Swift Team Blog Archive - Sept '07-Oct '08

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Power vs. Glider Team Match 2008, Lasham
11th-12th October 2008

The second week in October marked the last appearance of the Swift over a weekend that felt more like mid Summer.  The Power vs Glider Aerobatics Match at Lasham pitted the years’ champions from the Power and Glider British Aerobatics Association (BAeA) Nationals against each other.

The format of the competitions was to pair off the equivalent classes in the two disciplines, awarding the Competition pot to the team with the most wins, individual medals for the pilots with the highest aggregate scores.

Competition aerobatics are very similar for both gliders and powered aircraft, so it is not unreasonable to compare pilots in this way. Both disciplines perform their competition routines in a 1km square cube, called “the box”, and are scored to the same criteria by the same judges.

Each pilot was due to fly 2 programs, the first, a ‘Known’ routine, published at the beginning of the year is well practiced by each competitor. The second, an "Unknown" sequence, is kept under wraps until just before flight.

Team pilots Mike Newman, Brendan O’Brien and Paul Barker were joined by Pat Greer to fly the S-1 Swift in the competition. The gliding team was 4:3 up after the known program, with wins from  Paul (78.5%) , Pat (78.5%) and Brendan (78.6%)

In the second round, the unknowns, the glider flights suffered from cloud and haze in the lowering sun and by close of play had not had another win, but with our ace pilots still to fly, a draw was still possible on Sunday.

Regrettably the Contest Director announced that there would be no flying on the last day as some of the judges didn't want to stay for an extra day.So a frustrating victory again for the powered team, final score 4:8. with the BAeA medals also going to powered pilots.

Thanks must go to Lasham for hosting the event and Paul Johnson for taking photographs. The full BAeA report can be found here.

Heroes Airshow, RFC Rendcomb and Kemble Battle of Britain Open Day 2008
13th-14th September 2008

RFC Rendcomb Airfield played host to the biggest private airshow of the year, in support of the Help for Heroes charity, dedicated to providing support to service men and women injured in the line of duty.

The airshow line up was the who's who of the display world, with Sir John Allison acting as Flying Display Director, and distinguished displays from the likes of the RedStarz, the Blades, the Red Arrows, Warbirds from Peter Teichman, John Romain and Stephen Grey, Paul Bonhomme's and Steve Jones' only SU-26 appearance this year as the Matadors as well as Andy Preece's last public display in the Grob Tutor.

Team pilots Peter Wells and Guy Westgate were joined by Martyn Carrington, Director of Flying for Vic Norman’s Aerosuperbatics and on the wing, Tanya "Tinks" Gaze, who has been with the wing walking team since the days of the Cadbury's Crunchie sponsorship.

Our tow plane for the display was Vic's 450HP Stearman with a banner hook and the only Guinot aircraft without engine cowls for improved cylinder cooling. As the 5th aircraft of the Guinot’s five ship display lineup, it had a smoke-tank full of red dye and from our bad experiences with Red Automate IK HF dye in 2006, we were very keen to keep our white composite aircraft white, not pink.

The autumnal morning mist was very slow to clear to hazy sunshine and we squeezed a practice flight in-between arrivals shortly before midday and then opened the show just before 2pm.

Rendcomb’s 500m grass runway meant the Stearman getting airborne with Tanya in the second seat, then climbing onto the wing before the low level manoeuvres for the first part of our display.  The powerful radial engine of the Stearman more than compensated for the additional drag of a wing walker, and our standard flight profile fitted well.

Kemble only 9 miles to the Southwest were busy with their Battle of Britain Open Weekend which aslo included the Great Vintage Flying Weekend. Peter Wells represented the team there on Saturday and closed the display with a solo display in the Twister, and a few flying acts flew at both venues on the Sunday.

Thanks must go to Vic and everyone at Team Guinot, Mike Newman who flew the test flights with Martyn Carrington and Wing Walker Sarah Tanner. Also to Paul Johnson who photographed our antics throughout the day.

More pictures from Rendcomb can be found in the gallery

(Photography by Paul Johnson, Mike Jorgensen and Guy Westgate)

Southport, Portrush and Lasham 2008
6th-7th September 2008

Team pilots Paul Moslin, Guy Westgate and Peter Wells staged out of RAF Woodvale for Southport’s 16th annual seaside airshow. The miles of flat sandy beach were badly flooded on Saturday and only just dry enough to land the Swift glider after the display flight, the Twister and Pawnee returning to Woodvale’s hard runways. Even the dryer looking sand on the beach was soft, so the glider was constantly sinking. However, the weather gods smiled and the afternoon’s strong wind dried the surface enough to allow us to retrieve the glider by aerotow in the evening.

The display used the beachfront as the crowdline, with the miles of sloping sea defences providing staged seating for the 20,000 spectators.

Peter Wells made a valiant effort to get to Lasham for their airshow to mark the end of the first UK Glider Grand Prix, but the day was ruined by the stormy weather. Duxford was similarly effected with numerous cancellations but Team Condor did get a ASK21 glider airborne for the Cambridgeshire show.

Team pilot Ian Gallacher's flight in Ulster gliding clubs’s ASK21at Portrush for the 7th NI International Airshow was a little dryer but just as windy.

