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BAeA Glider National Aerobatic Championship Competition
11th-14th June 2009

Over 4 days in mid June, Team Pilots Paul Barker, Guy Westgate and Mike Newman competed in the UK National Glider Aerobatic Championships at Buckminster Gliding Club, Saltby - a perfect venue with lots of open space and few neighbours to annoy with the noise of the towplanes.

A record breaking 32 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 upto 4 unknown programs, presented a few hours before flight. The flights are scored by British Aerobatic Association (BAeA) 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 some rain and strong winds, but a full days program was flown none the less. As the weather improved towards the end of the weekend, records were sent tumbling. Never in the Saltby competition’s 16 year history has a full CIVA program of 6 flights been achieved at Unlimited level.

Besam Business Developer Chris Egan and family visited us for the final day to watch Mike Newman snatch victory from Guy Westgate in a thrilling final flight to be crowned National Champion 2009.

1st Mike Newman (Unlimited Class)
2nd Guy Westgate (Unlimited Class)
1st Paul Barker (Advanced Class)

After competitive flying, we used Saltby’s Rule 5 exemption airspace to upgrade Mike and Paul’s Display Authorisations to include Limbo flying. A full report from Saltby can be found here: http://www.aerobatics.org.uk/results/2009/natsglider_2009/natssaltby.htm

Shuttleworth Summer Air Display
7thJune 2009

The Shuttleworth Collection was founded in 1928 and is one of the most prestigious aeronautical museums in the World due to the variety of its well preserved aircraft. The restoration and maintenance is carried out by a handful of full-time engineers and over 3000 volunteers, and it is these volunteers who make the unique atmosphere at Old Warden. We were invited to fill one of the three guest displays slots for the first summer show of 2009, along with Peter Teichman's P51 and the Yakovlevs.

Besam UK's Managing Director Ulf Jonasson was our guest for the Air Display and joined us on the flightline for a few minutes before the start of the show.

Regretably the balmy weather we enjoyed in May gave way to a sequence of weather fronts, bringing continuous rain in the early hours and thunder storms after the show. Although Old Warden remained dry, the Yaks cancelled and neither the Edwardian aircraft or the Bleriot of the Shuttleworth Collection flew as the clouds built ominously in the afternoon.

The Team were Ian Gallacher in the Pawnee, Peter Wells in the SA180 Twister and Guy Westagte in the S1 Swift. We flew our now standard display profile to a very intimate crowd of 4,000 people, making use of the kinked crowd line infront of the museum hangars.

Thanks must go to Julie Lack-White for the invitation, Paul Johnson for taking photographs but most importantly to Mike Newman for helping commentator Brian Lewis and providing cake for 'Birthday Boy' Guy Westgate who is 40 today!

A review from Old Warden can be found here.

Swift Makeover
1st June 2009

The Swift Team is having a Makeover and a fresh coat of paint!

The S1 Swift glider's composite wings undergo enormous stress during a season, and the thick layer of paint has started to crack and craze in areas of maximum movement and over blocks of filler used in the refinish process.

Zulu Glasstek have refinished the wings, replacing some of the filler with glass cloth, and refinishing with a modern 2 Pak acrylic paint.

We are also applying new BESAM logos to the Swift, and have refreshed the website with updated information pages and a new logo featuring the "Corkscrew pass", to reflect the Twister's key roll in our integrated display.

Finally new team flying suits are on order and will be with us for shows in July.

Volkel in de Wolken and Southend Festival of the Air 2009
24th-25th May 2009

The Team have just completed the most audacious combination of venues yet to be linked, aerotowing the S1 Swift glider 350 miles across the English Channel from Halton to land at Goch-Asperden airfield in Germany, close to the ex-RAF station at Laarbuch and just 30 miles south of Arnhem in Holland, made infamous in 1944 by Operation Market Garden. The endurance of the Pawnee is less than 3 hours, so fuel stops were taken at Lydd and Calais.

We displayed first at the 21st "Volkel in de Wolken," a festival on the outskirts of Volkel City which includes an afternoon flying programme. Volkel is home to a Royal Netherland Air Force base which houses F-16 Fighting Falcons and is currently the home base for the Dutch F-16 Demo Team.

