6 th March 2008

Activity on the Airfield this month

We had 2 weeks of weekdays booked for parachuting with a Hercules landing on several days. The communication and coordination between ourselves and the RAF was superb. It allowed us to bring several visitors and a new resident in during agreed time slots and out again as required. See the paragraph on Notams below

Grass Taxiway

We seem to be blighted with the moles who have already left their calling cards down near the entrance gate. When the wind and rain give us a break we will start rolling again

Image Project

Jobs completed this last month include:

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

We have had another major move around in the hangar as we start to get more aircraft.

New 40ft container arrived and was hoisted on top of the engine shop. Colin and I had extra Weetabix that day

Prop shop hangar was moved alongside the engine shop and G-ARJB brought over from 103

Major purge on our Dove Parts to get them sorted and inventoried for the first time in 10 years

Container moves in hangar 103

High rise racking erected in 103. Needs to be levelled and floored

Widening of the entrance roadways to clear the gravel & mess. This should give our taxiway sweeping exercises a chance of success

Arrivals & Departures

We welcome Mike Langmead and Mike Elliott with their very pretty Alpi Pioneer 300. Interestingly for us the kits are imported by an old friend and resident from Kemble – Frank Calveciviti ( He’s welsh ). We also welcome Emma and Peter Earl with their splendid Beech Bonanza recently flown in from Switzerland . This aircraft will be transferred to the UK register shortly as G-RRRT. Now all Peter has to do is complete his PPL on this far from simple machine. We had a visit from an old friend and resident from Kemble days – John Bradshaw ex Concorde pilot and owner of the only flying Sea Fury in Europe . Bournmouth Museum where he is currently based have been given notice to quit their premises due to redevelopment at the airfield. John has until the end of this month to move out. We are one of two places he is considering. Fingers crossed

Rissington Radio

Surprise surprise we still don’t have our Ground/Air frequency from CAA.

Notams

We all know that we have a legal requirement to read Notams relevant to our flight plans before we take off. We have deliberately put a reminder notice at the top of our website page – Authorised Movements. For the weekdays in last two weeks in February the RAF Notam’d LR 9.00 to 23.59, up to 18,000ft, ten mile radius for parachute operations with C130 operating from the airfield.

We had been informed in advance and had made arrangements to book slots for residents and visitors. All this was detailed on our website. Two hangar residents turned up expecting fly without notice and hadn’t read Notams. There were at least 5 area incursions at levels below 3000ft by passing traffic!!! Last time parachuting was Notam’d at LR last year a glider from Nympsfield landed on the grass on the west side of 32 as parachutists were still descending on the east side of 32. That clown claimed his CFI had told him that the Notam stopped at 16.00 when it clearly said 23.59. The point of this little rant is that:

• You have a duty to consult Notams
• We try to help with movement details on the website
• A call to my mobile will always get you the latest position

Cos we don’t want any residents or soldiers to crash at LR ….you clog up the mowing machinery!

Website

The content and information grows by the week. I have asked Paul Hanselman to create a link to Notams from the AM page

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

Martin, Martin, Colin and Ken