Pilot – June 2018

I noticed the change of design
as soon as I opened April’s issue
at the ILAFFT page. I didn’t
comment at the time because, to
be honest, I’ll read Pilot regardless
of the designs you use. That said,
the new design is pleasantly light
and airy. Has the paper changed?
It feels a tad thinner and I can’t
decide if the surface coating is
different or if the paper base is
slightly lighter or if the paper
handles differently because
there’s more white space on
the page (or if the paper hasn’t
changed and I am imagining a
change). Interestingly, I read five
monthly magazine and two others
have recently redesigned to have
more white space.
Righto, I’ve not much left
of May’s issue to read; I guess
I’ll have to put up with the
(subjectively) long wait until
June’s issue arrives. Thank you for
an excellent magazine.
Ian Brothwell, Nottingham

Jessica Cox

I was interested to read
Pat Malone’s article
about Jessica Cox in May’s Pilot.
In 2016, Channel 4 produced
a three-minute trailer for their
Paralympics coverage, entitled
‘We’re the SuperHumans or ‘Yes
We Can (view at: youtube.com/
watch?v=IocLkk3aYlk). Just
under two minutes into this,
there is a brief shot of Jessica
flying, followed by a brief aerial
shot of a Warrior (blink and you’ll
miss them).
What caught my eye was the
pale blue interior of the Warrior,

and flew 36,000 hours a year.

Interestingly, the helicopters were

dual registered with both military

and civilian registrations.

I thought I should point this out

just to keep the record straight.

Having done so, I can now sign off

as yours sincerely as opposed to

‘disgusted of Shrivenham’! Keep

up the good work − excellent

magazine.

Arthur Gibson, Shrivenham

The pain in Spain

I’d like to second Gabriel

Gomila’s remarks

concerning the article by Garrett

Fisher (Airmail May). This is not the

first time Mr Fisher has (dis)graced

the pages of the esteemed Pilot

but I sincerely hope it is the last.

Perhaps he should consider going

back to the States and putting right

the many things wrong there −

too many to list here!

Tony Yarnold, Barnet

Biggin Hill update

Pilot readers have

engaged with Biggin

Hill’s management and other

interested parties on the plight

of the flying schools. We print

below a forwarded response

from Rt Hon Grant Shapps,

MP, Chair of the All-Party

Parliamentary Group on General

Aviation, together with the

reply by the CAA’s External

Response Manager to a reader

who challenged Biggin Hill

management’s assertion that the

CAA forced its decision to give

notice to the flying schools.

which looked very similar to

G-BMFP, which I’d operated for

29 years before selling her to

Aerobility. But the registration

letters on the aerial shot looked

wrong. Eventually the penny

dropped that the image had been

reversed. I guess that the aerial

shot was taken from the P2 side

of the camera ship, showing ’FP

flying right-to-left, but the TV folk

thought that flying left-to-right

was somehow more positive.

I subsequently confirmed that

Jessica did fly G-BMFP, see

aerobility.blogspot.co.uk/2016/05/.

I’d imagine that her hardest task

was to turn the fiddly COM1/2

knob on our old KMA20 to switch

from Blackbushe to Farnborough

and back.

Terry Froggatt, Fleet

Tri-service

helicopters

As the ex Commandant

of the Defence Helicopter

Flying School, and now an avid

GA pilot and reader of Pilot

magazine, I should like to correct

the caption that goes with the

photo of the Squirrel on page 22

of the May edition.

The Squirrels were very much

tri-service helicopters as they

were used to train Army, Navy

and Air Force ab initio helicopter

pilots, so they were not RAF

helicopters! I was an Army officer

running the school which included

tri-service and civilian instructors;

the helicopters were technically

owned by FB Heliservices and

maintained by their civilian staff.

We trained around 200 students

From Grant Shapps

‘We are very much aware of the

situation [at Biggin Hill]. In fact,

the APPG wrote to Biggin Hill

management about this. See our

two tweets on the subject here:

https://twitter.com/GA_APPG/

status/975033659815354368

https://twitter.com/GA_APPG/

status/973549344065540097

We are going to meet the

Managing Director and Chair of

the airport tomorrow to make

precisely the points you’ve

made. To be clear, we have no

legislative mandate to change

their minds, but we hope that

148 parliamentarians in the

All-Party Parliamentary Group

on General Aviation will at least

make them pause for thought.‘

From the CAA

‘Thank you for your letter of

18 March 2018 regarding the

future of flying schools at

Biggin Hill, and the reported

assertion by the airport that a

decision to notify flying schools

based at the airfield that they

would have to close was ‘forced

by the CAA’.

I can confirm that the CAA

has not been involved in any

decision to ask flight training

organisations to leave the

airfield or forced Biggin Hill

into such a decision. However

it is worth mentioning that

Biggin Hill aerodrome holds

an ‘ordinary’ licence, which

means the aerodrome may only

be used by the licence holder

and those persons specifically

authorised by them (i.e. with

prior permission).’

pilotweb.aero | Pilot June 2018 | 47

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