august 09 newsletter - laa highland & islands strut · laa eos strut newsletter august 2009...

LAA EoS Strut Newsletter August 2009

Photo Colin Lourie


Monday 3rd August EoS Strut meeting

27th July- 2nd August EAA Airventure 2009 at Os-hkosh

Friday 14th August EoSStrut Fly-in, Glenrothes Set up and BBQSaturday 15th August EoS Strut Fly-in, Glen-rothes

Friday 4th September LAA Fly-in, SywellSaturday 5th September LAA Fly-in, SywellSunday 6th September LAA Fly-in, Sywell

Monday 7th September EoS Strut meeting

Thursday 10th September... Solas Fly-in

2009 Events diary

The next meeting is onMonday 3rd August 2009at 7.30 pmat Keith Griggs’ new work-shop, near Tranent

At a glance...

This newsletter can also be viewed on theStrut web site:www.eos-strut.org.uk

Everyone is welcome so bring along a friend.Also, bring along food for a barbecue andsome drink.

Get Google Maps on yourphot : : "GMAPS"46645

The map alongside shows where Keith’s build-ing is, (it’s marked by the red spot). If youleave the A1 on the A199 heading for Wallyfordand Musselburgh, it’s the first building on theright to the North of the A1. The barbecue willbe at the front, weather permitting, or in thefirst building. Drive in to the farm yard, passthrough the first, (farmer’s) yard then park upin the back yard. If you get really lost, phoneKeith on 07710 547 338


I type this the day after our display atthe East Fortune which saw a recordnumber of kids being allowed to sit inthe Rans S6 and Kitfox present. Partic-ular thanks to Jim Oliver and Ed Kiernanfor their hard work, (I hope your voicehas recovered, Jim). Also to KeithGriggs for bringing along Tim Rayner’sOsprey fuselage. Grateful thanks to allthe others who helped in setting up onFriday, manning the stand on Saturdayand tearing it all down at the end.

The next meeting will be a strut BBQat Keith Griggs’ new workshop justoutside Tranent on Monday August 3rd

at 1930. Bring your own food for cre-mating, (and drink).

After that is our Fly in at Glenrotheson Saturday 15th August with set up andBBQ on the Friday evening.

I understand the Highland Strut flyin on the same Saturday as the EastFortune show was well supported withmany also visiting the new strip at Eastfarm at Fearn. The Solway Strut flyingon Sunday was badly affected by theweather and only a small number ofvisitors made it in.

Lets hope the weather co operateswith our fly in and enjoy your aviation.Iain

Co-ordinator’s bit Museum of Flight Air ShowSaturday 25th July 2009, at East FortuneBy Iain Gibson

Once again the strut had a presence here and Alex McClintock made the Kitfox availablewith Ed Kiernan looking after it with Alex and family being away.

The original Build a Plane Rans S6 was up here and was flown in by Gavin Hunter on theFriday evening arriving at the same time as a heavy thunder shower which saw theGreeters (J.O.) getting decidedly wet. Keith Griggs brought along the fuselage of TimRayner’s latest acquisition which gave us three aircraft on display.

Photo Colin Lourie


During the morning we were all kept busyanswering questions with over 100 kidssitting in the aircraft.

Things calmed down with the start of theFlying Display being opened by the BoBMFDakota, (I believe the Lancaster is out ofservice following an engine failure in Hol-land a few weeks ago), Spitfire and Hurri-cane.

This was followed by a mixture of touringdisplay aircraft such as the Mustang, Sky-raider and Hunter interspersed with localtalent such as Di Heather Hayes in his Pitts,Gavin Hunter in the Duke’s Bulldog and JimMcTaggart in the Starduster Too. Militaryhardware included the nimble display bythe Chinook, a RN Lynx and RAF Hawk.

A bit of nostalgia was provided by the two,(now civilian), Gnats.

All photos Colin Lourie


Photo Colin Lourie


The show finished around 1700 with the four Extras ofthe Blades. I understand at least one of the Sundaypapers showed a picture of one of the pedal planeswith its young pilot at the controls. These came withthe Build a Plane and once again proved very popularwith the youngsters. Iain.

The highlight for most people was the appearance of the Vulcan whose noise andagility showed today’s youngsters what could be achieved sixty years ago without theuse of computers.

Photo Colin Lourie

Photo Colin LouriePhoto Alex McLachlan


The RANS S6 Coyote which was the Build-a-Plane 1 project in 2003, returned to EastLothian recently, thanks to sponsorshipfrom North Berwick Round Table. StewartLuck, the instigator of the project, drove itup in its bus for the benefit of local young-sters.

