| Changes for 2-4-Cix |
| Last years 2-4-Cix Aerobatics team leader, Gray Brett, has again taken on the role of following a 6 month break due to outside circumstances. Pete Chapman, who gallantly kept the team going during that period will take on the new role of Deputy Team Leader, as the team grows in strength and diversity. 10/06/08 |
| Ageism? Not in This Club |
| Our most senior member celebrated his 88th birthday in early June as our youngest members were celebrating the end of their GCSEs. Somehow, with an age spread of possibly four generations, we all get along in the common interest of flight and flight simulation. Perhaps its because we never meet? 10/06/08 |
| New Club Location |
With an increase in ATC activity at Liverpool over recent months we decided to change our Monday location from Barton to Liverpool. Whilst Barton offered the opportunity for members to experience the differences afforded by an AFIS control service and grass runways , Liverpool goes the other way and offers members a taste of flying into, out of and within an area of Class D airspace, an experience not afforded by any of our other bases. With both Liverpool Approach and Tower regularly manned, we are optimistic about an active Monday evening in the North west, starting on June 23rd. 08/06/08 |
| Gliding |
| Always looking for new ideas and challenges, the Club is actively exploring the feasibility of putting on a Gliding event sometime later this summer. There are some tricky technical issues involved, persuading Flight Simulator to create ridge lift and thermals where thy should naturally occur, rather than just, as is the case in default FSX scattered at random. There is no rising air genberating mechanism in the default FS9. In both cases, third party software is being tried to overcome these shortcomings. 08/06/06 |
| Lancaster Mishap |
| Practices for Sywell 2008 are now taking place regularly, and a recent decision by the organisers means that the 2-4-Cix display team can now land at Sywell after their routine. The Lancaster decided to join them on practice night, but Sywell's runway 21 proved too short and the grass too wet. Fortunately only the pilot's pride was dented. You may notice that his name isn't mentioned!. 19/05/08 |
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The pilot said "The inevitable cliff at the end of the flattened FS9 runway 21 at Sywell caught me out, and after sliding through the hedge, I found myself and the aircraft going down a steep bank before the nose buried itself in a field of green pixels." |
| Supporting Darren |
| This was an event organised by Mike Pike, stalwart ATCO at Gloucestershire for many a Club night, to say thank you to his real world counterpart, the former Senior ATCO and now Operations Manager at Gloucestershire airport, Darren Lewington. Mike said "I have spent many a happy morning in the control tower with him and his staff learning how they do this air traffic control lark for real. I can safely say that he is the main reason why I am able to make the virtual Gloster Approach sound so authentic. He has been very supportive." The Club joined in by organising a cross country navigation exercise to the site from Gloucestershire airport and then on to Shoreham. The field, west of Lewknor village just off Jn 6 of the M40 is the drop zone for the London Parachute Club. 07/05/08 |
| Shobdon Air Race |
| The third Air Race was held at Shobdon on 4th May. Tim Arnot designed some scenery for FSX to compliment the gary Summons scenery for FS9, so that racers in whichever sim had something to look at before and after the race. It was another close run race. Shobdon Results 06/05/08 |
| Still Growing |
| On May 1st we welcomed our 250th member - a milestone event. By the 15th of the Month, while we still wondering how to celebrate, another 10 new members had joined. We are now the biggest Flying Club on VATSIM, with new members joining at an average of three a week. 01/05/08 |
| Compton Abbas Air Race |
| The Air Racing season continued with its second meeting on April 9th at Compton Abbas. Interesting features of this course are the fluctuations in ground level from over 800 feet above mean sea level (amsl) to roughly 200ft amsl. That and the difficult to spot marker pylons made this a triockier race than Bembridge the previous month. See the Compton Abbas Results in the Air Racing section. 10/04/08 |
| Mystery Missions |
| The first of our Mystery Missions took place on Wednesday 26th March in the New Forest. An aircraft departed Bournemouth with only the pilot on board, according to his flight plan. But airport staff reported seeing someone in the right hand seat. Who was the mystery passenger and what happened to him? 12/03/08 |
| Online Air Racing - a VATSIM UK First? |
Here They Come! |
