On the ground the following exams have been passed:

• Clive Haughton – Principles of Flight
• Mark Gwilt – Air Law and Human Performance
• Simon Shearburn – Air Law and Operational Procedures
• Spike Leek – Air Law
• Sam Williams – Air Law and Operational Procedures

The clocks will be going back at the end of October so night ratings will start soon. If you wish to begin your night rating please do get in touch.

Upton in the floods

Tewkesbury in the floods

Students have therefore taken advantage of ground school studies, congratulations to all of those who have passed exams so far in 2014

• Anthony Evans – Operational Procedures and Human Performance
• Alex Busby – Aircraft General and Principles of Flight
• Kevin Bennett – Navigation and Meteorology
• Freddie Atac – Operational Procedures and Radiotelephony
• Lee Williams – Meteorology and Radiotelephony practical
• John Straw – Operational Procedures and Human Performance

Staverton Flying School are now the proud owners of G-BOHH meaning it will be more available for lessons and to hire. Don’t forget you can hire the schools aircrafts on Sundays and if you would like to fly somewhere for the day only a minimum of 2 hours flying is required. Just call, drop in or book online at www.sfsonlinebooking.co.uk

Staverton Flying School will be organising 2 fly-away days for the summer:

• AeroExpo in Sywell is holding its annual aviation festival. On Sunday 1^st June we plan to take the SFS fleet for the day.
  

  AeroExpo Fly Away Day

  There will be a landing fee of £10 and both the pilot and passenger will receive free entry. The display acts will be announced nearer the time at www.aeroexpo.co.uk

• There will also be a fly away day to Newquay where you will be able to visit the Classic Air force museum. This day is arranged for Sunday 10^th August with back-up dates for Sundays 17^th and 31^st August. More details can be found at www.classicairforce.com

There will be limited spaces for both days so please book your place soon. Both days are open to qualified pilots and students with an instructor and are a great opportunity to experience new airfields and meet other SFS students and PPL’s.

Rowland Slatter kicked off the month by completing his Licence Skills Test, congratulations to him. Now on a roll, Rowland is also converting onto the Cessna 172 and starting his IMC training soon. We would also like to congratulate Richard Clark on passing his Licence Skills Test whilst on his break from University over the summer.

Tom Leakey First Solo

Alex Bubsy's First Solo

David Woodward's First Solo

Kevin Bennett's First Solo

We extend our congratulations to Alex, Tom Leakey, David Woodward and Kevin Bennett who have all completed their first solo flights, an unforgettable milestone, well done!

With the new changes to the ground exams commencing from the 1^st September, many of the students were able to get ahead and pass the following exams:

• Gerald Reeves – Air Law
• Kevin Bennett – Human Performance and Communications
• Tom Leakey – Air Law
• Richard Clark – Flight Planning and Performance and Aircraft Technical
• David Woodward – Air Law
• Mark Gwilt – Navigation
• Lee Williams – Flight Performing and Planning

Some of you may have noticed that Carol Vorderman has been learning to fly at the school and on Wednesday 21^st August she successfully completed her first solo flight, live on This Morning’s programme. We send our warm congratulations to her.  You can catch up on Carol’s solo flight and photos of the day on the SFS Facebook page.

Carol's First Solo

We wish Carol all the best for the rest of her training.

We would like to thank all of those who attended the SFS Summer BBQ, it was a lovely evening and what glorious weather we had. We hope those students and PPL’s who were able to make it found it beneficial to meet other aviation enthusiasts. Thank you again to everyone who came along and helped to make a great event. Photos of the evening can be found on the SFS Flickr page.

Ken Plowman

Friends of Ken Plowman’s arranged a trial lesson as a surprise at Staverton Flying School for his 90^th birthday. Ken a former Horsa assault glider pilot in 1945 was back at the controls after 50 years of flying! Again with perfect weather and Kim Hampshire guiding the way, they flew for an hour, including aerobatics. His friends were there to greet him when he landed along with journalists. They broadcasted an ecstatic Ken live to BBC Points West lunchtime news. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-gloucestershire-23352043

Ken trained as a fighter pilot on Texans in WWII in Canada and by chance, a T.6 Texan trainer was pulled out of the hangar next door. Ken renewed his acquaintance with the beautiful machine, courtesy of owner David Nock. After Ken’s flight volunteers from the Jet Age Museum presented Ken with a Horsa glider control wheel to commemorate his flight.

Duxford 2013

On Sunday 21^st July Staverton Flying School organised a trip to Duxford. Kim led a very successful fly away day to Duxford with 9 members of SFS, they reported to all have enjoyed the day and gained valuable experience. More photos can be found on SFS Flickr and Kim’s write-up of the day Duxford 2013.

We would like to congratulate one of our students, Kevin Bennett and his wife Claire on the early arrival of their first child, Noah!

Baby Noah!

