Gloster Strut, All things flying, PPL, LAPL, LAA, flyouts

Date of Next Meeting

Meeting Date 14-01-2025

From 7:00pm
The Victory Club
Burlington House
Lypiat Rd.
Cheltenham, GL50 2SY

AGM, Birthday celebrations and film!

As usual, please feel free to bring a friend.

Blog

My Love Affair with Aviation 10/12/2024
Like so many LAA members, David Joyce’s love affair began when as a boy he found himself living close to an airfield, in his case Rougham, the base of a squadron of US Army Air Force B-17 Flying Fortresses. Aeromodelling naturally followed and he thought himself destined for a career in aviation until human nature stepped in in the form of starched-aproned nurses with warm hearts and smiling faces, and he was led astray into the world of medicine. But the aviation bug had embedded itself somewhere in his psyche and he later took up gliding and power flying. On retirement he set about building a Europa – a three year task - leading to many flying adventures.

G-XSDJ has seen a wide variety of scenery, from the rugged coasts of Ireland to the chilly wastes of the Arctic Circle, the heat of a Spanish summer and the balm of Venice and the Canaries. It has also taken David to the gloom of the former East Germany and the delights of the Black Sea. A full listing of its many ports of call would make this an extra-large newsletter but there’s more to tell.

David had grand plans to fly his lovely machine all the way to Australia but when his son Patrick developed Motor Neurone Disease this plan had to be abandoned. Instead, encouraged by Patrick, he flew the length of Norway to the North Cape and together they completed 2 Dawn-to-Dusk challenges. The first involved photographing every lighthouse around the coast of Ireland. The second was to fly over every island in British waters shown on the 1/2Mil chart (119 since you ask), a flight of 1704 nautical miles – the equivalent of a transatlantic flight – for which in 2010 they jointly won The Royal Aero Club’s Norton-Griffiths Challenge Trophy.

David completed a third on his own when he photographed each of Wellington’s battlefields. Flying over Spain the air temperatures were so high that he risked heat stroke as well as engine overheating.

David’s gripping story had many more adventures. Suffice to say he gave us a fascinating evening for which many thanks.

First Flight 10/12/2024

Axe Aircraft 12/11/2024
Phil Hall introduced us to what I believe is an entirely new aircraft concept: a combination of a canard configuration machine integrated with a quadcopter – the Skyfly Technologies "AXE"

The airframe sits normally for conventional take-offs and landings, but with the rotors fixed at 45 degrees to conventional vertical position, for vertical take-off the nose of the aircraft pitches up to 45 degrees so that the rotors are now horizontal, giving maximum thrust for vertical take-off. 2 combined motors on each pylon projecting from the tips of each of the fore and aft wings. Dr Bill Brooks, a long-established aeronautical engineer and all round great bloke, is responsible for the design and led the early trials using radio-controlled models, the largest of which was 1/3 full size.

The lift rotors-cum-propellers are driven by pairs of 35 kwh motors, the power for which comes from 16 Lithium-ion battery packs, currently mounted just ahead and behind of the central 2 place cockpit.

Rotor-borne flight control is achieved through electronic wizardry of the type used for the typical 4 rotor drones, for wing-borne flight a conventional-looking stick and rudder pedals are used.

You won’t be surprised to hear that much of Phil’s talk was taken up with discussion of the bureaucratic obstacles the company has had to face, although Phil generously called the CAA `partners’ in the endeavour. He did, however, explain that the company found themselves negotiating with no less than 4 separate CAA divisions: Policy, Licensing, Airworthiness, and Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems, each of which seemed to operate in its own watertight compartment. One Catch 22 is that the aircraft cannot be fully tested because no rules for such machines exist!

The Company has, however, been allowed to fly tethered flights and hover taxiing, operating under e-conditions, where ‘e’ stands for experimental.

The current 2 seat manned version fits into an 8 metre square and has an empty weight of 246 kgs, and a MAUW of 690kg. The intended envelope, with a vertical take-off and landing, is to achieve a max speed of 100 mph (87knots) with an endurance of 1 hour.

