However, once the weather calmed down, we had some really productive days of flying. Jamie Turner had a busy January as he not only completed landaways to Shobdon and Coventry, but also passed his Navigation exam.

On the same day as Jamie’s landaway at Coventry, Adam Knights completed his landaway at White Waltham. These landaways were achieved using the same aircraft on a busy Saturday, so SFS really has been making the most of the flying opportunities!

We were also represented at the Gloucestershire Airport Leisure Event held in the Terminal Building on 21st and 22nd January. Kathryn was pleased to see that there is a high level of interest in learning to fly, so we hope to be welcoming more students in the near future.

Welcome back after the festive break; hopefully everyone is feeling refreshed and full of vigour for a great year’s flying.

December already seems a long time ago but even though it was a short month in terms of flying days, students and PPLs made the most of the available days. We were pleased to welcome back some ‘old’ faces who returned to flying in December 2011, and we were delighted to welcome new students too.

Successes during the month included the excellent results achieved by Alan Tague in his Met exam and Judith Wordsworth in her Technical exam. Particular mention and congratulations must go to Kirk Daly who completed his First Solo on 9th December.

Jonathan Maddocks received some fantastic news in December 2011 with the offer of a place in the British Airways Future Pilot Programme; selection for such a sought-after place is a tremendous achievement and will no doubt be an inspiration to many of our students. We extend our warm congratulations to him.

The flying programme for January is already filling up fast, so please don’t hesitate to call to book your lessons if you’d like to fly this month. It’s not too early to book for February, either.

We look forward to seeing you in 2012.

Well, the winter nights certainly drew in this month! Flying has been somewhat curtailed by strong winds and poor visibility, but enthusiasm has still been high and there has still been great flying to be had.

Judith Wordsworth had a very successful month, as in November she not only passed her Performance & Planning exam, but also completed her Qualifying Cross Country, visiting Halfpenny Green and Sywell. She reports back that Sywell is an extremely friendly place to visit! It is worth knowing, too, that Sywell has self-service fuel pumps which accept Visa, Mastercard, Switch and Delta.

Gareth Fyles passed his Aviation Law exam, so congratulations to him too.

There are still slots available for December, so don’t hesitate to contact us to book in. For anyone wanting to night-fly, now is the time to make the most of the early sunset times.  Don’t forget that vouchers are available to buy towards your flying, so if you don’t know what you’d like in your stocking this Christmas, they might just be what you’re looking for.

For your diary, we close for Christmas on 22nd December and re-open on January 3rd 2012.

It feels like Winter has arrived now the clocks have gone back and we are able to start night flying. October was a busy month for exams, with Sarah Kenwright and Adam Knights both passing their Radiotelephony practical exams. Jamie Turner passed Human Performance and Comms exams, Paul Jones passed Flight Planning and Performance exam, Kirk Daly passed his Air Law and Bob Pearce passed his Comms exam, congratulations to them all.

Derek Greenaway and Kevin Fisher finally made it to Pembrey after having to turn back the first time due to low cloud. They detoured overhead Talgarth on the way home as Kevin sometimes does some gliding there. We have the Pembrey details at the school if anyone else would like to visit, its an interesting destination as the airfield is in a Military Air Weapons Range - PPR authorisation required 24 hours in advance!

James Conolly flew out to Shobdon earlier in the month too and Paul Jones visited Halfpenny Green, he kindly took this great photo of our aircraft Mike Tango with an airship going by.

Hopefully the weather will be good to us this month, we have two students ready to do Qualifying Cross Country trips so they’re just waiting for good conditions. Night flying is in full swing so anyone wanting to start their night rating please get in touch.

One of our students Tim Van der Hooft has had a particularly successful month. After passing his Air Law exam and then two weeks later passing his Human Performance written exam, he then went on to complete his first solo flight and accompanied one of our PPL’s Graeme Nisbet to Enstone all in one exciting day. And he did all this before he left to go off to university! We will see Tim again in the holidays and wish him well with his studies.

Another of our students Bob Pearce also completed his first solo and Sarah Kenwright passed her Skills test, congratulations to them both. Paul Jones flew out to Coventry earlier in the month and he can be seen pictured there with our aircraft BFEK above.

With the onset of winter and the clocks going back at the end of the month it is time to think about night flying, so anyone who is interested in getting a night rating, please get in touch and we can get you going on the course.

Steve Williams and flying instructor Kim Hampshire were in charge of the cooking, there was talk of a cook-off but that would have been just too close to call. So, instead they teamed up to prepare some tasty food and ensured all our guests were well fed. Kathryn was chief host for the evening, which involved a lot of talking and not much working but she did a great job!

We were delighted to have the latest aircraft addition to the school on show, the Vintage Steerman Biplane. It got lots of attention and we pleased to announce that we’re now offering the chance for our customers to experience trial lesson flights in this fantastic plane – more details can be found here on our website.

