Latest / Flyer Magazine / Airport sale collapses - The FLYER Show - 19 March 2026

Transcript

Airport sale collapses - The FLYER Show - 19 March 2026 · Flyer Magazine

0:08
SPEAKER_04: Hello and welcome to this week's Flight Show from Wattsmak for it is glorious.
0:11
SPEAKER_04: I'm Ian Seeger, I'm MX, and I'm Dave Corderwood.
0:14
SPEAKER_04: We've got a great show for you tonight, including a big update on Gloucester, but we'll get to that a little bit later.
0:19
SPEAKER_04: First of all, big thanks to Sky Demon for supporting the show, and big thanks for you for watching it.
0:23
SPEAKER_04: Don't forget to subscribe, by the way.
0:25
SPEAKER_04: Uh here you go with this week's Sky Demon tip.
0:31
SPEAKER_01: Hi, I'm Rob from Sky Demon, and here's another top tip.
0:35
SPEAKER_01: You may not be aware of this, but with Sky Demon you can have easy access to all AIP documents, not just those associated with a particular airfield.
0:44
SPEAKER_01: In the Airfields tab, look up at the top for national AIPs, choose your country, and then search in the sections for the document you're looking for.
1:01
SPEAKER_01: If you don't know the chapter number you're looking for, you can search for a title in the search bar.
1:07
SPEAKER_01: Like so.
1:12
SPEAKER_01: For more information, check out our website www.skydemon.ero.
1:21
SPEAKER_04: There you go.
1:23
SPEAKER_06: AIPs.
1:24
SPEAKER_04: Not now that was AIPs.
1:26
SPEAKER_06: Yeah, because last week we touched on um we touched on the poolies and AFE plates appearing as alongside the AIPs.
1:33
SPEAKER_06: This is just about the the fact that you get AIPs for free in Sky Demon.
1:38
SPEAKER_04: You get AIPs for everywhere you want to go, more or less, for free inside Sky Demon.
1:44
SPEAKER_04: Fact is, poolies and AFE exist because they're a whole load of extra information, although it's non-official, from the AIPs.
1:50
SPEAKER_04: And the AIP is not it's a bit of a dense dock.
1:53
SPEAKER_04: It's got good stuff in it.
1:54
SPEAKER_04: But it is the official source.
1:55
SPEAKER_04: It's the official source, but it's bloody hard to use.
1:57
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
1:57
SPEAKER_04: And it doesn't have all of the some of the good information you want.
2:00
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
2:01
SPEAKER_04: But it's there.
2:01
SPEAKER_04: But it's there.
2:02
SPEAKER_04: Thanks very demonstration.
2:03
SPEAKER_04: You have to use both, basically.
2:04
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
2:04
SPEAKER_06: So do we think that the weather that we're for with that we drove into Wadswick with this morning, which was glorious.
2:11
SPEAKER_06: Glorious.
2:12
SPEAKER_06: Is this is this the start of spring?
2:14
SPEAKER_06: Yes.
2:14
SPEAKER_06: Do you think?
2:14
SPEAKER_06: Absolutely.
2:15
SPEAKER_06: Definitely.
2:17
SPEAKER_06: We almost had the start of spring a couple of weeks ago, didn't we?
2:20
SPEAKER_06: We went, it's a lovely day, and then it was awful.
2:22
SPEAKER_04: No, I think it's going to be lovely.
2:23
SPEAKER_06: Let's see what Simon has to say.
2:26
SPEAKER_00: Evening all, I hope that you're doing well and have been able to take advantage of the fair weather that many of us have been experiencing uh this week.
2:33
SPEAKER_00: It looks like that's going to continue into this weekend as well.
2:36
SPEAKER_00: The main difficulty we're going to have is forecasting cloud amounts and visibility.
2:41
SPEAKER_00: So this is the um forecast from the icon EU uh high resolution model.
2:47
SPEAKER_00: And the times on this model shown here in the top right hand corner.
2:50
SPEAKER_00: White is cloud, grey is where we've got uh completely clear skies, or rather black is where we've got completely clear skies, and then we've got rainfall on here as well.
2:58
SPEAKER_00: You see up towards the far northwest, and the isobars marked on there too.
3:02
SPEAKER_00: So it gives us lots of information.
3:04
SPEAKER_00: Now, on Friday morning, you see a fair amount of cloud extending through much of northern England, into Wales, into central and eastern parts of England.
3:11
SPEAKER_00: There could be some mist, murk as well, associated with that.
3:15
SPEAKER_00: And uh it looks as if that takes some time to break during the morning.
3:19
SPEAKER_00: And in fact, some areas may well stay fairly cloudy into the afternoon.
3:24
SPEAKER_00: A bit of uncertainty over the cloud bases there.
3:26
SPEAKER_00: I'm thinking a thousand to three thousand feet, but it's one of these sort of strange situations where that cloud could just break and collapse.
3:33
SPEAKER_00: So don't be surprised if it does that.
3:35
SPEAKER_00: I think fairly hazy as well.
3:38
SPEAKER_00: Better in Scotland, which is where we're going to be seeing most of the brightness, and light winds as well for all.
3:43
SPEAKER_00: Now, into Saturday, light winds again Saturday morning, and I think mist and fog patches across many areas of northern England, Wales, the Midlands, southern and eastern England.
3:54
SPEAKER_00: They slowly lift and then the cloud breaks and sunny spars come through.
3:58
SPEAKER_00: Looks like we've got some thicker cloud and some outbreaks of rain up towards the northwest of Scotland, but central and southern Scotland and Ireland are seeing more broken cloud and better conditions here.
4:08
SPEAKER_00: I think typical base is England and Wales, eventually 4,000 foot base, 8,000 foot top, but less than 1,000 foot base in the northwest of Scotland.
4:18
SPEAKER_00: Saturday afternoon is actually looking pretty good, as you can see, across many parts of England and Wales.
4:22
SPEAKER_00: Just some thicker cloud for northwest Scotland with a few spots of rain here.
4:26
SPEAKER_00: Now, onto Sunday, we've got broken cloud and some sunny spells across many areas of England and Wales.
4:33
SPEAKER_00: A decent sort of day, but morning mist again.
4:36
SPEAKER_00: I think this front tracking its way south-eastwards through Scotland, through Ireland, into northwestern parts of England, and mostly non-fair farm here because of that.
4:45
SPEAKER_00: But behind you see better conditions following in.
4:48
SPEAKER_00: Now, through the course of Sunday afternoon, that front slips its way southwards.
4:51
SPEAKER_00: It gets through northern England, brings us some low clouds and some drizzle across the hills of northern England and into North Wales as well.
4:58
SPEAKER_00: And I think it could increasingly become quite murky across the rest of England and Wales, although still actually, I think, reasonable VFR conditions, a 3,000-foot basis, 10,000 foot tops and getting brighter across northwest Scotland and Ireland.
5:12
SPEAKER_00: So as you see, it's a decent weekend, really.
5:14
SPEAKER_00: It's just that detail that I think you're going to need to be spotting in the forecast um before you go flying on each day.
5:21
SPEAKER_00: But light winds throughout the weekend, and I think I'd probably give it about seven out of ten, something like that.
5:26
SPEAKER_00: So, you know, not bad at all.
5:29
SPEAKER_00: Now I know that those of you who've been to weather school will be drilling down into that forecast now, using all those extra techniques that I've given you at Aviation Weather School to be deciding uh and refining that forecast.
5:40
SPEAKER_00: If you've not been to Aviation Weather School yet, then my next part one course with the spaces available is going to be held over the Tuesday evenings of the 12th and 19th of May between 6:30pm and 9 pm.
5:50
SPEAKER_00: This is for any experience of pilots, from students right the way through to commercial pilots, all have been on the course and said that they learn lots from it.
5:58
SPEAKER_00: You get a recording of each of the sessions as well to watch for up to two weeks afterwards.
6:02
SPEAKER_00: And lucky you, you get to spend a couple of evenings with me.
6:05
SPEAKER_00: It's great fun, and it will open a whole new world of weather to you.
6:08
SPEAKER_00: To put your place now, go to weatherschool.co.uk and I look forward to seeing you there.
6:13
SPEAKER_00: Have a great, have a safe flying weekend, and I'll see you next week.
6:16
SPEAKER_00: Bye-bye for now.
6:18
SPEAKER_04: See, I told you.
6:19
SPEAKER_04: Well spring is here.
6:20
SPEAKER_06: This is it.
6:21
SPEAKER_06: The flying season has begun.
6:23
SPEAKER_04: Better news still, yeah, for me.
6:24
SPEAKER_04: I always is a big time of year for me, is the clocks going forwards.
6:28
SPEAKER_04: Yes.
6:29
SPEAKER_04: Not today.
6:30
SPEAKER_04: Don't don't go adjust.
6:32
SPEAKER_04: Actually, why not?
6:32
SPEAKER_04: We could do that.
6:33
SPEAKER_04: What is it?
6:34
SPEAKER_04: End of the month?
6:34
SPEAKER_04: Uh last weekend of the month, yeah.
6:36
SPEAKER_04: There we go.
6:37
SPEAKER_04: So not this weekend, next weekend kind of thing.
6:40
SPEAKER_06: I've been the the warm, the the warmer weather and the as evening's getting longer is just amazing.
6:48
SPEAKER_04: It's just such a significant part of the year.
6:50
SPEAKER_04: I love it when that happens.
