October got off to a watery start but, for once, this wasn’t because of the weather! On the 7th October, Staverton Flying School organised a trip to the Andark training centre in Swanwick for a ditching survival and life raft training course. The day began with the ditching survival training in the ‘dunker’, a cabin capable of seating up to 7 people. The cabin was immersed into a 3.5m deep pool and then rotated to simulate a landing on water, sinking and capsizing. Participants then ‘escaped’ from the submerged cabin.
This was followed by some basic water survival skills and life raft training. The unanimous verdict was that the training was not only a fun day out but that extremely useful tips to surviving a ditching in the sea had been learned. A full account of the day’s activities and lessons learned can be found by following the ‘news’ link on our website www.stavertonflyingschool.co.uk.
At the end of the month, Staverton Flying School was delighted to fly with the first recipient of a newly-established Air Cadet award, set up by the family of the late Flight Lieutenant ‘Dit’ Thomas RAFVR(T), Officer Commanding No 614 (Lydney) Squadron, Air Training Corps. Each year a Cadet will be chosen by the Squadron to receive a 30 minute flying lesson and Staverton Flying School looks forward to a long and successful affiliation with this award.
Amongst our members, we congratulate the following successes achieved in October:
Rowland Slatter – First Solo
Kirk Daly – First solo landaway
Dion Robertson – Qualifying Cross Country, RT practical
Craig Parker – Qualifying Cross Country
Written Exams:
Dion Robertson – Performance & Planning (100%), Aeroplane Technical
Rowland Slatter – Communications (100%)
David Savage – Human Performance & Limitations, Communications
Bob Pearce – Performance & Planning
Slots are still available for night flying training, so please do contact us to make a booking (please note, however, that the airfield closes at 1930 Mon-Fri and 1800 on Saturday / Sunday).
Loading...