered the story of stone comparatively recently. Human hands fashioned stone into the earliest tools and weapons, while prehistoric burial mounds utilised the same types of stone that we still use for memorials. Each civilisation can be measured by its works in stone, from Roman roads to increasingly ambitious castles, cathedrals and palaces.
Our foes have had cause to curse British stone. Some had to face deadly
Tudor cannon balls, Napoleonic prisoners-of-war were put to work crushing
Dartmoor stone, and during World War Two a concrete 'mulberry harbour'
played a major role in the Normandy landings.
Stone has been essential to our agricultural and industrial progress.
Mile upon mile of stone walls have been built in different regions of
Britain, often enclosing land improved by the addition of lime made by
burning limestone - an old lime kiln survives on the site trail. Crushed
stone went into road and railway construction, sea defences and docks,
and Derbyshire millstones - made appropriately from Millstone Grit, were
exported around the globe. One of the quarries at the National Stone Centre
even supplied hundreds of thousands of tons of limestone for construction
of the MI.
Each quarry face bears evidence of earlier lead mining, with remnants
of lead ore and miners' pick marks occasionally spotted on the rock face.
There were well over a hundred mine shafts on the site and one has been
preserved as a feature. Today progress continues in the quarrying industry,
with computer-controlled cutting to keep a competitive 'edge'.
We will each use twenty lorry-loads of stone in our lifetime; it finds
its way into an endless list of the most surprising products from motor
cars to beer. Stone enters our diet, cleans our water, treats our sewage,
and gives us stone-washed denim. Who knows what uses are yet to be added
to the list displayed at the National Stone centre?
The High Peak Trail gives walkers direct access to the Centre which also has its own free car park. A small charge is made for entry to the exhibition but the site trail is free. Gem panning facilities, fossil casting and fossil rubbing have particular attraction for children and family groups. A fascinating range of gems, fossils and minerals is on sale in the Treasure in the Rocks Shop. Disabled access and toilet facilities are excellent and light refreshments are available.
The Centre opens daily, 10 am to 5 pm in summer, 10 am to 4 pm in winter.
Visits to a large operational quarry can also be arranged for organised
groups. Enquiries should be made on 01629 824833
Julie Bunting
Dog fouling & the Law
In response to frequent complaints we have researched the legal position on dog fouling
Estimates put the British dog population at around 6.8 million, producing 900 tonnes of excrement per day. A Tidy Britain Group survey found that 95% of people questioned were concerned about dog mess in public places, an indication that problems caused by dog fouling are all too common.
Under recent legislation a local authority can designate land upon which it is an offence not to clean up after your dog. Your local authority enforces this power and can tell you whether it covers your area. The maximum fine for an offence is £1,000 (level 3 on the standard scale). Alternatively, councils have the power to issue a £25 fixed penalty fine. Byelaws can also be made by local authorities to impose dog bans, make dog fouling an offence and insist that dogs be kept on leads.
If you wish to take action against a dog owner who has not cleaned up after their dog, you should note what happened as soon as possible. Include the name and address of the person in charge of the dog, a description of the dog plus details of the date, time and place of the offence. Then contact your local authority and ask for details of their dog control procedures. Clearly describe the place being fouled to find what regulations cover that area.
Ask how the authority takes enforcement action. If fouling occurs at regular times, it may be possible for a dog warden or officer to witness the fouling and take action accordingly. In many cases the local authority will warn the offender before taking legal action and this warning may be sufficient to deter further offences.
If the local authority decides to prosecute an offender you may be asked to make a statement. You will have to name the person concerned and give information about the offence. An officer will assist you with your statement. The court must give a copy of your statement to the offender if requested to do so. If the case goes to court and the offender defends their actions then you may be called as a witness and have to explain to the court what you saw.
Your local authority has a legal duty to keep certain types of land
which come under its control clear of dog faeces (so far as is practicable),
irrespective of whether byelaws are in force. These areas include: - Parks
- Recreation grounds - Children's playgrounds - Sports grounds - Tourist
beaches and promenades - Picnic sites - Pedestrianised areas - Pavements
Verges - Footpaths - Gutters and carriageways.
Telephone your local authority's cleansing service with details of the
fouled place. Ask if there is a formal procedure for dealing with complaints.
They may be able to send you details. Confirm your complaint by letter,
repeating the information. Always keep a note of the name and job title
of the person you have spoken to and make copies of letters so that you
can follow up your complaint if no action is taken. If the mess is not
cleared within 7 days, repeat the above procedure and send copies of your
letter to your local councillor, the chairman of the committee responsible
for cleansing services and the chief officer responsible for cleansing
the area in question.
Usually a formal complaint is sufficient to get your local authority to take action. However, if that is not effective, under legislation contained in section 91 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 a member of the public can take legal proceedings against their local authority to get litter and refuse, including dog faeces, cleared away.
For further information on this procedure please contact the Tidy Britain Group on 01942 824620
English is a funny language
Let's face it - English is a crazy language. There is no egg in eggplant
nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple. English muffins
weren't invented in England or French fries in France. Sweetmeats are
candies while sweetbreads, which aren't sweet, are meat.
We take English for granted. But if we explore its paradoxes, we find
that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square and a guinea pig
is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig. And why is it that writers write
but fingers don't fing, grocers don't groce and hammers don't ham? If
the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn't the plural of booth beeth? One
goose, 2 geese. So one moose, 2 meese? One index, 2 indices?
Doesn't it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend, that you comb through annals of history but not a single annal? If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it? If teachers taught, why didn't preacher praught? If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat?
Sometimes I think all the English speakers should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane. In what language do people recite at a play and play at a recital? Ship by truck and send cargo by ship? Have noses that run and feet that smell? Park on driveways and drive on parkways?
How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man
and wise guy are opposites? How can overlook and oversee be opposites,
while quite a lot and quite a few are alike? How can the weather be hot
as hell one day and cold as hell another.
Have you noticed that we talk about certain things only when they are
absent? Have you ever seen a horseful carriage or a strapful gown? Met
a sung hero or experienced requited love? Have you ever run into someone
who was combobulated, gruntled, ruly or peceable? And where are all those
people who *are* spring chickens or who would *actually* hurt a fly?
You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in which your house can burn up as it burns down, in which you fill in a form by filling it out and in which an alarm clock goes off by going on.
English was invented by people, not computers, and it reflects the creativity of the human race (which, of course, isn't a race at all). That is why, when the stars are out, they are visible, but when the lights are out, they are invisible. And why, when I wind up my watch, I start it, but when I wind up this essay, I end it.
Anonymouse