| Annual Survey 2010 |
Always keen to find out what members want from the Club, the Management Team have, since 2007, published a survey annually to ask them. This year, the fourth such survey was even more comprehensive than ever including such delicate questions as "Do you feel the Club is well managed and well run". To our relief, with a few exceptions on specific issues, members thought the Club was "brilliant" and the Management Team "excellent". Generally members wanted more of the same type of activity - monthly events where we all make the same flight on the same evening, and "guest airfields", three airfields each month to visit, either in the UK or just across the Channel.
Also new for this year, a Management "Task List" was drawn up from the survey, so the membership could see more of what Management were doing. Next year's survey might tell us how Management performed! 15/06/10 |
| 10,000 Hours |
| In May the Club recorded 10,000 hours total flying time logged by members in the Pilot Flight Reporting system (PIREPs) since its introduction on the website in June 2006. Members total an average of around 350 hours a month, the all time record of 528 hours in one month being in December 2009. Approximately 50 members fly regularly with the Club, logging PIREPs but this is an underestimate as it isn't always the same members who fly each month. 15/06/10 |
| 500 Members |
| On June 1st our 500th Member registered with the Club. This milestone event isn't quite what it seems though, due to the way Club memberships are handled.
The latest member to join(No. 503) is applicant number 772, but we ask applicants to complete a registration process, and 500 have done so. However, some registrants never become active, some never even visit the forum (34 at the last count). 15/06/10 |
| Six Years Old |
It is six years since we formed the CIX VFR Club in February 2004. It started as one of Peter Dodds' many ideas. He had taken note of some comments made by Ruth McTighe in the Flight Simulation area of the CIX Conferencing system. These comments mentioned the availability of on line Air Traffic Control on VATSIM, which led to him joining VATSIM in February 2003. There he observed that there were very few General Aviation light aircraft being flown. His idea was to form a group of those interested in this activity, and so, a year later, the CIX VFR Club was born.
In 2005, one VATSIM member, Bill Casey, dreamed up the idea of a "virtual" Air Show and invited us to take part. We were so enthusiastic that we were given the opening slot. This event led to the formation of the 2-4-CIX Display Team, which opened the show in each of the following three years. Members of the Display Team helped us celebrate our sixth birthday by putting on displays at Biggin Hill, Shoreham, and Gloucestershire airfields. The picture below shows two Chipmunks during their display at Shoreham on Monday 8th February. On the ground is a Hurricane, one of the Wardirds team, waiting for the call to scramble.19/02/10 |
 Chipmunks at Shoreham screenshot
Two Chipmunks at Shoreham, part of the 2-4-CIX Display Team |
| (For more details of the development of the club, see the Club Background page.) |
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| 90th Birthday Celebration |
| The Club's senior member celebrates his 90th birthday in June. John learned to fly in 1961 at Woodvale with Southport Aero Club (now Southport & Merseyside Aero Club) in a Forney Aircoupe G-ARHC, which has been carefully remodelled for Flight Simulator from Southport Aero Club photographs. John gained his twin rating and Instrument Rating which allowed him to fly airways , a qualification that only some 60 Private Pilots attained in those years. He continued to fly for business or pleasure until 1987 when he finally hung up his headset. He is very active in the Club and flies his favourite G-ARHC as much as possible in both FS9 and more recently FSX. However, we don't see a lot of John in the summer as, remarkably perhaps, he and his wife go ocean sailing - real world sailing that is. What a man! |
Forney Aircoupe G-ARHC for FS9/FSX overhead Gloucestershire |
| What an aircraft too, for the real world G-ARHC is still flying, based on a farm strip in Bedfordshire. 15/06/10
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| 2-4-Cix Update |
| Our Aerobatic Display Team has a new leader and for the first time, a deputy leader. Practice for our displays is so intense at times, it was felt that one member alone would be unlikely to have the time to manage every practice session. New members have joined the old hands, and our second display of the year is to celebrate the 90th Birthday of the Club's senior member (see above.) We will be carrying out a simple series of solo flypasts at Woodvale EGOW on 28th June, where our nonagenarian John C. learned to fly. All are welcome to come and watch. The usual VATSIM login process applies. 15/06/10 |
| VATSIM ATO |
| The online Flight Simulator organisation VATSIM to which we belong has been planning for some time to introduce qualifications for its pilots in a similar way that it's Air Traffic Control enthusiast members have to have the knowledge, and pass exams, to be able to control at the more technically difficult airports. We believe we are well placed to become an "Approved Training Organisation" (ATO) to provide the training that VATSIM pilots will need, alongside our own students. 15/06/10 |
| Expansion of the Training Dept |
| Largely due to canvassing by one of the Club QFIs at our main training airfields there has been a significant increase in the number of members asking the Club to provide training. One of the features of Club life is our ability to provide training similar to that provided in the real world from raw beginner (known as 'ab initio' training) in simple single engined aircraft to full instrument flight training in complex twin engined aircraft. Our "Instructors" all hold or have held real world Private Pilot's Licences, (one is in the middle of an ATPL training course) or have been through the Club's ab initio training course, so are able to teach what they themselves learned. Those who complete our training programme can take satisfaction in the fact that their flying is "as real as it gets" in the simulator which is "as real as it gets". 15/06/10 |
| New Look for the Web Site |
Tony Driver has been working on the club web site for some time. His main objective has been to make all of the hundreds of pages conform with the Strict standard set by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). Having very nearly achieved that objective, with the able assistance of Ruth McTighe, he decided to give the web site a new look, by centring the display, and reformatting the main menu.
As yet, the lower level pages are not centred. This will change as the work continues. 19/02/10 |
| Ownership |
| The 5th Column page is written and edited by the Club's CEO and CFI Peter Dodds. It contains a mixture of Club news and comment. The comment articles are intended to reflect the Club's corporate view of the Flightsim world rather than an individual's personal opinion. If you have a view on any of the opinions expressed on this page, respond by all means to the webmaster, but don't shoot the Editor! |
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VFR Club
