7 th January 2008

Activity on the Airfield this month

The MoD will have a small team of scientists on site during the next few weeks carrying out a seismic based ground survey to see if any ‘interesting ‘ lumps have been buried anywhere. The team will be keeping their vehicles and equipment under our roof and we are in close contact so there should be little or no nuisance caused

Grass Taxiways

We seem to have a very active mole or moles up near the peritrack. Colin has levelled the spoil but the ground is too slippery at the moment to take the roller and flatten a few noses

Image Project

Jobs completed this last month include:

Things have slowed up on this front this month due to illness & holidays

We are considering how to deal with the stupid RAF Regiment’s destruction of the main gate fence

Arrivals & Departures

Kevin Mace arrived on New Years Eve with his German Registered Bolkow Junior. Bob Preston arrived with a pretty Taylercraft. Bob works in Swansea but grew up locally and has lots of relatives in the area. We are still expecting a Beech Bonanza as soon as it gets its export C of A from Switzerland . Recent interest has been high and we are in discussions with owners of TB10, SAIA Marchetti, Luton Minor, Seneca 4, several motor gliders, CFM Shadow

We are getting ready to say goodbye to Ken Randall for 6 weeks as he goes off on his annual pilgrimage to Australia in the middle of January. Hopefully he will be back at the beginning of March with some outrageous stories of fun in the sun

Advertising

The response to the three Flyer ads and quarter page in Go Flying together with the article in Pilot has been very fruitful based on the continuing level of enquiries for hangarage which is running at about 5 per week

The Norman Freelance

Having made a two fuselage trailer mounting kit we have been able to recover all the fuselages and the final truck load of parts. Now we need to start sorting stuff out and see what we have taken on!!

Rissington Radio – repeated for newcomers

We have just applied for a dedicated Ground Station frequency which should be allocated within 4 working weeks having gone via Europe !! We will need to have a number of certificated operators ( no the PPL Radio Licence will not do apparently ). Anyone wishing to volunteer would be most welcome

Website

Paul Hanselmann has been working away to redesign the old Kemble based website and change the emphasis for LR. We uploaded the first major upgrade just before Xmas and continue to make improvements week by week. The significant feature is the Pilots Information which is intended to allow complete self briefings prior to PPR contact. The Weather feature connects you through to the met station on site for up to the minute LR information. Any thoughts, ideas, improvement suggestions very welcome

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

Happy New Year to all for 2008

Martin, Martin, Colin and Ken