Clive Haughton took to the skies for his first solo flight and with the beaming smile he had once he had returned, it’s safe to say Clive won’t be forgetting that moment in any hurry – well done Clive!

Clive Haughton's First Solo

Congratulations to those who have passed ground exams in October:

• Freddie Atac – Air Law and Human Performance
• David Woodward – Meteorology
• Alex Busby – Meteorology and Communications
• Jamie Turner – IMC written
• Adam Knights – IMC written

With the clocks going back we have now started night flying. If you wish to start your night rating please do get in touch.

The airport is holding an Airmanship Evening next Tuesday, 12^th November at 19:30. This informative evening of presentations, anecdotes and discussions will be of benefit for both those learning to fly and those with experience. The evening is free but a suggested donation of £5 in aid of Fly2Help will be welcomed. Kim Hampshire will be one of the speakers and hopes to see some of you there!

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.

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.

All our students have been progressing well and so there are congratulations in order for many of them.

Alan Tague went out on his first solo flight, and after a long wait for suitable weather conditions Duncan Stephenson achieved his qualifying cross country flight to Cardiff and Halfpenny Green, well done to both of them.

We’ve also had three students go on PPL trips; Bob Mulkerrin went out to Halfpenny Green, David Locke flew to Wellesbourne and Derek Greenaway went out on a sightseeing trip to Haverfordwest.

To add to all those flying achievements we’ve also have several students pass their ground school exams; Bob Pearce passed his Air Law, Adam Knights successfully achieved his Aircraft Technical exam and Alan Tague got his Communications qualification. Congratulations to all of them.

Some other exciting news for two of our other students too; Chris Hunt and Chris Armitage, accompanied by Graeme Nisbet, have flown out in our BEZO aircraft to Pansanger to collect their new TB10 aircraft. No doubt they will be busy having fun flying in their new plane of the coming months. We look forward to seeing them around the Gloucestershire airways soon!

Well, that’s about it for this month. As always we’re excited for more flying in June and will be busy with both our current students and those who come to experience trial flights. We also have the Gloucestershire Airport Charity Open Day to look forward on Sunday, 3rd July. We’ll have a stand there, so if you make it along please come and say hello.

Finally don’t forget, if you know someone who is currently learning or would like to experience a flight in light aircraft then why not check out our website where you can purchase both trial flying lesson vouchers as well as gift vouchers towards tuition fees.