An update from the President.....
Hello
Wow, how quickly a year flies by with just under two months until the AGM! Formal notification will be sent out shortly, however at this stage we have tentatively scheduled this for Wednesday 29th July 2015, so mark this in your calendars.
It was an exciting year for my family with our second son born on the 16th March 2015 which has kept us fairly busy! Unfortunately this has meant it has slowed progress on the update to the WAC strategy which we started earlier this year. We will making this a high priroty over the coming months and will keep you all updated with progress.
As you will have noticed we have been shut on Monday and Tuesday each week. Simsy & Jelle need to have a weekend! With Simsy being our only B-Cat instructor employed at the club it means that while Jelle is still a C-Cat under supervision Simsy must be overseeing any instruction undertaken. Jelle has reached the required number of hours (well done Jelle!) but must now meet the 6 month minimum period under supervision which will come up in late July. We can then review our opening days from there. The wider team of Marc, James, Richard, Bronnie, Blair (back flying again) and Dan are still helping out where they can in between their full time jobs.
The weather has certainly been a bit challenging on weekends over the last month, with some much nicer weather during the week. It has certainly felt like we should be swapping work days! I managed to get the Nanchang over to Blenheim for a repair and its 100 hour service and back again a week later. Both times the weather forecast looked a bit suspect but actually turned out to be fine. Andrew Braddick came over to bring the Nanchang back and get some more time in the aircraft prior to starting his rating. Simsy is now getting the 'Nanchang bug' starting his rating with Marc. As mentioned previously we are still looking for another 3-4 members to join the syndicate, so if you are interested contact the club. It is a great base-level warbird aircraft to fly!
At the end of May, Andrew Braddick and I caught up with Nico for our bi-monthly catch up (Simsy was up flying on a good Saturday :)). The two Tommies (TAW and WAC) will be fully refurbished by late July with a new panel, full instrument panel, iPad mini's, Aspens and new plastics. If they are anything like the Marlborough tommies then they will look pretty much new and very tidy, which will be great. FLT is out for SIDS checks and should be back very shortly.
I have been keeping up regular contact with WIAL around options for more hanger space and a longer term lease. WIAL have had higher priority projects, with the new tower and commercial premises underway and no doubt discussion around increasing the runway length. This has meant a delay in presenting us with options, but I will continue to follow-up and progress this. However, some good news, the roofing on the south side of the hanger has been fixed and is no longer leaking (a great test was the torrential rain we had a few weeks back!). This is great for us, especially with winter arriving. WIAL have also had a Project Manager look at the hanger doors and from their assessments to date it is possible that getting some working doors may not be as hard as initially thought.
Well, that's it for now. Thanks to all of you who are flying and doing your part in keeping our booking sheet booked up! Even though winter is here there are still plenty of fantastic winter days for flying!
Regards
Derrick
On behalf of the WAC Executive
Wow, how quickly a year flies by with just under two months until the AGM! Formal notification will be sent out shortly, however at this stage we have tentatively scheduled this for Wednesday 29th July 2015, so mark this in your calendars.
It was an exciting year for my family with our second son born on the 16th March 2015 which has kept us fairly busy! Unfortunately this has meant it has slowed progress on the update to the WAC strategy which we started earlier this year. We will making this a high priroty over the coming months and will keep you all updated with progress.
As you will have noticed we have been shut on Monday and Tuesday each week. Simsy & Jelle need to have a weekend! With Simsy being our only B-Cat instructor employed at the club it means that while Jelle is still a C-Cat under supervision Simsy must be overseeing any instruction undertaken. Jelle has reached the required number of hours (well done Jelle!) but must now meet the 6 month minimum period under supervision which will come up in late July. We can then review our opening days from there. The wider team of Marc, James, Richard, Bronnie, Blair (back flying again) and Dan are still helping out where they can in between their full time jobs.
The weather has certainly been a bit challenging on weekends over the last month, with some much nicer weather during the week. It has certainly felt like we should be swapping work days! I managed to get the Nanchang over to Blenheim for a repair and its 100 hour service and back again a week later. Both times the weather forecast looked a bit suspect but actually turned out to be fine. Andrew Braddick came over to bring the Nanchang back and get some more time in the aircraft prior to starting his rating. Simsy is now getting the 'Nanchang bug' starting his rating with Marc. As mentioned previously we are still looking for another 3-4 members to join the syndicate, so if you are interested contact the club. It is a great base-level warbird aircraft to fly!
At the end of May, Andrew Braddick and I caught up with Nico for our bi-monthly catch up (Simsy was up flying on a good Saturday :)). The two Tommies (TAW and WAC) will be fully refurbished by late July with a new panel, full instrument panel, iPad mini's, Aspens and new plastics. If they are anything like the Marlborough tommies then they will look pretty much new and very tidy, which will be great. FLT is out for SIDS checks and should be back very shortly.
I have been keeping up regular contact with WIAL around options for more hanger space and a longer term lease. WIAL have had higher priority projects, with the new tower and commercial premises underway and no doubt discussion around increasing the runway length. This has meant a delay in presenting us with options, but I will continue to follow-up and progress this. However, some good news, the roofing on the south side of the hanger has been fixed and is no longer leaking (a great test was the torrential rain we had a few weeks back!). This is great for us, especially with winter arriving. WIAL have also had a Project Manager look at the hanger doors and from their assessments to date it is possible that getting some working doors may not be as hard as initially thought.
Well, that's it for now. Thanks to all of you who are flying and doing your part in keeping our booking sheet booked up! Even though winter is here there are still plenty of fantastic winter days for flying!
Regards
Derrick
On behalf of the WAC Executive