6:51
SPEAKER_03: Spring equinox as well.
6:53
SPEAKER_04: Don't be coming here with your big words.
7:03
SPEAKER_04: Which some people anyway, we won't go there.
7:06
SPEAKER_04: I'll put the link in the description.
7:08
SPEAKER_06: It's kept the aviation content.
7:10
SPEAKER_06: Sorry for the nerd moment.
7:12
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, absolutely.
7:13
SPEAKER_04: Right, should we get to the news?
7:14
SPEAKER_04: Absolutely.
7:15
SPEAKER_04: Okay, biggest news story the sale for the Gloucester sale fell through.
7:19
SPEAKER_04: Now we've got a whole section coming up on that, so I'm not going to say anything here, but WTF Gloucester.
7:26
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
7:27
SPEAKER_04: So yeah.
7:29
SPEAKER_04: Yep.
7:30
SPEAKER_03: So I thought that you were doing Manston.
7:34
SPEAKER_03: It is.
7:35
SPEAKER_06: It's Ed.
7:36
SPEAKER_06: There we go.
7:36
SPEAKER_06: Ed.
7:37
SPEAKER_06: Ed.
7:38
SPEAKER_06: So uh twelve years after its closure, uh Manston in Kent is uh taking another step towards reopening.
7:46
SPEAKER_06: This is great news.
7:47
SPEAKER_06: Um and there's a public consultation going on at the moment uh on how aircraft uh will operate in the skies over East Kent.
7:55
SPEAKER_06: Uh so the airs the consultation focuses on uh airspace design.
8:00
SPEAKER_06: Uh this is not about uh anything to do with um redeveloping the airport, it's just purely about airspace design.
8:06
SPEAKER_04: It's not about controlled airspace.
8:07
SPEAKER_06: No.
8:07
SPEAKER_06: Um how are the uh basically how are the approaches going to be laid out?
8:12
SPEAKER_06: So there's there will be GPS approaches there, but how are they gonna be designed and how are they basically gonna interact with the surroundings?
8:19
SPEAKER_06: So um but this is great news because Manstone has long been considered a a really fantastic asset, aviation asset in the south east, isn't it?
8:27
SPEAKER_06: So um partly because a 2,748-meter runway, which is big.
8:34
SPEAKER_06: I reckon even I can land on that.
8:36
SPEAKER_06: So um several times.
8:38
SPEAKER_06: And it's wide.
8:38
SPEAKER_06: Uh it was originally built as an RAF station RAF station, uh, and the airport did operate civilian flights right up until it closed to commercial traffic in 2014.
8:48
SPEAKER_06: So um it's uh now owned by River Oak Strategic Partners, uh and basically they want to redevelop Manston as an international air freight hub, which makes sense because you know, in the world of Amazon and deliveries.
9:02
SPEAKER_03: Yes, they just got to get a few roads put in, that's all.
9:06
SPEAKER_06: Well if you build it they've all got it.
9:10
SPEAKER_06: Exactly, yeah.
9:11
SPEAKER_06: So um uh but the project had a big boost in August 2022 when the government uh granted a development consent order allowing redevelopment at the airport.
9:19
SPEAKER_06: Um but the uh the key uh aspect is obviously all about the flight ops.
9:24
SPEAKER_06: So um that consultation starts uh started on the 16th of March and runs until the 22nd of June.
9:31
SPEAKER_06: So um there's a link in the description if you want to add your views.
9:35
SPEAKER_04: Very cool.
9:36
SPEAKER_04: Back in 1992 or maybe three, I can't remember, when I was just after I did my PPL.
9:42
SPEAKER_04: I one of the first things I did was go and do a little aerobatics course out of Manston.
9:47
SPEAKER_06: Okay, yeah.
9:49
SPEAKER_06: What was that school?
9:50
SPEAKER_06: The school was very difficult.
9:51
SPEAKER_04: It was TG Aviation, Ted Gerdler.
9:52
SPEAKER_04: Ted Gurdler.
9:53
SPEAKER_04: I didn't actually fly, I it was using one of those aeroplanes, one of the school aeroplanes.
9:57
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
9:58
SPEAKER_04: But I was actually flying with Jeffrey Boot.
10:00
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
10:04
SPEAKER_04: Um so I did a little aerobatics course for Jeffrey.
10:06
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
10:07
SPEAKER_04: Uh which led to a couple of aerobatics competitions just at the beginner level.
10:10
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
10:11
SPEAKER_04: Um which I competed against Jeffrey.
10:13
SPEAKER_04: He beat me once and I beat him once.
10:15
SPEAKER_04: Seems fair.
10:16
SPEAKER_04: So Yeah, okay.
10:18
SPEAKER_04: There you go.
10:18
SPEAKER_06: Anyway, so that was a long, long, long time ago.
10:20
SPEAKER_06: Okay.
10:20
SPEAKER_06: I've never been to Manson.
10:22
SPEAKER_06: And have you been to Manson?
10:22
SPEAKER_03: I have been to Manson a few times actually.
10:24
SPEAKER_03: Oh, I I remember going down and flying, um, not with Ted Girdler, but uh with with TG Aviation.
10:30
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
10:30
SPEAKER_03: He he checked RAF um and uh he uh he ran the operation with RAF like precision.
10:37
SPEAKER_03: It was a good place.
10:38
SPEAKER_03: It was a good place.
10:39
SPEAKER_06: And I think there's still um I know the um the LAA Kenstrut has had a few fly-ins, for instance.
10:45
SPEAKER_06: So that they've been quite successful.
10:47
SPEAKER_03: So I think a few lorries have been parked there for a while as well.
10:50
SPEAKER_03: I guess so, yeah.
10:51
SPEAKER_04: There's there's a there's a few businesses which are around there, aren't there?
10:54
SPEAKER_04: Um anyway, next.
10:55
SPEAKER_04: Dave Europe.
10:57
SPEAKER_03: Last week we ran a teaser about uh a new helicopter from MD helicopters.
11:02
SPEAKER_03: It's called the MD564.
11:04
SPEAKER_03: They're very imaginative MD helicopters, now they name things.
11:07
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
11:08
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
11:08
SPEAKER_03: It's a light single-engine helicopter.
11:10
SPEAKER_03: It's uh the latest evolution in their long-running 500 series, the MD500 being once called the Hughes 500, of course.
11:18
SPEAKER_06: And I reckon they are the best.
11:20
SPEAKER_06: Of all the helicopters, they are the best.
11:22
SPEAKER_06: But I think that's probably because when I was a kid and I watched Magnum PI, um there was was it TC, was uh like one of the characters flew around.
11:33
SPEAKER_06: No, it wasn't Officer Dibble and stuff.
11:35
SPEAKER_06: No, you're in a completely different TV genre.
11:38
SPEAKER_06: But yeah, Hughes 500.
11:40
SPEAKER_03: Hughes 500, yep.
11:41
SPEAKER_03: Anyway, central to this redesign is a six-blade main rotor, a four-blade tail rotor, and the Rolls-Royce uh 250 C47 E3 engine asterisk.
11:54
SPEAKER_04: Except by writing a password, isn't it?
11:55
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
11:56
SPEAKER_04: Anyway, this is a really nice machine.
11:58
SPEAKER_04: It's a really nice machine.
11:59
SPEAKER_03: The company says it has meaningful power in reserve.
12:02
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
12:02
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
12:03
SPEAKER_03: It's a Ferrari-like.
12:04
SPEAKER_04: Does that mean that the previous versions had meaningless power?
12:08
SPEAKER_03: Well, it's got this one's got more meaningful power.
12:10
SPEAKER_03: No, I think that the Hughes 500 and the MD500 have always been the Ferrari of helicopters, really.
12:16
SPEAKER_04: Unless you're sitting in the back next to the gearbox.
12:19
SPEAKER_03: I've never sat in the back of the H.
12:20
SPEAKER_06: That's true.
12:21
SPEAKER_06: I have ridden in the back of a Hughes 500 and is like, oh hello, gearbox.
12:25
SPEAKER_03: Right.
12:26
SPEAKER_03: Very small.
12:26
SPEAKER_03: Yes.
12:27
SPEAKER_03: Very small.
12:28
SPEAKER_03: Um gross weight is up, the range has increased to 400 uh nautical miles.
12:32
SPEAKER_03: They say the running costs have been reduced.
12:35
SPEAKER_03: Guess what?
12:35
SPEAKER_03: How much?
12:36
SPEAKER_03: How much is a running cost per hour of uh$2,000.
12:40
SPEAKER_03: Well, actually, it's much better than that.
12:41
SPEAKER_03: It's$878.
12:45
SPEAKER_06: Bring me three in the grand scheme of helicopter operation.
12:48
SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
12:49
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
12:49
SPEAKER_04: I'd like to yeah.
12:50
SPEAKER_03: The typical missions apparently are power line inspections, firefighting, construction, offshore support, and government roles, secret squirrel stuff, I think.
12:58
SPEAKER_03: Uh alongside high altitude operations where the put performance margins are critical.
13:04
SPEAKER_03: Hot nine, in other words.
13:05
SPEAKER_04: Okay.
13:05
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
13:06
SPEAKER_06: Okay, fair enough.
13:08
SPEAKER_06: I I've seen a a lot of the Hughes helicopters seem to be in seem to be employed in the tree cutting world.
13:15
SPEAKER_06: Have you ever seen it?