The Portrush Bay has a curved crowd line,  so only the slowest and most flexible display acts could get in close, Ian finishing his flight by a landing on the beach to 80,000 spectators.

Sunday was a better day across the whole country and Portrush was mobbed with over 300,000 spectators. Notably, the Blades and the Red Arrows were the only other teams to display in both Northern Ireland and Southport. At Southport the beach had dried enough for the team to operate from the freshly rolled and scraped sand runway and we displayed in bright sunshine.

Brendan O’Brien had started a new (unofficial) record claim for the Swift’s roll-on-tow manoeuvre in August, with 6 consecutive rolls at Dunsfold, 8 at Bournemouth setting the stage at Southport for 9 rolls on Saturday, and then 11 consecutive rolls on Sunday for probably our last big public display of the season. Flamboyant commentator George Bacon whipped up the 40,000 strong crowd and it was a remarkable sound to hear the crowds in the beach car parks all beep their car horns on landing.

Thanks must go to the two University Air Squadrons at Woodvale for their hospitality, to Paul Johnson who represented us at Southport and David Beech and the Ince Blundell Microlight Club who helped with ground support at Southport. Finally,Ted Norman and the Ulster Gliding Club for the glider and aerotow in Northern Ireland and Jay Nethercott for organising the operations off the beach with the Coleraine council.

More pictures from Southport can be found in the gallery

(Photography by Karl Drage, Paul Johnson, Andrew Cameron, Dave Reeves and Guy Westgate)

Bournemouth, Shoreham, A Wedding and Little Gransden 2008
30th-31st Aug 2008

Saturday was one of those days you dream about, blue skies all day and light winds - the last day of summer. Team Pilots Ian Gallacher, Guy Westgate, Justyn Gorman and Pete Wells flew the first leg to Bournemouth's inaugural Seaside Airshow from Parham via a fuel stop at Lee-on-Solent. We planned an audacious flight profile, an hour on aerotow to a flat glider show with no opportunity for the glider release from tow to land, followed by a second hour back along the coast to our afternoon display at Shoreham.

The Bournemouth Seaside venue was unique, the beach almost black with 350,000 spectators on Saturday and the hotels on the cliffs towering above much of our display. The other odd feature of the venue was the Royal Fleet Auxiliary ship, "Mounts Bay", a huge 16,160 tonnes grey lump moored on the edge of the display line.

Brendan O'Brien was the Chief Commentator and told us that although glider aerotowing had first occurred in Germany it was Dame Barbara Cartland who first thought of long distance aerotowing in 1931 and did a 200 mile tow in a two-seater glider. Her idea led to the troop-carrying gliders of WW2.

Our next display at Shoreham was a more traditional venue and we were blessed with blue skies for our 13th year supporting the RAFA charity show and a record crowd of 50,000. Pete Wells then took The Twister to Bicester for a Private Wedding display supporting Mike Newman in the MDM1 Fox while we flew a RAFA competition winner at Shoreham in East Suusex Gliding Club's two seat ASK21 glider.

Sunday did not inspire much confidence and the rain and low cloud cleared the Sussex Downs only 30 minutes before our departure deadline. The transit from Parham to Bournmouth was thankfully uneventful but there were noticeably fewer spectators on the Beach and Pier.

We fuel stopped at Lee-on-Solent on our return as the cloud descended in light drizzle. The transit further East to Shoreham saw an improvement, but by the time we displayed at 16:30, conditions had deteriorated again with a cloudbase of only 550ft and 5km visibility, the minimum flight conditions for a formation display.

Mike Newman represented us at Little Gransden to a reduced crowd of 3,700. The early rain and mist in Cambridgeshire putting many spectators off the Children in Need Charity show and cancelling many of the display's flying acts.

Thanks as ever go to Paul Johnson who represented us at Shoreham, the Portsmouth Naval Gliding Club at Lee on Solent, Colin McInnes for Mike's Fox tow at Bicester and Gransden Lodge's Andy Jude for the aerotow at Little Gransden. Finally Dave Williams for loan of the Ringmer's ASK21 at Shoreham for the ABTV prize flight.

More pictures from the weekend can be found in the gallery

(Photography by John Harper, Paul Johnson, Kev Gregory, Roger Brown, Steve Petch, Pete Atkinson and Guy Westgate)

Clacton Airshow, Headcorn Flying Proms, Sywell Airshow and Dunsfold Wings and Wheels 2008
21st-24th Aug 2008

The whole team were involved in our busy August Bank Holiday air show marathon, with 5 Swift displays in 4 days. Clacton's Thursday/Friday show started the weekend with a short taste of summer. Team members Paul Moslin, Guy Westgate, Pete Wells, Justyn Gorman and Paul Johnson operated from Clacton Aeroclub for the seaside show. Although most of the display aircraft were based at Southend, Clacton airfield is only a mile from the Pier and seafront display-line, so the glider could get back to the grass runways for a safe landing. Big shower clouds brought rain to much of southern England, but the 120,000 seaside spectators were blessed with sunshine for most of the event. Justyn joined the display in the RV4 for his first show since loosing the Extra300L in May.

We fixed Pete's lipstick video cameras and a DSLR on the Swift glider to collect footage for next season's promotional video

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The Swift glider was next taken to Headcorn Aerodrome for Brendan O'Brien to fly in the evening Flying Prom, his manoeuvres choreographed to music performed by the English National Orchestra for his first glider display of the year to a crowd of 3,500.

