LAA Strut News
I
t has been a real pleasure over the last couple of weeks to receive items of interest for S4U from Struts across the UK. Strut leaders and newsletter editors are actively working to encourage interaction between LAA members, and there will never be a better time for you to check out where your local Strut is based. It’s a good time too to make contact with them while everyone has time to get to know each other in this strange and ‘virtual’ world. Monthly meetings are being held through social media, with stories, expertise, projects and memories being shared on a regular basis. From the Southern Strut Tony Palmer writes, “If you are a LAA member and live within a radius of say 25 miles of Brighton and are not a member of the Southern Strut, then ask yourself why not? We have been operating for more than 50 years and were the first area to get members of our Association (PFA at that time) to meet every month and chew the cud over a drink or a meal. “We have much to offer, we hold a Strut Christmas dinner, two local fly-ins, talks on aviation related subjects and boast a fair number of inspectors, hands on builders, instructors and even some aircraft importers who are ready to answer your technical questions. You can view our current newsletter and all the old ones at https://southernstrut.org/newsletter/april-2020/.” Under normal circumstances the Suffolk Coastal Strut, meets at 1930 on the third Wednesday of every month at Crowfield Airfield Club House, approximately 10 miles north of Ipswich in Suffolk. East Anglia’s only LAA Strut, their 70-plus members are drawn from Suffolk, Norfolk, Essex, Cambridgeshire and Kent. They have a range of interests, experiences and ownership including light aircraft, microlights, helicopter, gliders/powered gliders etc. New members will be very welcome so check out the website for more information, and by all means get in touch as they will be more than pleased to chat: www.suffolkcoastalstrut.org.uk/ email:- coordinator@suffolkcoastalstrut.org.uk or to speak to someone, call Mick Gill on 07834 535290.
Struts 4U by Anne Hughes
Above Remember camping at the Rally? A lovely moody shot from Gloster Strut member Tim Houlihan of the aircraft park waking up as dawn breaks.
Improvise
In Oxfordshire, the Oxford Group have been keen to improvise for their meetings. They write, “The Oxford Group had a very successful Zoom meeting last night. It appears that the free licence arrangement has been extended to well over 40 minutes – it seems to be operating an open-ended time limit and gives you a good opportunity to experiment with it and see if it works for you. One person takes out a free licence to become a host, and then emails the link to all invited members. The member then sees a ‘Join Meeting’ screen, which the host then opens at the appointed time. It’s very straightforward but let’s hope we’re all meeting again in person before too long!” Other groups have been trying out similar communication methods, the Kent Strut used another conferencing app, Jitsi, for their recent committee meeting and are also planning to hold virtual Strut meetings using similar technologies. In Scotland, the West of Scotland Strut is used to a
Below Southern Strut’s Tony Palmer with his Tiger Moth and mini pedal-plane version.
certain amount of isolation as a matter of course! Neil Geddes reports that they have set up a chat site at wscotstrut@groups.io. It is an opportunity for posting interesting photographs of aircraft and destinations and items of general interest. There is also a quiz, and everybody is invited to visit the site and join in. On 8 April, the West Midlands Strut held a webinar with Dr Simon Keeling on weather forecasting for pilots. One hundred people registered to view this online with a Q&A after the online talk. As a result, the event raised £600 for the Big Issue Foundation. It is good to hear so many positive stories from across the country and we will share other contributions received from the Strathtay, Wessex, Gloster, Cornwall and Vale of York Struts with you in June’s Light Aviation. Thank you again to all the Struts who have contributed. Most Struts send out a monthly e-newsletter to local Strut members and these are always full of useful information and amazing tales! Do get in touch with your local Strut, they will be pleased to put you on their mailing list. In the meantime, keep safe! We look forward to the end of the present crisis and will start to publish a list of events when they let us all out to play again. Our thoughts are with all of you who have been personally affected and all who are supporting those, or who are themselves, ‘on the front line’. Thank you.
30 | LIGHT AVIATION | May 2020
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