Back in 2003, cadets from 297(Musselburgh) Sqn ATC built the starboardwing under the expert guidance of TimRayner, assisted by other Strut members.This is its third visit since then and it hasbrought a giant grin to the faces of elevenyoung people who have had a flight in itwith Stewart. It is to be here for a coupleof weeks or so, though the weather hasthwarted further air opportunity flights todate, but I’m reliably informed that we areto have a more settled spell during the nextweek or two. Robin Johnson and GavinHunter have kindly volunteered to fly somemore young folks when their time schedulesand the weather will permit. We are verygrateful to them and also to the Duke ofHamilton for allowing it to stay in his hangarat Archerfield. Thanks are also due to Jilland Gordon Douglas of the East of ScotlandMicrolight Club for allowing the flights totake place from their club.Thanks to Gavin who made time to fly theRans to East Fortune airshow and backagain to Archerfield, some 200 people were

able to see it, ask questions about theproject, and in many cases, sit in it:‘children’ of all ages wanted a shot! Everytime I passed by there was a queue at itand Jim was hoarse by the end of theafternoon, after telling its story to so manypeople. Having that level of exposure forthe project has to be a positive thing forencouraging future aviators.

Stewart is currently trying to sell the plane,so sadly this is likely to be its last visit to usunless it finds a local purchaser. Wouldn’tit be nice if a local syndicate could beformed to keep it up here and continuerunning it as a youth project….? Stewartsaid if that were to happen, it could still belinked to the Youth and Education Supportgroup of the LAA.

Local lads help Jim and Stewart to refuel at the Microlight Club

UK Youth Build a Plane ProjectBy Sue Oliver


Jim Prettyman is a friend of David Cyster’s,who piloted this Tiger Moth at the MoF Air-show, and has been flung around the skiesin it on several occasions. He sends us thislink which gives you a four minute film ofthe Airshow routine.http://www.youtube.com:80/watch?v=5SnTEypjCg0

Jim adds, ‘the 'Tiger'was flown by Davidfrom London to Australia in '78 to celebratethe 50th anninversary of Bert Hinkler's epicflight ‘. For more about Hinkler’s flight,follow this lead;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bert_Hinkler

Jim also sent me this link that I wasn’t ableto open, I think my computer’s memory maybe too old and slow, but here it is anyway.http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/editors-choice/2008/07/03/record-man-brian-s-biggles-moment-in-a-vintage-tiger-moth-86908-20629211/

This great photo, and that of the Vulcan onthe earlier page, were taken by Jim’s friendAlex McLachlan, so thanks to him for allow-ing us to use them. Alex was previously aphotographer in the RAF.


Keith Griggs was once again kind enough to fly me from Perth to NorthConnel on Saturday 11th April in Emeraude CP103A G-BDKH. Crosscountry the weather was fine, but shower clouds were building up by thetime we reached the big lochs of Earn and Tay, so much so that we hadto crawl for height up to 5,500 to 6, 000 feet to miss the bubbling masses.At one point, due to weight and head wind, we had to steer round onecloud as we could not climb fast enough to go over the top. We then hadthe problem of seeking a hole in the cloud in order to descend to ourdestination. Luckily we found a large gap and commenced a high speeddescending cruise, only to find we were too far south of our intended track.

Once established again at about 2,000 feet we headed down Loch Awepast Kilchurn Castle and had to turn right up the narrow Pass of Branderfollowing the A85 via Cruachan power station and mountain towardsInverawe to regain our intended route. When flying at this height thevalley is really quite narrow and daunting compared to the wide expansesof Lock Awe, as it is dark and forbidding with its sheer sides covered inscree.

Overhead KilchurnCastle on Loch Awe

Approacing Connel Bridge

Flight to Oban for EasterBy Duncan Robertson


Base Leg over Ardmuchnick Bay

The mountains gave way to river plain and coastal bluffs atthe west end of Loch Etive and Keith positioned ourselvescross-wind for runway 09 at North Connel. The attachedphotographs show the sequence of the approach to 09 whichis down the Etive past Connel bridge towards the sea, turnright onto downwind leg towards the northern end of Traleebeach across the Bay of Ardmucknich (promontory of thepigs in Gaelic), right again onto the base leg towards theNorth Ledig caravan park and turn right onto Finals over thecaravan park into a gentle flair for landing on the new tarmacof 09.

The only other machine present on the apron was High-land Airways resident Islander parked outside the newterminal building. It serves the islands most days. Keith, Iand my family had a coffee together, albeit out of a vendingmachine, and then commenced our Easter weekend. Keithreturned even higher (less weight) on the way back to Perth,thus avoiding the big white cottonwool.

