WEATHER 2 SPLOT 0
I am beginning to think that Duncan wants the SPLOT job back so he is quietly organising the weather to ensure that my Squadron Flying Programme is unflyable!!
That said, we had 11 attendees in total. All arrived by car except Ted Mangion, our newest joiner, who flew in to VL, completely under my radar, on the Thursday. Well done Ted. Great initiative.
Ted Solo Mangion
We were welcomed and warmly hosted by ‘Mum’ Davis and the team at Navy Wings. Our sponsor, Mark Jameson worked tirelessly to smooth the admin and shepherd us in and out of VL, and Mr Bodnarchuck at VL Ops worked tirelessly to ensure the MoD Waivers came through in time.
We joined the Navy Wings Team at 1130 for presentations and discussions. As always, it is an immensely valuable ‘brain start’ for our season’s flying. Navy Wings have produced a superb document featuring hyperlinks to important CAA information that is almost impossible to find on the CAA website due to the nature of their indexing. I am promised a copy and will publish to members shortly. All of the briefings were interesting, entertaining and mostly relevant to GA flying. The F35B capability brief (though of necessity U/C) was especially enthralling as was the subsequent capability comparison with the FA2!
Our very own Chris Gilbert did the squadron proud with a superb, highly professional presentation on GA Aircraft Conspicuity which was extremely well received. I think he is going to be invited back to brief VL Ops and ATC.
Chris in full flow
The SkyWise quiz was a useful refresher and entertaining. Unfortunately, both myself and Tony Gibson were mysteriously unable to log in to the wifi so could not compete. Still, it probably saved other participants the embarrassment of seeing our likely perfect scores!
Deep in thought
We concluded the afternoon with a team photo, minus Ted Mangion, who dashed out to help stack some chairs? This resulted in me capturing his portrait separately for all to see.
We happy few
And so to The Blue Camel for the now traditional Curry and Beer Festival. I had earlier remembered that the Blue Camel has a couple of rooms so I bagged one early ensuring a very short walk from curry to cot! The evening was excellent. The food, company and general ambience was perfect.
Curry Galore
Again, many thanks to everyone who made it happen and to everyone who happened to be there.