Ian Gallacher then joined us for the Bank Holiday Sunday at Sywell for their 80th anniversary airshow as a weather front swept across the country, but the timing could not have been more perfect. The 4,500 strong crowd at Sywell enjoyed a dry afternoon with a grand lineup including a squadron of vintage planes from the Great War Display Team and the Edgley Optica, but sadly not the Vulcan flypast or the DC6.

From Northampton, south to Surrey for the last show of the weekend and the 22,000 Dunsfold crowd enjoyed a mix of classic cars and a varied flying display, with some unusual formations including Nimrod and Huricane and Hunter and Sea Hawk.

Thanks must go to Clacton Aeroclub for hangaring our aircraft, Maidstone Model Flying Club who helped with the Swift at Headcorn and John Hoolahan for towing Brendan. Finally to team member Mike Newman who drove through the night to help relocate gliders and vehicles after our logistics went awry at Sywell.

More pictures from the weekend can be found in the gallery

(Photography by Bob Grimstead, Paul Johnson and Guy Westgate)

9th FAI European Glider Aerobatic Championship 2008
7th-17th Aug 2008

Team Pilot Mike Newman represented UK in the 2008 European Glider Aerobatic Championships (EGAC), held at Radom-Piastow airfield in southern Poland.

The competition had its fair share of wet and windy weather, with a slow start, and great middle part to the week and a very wet finish.

After the opening ceremony and a parade through the town with our national judges and team support, the competition started with a 'Known' program, the same used in our own national championships. This was followed by a free program, showcasing not only the pilots flying skill but also thier creativity and imagination.

The remaining flights were all unknown programs, constructed of manoevres offered by each national team. The Russians were true to form and submitted some very difficult manoevres that unfortunately caught out debutant Mike and many of the 38 European competitors.

Mike's best performance was one of the unknown programs to finish 32nd.

Rougham Vintage Car Show & Air Display
17th August

Rougham airfield hosted their annual weekend show over 16th/17th Aug, with 2,500 spectators attending the main flying event on the second day.

Team members Guy Westgate and Paul Johnson braved the Suffolk summer weather and despite the forecast, were blessed with some of the best conditions of the season. The preceding weeks' low pressure systems, more usual in late autumn had brought enough rain to saturate the carparks and crowd arenas, but the grass runways remained dry and firm.

Rougham's display line is unusual as it has a kink, allowing many aircraft to fly topside passes. Most slower aircraft biased their displays to the main axis however, or centered their activity on the display-line corner.

Our dramas with our wingtip smoke continue, and our very last vintage cartridge suffered a flash fire during a tailslide with spectacular effect.

Most memorable displays of the day were the Auto gyro flown by John Elliot and Ferocious Frankie hunting down CAA pilot Dave Evans in the ME108.

Thanks must go to Rattlesden Gliding Club who provided the aerotow with their Citabria tug, and particularly Terry Slater, CFI Sarah Lee and tug pilot Geoff Avis

More pictures from Rougham can be found in the gallery

On Your Marks - Bruntingthorpe
10th August

Asda supermarket is into its sixth year of hosting the amazing "On your Marks" track day, and with 13,000 invited guests, it is now Bruntingthorpe's biggest annual event.

Team Pilots Guy Westgate and Paul Moslin both broke from the norm, to display the MDM-1 Fox and RAFGSA Single Seat Chipmunk Tug.

The weather featured throughout the day, with strong winds and heavy showers, but kept clear for the hour long airshow featuring the "Duxford Duo" - the OFMC Spitfire and Mustang flown by Lee Proudfoot and Alister Kay, Team Guinot and Tom Cassells in his CAP 232.

The 800m grass strip was alongside the pit lanes, and we found ourselves surrounded by 'petrol heads' in fast cars all day.  The surreal venue topped off by the sight of a fleet of 'ASDA George' lorries rumbling past the air museum's, Victor, Buccaneers and Airbus Super Guppy.

The cheekiest surprise was the airfield's static 747-200, half painted in ASDA green in 2006 and given a false reg G-ASDA. The other side of the Jumbo was still in its original Olympic Airlines livery - fitting as this year's charity day coincided with the second day of the Beijing Games and our 1st GB gold medal

Thanks must go to John Forde for inviting us, Paul Johnson for taking photographs and Steve Jarvis for ferrying the Fox glider from its home at Saltby and for flying trial lessons at Bruntingthorpe.

More pictures from Bruntingthorpe can be found in the gallery

Sunderland, East Fortune and Baxterley
26th-27th July 2008

The last weekend in July saw the team planning displays at venues in Southern Scotland, the north-east coast of England and the West Midlands.

On Friday evening, Pete Wells, Ian Gallacher, Paul Johnson and Guy Westgate positioned to Currock Hill, home to the Northumbria Gliding Club and setup a base camp for the weekend.

Our first display was to be at the Sunderland International Airshow followed by a transit flight upto East Fortune Airshow in Scotland. Sunderland is a special airshow as it boasts the largest airshow crowd in UK, with 1.2 million seaside spectators. The coastal venue has nowhere for the glider to land, dictating our first fly-through display with the Pawnee tug and Swift glider, augmented by some Twister aerobatics.