13:17
SPEAKER_06: Yeah, it's like a giant attachment, which is it's almost like it was made by a child.
13:22
SPEAKER_06: It's like, let's put lots of circular saws on this swinging thing and just fly it along tree lines.
13:27
SPEAKER_06: We did uh uh an interview with one of the We did, yeah, with a with a triv in the in the days of Flyer Print magazine.
13:33
SPEAKER_06: There was we we spoke to a guy who did that as a job.
13:36
SPEAKER_06: As a job, yes.
13:36
SPEAKER_03: I know.
13:37
SPEAKER_03: Dang dangling a huge flying around, sawing things off.
13:41
SPEAKER_04: That's got to have been in I'm not a big film buff, as you would know.
13:43
SPEAKER_04: That's got to have been in a James Bond film at some point.
13:45
SPEAKER_06: It has actually been in a Bond film, and I believe it was in I want to say it was in Goldeneye.
13:53
SPEAKER_06: Golden legs, presumably.
13:54
SPEAKER_06: I don't know.
13:55
SPEAKER_06: But um but yeah, no, uh uh uh yeah, tree sawing from a helicopter was was yeah, was used by um That sounds like a lot of fun actually.
14:04
SPEAKER_03: It does, it does, yeah.
14:05
SPEAKER_06: But yeah, no, that has been the it is a Bond villain style thing, and sure enough, it was.
14:11
SPEAKER_06: There you go.
14:12
SPEAKER_06: There you go.
14:13
SPEAKER_03: Well, I I've got this uh item which um Ian has put on the script as Dutch Nutters.
14:18
SPEAKER_03: That's a bit unfair, isn't it?
14:19
SPEAKER_04: It is, but I've got one before you, Dave.
14:21
SPEAKER_03: Oh oh oh yes, so you have you've got English nutters.
14:23
SPEAKER_04: Back in your box for us for a second.
14:26
SPEAKER_04: We'll come back to Dave in a minute.
14:28
SPEAKER_04: And if you're Dutch, we're really sorry.
14:30
SPEAKER_04: Okay, this is the month of May coming up, and do you know what happens in the month of May?
14:34
SPEAKER_04: Top Nav competition.
14:35
SPEAKER_04: I just jumped in because Top Nav competition is a competition for people to hone their skills and show how good they are at navigating in a cockpit as a crew without a GPS.
14:45
SPEAKER_04: I mean, why would you want to do that?
14:47
SPEAKER_04: But apparently some of the things that you can do.
14:48
SPEAKER_04: I did it, I did it.
14:49
SPEAKER_04: It was I just can't remember what it was.
14:51
SPEAKER_04: It was pre pre pre-9-11.
14:55
SPEAKER_04: Um, and it was in a an arrow out of White Wortham.
14:58
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
14:59
SPEAKER_04: And we took off, and there was it had funny things like it was run by Gordon Wandsborough White at the time, who's had he no longer with us.
15:04
SPEAKER_04: He was a big proponent of the V R I N, Royal Institute of Navigation, and he had this kit that used to buy the I can't remember can't remember what it was called now, the GNAV or the Wandsboro.
15:13
SPEAKER_04: Basically, pressed you got press studs, maps, arms, you veltgrade this here, velcro that there, and you had stuff all over the cockpit.
15:20
SPEAKER_04: And apparently, if you used it properly, which I obviously did at the time, um you could you could do it.
15:25
SPEAKER_06: Now you just pick your phone up.
15:28
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, but I mean you've seen as you can see on screen, like all the markings all over the chart.
15:33
SPEAKER_04: It just looks ridiculous.
15:34
SPEAKER_04: I mean, now I just pick my phone up and go, right, yeah, do it there, please.
15:37
SPEAKER_04: Um But some people want to do it.
15:40
SPEAKER_04: Anyway, top top nav is on.
15:41
SPEAKER_04: Top nav is on, it takes place at four different places.
15:44
SPEAKER_04: You don't have to do all four, it's kind of like depending on where you want to go.
15:47
SPEAKER_04: So you can do it from Bobbin, Compton Abbas, Popham, White Wolfham, or Petersburg, Collington.
15:51
SPEAKER_04: Okay.
15:52
SPEAKER_04: If you want to enter, it's£38.50 for non-members,£27.50 for members,£16.50 for youths.
15:59
SPEAKER_04: Okay.
15:59
SPEAKER_04: That's a membership.
16:01
SPEAKER_04: Members of the World Institute of Navigation.
16:03
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
16:04
SPEAKER_04: Okay.
16:04
SPEAKER_04: And if if you're a member, you've got to find your way to the entry form.
16:08
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
16:08
SPEAKER_04: Wow.
16:09
SPEAKER_06: So if you were going to take um an old navigation device of the past to a top nav competition, what would be your choice?
16:18
SPEAKER_06: You know, would it be a sextant?
16:21
SPEAKER_04: An old navigation device for me would be like uh a a Magellan GPS with only one channel.
16:31
SPEAKER_06: I d I I swear some of the old bricks.
16:33
SPEAKER_06: So I did we should do like a historical segment that looks back at GPS receiver the first generation GPS receivers.
16:41
SPEAKER_04: We make a video and all dress up in putties and stuff and walk around speaking strange.
16:46
SPEAKER_02: I no idea.
16:47
SPEAKER_02: Isn't that what they're called?
16:50
SPEAKER_02: I have no idea.
16:51
SPEAKER_02: Weird.
16:52
SPEAKER_04: We're gonna have to Google that and put a picture on the screen a bit later.
16:55
SPEAKER_04: But yes, yeah.
16:56
SPEAKER_04: Okay, so um yeah, that's how.
16:58
SPEAKER_04: So then yeah, top nav competition.
16:59
SPEAKER_04: Um I did it once, I haven't done it since.
17:02
SPEAKER_04: I know Karina, who works for us, has uh did it and she's been there.
17:06
SPEAKER_04: She got an award for last year.
17:07
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I can't remember what it was, best track keeping or something.
17:09
SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
17:10
SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
17:10
SPEAKER_06: Or other she's gonna do it again.
17:12
SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
17:12
SPEAKER_06: But there we go.
17:13
SPEAKER_03: If you're into old navigation, traditional navigation.
17:18
SPEAKER_03: Traditional, yeah.
17:19
SPEAKER_04: Just in case it all gets switched off.
17:21
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
17:23
SPEAKER_04: Wow.
17:24
SPEAKER_06: What is crazier things of than that?
17:26
SPEAKER_04: I've I've curtailed my GA flying around Dubai, I can tell you.
17:32
SPEAKER_04: Dave.
17:33
SPEAKER_03: Yes, back to our Dutch friends.
17:34
SPEAKER_03: Um earlier this year we were contacted by a group of enthusiasts in the Netherlands who are very keen to draw attention to a very early Dutch aeroplane known as the uh Helpman One.
17:45
SPEAKER_03: When I say early, it's 1911.
17:47
SPEAKER_03: Very, very early.
17:49
SPEAKER_03: The group called Stick Ting Fliegun.
17:54
SPEAKER_06: You made that up, surely.
17:55
SPEAKER_03: No, no, I looked it up.
17:57
SPEAKER_03: And are they Germans?
17:58
SPEAKER_04: No, but it it fleegun is like it sounds like a bit more it's have a bit more of a digestion.
18:04
SPEAKER_04: Think like Verstappen.
18:06
SPEAKER_03: Okay, oh yes, send it like Verstappen.
18:08
SPEAKER_03: Oh yes, Dich Stick Ting Fliegun.
18:10
SPEAKER_03: Dah.
18:11
SPEAKER_03: It means Flying Helpman Foundation.
18:14
SPEAKER_06: Okay.
18:14
SPEAKER_03: I think I'll stick to that from now on.
18:15
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
18:16
SPEAKER_03: They've made various models to understand the engineering and the construction, and are now starting to build a full-size replica, which they want to be airworthy.
18:23
SPEAKER_03: Okay.
18:24
SPEAKER_03: Um they happen to work from old photos, nothing else exists.
18:27
SPEAKER_03: Uh, and uh the original made a couple of flights but crashed heavily, damaging the aircraft.
18:33
SPEAKER_03: Uh the pilot, a chap called Adrian Mulder, he's got several A's in Adrian.
18:39
SPEAKER_03: Adrian Mulder.
18:40
SPEAKER_03: Like like nine.
18:43
SPEAKER_03: Um this is a very nice line from the story.
18:46
SPEAKER_03: This he said, said to be an experienced aviator.
18:49
SPEAKER_03: He survived after a significant hospital stay.
18:53
SPEAKER_03: But anyway.
18:54
SPEAKER_04: But he wasn't the guy flying the original 1911 one.
18:56
SPEAKER_03: He was, so he was the one who crashed it.
18:59
SPEAKER_03: The original.
18:59
SPEAKER_04: Oh, right, sorry.
19:01
SPEAKER_04: Back in 1911.
19:02
SPEAKER_04: Oh, I thought this was a pilot of the future one.
19:04
SPEAKER_04: No.
19:04
SPEAKER_04: No, no, no.
19:05
SPEAKER_04: Oh, right, sorry, my mistake.
19:06
SPEAKER_03: No, they've yet to they've yet to finish building the full-size airworthy replica.
19:10
SPEAKER_03: So far, they've just made a one-third and a one-tenth size scale bottles.
