BMPA Newsletters

Newsletters  >  Winter 1997/98

From the Secretary

The Spring meeting this year by popular request will be in London. It will be on the 28th February and 1st March. We will be staying in Islington and plan to visit Tower Bridge and some of its private parts (the bascule works) on Saturday afternoon. There will be our customary dinner that evening. Our papers on Sunday will be from David Ogilvy OBE who will tell us how the General Aviation Awareness Council is organized and spends our money, Raymond Clegg will retail the story of building and aeroplane in his private consulting room waiting area (not his bathroom as rumoured) and Simon Janvrin will tell a tale of his consecutive careers as consultant surgeon, CAA medical officer and airline pilot. Those who do not want to hear the papers may like to join one of the two hour guided London Walks. The one covering The Famous Square Mile is suggested for which Sara Clymo will act as convenor. You should be clutching £4.50 and a return tube fare.

The Summer meeting will be from Friday 4th to Sunday 6th September. In addition there will be extra events on Thursday 3rd for those who wish to start earlier. It will be based in Dundee using Dundee as the arrival airfield with Perth as an alternative. An exciting programme of events is being organized by Norena McAdam.

Andrew Clymo

From the President

Another year is upon us. However, this year is different. We are going to fly more, enjoy ourselves more and fulfil our long cherished ambition to visit Scotland for the first time in our 32 year history as an Association. As a further bonus the meeting is being extended by an extra day (breaking the mould?).

Looking through the history of the BMPA I read, in respect of one meeting, that "the members dance until 1am". Perhaps our intended "Scottish Night" will see this repeated - our younger members must help.

In planning your year, bear in mind the meetings of our parallel associations in Germany and France, where we are always received with the maximum of kindness and friendship (even last minute enforced cancellations are received with understanding). Our Summer meeting allows us as hosts to reciprocate this welcome. Details of these meetings can be obtained from the secretary or myself.

In the meantime we have what I am sure will be a splendid Winter meeting to look forward to.

Tony Watson

Summer Meeting, Halfpenny Green/Black Country, August 1997

The meeting was based at the Goldthorn Hotel in Wolverhampton who looked after us very well. Arrivals as usual began on Friday afternoon. A handful landed at Halfpenny Green, including some of our German visitors - some others were unfortunately deterred by a forecast of inclement weather. Informal dinner was followed by an introduction to the Black Country by Mr Bert Phillips, one of the Friends of the Black Country Living Museum.

On Saturday morning about half the group coached east to RAF Cosford. The old wooden hospital was closed and demolished a decade ago and the only flying from the airfield now is of the (Birmingham) University Air Squadron Bulldogs and Grob powered gliders along with Air Training Corps gilders. There is also an active electronic instruction unit and the occasional landing by an aircraft to join the Aerospace Museum which our party had come to see. We had guided tours of the huge collection of exhibits, amongst which the President was surprised to find a transport that he had flown in the (he insisted) not too distant past. The morning finished with a buffet lunch.

The other half of the meeting went south east to Staffordshire Crystal glassworks at Brierly Hill on the edge of the Merry Hill shopping complex. They saw demonstrations of glass blowing, cutting and engraving. Some tried their hands at the first two and many of you will have by now had your present of tumblers engraved with the BMPA logo. The proprietor was well pleased with our visit (actually with our credit cards) which was followed by one to the Broadfield House Glass Museum in Kingswinford where are displayed a wide selection of triumphs of previous craftsmen in glass. A pub lunch was taken close by.

Both parties converged on our hotel to allow coach changes for the afternoon visits. One group went north to Shugborough Hall, the ancestral home of the Earl of Lichfield and the other south to Cookley to join the narrow boat Blackcountryman for a leisurely cruise northwards on the Staffordshire and Worcestershire canal.

Delays to one of the coaches resulted in a late AGM but, due to the chairmanly skills of our president, a not so late annual dinner. The Guinness Cup was awarded to the president elect, the Presidents Cup jointly to Ben and Jonathon Clymo for their sterling work in the background organization and reception of members at the last three meetings.

Sunday morning was spent at the Black Country Living Museum. Exhibits have been collected over many years and assembled into a turn of the century canal-side village with houses, shops and small businesses. There are a number of heavier industries as well. The whole collection is manned and working just as it would have done apart from some modern health and safety measures. Members worked out their own itineraries in variable wind and rain, just as forecast, and then returned to the hotel for lunch.

Andrew Clymo