NATS Update

As many of you will know, 2012 saw the culmination of many hours of hard work by the NATS' employees and Prospect Union staff. The amazing fundraising efforts of all involved made it possible for us to invest in a brand new Tecnam, specially adapted for use by people with disabilities.

Below is a little update from the NATS' website that is well-worth a read!

http://www.nats.co.uk/environment/corporate-responsibility-2013/30-minutes/people-and-community/the-ceos-charity-of-the-year-aerobility/

Aerobility visit to Heathrow - A Big Thank You!

This week, four lucky Aerobility members were given the opportunity to visit the Heathrow Control Tower. Andy Mercer, Aerobility volunteer and NATS air traffic controller, very kindly made this amazing opportunity possible.

Mike, Simon, Kevin, Kevin and Andy - the big smiles say it all!

The four lucky chaps successfully answered a devilishly difficult question, as set by Aerobility Quizmaster Mr Catchpoole, to win the chance to visit Heathrow. Once there, the group were given a full tour of the tower and the chance to go airside. Kevin came straight to Aerobility HQ after the tour to tell us all about it, with the viewing deck just below the tower being a definite highlight for him. The 360 degrees, panoramic view gave the guys the chance to see just about every aircraft you could hope for; the Airbus 380, 747s and 777s were just some of the planes spotted.

Our friends at BA came out to say hello!

The group had a fantastic day and would all like to extend their thanks to Andy for making it possible. A once in a lifetime experience for most, Mike told us that he'd been the envy of his friends many of whom were "green with envy"!

A perfect day for a spot of air traffic control...

For your chance to take part in events such as this, make sure your membership is up to date and keep an eye on your emails!

Disability Awareness Day 2013

Aerobility is pleased to be attending the Disability Forum's Disability Awareness Day. We've already met the Mayor and are looking forward to a busy day!

Geri and Andrea by the stall!

We've donated a trial flight to the raffle - so come down and take part for your chance to take to the skies!

A trial flight up for grabs!

You'll find us in The Malls in Basingstoke - just between Primark and Boots! 

The Air League - Youth in Aviation Day - Bicester 4th May 2013

After a damp start, hundreds turned up for the Air League ‘Youth in Aviation’ event at Bicester that was blessed with the perfect weather for the afternoon.

A bit of sunshine helped!

Well done Andy Perkins and Luke Roberts for another great event, that focused on networking amongst aviation related charities, trusts and companies with supporters including CTC Wings, RAF, Air Cadets, Oxford Air Training, Bicester airfield’s new owners, Bicester Heritage Limited, Windrushers Gliding Club, GliderFX and Aerobility.

There were rides in vintage aircraft, the gliding club flew 60 winch lessons over the day and GliderFX took a lucky 13 pilots for an aerobatic flight in the Fox, including Aerobility’s newest members Max Bond and Andy Payne.

All set and ready to go!

The thanks must go to Ian ‘Gally’ Gallacher and Paul Holdnal for getting the Fox’s CofA complete in record time for the event, and for the evening pyro display flight.

An amazing end to a brilliant day!

Aerobility members have FREE airtime in the GliderFX Fox glider, and there will be many more opportunities to experience gliding with GliderFX and Walking on Air throughout the summer.

For more information, you can look here:

www.airleague.co.uk

www.walkingonair.org.uk/

www.gliderfx.com/

And to give you a taste of the video to come, here is the film from 2012:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=_J3J1dRjv5k

They've joined in the fun - will you?

A Bank Holiday Update

Hello there Aerobility!

We hope that you’re enjoying the weather on this lovely Friday afternoon. As always, we’ve been busy here at Aerobility HQ and would love to share a bit of news with you if you can spare a few minutes….

Aerobility, a marathon and a balloon….

It seems like a long time ago now, but on Sunday 20^th April three Aerobility heroes got up very early to attend the Virgin London Marathon. Two of those, Andy and Oli, were taking on the 26.2 miles in support of Aerobility. They both made fantastic times, with Andy clocking 3 hours and 12 minutes, and have raised nearly £2000 between them. A big thank you from all of us here!

The third hero, our very own Brian Catchpoole, was off to fly the Aerobility flag (or balloon in this case….) Brian was at the start line for the first outing of our Breitling sponsored balloon. It was a real privilege and a great opportunity for Aerobility, providing the chance to meet lots of interested people and share in the excitement of the day.

Brian Catchpoole with Breitling Orbiter Brian Jones, without whom this would not have been possible!

