Happy New Year

A Happy New Year to all HAC members.

2026 Calendars

The 2026 HAC Programme of Events and Social Calendars are available here.

Fleet

RY is back with its owner for the winter and is scheduled to return in early March.  GA and TM are both serviceable and available to fly.  KI awaits a visit to Turweston for investigation of a flap problem.

Met Forecasts

From Mon 26 Jan we will no longer receive the met forecast package from Benson that is usually posted on the board in the Planning Room.  The same data will continue to be available through MOMIDs on the computer in the Planning Room;  login details are posted  by the computer and there is a link on your Plogbook dashboard. The Halton Cross section is accessed though the Products/Station Products tab by entering “Hal” in the search box;  low level winds and forecasts are available under the products tab.Please speak to a member of staff if you cannot find what you want.

Centenary Dinner

Plans are well advanced for our Black Tie Dinner at the Chiltern Forest GC on 7 Feb.  If you have indicated your attendance  but have not paid and/or sent me your guest’s’ names or menu choices, please do so by 31 January.

RAF Halton Aerodrome Book V5.3

Version5.3 of the Halton Aerodrome Order Book has been issued and all pilots are to read and sign as having done so before their next flight.  All T Cards have been turned RED.

V5.3 includes changes to CGC Aerotow limits / Aerotow processes  and revised weather minima.  Updates are captured in red throughout.  Key changes for HAC pilots are:

HAL 2305 Annex B – RAF Halton VMC Weather Minima

HAL 2309 (7) – para 5h – Simulated Engine Failures.

The revised AOB can be found here

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PLOGBOOK UPDATE

Plogbook is now fully operational for all HAC bookings and flights including defect recording. Please continue to maintain the paper records (ie. flight data sheets and defects log in AC Document Folders) whilst we gain confidence that everything is being recorded correctly and we have ironed out any bugs in Plogbook.

A couple of observations so far:

1) Only use the Plogbook Terminal in Ops (or your own tablet/phone) to log into your Plogbook account to make a booking or book a flight out or in. Remember to log out of the Plogbook Terminal when you have finished.

2) Do not use the display terminal mounted on the wall for anything other than viewing the Schedule (ie bookings) and the Fleet (ie AC State Board) or the Station Flypro for which there are bookmarks if they are not already open.

3) Please record the HOBBS & TACHO times on the Flight Authorisation Sheet.

4) As RY has no HOBBS please enter 0 as the finish HOBBS time. Plogbook will add the 0.2 to the TACHO time to calculate cost.

5) Please enter the quantity of fuel uplifted after your flight. It will give us some useful data on HAC ac fuel usage rates.

6) There is an issue with Dual Flight Charging. Some flights seem to generate the correct dual flight charge automatically (ie without the need to add the “Extra” for Instructor Fee, others do not.  I have raised the issue with Plogbook, but meanwhile please check if the Dual Rate has been charged and if not add the “Instructor Fee Extra”.

7)  Plogbook is not recording HOBBS hours on RY correctly..  Cost calculations are correct (but see 6 above), as are engineering hours to service,.  This will be fixed in the upcoming update

8) When paying for your flight by BACS,  would you please use as a reference the last 2 letters of the ac registration plus the 4 digit code that Plogbook gives you in the final summary of the flight. 

A major package of updates to Plogbook  is still being tested.  As they are mainly back-end changes that will improve data access for reporting, they should not materially change how you use Plogbook, but there may be changes to displays et as well as some bug fixes. You will know when the update has been implemented as there will be a blue box in the top right of your Dashboard which will allow you to read a summary of the changes.

The AC State Board in Ops and  the Ops Board on the HAC website are no longer operational .  Plogbook Fleet is the only source of Club aircraft status information.

Finally, if you are struggling to remember what to do, refer to the PlogbookTutorial page where there are step-by-step guides. If you still can’t do what you need to, then contact the Ops Mgr.