19:14
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
19:15
SPEAKER_03: Anyway, that's that's underway at the moment.
19:18
SPEAKER_04: Good luck to him.
19:19
SPEAKER_04: Any idea when it might finish?
19:21
SPEAKER_03: No.
19:21
SPEAKER_03: No?
19:22
SPEAKER_03: No.
19:22
SPEAKER_03: It's a bit it's basically from scratch, not even plans.
19:25
SPEAKER_03: They're having to just make it up as they go along.
19:28
SPEAKER_06: But it seems like the exclusive story is on vlogger.
19:31
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
19:32
SPEAKER_03: Yes, we've got the exclusive story because it found us somehow.
19:37
SPEAKER_03: It found us somehow.
19:38
SPEAKER_03: Actually, Ian, I'll tell you the story behind.
19:40
SPEAKER_03: Ian had an email from this chap and said, fast it everything said, this would make an interesting story.
19:46
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, why don't you chase it up?
19:49
SPEAKER_03: Three months later, a million emails in using Google to translate everything.
19:54
SPEAKER_06: Well, there we go.
19:56
SPEAKER_06: That's the thing with Flyer.
19:58
SPEAKER_06: It will bring you the news that nobody else brings you this.
20:01
SPEAKER_06: You didn't know you needed.
20:03
SPEAKER_06: So yeah, brilliant project.
20:05
SPEAKER_06: I always love when gun when teams teams get together and go, you know, this thing that's been completely, you know, hasn't existed for years and years and years.
20:14
SPEAKER_06: Let's make it again.
20:15
SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
20:15
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
20:15
SPEAKER_04: I mean brilliant.
20:17
SPEAKER_04: Normally you'd have a bunch of people who get together and go, should we go to the movies once a month, or should we go get drunk once a month or something?
20:24
SPEAKER_04: You know, let's go do something positive.
20:25
SPEAKER_04: Let's go and build something that hasn't been they are clearly big thinkers.
20:29
SPEAKER_03: Yes.
20:30
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
20:30
SPEAKER_03: Yes.
20:31
SPEAKER_03: Or they've got nothing else to do.
20:33
SPEAKER_04: Well, Johnny, good, Johnny good.
20:35
SPEAKER_04: Right, moving on to some club news.
20:38
SPEAKER_04: Uh are you new to the Fly Club?
20:40
SPEAKER_04: Do you know what it's all about?
20:41
SPEAKER_04: The Fly Club is the UK's biggest and best flying club.
20:44
SPEAKER_04: Basically, if you're a member, you get full access to everything, full access to stuff like Dave's Dutch story.
20:52
SPEAKER_04: And everything else we produce, you get full access to the forums and all sorts of other benefits as well.
20:56
SPEAKER_04: So you should join, and you should join because it will only cost you£62 a year or six pounds a month.
21:01
SPEAKER_04: A month.
21:02
SPEAKER_04: But a month.
21:02
SPEAKER_04: I nearly said week, but I went month.
21:05
SPEAKER_06: And obviously a key thing you get when you're a flyer club member is free landings.
21:10
SPEAKER_06: Where are those two?
21:12
SPEAKER_03: This month they're at Oaksea Park, um, Cumbernaud, Dornock, and Strathaven.
21:18
SPEAKER_03: Strathaven.
21:18
SPEAKER_06: Strathaven.
21:21
SPEAKER_06: And big news for Oaksey is that their UL94 operation is now fully functional.
21:26
SPEAKER_03: It's now fully functional.
21:27
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
21:27
SPEAKER_03: And they're going to have a visiting bakery apparently as well coming in.
21:31
SPEAKER_06: Yeah, it's that end of the month.
21:32
SPEAKER_04: Is that linked to the UL ninety four?
21:34
SPEAKER_06: I don't think so.
21:34
SPEAKER_06: I don't think so.
21:36
SPEAKER_06: You can't bake with UL94.
21:38
SPEAKER_06: That is a bad ingredient.
21:39
SPEAKER_06: You might be able to run the oven with it.
21:41
SPEAKER_06: Probably.
21:41
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
21:42
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
21:42
SPEAKER_04: But the two things are very expensive.
21:44
SPEAKER_04: How much would you like for the loaf of bread?
21:46
SPEAKER_04: Well, that'll be fifty pounds, sir.
21:47
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
21:47
SPEAKER_04: Fly into Oaksea for baked goods at the end of the month.
21:50
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
21:50
SPEAKER_04: Plus, if you are a member of the club, you get access to our complete webinar back history catalogue or whatever it's called.
21:57
SPEAKER_04: And we've had uh Darren talking about things.
22:00
SPEAKER_04: Darren Lewington talking about air traffic control.
22:01
SPEAKER_04: You've had Nigel Webb talking about icing.
22:04
SPEAKER_04: There's been there's been all sorts of stuff.
22:05
SPEAKER_04: There's probably 30 or so, if not more.
22:07
SPEAKER_04: Oh, there is.
22:08
SPEAKER_04: We should just make up an even bigger number.
22:10
SPEAKER_04: There's a hundred.
22:10
SPEAKER_04: No, there's not.
22:12
SPEAKER_04: We'll count them for next week.
22:14
SPEAKER_04: But go go take a look.
22:15
SPEAKER_04: Lots of good things.
22:16
SPEAKER_04: Flyer.co.uk forward slash membership.
22:18
SPEAKER_04: Join today.
22:20
SPEAKER_04: Join today.
22:20
SPEAKER_04: Join today.
22:23
SPEAKER_04: Which brings us to the big story of this week, which is WTF Gloucester.
22:31
SPEAKER_03: Well absolutely.
22:32
SPEAKER_04: Absolutely.
22:34
SPEAKER_04: I mean, uh when did this kick off?
22:36
SPEAKER_04: A couple of years ago now?
22:37
SPEAKER_04: Was it just over a year ago?
22:38
SPEAKER_04: I can't remember.
22:39
SPEAKER_03: U uh yeah, it was over a year ago, wasn't it?
22:42
SPEAKER_03: Because uh the two councils involved who own who own Gloucester, uh uh Gloucestershire Airport, um, that's uh Gloucester City Council and Cheltenham Borough Council.
22:53
SPEAKER_03: Borough Council, yeah.
22:54
SPEAKER_03: Well anyway, two councils, Cheltenham and Gloucester.
22:57
SPEAKER_03: They decided they wanted they they weren't really in the business of running an airport, and so they put it up for sale.
23:03
SPEAKER_03: Uh it was the uh a group called Horizon Aero Group said they were gonna buy it and they did a deal.
23:09
SPEAKER_06: They were the chosen, they were actually the they were the chosen bidder, yeah, weren't they?
23:14
SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
23:14
SPEAKER_06: And this happened, was this late last year, October last year?
23:18
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it was.
23:19
SPEAKER_03: September, October.
23:21
SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
23:21
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
23:22
SPEAKER_06: Um, and we were all surprised because no one had ever heard of Horizon Aero Group.
23:28
SPEAKER_06: All the all the people.
23:29
SPEAKER_04: It was an Anglo-Indian business.
23:31
SPEAKER_04: Or it is an Anglo-Indian business.
23:33
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
23:33
SPEAKER_04: Um, and so you don't operate any other airports as far as we know.
23:38
SPEAKER_04: It's an infrastructure group.
23:40
SPEAKER_04: Um it was a it was created specifically for the bid.
23:43
SPEAKER_04: Yes.
23:44
SPEAKER_04: Um so it had some strange things.
23:45
SPEAKER_04: You'd expect some sort of shiny glass office, but no, it was a kind of semi-in somewhere.
23:50
SPEAKER_06: Yes, uh a house somewhere.
23:52
SPEAKER_06: And and a lot of people are questioning the the website which appeared to be full of AI generated things and a very quickly put together website.
24:00
SPEAKER_03: I mean, as you said, I think you said pointed it out at a time.
24:04
SPEAKER_03: You did, yes.
24:05
SPEAKER_03: But it's not unusual if you're putting together a bid for something to create a special company.
24:11
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, that's not that's not unusual.
24:13
SPEAKER_03: That's not unusual, no.
24:14
SPEAKER_03: No.
24:15
SPEAKER_03: But the fact is they didn't really have much in much background in aviation, did they?
24:18
SPEAKER_04: No, they would have they would have had to get that in.
24:20
SPEAKER_04: Um I've got a few theories on this, which we'll talk about in a bit.
24:24
SPEAKER_04: But first of all, we dispatched Dave, roving reporter Dave, up to Gloucester to go and see if he could figure out what was going on.
24:32
SPEAKER_03: So it's a sunny day.
24:34
SPEAKER_03: We're here at Gloucestershire Airport.
24:35
SPEAKER_03: I'm here talking to Darren Lewington, who's got a bit of insight into this airport.
24:40
SPEAKER_03: For a start, used to run it.
24:42
SPEAKER_03: So, what was the airport like when you used to run it, Darren?
24:45
SPEAKER_05: Uh so I left eight years ago, uh, but in the last in three of the last five years that I was here, we were voted the UK's best general aviation airfield, uh, and it was handling about 80,000 movements a year then, so it was pretty successful.
24:58
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
24:59
SPEAKER_03: So this should have been a straightforward buy, do you think, for a straightforward sale to uh Horizon Aero Group.
25:05
SPEAKER_03: What do you think went wrong?
25:07
SPEAKER_05: Um, I don't think it's straightforward because it's very complex in terms of its local authority ownership and uh very other aspects associated with that.
