Time for one final Today's Pilot Fly-In update

Hello all,

Good lord, how time flies! With just a few days left until this weekend’s Today’s Pilot Fly-In at Nottingham Tollerton Airport there’s time for just one final update.

Don’t forget that the fly-in takes place on Sunday June 5 but there is also a Pre-Fly-In Party on Saturday evening for those pilots wanting to arrive early and camp over.

Since my last update yet more exhibitors have agreed to come to the event, some of them bringing aeroplanes. Amongst them Waco Europe Ltd bringing the Waco YMF5 Super, Lambert Aircraft Engineering from Belgium with the Mission M-212 kitplane, Aviat Aircraft UK with a Pitts S-2C, and Oxford Aviation Training with a PA-34 Seneca. CSE Aircraft Sales are planning to bring a Cessna 206, a 2005 model Cessna 172, two Cessna 182s plus a SMA Diesel powered Cessna 182 and a Thielert Diesel powered PA-28 Warrior.

Exhibitors selling their wares at the event include the AFE Pilot Shop, Air Supply, Old Crow Trading (books) and Pride of the Skies (clothing).

The Red Bull Energy Crew will also be on site on Sunday handing out free cans of their energy drink to visiting pilots. We are very grateful to Red Bull who have also provided copious amounts of the drink to help sustain the many volunteers without whom the event could not run!

One of the highlights of Sunday should be a massed arrival of Pitts Specials with the final count seeming to indicate about 17 participating aircraft. These are due in the overhead at 13.00 local – and consequently the airfield will be NOTAMed closed from 13.00-13.30 local.

Wind permitting we are also expecting a few hot air balloons to launch on Saturday and Sunday evenings as well as early Sunday morning.

Thank you to all of you who have already called or e-mailed to say you are planning to attend the event. If the weather co-operates it looks like the 2005 fly-in will be our biggest yet. The weather forecasts vary immensely depending on where you look but we remain optimistic.

As per my previous postings you’ll be aware that the event takes place at Nottingham Tollerton Airport on Sunday June 5 and we are joining forces with the Aeronca Club of Great Britain again to co-host the ‘Gathering of US Classics’ on the same day. So hopefully we will attract some rare and exotic classic American designs like last year.

The two main themes this year are 50 Years of the Cessna 172 and 60 Years of the Pitts Special – but obviously everyone is welcome whatever they fly, be it a single, twin, microlight, helicopter, autogyro or jet!

We have now booked The Houndogs to play live at the ‘Pre-Fly-In’ party on the night of Saturday 4th. Tickets to the party are just £7 – to include live music and your food at the BBQ – with any profits going to the charity fund. After a ‘small scale’ debut in 2004 this party really seems to taken off this year with lots of people telling us that they plan to arrive on Saturday afternoon. We’ve even heard from a number of flying schools and clubs who plan to shut up shop so they can be on site for the entire weekend!

If you are planning to attend the party it would help us immensely if you could call Tollerton on 0115 9815050 and tell them how many people you are bringing. This will enable us to cater for the right amount of people at the BBQ (and the bar!). However, there’s no need to pre-pay for tickets and if you make a last minute decision we certainly won’t turn you away.

Don’t forget that there’s free overnight camping available and if last year is anything to go by it should be a memorable evening!

Regretfully the airfield has asked us to restrict slow moving traffic to arriving pre-10.30am, however, as recompense for this we have arranged free landing fees for all microlights arriving on Saturday in readiness for the fly-in. There is no restriction on departure times on Sunday (with the exception of the 13.00-13.30 NOTAM).

Proceeds from this year’s fly-in will be split equally between Cancer Research UK, the British Disabled Flying Association and the Glen Stewart Flying Scholarship. All aircraft landing at this year’s event will be charged a £5 landing fee, all of which will be put into the charity ‘pot.’

Anyone planning to fly in to Tollerton that weekend will need to read the fly-in briefing sheets that were published in the June issue of Today’s Pilot and also posted on this forum as a sticky.

You will also need to call the airfield (on 0115 9815050) for an on the day briefing and to obtain PPR.

I hope we’ll see some of you this weekend. If anyone has any queries or suggestions please feel free to e-mail me at [email]stephen.bridgewater@keypublishing.com[/email] or call me on 01780 755131.

All the best

Steve

Steve Bridgewater
Assistant Editor & Fly-In Co-ordinator
Today’s Pilot Magazine