The annual Chairmans Quiz and Christmas nibbles. As this is very much a social evening with a fun quiz partners most welcome to come along
20th November 2019
Strut Meeting - "A Passion for Speed – the life of Mildred Bruce” – Paul Smiddy
Strut member Paul Smiddy will be coming along to give a presentation "A Passion for Speed – the life of Mildred Bruce”, the subject of his latest book. She was an Essex girl who was the first woman to fly UK to Japan and on round the world
Local girl Sally Dearman will be giving us a talk on her life in the RAF from being the first female fast Jet pilot to her time as SAR pilot on the Wessex.
In October 1984 Sally, an established parachutist and private pilot, flew herself from Ipswich Airport (with a well known Strut member as co-pilot!) into Royal Air Force Cranwell for her Initial Officer Training.
Following six years' service as a fighter controller she transferred to the pilot branch where she became the first woman through the RAF's fast-jet
flying training system and later re-training as a rotary pilot (Search and Rescue).
Sally left the Royal Air Force in 1995 and in 1996 she joined the
Met. Office, forecasting and presenting the weather for the BBC.
18th September 2019
Strut Meeting - Beagle Pup restoration – Anne Hughes
Anne Hughes will be coming along to give a talk about the restoration of "Foxy" prototype the Beagle Pup G-AVDF
STOP PRESS: (17-Sep) Unfortunately Anne will not be able to make it as she has gone down with a bad case of the flu and sends her most sinerce apologies.
In her absence, one idea that has come forward (which I believe has been suggested before) is to have an evening swapping lessons leant, discussing the use of Sky Demon and any other topics that come up.
Tony Turner has offered start this off by going over his and David Worth's flight down to White Waltham this weekend just gone with their "infringement" and what went wrong and learning points from this.
Then it would be over to you....
SUNDAY 25th August 2019
Strut Meeting - Monewden Airfield Open Day
The Strut is again supporting Steve and Lisa Eustace with their Monewden Airfield Open Day on Sunday 25th August.
Fly-in from 10am - No Landing fee & Free BBQ
With strut aircarft and invited visitors, we are expected approx 55 aircarft to fly-in
Local villagers have been invited from 1pm and ATC cadets will be on site during the afternoon
While Steve's crew will be looking after the BBQ, we will still need help with some other tasks.
Willing "pushers" to help the marshalling team (Ian & Edward) to man-handle the visiting aircraft on/off parking slots.
There were also planned to have an aircraft on the "public" area, for which we were in need of volunteers to watch over and talk to the visitors about the aircraft and flying in general
21st August 2019
Strut Meeting - Aviation Art - Mike Daley
Mike Daley will be coming along to give a brief talk about the Guild of Aviation Artists and showing some of this work.
Mike has also offered to help out at the Monewden Open Day on 25th Aug where there will an Art area for a youngsters Art competition, from which they can also enter their pictures in to the "Federation Aeronautique Internationale" Art competition being promoted by the LAA - www.lightaircraftassociation.co.uk/art
17th July 2019
Strut Meeting - Visit Waits Farm to view Richard Teveron's Isaaac Spitfire
The meeting for July will be a visit to Richard Teverson at Waits Farm to view the Issacs Spitfire he is building.
There will be the possibility to fly in, although only up to a max of only SIX aircraft. As it may be a squeeze to fit every in his workshop at the same time, the idea is to have two groups, with a 6pm viewing for those that flyin and any early arrivals by road and then a 7pm viewing for the rest that arrive by road. This them allows the fliers to get back to base before sunset.
If the weather is suitable Richard might get this BBQ out!
19th June 2019
Strut Meeting - Evening Flyout to Andrewsfield
As the June meeting almost coincides with the longest day, the June meeting is an evening fly-out (or drive!) to Andrewsfield
They will be running a BBQ for us from around 1730 - 1800 local, with burgers, cheese burgers at £5.00 - £5.50 including side salad and trimmings etc.
If flying in please PPR with the flying club (01371 856744)
Strut Member Steve Wilkes will be manning Andrewsfield Radio on 130.555
All the inbound aircraft with a transponder should SQ 7010 when in contact with Andrewsfield Radio. If appropriate please join south of Braintree and depart north of Braintree so as to have a one way system.
Runways 09/27 800m - All circuits are right hand (even on departure!)
Note due to Stansted Zone, circuit height is 700ft QFE or 1000ft QNH and until past abeam Andrewsfield to the east no higher than 1200ft QNH and then no higher than 1800ft QNH till past Braintree to the east.
FRIDAY 17th May 2019
Strut Meeting - RAF Lakenheath Base Tour
Details for those attending the the visit which is now fully booked.
The coach will leave Rougham Airfield at 10:45. Please don't be late and remember to bring along your chosen Photo ID.