As well as all of this excitement students have been passing their ground exams:

• Rowland Slatter – Flight Performance and Planning
• Lee Williams – Navigation
• Tim Van Der Hooft – Human Performance
• Kevin Bennett – Air Law

Particular mention must go to Dion Robertson, who rounded off the month with a successful Skill Test.  We extend our warm congratulations to Dion, who arrived at the School last Christmas with the intention of completing his PPL within a year and has done so.

Very many congratulations too, to Tony Waghorn for completing his First Solo flight.  That he enjoyed it (to say the least) can be seen clearly from the picture!

Staverton Flying School features heavily in an article on Gloucestershire Airport in this month’s Pilot magazine; still available in all good newsagents’!

On the ground, the following exams were passed this month:

Francis Sanderson – Air Law; Human Performance & Limitation

Kirk Daly – Meteorology

The School will be closing for Christmas on 22^nd December, and will re-open on Wednesday 2^nd January 2013.

May we take this opportunity to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New
Year.  We look forward to seeing you soon in 2013!

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).

A recent visitor to the Skypark apron

We extend particular congratulations to Paul Jones who successfully completed his PPL Skill Test and to Peter Wood who obtained his IMC rating at the start of June.

On 24th June the School took part in the annual Gloucestershire Airport Open Day. We were slightly concerned that the initial drizzle would deter the crowds, but we needn’t have worried as the event was a great success as evidenced by the large numbers who attended. G-BFEK drew a queue of (very) young aviation enthusiasts keen to have their photo taken behind her controls, and G-BIMT and G-BEZO were used throughout the day for 15 minute trial lessons conducted by Richard Thwaites and Kim Hampshire. A huge thank you to all those who helped on the day, in particular to James Connolly, Richard Clark, Jamie Turner and Adam Knights who not only briefed the trial lesson students but also chatted to visitors and kept the children entertained!

Our stand at the Open Day (with friend!)

Back in the classroom, members passed the following exams in June 2012:

Craig Parker - Metereology

Richard Clark - Air Law, Human Performance and Limitation, Communications, and Navigation

Bob Pearce - The Aeroplane Technical

Mark Gwilt - Air Law

For those of you planning trips in July, a reminder that Olympic airspace restrictions start on Saturday 14th. The sanctions for infringing these are severe, so please make sure that you familiarise yourself with the restrictions in good time. Close to home, crossing procedures for the Brize Norton zone are also affected. We have the details at the School.

G-BEZO at White Waltham

Finally some fine weather! After what has seemed like months of grey and rain, we all enjoyed some fantastic flying opportunities in May.

The month started with Adam Knights finally getting the weather he’s been waiting for, meaning he successfully completed his Qualifying Cross Country. Adam visited Halfpenny Green and Sywell and reported that he thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

The month was then brought to a great end by Judith Wordsworth who passed her Skills Test. Everyone at SFS extends warm congratulations to her on this success.

Jamie Turner completed his trip to White Waltham and Craig Parker his to Coventry. Other members have jumped at the chance to take up lesson availability and self-fly hire opportunities during the sunny spell, meaning that the SFS aircraft (and instructors!) have been kept very busy this month.

On the ground, members have been just as busy, notching up the following exam successes:
Kirk Daly – Communications (written)
Alan Tague – The Aeroplane Technical
Jamie Turner – Radiotelephony (practical)
Gareth Fyles – Human Performance and Limitations
Ed Gait-Carr – Air Law

A reminder to everyone that Staverton Flying School will have a stand at the Airport Open Day on Sunday June 24th. We’ll be offering 15 minute trial lessons on the day, costing £45.00 per lesson, so please do bring along your friends and family.

Whilst our new students got off to a solid start in April, those approaching the end of the PPL course were hampered by variable weather conditions. We had hoped that Adam Knights would achieve his Qualifying Cross-Country flight this month, and that Jamie Turner would complete his trip to White Waltham, but luck with the weather has not been on their side. However, on the theory side, students have yet again achieved excellent results. Exams passed in April were:

Rowland Slatter – Air Law
Jamie Turner – Flight Performance and Planning
Tim Van der Hooft – Meteorology
Bob Pearce – Meteorology
Ian Hollingsworth – IMC written exam
Kirk Daly – Navigation

The diary is filling up fast for May (Saturdays are now fully-booked, meaning we can take reserve bookings only), so please book early to avoid disappointment!

Race week passed by smoothly as the restrictions to flying were minimal and, in any case, persistent fog and haze during the month meant that many lessons were ground-based. The seemingly glorious sunshine at the end of the month brought poor visibility and haze with it, which presented an ideal opportunity for ground school and exams. Five exams were successfully completed, namely:

Dion Robertson – Navigation; Meteorology
Craig Parker – Navigation
Kirk Daly – Human Performance & Limitations
Jamie Turner – The Aircraft General & Principles of Flight

Our students had success in the air, too, in March. Paul Jones completed his Qualifying Cross Country at the start of the month, and Dion Robertson successfully completed his First Solo at the end of the month. Adam Knights has been trying to get his Qualifying Cross Country done, but has been consistently thwarted by the weather. Here’s hoping he is successful in April!