Latest / Flyer Magazine / It’s not all doom and gloom at UK airfields - The FLYER Show - 10th September 2026

Transcript

It’s not all doom and gloom at UK airfields - The FLYER Show - 10th September 2026 · Flyer Magazine

• 0:04
  SPEAKER_02: This is the Flyer Show in podcast form from the team at Flyer.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_02: It's your weekly dose of general aviation news, views, and flying chat.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_02: In this episode, we take a look at the airfield news and give you a bit of a roundup there.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_02: Plus, there's the usual observations, digressions, opinions, and all sorts of rubbish from the team.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_02: If you like aeroplanes, airfields, airspace, and the world that surrounds them, you're in the right place.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_02: Hello and welcome to this week's Flyer Show, where the weather in Wall Street is bloody lovely at the moment.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_02: My name's Ian Steeger.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_02: I'm Ed Hex.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm Dave Corderwood.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_02: In this week's in this week's show, I guess we call it.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_02: In this week's show, we'll be giving you a round up of airfields, the good, the bad, the ugly.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_02: Well, maybe not that much ugly, actually, to be honest.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_02: Um, a little bit later.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_02: But before then, if you enjoy this, please, please do us a favour.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_02: Click on that little button that says subscribe.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_02: It really makes a difference to the show, really makes a difference to to how YouTube and those people deal with it.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_02: And it costs you nothing.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_02: So go on, do us a favour, hit it now.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_02: While you're there, click like as well.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_02: That'd be great.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_02: As always, we couldn't do without our sponsor, Sky Demon.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_02: And here is this week's tip.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_01: Hi, I'm Tim from Sky Demon.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome to this week's top tip.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_01: When you have a route planned, you can use the Airfields tab to see the airfields that form your route and quickly bring up their information.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_01: You can also add another airfield to the airfields tab.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_01: Let's bring up the information in what's here, go to it, and then use the pin button here at the top, pin to route.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_01: You'll now see that airfield is always in the airfields tab for this route, even though it doesn't actually form your route.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_01: Therefore, when you're flying, you can quickly get access to it to see its weather or frequencies, runways, or other documents.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_01: For our full user manual, go to skydimon.arero and choose help and support.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_02: So pinning an airfoot, I must admit, I don't really use that, and having seen that and been reminded of it, I'm going to use it again.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_02: I like the idea of picking a complex route where I'm not quite sure what the weather's going to do sometimes, and giving myself just a little easy access to information along the way.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_04: I'm always amazed at how much of Sky Demon I don't use.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_02: We get into those habits, don't mean.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: Isn't that just planning an alternate?
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_02: There is a planning and alternate, but this is this is just gives this kind of you know.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_02: Because you can just pin various places on the way.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_02: It's just a a useful thing, I think.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_02: I'll give it a go.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_02: You can still got a paper chart.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: Do you work for the CA?
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_04: I like paper charts.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_04: Meanwhile, in 1950, Dave is flying with his sextant and his paper chart.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_04: Now, if you're expecting the weather, don't forget.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_04: It's moved to the tail end of the show.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so catch that later.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_02: We have one person complain about that, which is not bad considering that the show's done pretty well.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_02: Um but there's always Henry's little chapters bit in the description.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_02: So if you really want the weather, go click on that and go straight to it.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_02: But don't forget, come back.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, don't forget to come back.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_02: And don't do that anyway.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_02: Right, time for some news.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_02: What's been going on?
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_04: Ed, you got the first story.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_04: I have got the first story, and it's the big news is the LAA rally happened on the weekend.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_04: Uh, and obviously we've had an amazing summer of weather, so lots of people were like, is it gonna hold out as long as, you know, as long as the rally in September?
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_04: And Friday nearly didn't.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_04: Um it had a bit of a windy and wet start, um, and uh Friday was a slow day, but the weather gods smiled on the s on on Leicester uh airport beautifully across Saturday and Sunday, and it was an absolutely fantastic event.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_04: Nearly 400 aircraft attended, um, loads of people there um across the the the the the days.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_04: There were probably a f a few fewer trade stands there, I reckon.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_04: Um, but inside the tents there was a massive kind of increase in um STEM opportunities and hands-on stuff, uh which seemed to be going down a treat.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_02: So um I thought, yeah, I thought there was a lot going on in the halls.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_02: In the house.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_02: I say in the halls, they're like in the tents, the marquees.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_02: Um outside was a bit thinner than it was last year.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_02: Um hopefully that will change in the future.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_02: Um, Henry and I flew up on Friday, so we had to delay our departure, you know, slot times and all the rest of that.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, because originally you were due in at like nine, and that would not have been good.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_04: It was really wet.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_02: It was horrible it was horrible and wet.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_02: And uh when we flew up, it was still windy and a bit turbulent.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_02: Um but that was in a way, you know, the approach was all really nice and what there wasn't like a million people everywhere.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_02: And we flew back, and that was that was kind of good as well.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_04: But the procedures all worked, um, uh really um no in no no no incidents.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_02: Big big thumbs up from me for Leicester, I have to say.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_02: I like I I like the Leicester thing.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_02: It kind of happens without any extraneous rubbish going on, and everyone you talk to is friendly and helpful.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_04: Their their volunteer team and the airfield are uh in my personal opinion, it's a it's a great location for the rally.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_04: Um so yeah.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, good peeps.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_04: Uh big winner at the show um was a tiny little aeroplane.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_04: It was a Chilton DW1, beautiful airplane.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_00: That was fantastic.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, that was fantastic.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I I I want us to come up with a fancy hanger where I can choose that aeroplane number and win.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_02: I don't want to mention that I won last week, Ed.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_04: You did, yeah.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_04: We should we should touch on that later in Fancy Hangar.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_04: Um uh anyway, uh the Chiltern was built by a guy called Steve Ricketts.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_04: Uh it was beautiful.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_04: Uh and that was that airplane was also the overall concourse d'Elgan's winner.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_04: It was a big field of entries for all the awards.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_04: It's quite big, Leicester.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, that's not big.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, physically big field.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_04: But um I uh the judges were saying that uh probably probably the highest calibre of entries that there's been in many, many years.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_04: Uh, there were a lot of airplanes to judge, and they were all really fantastic.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_04: So it's really good.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_04: So, yeah, big marks to home building.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_04: Um, so yeah, hopefully roll on LA rally next year.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_02: Good, yeah, no, good event.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_02: Well done.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_02: Well done, everybody.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_02: Um and if you haven't seen it yet, go watch our video.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_02: We have a quick video, I think it's only seven, five or six, or maybe seven minutes long uh of the rally.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_02: So go take a look at that.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_02: Henry will put a description or a link in the description.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_02: That's the word I'm looking for.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_02: Right, other news.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_02: The uh Gypsland Aero G A 10 Airvane.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_02: Airvan made its second first flight.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_02: Way back in I think 2012 or something, it made its first first flight.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_02: It was owned by Mahindra then.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_02: It had the Rolls-Royce or still has the Rolls-Royce 250, which is 465 sharps horsepower, something like that.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_04: 450 horsepower.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_04: That was the uh at one time that was the Allison turbine, wasn't it?
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_02: But Rolls-Royce bought it.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_02: It was kind of a helicopter engine, really.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but so that sits inside the 10-seat GA10, which is really intended for parachuting stuff.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and then a little bit of history.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, Gypsend uh was founded by what's the guy's name?
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_02: George Morgan.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_02: George Morgan, that's it.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_02: Founded by George Morgan.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_02: That didn't go too well at one point.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_02: Mahindra came in, bought it from George.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_00: Didn't go too well.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_00: Stuff happened, didn't go in 2008 financial crisis, which affected it well.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_02: No, it wasn't George's fault.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_02: It was like a worldwide financial crisis.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_02: Anyway, it wasn't going that well because of the financial crisis.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_02: Mahindra stepped in, bought it.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_02: I'm guessing at one point they decided it wasn't going well for them, didn't fit them anymore.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_02: George bought it back.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_02: Yep.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and he opening up GA8 Air Van parts and service and stuff like that, and bringing the GA ten back.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_02: Cut long story short, um that it's a certified airframe, it was certified by Casar and the FAA.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_02: Um and this week, earlier this week, it flew again for the second first time as part of its development process.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_04: Clearly, someone in there is going, This fits a sector of the market.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_00: Well, when they launched the original air van, the June A the eight-seater, yeah, they said they marketed it as you can get two of these for a price of one Sester caravan.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously it's probably not even as capable as a Sester caravan in terms of lifting weight.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_00: Is it half as capable?
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_00: But but quite a f with quite a few operations, like parachute jumping, it's about getting aircraft down, up, up quickly with a lot of people, then down quickly before the before the the parachuters arrive.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: It's a it's a numbers game, really.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_04: It's a utility aeroplane, which is just as well because it's not very pretty.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_02: They used to have one at the Redlands Parachute Centre just outside Swindon, but that's now become a housing estate with all sorts of aviation-themed roads in it.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_02: Um I'm not quite sure what happened there.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_02: Has it got caravan road?
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_02: No, funny enough.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_00: Actually, I threw a flew a thruster from Redlands Airfield, which is for you to say.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_00: It wasn't very easy, he's never easily saying anything for me, but uh I flew a G A 8 air van in into here once.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_02: Did you?