The Mosquito  

High profile as ever, we have been taking part in a little bit more filming. Aerobility member and Channel 4 presenter Arthur Williams is making a documentary about the World War II fighter bomber the beautiful De Havilland Mosquito. This week, he was filming with our Warrior YY at Lasham airfield which used to be a Mosquito base during the war. The documentary is out later in the year.

An action shot!

Something Borrowed…

Due to demand at Blackbushe we have recently borrowed a PA28 from our friends at Tatenhill Aviation. During the ferry flight down to Blackbushe last Monday evening, James Brown and Brian Catchpoole captured some great shots of our Cherokee flown by Guy Westgate.

The mighty Cherokee 6!

Aero, Friedrichshafen 2013

Well the Germans have it pretty good, great beer, the best gliders in the World, great people and stunning country side, and also it appears the biggest Aero trade fair!

Mike Miller-Smith invited Brian Catchpoole, Dave Rawlins and Guy Westgate to the annual Aero trade-fair at Friedrichshafen, by invitation of Tecnam, to present the story of the Paralympic Opening Ceremony pyro flight in the Tecnam P2006.

The trade show is set across 9 giant hangars, and whilst all the big manufactures were represented, Tecnam dominated the show space, both with the number and range of aircraft on offer.

Amongst the many Tecnam trainers (including Aerobility’s new 2002PF) were 2 new aircraft unveiled at the show; a new eco 2 seat trainer, the Astrore, that comes with an iPad Mini for integration of flight planning and onboard instrumentation. Also on show was R&D Chief, Fabio Russo’s new brain child, the ‘Snap’, a single seat aerobatic aircraft, with very light construction and a similar power to weight ratio to the more established aerobatic thoroughbreds.

Our Aerobility Paralympic presentation was on Tecnam’s own mini-stage. Mike Miller Smith described the origins of the POC project and the many regulatory challenges, whilst Guy described his involvement with Pyro systems, the design of the display, flight training and testing. Dave Rawlings’s video on the big screen made him look suitably sheepish, but the biggest applause was reserved for the film of the Opening Ceremony and the fireworks. 

Mike concluded by thanking Tim Orchard, the Tecnam’s UK agent for developing such a great relationship with Aerobility and reported that the Charity’s new Tecnam 2002PF is in production, and described the unique ways it is being optimized for use with Aerobility.

A fantastic partnership!

The rest of the show was almost too huge to see in a day.

The gliding hall had the latest big winged German wonder ships from Shempp Hirth and Alexander Schleicher, along with some new technology from other manufacturers, particularly FES (Front Electric Sustainer), a collapsible electric propeller in the nose cone of a glider, offering almost no extra drag when not in use, but an hour of powered flight when you need it.

There were other glider manufacturers too, from Poland and Czech Republic, and also many vintage airframes too.

Constantly on the lookout for new ways of lifting our own MDM-1 Fox for the Aviator Ball in November… we awarded 1^st prize of “Aircraft on a stick” to EXTRA, and joint second prize for an electric aircraft hanging in the roof and Alisport who had a glider on a jig to a jaunty 30 degree diving attitude.

Mr Westgate trying a couple out for size....

Away from the glider hall, the range of sporty looking glasss aircraft was quite bewildering, but the standouts were the Italian Frecce, Czech Shark and Blackshape Prime.

The range of in-cockpit Multi Functional Displays (MFD) was astonishing too, and together with ipad software, is a growth story for the industry.

There were companies offering everything from 3D synthetic vision, Mapping technology, flight planning apps and gliding software. 

Just a snippet of all  that was on show.

The four day show needs more than 8 hours to do it justice, but was worth the drive. A huge thanks goes to Mike Miller Smith for the Invitation and driving the 1300 mile round trip, and also to Dave and Brian for providing such worthy competition in the "Top Gear Challenge" race back home...  

Article Written by Guy Westgate

Tecnam Registration Competition

Given the fantastic story and the groundbreaking development of our soon to arrive Tecnam P2002JF, the feeling is we should explore getting a fun and unique registration for the aircraft.

The Aerobility team test out the Tecnam's accessibility

The Bulldog was appropriately registered as G-DISA. We ought to do some similar for the Tecnam. So, the challenge is to find an appropriate registration. Many of the obvious ones such as G-NATS and G-AERO have already gone. Get thinking and of course the winning entry gets to see their registration on the aircraft, it's just a bit of fun. The best way to search is to enter your ideas into the CAA G Info Database at http://www.caa.co.uk/application.aspx?catid=60&pagetype=65&appid=1 and if it is not already in use then it could well be free and available. Unfortunately once it has been used previously even on a now non-existent aircraft it is still not available for reuse. Send in your ideas to info@Aerobility.com

And don’t forget….