On arrival at Lakenheath the itinerary will be as follows:
11:30 Arrive at Gate 8
11:30-12:00 Process through MOD Security
12:00-13:00 RAPCON/Tower/Weather (break into 3 groups and rotate every 15 minutes)
13:10-13:45 Heritage Park and Windshield Tour
14:00-14:30 Fire Station/Demonstration
14:40-15:15 F-15E Strike Eagle Static Display
15:30 End of Tour/Exit Installation
Photography : Cameras and photography are allowed, although there will be times when it will be prohibited - certain areas (e.g. security gate area, where this will delay the tour by an hour or 2!!!!!), certain aircraft and situations (e.g. no photos of open panels on aircraft). We will be informed during the tour when/if any of these arise.
Control Tower : While cameras are allowed in the Tower, ALL phones must be left behind or surrendered at the checkpoint on entry to the Tower.
Food : There will be no food available to us on the base, as there is no time in the schedule to stop off (at Taco Bell!) to purchase any. Bottles of water may be available. Therefore you will need to bring along any lunch/snacks/drink you may want. As there is no "lunch stop", this will need to be consumed "on the go" between stops while on the coach. The most likely opportunities will be on arrival, if we get through security quickly, before the first stop off, or during the "Windshield Tour" (that's a tour of the base on the coach looking out the window with running commentary from our tour guide!). The coach company have agreed we can eat on the coach but we must not leave a mess and must take our rubbish home.
Tour : All group members should stay together and near the escorts.
Stragglers run the risk of causing delays and possible cancellations for the entire group, so please make sure to follow all directions given by the military escorts.
So please be at Rougham Airfield in good time to catch the coach (£10 per person). If arriving by road there is a £5 fee for parking, and if arriving by air please obtain PPR (normal landing fee applies)
The weather is looking promising at the moment, so it should be a good day.
17th April 2019
Strut Meeting - Crowfield Club House 7:30pm
As usual the April meeting will be the Strut AGM.
Please come along and support your strut - As well as the general running of the Strut,
it's the time everyone can put forward their ideas for meetings, fly-outs,
visits etc for the forthcoming year, plus go over plans for this years Boxted Fly-in.
20th March 2019
Strut meal and social evening
This year, the social evening will be held at The Highwayman pub (on the
A140 opposite the road to Crowfield Airfield). Food will be a hot and cold
finger buffet, and as in earlier years, drinks on arrival will be paid for
by the Strut. Partners / friends are particularly welcome to attend.
The cost of the evening is £20 a head with drinks from 7pm and the buffet
served around 7:45. Please can you let Tony Turner( know as early as possible (and
definitely by 10th March) if you plan to come and if you have any specific
dietary requirements.
Over the last two years, SCS membership has grown by nearly 50%. This is
really great news, and hopefully means that members are finding the events
and meetings of interest. However it does mean that there are a lot of new
members, and we often do not get the time to mix, chat and generally get to
know each other very effectively at strut meetings as there are other things
going on. For this reason, each year we organise a social evening to
provide this opportunity.
20th February 2019
Strut Meeting - Earl Stonham Village Hall at 7:30pm
For the February meeting we are going to try something a little different and something we have not done before - a video evening, although this will not be an evening of Youtube video clips, but the showing of an proper aviation documentary. If successful we could have further similar evenings.
The programme for this first evening will the feature length documentary/film
This is the Spitfire’s story – From the Supermarine S6 racing seaplane, through most marks of of the Spitfire. Told personally in the words of the last-surviving combat veterans, with breath-taking aerial footage directed by the world’s top aviation photographer John Dibbs, combined with rare digitally re-mastered archive film.
It was released in mid 2018 and was in the cinema for two showings on one day in July. Although now out on DVD, hopefully not many people will have seen it (unless everyone had it as a Christmas present!)
Trailer: (Turn the volume up for the opening sequence!)
Also for this meeting we will be also trying a different venue. As the club house is not the warmest of place in winter (until the proposed heating is installed), the meeting will be at the Earl Stonham Village Hall (IP14 5HJ - about 5 miles from Crowfield Airfield)
On the A140 at the Staggered cross-roads in Earl Stonham take the A1120 towards Stowupland. The village hall is 1.8 miles on the left, just after passing through Forward Green. If you pass the Shepherd & Dog pub on the right you've gone too far!
16th January 2019
Strut Meeting - Crowfield Club House 7:30pm
Mick Gill and Martyn Steggalls went to LAA HQ at Turweston at the beginning of November for a Struts meeting.
After an aborted attempt earlier in the year, this was actually well attended, with 32 representatives from quite a few struts,
include those as far away as Cornwell and Scotland.
So for the January Strut Meeting Mick & Martyn will be an over view of that meeting, including the presentation given by Steve Slater,
a presentation by our own Andrew Caldecott on Training and membership, followed by an open discussion.
Also we will be unveiling our new Strut Roll-up Banner.