The Dutch airshow of Volkel in de Wolken (Volkel in the Clouds) has always courted some drama for our team, and 2012 followed the tradition. Ian Gallacher positioned the Pawnee from Shennington to Halton, but then his Saturday morning departure was delayed by the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee flypast with a formation of 87 military aircraft passing over Windsor, spelling out ‘EIIR’ and ‘60’. Large chunks of airspace were blocked off around London to protect the participating squadrons, but the delay did mean an improvement in the weather, with the morning cloud lifting after the curfew, and blue skies for the trip to Calais for a customs stop, where Ian joined Guy Westgate and Pete Wells in the SWIP Team Twisters.

Volkel is home to one of the Royal Netherlands Air Force’s biggest F16 bases, but as the base is active on the Saturday, we had to transit to Goch Asperden on the Germany boarder, where the club members had cleared the hangar for our planes.

We were joined later in the evening by the ‘A’ Team – Paul Holdnall and Michel Carnet, who had driven the Fox glider out .

Dutch airshows are similar to many in UK with a spread of local teams, military jets and aerobatic aircraft, but the 2012 lineup at Volkel was particularly impressive with the flying list reading like the ‘who’s who’ of aerobatic legends, including Frank Versteegh (E300), Nicolas Ivanoff (EDGE540), Mark Jefferies (E330) and Gerald Cooper (Sbach).

This year we had prepared our longest banner to date: “VOLKEL IN DE WOLKEN WELCOMES HAMILTON” 37 x 5ft charters. However, the local police dug up a bye-law that banner towing is not permitted in Holland at weekends, so with 30mins to lift off, the banner was cancelled! (We subsequently flew it back at home to see how it looked and for the benefit of Hamilton, the Airshow’s new sponsor.)

The glider display went without a hitch, and Michel Carnet performed his first paramotor display with us, starting with a stunning spiral into his display, and finishing with a 150m colored ribbon.

The weather was surprisingly good for the display, but a thundery low-pressure system blocked Ian’sattempts to get the Pawnee back home, and after visiting Ursel and Moorsele in worsening conditions, he admitted defeat and called up the ‘A’ Team for a ride back home.

We would like to thank display director Hans van der Werf and deputy Wout Peterse for inviting us to the 24th airshow at Volkel, and we look forward to the party at the 25th show next year! Also to the guys at Moorsele for helping with the recovery of our Pawnee in the week – thank you.

Hero of the weekend award must go to Paul Holdnall who drove over 1000 miles to support the display in stressful circumstances, as he had to endure Michel arguing with the car’s TomTom satnav all the way across 3 countries – and back!

The 12th May 2012 was a busy day for gliding, with a welcome return to spring sunshine after the wettest ‘drought’ on record had flooded much of the United Kingdom. Many glider pilots made the best of the conditions, including a new 823km UK triangle record in an EB28 glider whilst several paragliders flew the breadth of the country with cross country distances of upto 243km.

Southdown Gliding Club honoured one of their founding members, Joan Cloak with a display of club Memorabilia, barbecue, and family day at the club. Joan was an incredible lady who gave much of her life to supporting Gliding and the Southdown Gliding Club. She gained her ‘C’ badge in 1953 soaring the sea cliffs and was club treasurer for 23 years until 1977 and then club chairman until 1984. She helped move the club from Firle to its permanent home at Parham near Storrington.

In 1979 she was awarded a BGA Diploma and in 1981 an MBE for her contribution to gliding. Sadly Joan died at the end of December last year.

Guy Westgate displayed one of the Club’s ASK21 training gliders and thanks must go to outgoing club chairman Craig Lowrie for organising the tribute to Joan with such a memorable family day.

Further up the country, the Windrushers Gliding Club were hosting the annual Airleague ‘Youth in Aviation Flying Day‘ at Bicester, with dozens of students taking flights in gliders and powered aircraft.
Ian Gallacher and Paul Holdnall took the Fox and had a steady stream of eager young students, including Khotso Marumo, Tom Crucian, Max Bond, Alex Mazzoleni, Rosie Homer, Colin Field, Emil Benson, Hollie Roser, Tom Crow and Emily Duffy.

Ian then gave an aerobatic display in the evening.

Thanks must go to Andy Perkins, Luke Roberts and Steve Pozerskis for organising such a successful event.

GliderFX have joined the world of bling, with a new LED strip down the fuselage, making the MDM-1 Fox look more like a Neon Tetra fish.

Thanks have to go to Paul Holdnal and Ian Gallacher for their patience in fitting the new lights.

We are also testing some new pyro products and recognize the creativity of the two brainiest blokes on the planet; Chris Cain of ThinkTank Electronics and Don Mansfield, our Mr Pyro. Last thanks goes to
Matthew Hill, CAA for renewing Guy Westgate’s Display Authorization for another year and Paul Johnson for photographing our pyro trials.