25:16
SPEAKER_05: Um, but it appears that the funding source that Horizon had in mind has fallen through, an overseas backer uh who uh uh announced earlier this week that um they just didn't have the appetite for UK investment.
25:31
SPEAKER_03: So do you think that the price of 25 million is a stumbling block?
25:36
SPEAKER_03: Is this is it too high or too low?
25:38
SPEAKER_05: Again, it's difficult to tell.
25:40
SPEAKER_05: Uh the problem is that the airport company is saddled with significant debts that they used to invest in the runway resurfacing project here, and the business part that they built, the plan to build to offset those debts never never materialized.
25:55
SPEAKER_05: So consequently, there's a high debt level, which presumably the councils are looking to recoup.
26:01
SPEAKER_03: Is there another buyer, do you think, waiting in the wings to take over?
26:04
SPEAKER_05: Oh well, I've I've heard that there are bidders who were rejected previously, who've made contact with the council recently to uh to to express their interest.
26:15
SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
26:15
SPEAKER_03: Earlier, the picture you painted of the airport when you were running it sounded fantastic.
26:20
SPEAKER_03: Is there any chance of getting back to those days?
26:22
SPEAKER_05: It needs investment to get back to to where it was.
26:25
SPEAKER_05: There's a shortage of air traffic control staff, the radar's not working anymore, so there's significant investment required to bring bring those services back.
26:33
SPEAKER_05: But I'm still hopeful for the future.
26:36
SPEAKER_05: It remains the busiest general aviation airport in the UK.
26:39
SPEAKER_05: We've seen all sorts of things coming and going today, despite the restrictions, despite the onerous slots that are in place because of the air traffic restrictions.
26:47
SPEAKER_05: So I do still think the potential's there.
26:49
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
26:50
SPEAKER_03: Could you remind us of the assets of this place?
26:53
SPEAKER_03: What's good about Gloucester?
26:55
SPEAKER_05: Well, uh, geographically it's great, right in the middle of the country, and it's got all the facilities that you could possibly hope for as a general aviation pilot.
27:04
SPEAKER_05: Um, hard runways, admittedly, one less than it had when I was here, and they've unfortunately taken the grass runway out.
27:11
SPEAKER_05: But we try to appeal across the spectrum to every operator: tail draggers, microlites to the corporate jets and things that you've seen arrive, and that's the key to it.
27:19
SPEAKER_05: Having um the ability to look after all aspects of general aviation is what this place thrives on and what it what it really needs to be a success.
27:28
SPEAKER_03: Let's big talk about how biz jets could be the future for Gloucestershire Airport.
27:33
SPEAKER_03: I mean, they bring in quite a lot of revenue.
27:35
SPEAKER_05: They do, they contribute disproportionately to the bottom line.
27:39
SPEAKER_05: But this is never going to be the farm of the West.
27:43
SPEAKER_05: The business market isn't here, it's not London-centric.
27:46
SPEAKER_05: And whilst there are plenty of second homers in the cotswolds who swan around in private jets, that can never be the be-all and end-all.
27:54
SPEAKER_05: It does need to attract those aircraft.
27:56
SPEAKER_05: And last week during the Cheltenham Festival, there were one or two in bringing the whale heeled in to the races, and it's important that the airport does capitalise on that where it can.
28:05
SPEAKER_05: But the runway is always going to be a limiting factor.
28:07
SPEAKER_05: The Gulf Streams and the Globals and the really big money spenders who would buy 20,000 litres of fuel are very, very performance restricted.
28:15
SPEAKER_05: So it's never going to be an equivalent to Farnborough or even Oxford on the other side of the Cotswolds.
28:21
SPEAKER_05: It just doesn't have that capability.
28:23
SPEAKER_03: So, how would you make more money at this place?
28:26
SPEAKER_05: It's well, that's the important thing.
28:27
SPEAKER_05: It's never going to set the world on fire in terms of its profitability.
28:30
SPEAKER_05: You've got to consider it as a piece of local infrastructure, and that's what the councils really haven't done.
28:36
SPEAKER_05: The contribution that the customers and the trainee pilots and everybody else using this airfield makes to the local economy is a much bigger picture.
28:44
SPEAKER_05: Skyborne, for example, have you know hundreds of people learning to be commercial pilots here.
28:49
SPEAKER_05: They'll stay in the local area for six months, having spent well over£100,000 on learning to fly.
28:55
SPEAKER_05: And that contribution to the local economy is really, really important.
29:00
SPEAKER_05: But a lot of that bypasses the airport's coffers.
29:03
SPEAKER_05: You've got to take the view that this needs to break even or make a small profit, and you do your best from that, and the region recoupes the benefits.
29:13
SPEAKER_03: Do you think the slot system that the airport currently has for people uh departing and arriving is holding it back?
29:20
SPEAKER_05: Yeah, enormously.
29:21
SPEAKER_05: It's farcical.
29:22
SPEAKER_05: I couldn't fly last weekend because I couldn't get sensible slots to go for a bimble in my in my cub on the warmest and best day of the year so far.
29:30
SPEAKER_05: It's it's nonsensical.
29:32
SPEAKER_05: The slot system doesn't work for GA uh operations, VFR GA operations.
29:37
SPEAKER_05: I understand why they're in place.
29:39
SPEAKER_05: They have a small team of air traffickers, some of whom are quite inexperienced, and there have been a number of issues.
29:45
SPEAKER_05: But uh that can't possibly be a long-term uh option for this place to be successful.
29:52
SPEAKER_05: The way to make money from an airport like this is to have the volume of traffic and be prepared to make a few quid from each aircraft rather than thousands and pounds from one big shiny one.
30:03
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, you mentioned earlier about how the apron here on a sunny day would be absolutely rammed with light aircraft and also people like uh the uh Battle of Britain Memorial flight came in.
30:14
SPEAKER_05: Um the BBMF always used to use us at the uh on the weekends during the during the show season.
30:19
SPEAKER_05: We used to waive the landing fees, but they were more than happy for us to publicise the fact they were here, and where we are now at the aviator would be mobbed with the local community seeing the hurricane spitfires up close.
30:30
SPEAKER_05: The crews were great, absolutely fantastic when they were landside and would talk and engage with that with the public, it's very much part of their job.
30:37
SPEAKER_05: But making it a valuable community asset is really important too.
30:42
SPEAKER_05: There's still a magic and mystique about aviation, and this place, if it was a little bit warmer, a little bit less windy, would be heaving today.
30:49
SPEAKER_05: Uh, and it will be throughout the summer.
30:51
SPEAKER_05: Uh it's a free air show for the local community, and you have to engage those people and make sure they're on side, particularly when you've got difficult political decisions to uh to make or to face.
31:01
SPEAKER_03: Talking about difficult political decisions, do you think there's any danger of this airport becoming a housing estate?
31:07
SPEAKER_05: Um no, this is often widely touted as we should build houses on it.
31:12
SPEAKER_05: It's not suitable for um residential development.
31:15
SPEAKER_05: There's a small corner in the southwest part of the airfield that you could use for residential.
31:19
SPEAKER_05: It does lend itself to commercial property development.
31:22
SPEAKER_05: We're within a stone's throw of the M5 and the A40 intersection between two large urban conurbations, so there's certainly a demand for commercial um property here, but you can't just make 70,000 movements disappear overnight and go somewhere else because there are no other airports for them to go to.
31:39
SPEAKER_05: And again, that's that's the problem.
31:41
SPEAKER_05: GA is widely misunderstood in the local community, and even at a national level, the government doesn't care about general aviation at the moment.
31:48
SPEAKER_05: It's clear that uh there's no policy designed to help and support it.
31:52
SPEAKER_05: So we're we're on a sticky wicket and fighting a difficult battle.
31:56
SPEAKER_03: But do you think Gloucestershire Airport will stay?
31:59
SPEAKER_05: I really hope so.
32:00
SPEAKER_05: Uh I spent a quarter of a century here, most of my adult life, working as hard as I could to make it a success, and it's really disappointing for me personally to see it in the in the situation that it is now.
32:11
SPEAKER_05: But the potential's there.
32:12
SPEAKER_05: If they can find a mechanism to uh write off the debt that they accrued for the over-engineered runway resurfacing projects, then it's got the scope and capability to uh to break even to continue as a fantastic general aviation asset for not just for the region but for the UK.
32:29
SPEAKER_05: There are so few fully equipped GA airfields available to us these days.
32:35
SPEAKER_05: This is something of a uh a diamond in the rough, and it really, really needs to be preserved.
32:42
SPEAKER_05: Um, when you think of just this region locally, certainly in my time here, Plymouth closed, Filton closed, Coventry's gone that way now, uh, even the military places of you know of Lynham, there's just nowhere to go and do instrument training if you if you need a if you've got an IFR capable aircraft uh without significant restrictions, and we're losing that ability.
33:05
SPEAKER_05: And although I only fly VFR puddle jumpers, it's really nice to have this five-star service um for my little two-star aeroplane.
33:13
SPEAKER_03: Thanks for your time, Darren.
33:15
SPEAKER_04: So there you go.
33:16
SPEAKER_04: There you go.
33:17
SPEAKER_04: That's that's Darren's view of of the world.
33:19
SPEAKER_03: Do you know being at Gloucester uh on Tuesday?
33:22
SPEAKER_03: I mean, it was a lovely day.