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: Cool.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_02: This is like pre-new restaurant because we came in to get a baguette or something.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_00: I flew a G8 once and all my passengers jumped out.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_02: Oh blame me.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_02: You can blame me.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_04: If they had parachutes on either.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_02: Anyway, so they've had their second-first flight.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_02: Subject close to everyone's heart.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_04: Free money.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_04: Free money.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_04: Free money for pilots.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_04: And this is news that the uh British Women Pilots Association.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_04: They've opened their scholarships for 2026, and there's a lot on offer.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_04: There are 15 of them.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_04: Um the big list, um uh three Flying Start Scholarships, um uh one Sky Demon Flying Start Scholarship, uh two Easy PPL scholarships, um uh there's advanced scholarships um for people looking to get uh further qualifications, um an AT uh BWPA CAT scholarship um uh for uh ground school CAT scholarships.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, not Miao, uh Cats, uh C-A-T-S.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_04: Cat sometimes Cunningham, number two.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_04: I know, yeah.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_04: Uh uh there's uh two be uh uh two Bristol Ground School ATPS uh ATPL scholarships, um a member's special missions scholarship.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_04: Um that's that's quite interesting.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_04: I I'm not sure I've ever come across a special mission scholarship before.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_04: It's for um someone who wants to uh fly in special missions or flying adventure.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_04: So um but the neat thing about this is you can go to BWPA, apply online, and who knows, you could be elaborating.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_04: Um person, Annabelle Cook apparently, BWPA chair, said uh our scholarships continue to set a high standard across the industry and can make a real and lasting difference to the women who receive them.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_00: You ever heard of Fred Toe?
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: No, I I hadn't either actually.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_00: Britt Fred Toe is a British aviation pioneer from whose name you can't.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_02: Did you spell that T-O-E or T-O-E?
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_02: T O T-O.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_02: Just T O.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_00: But it is pronounced Toh, I checked.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_00: And um anyway, he uh he is an aviation pioneer.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_00: He created the very first solar-powered aircraft that's flown.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_00: Uh this is back in uh back in the 70s in 1978, in fact.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um we have a little video, we have a little video on the website which uh is taken off that uh that flight.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_00: We've got a couple of excerpts here.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um and he built, he designed and built Solar One with aeronautical engineer David Williams, with the help of Southampton University.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_00: Anyway, that was a long time ago.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_00: But there's now a Swiss company called Solar Stratus, they've been up flying a solar-powered aircraft, it's all over its wings, and um they've been setting various records.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_00: Not quite sure what the long-term aim is, but yeah, this they're they're they're plucking away with it.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_00: They've invited Fred Toe to go over um this month, September, to go and fly with them.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_00: Uh he's not gonna be the pilot, he's gonna be sitting in the aircraft, but not actually flying it because it's a it's a whole different game from what I've done.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_02: I was gonna say, I mean, when he last flew it, that was like in f in 79.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_02: That's what was that, 47 years ago?
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_00: Uh solar uh uh the solar stratus, what they're trying to do is set a record, a distance record for a solar electric aircraft and improve the technology if you like.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_00: I know that the solar impulse has already set the world round the world record, yeah, but they're trying to go for an individual leg which is longer.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_00: And also higher.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_00: Which is longer.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_00: Longer.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_02: Uh individual.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_02: You can go around the world twice or something.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_04: Well, no, I guess individual legs.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_04: Because uh solar impulse was um was around the world in segments, wasn't it?
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_04: So I'm guessing they're and I guess that was the solar stratus looks like it's probably a slightly more practical aeroplane than solar impulse was, because obviously solar impulse was huge, wasn't it, and needed a massive support team everywhere it went.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_00: So they're gonna make a record attempt speed record attempt as well, uh, this month in September.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_00: So uh we'll see how that goes.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_04: Let's hope it's sunny if they're doing a speed record.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_00: Well, yep, it is Switzerland.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_00: It's a bit further south of here.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_02: It's well known for its sun, Switzerland, anyway.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, cool.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_02: Right, uh and last story from me is uh there's just under two weeks uh left for you to complete your CAA um consultation on electronic conspicuity and whether that will become a mandate or not.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_02: They've recently issued another document answering, allegedly answering some questions.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_02: Guess what?
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_02: It doesn't.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_02: Um so there's all sorts of information you get, but we do need to fill it in.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_02: This is possibly one of the one of the worst consultations I've seen from the CA for a while.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_02: There's there's so many unanswered questions.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_02: So you want every time you look at it, I don't have enough information to answer that question, you haven't said.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_02: And it's like it's mad.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_02: So, you know, cynics would say they've already made up their mind.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_02: They've said they're not already made up their mind, clearly.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_02: Um you make up your mind whether they have or haven't.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_02: But better still, go and take part in the consultation.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_02: I think it closes on, well it does close on September the 22nd.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_04: But it is a this is a uh it's fair to say it's a land, this is a landmark moment, really, in terms of this will lead to a landmark moment.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_02: I I'm absolutely sure about it.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_02: And it needs to be much, much, much better defined than they've done already, for God's sake.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_02: They would it was it's quite pathetic.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_00: You cannot see you cannot see this failing, actually.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, they the drone industry is putting so much pressure on them, the government is putting so much pressure on them that um this has to go through as far as both.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_02: I'm I'm I have no doubt that something like that will happen.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_02: But that doesn't mean to say I'm not gonna fit in the consultation.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_02: It does mean to say the CAA needs to up its consultation game, because that's actually a bit pants, to be honest.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_02: We might have a consultation on CA consultations, we might look at ourselves.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_04: I I I I'd I'd I'd like to be slightly devil's advocate and step in and say, at the LAA rally this uh this weekend, the CA stand chatting to all the guys there, fantastic people.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_04: I just want to not necessarily the the EC consultation doesn't necessarily reflect the whole picture of the CA.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_02: Individual the CA, great, and there are some really great good people.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_02: Sometimes there are there are some people there who aren't great, to be honest.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_02: Um but sometimes when it's collectively and they have to write stuff out, and I think we might talk um in next week's show.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_02: We've got another subject coming up, which I think is the instructor, the instructor hour, if for want of a better word.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_02: And and I have to say there's a ramp brewing as far as that's concerned.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_02: Um yeah, no, absolutely.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_02: Anyway, 22nd of September it closes.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_02: Get your get your say in now.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, we'll put a link in the description.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, but this time we would normally go into club news and talk about free landings and everything else.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_02: But I just want to thank everyone who is a member already of the club.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you very much for joining us.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_02: It's a well frankly, it's a very important part of our income, and we couldn't do it without you.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_02: And on that notice, if you looking at this, if you look at this regularly, if you like what we do and if you want to support us, please join.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_02: The price goes up on October the 1st.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_02: So if you want to save money, now's a fantastic time to join.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_02: Go to flyer.co.uk forward slash membership.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and if you're looking for things like landing fees, looking for things like all of the the past webinars and everything else we've done, then go to your user dashboard, log into the website, top right dashboard, go take a look there.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_02: You've got exclusive weather, you've got about everything, landing fees, discounts, uh, and access to everything we do online, obviously.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_02: But it would really appreciate it if you could help support us and join the club.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_02: It cost you at the moment, it costs you just six pounds a month or sixty-two pounds a year, but that will be going up on the first of October.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_04: And even then, it'll still be the best value.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_04: It'll still be great.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_02: But if you want even better value, get there and do it now.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_02: Renew that good, good, good, good, good.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, quick thing from Annabelle.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_02: If you are a member and you take advantage and use uh and use the landing fees, don't forget, when you're there, snap a bit of a picture and send it to us.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_02: We always up to date where you're flying.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_04: We always love to see people at different airfields having a great time.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_04: Absolutely, absolutely.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_00: Airfields.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_04: Is it time for the flyer airfield forecast?
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_02: It is indeed.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_02: It is indeed.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_02: So how have we split this up, Dave, or how have you split it up?
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_00: Well, um we've got a lot we've got very quick mentions of lot of a lot of airfields, some of which we'll discuss a bit further.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, but uh we'll go through them one by one.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_00: Um and you're going to kick off, I think, Ian, with uh talking about Popham.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_02: Kind of what I was hoping for there was yeah, well, we took the weather analogy and we got that graphic ready yet.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_00: Oh no, I decided to just make it simple.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_00: So first of all, we'll run through the black clouds of this weather analogy, which isn't here because we haven't got the chart.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_00: And you're gonna kick off with Popham.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_00: It's one of the black clouds.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_02: So Popham, Popham's one of those absolute classic airfields everyone knows, everyone loves, it's hugely important into into southern aviators, and in fact, aviators from everywhere, but it's it's a kind of important airfield down south, as it were.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_02: And we all know that's under threat of being turned into God knows how many thousands of houses at Popham Village.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_02: There's a couple of issues at the moment that have got things on hold kind of thing.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_02: The first is that the water companies have gone, well, we ain't got enough water for that, or the infrastructure to deliver it.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_02: What are we going to do?
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, and that's put it on hold.
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_02: And then there's the other interesting thing in the background, which is I don't know if you remember, but uh uh maybe a year, year or two ago, one of the councillors went, Pwah, pop-um.
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_02: It's not that important to the infrastructure, p, puh, puh.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_02: And they went, Oh yes, it is, look behind you.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and they they come the the council commissioned a report from a consultant to go and find out the importance of pop-um.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_02: Said consultant went and did loads and loads of interviews, chats, and stuff like that.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_02: Said that the report would be available publicly.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_02: The report, I believe, I have heard, is is pretty positive.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_02: So it, oh yes, it is.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_02: But equally, he having said the report will be available publicly, it appears not to be available publicly.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, wonder where that could be.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_02: I can't imagine why that happened.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_02: And and I think there's there's some machinations going on in the background here.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I believe someone has put a freedom of information request in to go, may I have a copy of the report?