Saturday's gruelling flying schedule started with a 20 minute aerotow to open the 20th Sunderland Airshow but a thick sea fret hung over Whitburn's promenade and we cancelled our display whilst circling in the overhead, watching the low cloud and sea fog stretch as far as the eye could see.

We then aerotowed the glider an hour north, past Newcastle in deteriorating weather conditions and scraped into Archerfield, a delightful grass strip on the banks of the Firth of Forth where we were treated to tea and cake by the 15th Duke and Duchess of Hamilton, Angus and Kay Douglas-Hamilton. It transpired Angus was the chief test pilot on the Bulldog in the 70s and still owns serial number #001 that was also flying at the East Fortune Festival of Flight airshow.

The East Lothian Murk lifted slightly and by 16:30 we had a 700ft cloudbase at the East Fortune Museum site for our display which concluded with the Swift landing on the now disused airfield, the Pawnee and Twister both returning to Currock Hill in preparation for the second day at Sunderland.

There had been a few cancellations at East Fortune due to the poor visibility and low cloud early in the day but worse still, we learnt that Sunderland had been a dead loss, the sea fret persisting all day.

The synoptic situation changed little for the Sunday and after frantic planning and replanning by the TSA airshow team, we took-off an hour after our original slot, hoping to make use of a window of improving conditions, but were turned back from the holding pattern as the fog rolled back onto the beach thicker than ever. Rather than the hundreds of thousands we had expected on the seafront, we entertained the 25 pilots at the gliding club before the long journey home

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Meanwhile, Mike Newman was displaying the MDM-1 Fox glider at Baxterly in Warwickshire for their Wings and Wheels annual fly-in in glorious sunshine on Sunday afternoon. The event was a tribute to Sir Alan Cobham's flying circus that displayed 5 miles from the site 75 years earlier.

Thanks must go to Frank McLoughlin and Northumbria gliding club for their hospitality and to Phil Walsh for aerotowing the Fox at Baxterly

More pictures from East Fortune can be found in the gallery

(Photography by Paul Johnson/Flightline UK, Derek Pedley/AirTeamImages, Richard Westgate, Sally Ann Norman, Frank McLoughlin and David Bickley)

Farnborough International 2008
18th-20th July 2008

Farnborough Airshow is a unique for many reasons, not least the very strict validation process, where every display must be demonstrated to the Flying Control Committee to prove it can be squeezed into Farnborough's tight airspace profiles and away from Farnborough town. Qinetiq scan the display-line with a sophisticated radar to police infringements fairly so that commercial pressures don't get in the way of a safe display.

Farnborough's display-line is further back than most. The Civil Aviation Authority permit slow speed passes as close as 50m, but Farnborough requested we fly no closer than 230m to the crowd throughout the display.

Record crowds were expected as the RIAT show at Fairford had cancelled the preceding weekend, and even then Sunday's marshals allegedly run out of tickets by 13:30, with total event crowd numbers exceeding 350,000.

Farnborough were celebrating their 60th year, and with 2008 marking the 90th year of the RAF, the flying program had a spread of aircraft representing flight across the decades.

The show's emphasis on history was perfect for our dual display of Lo100 and Swift gliders and we flew 4 days, with team pilots Guy Westgate, Peter Wells, Ian Gallacher and Paul Moslin validating on Thursday and flying over the public days.

Farnborough's PR dept. had specified Friday as 'Youth Day', and we flew a youngster, Philip Marsh in a DG-1000 glider loaned by Lasham Gliding Society. The two seater was fitted with mini-cams to record the aerobatics and despite the weather closing in, we gave Philip a flight to remember.

The public days were plagued with strong winds that caused some unwelcome low level turbulence and lead to some display-line busts and flight errors, particularly with the lighter aircraft. The venerable Vickers Vimy suffered a ground loop on take-off and several aircraft cancelled their flights on the last day of the show.

Our display started with a dual aerotow where we achieved a roll-on-dua ltow, our first at a public display.

With only a 13 minute slot, The Twister, Lo100 and Swift gliders then each flew solo aerobatic slots.

Our highlights of the show were the second public appearance, since 1992, of the Vulcan XH558, the stunning DC6, the Airbus A380 and the Red Arrows.

Thanks as always must go to our team of ground crew lead by Mike Newman.

More pictures from Farnborough can be found in the gallery

(Photography by Paul Johnson/Flightline UK, Steve Godfrey and Guy Westgate)

RNAS Yeovilton International Air Day and London City Airport Fun Day 2008
5th July 2008

Almost the entire Swift Team were out at airshows over the first Weekend in July. The Weather again proved to be feature as an unseasonably active system developed in the Atlantic. Called Tomina, the depression brought heavy rain and very strong southerly winds to the whole of UK, effecting aviation and the last few days of the Wimbledon tennis championships.

Ahead of the gales, Mike Newman and Paul Moslin towed the Swift glider to Yeovilton with the Pawnee, followed by our new secret weapon - Pete Wells and his SA180 Twister. We were hangared overnight with the huge 2 seat VAAC Harrier, developed from its original T4 specification by QinetiQ's predecessor, DERA, it has been the developmental workhorse for fly by wire vectored thrust for 30 years.

Meanwhile, Jon Gowdy ferried Air Atlantique's Vampire to Waddington where apparently there were nasty incidents over the weekend as so many people tried to see the Vulcan's first public display, they had to close the gates. British people don't like to take no for an answer it would seem, no matter what the circumstances.