The Royal Air Force Gliding & Soaring Association (RAFGSA) provides recreational glider flying to the RAF from eight locations across the country. GliderFX concluded its 2012 winter tour with courses at two of these in April, Keevil in Wiltshire and Cosford in Shropshire.

The Bannerdown club was formed in 1960 where they flew from Colerne and Hullavington, before moving to Keevil in 1992. The WW2 airfield is still in good shape with a resurfaced main runway, just over a nautical mile in length (1852m)

An active front threatened to spoil the first day of flying, but it passed quickly to allow nine Fox flights, introducing John Butler, Adam Berrisford, Jon Lomas, Neil Geraghty, Ted Richards, Bob Brian, Gareth Baker and Tom Dews to an inverted aerotow behind the club’s Rotax Faulke. With the long runway at Keevil, the 100HP motor-glider coped brilliantly despite the crosswind and short rope.
The following day was one of the best soaring days of spring, with strong thermals upto 6,000ft enabling Johnat Williams, Sam Roddie, Felicity Talbot, Paul Randall, Conor Hickey, Ian Harris and Ken Reid to sample some spring thermals although inverted soaring was not particularly successful.

Tom Dews tried his new GoPro camera on the Fox, and brother Ben and Dad Tim Dews also mastered rolling Fox and their company Grob 103A Twin2 Acro.
As usual there are many people who work behind the scenes to make a course successful, and particular thanks have to go the CFI Ian Harris, Chief Tug Pilot Andy Miller and the Dews family (Airborne Composites) at Keevil.

The following weekend was at RAF Cosford. The Wrekin gliding club has many more challenges as they share the small airfield with a University Air squadron, air experience flight and Motor gliders, so its busy.

The weather gods showed their sense of irony and marked the start of the English hosepipe ban with a month’s worth of rain in a weekend. Thunderstorms made for some stunning backdrops to the Shropshire countryside, but fortunately the air between the towering cu and showers was silky smooth.

Team Members Ian Gallacher and Paul Holdnal continued their training whilst David Wadsworth, Steve Turner and Alun Williams all experienced the magic of the Fox for the first time.
Several pilots trained for their aerobatic badge, and Terry Walsh flew a very tidy sequence to gain his standard badge in the ASK21.

Thanks must go to both CFI Ian Gallacher and club CO Dennis Maddox for supporting aerobatics at Cosford.

February and March are traditionally the Spring months that we all talk about airshows and dream of the summer.

2012 was no exception with the European Airshow Council (EAC) Convention kicking off the talking season in Brussels. The theme this year was ‘Safety First – Don’t reinvent the wheel’, with legendary key-note speakers such as South African Des Barker who has done a lot of work analyzing airshow accidents, Ian Sheeley and Roger Beazley from UK and Mikael Carlson from Sweden who spoke the lessons learnt following his Tri-plane accident.

Back in UK, the CAA organised Seminars for both Display Pilots and Display Evaluators (DAE). The DAE Seminar, hosted at RNAS Yeovilton was attended by Guy Westgate and concentrated initially on the HM Coroners court’s recommendations following an airshow fatality in 2010. The Coroner focused on both the pilot and the Display Industry’s regulation/supervision processes. Although the recommendations were well meaning, many, if implemented would strangle the existing highly effective regulation process provided by the Nation’s band of volunteer DAEs. The CAA will respond accordingly.
Matthew Hill, Flight Operations Inspectorate, General Aviation (CAA) reported that CAP 403, the airshow bible, will be re-issued in 2 separate parts, (A) Air displays and (B) Special Events – to include guidance on Fly-Ins, Air Rallies. Matthew also stated that SRG 1303, the CAA form to renew and upgrade a pilot’s Display Authorisation will be expanded to elicit more information about evaluation flights.

The Display Pilot meeting was held a week later at RFC Rendcomb, and attended by team members Ian Gallacher and Paul Holdnal. The subjects included an update on the airspace around the London 2012 Olympics, the Weather Consultancy Services and a lecture by the Royal Navy about Ditching and Sea survival.

The best meeting was however saved to last, the inaugural AGM of the British Air Display Association (BADA) and was attended by team members Guy Westgate and Paul Johnson. The AGM concluded with several awards, the most poignant being the ‘Lifetime Recognition Awards’, presented to airshow legends Brian Lewis, Ray Thilthorpe and the late Jock Maitland. We have had the pleasure of flying for all of these airshow giants, who have between them crafted UK’s airshow industry and made it what it is today.