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_02: So watch this space.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but yeah, pop'em, the pop'em still under a bit of a cloud, but fingers crossed, various things will happen that that it won't be.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_02: So there you go.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_00: Well, at Red Hill, there's been a black cloud comes coming scudding across the sky.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_00: And the local council, Tanj District Council, uh is including the site of Red Hill in its local plan uh as a new sort of garden village.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_00: Um, the the owners of the airfield uh constantly moaning about having lost money, and I can believe that's true.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_00: You had moaned about that as well.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_00: Because you know, in winter the airfield is almost unusable for almost three months of the year because it gets waterlogged.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_04: If only they had a hard runway.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_02: Do you remember when they used to have a helicopter show at Red Hill?
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_02: Long time ago.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_00: I don't remember that no.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_02: Bristol's used to be.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_02: Used to be called well, helite used to be Helitech, but everyone called it Wellitech.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_02: Wellitech.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_00: Well, anyway, the owners are desperate to do something with it, I guess, because they didn't get permission to build the hard runway, which would have helped the airfield enormously.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_00: Uh but now instead of building a runway, they want to take over the whole site and build this huge, great big village.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_00: Um, anyway, there's a bit of a row about that.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_00: The uh the if they've they had a consultation over this and the consultation's now ended, but we'll have to see how that ends up.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_02: Yep, absolutely.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_02: Now you've also got the next airfield.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_00: Nottingham City Airport, also known as Tolliton.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_00: Uh we know it's closed to fixed-wing aircraft last year, but I was amazed to find out that it's still very busy with helicopters.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, really?
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_00: There's a helicopter training company there called Arcus, and they are they're just really busy at the moment.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_00: Uh it's also open the the the the developer Vistri did say that they uh were going to keep uh keep it open for emergency helicopters and emergency services because they use it as a refueling stop.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_00: Um I hadn't realized that um all the other helicopter stuff was still going on.
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_00: Anyway, the campaigners behind trying to save the airport bring it back for all aircraft, um their latest way of dealing with it is to say that the the the local plan, which is they're arguing about getting into the local plan still.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um they found out that the airfield had a lot of munitions and other stuff left over after the end of World War II, and like a lot of places, they just buried it.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: And they're saying the land is poisoned.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um which will kind of make it unsuitable as a housing estate.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_02: It would make it very expensive to dig it all up and unpoison it.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it would.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_00: But so we've yet to see how that play that plays out.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_00: But the battle goes on for uh Nottingham.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_04: Not so good at Cambridge, where Cambridge East New Town has been agreed, unfortunately.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_04: Uh that land was sold to the Hill Group and Homes England, and that's 10,000 houses.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_02: 100%.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_04: So um uh uh obviously Marshall Aerospace um sold on the 4th of September 2026.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_04: That was to Aurelius Group.
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_04: Uh that's a German investment company.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_04: Um no news yet of the intentions um for Marshalls.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_04: No.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_04: But um yeah, the plan was to move out by 2029.
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_00: That's right.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_00: But wherever they go, and in what form, they're going to need an airfield because they're an airfield business.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, they're an a an aerospace business.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_00: Bring us your aeroplane in a bag.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_00: That's not gonna work.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_00: I can't talk about Cambridge very much because I did live there for a while.
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_00: Makes you mad.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_00: It makes me mad.
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_00: And 10,000 home homes in That's a big site.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_02: And that's 10,000 expensive homes, because Cambridge is not a cheap place.
• 23:13
  SPEAKER_02: No.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_00: Nice place to live.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_02: Where it was when it had an airport.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_00: It's gonna transform the whole city.
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, if you think about that.
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_00: They've got a water problem as well, because Anglia Water hasn't got any water.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_02: I suspect everywhere's got a water problem.
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, it's probably because all of the water companies over the last however long have invested so much of all their profit in infrastructure and stuff like that that they can deliver water to everywhere.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_02: They're not pumping raw sewage into rivers or sea or anything like that at all, nor taking big bonuses and everything else.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, you know, of course not.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_02: So that's why there are no water problems.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_02: There you go.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_02: Right, uh, talking of talking of black clouds, uh, this is a black cloud that the the sky's open, it rained a lot, and commentary closed.
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, the black the blackest of clouds.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_02: The blackest of clouds, yeah, absolutely.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_02: And uh it is now no longer an airport, and I don't think it's a gigafactory either at the moment.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_02: No.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_02: Um I think there are various plans afoot for it to become just kind of industrial warehousing and stuff like that.
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_02: I'm not sure anyone's kind of said that out loud at the moment.
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_02: So oops.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_02: As we say, when we lose an airfield, it is never replaced.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_02: And that was a particularly special one.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it was.
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_02: So um I'm gonna repeat this a couple of times.
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_02: Um this this is gonna be gonna be an ongoing story, obviously, throughout the the year.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_02: If if stuff comes up, we'll cover it.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_02: But if you know of something, please let us know.
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_02: To be blunt, if you send us an email going, Hey, we've heard that Airfield XYZ is going to close next week, we can't just go on that.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_02: We need more than that.
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_02: Um but we're we're always keen to heat.
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_02: Up give us pointers, leads.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_00: Always up for that.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, every every time we one of these comes up, it is the leads do come in just like that, really.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_00: And it takes a heck of a lot of work, time to track it down and find out what's really happening.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_02: There's there's a difference between saying to your mate down the flying club bar over half a pint, have you heard, than there is sort of doing this kind of thing, because over the last 32 years there are some people who get annoyed and or you end up with writs appearing in the post.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_00: But fortunately, there is some good news as well.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_00: Some sunshine.
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_00: Some sunshine.
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_00: If we had our weather map sunshine, at this point, I'd be reading a Scotchio.
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_02: Scotchio.
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_02: Sun on there, yes.
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_02: Great one, wasn't it?
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_00: First one is um Thruxton.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_00: There's a there's at right at the moment, it's a bit of a building site, apparently, but it's all it's it's underway.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_00: They're really transforming the whole place.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_00: It's gonna be a fabulous centre for general aviation when it's all done.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_04: And it's a building site, because have they spent like nearly two million pounds or something on it so far?
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_00: I haven't got a figure, but I know it's a lot of money going in there, yeah.
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_00: Um, yep, so that's that we're really looking forward to that.
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_00: Apparently, the building work's gonna be finished by February next year, yeah.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_00: Um, ready for the next year's season, and we're we've been invited already to go along and uh film the place uh at an early stage.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I guess we're looking at weather and times at that point, but uh we'll be there.
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, Thruston, for anyone who doesn't know, and I'm sure you do, is is very, very close to here.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_02: So it should be should be no problem.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_04: That'll be a great airfield to see see, you know, lots of renewed activity at, so that's right, and it's a it's got a real history thruxter as well.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously, there's a racetrack there, and I think it's fair to say that the owner, Alex, um, is more interested in the car side because he's a car racer.
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but he's really embraced the GA side as well.
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, airfields and car racetracks have a bit of a perfect synergy.
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_04: Perfect synergy, yeah.
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_04: And that's uh that's a great way for an airfield to make money in another manner and still keep still keep doing the airfield thing.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_04: Absolutely.
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, um talking um spending loads of money.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_04: Talking of spending loads of money and um and certainly creating a fantastic resource, obviously uh Wolverhampton Happenney Green, um that's I d that they've kind of bedded in all the stuff that they were doing last year, and I think this year they've had a fantastic season, they've had some brilliant fly-ins there.
• 26:59
  SPEAKER_04: Uh Big Chipmunk Festival obviously was I think one of the one of the one of the big ones.
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_04: Um but yeah, just everything we hear about Wolverhampton Happenney Green, obviously Amelia's the restaurant there.
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_04: Everyone's everyone speaks very highly of that, and just the runways and the infrastructure there.
• 27:17
  SPEAKER_04: Uh Heapney Green is um is is definitely one of the sunniest spots for 2026.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_02: Shining a light, yeah.
• 27:23
  SPEAKER_02: Reflecting that sunshine.
• 27:25
  SPEAKER_02: As is the next one that you got.
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_04: Ah, yes, Blackbush.
• 27:29
  SPEAKER_04: Um they obviously had some success uh with um they did some moving round of uh they acquired some common land, I think, didn't they?
• 27:37
  SPEAKER_04: And there was they swapped some land, didn't they swap some they did some land swapping which has allowed them to kind of go, okay, let's move forward with development.
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_04: And they've got new hangars, they've got their new tower, and uh obviously Blackbush, it's uh mainly orientated towards the business end of aviation, but it benefits everyone across the scale, GA all the way through.
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_04: So um yeah, that's it's great to see that because that's um that's yeah.
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_02: It's not one of those places like Biggin.
• 28:06
  SPEAKER_02: I'm I've got nothing against Big In, but Big In is very business aviation, but has very business aviation charges as well.
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_02: Blackbush is not a good idea.
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_04: Blackbush is about all users benefiting from having a gr having a great airfield.
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_02: That's right.
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_02: Yep.
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_02: Um Barton.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_02: Barton, another airfield I I tend to use Barton.
• 28:25
  SPEAKER_02: I only get to Barton once a year when I have to fly to Manchester for pilot careers life.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_02: But it's a I have to say, um, great place, always super friendly, fly in, nice grass runways, no issue for me.
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_02: But they're they're extending the run, or they're putting in planning permission, re requesting to be able to extend the runways if you can, which you can help support.
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_02: If they get that, that would be great.
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_02: And I, you know, I have to say, it's always packed when I go, there's always loads of people watching, there's always helicopter tours going on, there's a nice restaurant right by the runway that you can sort of sit down and have a have a whatever you want to have and and watch watch the world go by.