Team member Paul Johnson crewed for our morning display at Yeovilton, our first public display integrating Twister aerobatics into the aerotow. The southerly wind was gusting 35mph, and challenged both the crosswind limits of our aircraft and our ability to avoid overflying the crowd.

The forecast was for stronger winds and storms by mid afternoon and we escaped east to London ahead of the heavy rain. The aerotow transit was unpredictably straightforward with a clear weather window and we arrived a few minutes early and held over the O2 (the Dome) to await our landing slot at London City Airport allowing us to take some unusual photographs. Team member Paul Barker met us with fuel and smoke oil and Brendan O’Brien was the Fun Day's Commentator.

The London City Airport Fun Day organisers were glad to see us as they had a record crowd of 22,000 and several display items had cancelled due to the weather. Ironically the London show opened to blue skies as Yeovilton felt Tomina's fury and closed early.Tomina's influence continued on Sunday, delaying  Ian Gallacher's Condor display at Old Warden and cancelling Mike's display for a corporate event at Sywell the following week.

More pictures from the day can be found in the gallery

Integrating the Twister
3rd July 2008

Since the loss of our Extra EA300L as towplane this season, we have been looking to find a something new to give our display back its unique edge.

We think we have found it - Pete Well-s remarkable SA180 Twister made by Silence Flugzeugbau GmbH of Germany.

Pete departs with the aerotow combination and flies in close formation with the tug. On the first inverted aerotow pass, Pete barrel rolls the Twister around the entire combination before breaking off for his solo display while the aerotow combination climbs to release altitude.

This is the display format we are flying at Yeovilton and London City with the Pawnee and S-1 Swift and at Farnborough we will add the Lo100 for a dual aerotow.

Old Buckenham 2008
29th June 2008

Team members Mike Newman and Paul Johnson attended Old Buckenham's 9th airshow, Mike's second solo display in the Swift in as many weeks.

The weather for once did not have to feature in the contingency planning and 'Old Buck' enjoyed a windy but dry summer’s afternoon.

With a crowd numbers of 5,000 people, Old Buckenham is an intimate display venue that captures a special garden fete atmosphere that makes for a very enjoyable day out. All the profits from the show go to East Anglia's Children's Hospices.

Our highlight for the second year running were the colorful trio of Boeing Stearman, lead by CFI Gerry Honey.

Thanks must go to Paul Layzell and his team for inviting us again and Jim Lawn from the Norfolk Gliding club at Tibenham for providing the aerotow.

More pictures from the day can be found in the gallery

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Goodwood Evening Race Meeting
20th June 2008

Team members Mike Newman, Paul Moslin, Guy Westgate and Paul Johnson responded to a last minute request for another event at the Goodwood races

The weather forecast was dire, with a slow moving weather front lying along the English Channel, crawling slowly north over the venue.

Paul Moslin ferried the Pawnee from RAF Halton in light rain, which got heavier as we departed Southdown Gliding Club, but by a small miracle, the race course only 10 miles away was clear of rain and we achieved full display height of 4,000ft just after 7pm.

Wingtip smoke was courtesy of the RAFGSA Condor team as we await our first delivery of production smoke tubes next month.

Mike again provided commentary on the Public Address and Paul found a new photographic vantage point on the Trudle hill, overlooking the racecourse.

Thanks must go to Steve and Dieter at the Goodwood Flying Club and the CAA for getting the legal paperwork turned around so quickly.

More pictures from the day can be found in the gallery.

BAeA Glider National Aerobatic Aerobatic Competition
12-15th June 2008

Over 4 days in mid June, Team Pilots Paul Barker, Guy Westgate, Brendan O’Brien and Mike Newman competed in the UK National Glider Aerobatic Championships at Buckminster Gliding Club, Saltby. The British Aerobatic Association run Nationals is in its 15th year at Saltby, a perfect venue with lots of open space and few neighbours to annoy with the noise of the towplanes.

24 Pilots entered, to fly in 5 classes of competition: Beginners, Sports, Intermediate, Advanced and Unlimited.

Most classes fly a known program (published in advanced), a free program (of their own choosing) and unknown programs, presented a few hours before flight.

The flights are scored by trained judges who look for errors in every manoeuvre. Each glider is towed to the same height to start the sequence and there are lower safety heights. Manoeuvring too low incurs penalty points, below the lower safety height means disqualification.

The first morning greeted us with heavy rain, but eventually the front cleared to allow everyone a flight. Saltby is well known for its changeable, rather fickle weather and the remainder of the competition was a typical mix of rain, blue skies, low cloud, high cloud, medium cloud and more rain.

Swift Team pilots took top honours, winning 3 Golds, 1 silver and the National Championship title.

• 1st Mike Newman (Unlimited Class) - New National Champion
• 2nd Guy Westgate (Unlimited Class)
• 1st Paul Barker (Advanced Class)
• 1st Brendan O'Brien (Intermediate Class)

The team would like to thank the BAeA team, the judges and particularly Jim Duthie who is standing down as launch point controller.

A full report from Saltby can be found here.