33:24
SPEAKER_03: It was very windy, quite cold, but it was a lovely day.
33:26
SPEAKER_03: And the airport did look fantastic.
33:28
SPEAKER_06: I mean it's it's an amazing resource.
33:30
SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
33:30
SPEAKER_06: No question about it.
33:32
SPEAKER_06: But it's a fantastic like Darren says, it's a fantastic site in a great location.
33:35
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
33:35
SPEAKER_03: And it was pretty busy despite the the wind and the cold.
33:38
SPEAKER_03: It was because it was so yeah, such a lovely day otherwise.
33:41
SPEAKER_06: And what's what's crazy is your perception of pretty busy, you to wind that back, like Darren says, to to 20 uh uh like 15, 16, 17.
33:51
SPEAKER_06: Yep.
33:52
SPEAKER_06: That was astonishing.
33:54
SPEAKER_04: We did a photo shoot out there once of I can't remember what it was, a burger.
33:56
SPEAKER_04: Oh, it was a burqa.
33:58
SPEAKER_06: It was a it was a it was a cosy home built.
34:00
SPEAKER_06: That was it, yeah.
34:01
SPEAKER_06: We and we departed and we we were like orbiting overhead for 15 minutes because there was a queue of the colour.
34:07
SPEAKER_04: So stuck at the hold behind about 150 other aircraft.
34:11
SPEAKER_04: It was it was like Heathrow when they all taxied.
34:13
SPEAKER_06: Well, there was there was a lot of RAF traffic doing approaches, wasn't there?
34:17
SPEAKER_04: Super busy.
34:18
SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
34:18
SPEAKER_04: Well, do you want to know my theory?
34:20
SPEAKER_04: I mean, most people don't, but it'd be great if you could say if you could say yes.
34:23
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
34:23
SPEAKER_04: Okay, yes.
34:24
SPEAKER_04: My theory is that uh councils aren't necessarily the best people to run an airfield, yeah.
34:29
SPEAKER_04: And that's understandable, that's not their primary role.
34:32
SPEAKER_04: Um, but councils uh are responsible for recruiting the board of a local business and the people who work for it and the managers and everything else there.
34:40
SPEAKER_04: And unfortunately, Gloucester has suffered from a spate of people who haven't done a particularly great job.
34:47
SPEAKER_04: They've they've owed I think they've overspent on the new runway, and that's led to the sort of debt that's been hanging around their neck for quite a while, which they owe to the councils.
34:56
SPEAKER_04: Um, and we haven't had a succession of people who've who've been in there and really driven the business from a kind of let's let's make this a great place to visit point of view.
35:04
SPEAKER_04: The graduate, you know, Gloucester was a place where you could not that long ago, you could you could fly by, go, and I fancy going into Gloucester.
35:11
SPEAKER_04: Hello, Gloucester, yep, come on in.
35:13
SPEAKER_04: Come on in, yeah.
35:14
SPEAKER_04: Yellow, yellow hive is vest.
35:15
SPEAKER_04: No, I haven't got one of those, didn't need that.
35:17
SPEAKER_04: And it was a super lovely place to operate in and out of.
35:20
SPEAKER_04: Um, and I was based there for a while.
35:21
SPEAKER_04: It was a great place to be based as well.
35:23
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, but then gradually, you know, these things scale up, you know, they're no PPR, and at the moment you need a slot, and then you need the yellow jacket, and then etc.
35:32
SPEAKER_04: etc.
35:33
SPEAKER_04: etc.
35:33
SPEAKER_04: It's just become lots and lots of little pecs.
35:36
SPEAKER_04: Each one you can justify individually, but no one's actually done, let's make this somewhere that people want to go.
35:42
SPEAKER_04: People can enjoy being based at, people can enjoy operating out of.
35:46
SPEAKER_04: I'll go there rather than there because it's what it's got what I want and it's a great experience.
35:50
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah.
35:51
SPEAKER_06: I think it's been it's been I and to be fair to Gloucester, like Darren said, you know, uh some of the the slot system restrictions are because they're having air traffic issues, they're air traffic officer issues.
36:04
SPEAKER_06: But I mean, and yeah.
36:05
SPEAKER_06: That wasn't a problem in the past, though.
36:07
SPEAKER_03: No, I think it's uh I mean the people they've got some new traffic air traffickers there now, but uh they're just a bit lacking in experience.
36:13
SPEAKER_03: They need to get some confidence.
36:15
SPEAKER_03: Um they need more traffic.
36:17
SPEAKER_03: They need more traffic well, yes, yeah.
36:18
SPEAKER_04: Well and the and the Yeah.
36:20
SPEAKER_04: And the other thing is when you want to attract the air traffic market's quite difficult at the moment.
36:24
SPEAKER_04: There's a bit of a shortage of air traffic controllers.
36:26
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
36:26
SPEAKER_04: So you want to attract people.
36:27
SPEAKER_04: If you're an airport again, yeah, well, we're up for sale, we've got this big debt hanging around our neck.
36:31
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
36:31
SPEAKER_04: As as a whole load of people saying we're not quite sure what the future is, you go, I know what I'll move my family from I'll move my family from another part of the world and come in.
36:38
SPEAKER_04: It's a tough, it's a tough call.
36:40
SPEAKER_04: It is.
36:40
SPEAKER_04: And you know, I s I suspect, this is no criticism of Gloucester, that people who are air traffickers there, once they build up a certain level of experience, may well be tempted away elsewhere.
36:49
SPEAKER_04: And they'll have that, that'll be a constant challenge.
36:51
SPEAKER_04: Churn, yeah.
36:52
SPEAKER_04: Um and a constant churn.
36:53
SPEAKER_04: And that's a difficult, they're in a difficult position.
36:56
SPEAKER_04: It needs it needs someone with real vision and someone who can say, This is what we're gonna do.
37:01
SPEAKER_04: This I'm gonna sit out the next 10, 5, 10, 15 years, and and just make it happen.
37:06
SPEAKER_03: You also need to have people who really love it, I think.
37:08
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
37:08
SPEAKER_03: Air traffic control is one of those things that you've really got to love doing and get involved in.
37:14
SPEAKER_03: And I have this I you've had a theory, I have a theory as well, which is I think Gloucestershire Airport could become like Van Nuys in California.
37:22
SPEAKER_03: You know, the star of the film One Six Right.
37:25
SPEAKER_03: I mean, One Six Right, yeah, that that uh that that that movie shows what a a really c clued up airport run by real enthusiasts, as well as people who are cle clear-headed about it, yeah, can make of it.
37:37
SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
37:37
SPEAKER_06: I did um so the Horizon Aero Group did issue a statement, didn't they?
37:41
SPEAKER_06: They did, yes.
37:42
SPEAKER_06: Um on why they didn't purchase on why they've not gone through with the deal.
37:48
SPEAKER_03: Which was basically saying that their investors had kind of re-evaluated They didn't want to invest in in uh common if it was just in in uh UK or they didn't want to invest in UK in this particular project, yeah.
38:02
SPEAKER_04: So I I mean it's yeah, you kind of have to read between the lines a little bit and make up your own story, which I'm happy to do, gonna make up my story.
38:11
SPEAKER_04: But clearly, you know, anyone coming in would have looked, and I think as Darren said in the video, there are places that need it needs investment.
38:19
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
38:19
SPEAKER_04: It's had a it's had too much investment in a runway, which has made cash a little bit tricky, but it needs more investment in another.
38:25
SPEAKER_04: But the radar doesn't work for you.
38:26
SPEAKER_06: Because there's a debt, isn't there?
38:27
SPEAKER_06: Well, how much is the debt?
38:28
SPEAKER_06: Is it?
38:29
SPEAKER_03: It's about 17 million.
38:30
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
38:30
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
38:31
SPEAKER_06: Which is if you're buying something, you go, that's a chunky debt to take off.
38:34
SPEAKER_04: 25 million purchase price.
38:36
SPEAKER_04: Purchase price, plus 17 million WO.
38:39
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
38:39
SPEAKER_03: Plus more investment to put in it.
38:40
SPEAKER_04: Plus more investment.
38:41
SPEAKER_04: The radar's not working, need new air traffic controllers.
38:43
SPEAKER_04: You can't just turn out the tap and out pops an air traffic controller.
38:46
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
38:47
SPEAKER_03: Um together you're probably looking at something like fifty million.
38:50
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
38:51
SPEAKER_04: Probably not far.
38:52
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, not far off.
38:53
SPEAKER_04: So you can do you could do and that's a big that's a big project.
38:56
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
38:57
SPEAKER_03: So it's a b yeah, the the 17 million that exists there at the moment, that's a lot of debt's a service.
39:03
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
39:03
SPEAKER_03: And that that kind of it makes a it makes something which is not hugely profitable, but is profitable, it makes it into a if you can't come along and and if you don't have the the assets to basically squash that debt, yeah.
39:16
SPEAKER_06: If you're having to, yeah, like you say, service that debt in the the in normal operation, that's a that's a bit of a chain around the neck, isn't it?
39:24
SPEAKER_03: But there is space there to to uh develop uh as a commercial property.
39:28
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
39:28
SPEAKER_03: Um the plan that the council put forward some time ago to develop one particular area, yes, um, they didn't realise until too late, until uh it was you know a bit too late, really, that it would it would cut off the helicopter routes.
39:42
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
39:43
SPEAKER_03: They put it in the wrong place.