• 28:57
  SPEAKER_04: Lots of activities.
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_04: I think Bart Barton seems to be one of those places that really is a big draw to the surrounding community.
• 29:03
  SPEAKER_04: People seem to love going there.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, no, it's it's a it's a great place.
• 29:07
  SPEAKER_02: I'm a big fan of big fan of Barton.
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_02: There was a little thing many years ago that some people still remember about some MORs and ATZs and stuff like that, but I think that was more that's all kind of like history now.
• 29:19
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, just it's a great place to fly into, don't be intimidated by it at all.
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_02: Go there.
• 29:23
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yep.
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_00: Uh my asked my next bit is about Manston.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, obviously Manston was once a really active GA airfield, um, but uh it's been closed for some time.
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_00: The a company called River Oak, uh River Oak Strategic Partners, they call themselves RSP for obvious reasons.
• 29:42
  SPEAKER_00: Um they're they've been slogging away trying to get various permissions in place and things like this.
• 29:47
  SPEAKER_00: They've now got what's called a development consent order, so they are able to they're able to go ahead as an airport.
• 29:53
  SPEAKER_00: They're in the point where they're negotiating airspace with uh the CAA, because obviously all the old airspace that was accompanying it is gone.
• 30:01
  SPEAKER_00: They want to open it primarily as a freight hub.
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_00: That's where they see the real market.
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_00: Um but it will still be open to business in general aviation.
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_04: It's a big place, isn't it?
• 30:11
  SPEAKER_04: It's a huge place, yeah.
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_00: Well, it's where you know to put it bluntly, bombers coming back from uh you know during civil world war two, where they've been shot up and just about managed to come over the the channel at sea wave wave height, they would just throw it at the runway and uh uh bit like me.
• 30:30
  SPEAKER_00: I throw it at the runway.
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_00: Um the grooves are all still we're still there in place, as you can see it.
• 30:36
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, not from your landing, but uh a Manson targeting 2029 or something.
• 30:40
  SPEAKER_00: 2029 is when they're they're looking to reopen.
• 30:43
  SPEAKER_04: They're occasionally open for a little bit of a fly-in, don't they?
• 30:47
  SPEAKER_04: There was one this year, yeah.
• 30:48
  SPEAKER_04: Um run by uh the the local um local Kent Strut of the Light Aircraft Association.
• 30:53
  SPEAKER_02: So I kind of see it as the ostend of Kent, because Ostend is very much of a freight hub.
• 30:57
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 30:58
  SPEAKER_02: Kind of airport, and it's not a million miles from Munston, really.
• 31:00
  SPEAKER_04: And you've got to go, I mean a freight hub, you go, that surely makes sense for the world of logistics nowadays.
• 31:07
  SPEAKER_00: You see it does, but you've still got to get stuff all the way up from you know, right on the coast.
• 31:13
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 31:14
  SPEAKER_00: Because it's it's I mean it's great that it's gonna be a reopen, but they've got to rethink the next stage.
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, where does it go from there?
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, next one.
• 31:23
  SPEAKER_02: Right, let's have a let's have a let's have a a sample of pronunciation of this one.
• 31:28
  SPEAKER_02: Ballardo.
• 31:28
  SPEAKER_02: I'm going for Ballardo.
• 31:29
  SPEAKER_02: I think Ballado.
• 31:30
  SPEAKER_02: Are you sure it's not Balladoo?
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_02: Ballardo is it is there's just so much stuff going on there.
• 31:38
  SPEAKER_02: I spoke to Jamie oh quite a while ago now, and he's just one of these like super enthusiastic, energetic people getting stuff done, just getting on with it, really.
• 31:45
  SPEAKER_04: I was really so because they've dug out a whole load of concrete, haven't they?
• 31:50
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 31:50
  SPEAKER_03: That's like a mega commitment.
• 31:51
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, thousands of tons of stuff to make lovely grass runways.
• 31:55
  SPEAKER_02: You you see a few people like that are doing doing what to me considers like ridiculous amounts of work on YouTube and stuff like that.
• 32:02
  SPEAKER_02: And these people just go, oh, this is what we're gonna do, and they just get on with it.
• 32:04
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 32:05
  SPEAKER_02: And then bit by bit by oh, done.
• 32:07
  SPEAKER_02: I'd be like, I'm having a sweep.
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_02: They're like, we're not, we're moving tens of moving hundreds of thousands of tons of stuff.
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 32:13
  SPEAKER_02: I didn't want to repaint the numbers, so I've relocated the magnetic north pole.
• 32:17
  SPEAKER_02: That was easier.
• 32:18
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 32:18
  SPEAKER_04: But this look, I mean it's a the latest photos, it's looking fantastic.
• 32:22
  SPEAKER_04: Absolutely.
• 32:23
  SPEAKER_00: So big Well, something similar is going on at Doorlock, up on the north-east coast of Scotland.
• 32:29
  SPEAKER_00: Uh it they've they've rebranded themselves, actually.
• 32:32
  SPEAKER_00: It's General Aviation's Gateway to the North Islands of Scotland.
• 32:35
  SPEAKER_00: So it's that's a snappy title.
• 32:37
  SPEAKER_00: It is a snappy title.
• 32:38
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 32:39
  SPEAKER_02: General Aviation Gateway to the North Islands of Scotland Radio.
• 32:45
  SPEAKER_00: Anyway, it's a great location.
• 32:47
  SPEAKER_00: It's uh it's a very beautiful location, um, tracking a variety of aircraft from microlites to corporate helicopters.
• 32:54
  SPEAKER_00: And one of the attractions, apparently, is it's a short walk from the airfield into the town of Dornock uh to a shirt surf and turf restaurant.
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_00: That's proving a very popular thing.
• 33:05
  SPEAKER_04: Sounded like it was nearly gonna be a shirt and turf.
• 33:08
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, yes, yeah.
• 33:09
  SPEAKER_00: I start talking like short no short No, I can't do any accents.
• 33:12
  SPEAKER_00: No, it's gonna be a good thing.
• 33:13
  SPEAKER_00: No, no, don't do the accent.
• 33:14
  SPEAKER_00: I was gonna do my Sean Coder here.
• 33:15
  SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna I'm gonna point out another thing about Dornock as well, yeah, which is another reason to go there, is the fact that it's just down the road from Easter.
• 33:23
  SPEAKER_02: So if you go to Dornock, you need to go to Easter as well.
• 33:26
  SPEAKER_02: It's a stepping stone.
• 33:28
  SPEAKER_02: One of them's a stepping stone to the other.
• 33:29
  SPEAKER_02: So whichever one you go to first, make sure you check them both out.
• 33:32
  SPEAKER_02: Have you got to Easter yet?
• 33:33
  SPEAKER_02: No.
• 33:34
  SPEAKER_02: Not yet.
• 33:34
  SPEAKER_02: No, I'm going to.
• 33:35
  SPEAKER_02: I am going to do it.
• 33:37
  SPEAKER_02: Uh me.
• 33:38
  SPEAKER_04: Even though the days are drawing in, I am going to do it.
• 33:40
  SPEAKER_04: Yes, it's going to happen.
• 33:41
  SPEAKER_04: Um and uh one final sunny bit of sunny news, and and this is uh another one local to us, Brown Shutters uh airstrip.
• 33:49
  SPEAKER_04: Um they are absolutely storming ahead with their their grand plans.
• 33:53
  SPEAKER_04: Um so they've got an access road at the moment that uh ran across the airfield, they're rerouting that around the airfield so that no longer do um aircraft uh sorry uh cars arriving have to mix with aircraft.
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_04: Um but also they've applied for planning for an incredible building that's gonna be so they're they're gonna be building a whole bunch of fishing lakes.
• 34:14
  SPEAKER_05: Yep.
• 34:14
  SPEAKER_04: Um but they've applied for planning for a new building that is um it's the I think it's gonna be um a tackle store, um country outdoor kind of pursuit store, and um there's gonna be six or seven hangar units in this building as well.
• 34:31
  SPEAKER_04: Um it's uh it looks amazing in the photos.
• 34:34
  SPEAKER_04: And um you know, sometimes you go strips, you know, you you don't expect strips to have such grand plans.
• 34:40
  SPEAKER_04: But this if they pull this all off at Brown Shutters and they're a big motivated team there, and I'm sure they will, this will be a fantastic place to go.
• 34:47
  SPEAKER_02: Branchutters, again, really, really close to how I I could almost find it without a GPS.
• 34:53
  SPEAKER_02: Maybe, maybe not.
• 34:54
  SPEAKER_02: But it's a little bit like this place as well.
• 34:56
  SPEAKER_02: There's just so much going on here.
• 34:58
  SPEAKER_02: Wadswick's a fantastic place as well.
• 34:59
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, it is.
• 35:00
  SPEAKER_02: We need to do that video directly.
• 35:02
  SPEAKER_04: We should say Wadswick, the only I think it's the only UK the only UK airfield where you can fly in and play paddle.
• 35:10
  SPEAKER_04: You can fly in and play paddle, yeah.
• 35:14
  SPEAKER_02: You can fly in and buy a gun.
• 35:16
  SPEAKER_02: Actually, I don't know the rules around buying guns, so maybe you have to do maybe you've increated a new category there.
• 35:23
  SPEAKER_02: But fantastic restaurant.
• 35:24
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 35:25
  SPEAKER_02: And on a Wednesday, if you come in and you let us know and you're a member, you can get a free mug.
• 35:30
  SPEAKER_02: But do let us know.
• 35:31
  SPEAKER_00: If you're flying to Clacton, you can go for a paddle afterwards.
• 35:34
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I think that's a different kind of paddle.
