Prompted by the NATS staff newspaper I have looked today at the CAA response to the SES charging proposals. It is a well thought out position paper BUT there is no mention whatsoever of General Aviation and the likely impact of the proposals as posed by EUROCONTROL on our side of aviation.

A side on which the airlines depend for their future supply of pilots but one that has no way of reclaiming the added cost of the charges proposed other than by digging deep into taxed income or by increasing the astronomic hourly charge of hiring a club aircraft.

What a dreadful comment that the CAA cannot even mention the impact on us – merely the airlines who enjoy so many advantages in taxation and the low duty on Avtur.

I would just love to be wrong here but I do not think I am.

If you want to make a response then the email address is –
[email]nicola.motley@caaerg.org.uk[/email]
or
[email]anne.muddle@srg.caa.co.uk[/email]

I will refrain from any jest on the surnames of these two, no doubt excellent, ladies who are to field your blitzkreig.

Cheers,

Trapper 69

What a tragedy. I spent a magic week in Florida in the winter staying at Stuart, just up the road from Fort Pierce. No interesting aircraft based there but there were large numbers of GA machines and transient aircraft. Nice friendly airport with the usual Florida atmosphere so rare in the UK and Europe. I even got badly sunburned on 1 February which is indded a first for me. Also visited Paris Air at Vero Beach which was the finest FBO in terms of organisation and appearence I have ever encountered in 50 years as a pilot. You could literally eat off the hangar floor.
Cheers,
Trapper 69

Macky 42,
Come up to Sywell and you will fully appreciate my comments.
Cheers,
Trapper 69

:dev2: Moggy,
It certainly has not but then, what self respecting daughter ever tells her dad anything of real interest other than what birthday present she would kill for. I must say the leather outfits made me blush at times as they strained to climb up to the rig. Tried to persuade them to have a bad weather alternative of rubber and pvc but they all gave me funny looks and did not speak to me for days.
I met the Hollander outfit in Sweden three weks ago. They fly a single 450hp Grumman Agcat with a rig and two wing riders who are gorgeous Swedish girls. One blonde and one brunette. Again tight suits are de rigeur and their smoke system would empty an Esso road tanker if they went on any longer. Ljungbyhed aerodrome went IFR for 10 minutes till it cleared a bit. Magic.
Cheers,
Trapper 69
PS – OK Moggy I understand. It takes a fair amount of bottle to ride the rig, still less do the cockpit/rig/cockpit transfers. Brendan O’Brien split his jeans seam when he did it and I was unfortunate enough to be his chauffeur. With Brendans dimensions it was a veeeery difficult transfer but he loved the aerobatics.

No one has mentioned one of the nicest colour schemes and for that matter sponsors many moons ago and that, on a single Stearman, was the motoring journal “Car magazine”. Gorgeous blue with really great air brush artwork.
I probably have some prints of it somewhere but they are not catalogued and sit in their original packets. Perhaps some keen retired gentleman might like to undertake a real labour of love with my assistance, and that of my 23 volumes of logbooks, on captions
I took it to Newtownards and Baldonnel one year where it was plastered with temporary fablon logos for an Irish company, “Electravision” or something like it. No doubt someone out there will have the odd photo but it all predated digital and to scan all of my photos would need at least the surplus Met Office Cray supercomputer recently retired and replaced.
AeroSuperBatics, which is the operator of the teams four 450hp Stearman’s, is run by Vic Norman, aviator extraordinaire. He has attracted many sponsors over the years, far more than any other airshow team. This year the “Utterly Butterlies” will give well over 100 displays all over the UK, Ireland and Western Europe.
Cheers,
Trapper 69