First solo for Zulq......and another achievement for Paul

Zulq Ashraf joined Booker as a Junior member because he plans on a career as an airline pilot and he thought it would be a good idea to learn proper flying first. He starts his training with Easyjet shortly, after going solo yesterday.

More fun that airliners

Today Paul Field added to his already impressive list of accomplishments by converting to the Pawnee.

Not quite the same as a Lightning - or an A380

More Instructor achievements

The instructors have been working hard all week on training exercises. Paul Field has now completed his Full Cat rating, leaving him free to complete his tug training.

Here's Paul after gaining his Aeros badge earlier in the year

Yesterday Jane Moore completed her 5 year Asst Cat renewal with Andy Monk. Andy took off (literally) at lunch time with Jim R in LH, they flew down to Lasham so that Andy could do a quick spin in a K13 to complete his own FIS(S), then it was back to Booker for more coaching.

Andy during the 2017 Booker Regionals

Jane enjoying some Cabriolet fun a few years ago

After flying, Jim White gave a talk on learning styles, showing the importance of recognising that the student's way of learning may be different from the instructor's. 

Jim putting us all into boxes

Then it was off to the Elaichi for a group dinner, which pretty much filled the restaurant.

There's more BI and Asst Cat training in progress today, with a bit of shower dodging

2019 Instructor Training Week

Luke

The Instructor Training Week got off to a good start with wall to wall sunshine and lots of flying and briefing going on, with members doing Basic Instructor training, or working on their Flight Instructor modules. One of the prospective BIs is Luke Bishop who featured in the May 2018 issue of the newsletter. He's made a bit of progress since then - over the weekend he brought his newly acquired Nimbus 2b to Booker and had his first couple of flights in it.

On the other end of the rope we have a new tug pilot. John Otty did some dual flying with James Roland in the Robin and then did his first solo tows.

John during last year's Regionals, hands full of prizes

And not forgetting our new season's tug pilot Kamil Dutkiewicz, who converted to the Pawnee.


More fun - and hard work - tomorrow.

The 16th International Easter Egg Cup Aerobatics Competition

Under grey skies and low cloud, with a brief bright spell in the middle of the day, various pilots could be seen executing mysterious manoeuvres over the airfield. The competitors were given the choice of three sequences - Standard, Tricky and Joker. For those of you who speak Aresti, these are illustrated below.

The day started with a briefing, and then Graham Saw, the organiser, explained to Paul Field how to fly the figures in the standard sequence. Paul said he had never flown aeros before, except as part of his fighter pilot training, but he said that didn't count, so he had a quick practice flight and then flew the sequence solo, thereby gaining his Standard Aerobatics Badge.

Paul after his Lightning Aeros badge flight

The comp is taken seriously..................

George clarifying the finer points of the Joker sequence with Graham

After a long - and cold - day the competitors reconvened in the briefing room for the results - and prizes, presented by safety pilot Will Jones

Champion Maddi Roberts

2nd place - Paul Field

3rd place - Richard Crockett

Judge Graham noted that everyone did well considering the conditions, no-one landed out and no-one crashed. The results and scores in full were:

1st - Maddi Roberts - 78% - Standard
2nd - Paul Field - 70% - Standard
3rd - Richard Crockett - 62.2% - Joker
4th - George Darby (last year's winner) - 61.1% - Joker
5th - Geoff Silvey - 55% - Standard
6th - David Humpreys - 48.9% - Joker
7th - Norbert Eschle - 47% - Tricky

Congratulations to all the competitors and many thanks to Graham for organising the comp and to Will for acting as safety pilot.