• 35:36
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, it is.
• 35:37
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 35:38
  SPEAKER_00: Anyway, as well as the black clouds and the sunshine, we have a category which is sort of in between where we're not entirely sure if it's all going to work out or what's going to happen.
• 35:49
  SPEAKER_00: We call this weak sun showers.
• 35:51
  SPEAKER_00: Um is about Wellsbourne.
• 35:53
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 35:53
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I mean at Wellsbourne, there is this plan to develop part of the site that's been agreed between the owners of the airfield and the uh and the local council, Stratford District Council.
• 36:06
  SPEAKER_00: It's now gone into the local plan, and there's a bit of confusion over exactly how much of the airfield is going to be built on.
• 36:14
  SPEAKER_00: The in the drawings, the the the the what the line that shows where that side's gonna be airfield, this side's gonna be industrial development, basically, seems to have crept a little bit into the airfield system.
• 36:25
  SPEAKER_04: And the and the Wells Worn plan, because it was multi-stage, wasn't it?
• 36:29
  SPEAKER_04: And it was we're gonna be building on the airfield.
• 36:31
  SPEAKER_04: However, at the very end of the plan, there was a new site for the runway.
• 36:37
  SPEAKER_02: For the runway.
• 36:37
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 36:38
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 36:38
  SPEAKER_02: I I would be so much happier if there's by the way, we're gonna build the new runway first.
• 36:42
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 36:43
  SPEAKER_00: But they but there's no commitment to do that.
• 36:46
  SPEAKER_00: And Stratford District Council is does not appear to be holding them to it at the moment, I have to say.
• 36:52
  SPEAKER_00: But it's it's still at a local plan stage, it's not fixed.
• 36:55
  SPEAKER_00: It could turn the other turn around.
• 36:58
  SPEAKER_02: Now I can think of somewhere that's got a perfectly usable runway that's used by certain aircraft, but is currently unavailable to other aircraft.
• 37:07
  SPEAKER_00: Yep, we're talking about old serum, of course.
• 37:09
  SPEAKER_00: Uh again, not very far from here.
• 37:11
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 37:11
  SPEAKER_00: Uh anyway, uh talking to one of the guys who runs it, who has the lease, uh, Grenville Hodge, he told me we still plan to have the airfield open this year on a limited basis, and hopefully more on a more regular basis during the spring of next year.
• 37:26
  SPEAKER_00: I think so.
• 37:26
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 37:26
  SPEAKER_00: So he did say that they were gonna do they were gonna reopen, yeah, but it's taken a bit longer.
• 37:30
  SPEAKER_00: The reason it's taken a bit longer is because they needed to re-life their radio license.
• 37:35
  SPEAKER_00: It took longer than expected.
• 37:37
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know any detail about that, but they do now have old SARM radio up and working.
• 37:42
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, they've got the website all set up for the PPR business and the information needed to brief incoming pilots.
• 37:49
  SPEAKER_00: Um, they've not yet had got the staff with the appropriate experience uh to uh to open that.
• 37:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um the whole process, in fact, Grenville said the whole process of reopening the airfield and rebuilding the hangar has been this is hangar three, the one that was destroyed, uh, has been considerably more bureaucratic uh than we expected.
• 38:08
  SPEAKER_00: But most of the preparation work is now complete for both reopening the airfield and starting the hangar rebuild.
• 38:14
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 38:14
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 38:15
  SPEAKER_02: They never did find out how that fi how that fire got started, did they?
• 38:18
  SPEAKER_02: No.
• 38:19
  SPEAKER_02: Or they never did find out who started it, I should say.
• 38:22
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 38:23
  SPEAKER_00: Um we should say there that it's you know it was an it was a hangar full of combustibles, as hangars tend to be.
• 38:29
  SPEAKER_02: I think the police did invest because they were there were calls for if any if you saw anything, there was even an arrest, I believe, at some stage.
• 38:36
  SPEAKER_02: But but that it's got no further.
• 38:37
  SPEAKER_02: No, got no farther indeed.
• 38:39
  SPEAKER_02: But I mean, you know, Greble, hey, safety com, it's the way to go.
• 38:43
  SPEAKER_02: Um I mean this place have a bunch of movements, all sorts of stuff, yeah, and it it has a safety com.
• 38:49
  SPEAKER_02: It runs on safety com.
• 38:50
  SPEAKER_00: But I I think because yeah, the uh the the F the uh parachute operation there is running all the time in decent weather.
• 38:56
  SPEAKER_00: It's a very, very slick operation.
• 38:59
  SPEAKER_00: And I think they um yeah they they want to keep that going, obviously.
• 39:03
  SPEAKER_00: And so uh sometimes you've got to ask people to stay away.
• 39:06
  SPEAKER_04: But but 2027.
• 39:08
  SPEAKER_02: Dunkers well managers.
• 39:10
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 39:10
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, that's that's true.
• 39:12
  SPEAKER_04: That's true.
• 39:12
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 39:13
  SPEAKER_04: Let's hope.
• 39:14
  SPEAKER_04: Let's hope the the let's the slightly showery bit gives way to sunshine in 2027.
• 39:19
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah.
• 39:21
  SPEAKER_02: It would absolutely be great to have it.
• 39:23
  SPEAKER_04: Well that would be a busy place, wouldn't it?
• 39:24
  SPEAKER_04: If you if old serum was active in Throxton, yeah, yeah, that would be a lot going on then isn't it?
• 39:29
  SPEAKER_02: A lot in the south.
• 39:30
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 39:30
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, last last on our list, uh well, we're not quite sure whether it's sunshine, showers, bit of both, whatever.
• 39:36
  SPEAKER_02: Uh Gloucester.
• 39:37
  SPEAKER_02: Yep.
• 39:38
  SPEAKER_02: Gloucester.
• 39:38
  SPEAKER_02: So, you know, on on we know that the sale fell through.
• 39:41
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 39:42
  SPEAKER_02: We know that they've relaunched the sale.
• 39:44
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 39:45
  SPEAKER_02: Um I believe there are some interested parties.
• 39:48
  SPEAKER_02: We don't know anything more other than that.
• 39:50
  SPEAKER_02: I know they've been showing some people around and stuff like that.
• 39:53
  SPEAKER_02: We know that they've won an ATC award recently, yeah.
• 39:56
  SPEAKER_02: Um, which which is good news because they're getting back.
• 39:59
  SPEAKER_02: We also know that they've still got a slot system.
• 40:03
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, remember it's not that long ago when there wasn't even PPR at Gloucester.
• 40:06
  SPEAKER_02: You just like caught them on the way, like you do with airports around the world, yeah.
• 40:09
  SPEAKER_02: Pretty much around the rest of the world without too much of a hassle.
• 40:12
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 40:12
  SPEAKER_02: But you know, they're now not only got PPR, but they've got a PPR, they've got a slot system.
• 40:16
  SPEAKER_02: I don't think the radar is working at the moment properly.
• 40:19
  SPEAKER_02: Not sure if it ever will, or it needs a lot of money to get it up and running again.
• 40:23
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so there's still stuff to be done, and hopefully the new buyers, when they're found, will go, let's spend a whole load of money on the airfo getting it back to what we need.
• 40:31
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 40:31
  SPEAKER_02: As opposed to let's make some whole load of money in some other way.
• 40:34
  SPEAKER_02: I wonder, I wonder how long we'll be waiting for a new buyer.
• 40:39
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 40:40
  SPEAKER_00: Well, there's so much in the up in the air, and uh because I live in Gloucestershire.
• 40:45
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, there's the the whole unitary council thing has been cancelled, canned as of as of yesterday.
• 40:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um Gloucester City Council probably resist was resisting that because it it sees itself as a an old well-established council.
• 40:59
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but they've they're money-wise, they're not great.
• 41:02
  SPEAKER_00: They own the owner the government a whole huge sum of money.
• 41:04
  SPEAKER_00: So I I would think the city council, Gloucester City Council and its other owner, Cheltenham, um, they would want to get rid of it as soon as possible.
• 41:13
  SPEAKER_00: They just want the m they don't want it off their hands.
• 41:14
  SPEAKER_00: At the moment, it's a costum, which they and they they admit they don't know how to run an airfield.
• 41:19
  SPEAKER_02: So, yeah, we could have told them that.
• 41:22
  SPEAKER_00: Well, yeah.
• 41:24
  SPEAKER_02: So anyway.
• 41:25
  SPEAKER_02: Anyway, so hopefully that'll have a bright new future.
• 41:27
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 41:27
  SPEAKER_02: So there you go.
• 41:28
  SPEAKER_02: So once again, if you've got any news, send it to Dave.
• 41:32
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 41:32
  SPEAKER_00: We'll be putting this list up on the website as well and keeping it regularly updated because uh it's a useful thing to have, I think.
• 41:39
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 41:40
  SPEAKER_00: Keep it uh a mark in the sand.
• 41:42
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 41:44
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 41:44
  SPEAKER_04: It must be time for.
• 41:46
  SPEAKER_04: Fancy hanger.
• 42:00
  SPEAKER_04: Okay, so having seen the return of the Gips Aero G A ten turbine in the news, which is not a looker, I have to say, um, and and my eyes are only just recovering.
• 42:13
  SPEAKER_04: Um that got me thinking, are there any beautiful single-engine turbine curb uh conversions out there?
• 42:21
  SPEAKER_04: So I don't know.
• 42:22
  SPEAKER_04: I think there are.
• 42:25
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 42:25
  SPEAKER_04: So we challenge ourselves to find them.
• 42:28
  SPEAKER_04: What have you got, Ian?
