January 29, 2016

Aerobility – A volunteer delivered organisation

Aerobility is a volunteer delivered organisation, we have approximately 20 regular volunteers who commit to 1 or more hours per week and a database of over 60 more who help in a variety of ways over the course of the year. Without our team of dynamic volunteers we would be unable to provide our aviation services to the 500 disabled people who we support each year. We estimate that with the help of volunteers our organisation saves £100,000 per year on costs which would otherwise have to be spent on employment and contracted services. This accounts for one third of our operating costs – quite a saving!


Volunteering Case Study: Tony Birth
Tony has been volunteering for Aerobility for two years. He is a regular volunteer committing an average of 10 hours a week to Aerobility, with this number increasing during the summer where we have events on up to 4 times a week.
Tony is a valued volunteer and part of the Aerobility team.  He is dynamic and flexible helping with a variety of roles from manual tasks that our disabled flyers are unable to do to providing simulator training for children and adults with learning disabilities and writing regular entries for our Aviation Safety Blog.
Over the past 2 years Tony has taken an active role in helping students on our learning disability programmes. He gives up his Saturday mornings to mentor for our Aviation Education Programme, helping teenagers with learning disabilities read and write.  He also mentors on the Aspiring Pilot Programme, ensuring the students have fully understood the course content and supervising them during their flying lessons.
Tony is also one of the main photographers for Aerobility and takes wonderful pictures that he uploads.  These are then used for blogs and social media as well as promoting the charity. He is an all-rounder and will willingly turn his hand to anything that is asked.
A main component of Tony’s weekly tasks is working on our Safety Management System, his skills set from previous work in industry is ideally suited to our needs. Like all growing charities, Aerobility was very aware that the management of our safety policy was extremely important. It needed to be managed, as is the rest of our operation, in a professional and proportionate manner but like many charities, our resources were limited. He has now written and implemented our safety policy, leaving our limited full time capacity to simply operate the systems on a day to day basis. His work has been invaluable in allowing us to proceed with expanding our operations without being held back by time consuming but vital safety management issues.

In 2014 Tony won the volunteer of the year award and since has continued to show his committed support to the charity. Without people like Tony Aerobility would not be able to provide its aviation services to over 500 disabled people a year and we are truly grateful for his support.

January 25, 2016

AEP Air Traffic Control

Saturday's Aviation Education Programme was on Air Traffic Control.  It was the second in the ATC module and, after a short recap on radio frequencies and the phonetic alphabet, the students went on to learn basic Voice Procedure (the correct version, rather than the Hollywood variety).  This was followed by a map exercise looking at the different services provided by ATC and touching on the problems of wake turbulence caused by different types of aircraft. 

To demonstrate the difficulties and time pressures faced by controllers at large commercial airports the last exercise let the students take the part of the controller and attempt to keep a number of different aircraft from colliding while vectoring them towards Final Approach.  The students learnt that controllers might be able to earn a living by looking out of the window at aircraft, but they don't get time to day dream!

January 18, 2016

Give 2016 a Flying Start with our great AEROBILITY calendar!

REDUCED - £5 - REDUCED

Limited edition - order now while stocks last.
All our own work... photographs used were taken by Aerobility Flyers and Supporters at airshows, events, and our home at Blackbushe. 

12 unique images of aircraft in action.
12 cameo shots from the home of disabled aviation.


The featured photographs are exclusive to Aerobility and a must have for all aviation enthusiasts. 
Treat yourself to a useful New Year's present

Super value -  £10.00!  Last few remaining just £5 !

Just follow the link - http://shop.aerobility.com/2016-aerobility-calendar---last-few-remaining-just-5-179-p.asp

All proceeds go to Aerobility who help make the sky a brighter place for our disabled Flyers.

January 11, 2016

AEP Airfield Operations

The subject of the latest AEP session was Airfield Operations.  The group looked at Farnborough Airport and it's development. They discussed the services offered and watched a short film.  They then looked at charts of the airport and placed symbols on the chart to represent the tower, windsocks and runways etc...  They ended the session by designing their own airfields.  They split into two groups and it was interesting to see how the two airfields differed. Lego models were used to represent all the airport buildings and they had to consider terrain and prevailing winds to place the runways in the best position.  It was a very informative and fun session.


January 07, 2016

Return of the Vulcan, talk by Dr Robert Pleming

Saturday 30th January, 4.30pm
Aerobility HQ, 
Blackbushe Airport,

We are delighted that Dr Robert Pleming, Chief Executive of the Vulcan To The Sky Trust will be joining us at Blackbushe to host a "Return of the Vulcan" talk including some fascinating footage of the aircraft and a question and answer session.

This exciting event will celebrate the iconic Vulcan and is the perfect talk for aviation enthusiasts.

This event is free to attend although we do ask for a small donation for refreshments on the day. Please confirm your attendance in advance by emailing bridie@aerobility.com or calling 0303 303 1230.