The APRIL 2019 Bodmin Flyer Downwind approaches in a 40-knot wind? No bother… Big savings on block bookings As presaged in the March issue of the Bodmin equates to a saving of more than £1,000 over our Flyer, the Club has decided to offer block booking current rate for the C172 – and that’s already the discounts which many members will surely find lowest in the south west. A 50-hour block on the beneficial. C152s will save a pilot £975.The usual caveats apply If you buy a ten-hour block, you will be entitled to a – there’s a three-hour minimum charge if you take an 10% discount, which means that at current prices aircraft away for a full day, and fuel bought elsewhere you’d save £145 on G-EGLA and £130 on the will be paid for by the Club at the Bodmin rate. Block C152s. The ten hours will have to be used within booked hours can only be flown in the mainland six months of the date of purchase. United Kingdom – the Club doesn’t have the The purpose of offering block booking discounts is resources to recover aircraft that go tech in Ulan to kick-start the flying season, to encourage people Bator or wherever. The 50-hour block offer applies to fly in order to improve their handling skills and only to Monday-Friday flights, and as with the ten- confidence, to generate cash flow at the end of a hour discount block, hours must be flown off within long thin winter, and to increase utilisation of our six months of the date of purchase. assets. For serious hours-builders we’re offering a If you want any more details talk to the Airfield 15 percent discount on a 50-hour block, which Manager or any Board member. Happy flying! Stirring the alphabet soup By Nick Chittenden As of March 1st 2019, Cornwall Flying Club Ltd received approval as a Declared Training Organisation (DTO) from the CAA. At the same time the existing Registered Training Facility (RTF) approval was permanently withdrawn. So what does this mean for the club? Well, as of April 9th 2019 all RTFs will be defunct, and indeed they’ve technically been obsolete since 2012 and operating solely on ‘grandfather rights’ after the CAA stopped registering any new facility under that system. Had we not become a DTO then, as of 9th April, we would not have been able to Not a pretty sight… undertake any ab initio training at Bodmin. Unfortunately EASA and the CAA did not enable the DTO legislation until late last year, so existing RTFs only had a few months to make the transition to a DTO. One of the drawbacks of the RTF was that it had no oversight from the CAA. Some might see the The roof over lack of oversight as advantageous; believe me, it wasn’t. As a DTO we have direct contact with the CAA and a Licensing Officer has been appointed our heads… to periodically audit our paperwork, including the annual training and safety reports. As Bodmin is an By Pat Malone unlicensed aerodrome we also had to carry out a Risk Assessment to identify and mitigate potential At the AGM in November Pete Chapman proposed issues which might occur during flight training in that all members be asked to contribute to a special such an environment. fund for the repair of the Clubhouse. This was As for personnel, I am the ‘Responsible voted for overwhelmingly by the 64 members Representative’, effectively working as present, with no votes against. Later, Peter had accountable manager with the primary role of second thoughts – was the Clubhouse so compliance, including oversight of the Introductory dilapidated, he wondered, that it wasn’t worth Flight program. Bruce Abbott is ‘Head of Training’ throwing good money away on repairs? Should we and CFI, and Richard Saw is ‘Safety instead start raising money for a replacement Representative’. Bruce and I have updated several building? documents to reflect the change. So the Directors decided to have a full All this change is very much behind the scenes structural survey done, and asked Roger Davis to and makes little noticeable difference to the do the job. Roger’s report was presented to the training program from the student’s perspective. March meeting of the Board, and in fact, it’s We can currently train for the EASA PPL, EASA relatively good news. The report says that while the LAPL, EASA Aerobatic rating and all National building is cosmetically poor and quite a lot of work licences and ratings. is urgently required, the basic structure remains *The Board commended Nick Chittenden for the sound and should have a few years of life in it yet. work he has done on our DTO application, which So we’ve decided to activate Plan A, as outlined by was far from straightforward and involved a lot of Pete in November, and ask for £25 from each time spent in of document study, official member to rejuvenate the building and add at least clarification and CAA form-filling, all absolutely another decade to its life. essential if we were going to be able to stay in We are hugely indebted to Roger for business, and all done gratis in his spare time. undertaking the survey, which involved crawling Thanks, Nick, and well done. – Pat Malone under, around and over the building, stripping panels and looking at remote crannies where The area that needs most work is the kitchen for many years no light has shone – and this is wall, where the underlying structure needs on top of the repair work that Roger volunteers extensive rebuilding. The ceiling in the kitchen is to do every week for the benefit of all. In March starting to sag, possibly because the supporting the Board yet again recorded its thanks to structure is rotting. Roger says there is also at Roger for his work. least one, and could be as many as three, water The survey shows that the most tanks above the kitchen – that’s a lot of weight! pressing problem is the kitchen, where the The soil vent pipe needs repair, while the waste pipes under the gents toilet are leaking and damaging floor supports; they need to be re- routed. There are four Crittall single-glazed windows which probably should be replaced while the frames are being rebuilt. Putting insulation under the cladding would also be a good idea. The clubhouse is actually made up of two buildings, joined where the kitchen and bar begin, and they are different widths. Roger suggests rebuilding out to the width of the wider hut – the main room – which would allow us to expand the kitchen slightly, and wouldn’t cost Ugliness is only skin-deep any more in terms of materials. The roof is ceiling is starting to drop, followed by the bar window, which is bowing outwards. Next in line for treatment is the front of the building. The rest is cosmetic, Roger says, as the underlying structure appears sound. At the front, the windows and doors have rot at the bottom, and both window sills are rotten. The skin is rotten below the window sills. Along the side by the wood store it looks horrible, but the rot is largely confined to the skin. There is some rot in supporting structure at the bottom which would have to be dealt with, and some minor woodworm further up. There Rot under doors and windows underfelted and should be watertight; only minor repairs are needed to patch it up. The valley between the roof and the Tower needs attention to prevent leaks, and ventilation is required in the roof space as there is evidence of mould on the underfelt. Roger says: “In my opinion the repairs aren’t too technical as the club house is basically a shed, and the work could be done in-house with a couple of people.” This being so, the Club will be emailing the members in the near future seeking Loo leaks and other nasties contributions to pay for the materials. A donation of £25 has been suggested, but don’t let that stop you if you feel able to contribute more. The more we get, the more work we’ll be able to do, seems to be a shiplap skin underneath for at the more comfortable the clubhouse can be least part of this wall, and it looks to be solid. made, and the longer it will last. incident highlights exactly why we must take Consultation on the action. In March a female student complained Articles of Association to the Duty Manager that she was unlikely to come and fly with us again due to the boorish Every full member should by now have had a copy behaviour of a small group of men in the of the draft Articles of Association of the Club, clubhouse. Their conversation, language and which was emailed out for consultation on March manner made her feel so uncomfortable that 17th. Amendments will be incorporated into the she was unable to wait in the clubhouse for document before it is sent again to full members to her instructor, and went elsewhere. vote on adoption – a protracted process, but one Who among us thinks it’s okay to which is required by company law. The comment behave like this? Somebody does, which is period closes on April 16th. why we are forced to write down officially that Our current Articles, which date from 1991, members should “conduct themselves in a have long been recognised as being unfit for manner which does not cause distress or purpose, and the need for an update has been discomfiture to fellow members or visitors”, accepted at the last two Annual General Meetings.