Friday November 16th - Flying In Iceland.

At 7.30pm in the club house, Keith Clemo will gave an illustrated talk about flying in Iceland. He showed the well attended audience pictures of Iceland’s magnificent scenery  Last August he flew with a friendly club there.  The club could hire out two 172’s.  Perhaps a group from AWA would like to travel there for a few days next year?  This talk and the sponsored walk have raised £83 for “Flying Scholarships for the Disabled”.

Saturday November 17th - SPONSORED WALK
at 10.00am at start of Stratford Greenway

4 or 8 mile walk in aid of “Flying Scholarships for the Disabled” organised by BWPA.  Keith and Rosemary Clemo and many other local pilots were on the walk which raised money for “Flying Scholarships for the Disabled”.

17th August 2007 - AWA's Evening Gliding Event

Four members plus friends and family attended this event making a total of 9 in all, of whom 6 chose to fly. The Gliding Centre made us very welcome, with 2 K21 trainers on hand, and a Chipmunk aircraft doing the aerotows. Gliding got underway about 5:30. Despite cool and windy conditions, the first ones to fly found a little bit of lift amongst the patches of evening sunshine. After aerotowing up to 2000 feet, my instructor, Stafford, was very good at explaining how to find lift and circle round to get the best from it. For my part, even though I rarely got the variometer to indicate any actual upward movement, we still managed to reduce the sink rate and prolong the flight to about 20 minutes, although it seemed much longer.

As the evening wore on, the lift dissipated but everyone enjoyed their flights, with clear visibility giving superb views of the local area. Meanwhile, those of us on the ground were treated by the arrival of ‘RK with Bob Bowles and Tony Williams on board. Not an impromptu arrival for the gliding event but just “dropping in” for Tony's check ride in 'RK.

One of the nicest things about the Gliding Centre is their superb restaurant/bar which is where we all retired as it grew too dark to fly. As we paid for our flights, the club explained that our temporary membership entitles us to come and fly again during the next 3 months and I think there are some who might take them up on that. Thanks to the Gliding Centre for laying on a superb event, and especially to instructors Stafford and Sid for showing us PPL’s that the rudder pedals are not just a comfy place to rest your feet. Gliding Poster.

Polly Vacher Visit

Antony Butcher having his book signed by Polly

Polly with Rose Clemo

Polly's PA28 Dakota parked amongst AWA's aircraft at Coventry

Outside AWA Flying Group

Polly taking a well deserved break.

Just a small excerpt out of Polly's diary for this days flights. For further details and more diary entries etc. Click here to go to Polly's web site

"Akash Ram, a 15 year old blind boy was my next passenger with his Aunt, Sal. They were full of questions and I felt bad, but I really had to ask them not to keep talking as I had to talk to controllers and concentrate on getting them safely to Bruntingthorpe. I had rung Bruntingthorpe to ask for a briefing as they use the huge large tarmac runway for testing cars and driving events and normally you have to use a grass runway “We will close half of the tarmac runway for cars just while you land” they told me over the phone. What kindness and trouble people are prepared to go to. I landed on this huge runway. The cloud base was about 1,200 feet and the countryside around there is flat, but the pelting rain made it difficult to see. David Walton the owner led us to a parking spot so that the cars could continue on the runway and took us to the controller to get the books signed.
Victoria Barr who has been awarded an FSD scholarship this year has Muscular Dystrophy. She is a ray of sunshine herself and her mother Maggie came with her in the back of GN. By then, I was running nearly two hours late which made me feel very bad. Coventry had laid on a huge event and the Lord Mayor had a busy calendar. We took off from Bruntingthorpe. This was not a problem as Coventry have an ILS so I knew I would be able to get in. In the event, we managed to do the flight visually in spite of the rain. Chris Orphonou the Managing Director of Coventry Airport was waiting with a huge bouquet of the most beautiful flowers. “The Mayor waited for as long as he could but he had another appointment” he said. I felt dreadful as they had gone to so much trouble, but I could do nothing about the weather and everyone understood. A lady from the BBC was there and we did an interview with my croaky voice. Everyone was waiting patiently in the executive lounge. I was able to give a short speech and thank everyone for their patience and understanding. Coventry had laid on a delicious lunch and at last everyone was able to dig in. I was busy signing books. Everyone was queuing up to buy them. “This is not a fund-raising flight” I had said in my speech “you can fund-raise for too long and your friends do a ‘180’ and run in the other direction” I joked, but several people insisted on giving donations. I feel totally overwhelmed with people’s generosity. I eventually managed to grab some lunch. We rang Sywell (Northampton) and they had a cloud base of 1,200 ft so we were ready to go. Timmy Lang aged 13 was my next passenger. He was like David and unable to speak because of Cerebral Palsy. His grandfather, Maurice Mann, a delightful 84 year old ex Mosquito pilot came with us. Maurice is partially blind and had to be helped into the aircraft, but he was smiling and laughing as was Timmy although Timmy couldn’t speak. We set off for the flight to Sywell."

Congratulations
Well done to Rosemary Clemo and Nick Wyndow for coming second in the Dawn to Dusk competition. They were presented with the quite aptly named "Coventry Trophy". The competition is open to any flying machine and can take place from anywhere in the world.

Also another award to Rosemary, she is the first winner of the Vera Lees Trophy for 2006. This trophy is awarded to the AWA member who has flown the furthest solo three legged route.

This is Rose being presented with the
Vera Lees Trophy by Vera's Grand Daughter.

Secretaries Rally
This years rally was won by our chairman Nick Wyndow along with his crew David & Pam Graham. Click here for complete results.

It's Arrived
G-AVRK 180 Cherokee is the new club aeroplane and has been fitted with a new engine. It is available for all members who must be either current on a 180 Cherokee or have a check ride with any instructor. Check the e-allocator for availability. Click here for details