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BFI Gate

The BFI outer gate is to be kept locked when not in use (ie between refuellings). The pump cabinet can be left unlocked until the last fuelling of the day. Don’t just click the padlock, scramble the combination as well!!

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PA28s

RY has now been returned to its owner for the winter and we will operate with one PA28 when GA returns from service – hopefully on Thu 11 Dec. This will minimise our overheads and maximise the owner’s revenue on the ac.  RY should be back at the beginning of March 2026

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HAC FOB Review

This will now take place on Tue 9 Jan 26.  Please advise any suggested changes to Ops Mgr by cop 8 Jan.

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Ops Mgr Availability

I will be completely unavailable from 12 to 17 Dec; please refer any issues to Deacon or Mark M during that period. I shall then be WFH until returning to the office on 5 Jan.

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Happy Christmas

Finally, may I thank everyone for their support through the year and wish you and your families a Happy Christmas and a great 2026.

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BFI Security

With Immediate Effect the BFI (Fuel Compound) outer gates are to be kept padlocked when gate is not in use.  the Pump Cabinet can be left open until after the last refuelling of the day

Remembrance Day – 11th Nov

NO HAC AIRCRAFT ARE TO BE FLYING AT 1100 ON TUESDAY 11th NOVEMBER

Centenary Dinner – Save the Date

The Centenary Dinner will be held at Chiltern Forest Golf Club on Saturday 7th February 2026.  Details to follow idc.

Plogbook Update

Plogbook Implementation is going well.  The Ops Room set up is now complete with a dedicated Plogbook terminal for pilot use in the far right corner and the display screen now showing the Station Flypro, the Plogbook Schedule and the Plogbook Fleet (= Ac Status or Ops Board).  Please do not use either of these terminals to browse the internet – use the PC in the Planning Room for that.

I will maintain the AC Status whiteboard in Ops and the Ops Board on the website for the time being, but it is my intent to drop both as soon as we are comfortable with using Plogbook for Fleet data (probably end November.. The “old” EBS is now disabled and any historic url links you might have will now go to Plogbook.

We are still making minor refinements to Plogbook and will continue to do so, but I am confident that it is fit for purpose and therefore pilots should now use Plogbook to book ac out/in and record flight data and defects can now do so. 

PLEASE CONTINUE TO COMPLETE THE FLIGHT DATA SHEETS  and ENTER THE HOBBS/TACHO START/STOP READINGS IN THE AUTHORISATION SHEET and RECORD DEFECTS IN THE AC DOCUMENTS FOLDER so I  can cross check that everything in Plogbook is aligned.  Please add “PB” to the bottom of the flight data Sheet sheet entry.

I have transferred account balances from HACaS to Plogbook so those with accounts can see their balance.  Please use the Flight reference number that Plogbook generates as your reference for BACS payments

If you are unable to log in to Plogbook to Book Out your ac (Go Flying!)  you can still fly!  Complete the Authorisation Sheet and e mail me the details of your flight and I can enter them retrospectively.

I have printed all the step-by-step Plogbook Guides and they are in a folder titled Plogbook User Guide by the Plogbook Terminal in the Ops Rm.  It includes a section called “Useful Tips” which you may find helpful (eg enter 0 as the HOBBS reading for RY as Plogbook will calculate the correct HOBBS duration from the TACHO reading).  If you have any useful tips to add, please write the on the sheet (and e mail them to me) so we can share what we learn.

Similarly, if you have any suggestions to improve Plogbook please e mail them to me and I will raise them with the Plogbook team.  I have had a number already for which I thank you.

We are still working to align the data in Plogbook covering pilot currency, hours, last flight etc as well as defect data.  None of this is critical to the use of Plogbook initially and we will continue to review licence expiry dates and currency as before for the time being as I will be maintaining our HACaS records in parallel with Plogbook until the end of the year.

Finally,  if you experience any issues with Plogbook feel free to call me anytime so I can help resolve your problem.