| After several weeks of practice in which members honed their flying skills to the maximum, the Club held its first Air Race on Sunday 2nd March. Imitating to a large extent the real world Schneider Cup race which is held at Bembridge, 5 members hurtled round the 25 mile course marked by 50 foot high red and white cones. Tim Arnot wrote some flight tracking software especially for the Club, created the course, calculated the handicaps, organised it all, and even had the energy to take part. Winner was Don Fraser with a handicap adjusted time of 55minutes 11 seconds for the five laps. Results and Pictures 03/03/08 |
| Brand New Web Site |
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After more than nine man weeks of intensive work since before Christmas, the Club is proud to present to members the new-look web site. The main new features are: -
Like the forum, it draws members more into the unique community of virtual aviation enthusiasts that we have indeed come to know as friends in many cases, though few of us have ever met. We hope that everyone will continue to support the Club in the many ways that they do, so that another website reorganisation is necessary in 4 years time! 06/02/08 |
| Open Five Days a Week |
| With the Club's continually expanding membership, it was recently decided to add three new operating locations to the existing two; Biggin Hill & Gloucestershire. Final planning is now being undertaken for the launch of these new operating base airfields; Barton, Carlisle and Shoreham. We have appointed "Airfield Managers" to promote each base and attract Club (and other VATSIM) traffic to these locations. 06/01/08 |
| Another Slogan |
| One new member who joined our ever growing Club in June said that he liked the idea of flying by hand (why use a computer to simulate a computer flying the plane for you...). This caught the eye of the March/April Slogan Competition judge, and will form the basis of another new slogan. |
| Recent Events Voted a Hit |
The floatplane event held in the last two weeks in May was still being talked about a couple of weeks later. Members voted it one of the best this year. Equally popular was a quick 1 hour dash on 9th June round the reservoirs which supply Manchester's drinking water . Almost all the trip was beneath Manchester Airport's Class D controlled airspace, making for "interesting" vertical navigation as the route included flying over two of the highest peaks of the Peak District. Members departed from Barton and returned to Liverpool to sample, possibly for the first time flying into our new base in the north west. 10/06/08 |
| Sywell Air Race |
| The Club Air Racing season is now in full swing and the small initial group of keen racers is steadily growing. See theresults on the Sywell Race web page. Next months Air Race will be held at Abbeville, Northern France. 08/06/08 |
| The Navy Lark |
| A tour of the western side of Scotland, its islands and sea lochs proved a very popular event in May. Members took to floatplanes or amphibians to fly to seven harbours in an area where the default scenery, particularly in FSX was spectacular, and in places challenging for a light aircraft. members started and ending the tour at Carlisle, either in an amphibian, changing to a floatplane at Campbeltown on the Mull of Kintyre where the former RAF Machrihanish RAF station is now a civilian airfield, and at Campbeltown lock, a great natural harbour with a waiting fleet of Dehavilland Beavers, and Cessna 208s.30/05/08 |
| Charts Illuistrate Continuing Growth |
| Membership Secretary Pete Allnutt has devised some charts of the Club's activities which members may see on some of the Operations pages. They illustrate the dramatic growth in flying activity since we introduced 5 days a week opening, with over 200 hiours being flown in April, and most of our bases nopw recording over 50 movements a month. 21/05/08. |
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The steady growth of the Club is clearly shown in this graph of the last two years activities. |
| Stacked Up for Landing |
So busy was the small French airfield of Octeville (LFOH) near Le Havre when the Cluib descended on it mob-handed from Shoreham on Wednesday April 30th that the controller was forced to create his own "stack" of VFR aircraft orbiting over the field awaiting their turn to land. For a short time, the field was busier than virtual Heathrow! The event was another trip to France following a real world event, the Normandy Property Show, held at Shoreham Airport on the preceding Sunday, where we were commissioned to carry some passengers who wished to visit properties for sale in the Deauville area. 01/05/08 |
| Late Night Lakeland |
| Mimicing the real world "Sun 'n' Fun" Air Rally held annually at lakeland Airport Florida, The Miami ARTCC section of Vatsim hosted a virtual copy on April 19th. Held at a civilised time of night for pilots in the Eastern USA , this translated into midnight to 03:00 British Summer Time for anyone interested in taking part from these islands. Two Cix VFR Club members, Tim Arnot and Peter Dodds decided that this would be a bit of fun. Departing from Orlando Sanford Airport they flew south and joined the promulgated procedural approach for the event. The event wasn't as busy as expected, but there was enough traffic to make it interesting. The pair logged off after landing at about 02:00 BST, choosing not to stay for the party! Pictures. 20/04/08 |