• 42:29
  SPEAKER_02: Well before we talk about that, I would just like to point out last week I won the opening season.
• 42:38
  SPEAKER_02: With the amazing Gemini Miles Falcon.
• 42:40
  SPEAKER_02: Miles Gemini major.
• 42:44
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 42:45
  SPEAKER_02: You were you were the winner.
• 42:46
  SPEAKER_02: Falcon major.
• 42:47
  SPEAKER_02: And actually, I saw the other day that uh the at the end of the month of September, it looks like there's a vintage fly-in at Shoreham with shipping and airlines amongst special guests.
• 42:57
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know if they're going to bring the Falcon or not, but they should.
• 43:00
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 43:01
  SPEAKER_02: That would be worth if I'm around, I'm not which I'm not sure I am.
• 43:04
  SPEAKER_02: I might pop in just to go in this minute and touch it.
• 43:07
  SPEAKER_02: I win with this airplane.
• 43:08
  SPEAKER_02: Anyway, right.
• 43:09
  SPEAKER_02: So we we wanted, I mean, the the trouble is the the turbine conversions, a lot of them they just seem ugly because the aircraft's been built with a weight balance for a big old heavy lump of engine in the front.
• 43:18
  SPEAKER_02: They go, Oh, blind me, these turbines are a bit powerful and a bit light, aren't they?
• 43:22
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 43:22
  SPEAKER_02: Let's extend the nose by God knows what and chuck it on there, and then it all becomes a looks a little bit Pilatus PC7 Porter, we're looking at you.
• 43:30
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, absolutely, absolutely.
• 43:32
  SPEAKER_02: So I had a look back and I found something called the Speed Star 850.
• 43:38
  SPEAKER_02: Now, you may not know what the Speedstar 850 is, um, but it's one of the only original aircraft, if you like, the Aerostar.
• 43:47
  SPEAKER_02: It comes from the Aerostar.
• 43:48
  SPEAKER_02: And the Aerostar is the only aircraft I can think of that was originally launched as a piston aircraft.
• 43:53
  SPEAKER_02: Start sort of 160 horsepower a side, believe it or not.
• 43:56
  SPEAKER_02: That's a bit underpowered.
• 43:56
  SPEAKER_02: And that must have been a bit underpowered and ended up, I think, with 290 per side.
• 43:59
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_02: A couple of IO540s.
• 44:01
  SPEAKER_02: Absolute high performance uh piston twin.
• 44:04
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 44:04
  SPEAKER_02: Pressurized, um, lovely, lovely aeroplane, not to be used on short strips.
• 44:09
  SPEAKER_02: Um and then there was some guy who went, I know what, let's take those pistons off and strap jet engines to it.
• 44:15
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 44:16
  SPEAKER_02: And then then and then and then this guy, Oscar Taylor, who owned a powerboat manufacturing company.
• 44:21
  SPEAKER_02: Always a good formula, and had a fair bit of money, it has to be said, said, I know, I'm gonna take the take the engines off the wing, I'm gonna redo the wing, I'm gonna do the front nose, and I'm gonna stick a Garrett um turbine in the turn it into a single engine.
• 44:38
  SPEAKER_02: I just think it looks bloody lovely.
• 44:40
  SPEAKER_04: That is I uh uh that is a mic drop in the turbine conversions because it's I don't think I've ever seen someone go from a twin to a single.
• 44:50
  SPEAKER_04: No uh that is bonkers.
• 44:52
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, absolutely.
• 44:53
  SPEAKER_04: You'd think a couple of turbines on the wings, maybe.
• 44:55
  SPEAKER_04: But and it's actually made a nice quite a pretty good.
• 44:59
  SPEAKER_02: It looks lovely, I reckon.
• 45:00
  SPEAKER_02: 260 knots.
• 45:01
  SPEAKER_02: Wow, is um 235 US gallons of Jet A and a a range of about 1,200 nautical miles, which is not at all shabby.
• 45:10
  SPEAKER_02: And reportedly um he said that it spent the the total bill for the conversion.
• 45:17
  SPEAKER_02: I'm my little guy, you're right, his his alarm is going off, was well south of a million dollars.
• 45:23
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, it was relatively was 2009-ish or something like that.
• 45:27
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, okay.
• 45:27
  SPEAKER_02: And but that's when it was completed.
• 45:29
  SPEAKER_02: So it's 2009 money.
• 45:30
  SPEAKER_02: 2009 dollars, so that's probably like five million dollars now.
• 45:34
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 45:35
  SPEAKER_02: Um but I just think I just think it looks lovely.
• 45:37
  SPEAKER_04: I heard a rumour that there's two hundred pounds of lead in the tail of the.
• 45:41
  SPEAKER_04: I don't think that's a rumour at all.
• 45:42
  SPEAKER_04: That's actually true.
• 45:44
  SPEAKER_02: Um and and in fact, Oscar was working on a second prototype where he sort of chucked the Garrett out.
• 45:51
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 45:52
  SPEAKER_02: But he didn't chuck it out, but you know, that's not working.
• 45:54
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 45:54
  SPEAKER_02: Because they're also fearsomely unquiet, yes, should we say.
• 45:59
  SPEAKER_02: And put a PT six in.
• 46:00
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 46:01
  SPEAKER_02: And the idea and he was going to sort out the whole weight and balance at the time, because no one he had like two hundred pounds of lead shot encased in resin in the back.
• 46:11
  SPEAKER_02: Um which you know, no one really wants to do that.
• 46:14
  SPEAKER_02: No, you never want to take dead weight flying, do you?
• 46:16
  SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
• 46:17
  SPEAKER_02: And so consequently, the idea was with the PT six that would get solved.
• 46:22
  SPEAKER_02: But this is this is not a fancy hanger about practicalities and aerodynamics.
• 46:27
  SPEAKER_02: This is a practic this is a fancy hanger about the way the thing looks.
• 46:30
  SPEAKER_02: And I think this thing just looks like that.
• 46:31
  SPEAKER_02: I'm almost tempted to say Ian wins, because that is that's a hang on, hang on.
• 46:36
  SPEAKER_04: That's a that is a great looking.
• 46:38
  SPEAKER_02: It is it is a great I think it's a great looking aircraft.
• 46:40
  SPEAKER_02: And I I mean I think the Aero Star is a bit of a legendary kind of aircraft anyway.
• 46:44
  SPEAKER_02: So just to take that, you know, and it was air conditioned, it was pressurized, it was fast, it had a decent range, you could chuck four people in the back.
• 46:54
  SPEAKER_02: Um it was one of the only G A it's the only GA airplane I can think of that's got like a little steering tiller thing as opposed to doing it on the on the pedals.
• 47:02
  SPEAKER_02: You know, that's what you pretend you're an airline.
• 47:04
  SPEAKER_02: It's an airline feel.
• 47:06
  SPEAKER_02: Well, but there you go.
• 47:08
  SPEAKER_02: That's my entry.
• 47:09
  SPEAKER_02: Dave.
• 47:09
  SPEAKER_02: But I did win last month.
• 47:10
  SPEAKER_02: Uh last week.
• 47:12
  SPEAKER_02: Last week, even.
• 47:13
  SPEAKER_02: Dave, can you beat Ian?
• 47:14
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 47:15
  SPEAKER_00: Terragon.
• 47:16
  SPEAKER_00: Not the Herb, but Terragon, the aircraft manufacturer.
• 47:19
  SPEAKER_00: Uh they've uh they've been producing piston engine version, Rotex engine versions of their their aircraft.
• 47:25
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but now they've put the TurboTech engine in, which uh is a little little French-made uh turboprop engine, the TurboTech TPR 150, produces around 141 horsepower.
• 47:38
  SPEAKER_04: Um that is that is a pretty looking aeroplane.
• 47:41
  SPEAKER_04: It is a very pretty I hate to say it, but that is that's actually another good looking turbo in case.
• 47:46
  SPEAKER_04: It doesn't look bad, does it?
• 47:47
  SPEAKER_04: It looks really good.
• 47:48
  SPEAKER_00: And uh we've seen it's at Aero, but it actually made its first flight uh in in Latvia, where Tarragon are based, in um in July.
• 47:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um so they're they're uh if you want to order one, you can now.
• 48:00
  SPEAKER_00: It is quite a pricey aeroplane, I have to say.
• 48:02
  SPEAKER_00: 560,000 US dollars.
• 48:05
  SPEAKER_04: Wow, that is still considering that's powered by the TurboTech turbine, yeah, that's still$250,000 cheaper than the Carbon Cub UL.
• 48:16
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 48:16
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 48:17
  SPEAKER_04: UL the the the ULT.
• 48:21
  SPEAKER_04: When car uh Cubcrafters unveiled their turbine carbon cup, was that six hundred and ninety-nine thousand dollars?
• 48:27
  SPEAKER_04: Wow.
• 48:27
  SPEAKER_04: So that this isn't that.
• 48:30
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 48:30
  SPEAKER_04: Never never have I ever gone.
• 48:32
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I think I think that TurboTech engine in t in the turbine world is not outrageously expensive.
• 48:38
  SPEAKER_02: You know, because uh a a new PT6.
• 48:40
  SPEAKER_02: It is outrageously expensive.
• 48:42
  SPEAKER_04: And I don't I uh no one appears to come up with a f actual figure for how much a TPR ninety is yet.
• 48:48
  SPEAKER_04: No.
• 48:48
  SPEAKER_04: Um probably because maybe they even don't know yet.
• 48:51
  SPEAKER_02: Well there was a figure quoted a couple of years ago in an interview that has subsequently disappeared.
