Newsletter Feb 2016

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added to finish them off. We will try and get some pictures off of them to put on Facebook as the work progresses.

“Contact” Summer has been and gone and we are well into winter now, so I have finally managed to get another newsletter organised! It has been a productive year so far at the Club.

Since the last newsletter we have had the new Cessna 152, G-BSZO, delivered and despite minor teething problems here and there it is a nice one, which looks good with the new paint. Very recently a new Garmin radio/ILS/VOR was fitted, which is a great bit of kit. It is very simple to use but if you haven’t flown ‘ZO yet then ask one of us to show you the buttons before you venture out on your own!

GBOLW has just been flown to Sturgate near Sheffield, where it is having a full bare metal strip and respray to match ‘ZO. When it is back they will both have a red stripe

We have a new aircraft parking with us now, which is the privately owned G-CBPI, a lovely aircraft which flies regularly and so should add some activity to the club on the weekends.

Ground side we have finished tidying the back of the building and also created some new flowerbeds at the entrance, these should hopefully brighten the place up a bit as the plants grow. We have knocked down the wall between the entrance to the ladies and gents toilets and replaced the doors. Now we have solved the flooding issue and can actually keep the weather and leaves out we will be looking at overhauling the toilets in the next few months.

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Operations wise Easyjet and the new airspace are really not proving to be any trouble at all now and in fairness the Class D offers a much greater degree of safety to all of us flying near the airport.

Disappointingly the fuel pumps remain broken for over a year now, but at least the fuel comes to you, even if you do have to wait for it sometimes! The last remaining club by the new terminal shut its doors at the end of August after the lease

expired and nowhere suitable was offered as an alternative, leaving the airfield with no more helicopter training but proving that being the cheapest for trial lessons is not everything either.

We did try a club fly out on the August bank holiday weekend but the weather turned out really awful, with cloud and rain too bad to even do a short hop somewhere.

We Passed!

We passed our biannual CAA inspection with flying colours and have finally managed to get the CAA to approve all our paperwork despite literally years of delays from their end. One pleasing point we could make to them on the advanced courses, was the current 100% success rate in first time passes over the last 2 years. No one can find fault in that result.

Overall Overall 2015 was a fairly disappointing year with a poor summer and lousy autumn/winter. Anyone who has tried to fly on a weekend since October has probably noticed the unusually high percentage of days lost due to high winds, rain and storms Abigail to Imogen (today) so far! Pleasingly we have had a real upturn in flying since the new-year and despite an average January of weather we have had much more flying than normal and some new students and PPL members.

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Newsflash The new 2016 1:500,000 VFR chart edition 42, is out now and is valid as of the 4th of February. It is a legal requirement to carry maps and navigation equipment suitable for the flight you are undertaking. This doesn’t mean you have to have an up to date chart but if you infringe some airspace and end up in front of the CAA, then you will be struggling to justify yourself if you have an out of date chart. The price remains unchanged at £16.

Safety Corner Our Safety Management System is still running but we need to keep reminding everyone that if you see a safety issue then please feel free to report it anonymously. The folder is in the bookcase in building.

A safety item worth thinking about at this time of year is soft surfaces.

Most grass strips are water logged and probably not accepting visitors, but we want you to check with staff at this time of year before trying to

land away on grass. Even our parking area becomes very boggy in the winter. Please be mindful you will need extra power to taxi, but when you reach the concrete, throttle back immediately so you don’t go too fast and you avoid stone chips in the propeller.

If you do get stuck in the mud be very careful about propeller tip clearance. Keep the column fully back and try adding power, if you don’t get free or feel the nose wheel digging in, then shut down immediately. It is very easy for a couple of us to lift an aeroplane out of the mud but if you keep adding power and ploughing onwards you may dig a trench with the propeller which will mean a £10,000 engine rebuild.

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Now what?

There is a very thick frost on the aircraft, which you diligently spend an hour removing before getting in and getting ready to start. Knowing it is cold you prime the engine with 4 pumps on the primer, but it fails to start. A few more primes and resisting the urge to pump the throttle sees the old girl stagger into life. All through the taxi the aircraft is reluctant to run smoothly and at the power checks there is lots of popping and banging from the exhaust. The magnetos check ok-ish and it seems better as it warms up, so you put it down to the cold. On take-off the performance is very poor, worrying the engine may stop you start looking for places to land. Would you choose a forced landing into a built up area or would you try and fly on if the aircraft could only manage 2000RPM and sounded like it might stop? What could the problem be?

Finally Let’s hope the sun shines a bit and we all get plenty of flying done in 2016. If you haven’t made ay resolutions for the new year why not just promise yourself you will try something new in aviation this year. Mine is to finish off my tail wheel training that I have put off for ages! All the best Peter S