| Slogan Competition |
A Competition to find a new slogan for the home page of the web site was won by Ontario Canada based member Al Regina. Al's many contributions (there was no limit) included the crisp and punchy It was voted the winner and is now used here on the web site and in members' avatars on other forums.. Nice one Al. 10/04/08 |
| Stripping for Summer 2008 |
| We'd like to remind members that there are still over 40 farm strips to visit, so get those STOL aircraft out and make an early start for the coming summer. A few members have continued during the winter, brave souls, and now that the ground is beginning to dry out, the ruts will slowly become bounces if your landing isn't neat.! |
 This delightful little Autogyro designed by member Kevin Bryan visits Lymm Dam at the start of the 2008 Stripping for Summer season. |
| Cheltenham Festival |
| Our pilot members went to Weston near Dublin on 10th March to collect passengers to take part in Irelands national hobby at Cheltenham Racecourse. A variety of small aircraft each collected 2 or 3 punters from Weston and delivered them to Gloucester for the start of the Festival on 11th. They were a bit sore though, because the card was cancelled on 11th because of high winds. The festival continued for the rest of the week though.. 12/03/08 |
| 4th Birthday Celebrations |
| The Club's fourth birthday was celebrated in grand style with a week-long event of activities at each of our five operating locations, starting on 12th February. Each evening saw a significant number of members flying into and around each base. To start the week off with a bang, Manchester Barton and Gloucestershire saw record turn-outs of members either flying or just watching the fun. Wednesday evening most members flew into Shoreham from Gloucestershire, but it was less manic than the previous two nights. |
Members made the long trip to Carlisle for Thuirsday and local Tower ATCO and 2-4-Cix member Ross Bristo did a sterling job managing everyone safely, plus handling a non-member flighter which arrived uinexpectedly and promptly declared an emergency! For Friday night, it was back down to Biggin Hill, where one of the features of the evening was a flypast of vintage WWII aircraft - a Spitfire and a Hurricane led by an Avro Lancaster, with an Airspeed Oxford bringing up the rear. There was no doubt about whether this particular week long party was a winner! 29/02/08 |
| Stripping For Summer |
| The author of the well known Farm Strips scenery, Gerry Winskill, is a member of JHB Airlines on line flying group and last summer proposed to them that they fly into every one of the 94 airfields he has built. Three new venues were published each week throughout the summer. We asked if we could join in, as it seemed an ideal event for us, and as it turned out, our members took on the challenges with much enthusiasm. However, summer turned into Autrumn and Autumn to winter, but the project remained ongoing with only half the strips flown. 08/02/08 |
| Something to Sink your Wheels Into? |
| With Gerry temporarily unavailable to publish more, he has agreed that the Cix VFR Club take over the job for a while, and today we have published the first six of those assignments. With the recent wet weather, and ground already waterlogged, virtually, and most of them rather short, to say the least, you may find something to "sink your wheels into". 08/02/08 |
| New for 2008 |
Always looking for new ideas, the Club is planning some new activities this year. Look out for announcements of the following plus our usual tours and gatherings: -
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| Cavorting Round the Carribean |
| One of our members announced in the Forum that he was planning to fly into all the islands of the Caribbean and anyone who had time was welcome to join him, although it wasn't an official cluib event. As something different for a change, several members have kept him company on most flights. |
| Sywell 2008 Team Gets Started |
| The format of this years display for Sywell has been mostly finalised and a few initial trial runs conducted with significant success. The theme of this years event is Vintage Wartime Aircraft. The display will include low level flypasts plus aerobatics from a variety of military aircraft built between 1930 and 1945. 06/02/08 | Cannies in Cannes |
| In what turned out to be a bit of a marathon, we organised a Club trip to Cannes for Christmas. Flown over three weeks and three legs a choice of routes was offered by organiser Tim Arnot. Over the Christams holiday, we used the Cannes base to travel east to Venice then south to Elba before returning to Cannes. The return flight was made, again in three legs, during the first 3 weeks of January, returning to Biggin Hill on January 20th. 06/02/08 |
| We no longer fly alone! |
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