BMPA Newsletters

Newsletters  >  Summer 1998

From the Secretary

The spade work for our Scottish meeting has been done by Norena McAdam and Andrew Sayers, both of whom ironically are now working in the south. They have provided the information and descriptions in the programme. The Earl Grey Stakis is on the Tay estuary waterfront beside the Tay road bridge. The dining room overlooks the river as does the leisure suite which is available for guests. The hotel has its own car park, is across the road from the railway station and is a few minutes by car from Dundee airport which has agreed a reduced rate from pre-booked aircraft.

Andrew Clymo

From the President

The sky is grey and the rain continues to fall as it has through most of May and June. However, I am delighted to tell you that the forecast for early September indicates sunshine and excellent visibility, in fact CAVOK. It is notable that thirty three of our members live in, or north of Derbyshire which means that we who dwell in the south will have to get our applications in for the Summer meeting smartish or we will be crowded out.

Representing our Association, Diana and I visited our German friends this year at Speyer (near Heidelberg) as usual in the first weekend in May. Although we were the only British plane to reach Speyer we made up one third of the total! We were accompanied by the Fearnleys, further reinforcing the BMPA presence. Flying "on top" we had not realised the the base over much of Germany was on the ground, preventing many departures by our hosts who had perforce to make their way by road.

The French meeting at the end of May was held at Treviso in Italy! At this meeting again only one British plane arrived - the Gibbins, accompanied by two French "hitch hikers". We went by jet as did Brian and Beryl Wallace and friends. As usual the event was a gastranomic delight, well in excess of our capacities. We had a trip to Venice by boat, well supplied with food and wine to prepare us for lunch. In Venice it was raining which was an advantage in that we were able to visit St. Mark's Square in a deserted state.

In talking to our opposite numbers it is evident that both the French and German Associations have something of our problem, namely lack of new young flying members. That there are several reasons for this is well known and we contribute to AOPA and the GAAC in an endeavour to resist the forces against us. I think we can still do more in the context of our own Association in publicising ourselves. "Out there" are medical pilots who are totally unware of our existence. I was at a social gathering yesterday and was introduced to a young GP who had recently got his PPL and gues what, had never heard of us. I look forward to hearing your thoughts on this. You can't get a PPL without seeing an AME. How do we miss them?

I look forward to seeing you all in Scotland.

Tony Watson

Spring Meeting, Islington, February/March 1998

This was held on 28th February and 1st March at the recently opened Stakis hotel in Islington. 36 members and guests attended some or all of the event (those who had insisted on a London meeting were conspicuous by their absence). We gathered over lunch, which like all the food over the weekend was particularly good. As our contribution to the ecosystem (and purely incidentally to save some money) we went to Tower Bride by tube. IT was a tribute to members' navigational skills that without GPS or even an umberella to follow no one got lost or arrived late. We were taken on a standard guided tour of the bride, a triumph of Victorian engineering and shrewd politics, followed by a private tour of one of the bascules and it's operating machinery. The original engines are still in place although now replaced by oil filled hydraulic ones. The basic machinery is exactly as first installed. The tours over, people looked at the bridge in more detail or moved off to other local attractions.

Saturday evening's dinner, held in private rooms, commanded a splendid view of London. Robin Lawrence provided a generous donation for a name place raffle and we ate and drank our fill and enjoyed good fellowship.

David Ogilvy, Secretary of the GAAC spoke first on Sunday morning. He described the relationship between AOPA and GAAC - the former hosts the latter which endeavours to smooth the interface between GA and the general public. He described the increasing gulf between major/intermediate size airfields and light aviation and the increasing gulf between aviation and the public - unless they happen to be using a commercial flight at the time. As one of his horror stories he cited the case of one unfortunate German organization being sued for the noise that its gliders make. The work of the Council is divided into two main areas, education and planning. The first works both ways, to educate aviators in the likes, hates and foibles of the rest of the human race and to educate the latter in the better aspects of aviation. Planning takes and increasing part of the resources with scrutiny of district and county plans for aviation policies and advising individuals on their airfield or strip plans.

Both our next speakers were dogged by projector troubles which disrupted their thoughts but did not detract from the fascinating stories they had to tell. The projector problem was that state of the art machines will not cope with the thinner slide mounts of yesteryear, insisting on trying to swallow them two at a time.

Ray Clegg described his route to a medical qualification from steelworks (no other jobs in Sheffield) to national service as what in this day and age is known as a lab technician. Time at Millbank and experience at the Lewisham train disaster propelled him back to Sheffield as a mature student. A yen for plastic surgery was thwarted by ageism so he settled for otolaryngology and the reconstructive aspects of head and neck surgery. He subsequently and recently acquired the well known but little used qualification MBBT (Maker of Bigger Boys' Toys) by building a KIS composite 2 seater. As an afterthought he learned to fly and since he has now acquired a 4 seater project he has moved house to acommodate the embryo squadron.

Simon Janvrin led us through a career which started at Guys and then took him to the Zambian Flying Doctor Service. His account of surgery, even on hearts, under difficult conditions with a text book handy, done against the magnificent backdrop of Mt. Kilamanjaro was gripping. A return to the UK and a surgical consultancy in the CAAs back yard at Gatwick allowed him to pursue a belief in change, in this instance by crossing the fence into aviation medical work. He is also a home builder with a project in the loft. The CAA policy at that time was that all their chief medical examiners should also pilot scheduled services. In due course the opportunity came to do that full time. His enthusiasm for his job and his Fokker Friendship was glowing testimony to his policy of a life's change of direction every seven years.

Those who didn't listen to the morning's presentations joined one of the "London Walks" tours of the alleys and byways of the famous square mile. We all reassembled over lunch before finally dispersing.

Andrew Clymo