• 49:00
  SPEAKER_02: I know And the problem I mean I think the problem is as a turbine engine it's relatively cheap, but compared to a Rotex engine or something like Lycosaurus engines, it's it's expensive.
• 49:14
  SPEAKER_02: And we've got to f figure out a way of it whether the whether the market's happy to pay that much money for a hundred and forty shaft horsepower turbine engine.
• 49:21
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 49:22
  SPEAKER_02: I mean we all like the sound and the smell.
• 49:24
  SPEAKER_04: And I I I think TurboTech clearly one of the most exciting developments coming up.
• 49:29
  SPEAKER_04: I just I hope, because clearly there's gonna be huge demand for their engine.
• 49:32
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, I heard uh I heard Cupcrafters had sold all of next year's ULT allocation plus a whole bunch of others.
• 49:39
  SPEAKER_04: So you go that TurboTech is gonna have to meet quite a demand for engines.
• 49:44
  SPEAKER_02: I wouldn't be surprised if there's there's a separate company set up for manufacturing that different different investors and stuff like that.
• 49:50
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 49:50
  SPEAKER_00: Let's just have a quick reminder of how good that TurboTech engine is.
• 49:53
  SPEAKER_00: The reason why people are interested in it is not only is it because it's small and relatively light and it's a turbine, but it's also they've worked out how to make it have reasonable fuel consumption.
• 50:03
  SPEAKER_00: Um at low altitude.
• 50:04
  SPEAKER_00: At low altitude, yeah.
• 50:05
  SPEAKER_00: Because it's regenerative, isn't it?
• 50:07
  SPEAKER_00: That's right, yeah.
• 50:08
  SPEAKER_00: They're getting around 19 litres an hour fuel consumption uh out of what they call the Echo Cruise, which um is quite a good figure.
• 50:16
  SPEAKER_02: That might be eco-cruise.
• 50:17
  SPEAKER_02: Eco, eco-cruise, yes.
• 50:18
  SPEAKER_02: I much prefer the idea of an Echo Cruise.
• 50:20
  SPEAKER_02: Eco cruise, cruise, cruise, cruise, cruise.
• 50:22
  SPEAKER_00: And you go to TBO on this, it's 3,000 hours on that uh Turbo Tech engine.
• 50:27
  SPEAKER_00: That's pretty good.
• 50:27
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 50:28
  SPEAKER_00: On the Tarragon, they're claiming incredible performance for it.
• 50:32
  SPEAKER_00: Uh demonstrated rate of climb up to 2,200 feet per minute.
• 50:36
  SPEAKER_04: Um is that with nothing in it?
• 50:39
  SPEAKER_00: Well, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 50:42
  SPEAKER_00: And they're claiming crews, they're saying you can do between 170 and 190 true airspeed.
• 50:48
  SPEAKER_00: That's that's that's pretty good.
• 50:49
  SPEAKER_02: I bet you that's at 25,000 feet or something.
• 50:52
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 50:52
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 50:53
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 50:53
  SPEAKER_02: I mean it's hundred, it's not it's a great engine, or it appears to be a great engine, but it's not like if you haven't suddenly got three hundred horsepower or something.
• 51:00
  SPEAKER_00: No, no, no, but you I've got a you know, it's tandem, it's very light.
• 51:03
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 51:03
  SPEAKER_04: But there's certain there's there's certain rules about drag and aeroplanes, isn't it?
• 51:08
  SPEAKER_04: There's you can't there's no magic.
• 51:09
  SPEAKER_04: The pesky laws of physics.
• 51:11
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, there it is.
• 51:12
  SPEAKER_04: Fundamentally pesky.
• 51:13
  SPEAKER_04: But uh fundamentally, that is another good-looking aeroplane.
• 51:16
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 51:16
  SPEAKER_04: And uh and a bit of a bargain by the sounds of it.
• 51:19
  SPEAKER_04: Yep, yep.
• 51:20
  SPEAKER_00: So that's good looking from all angles, I'd say as well.
• 51:24
  SPEAKER_04: That is.
• 51:24
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, no, I can't I can't I can't argue against that.
• 51:27
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, Ed, are you gonna are you gonna restore faith?
• 51:30
  SPEAKER_04: I think I've got a great choice, but against your two.
• 51:33
  SPEAKER_04: Let it play with your head, you know.
• 51:34
  SPEAKER_04: That's it.
• 51:34
  SPEAKER_04: No, I know.
• 51:34
  SPEAKER_04: I'm not gonna it's it's a prank.
• 51:38
  SPEAKER_04: Um I went for this.
• 51:39
  SPEAKER_04: It's the turbine touchen.
• 51:42
  SPEAKER_04: There's only one of these, um, but someone decided that actually the Pitts Model 12, which normally has the 360 horsepower Videnyev M14P engine, big radial, they went, let's put a Walter 601 turboprop in it with 750 shaft horsepower.
• 51:58
  SPEAKER_04: Wow.
• 51:59
  SPEAKER_04: It's a good package, I think.
• 52:01
  SPEAKER_04: And obviously the the the toucan paint scheme um highlights that beautiful long nose.
• 52:07
  SPEAKER_04: The neat thing about the turbine toucan is it weighs 2,000 pounds and has 3,300,000 uh 3,300 pounds of thrust.
• 52:16
  SPEAKER_04: So it's a 1.65 to 1 power ratio.
• 52:19
  SPEAKER_04: Wow.
• 52:20
  SPEAKER_04: Um so that means it can accelerate in a vertical climb indefinitely.
• 52:27
  SPEAKER_02: Maybe.
• 52:28
  SPEAKER_04: Yes.
• 52:30
  SPEAKER_02: Basically the problem is got vertical, check the way.
• 52:37
  SPEAKER_04: Maybe, yeah.
• 52:38
  SPEAKER_04: Uh apparently, uh so this is a project that was finished in 2008 and suffered from um the financial crisis at the time that the guy who developed it didn't couldn't find the sponsors.
• 52:49
  SPEAKER_04: It went into storage for a bit.
• 52:50
  SPEAKER_04: It has been back on the scene.
• 52:52
  SPEAKER_04: The rumors of it flying again in 2024, maybe we'll we will see it again.
• 52:56
  SPEAKER_04: Initial testing when this aeroplane was flown, 8,400 feet per minute climb rate.
• 53:03
  SPEAKER_04: Um and that was at 50% power.
• 53:07
  SPEAKER_02: Which is probably all you could do without it.
• 53:09
  SPEAKER_02: Without it spinning round its own axis.
• 53:12
  SPEAKER_02: It's a it's a it's got some astounding numbers.
• 53:16
  SPEAKER_02: And it's it's it must be like you know those little electric sort of super lightweight radio controlled things that are able to do all sorts of very stuff.
• 53:28
  SPEAKER_02: I think it's you know it's probably as close to that as we get in the in the sort of full-scale world.
• 53:33
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 53:34
  SPEAKER_02: But um I'm not sure it's so it's an astounding airplane, but I'm not sure it's the most beautiful airplane.
• 53:41
  SPEAKER_02: I I try to look bad.
• 53:43
  SPEAKER_02: I I think it's a conversion, it makes sense.
• 53:46
  SPEAKER_02: You know, six out of ten.
• 53:48
  SPEAKER_04: Ah, thanks.
• 53:49
  SPEAKER_04: For looks.
• 53:49
  SPEAKER_04: Thanks, Mr.
• 53:50
  SPEAKER_04: Winds.
• 53:51
  SPEAKER_04: I think the paint scheme down the side though is brilliant.
• 53:54
  SPEAKER_04: Is is great.
• 53:54
  SPEAKER_04: And uh the Tucan's famous, so its most famous contribution to the world of flying is it gave the start-up and turbine noises for Dusty Crop Hopper in the Disney in the Disney Plains films.
• 54:07
  SPEAKER_02: So Well, maybe they should at that point they should have gone, that's the pinnacle.
• 54:10
  SPEAKER_02: Just put it in the museum.
• 54:12
  SPEAKER_02: We'll sunset that now.
• 54:13
  SPEAKER_02: Yep.
• 54:14
  SPEAKER_04: There we go.
• 54:14
  SPEAKER_04: Um so which one of our three is your winner?
• 54:17
  SPEAKER_04: Uh clearly Ed wins.
• 54:19
  SPEAKER_04: Uh though I feel that it's between Dave and Ian this week.
• 54:22
  SPEAKER_02: I think I have to say Dave's got Dave's a very strong contender in that kind of like the the modern function.
• 54:27
  SPEAKER_04: I hate to say it, but I would buy Dave's choice.
• 54:29
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, clearly, I would buy Dave's choice if I had that sort of money.
• 54:32
  SPEAKER_02: And I don't hate to say it at all, because I would if if if they said to me, Oh, by the way, here you go, here's this speed star 850, I would go, thank you very much.
• 54:42
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 54:42
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, that's and that's also a I that that would be you could be guaranteed to turn up at a fly-in in that.
• 54:48
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 54:49
  SPEAKER_04: And it's like everyone would be would be like, What is that?
• 54:51
  SPEAKER_02: I would I would I would probably make it my business to go to all of the sort of meridian and the the TBM fly-ins and everything and just park there.
• 54:59
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, just be really that that annoying guy.
• 55:02
  SPEAKER_04: Annoying guy who's slightly different.
• 55:03
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah.
• 55:04
  SPEAKER_04: Fantastic.
• 55:04
  SPEAKER_04: But do tell us in the comments which one's your favourite.
• 55:07
  SPEAKER_04: Maybe you've got a choice that we haven't considered, so tell us about that too.
• 55:11
  SPEAKER_04: Absolutely.
