A busy 30 days!

20 Apr – AVGAS Delivery.  We now have good stock against any potential shortage

21 Apr  –  PA28 Towing Incident. All now resolved.  Dent in RY wing tapped out by CAMO and replacement wingtip for GA en route from USA to replace the temporary one currently in place.

27 Apr – Hangar door Saga begins  Temporary procedures published for C152s in H3 and PA28s in H2. 

7 May – RY starboard brake issue.  Resolved on 8 May

9 May – First 2026 JROPSS scholar goes solo.  Well Done Cam Winnall

9 May – Deacon departs as Full Time FI.  Please bear with us as we do our best to resolve the temporary shortage of instructors.  We have paused taking new civilian student members until we have a new FTFI which we hope will be in July.

12 May – Successful AGM attended by 40+ members.

17 May – Fly Out to Headcorn.  EDGA, BXIM, RVST & BWVY

17 May – RY Alternator failure.  Replacement on order.

———————————

Housekeeping

Please remember to:

     Fit prop tip covers on ac when putting them away in hangar.

     In hangar leave parking brakes off and chock nosewheels – both ac types.

     Make sure your flight is shown on the Halton Flying Programme.

     Record fuel (and oil) added after each flight in your Plogbook booking-in data.

New flying rates effective from 1 May

———————————

GA FLIGHT DATA RECORDING (25 Apr 26)

GA’s HOBBS metre is suspect and cannot be relied on to provide accurate data. 

Until it is fixed, flight costs will be calculated by Plogbook in the same way as RY – ie TACHO time plus 0.2.  Please continue to record HOBBS time on the Flight Payment sheet so we can monitor GA’s HOBBS metre performance, but do not enter  the HOBBS reading into Logbook;  instead add the TACHO elapsed time plus 0.2 to the HOBBS start reading for your flight – just as you do now for RY.

———————————

CO Monitors in C152s

Please make sure that the CO monitors in the C152s are switched off after flight so as not to run batteries down.

Gliding Club FOB

The Gliding Club (now called RAF Halton Gliding Club rather than Chiterns GC) has published a new FOB.  A copy is in the Ops Room and on the website (here).

Weight & Balance Data

Due to a discrepancy between the online and printed versions of our W&B charts, we have removed the online versions pro tem.

Flying Rates

Red Buggy

The red buggy is u/s (no drive!). Adam Norton is not available to fix at moment so is there any member who has experience of golf buggy mechanics?

Membership Renewal

To date, I have received (as Membership Sec) 50 applications to renew membership out of the 112 total membership we have as we approach the end of the Club year..  Please take a few minutes over the weekend to remind yourself of the renewal process (here) and  get your application completed.

Bulk Fuel Installation/Fuel Compound

1.  I have replaced the padlock on the Fuel Pump cabinet as the old one was getting temperamental.  The code is the same as before
2.  One of the 2 red (AVGAS) jerry cans has gone missing from the fuel sampling cabinet.  If you know where it is please let me know asap.  (I have e mailed HMC and CGC to see if they have it!)

Airfield

The airfield was close to being usable today, but last night’s rain was just too much.  After more rain this weekend the forecast is better next week so we are hopeful of being back in the air later next week.  Keep doing the anti-rain dance every night!

Plogbook and Flying Records

If you have logged into Plogbook recently you will have seen the various improvements that have been introduced.  Please let me (or Plogbook) know what you think of them or pass on any “good ideas” that you may have.  What do you think of the new “Mobile Schedule” layout?

As we have done so little flying so far this year. I have been unable to fully test the necessary admin processes for extracting the data I need for my office activity “behind the scenes”.  As a result, when we do start flying again you will still be required to complete the paper Flight Data Sheets so I can cross check Plogbook outputs against  HACaS which we know outputs accurate reports; My target date to withdraw the Flight Data Sheets is now 1 Jun 26.  Apologies for this, but we must be sure that we have this right!

However, it is now time to withdraw the tedious manual cross checking of your licence data held in HACaS and the subsequent posting of monthly lists of upcoming expiries.  If you keep your licence data up to date in Plogbook your dashboard will show the relevant dates and warn you accordingly.  Similarly, the number of days since your last flight was logged in Plogbook is shown on your dashboard so you can check that you are current (or not);  until you have logged a flight in Plogbook that data will show “no flights logged”, but as we have now not flown for longer than the maximum currency period, that means you are no longer current!  The final responsibility for being fully current when you fly has always been and remains with the pilot/authoriser and moving the real time display the relevant data to Plogbook should help you discharge this responsibility better.

As a consequence of the above, the T Cards will now ONLY reflect your status vis-a-vis order book signing as licence expiry and currency will now be reflected in Plogbook.  We are investigating the possibility of replacing the paper signature sheets and T Cards with an online system embedded in Plogbook that would advise you (on your Plogbook Dashboard) if you are delinquent in signing any of the necessary order.  One more step towards reducing your pre and post flight paperwork to the Authorisation Sheet only!

March Lecture – Tue 3 Mar – 1900 for 1930 – Partial Power Emergencies – Alec Trevett.