39:44
SPEAKER_03: So you need someone in there who understands the airport and how the airport works.
39:48
SPEAKER_04: Shock horror, people running airport need to understand airports.
39:52
SPEAKER_04: Who'd have thought it?
39:53
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
39:53
SPEAKER_04: We've heard from Darren, we've had the official statement from Horizon and and the council, which hasn't given away a great deal.
40:00
SPEAKER_03: After we recorded the flyer show, uh we had an email in from Horizon Aero Group um talking about the uh how the sale collapsed.
40:08
SPEAKER_03: They said Horizon Aero Group is naturally disappointed that the proposed acquisition of Gloucestershire Airport did not proceed to completion.
40:17
SPEAKER_03: A substantial amount of work was undertaken over many months, and we would like to acknowledge that the councils, together with all other parties involved, worked in good faith and made considerable efforts to try to achieve a successful outcome.
40:29
SPEAKER_03: Unfortunately, despite those efforts, it was not possible to finalise terms that would allow the transaction to complete.
40:36
SPEAKER_03: Throughout the process, Horizon Aero Group remained committed to securing a positive, sustainable and commercially viable future for Gloucestershire Airport, with full respect for its heritage, its operational importance, and its role within the wider general aviation community.
40:52
SPEAKER_03: That review remains unchanged.
40:55
SPEAKER_03: We are grateful to everyone involved.
40:57
SPEAKER_03: Sorry, we are grateful to everyone who contributed their time, effort, and professionalism during the process.
41:03
SPEAKER_03: And we wish the airport, its stakeholders, and the wider GA community every success for the future.
41:08
SPEAKER_03: If circumstances were to evolve at a later stage, Horizon Aerograph would welcome the opportunity to engage again where there is a clear basis to deliver a viable and enduring outcome for the airport.
41:21
SPEAKER_04: Did you speak to anyone else?
41:22
SPEAKER_03: Well, I suppose I contacted a lot of companies uh at the airport.
41:26
SPEAKER_03: Most of them, practically all of them, did not want to appear on camera uh to uh for a statement.
41:31
SPEAKER_03: However, we did contact uh RGV, which is uh a maintenance provider at the uh at the airport, and uh quite well very well known at RGV.
41:41
SPEAKER_03: Big place.
41:41
SPEAKER_03: Big place, yeah.
41:42
SPEAKER_03: Stuart Vincent of RGV said uh he was happy to give this statement.
41:47
SPEAKER_03: RGV is not surprised at this, the deal fell through.
41:51
SPEAKER_03: We stated in our open letter in October 2025 that the buyer did not appear suitable.
41:57
SPEAKER_03: Our hope is that the councils will now go to tender again and this time look at viable bidders who have a proven background and will give the airport the best future.
42:06
SPEAKER_03: There are still several interested.
42:08
SPEAKER_03: Um, so our hope is that they take a sensible approach and just don't just go after the money.
42:13
SPEAKER_04: I think, yeah, and I think I would I would completely agree with that.
42:16
SPEAKER_04: I think the council's initial um decision that this would be a simple thing was was wrong, and they should have done a chunk of due diligence at the beginning.
42:25
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
42:26
SPEAKER_04: Um they were allowed themselves to be they probably wanted to, you know, wanted to believe it also they did want to believe.
42:33
SPEAKER_03: Gloucester council in particular needed the money.
42:36
SPEAKER_04: Okay, so just gonna put you all on your on the spot here.
42:39
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
42:41
SPEAKER_04: Fast forward it it's it's 2026, fast forward ten years.
42:47
SPEAKER_04: 2036.
42:48
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
42:48
SPEAKER_04: I know.
42:49
SPEAKER_04: Drones drones will what are we gonna find at Gloucester if we if we pop up there in 2036?
42:56
SPEAKER_06: I'm gonna s optimistically say this will be the failure of this particular bid will be the creation of a success will see us with a successful bidder and Gloucester will be transformed.
43:09
SPEAKER_06: Fantastic.
43:10
SPEAKER_03: I agree with that.
43:10
SPEAKER_03: I mean you've got you've got to be optimistic in this business, I think.
43:14
SPEAKER_03: And uh it'd be it'd be great to see Gloucester.
43:16
SPEAKER_03: Gloucester needs to survive.
43:18
SPEAKER_03: As Darren said, it's one of the few places where it has all the facilities available when they're working uh for general aviation.
43:25
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
43:26
SPEAKER_04: So I I'm I'm gonna join with you.
43:27
SPEAKER_04: I'm gonna say we're gonna we'll go up there, we'll see a thriving airport, we'll see lots of other businesses involved around it, and preferably some aviation businesses.
43:35
SPEAKER_04: It's quite a big aviation area.
43:37
SPEAKER_04: It is.
43:37
SPEAKER_06: And don't forget, I'm Gloucester, I'm uh the operation there has been going on.
43:41
SPEAKER_06: Well, Staverton has been going on for over 90 years.
43:44
SPEAKER_06: And a couple of tidbits that I bet you didn't know.
43:48
SPEAKER_06: Um so Sir Alan Cobb, uh famous of flying circus stuff, but also f uh uh uh creator, pioneer of air to air refueling, he created uh Gloucester was uh was pivotal in him developing the probe and drogue air-to-air refueling system.
44:06
SPEAKER_06: So you think something something that's really important right now, because of various war you know, war things going on and people having to fly long distances, that's all because it was developed at Staverton in the 1940s.
44:19
SPEAKER_06: I know.
44:20
SPEAKER_04: But I bet he didn't have to get a slot.
44:22
SPEAKER_04: I bet he didn't have to get a slot, no.
44:24
SPEAKER_06: Also Smith's Industries um that would later become Smith Aerospace GE Aviation, they developed Auto land at uh and a lot of that happened at Gloucester in the 50s and the 60s.
44:37
SPEAKER_06: And that's the technology that allowed zero basically zero visibility landings.
44:42
SPEAKER_06: And Smith's triplex system which was you know three systems one could fail, two could still do the job.
44:50
SPEAKER_06: That was um Smith's aviation divis division operated at Gloucester and a whole bunch of uh development was done there and that went into the Trident which was operated by um um the various British airlines and that was the first airline that's used automatic blind landing.
45:07
SPEAKER_06: So Gloucester pivotal in a whole bunch of tech and historic stuff.
45:13
SPEAKER_04: Cool cool very cool yeah well let's let's let's remain positive for Gloucester and let's let's follow the story and see I I would like there to be some really good aviation people or s or a company with aviation expertise.
45:27
SPEAKER_06: Yeah we learn hopefully if there's one learning point from what's gone on in recent months is maybe people go okay fresh start and you know like Stuart Vincent said there are other bidders let's do a whole bunch of really sensible due diligence um about the sale of the airport and about you know who who might be a realistic bid to buy and maybe that will give us the the fantastic future for Gloucester that we imagine can happen.
45:57
SPEAKER_04: Let's hope so let's hope so yep if you've got any views or if you've got any inside information then share it with us.
46:03
SPEAKER_04: We'll protect our sources.
46:05
SPEAKER_04: Yes.
46:05
SPEAKER_04: Right what caught your eye what caught your eye what did catch your eye who's going first I'm gonna come to you Ian are yeah yes so you will be aware of um an airplane called the bird dog from Cessna from Cessna Cessna Bird Dog uh Cessna 305 the famous observation airplane no one calls it a Cessna 305 but that's what it was well funnily enough the world moved on from the bird dog and the and everyone said we need something bigger because everything has to be bigger all the time.
46:38
SPEAKER_04: Okay it's the law.
46:40
SPEAKER_04: So Cessna decided they were going to build something bigger they took the 305 can imagine they had a plastic model of it probably someone grabbed it and said stretched it we just stretch this and squash it a bit and make it bigger yeah we can have a bigger thing.
46:51
SPEAKER_04: We can force they called it the Cessna 308 the 300 the 308 yeah absolutely there was only one built unfortunately but we'll come to that in a minute it was powered by the Lycoming GSO580 oh which is one of the big geared engines for supercharged 580 um display cubic inches Oh there's a there's a there's a huge nerdishness isn't it's like do you know your lycoming coats like homing coats more to the point as an owner I'm sure you can sympathize here you think big engine geared supercharged I can just hear the pound or dollar sign is dropping.
47:38
SPEAKER_04: Yes I mean they probably didn't worry about it too much back in the 50s.
47:41
SPEAKER_06: It first flew in 51 by the way okay yeah and that was I that was an engine that very much the it was a late gen piston engine wasn't it and you know if there was one thing that a pi a PT six had to replace it was engines like this.
47:55
SPEAKER_04: Well funny enough it didn't win it it didn't go any beyond the one prototype because no one ordered one and no one showed any interest.
48:03
SPEAKER_06: And it does it reminds me an awful lot of another aeroplane of of this kind of it looks a lot like a porter Pilatus porter also had the geared like homing originally I think it's a it's a Pilatus porter had a one night stand with a Helio Courier.
48:19
SPEAKER_04: Yes and the Cesar 308 came about was the result.
48:24
SPEAKER_06: But this is so what was um what was Cesna making the 308 for the for the army liaison contract the army just wanted more stuff did they lose out to the beaver?
48:33
SPEAKER_04: They did they lost out to the beaver not surprising and and so that that you know the engine didn't get replaced by a turbine the engine got replaced by an old radio an old reliable radio.