Thanks to everyone who came along and helped to make it such a great event. A selection of photos can found on our Flickr page, so check them out!

August has passed and so has the official end of summer, many would say what summer? Thankfully we’ve still been getting out and about and there have been lots of student achievements again this month.

Graeme Nisbet flew out to Wellesbourne on a PPL trip and Peter Paul headed out to Welshpool. Halfpenny Green remains a popular destination for PPL trips with both Derek Greenaway and Andy Mellor flying there.

There have been plenty of exam successes too. Congratulations to Judith Wordsworth and Paul Jones who passed there Met exams, to Alan Tague who achieved his Navigation exam and Adam Knights who passed the Flight Planning and Performance test.

We’re now looking forward to 17^th September when we have our Annual Summer BBQ. And this is one event that the weather can’t spoil as we’ve always got the coverage of the hangar next door should we need it. If you’d like to come along and you’ve not yet let us know, then please email confirming your attendance to info@stavertonflyingschool.co.uk.

Next month we’ll be posting photos of the BBQ and reporting back on more student achievements.

July has seen the team at Staverton Flying School helping yet more people to explore the skies! We were delighted to take Peter Standley (pictured left with instructor Tricia Nelmes) on a 60 minute trial flight to celebrate his 80th Birthday. Congratulations Peter, we hope we helped to make this special Birthday one to remember.

Aside from all the other trial flights we completed in July we were also excited to welcome some new aspiring pilots to the school too. We’re sure it won’t be long before we get to mention some of their achievements in our monthly newsletters.

Of course our existing students have done us proud once again. Congratulations to Jamie Turner for getting out on his first solo flight, a truly exhilarating experience! Another solo success was Judith Wordsworth who completed her first solo land-away at Halfpenny Green.

There’s also been more exam accomplishments with Paul Jones passing both his Aircraft Technical and Navigation exams. Bob Pearce achieved some further outstanding scores this time on the subject of Human Performance & Limitations. While Tim McMullan passed his IMC exam.

To go along with this ground school news we’ve had our fair share of PPL trips to report back on too. Jonathan Maddocks flew out to Shobdon, both Dominic Collier and Paul South visited Welshpool, with Paul then following up that trip with a flight to Kemble, and finally Tim McMullan landed at Halfpenny Green.

August looks set to be another busy month so let’s hope the good weather continues.

COMING SOON! We’re also looking ahead to September when we’re planning a special event at Staverton Flying School. Details will be posted up in the school shortly and we’ll be sending out email invitations too, so if your not already on our mailing list then please subscribe at the bottom of our website page to ensure you don’t miss out.

Staverton Flying School had a stand in the main terminal hangar, where G-EK was on show. We had lots of visitors who wanted to take a closer look inside a light aircraft and of course chat to us about planes and flying – our favourite subject!

For those that wanted to really experience the thrills of flying we were able to give them a short taster in the form of a 15 minute trial flying lesson. Our instructors Kim Hampshire and Richard Thwaites were kept busy with lots of people keen to sit behind the controls and see the sights from 1500 feet. And it wasn’t just our instructors that got involved; all the pre-flight briefings were completed by our very own students, Duncan Stephenson, Adam Knights and Paul Jones. Thanks to you all for helping make the day so much fun and such a success.

You can see a photo of our stand and some of the team above, and a few more photos from the day in our gallery section at the bottom of the page.

All in all, a brilliant event in aid of the extremely worthy cause; Help for Heroes.

Our first congratulations must go to Duncan Stephenson who after finishing his skills test has now gained his PPL, great news!

We’ve also had two successes in the ground school exams with Adam Knights passing both his Navigation and Technical tests, and Craig Parker securing his Human Performance and Limitations exam. Well done to both of them.

It seems that Halfpenny Green is the destination of choice in June; Frank Lauriello, Peter Paul and Dominic Collier have all been out on PPL trips there. In addition, and after a long wait for suitable weather conditions, Judith Wordsworth flew out to visit White Waltham with Kathryn, our Chief Flying Instructor. You can see a photo of Judith with our aircraft G-MT above.

We’re also delighted to share news from one of our former PPL students, Ian Hollingsworth. He took a trip out to Turweston where he collected his new Robin Alpha 160A aircraft, which can be seen looking very impressive in the photo above. Shortly afterwards he completed his first solo flight, which we’re sure will be the beginning of a long list of future flights. Happy flying Ian! We’ll be looking out for you around the Gloucestershire airways and of course we’ll see lots more of your new plane in its new home – the hangar next to the school.

Now, if you’re reading this on our website and you haven’t already seen it in your email inbox, then why not sign up at the bottom of the page for our newsletter. That way you’ll get the latest news from Staverton Flying School and be right up to speed with all our students’ progress.

Until next time…