The videos Phil showed demonstrated that the 1/3 sized model is capable of conventional flight with an exceptionally short take off run, and that the full sized 2-seater can currently air taxi with ‘conventional-flight’ testing to follow in the coming months.

Our thanks to Phil for a most interesting, enjoyable and mind-expanding Strut talk. We wish him and his AXE team every success.

Axe Aircraft 12/11/2024

Tims trip 08/10/2024
Tim Houlihan gave us a most interesting and enjoyable account of a recent flight that he and his son, in company with a fellow Europa owner and the latter’s wife, had made to Venice. The story was well illustrated with slides of the route flown, airfields visited and the weather and stunning scenery encountered along the way.

The first leg was to Dover via Popham where Tim and son Anthony were joined by a second Europa whose crew asked for the short crossing from Dover as opposed to Tim’s more usual direct route. Their first night stop was at Macon, near Geneva. The party spent the next day and night in Macon before pressing on to Albenga for a night stop in Alissio. From Alissio they progressed to Venice, staying overnight at Venice Lido airfield.

The next day took them on to Verona and another night stop before starting their return journey. From Verona they flew up to Bourg en Bresse, another night stop. Then it was Le Touquet via Sezanne. After a further night in Le Touquet it was time to brave the Channel crossing again.

In short, it was a major undertaking and Tim is to be admired and congratulated on leading such an expedition.

What did you do in the RAF? 13/08/2024
Retired Group Captain Laurie Hilditch gave us a flavour of the life of a 1970s RAF air defence pilot, and what a complex life it was. Having trained on Chipmunk, Jet Provost and the Gnat (all quite small aircraft) he made the giant step up to the front seat of the Phantom F-4K which had an empty weight of 31,000lbs and a max AUW of 56,000 lbs. This UK variant was equipped with two RR Spey afterburning engines each giving a max thrust of over 20,000lbs. It had a Vne of 515 knots and was capable of Mach 1.9. It was cleared to -3/+8.5G. That must be the equivalent of going from an Austin Allegro to a formula one race car.

In the air defence role (the RAF had previously used the Phantom in the ground attack fleet) they carried one 20mm gatling gun with a max rate of fire of 6,000 rounds per minute (although it carried only 1,200 rounds) and a mixture of air-to-air missiles. It was the RAF’s first fighter capable of head on interceptions.

The pilot’s job involved a whole lot more than flying the beast: he had to master the complexities of its operational performance envelope and, as this was a pre-digital aircraft, this involved not only memorising a massive amount of data, it also required a considerable amount mental gymnastics.

By the conclusion of the talk those present were all mightily impressed that all this was within the compass of one human being.

BBQ Night 09/07/2024
A most excellent BBQ was enjoyed by a number of members with burgers, sausages and salad in abundance, plus some rather excellent cake and dessert, rounded off with a presentation by Arthur on Farm Strip flying. If you fancy having a go in a very short landing aircraft or have always wanted to land in a particularly challenging strip, get in touch with them at farmstripflying.co.uk. I am sure they will be delighted to hear from you.

RAF Cosford 11/04/2024
The sun shone as we made our way to and around RAF Cosford. First stop for many was for coffee and cake followed by a tour of the first of the three big hangars. For many, this was the most popular with aircraft dating back to the first world war and some innovative test aircraft. For several, lunch called, followed by the second hangar which was the Cold War hangar, being relevant to one or two who served in the RAF at that time. It was a stark reminder of what could have been. The third hangar, called Hangar 1 oddly enough, contained a variety of aircraft of different shapes and sizes, plus a small art gallery and the history of the base.

Too soon it was time to leave and as we pulled out of RAF Cosford, we realised we were missing one, despite several head counts. Turning the coach around on the narrow exit road was no mean feat but the Strut never leaves a man behind!

April Meeting 09/04/2024
Ernie Hoblyn entertained us with stories of building and flying replica Sopwith Camel biplane and Sopwith triplane with some interesting photos of not only the build process, but also in-air photos as part of his role in the Great War Display Team. My take-away from the evening was the difficulty in flying them. If your nose itches on take-off, scratch it when you land!

