We’d firstly like to congratulate Lee Williams for passing his skills test this month, especially as he was unable to fly much this year, well done Lee!

Kev Bennett an SFS student married his fiancé Claire this month, congratulations to you both from everyone at the school!

Kev and Claire

Ken Magowan has completed the aerobatics course, he passed his exam with AL Cleaver and now has is AOPA Basic Aerobatics Certification.

Ground exams passed this month:

• Freddie Atac – Aircraft General Knowledge
• Chris Edwards – Communications and Navigation
• Lee Williams – Principles of Flight

We would like to Congratulate Freddie Atac on achieving his first solo flight this month, we would also like to extend our congratulations to Jace Clarke who has also completed the important milestone of his first solo.

Freddie's First Solo

On the ground, David Woodward has passed Navigation, Aircraft General and Flight Performance and Planning, congratulations to him.

Staverton Flying School now has an online booking system, for all members to check the availability of instructors and aircrafts and request bookings. Hopefully all members of SFS have now received their log in details for the new online booking system. We’re hoping that this system will benefit our members and make bookings easier for everyone. If you have not received your details please do contact us.

We would gently remind you that the annual membership will be due 2^nd January – annual membership for 2014 is £84.00.

If any of your relations are stuck for Christmas ideas, why not remind them they can buy trial lesson vouchers or gift vouchers towards flying.

Trial Flight Lesson

For your diary, the school will closed for Christmas on Sunday 22^nd December and re-open on Thursday 2^nd January.

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

The weather was not so kind to Kim Hampshire, Kirk Daly and Rowland Slatter who made the trip to Duxford for an AOPA Bonus Day at the end of the month. Although the weather prevented them from making the trip by air as planned, they braved the 3-hour car journey to get there and reported having a great day out with some memorable presentations, especially that of Cliff Spink, a retired RAF Air Marshal who has flown a remarkable variety of aircraft during his long and distinguished career and is now a Spitfire display pilot, and who has many amusing and captivating anecdotes to share.

Back at the School, we congratulate our members on the following achievements this month:

First Solo – David Savage

Ground Exams – James Lingard: Human Performance and Limitations; Meteorology
David Savage: Air Law
Tony Waghorn: Human Performance and Limitations
Craig Parker: Radio Telephony (practical)
Tim Van Der Hooft: Aeroplane Technical; Performance and Planning

We extend a warm welcome to Heli Air as they moved into the Skypark Hangar this month. As with the barbecue, the weather smiled down on Heli Air on Saturday 22nd September as they launched their new Gloucester base with a flourish. The Skypark apron was packed with a number of helicopters throughout their Opening Event and it was great to see so much interest in both fixed wing and rotary aircraft come together in one place.

Looking ahead to October, we are now taking bookings for night flying for any PPLs who are interested in adding a night rating to their licence – book now to make the most of the dark nights.

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.

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!

The silver lining of these particular clouds was, however, that no fewer than 7 written exams were passed this month (including a 100% pass for Dion Robertson in his Human Factors and Performance exam).  Additionally, Paul Jones and Judith Wordsworth each passed their RTF practical exam.

Special congratulations go to Benedict Newman who rounded off the month by successfully completing his First Solo flight.

With the arrival of BST on 25th March, the opportunity for night flying has, realistically, passed.  We are still able to offer IMC training, though, so do get in touch if you’d like to add this to your existing PPL.

On the subject of PPL holders, did you know that the SFS aircraft are available to members to hire for self-fly hire on a Sunday?  Just ‘phone or drop in to make a booking.

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.