(Photography by Ben Ellis, Pik Kuechler and Guy Westgate)

Biggin Hill International Air Fair 2008
7th-8th June  2008

Team members Paul Moslin, Guy Westgate, Paul Johnson, Justyn Gorman and Mike Newman were at Biggin Hill over the weekend for our first big solo show since losing the Extra300L as tow plane. This years Biggin saw a record crowd of over 120,000 - 70,000 alone attended on the Sunday before the organisers were forced to shut the gates! 

A persistent stationary weather-front over East Anglia threatened to spoil the weekend but the only casualty was the Pawnee on its Friday transit - it got a good wash and an impromptu stop at Damyns Hall to wait for the heavy rain to clear. The show weather turned out to be June at its best, with perfect temperatures and lots of sunshine.

Having promised the best pyro-smoke of any display in UK, our flights were embarrassingly dominated by smoke problems. We took delivery of our first batch of production smoke-tubes last week, but a new igniter component set fire to a tube on Saturday and then failed to ignite the smoke compound at all on Sunday. We have been promised a more reliable ignition for the next display.

The 250HP Pawnee made a great towplane due to its slow speed and tight turn radius, and we kept the whole display inside the airfield boundary. Chief commentator Brendan O'Brien was 'Bigging us up' and counted out our 5 consecutive rolls on the rolling pass but the smoke failures were hard to cover up.

The Mirage 2000 impressed us all and the RAF role demo finally made some sense with a full complement of serviceable aircraft and better PA commentary.

We removed our RAFA logos after the display on Sunday as the Swift's next stop is the Aerobatic National Championships at Saltby, and we can’t risk long-term heat damage to the wing's GRP resin with a week of hot sunshine. We will re-apply them for Shoreham Airshow.

Thanks must go to RAFGSA at Halton for providing the Pawnee towplane at short notice and for Justyn Gorman for crewing when he really wanted to be at the front of all the Action in the Extra 300. More pictures from the weekend can be found in the gallery.

(Photography by Paul Johnson/Flightline UK, Peter Atkinson and Guy Westgate)

RAF Cosford Airshow 2008
1st June  2008

Cosford Airshow was our first big venue with the glider formation display. Team members Ian Gallacher, Paul Moslin, Paul Johnson and Guy Westgate braved Shropshire's gloomy weather for a packed show of more than 54,000 spectators.

Cosford is a small RAF base and with only 1186m of runway, the fast jets were all based out of nearby Shawbury.

The team had an opportunity to wander through the many hangars before flying and with the wide spectrum of stands, stalls and entertainment, it is truely a great family day out. We found the Midland Gliding Club exhibit, who were displaying the new BGA gliding simulator (Cyberglide2) and got to practise a few manoeuvres with the MDM Fox flight model but failed in our attempt to fly an inverted aerotow. We also signed some signatures at the RAFA stand.

The days flying display was planed to celebrate the 90th Anniversary of the RAF, but there were several aircraft with technical problems that did not fly including the Vulcan that may have made it's debut at Cosford.

Our glider display was cut short with a low cloud-base and our mirror pass was a little lower than scheduled as a result. PlanesTV had cameras on the Pawnee and Swift, so we hope to see some great DVD footage sometime soon.

The Blades display of four Extra300LPs got our vote for best show of the day, with lots of new moves for 2008.

(Photography by Paul Johnson/Flightline UK, Guy Westgate and Peter Reoch)

Goodwood Carnival of Flight Race Meeting
30th May 2008

Team members Mike Newman, Paul Moslin, Guy Westgate and Paul Johnson went to the races this afternoon.

Usually the Goodwood race officials ban flying once the first horserace starts at 14:20, but in recognition of our low noise footprint, we took a slot in between two of the day’s seven races.

The plan to land the Swift in a paddock alongside Knights Hill was shelved due to knee length grass, in favour of the helipad next to the race track loop.

The cloudy weather improved all day and at 15:10 we found a cloud-base of 2000ft above the racecourse.

The public can elect to watch from three different grades of enclosure at Goodwood and the dress code for the exclusive Richmond Enclosure demands a shirt and tie.  Mike volunteered to début on the Public Address Microphone which went very well, but he only just escaped with a t-shirt and team jacket.

Goodwood have huge flat screens to show the distant action to the punters and the cameras tracked the whole display. C4 were also filming and we made the Saturday racing review on TV. Click here to view the clip

Thanks must go to Paul Moslin who flew a round trip from RAF Halton for the aerotow. More pictures from the day can be found in the gallery.

(Photography by Paul Johnson/Flightline UK, Delia Westgate and Tim Welland)

Royal Air Forces Association Competition Flight Launch
27th May 2008

On 27^th May team members Paul Barker, Jon Gowdy, Paul Johnson  and Guy Westgate hosted a PR day with Southdown Gliding Club at Parham for RAFA personnel and Absolute Brighton. The purpose to launch a competition and take photos to promote the team and RAFA.

The competition will be run by Absolute Brighton for RAFA, the prize is a glider aerobatic lesson at the RAFA Shoreham Airshow in August.

The S-1 Swift was covered with sponsors’ logos with of course the RAFA logo taking pride of place on the wing top surface.

Paul flew with Ed Jarron, Secretary General of RAFA; Don Bean Head of the Shoreham Airshow and Tony Hirons, RAFA PR were also watching.

