8 th October 2007

Activity on the Airfield this month

Military activity seems to have dropped off these past two weeks as Autumn looms. There is no noted activity this coming week at all. The Go Kart club have completed their scheduled 7 race weekends for this year and wont be starting again until March or April. However the wildlife has grown enormously as we have seemingly flocks of Pheasants with their offspring running right out as far as the runways.

Grass Taxiways

These have just had probably their last trim for the remainder of the year. We have put out cones around a couple of areas that need filling and levelling. We will be attempting to get a tarmac route cleaned up in case the weather makes the grass unusable. Please give us feedback when you use the grass.

Image Project

Jobs completed this last month include:

Cleaning of the concrete north face of 102 outside

Grit blasting of outside fixed doors at south end of 102

Blue paint scheme on the firedoors

Cleaning and white painting of inside north and south end walls of 102

Cleanup and white painting of walls in maintenance area

Completion of the 3 phase main electric supply on the west side of 102

Simon Harris single handed has remodelled the front entrance to the airfield…many thanks

Completion of 10 year major overhaul of mini digger

Arrivals & Departures

We are looking forward to welcoming Keven Mace and his Bolkow Junior when they relocate from Bidford later this month. This aircraft is on the German register and is a very pretty example. Paul Higham has relocated his skydiving simulator to Shoreham to try and get some passing trade.

Safety notice

Over the next couple of months we will be carrying out several ‘trenching projects’. Firstly to lay conduit for electric cables to hangar 103. Secondly to take a water connection conduit from the concrete hard standing at the bottom of runway 32 to the road near the main gate. The trenches will be at least 1m deep and should be avoided. They will cross areas that occasionally are used as vehicle shortcuts by some!!

Also over the next 3 months or maybe more we will be systematically cleaning, scrubbing, treating and repainting areas of the floor in 102, starting with the maintenance area. Please take heed of any roped off areas and assume there is wet paint on the floor.

Reminders

Security continues to be an issue at the main gate

The padlock and chain on the front gate are being misused by some parties. The gate is being left open and/or the code left visible on the lock. Please report any such incidents you see as we are trying to narrow down the search for the culprits before we tackle them. We are fairly sure that we have identified the main culprits when the lock and chain were removed for several hours then magically returned whilst we were scouring the field. Methinks someone, a non aviator, believes it’s a good joke to play this game

Flying at the weekend means you must remember to contact the VGS for clearance before you taxi away from the hangar. Their mobile in the Control Caravan is 07786504892

Regards Martin, Martin, Colin and Ken