New outings 23/03/2024
Two outings arranged ( to include in March 12th newsletter )

Jet Age Museum / Kids Day / March 23rd . Saturday
Arrive 10am at the Museum
Cockpit time in the jets for the kids !! (1m tall minimum ).
( book with Mike ) info@carouselgolfing.com
RAF Cosford Museum / April 11th Thursday
Coach from Staverton 9am / return 5pm .
Many new exhibits to view / restorations .
Reserve your place on the coach
return : £20
( book with Mike by April 1st ) info@carouselgolfing.com

March Meeting 12/03/2024
In spite of a slight delay caused by a missing cable, David Beale managed a wonderful presentation about building and displaying his Mew Gull G-HEKL.

February meeting 13/02/2024
Kath Burnham who is a type rated instructor on Dakotas was our speaker for the evening and gave a fascinating talk about her life as a pilot of these iconic aircraft, plenty of amusing anecdotes kept the audience enthralled from start to finish.

January 2024 meeting 09/01/2024
It was the clubs AGM, which came and went in about 3 minutes. Some said it dragged on a bit. Afterwards, we were entertained by Richard Goodwin talking about his aerobatic flying, and his jet powered Pitts aircraft. One or two Europa fliers went away with some interesting ideas for their own aircraft.

December 2023 meeting 12/12/2023
A slide show of aircraft photographs was presented by Dave Haines and Steve Smith with a quiz element thrown in to check whether the audience had been been paying attention! Dave and Steve have attended the Rallies for many years and scour the airfields around to get photos of unusual and interesting light aircraft, and a very entertaining evening was had by all. The first part of the quiz was an identification game with members scoring from very high to very low! The second half was a challenge to name all of the aircraft types used by the military - who knew there were so many! Being the last meeting before Christmas, a glass of wine and a mince pie were served to all.

Happy New Year to all our members and friends

Calendar of Events

14/01/2025 January 2025 meeting

Is the AGM, the Struts birthday and a film show. See the newsletter for full details. At the Victory Club, starting at 7:30pm as usual

15/01/2025 Astral Aviation Seminar

Master Class - Hot topics of safety. An online seminar starting at 7:30pm. Check out astralaviationconsulting.com

17/01/2025 Skittles Evening Cancelled

Unfortunately due to lack of signings, the Skittles at the Victory Club has had to be cancelled.

11/02/2025 Strut Meeting

The February Meeting will be held on Tuesday 11th February

17/03/2025 Airport Closure

Gloucestershire Airport will be closed from Monday 17th March to Thursday 25th March inclusive for ATC updates.

21/03/2025 Airport reopens

Gloucestershire airport reopens

Who are we?

The Strut is the Gloucestershire branch of the Light Aircraft Association (LAA).

We run monthly meetings for those interested in all aspects of light aircraft, be they aircraft pilots, aircraft builders, owners or just aviation enthusiasts.

You don't need to own an aircraft to join us, just have an interest in Aviation.

Our meetings are held on the second Tuesday of each month, starting at 7.30 pm.

From September to April we meet at the Victory Club, Lypiatt Road , Cheltenham , GL50 2SY.

In May, June, July and August we meet at a venue to allow outdoor events.

We also have a regular flying programme which includes an annual tutored jaunt across to Le Touquet for Channel Virgins and anyone else who enjoys a pleasant day out with an excellent lunch.

Our 2025 program is starting to take shape with flyouts, visits to Brize Norton, Benson, Brooklands and a return visit to the RAF Museum at Cosford.

We enjoy social events such as film nights, skittle evenings and visits to places of interest to members.

We have over 100 members and we’re a friendly bunch, so if you think we might have what you’re looking for do come to one of our meetings to 'try before you buy'. Joining the club is just £10 per year for Full membership.

A talk to the local scout group at Croft Farm

Regular talks on aircraft are an important part of the Strut

The Gloucestershire branch of the Light Aircraft Association.