Photo-journalists John Periam and Flightline UK’s Paul Johnson were joined by Air-to-Air specialist Pete Atkinson, who was kept busy photographing the Swift, and Southdown’s ASK21 two seater glider and Pawnee tow plane.

It is unusual to see sailplanes with any colour. Gliders are coloured white as fibreglass resin softens at high temperatures and light colours reduce the temperature rise due to solar heating. Dark colours and even dark logos on the upper surfaces in full sun must be treated with care.

The Royal Air Forces Association own press release on the press launch can be found here.

(Photography by Paul Johnson/Flightline UK, Peter Atkinson, John Periam and Guy Westgate)

Start of the Season
25th-26th May 2008

The 25^th/26^th May was set to be our busiest weekend, and a great way to start the season.

Team pilots Justyn Gorman and Guy Westgate started at Goodwood, opening the Show with our new improved aerobatic aerotow featuring a chandelle and opposition roll, the Extra300L and S-1 Swift rolling together in opposite directions on tow. Cloudbase was less than 2000ft, but our new red smoke tubes looked fantastic.

A quick aerotow over Southampton got us to the “Support our Paras” event at Old Sarum in improving weather to meet the rest of the team for Show number two. A sight not to be missed was the fire tender herding a stray piglet off the runway.

Justyn then took the Extra300L to Southend for a solo show, but the weather deteriorated on his transit east of London and the display had been cancelled by the time he landed at Southend.

The weather deteriorated overnight flooding the field at Goodwood which cancelled the 2^nd day’s proceedings.

Justyn was programmed to open the show at Southend on Monday, but his flight was delayed until cloud had lifted to CAA minimums for a flat or rolling show.

On the flight back to Shoreham, Justyn had an accident, damaging the Extra300L and injuring himself and his passenger. The whole team wishes them a full and speedy recovery.  

(Photography by Paul Johnson/Flightline UK, Martin Eames and Pete Brown)

Final Work Up
24th May 2008

The team have been busy in a final workup for the new season culminating in a day out with Dan Tye of Go-Flying magazine at Parham.

We have a new Extra300/Swift display with more energy featuring an additional roll on tow pass, a low level chandelle and a barrel roll on tow.

The glider display has been augmented by improved wingtip smoke with a new larger smoke-tube producing three minutes of dense red smoke.

Whilst we were practicing, Southdown Gliding Club were hosting a vintage glider rally where we met some of UK’s original glider aerobatic aces. John Garret flew several German built gliders at Farnborough in 1947 after their delivery in a Dekota and David Ince displayed at the 1958 Farnborough in an Olympia 403, built by the Furniture makers, Elliots of Newbury.

The team would like to thank Southdown Gliding Club for their hospitality.

(Photography by Dan Tye, Guy Westgate and Richard Westgate)

Abingdon Air & Country Show 2008
4th May 2008

On the 4th May, Team Pilots Mike Newman, Ian Gallacher, Paul Moslin and Guy Westgate flew at Abingdon for the 2008 Air & Country Show. It was not only our first display of the season but our debut as a formation glider team.

The weather was typical May, an erratic forecast and equally unpredictable on the day with multiple bands of light rain and overcast skies.

We towed the gliders direct from RAF Halton and covered up on arrival to sit-out the light rain that plagued the early part of the show. It was our first experience of Abingdon and unfortunately we did not have time to appreciate the non-airshow activities, but the event clearly has a varied family appeal.

The flying program had some holes caused by cancellations, and the resulting gaps did not help pilot's stress levels as timings and slots jumped about with the display management team playing catch-up. The commentary team also struggled with the loss of their announcer, it is so often the case you take things for granted until they are not there!

The star performance was from Paul in the Pawnee towplane, with the best engine smoke of the day. In complete contrast, our team's Achilles Heel was our wingtip smoke that failed to ignite. We are still running prototypes as development of the production units has been delayed until June.

Planes TV fixed a wing-cam to film the display at Abingdon and got a bonus second flight on tape as we displayed overhead Haddenham on our way back home.

A big thanks must go to Neil Porter for inviting us. Lets hope his team’s efforts are rewarded by record charity takings this year.

Flightline UK's review of the day can be found here and more pictures from the day can be found in the gallery.

(Photography by Karl Drage, Guy Westgate and Paul Johnson/Flightline UK)

Team Pilot Job Swap
26th April 2008

Extra 300 pilot Justyn Gorman is rare among glider tug pilots – not only for the specialised towplane he flies but that he has very little gliding experience.

Similarly, Team glider pilot Mike Newman has only limited experience of handling powered aircraft, so Saturday proved an ideal opportunity for a job swap!

Justyn flew Mike to Saltby Airfield, in his pristine Vans RV4 so Mike could experience flying in a machine that isn’t constantly descending! Justyn then experienced life at the other end of the rope in the Team´s MDM-1 Fox aerobatic glider to which he took with aplomb.

The pace and handling of the RV4 greatly impressed Mike while Justyn was struck by the eerie silence at the top of tailslides and stall turns in the Fox!

The Team would like to thank Buckmister Gliding Club who host the UK national championships at Saltby in June. They now have a blanket CAA Rule5 exemption to enable display practice below 500ft.

Spring Training Camp at Bicester
12th-13th April 2008

On the 12/13th April, Team Pilots Guy Westgate, Mike Newman, Paul Moslin and Ian Gallacher, flew at Bicester airfield in their first team workup for the 2008 season.