Thanks again to Keith for an enjoyable flight. One ofthese days I must do the return route back to Perth forcomparison!

Downwind 09

Finals 09


Family and Friends DayGlenrothes Airport, Saturday 4th July 2009

Another selection of top quality images from Wallace Shackleton


It’s Competition Time!Yes, all you have to do is ‘name that photographer’ in the imagebelow. The fabulous prize is, as always, a year’s supply of this veryNewsletter in fabulous colour, delivered to your inbox by the verylatest electrical mail technology.Answers on a postcard please, addressed to ‘EoS Strut NewsletterOffices, floors 19-26 that big sail shaped building, Dubai.’ Rememberto mark your postcard ‘Wallace Shackleton Competition’.

Everybody got off the plane except one lady who was blind. The manhad noticed her as he walked by and could tell the lady was blindbecause her Seeing Eye dog lay quietly underneath the seats in frontof her throughout the entire flight.He could also tell she had flown this very flight before because thepilot approached her, and calling her by name, said, 'Kathy, we arein Sacramento for almost an hour. Would you like to get off andstretch your legs?'The blind lady replied, 'No thanks, but maybe Buddy, (the dog),would like to stretch his legs.'All the people in the gate area came to a complete standstill whenthey looked up and saw the pilot walk off the plane with a Seeing Eyedog! The pilot was even wearing sunglasses. People scattered. Theynot only tried to change planes, but they were trying to changeairlines! True story... Have a great day.

A true story?

A woman was flying from Seattle to San Francisco. Unexpectedly, theplane was diverted to Sacramento along the way. The flight attend-ant explained that there would be a delay, and if the passengerswanted to get off the aircraft the plane would re-board in 50 minutes.

(David McDonald sent this in)


Perth AirshowMessage from Keith Boardman

Cleared for Flight

I’m delighted to report that there were two new Strut projects thattook to the air for the first time at East Fortune last week.Iain Govan announced that although everything had gone quitesmoothly, he felt that more ‘lift’ would be an advantage, and he hadcarried out some experiments in that direction.Ed Kiernan was also pleased with his first flight, though he admittedto being a bit disappointed when his propeller fell off.

Thank youThis has been a bumper edition, with some interesting articles andsome spectacular images. Thank you to everyone who has contribut-ed to the Newsletter, (or who help the Strut in other ways).

Photo Iain Gibson


A Balbo of Rans at Oshkosh. Keith Boardman reminds us that Oshkosh is here again, and that Vans always puts on a flypast with one RV foreach year they have been appearing. This year there will be 37.


East of Scotland Strut contacts

Co-ordinator: Iain Gibson102 Craigmount Brae, Edinburgh EH12 8XN Tel 0131 339 2351 [email protected]

Secretary: John Cooper111 Gilmore Place, Edinburgh EH3 9PP Tel 0131 229 8019 [email protected]

Treasurer: Iain Govan5A The Square, East Linton, East Lothian EH40 3AD Tel 01620 860 165 / 07922 013 213

[email protected] Govan is also the Strut’s Airfield Liaison Member

Newsletter Editor: Andrew Macleod102 Gilmore Place, Edinburgh EH3 9PL Tel 0131 228 2774 [email protected]

Committee Member: Duncan Robertson17 Cramond Avenue, Edinburgh EH4 6PP Tel 0131 312 7857 [email protected]

Safety Officer: Alex McClintock5 Lochhill Cottages, Nr Longniddry, East Lothian EH32 0PH Tel 01875 870 764 / 07801 729 465

[email protected]

PFA Inspector: Tim Rayner3 Fowler Street, Tranent EH33 1BU Tel 0187 561 3352 / 0788 411 3663 [email protected]

PFA Inspector: Robin Johnson Templehall, Midlem, Selkirk TD7 4QB Tel 01835 870 361 / 07836719350 [email protected]

Andrew Wood has just sent in the followingrequest. Please contact him if you can help.

‘December 2009 marks the 75th anniver-sary of the founding of Edinburgh FlyingClub Limited and I have taken on the taskof producing a brief history of the club.

From its foundation to the start ofWW2 and then for a short period after-wards the club operated from Macmerryairfield in East Lothian to the east ofEdinburgh. The early history is reasona-bly well documented but I am keen tofind out more about the period from themid 1950's to the late 1970's. Does any-body have any stories, photos or otherinformation they would be willing toshare?

Many thanksAndrew Wood’[email protected]

Edinburgh Flying ClubInformation Request

august 09 newsletter - laa highland & islands strut · laa eos strut newsletter august 2009...

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