The Air League is holding a flying day at Bicester Airfield in Oxfordshire tomorrow, with gliding opportunities for all Aerobility members. Get down there and check it out!

That’s all from us!

We hope you all have a lovely bank holiday weekend. Don’t forget to come and visit us at Blackbushe Airport, we’d love to see you all!

What a sunset....

Happy Landings

The Aerobility Team

Aerobility Social

Our newly appointed Social Secretary, Aerobility volunteer Roger, has been busy making plans to fill our diaries with lots of fun flying and fine dining. The first of these social flyouts will take place on Wednesday 8th May, and will be a trip up to Coventry Airport to visit the unique DC6 Diner. 

Roger assures us that the menu at this amazing restaurant is well worth trying!

If you would like to take part please get in touch with us as soon as possible - there are only 4 pilot legs available and up to 4 passenger spaces (subject to certain restrictions) and we're expecting a lot of demand!

G-KITE History

Aerobility volunteer, Andy, has been doing a bit of research on our fixed-base PA28 flight simulator and has found a couple of photographs of the invaluable G-KITE when it was still flying high. The photographs below show G-KITE before it was turned into our fantastic simulator, as well as the damage it suffered in the crash that ended its flying days and sent it Aerobility's way...

It's amazing to think this is now the famous, world-record breaking Aerobility simulator, as flown by Buzz Aldrin!

A Busy Few Weeks!

Hello All!

It's been a very busy few weeks here in the Aerobility world, with lots of exciting activities and interesting news to update you on. Our Blackbushe HQ is bursting at the seams and the aeroplanes have been kept busy with the weather slowly improving. We do hope you'll take a couple of minutes to read through a few little anecdotes and a bit of useful information!

Flying Fun

Aerobility flight instructor Mike Owen has been making the most of the good weather to get some day trips in with Battle Back student Andrew "Kenno" Kennedy. Last Saturday they completed a successful land-away to White Waltham, with the added bonus of a little bit of sunshine!

Another successful flight!

James Brown, Aerobility's flight instructor extraordinaire, has been making use of the simulator on the rainy days. Here, Aerobility Member and Student Pilot Geoff Marshall flies an approach to runway 25 at Blackbushe. Remembering that a good landing starts with a good approach, Geoff is careful to configure the aircraft so that minimal control input is required during the final approach.

Geoff concentrating hard and seeing the results!

Geoff made excellent progress during the exercise and will likely manage his first solo soon. If, like Geoff, you would like to work on your approach and landings, the simulator is a great way to go about this. Contact Aerobility to book the sim, instructed or solo. It's great practice and great fun!

A great tool for getting your circuits nice and neat!

And on the ground....

We've also had lots of fun with ground-based aviation activities, with the Camberley and Farnham Community Groups coming for an Aviation Experience last weekend. The group were all very excited to be at Blackbushe, and threw themselves into the session with great enthusiasm. Our volunteer instructor duo, Nick and Mick, went from New York to Chennai in the flight simulator with some expert landings and a lot of laughter.

A few risky manoeuvres by Captain Matthew under the Hudson Bridge were the source of great amusement!

We're hoping to welcome the guys from Camberley and Farnham back for a trial flight in the near future - they've been bitten by the Aerobility bug!

As always, the work of our wonderful team of volunteers make the sessions possible - a big thank you to them!

Successful Partnerships!

Recently we have run two introductory flying days for wounded soldiers, the most recent having taken place yesterday. In total 40 soldiers have flown and shown an interest in learning to fly. Thanks to support from our friends The Air League, sponsors Boeing UK, and our friends Help for Heroes a number of these individuals will receive a scholarship to learn to fly with us.

A fantastic partnership that provides great opportunities for all involved.

Aerobility friend and supporter Guy Westgate is giving Aerobility members first dibs on flying the incredible Fox aerobatic glider at Bicester Airfield in Oxfordshire on Saturday 4 May. This glider is capable of unlimited level aerobatics, has two seats, and most importantly is fully branded in the Aerobility logo! First come first served by letting us know in the office, info@Aerobility.com if you would like to fly. Just the launch fees to pay so it is great value as well. Gliding and rolling and looping with your fingertips..