48:43
SPEAKER_04: So yep that was that was problem didn't work that is it's a 308 it's a stalky looking machine isn't it?
48:50
SPEAKER_06: It's not the most beautiful machine.
48:52
SPEAKER_06: No and I and you go 308 because you might go oh everyone knows 208 you know that's that was a that was a long spindly thing that was a sustainable development of the of the bird dog which was 305 yeah they decided to go 308 and and that was it but it didn't work.
49:08
SPEAKER_04: It was one of the lost Cessnas.
49:11
SPEAKER_03: Same as their helicopter did it have a name like Bird Dog or something like Albatross dog that could have been the problem couldn't it?
49:17
SPEAKER_06: Yeah no name.
49:19
SPEAKER_06: Well I'm guessing guessing stuff like that gets a name when it's a successful winner of a competition.
49:26
SPEAKER_06: Yeah it's like and now we're gonna order wolf now we're gonna order thousands of them now you get a name.
49:30
SPEAKER_04: Yeah now you get a name yeah name cost extra.
49:33
SPEAKER_04: But anyway there you go.
49:34
SPEAKER_03: Yes so what caught my eye this week uh was was a couple of microtepilots uh Trev Lee and Dave Bromley they're planning to fly their flex wing this is open cockpit microlites to Iceland to raise funds for prostate cancer this summer.
49:50
SPEAKER_03: Includes two 600 mile crossings of the North Atlantic there and back.
49:55
SPEAKER_03: They're going to be flying from Deenthorpe where they're based to Scotland and then then they'll cross to Iceland to an airport another blinking spelling I had to look up it's called that's easy for you to say it's not anyway so the airport airport in Ireland Iceland via the Faroe Islands um these two Trevley and Dave Bromley have got form in this in 2023 they flew to the North Cape in Norway in the Arctic Circle and then they've raised uh nine 9,000 pounds for the charity and clearly they've got form plus they've probably got warm clothing.
50:32
SPEAKER_03: And yes yes and I read a bit about the history of both those pilots they're they've they're they're they're serial nutters.
50:38
SPEAKER_04: We should get them on adventurers yes or fly down.
50:41
SPEAKER_04: We should if they can do Iceland they can do Wadswick yeah yeah fantastic okay and when are they making this flight?
50:49
SPEAKER_04: It's uh this summer uh I guess they're probably looking for the right weather window window yeah brilliant well I mean the North Cape thing is a long flight and it's a long way but it's effectively you can be over land.
50:59
SPEAKER_04: Yes.
51:00
SPEAKER_04: This is it's like okay six hundred miles in a in an exposed micro light yeah is that is a and engines make a completely different noise when they're over water don't they?
51:12
SPEAKER_04: Yeah I mean yeah yeah good luck to them.
51:16
SPEAKER_04: Once once you've done it come and see us or before whenever you want let us know though.
51:19
SPEAKER_06: Yep cool fantastic which just leaves me and I'm I I I knew this was coming for a while but I was very excited to finally see that Lego they'd be very excited about I know yeah um but Lego have launched their DC three um this is amazing um so it's a big news for so if you're a pilot that loves Lego which I do having to control myself um uh so basically it's in their icon series and they've made a um they've made a DC three model it wears the fantastic uh pan American airways colours uh it's 1,903 pieces and it's a big model it's gonna it's gonna make something that's 24 centimeters high 51 centimeters long and 76 centimeters wingspan.
52:07
SPEAKER_06: So um and it basically uh it's uh it's fantastic you're gonna love it anyone with a pilot den is gonna need this in their life I say is it made up of Lego bricks?
52:20
SPEAKER_06: Lego bricks?
52:21
SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
52:22
SPEAKER_04: 1903 of them.
52:24
SPEAKER_06: And you're gonna it's like Lego bricks are all square.
52:27
SPEAKER_06: Do you at least get do you at least get instructions or you just got to shake them and figure out where to make them Lego is you know the days of I mean when I Lego was probably not even invented when you were a kid but it was I used to play quite a lot with Lego when I was a kid but it was really about it inventing building stuff.
52:43
SPEAKER_06: Lego of nowadays um there's all the classic pieces but there's some clever shapely pieces as well I think there's if you look at in this Lego kit there's a there's a windscreen that's quite DC3 like which would be hard to do with just square bricks.
52:56
SPEAKER_06: And instruction wise I think that moved on not only do you get really lavish um instruction booklets which are fantastic but there's all you can get digital instructions as well.
53:06
SPEAKER_06: So digital instructions digital instructions on on your on your electronic device.
53:14
SPEAKER_04: When people because I don't know anything about building large Lego models, but when people do build large Lego models like this it's a ch it takes up a chunk of space.
53:21
SPEAKER_04: It is yeah you need to Is it like jigsaw puzzles where you either stick it to a piece of wood and hang it up or you just break it back down again and put it back in the bag.
53:28
SPEAKER_06: You kind of need to know what you're going to do with it once you've built it because you all of a sudden you finish it and you go oh that's quite big.
53:35
SPEAKER_06: And then you and I've got at home in the same yes being a bit of a closet Lego in the same series um Lego have done a fantastic Concorde which is brilliant.
53:45
SPEAKER_06: I haven't built that yet because that's big uh and they also they've got it in a box though.
53:49
SPEAKER_03: I have got it in a box I know not opened yet you you said you were closet you're not closet anymore.
53:55
SPEAKER_06: I know well no no and and and also there's a 747 uh which is the it's the shuttle carrier aircraft so it it it this is a model of the um the 747 with the the NASA shuttle on the right still got that in the box haven't built that you've got to give that to Darren and see if he can make some table lamps and stuff out of it.
54:14
SPEAKER_06: No Darren Airotics no it's my Lego kit I'm gonna build that one day if I've got time.
54:20
SPEAKER_06: But yes but anyway Lego DC3 it's out uh released on the 1st of uh April uh so it's no April fall uh and I think it's gonna be available in the UK uh 4th of April it's 199 pounds but um I looks like an awful lot of fun.
54:37
SPEAKER_06: If you ever get around to building it well yeah yeah I it's I I've got dreams of a set like that.
54:45
SPEAKER_06: You go, yeah maybe if I could get a set like that and then phone Kath phone Kath Burnham and go, Kath, have you got a DC three?
54:52
SPEAKER_06: We need to go flying we need to build a DC three in a DC three how long does it take to build one of these things?
54:59
SPEAKER_06: I don't know probably at least a couple of hours I'd say at least if you're going fast.
55:06
SPEAKER_06: Wow well there you go.
55:07
SPEAKER_04: There we go good Dave we must have a thousand events surely not a thousand events but we do have some.
55:14
SPEAKER_06: This Sunday this starting this Sunday flower bombing at Slape um there's behind the scenes uh sort of exhibition at the helicopter museum Western Supermare the International Helicopter museum wasn't there a behind the scenes uh Shuttleworth Shuttleworth yes that was the engineering over I really wanted to go to that but I was I saw photos looked amazing so they do it every year there's a little strip at the uh International Helicopter Museum I don't know if there's because the Hel International Helicopter Museum is on the old Locking Air on the old Locking Airport.
55:49
SPEAKER_06: Right.
55:49
SPEAKER_06: And you can definitely fly helicopters in and out I don't think there's fixed wing opportunity.
55:55
SPEAKER_06: So there there was a long time in the past my dad no less took flying lessons at Locking Airport.
56:01
SPEAKER_06: Did he?
56:02
SPEAKER_06: Yeah wow I know so before he met my mum and then he met my mum and she said that's really dangerous you should stop and he said okay I I think he yeah I think he ended up buying an MGB instead so um so in that case I'm gonna go and build a Lego model.
56:20
SPEAKER_03: I once raced a motorbike on the beach at uh Western Supermare oh was that in the in the big s in the big sand bay it's big sand bay race that's right yeah it looks like chaos it was chaos it was also very very hard and uh I've I wasn't really good enough I was struggling with did you survive?
56:37
SPEAKER_03: I survived yeah yeah it did it was okay on this on out on the beach itself nice and flat but uh as you get back towards the town yeah it's these dunes and all very dry gosh that was really hard work anyway I digressed did you ride a donkey while you were there as well you could say the bike I was on was a bit of a donkey um but another event a couple more events next we uh next week on the Wednesday 25th of March there's a Gasco safety even one of the last I guess the last at this one's at Carterton which is near Bryce Norton yeah um and there's also the same day not a great deal of good planning going on here Astel having another webinar this webinar this is one is practical tips for GA pilots.
57:19
SPEAKER_04: Okay there's a bit of a theme isn't there about returning to flight after the winter CIA at the moment are doing a lot on social media about return to fly so uh yeah not surprising cool cool right on that note I think that's all we got for you today so I would like to say thank you team thank you everybody for watching please uh join the flyer club just six pounds a month uh flyer.co.uk forward slash membership don't forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel which is free not even six pounds a month uh have a great weekend flying and we'll see you somewhere soon maybe come and visit us at what's Wednesdays only and let us know.
57:53
SPEAKER_06: Yeah thank you life safe everybody bye join the flyer club and be part of the UK's biggest GA community save hundreds of pounds with free landing vouchers watch expert led webinars and access all the online content on flyer.co.uk all this and more from just six pounds per month or sixty two pounds for the full year.
58:14
SPEAKER_06: Join today at flyer.co.uk forward smash membership