BMPA Newsletters

Newsletters  >  June 2005

President's Letter

We held a very successful meeting at the Royal College of General Practitioners in February thanks to an inordinate amount of effort put in by Norena McAdam. It would be invidious to cite any one of the speakers as all contributed enormously to the success of the day. Those who attended agreed that this was arguably one of the best Spring meetings that we have held for many years. The theme of 'Accident Prevention in General Aviation' clearly touched a chord with those present and we had lively discussion with and questions for all the speakers. I have of course written to each one individually to thank them for their contributions.

London 2005 The dinner in the evening was also a great occasion, not the least because your President was treated to a surprise glass of champagne – something to do with a significant birthday that day; unfortunately my new Senior Citizen's Railcard does not help with aviation fuel nor navigation, landing and parking fees!

Following the February meeting things were quiet until the meeting in Poitiers of L'Association Aeromedicale, admirably and typically hosted with his usual Gallic verve by Jean-Michel Masson. Sadly travel to and from Poitiers had to be courtesy (!) of Ryanair rather than GibbinAir due to the predations of the FAA and an Airworthiness Directive that grounded the aircraft. Cheaper – yes! More inconvenient – Yes. And considerably less fun and less enjoyable. The BMPA was modestly represented by myself and Ann, John Busby and his grandson, Mike and Penny Bagshaw and David Hillam.

A wonderful time was had by all – as might be expected of the French meeting - with a day spent at Futuroscope, great attractions and a delightful French guide who escorted us round and presented the attractions in excellent English. One of the highlights – and a cause of not a little mischief - was an earnest discussion whilst sitting on a table of French speakers on the subject of the French “Non” to the new EU Constitution. At one stage we were offered a swap of President Chirac for our own dearly beloved Prime Minister. What could I say? Needless to say that the political status quo has been maintained! Despite any differences between our respective political masters the entente remains as cordiale as ever and we hope that some of our French colleagues will join us for the Summer Meeting, restored to its usual weekend, the first weekend in September, 2nd to 4th.

Lynne Walters has very kindly stepped into the breech and organised the meeting with typical military thoroughness and we look forward to a wonderful weekend in North Yorkshire. Details will be sent round to everyone very shortly but the itinerary looks truly splendid with visits to the Yorkshire Air Museum and the World of James Herriott; the highlight for most of us will undoubtedly be the opportunity to look around an Apache helicopter. Our arrival airfield will be Bagby and this will provide those arriving by air with the opportunity to practise their skills at short field landings; it also has a 3 percent slope downhill on runway 24!

Between now and the Summer Meeting we will be gathering at Shennington for the now-traditional gliding weekend, organised as ever by Andrew Clymo. I look forward to seeing as many members there as possible to lend support – the dates are 9th and 10th of July.

I do hope I will see you at the Summer Meeting – tell your medical flying friends and encourage them to join us.

Happy flying.

Kevin Gibbin

Money matters

First of all, my thanks to all of you who have completed Standing Orders for the payment of your subscriptions. That makes life much easier for me! I still have to receive confirmation of payment of a few Standing Orders, this is because some were payable on 1 May, the same day as the latest bank statement, so I assume the rest will be shown on the next one that I receive early in June. Some members have paid more than one subscription. I don't mind, but perhaps those concerned do! I suspect this is because payments are being made from two different accounts (personal and practice) or that your bank has ignored the instruction to cancel a previously held Standing Order. If you think this applies to you, please check and let me know and I will send you a refund. Eventually, I will get round to writing to those concerned but my priority is to get the remaining subscriptions in! For those of you who do not have a Standing Order, I will be pleased to receive your cheque ASAP, it's only £15. Again, I will be writing to those in due course, but it would be helpful if you are able to pre-empt my letter.

The accounts for the financial year 2004/05 have now been completed and the books sent for auditing. I am pleased to report that we just about broke even on the year and our financial position has been stabilised. The Nottingham meeting broke even (almost to the penny!) and a modest profit was made on the very successful February meeting. My thanks to everyone involved with the planning and running of those events.

One note of caution from a prudent(?) treasurer. I believe that the costs involved in the general running of the association; i.e. Newsletter costs, postage, internet fees, our payments to AOPA, GASCo, etc., etc., should be met from subscription income rather than have to raise it from profits from meetings. At the moment, this is very closely balanced. No decision has been made yet about the need to increase subscriptions but this will need to be considered, if not at the next AGM, then at the following one.

As you will see elsewhere in this Newsletter, a full programme of events is being arranged this year, which I hope will be fully supported and enjoyed by all members. I look forward to seeing you.

David Hillam (Hon. Treas.)

Website

www.bmpa.org.uk

The BMPA has a website. This is well worth a visit and includes, among other things, information and photographs of previous meetings.

BMPA Events

Some members have kindly shared their thoughts about events at recent meetings.

Spring Meeting

 London 2005 "Risk in General Aviation", John Thorpe, GASCo
"Medical Aspects of Preventing Accidents", Dr. David Anton
"Triage", Mr Ian Martin
"Shining a Light into the Black Hole of Trauma", Dr Gordon Turnbull, Consultant Psychiatrist

Membership Matters

New Members

We have welcomed six new Members to the association since the last newsletter:-

Dates for your Diary

Shenington Meeting

9th and 10th July
Our annual gliding meeting will take place at Shenington Airfield

Music in the Air

Saturday 30th July
Middle Wallop and lunch time Fly In at Thruxton Airfield

Autumn Meeting

2nd-4th September
A visit to Herriot Country with a mix of aviation old and new.

Spring Meeting 2006

Saturday 25th February
Topic to be arranged
Royal College of General Practitioners, London

Advertisements

RAF Leuchars Airshow

Sat 10th Sept 2005
RAF Leuchars anticipate needing 'crowd doctors' for the Airshow again this year. In exchange for agreeing to report to the medical centre and assist in the event of a major incident, you get free entry to the Airshow and a packed lunch. Those who helped last year thoroughly enjoyed their day and I know some who plan to help again this year. A formal invitation from RAF Leuchars will be enclosed with the next mailing but I thought some of you might like to get the date in your diary.

GASCo

Joint Flight Safety Seminar with the Royal Meteorological Society.
Saturday 8th Oct.
Whether To Fly
Oxford Airport, Kidlington.
Tel.01634 200203
info@gasco.org.uk

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