• 55:14
  SPEAKER_04: So um it must be time for is it time for the weather?
• 55:18
  SPEAKER_04: It is.
• 55:18
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah.
• 55:19
  SPEAKER_04: Should we see what um Simon has in store for us?
• 55:21
  SPEAKER_04: Absolutely.
• 55:22
  SPEAKER_06: Hi everyone, hope you're all well this week and getting ready to perhaps try and get some flying in this weekend.
• 55:28
  SPEAKER_06: Uh, let me show you what's going on.
• 55:30
  SPEAKER_06: This is the forecast for tomorrow morning at 7am.
• 55:34
  SPEAKER_06: Can you see the uh Ridge high pressure that's building in?
• 55:37
  SPEAKER_06: That's the end shape here in the isovars.
• 55:40
  SPEAKER_06: So ridges mean improvements in conditions.
• 55:43
  SPEAKER_06: You can see how some early morning rain clears away from southeast England during the morning.
• 55:48
  SPEAKER_06: And then basically, it's a fair day, well broken cloud, may just be one or two spots of rain for northern and northwestern Scotland at first, but they soon fade away.
• 55:56
  SPEAKER_06: And actually, it's a decent date.
• 55:58
  SPEAKER_06: Typical base is coming in probably about 4,000 feet, and for most of us, it's an 8 to 10,000 foot top, a little bit lower for the far northwest of Scotland as those showers come in.
• 56:09
  SPEAKER_06: Now, as we go through the course of the night on Friday into Saturday, um, it looks like Saturday morning starts off fair for most parts of England and Wales.
• 56:18
  SPEAKER_06: Could be some lower cloud just affecting the far northwest of England, bringing some drizzle here at first.
• 56:23
  SPEAKER_06: Most areas though dry, but look at Scotland, the north and the west, and across much of northern and western Ireland.
• 56:29
  SPEAKER_06: We've got rain in here, it's windy too.
• 56:31
  SPEAKER_06: Just look how close together the isobars are.
• 56:34
  SPEAKER_06: Now, during the course of the day, the front's bringing that rain past eastwards, so that by midday they've actually gone through Scotland, but the fronts are lying through uh northern England and Ireland.
• 56:45
  SPEAKER_06: You can see there that line of rain.
• 56:47
  SPEAKER_06: Across England and Wales, though, generally fair, well broken cloud, but some low cloud affecting the western coast of Wales, some showers for northwestern parts of Scotland.
• 56:56
  SPEAKER_06: Through Saturday afternoon, the front continues to slip a little bit further eastwards and south, so that by the end of the day, really it's the far south of Scotland, it's central parts of Ireland running into North Wales, into northern England.
• 57:08
  SPEAKER_06: It's that area that sees the lowest of the cloud.
• 57:11
  SPEAKER_06: We're thinking a thousand foot, maybe even less, tops at about twelve thousand feet.
• 57:16
  SPEAKER_06: Across Scotland, one or two showers for western Scotland, but most other areas generally dry, and two to three thousand foot bases here, ten thousand foot top.
• 57:24
  SPEAKER_06: So obviously that cloud covering the hills.
• 57:27
  SPEAKER_06: Misty murky for western and southern Wales for western coast of south west England, thousand foot bases here as mist and murk drifts in and tops at about ten thousand feet across much of the rest of England and Wales is generally fair.
• 57:41
  SPEAKER_06: Watch for some bits of low clouds moving through the channel.
• 57:44
  SPEAKER_06: Two to four thousand foot bases, generally at ten thousand foot tops, and still quite windy across northern England through Saturday afternoon.
• 57:53
  SPEAKER_06: Now, overnight into Sunday, that front slip south and eastward, so that by Sunday morning it's across much of England and Wales, bringing outbreaks of rain.
• 58:01
  SPEAKER_06: It gradually clears off to the east during the morning on Sunday, and I think many areas probably improved, so it's a getting better sort of day.
• 58:10
  SPEAKER_06: But you see, there always a fair amount of cloud around, bits and pieces of rain affecting western coasts and hills, but most other areas generally okay.
• 58:19
  SPEAKER_06: I'd say basically three to four thousand feet, tops typically ten to twelve thousand feet, perhaps some thicker cloud, perhaps some rain into the far west of Scotland later.
• 58:29
  SPEAKER_06: But as I say, low cloud may affect many western coasts and hills during the course of the day.
• 58:35
  SPEAKER_06: So Sunday is not a clear-cut one, but it is not that bad overall.
• 58:40
  SPEAKER_06: Now, if you want to finally get to grips with weather and finally understand it, you've got to get yourself along to my aviation weather school part one online course, which is going to be taking place uh next Tuesday and the following Tuesday evening between 6:30 pm and 9 p.m.
• 58:57
  SPEAKER_06: It's presented live by me.
• 58:59
  SPEAKER_06: I will show you how you can spot weather windows five days in advance.
• 59:02
  SPEAKER_06: I'll get you forecasting cloud bases, cloud tops, winds at various different levels, visibility, mist, fog, showers, rain.
• 59:09
  SPEAKER_06: I'll get you interpreting the charts properly and get you quickly assessing whether you can fly, what the weather is going to do.
• 59:18
  SPEAKER_06: If you go to weatherschool.co.uk, you can book your place now or you can you can uh take a look at all the details of the course and find out more.
• 59:27
  SPEAKER_06: I've got a couple of places remaining.
• 59:29
  SPEAKER_06: So if you'd like to come along, please do uh get yourself booked on there quickly before those places are snapped up.
• 59:36
  SPEAKER_06: And it'd be super to see you there.
• 59:38
  SPEAKER_06: Okay, I'll leave you with that for now.
• 59:40
  SPEAKER_06: Have a great, have a safe flying weekend.
• 59:42
  SPEAKER_06: Thanks again for watching, and uh, I'll see you next week, folks.
• 59:45
  SPEAKER_06: Bye bye for now.
• 59:46
  SPEAKER_02: So a bit of a mixed bag.
• 59:48
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, probably some flyable days in there.
• 59:50
  SPEAKER_02: I reckon it's looking overall, I'd say, not looking bad.
• 59:53
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 59:54
  SPEAKER_00: Well, that's good because there's a very busy weekend of events going up coming up.
• 59:58
  SPEAKER_00: What have you got?
• 59:58
  SPEAKER_00: Well, we've got well, Saturday and Sunday, 12th and 13th, etc.
• 1:00:02
  SPEAKER_00: First of all, I have to say the Hampshire Air Festival at Thraxton has been cancelled.
• 1:00:07
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 1:00:07
  SPEAKER_00: Um that's that's off completely.
• 1:00:09
  SPEAKER_02: But the company is taking advice on this is not Thraxton, the organizers are doing it.
• 1:00:14
  SPEAKER_02: Thruxton has nothing to do with it other than being the location.
• 1:00:16
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, the organisers of Hampshire Air Festival are.
• 1:00:20
  SPEAKER_02: Exploring liquidation.
• 1:00:22
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 1:00:22
  SPEAKER_02: If you bought tickets, talk to your credit card company.
• 1:00:24
  SPEAKER_00: That's right.
• 1:00:25
  SPEAKER_00: But what is on is the pilots barbecue and flying at Swansea over the weekend.
• 1:00:29
  SPEAKER_00: There's a grassroots flying at Sackville, that's all on the Saturday and Sunday.
• 1:00:33
  SPEAKER_05: Yep.
• 1:00:34
  SPEAKER_00: Just on the Saturday, there's a wings and wheels at Sturgate, uh, an open day and flying at Stratton, uh, a Euro event, a Euro Fox, Eurostar, and Europa flying at Popham.
• 1:00:46
  SPEAKER_00: You can pay in ordinary money.
• 1:00:47
  SPEAKER_00: Um Twilight Riding Way Challenge at Blackbush, a microlight flying and barbecue at Sutton Meadows, and a Cornwall Strut flying at Bobmin.
• 1:00:55
  SPEAKER_00: That's all on the Saturday.
• 1:00:56
  SPEAKER_00: Wonderful.
• 1:00:57
  SPEAKER_00: On Sunday, there's an Oster Club flying at Popham.
• 1:01:03
  SPEAKER_00: And looking a bit further ahead into the week, um, if you're in a States and you're anywhere near New Mexico, the Roswell Air Races are on from the 16th to the 20th of September.
• 1:01:13
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 1:01:14
  SPEAKER_02: This is this year's for the full field again, isn't it?
• 1:01:16
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's everything.
• 1:01:17
  SPEAKER_02: The unlimited's about.
• 1:01:18
  SPEAKER_04: Unlimited all the way down to um Formula One, isn't it?
• 1:01:22
  SPEAKER_00: It'd be great to go and see that actually, I think.
• 1:01:24
  SPEAKER_02: No, that'd be boring.
• 1:01:27
  SPEAKER_04: Yes, yeah, yeah, it's um it's clearly that's one of those events that's going to keep on developing, isn't it?
• 1:01:33
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:01:34
  SPEAKER_02: Fantastic.
• 1:01:35
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, I think that's about it.
• 1:01:36
  SPEAKER_02: So thank you very much, team.
• 1:01:38
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you very much for watching.
• 1:01:39
  SPEAKER_02: Please, but if you can subscribe to our channel, that makes all the difference to us.
• 1:01:44
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• 1:01:49
  SPEAKER_02: So thank you very much.
• 1:01:49
  SPEAKER_02: Have a great weekend, see you soon.
• 1:01:51
  SPEAKER_02: Bye.
• 1:01:51
  SPEAKER_02: Bye.
• 1:01:54
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