BMPA Newsletters

Newsletters  >  June 2004

Welcome

Welcome to the second Newsletter for 2004. I hope you will find it enjoyable and interesting. There are reports of several of the lectures from our winter meeting; a taster of what is to come in Nottingham in September; some information about the French association meeting and a new section to allow you to place advertisements which you feel will be of interest to members.

Shenington 2002 Details of our annual meeting centred round gliding, at Shenington in July are enclosed, with information of planned activities. If you have never been gliding this is the ideal opportunity to try it out. It is, as you will see, a very relaxed meeting and allows lots of flexibility in arrangements. I encourage you to read the enclosed information and, if you have never been before come along and give it a try. Those who have been before know it can be fun. I hope to see you there.

Unfortunately our hoped for trip to Music in the Air will not take place this year, however we have great hopes for next year. If any members wish to arrange tickets independently the booking number is 0870 121 1227.

Norena McAdam

BMPA Events

BMPA Winter Meeting - London, 28 February 2004
Age Related Issues in the Aviation Environment.

 London 2004 This excellent meeting, held in London, was organised by Jeremy Radcliffe with help from Sally-Ann. They did an superb job, as usual and their hard work is greatly appreciated. Very favourable reports have been received from all who attended. These included comments on the educational content and the organisation of the day. The dinner seemed to go down a treat as well!

Enlarge image (new window) Many thanks to Jeremy and Sally-Ann on behalf of the Association.

Some members have kindly shared their thoughts about the lectures at our winter meeting. My personal thanks go to all who agreed, at such short notice, to be reporters.

Peter Saundby's "Infancy to Senility" - David Hillam
Mr Graham Duguid's "The Aging Eye" - Geoffrey Fearnley
Dr Raymond Johnston's "Increasing Sugar - a link with increasing age" - Andrew Clymo
Mr Ian Sargeant's "Orthopaedic Issues" - Stephen Gibson
Prof Michael Joy's "Concerns of Cardiology, an age old risk" - Paul Martin
Mr Peter Thorn's "Professional and Instructional issues" - James Loose

Enlarge image (new window) Other speakers included, Mike Bagshaw who told us about the aircraft cabin environment and passenger fitness to fly and Kevin Gibbin guided us through the inner ear and associated problems.

Members' Exploits

May 2004 Meeting of L'Association Aeromedicale, Biarritz

The BMPA was well and ably represented by your President and his wife Ann, Tony and Liz Segal, Tony Watson, Brian and Beryl Wallace and John and Ann Busby. Transport was respectively courtesy of GibbinAir, Watson Airlines plc, Air Wallace and Ryanair. All arrived in good order although due to other commitments your President arrived just in time for lunch on the Friday rather than on the Thursday evening of all the other arrivals.

A splendid time was had by all! As ever the meeting was admirably hosted by the President of the French Flying Doctors, Jean Michel Masson, temporarily in France between trips to America and the old French colonies.

Biarritz is a truly delightful place to visit and we stayed in a typically quirky small French hotel overlooking a pedestrian precinct and with views of the sea. The whole meeting was wonderfully organised with the usual high gastronomic content -lunches in typical Basque restaurants and the main dinner, on the Saturday evening, held in a lovely restaurant overlooking the sea in Biarritz itself. You will be pleased to know that your President felt constrained to respond in his own inimitable French patois to the speech by Jean Michel.

Unfortunately the German Flying Physicians seems to be no longer an active organisation but Germany was well represented by Frank, Doris and Malaika Hettlich who are stalwarts of all our meetings; Frank and Doris have recently taken their Seneca round the world and had countless tales to recount of their exploits including hand flying for thirteen hours due to autopilot failure.

We had wonderful trips through a series of Basque villages and right up to the Spanish border with excellent multilingual guides to ensure that we did not miss out on any of the key features of the towns and villages that we visited. Cemeteries are far grander places there than in this country!

One of the more warming and amusing moments of the meeting was over lunch on the Saturday when Jean Michel presented all the men with a red beret each; I did not know that there were so many different styles of wearing this typically French item of headgear! Mine now resides proudly with the other hats in my hat collection.

Sadly these meetings are over all too quickly and we departed on the Sunday morning to fly back - a wonderful trip in severe VMC over the whole western seaboard of France. We hope to see our French and German friends and colleagues at our September meeting in Nottingham and anticipate that the French meeting next year will be on the weekend of May 26th to 29th, possibly in Albi although at the time of writing that remains to be decided; I hope that more members of our Association will avail themselves of true Gallic hospitality and flying friendship and attend these meetings.

Kevin Gibbin, June 2004

Spitfires to Bombers

The makers of the acclaimed series 'Spitfire Ace' are now making a major series for Channel 4 on the airmen of Bomber Command in World War II. The series will chart the course of allied bombers throughout the war, featuring the aircraft, the tactics, the training and the history, but most of all the people who were actually involved.

This series will rely on the contribution of veterans from bomber command, and will very much be a salute to them and their war. As well as the aircrews, we hope to hear from the ground crews and the WAAF's and others who worked in any capacity with Bomber command. We would also like to put some younger volunteers through elements of training that airmen undertook to help explain to the viewers what it meant to be a member of a Bomber crew. We are particular keen to hear from any grandchildren of Bomber command airmen who would like to know more about what their grandfathers went through and experienced during World War II.

Our advertisement at the end of this newsletter gives details of how to get in touch.

Jessica

Membership Matters

New Members

Since the last newsletter we have been pleased to welcome five new members:

Advertisements

This is new section which we hope you will find useful. Advertising is free to members but non members will pay for the privilege.

TV- Bomber Crew

Are you a grandchild of a Bomber Command airman?
Would you like to know more what your Grandfather went through in World War II?
Would you like an incredible experience?
The makers of the acclaimed series 'Spitfire Ace' are now making a major series for Channel 4 on the airmen of Bomber Crew in World War II.
We would love to hear from any grandchildren of Bomber crew airmen who would like to know more about what their grandparents did. We will then be putting these young volunteers through some of the elements of training that airmen undertook in World War II. This will be an opportunity for you to gain a better understanding of what it meant to be a member of a bomber crew.
If you are interested and would like to know more information please contact Jess on 020 7013 4476 or email jessica.versluys@rfdfmedia.com.

Spezio for Sale

Spezio Unique opportunity to buy only Spezio in the UK. Two seat open cockpit nostalgia on a PFA permit (OCT 04), 125hp continental, 817 ENG hours, 333AF, ample range and road transportable with folding wings, £12,800. For more details contact Malcolm on 01343 831376 or e-mail mal@portessie.freeserve.co.uk.