After lunch, Dr David Stevenson from the RAF Centre of Aviation Medicine gave a fascinating lecture on the effects of Fatigue. (the irony of his slot time, immediately after lunch was not lost on the audience). He highlighted the effects of the body’s natural circadian rhythms, with a low point at 14:00 and 03:00 and concluded that individuals are differently susceptible to the effects of Fatigue, and people who were more susceptible and made lots of errors (lapses of attentiveness during skill based tasks) described the same feelings of being tired and needed the same sleep as those who made few errors due fatigue, so just ‘how tired do you feel?’ is not a good test to asses the risks of lack of sleep. Some people cope with fatigue better than others!
He also highlighted the need to manage rest, to ensure that the short and long-term effects of fatigue could be managed to reduce the risks.

Roll on the summer!

The second glider aerobatic course at Shenington Gliding Club started with anticylonic haze, but that didn’t stop Gary Weston, Richard Allin, Scott Taylor, Val Phillips, Paul Mucha, Paul Fletcher, Derrick Sandford and Lucy Wooton from rolling the Fox and experiencing an inverted aerotow with Guy Westgate.

CFI Ian Atherton tried rolling the ASK21 and was shocked at the 12 second roll rate, three times slower than the Fox.

Cessna pilot Felix Steinmeyer came to Shenington for a winch trial lesson, and left after a very successful flight in the Fox too, thanks to Mary Meager’s powers of persuasion.
Ian Gallacher and Paul Holdnal completed the last day of the course as the clocks changed to Summer time and were blessed with the best weather of the week, flying with Charles Styles and Gavin Preuss.

Congratulations to Gally for upgrading his glider Display Auhorisation to unlimited aerobatics and a huge thanks to Colin Hales, who not only repaired some scratches in the Fox’s canopy, but also gave our Pawnee some vital TLC.

Shenington Gliding Club hosted the first GliderFX training camp of 2012 at the end of March, from the former RAF airfield of Edgehill near Banbury in Oxfordshire. The airfield is steeped in history – as a base for Wellington Bombers and Hurricanes in WW2 and a test ground for the Gloster Pioneer E28, the first British jet to fly in 1942.

A weak trough brought Arctic temperatures and frequent heavy showers for the first weekend, but we made best use of the clear gaps to fly the Fox and the club’s ASK21. We also tested our new “Queen’s Diamond Jubilee” sheet banner, trialled our latest pyrotechnic display ideas and ran several briefings on aerobatics and human factors. Congratulations must go to Paul Holdnal for his banner tow conversion.

Spring finally won through during the week with warm sunshine and high cloud-bases and we flew 20 flights in the Fox, with CFI Ian Atherton, Scott Taylor, Graham Paul, John Donovan, Martin Lawrence, Roly Gross, Dom Cheater, Mick Fursden, Paul Noonan, Gavin Preuss, Tez and Jack Bowler and Richard Allin all experiencing our trade-mark inverted aero-tow manoeuvres.

Club secretary Jane Jervis and Ian Atherton got to see the Pawnee up close for some air-2-air photo sorties over the airfield too.

Thanks have to go to team members Ian Gallacher, Paul Moslin and Paul Holdnal for making it a success, to Chief Flying Instructor Ian Atherton for the invitation to the club and Tug Manager Christine Bell for making it possible and DCFI Rowan Griffin for the tows. The biggest thanks however goes to the students, for their welcome and enthusiasm to fly.

Radio 2 Breakfast Show DJ and famed petrolhead Chris Evans is launching a family-friendly classic-car festival for 2012 tagged CarFest.

The event will take place over the 24-26th August Bank Holiday weekend at former F1 World Champion Jody Scheckter’s organic farm at Laverstoke Park and raise money Children in Need.

There will be an airshow on Sunday 26th August that Chris was plugging on his Breakfast Program on Tuesday 13th March, and this is what he said at 08:20am:-

‘One of the most impressive things I have ever seen at an air display was a glider acrobatic display and the glider starts at the top and then works its way down and does all these magical things – and all you can hear is the whooshing of the air – and its really loud and really dramatic when it gets to the bottom of a loop the loop and the g-forces when its most active…I think a glider display would be amazing – and very peaceful and very spiritual, you know – imagine on a Sunday afternoon….?’

And then again towards the end of the program

‘ There is nothing more impressive than aerobatic gliders in operation, an acrobatic glider team (apart from Open heart surgery and general triumph over tragedy) from an entertainment point of view…’

So we have a fan in high places!

Shenington GC is pleased to host an Aerobatics Training Week at Edgehill: Sat 17th – Sun 25th March.

The gliderFX Team will be providing expert Aerobatic Training across all levels in both the team’s MDM-1 Fox Aerobatic Trainer and Shennington’s own ASK21.

Don’t miss this amazing opportunity. To book a place you can contact SGC CFI Ian Atherton. 07712 674242.