The first dual aerotows allowed Ian and Guy to asses the very different flying characteristics of the Vogt Lo-100 and S-1 Swift.

The difference in 40 years of design and construction methods is vast. The superior performance of the S-1 Swift requires frequent use of airbrakes, but makes rejoins and other formation manoeuvres easier.

The pair practiced formation looping figures, synronised aerobatics, opposition passes and a mirror formation.

Mike concentrated on some unlimited level programs and Paul got to grips with low level manoeuvring flying the PA-25 Pawnee tug.

The team would like to thank Pete Brown, CFI at Windrushers Gliding Club for allowing us such freedom to use Bicester. You can learn more about the club here:  http://www.windrushers.org.uk/

BAeA Dan Smith Trophy Aerobatic Competition
30th March 2008

On the 29/30th March, Team Pilot Guy Westgate, and friends from the Lo100 team, Paul Moslin and Ian Gallacher, competed in the Dan Smith Memorial trophy aerobatic championship at London Gliding Club, Dunstable.The British Aerobatic Association run competition is unique, as it is open to any glider pilot, however, they all fly the same glider - a Schleicher ASK21.

BAeA medals are awarded to the top pilots, the wooden carved trophy to the top ranked pilot who normally flys at glider 'sports' (Standard) level. The first day of the competition was wiped out with strong winds, low cloud and rain. The Sunday started with low cloud but developed into the perfect spring day allowing the 14 competitors to fly 2 programs.

Our pilots took top honours, winning both the Dan Smith Trophy and the Gold medal!

• 1st Guy Westgate - 80.10%
• 2nd Chris Cain - 74.93%
• 3rd Jan Rolinek - 73.61%

• 5th Ian Gallacher - 70.73% (Dan Smith Trophy winner)

The team would like to thank Ray Stoward, who directs the competition, for the welcome and very enjoyable start to our flying season.

A full report from Dunstable can be found here:

http://www.aerobatics.org.uk/results/2008/dansmith_2008/dansmith.htm

CAA GAD Display Pilot Seminar
20th March 2008

On the 20th March, Team Pilots Guy Westgate, Mike Newman, Brendan O'Brien and Justyn Gorman attended the CAA GAD Display Pilot Seminar at Old Warden..

The Seminar’s aims are to communicate changes in the Air Navigation Order (ANO), CAP403 and all issues relating to Display licensing and Display flying, to review the previous seasons displays, promote awareness and professionalism and above all improve flight safety for UK civilian display pilots.

The presentations included Paul Bonhomme on ‘Flying in the Red Bull Air Race’, Managing the Royal Navy Historic Flight by John Beattie and a summary of the recent display audit and review by Cliff Spink. Finally there was an analysis of last years 12 global accidents caused by pilots flying into the ground by Brian Lecomber.

Brian advocates a chicken out point at the top of looping and vertical figures so that the manoeuvre can be converted with a safe exit if the required gate-height is not met, Whilst studying the diagram of a badly flown loop from ground level…he explained “At point ‘F’ in the loop, our pilot realises he has a problem that will last for the rest of his life.” Its no surprise his presentation was headlined “Manoeuvres that Murder”.

In the context of glider aerobatics however, the current wisdom is to establish a gate speed and height before attempting the manoeuvre.

The team would like to thank CAA GAD for this excellent event which will now be conducted annually as a pre-season meeting at Old Warden.

DASC Pre-season Flying Display Symposium
15th March 2008

Over the 12th and 13th March, Team Pilots Guy Westgate, Mike Newman and Team Media Officer Paul Johnson attended the DASC Flying Display Pre-season symposium at RNAS Yeovilton in Somerset. The symposium’s main aim is to promote flight safety to military and civilian display teams and orgainsers. The presentations were varied and included talks on airspace allocation, the Human Factors affecting air shows, Andy Preece’s experience of displaying the Tutor during 2007 and the RAF’s plans for the 2008 Role Demonstration.

The symposium is an excellent event for teams and organisers to meet and discuss arrangements and displays for the upcoming season which is now only six weeks away for many. Team Swift were able to meet many organisers face to face to talk about the various types of display we can put on. As a result of the Symposium, we are delighted to announce confirmed appearances at events such as Southend and Dunsfold Airshows.

The team would like to thank DASC for this excellent event and to RNAS Yeovilton for providing the culinary delights and refreshments!

Winter Testing
6th January 2008

Season's End
23rd September 2007

The very popular RAFA display at Shoreham marks the end of an amazing inaugural season for ‘Team Swift’ and we would like to thank our long suffering crew for their patience and persistence.

At the start of the year we suffered low cloud and rain far too regularly with one of the wettest summers on record. We have learnt that displaying an aircraft is not all glamour! – Fortunately our Indian summer gave as a fantastic finish, with some blue skies for Duxford, Middle Wallop and Shoreham.

We have weathered several teething issues with rope design, glider electrics, wingtip smoke, Extra 300 smoke generation and aircraft availability but the factor that will always bring the biggest headache is our summer weather

We have proved ourselves to be a flexible display act, with 30 flights in front of 500,000 people this year including 3 Weddings and 6 displays where the glider landed ‘off airfield’..

So to the following, we could not have done it without you… thank you!

Photo by Anthony Baines