He makes it look so easy!

Long-standing friends of Aerobility, Boeing UK, have been very busy recently! Not only are they kindly supporting the Help for Heroes initiative, they have also been part of the very successful 'Schools Build a Plane Challenge' along with the Royal Aeronautical Society. The very first plane to be built and flown as a result of the scheme was launched at Yately School last week, with Mike Miller-Smith and Brian Catchpoole going along to show their support for this great aviation venture. Brian found the take-off into a very strong headwind particularly interesting. If you'd like to read more about this, please follow the link below to Boeing UK's media centre.

http://www.boeing.co.uk/News-Media-Room/News-Releases/2013/April/Build-a-plane-first-flight

Ballooning and Aerobility

Aerobility are expanding their general aviation portfolio and venturing into ballooning! Sunday 5th May – Will be a Ballooning Introductory day at Blackbushe. Everyone is welcome to attend if at all interested in Ballooning, including potential ground crew. The Duo Chair will be on display and the day will include talks / lecture introducing Ballooning. At the end of the day participants will hopefully have a clearer idea as to whether Ballooning is for them and can put themselves forward for our first Ballooning Weekend at Tedworth (near Andover). Charge for the day will be £10; those interested should register with Brian at Blackbushe.

During May it is hoped to organise our Ballooning weekend at Tedworth. We anticipate providing actual flying opportunities for approximately six people drawn from those who attended the introductory day at Blackbushe. The costs have yet to be firmed up, but as a guide we would expect flying to use approximately £60 / hour in gas to which should be added retrieval and other sundry costs. Accommodation may be available, but has yet to be confirmed, if provided, it will be at cost. Further details are still to be firmed up, but interested people should keep an eye on the blog for further information.

Brian and Mike at a previous balloon meet - the wind wasn't kind on this occasion!

All in all, we hope you agree, Ballooning represents a really exciting new opportunity, we look forward to being overwhelmed with your response!

The Virgin London Marathon 

In another exciting ballooning event, our very own Brian Catchpoole will be taking part in this Sunday's London Marathon. He will be at the start line, pumped and ready..... but unfortunately is not taking on the grueling 26.2 miles. Brian will be accompanying The Breitling Academy in showcasing a new venture into disability ballooning. If you are hoping to go along to see the marathon, do try and pop down to see Brian - he will be there from 5.30am so all cups of tea (white, no sugar) will be gratefully received!

Brian is not our only representative on Sunday - we are also incredibly lucky to have two runners representing Aerobility! Please do support their efforts and donate if you can by following the links below.

http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/fundraiser-web/fundraiser/showFundraiserPage.action?userUrl=oliverwallace

http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/fundraiser-web/fundraiser/showFundraiserProfilePage.action?userUrl=andyjennings

Not only is Oliver Wallace completing this physically demanding challenge, he is also getting into the aviation spirit with a fantastic costume. We wish both Andy and Oli the very best of luck!

What an outfit!

Over and Out...

That's all for now folks - we hope you enjoy your weekend and get some flying in if you can! Don't forget that you're always welcome at Blackbushe, our kettle is always on and James is always smiling!

Happy Landings

The Aerobility Team

Mobile Simulator on Tour

Today we're at local charity Parkside Mencap's fundraiser and we've brought along our mobile simulator!

It's proving to be a hit with young and old alike, and the queue just keeps getting longer!

easyHelp!

As an avid blog-follower, I have no doubt that you will have seen the great work that Aerobility does - but have you ever wondered how we fund it all? Well, we have a few fun and easy ways that you can help add a few pennies to our piggy bank without giving us any of your own...

easySearch and easyFundraising are great ways of supporting Aerobility, and all you have to do is a bit of online searching and shopping! By using the easySearch and easyFundraising sites to do your usual searching and shopping, you can raise valuable funds for Aerobility. Check out the links below to see how you can help!

http://aerobility.easysearch.org.uk/

http://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/aerobility

A very happy Birthday...

This Saturday was the last of our Aviation Experience sessions, funded by the Hampshire County Council's Short Breaks for Disabled Children scheme. The sessions have been great fun for everyone involved and we've met some inspirational young people. This Saturday was no different, and we were even lucky enough to be able to share somebody's birthday with them!

The birthday boy with Aerobility volunteer Andrea - I wonder if he's wishing for some flying lessons!

Aerobility on show!

The calm before the storm! The Aerobility stand at the Business World Expo 2013. We've had a great few days!