Volkel's Flying Display Director, Hans van der Werf (an ex F-104 Starfighter display pilot) could not have been more helpful, meeting us at Goch and coordinating hangar space for the glider to escape the overnight storms. SShow day started clear and bright and Pawnee pilot Paul Moslin lead Guy Westgate (Swift) and Peter Wells (Twister) across the border to Volkel. We flew our normal show profile to the crowd of 35,000  and landed the glider back at the airbase after the last low pass.

Support crew member Mike Newman assisted in a quick wingtip smoke change as the powered aircraft refuelled, and we were off on the return leg at midday to make our afternoon slot at Southend-on-Sea. Paul Johnson was on the ground at Volkel to capture the flavour of our first Dutch display, and reported a number of new flying acts, with top marks to the Fouga Magister and home F-16 team.

Three and a half hours of aerotowing later we were crossing the longest pleasure pier in the world for our second display of the day at Southend. Although technically possible to release the Swift and fly a glider solo, it would not be sensible to transit over the dense housing between the seafront and airport below 500ft. Instead we performed our "Seaside Profile", with trademark Twister Corkscrew and Roll-on-Tow manoeuvres, a full Twister solo and a final team flypast.

The Southend Festival of the Air is the new name for the Airshow reflecting that the event is part of a series of different summer festivals. After two years of poor weather  the sun shone for the whole weekend attracting record crowds of 500,000 people, and the forecast storms for Bank Holiday Monday did not effect the show. We opened the airshow on the second day to another huge crowd before towing back to RAF Halton in wall to wall sunshine!

Thanks must go to Mike Newman for driving almost 900 miles to support our European adventure, and Paul Johnson who covered both venues for Flightline UK - (Volkel in de Wolken Review, Southend Festival of the Air Review)

Duxford May Air Show
17th May 2009

12,000 spectators were at Duxford for their first show of the year. The "Best of British" airshow featured civil and historic aircraft, both vintage and modern. To make up the numbers there were foreign aircraft a plenty, but flown by the "Best of British" Pilots.

Rain showers in the morning put paid to the flightline walk for many, but we did get a photo flight before FDD Jeanne Frazers' airshow briefing. The wind stayed strong and gusty and with all the big camera lenses swinging around like the Duxford windsock it wasn't a great day for photographs, although Paul Johnson has again done us proud.

Regrettably there were numerous cancellations with the "Best of British" weather, most disappointing was the Mew Gull, Alex Henshaw's record machine "XF", made more poignant as his 70 year old London-Cape Town record was only broken this week by South African pilot Charles 'Chalkie' Stobbart in a modern Osprey GP-4 composite aircraft.

Paul Moslin joined the team for his first show of the season driving the Pawnee, and negotiating the 25Kt on crowd gale with the precision we have come to expect. It was Peter Wells' first display at Duxford too, and so he has ticked off another show from his "Lifetime places to be seen at" list.

Highlights of the Show included the Eurofighter Typhoon, Mark Jefferies in his newly-acquired Extra 330SC, the Folland Gnat pair and the Chinook, truly like an aerobatic block of flats!

Team Member Mike Newman helped Airsound's Sean Maffet with the commentary for our 11 minute display, and announced our new sponsor, BESAM. BESAM is part of the ASSA ABLOY Group and is the international market leader in automatic door systems. Their range of quite, safe and efficient sliding doors has a remarkable synergy with what we do, so we are looking forward to a productive relationship with the Swedish company. UK Operations Director Steve Wallis met the team at Duxford, and even tried the Swift glider for size.

We have renamed our featured tumble manoeuvre the "Besam Revolver".

We also met one of our young fans, Henry, who has been keeping track of our displays and has even completed his school IT project on the Swift Team. You should get an A+ and a merit for your good taste Henry! A review of the show can be found here.

Henham Park Wings and Wheels Rally
10th May 2009

Henham Park is a landscaped parkland in Suffolk, about as far East as you can get in England without getting your feet wet!

The original Tudor Henham Hall was razed to the ground when a drunken butler dropped a candle in 1773. Although a new hall was built in the 18th Century, it was tragically demolished in 1957 to avoid family death duties.

The remaining estate now hosts pop concerts, music festivals, steam rallies and the 2009 Wings and Wheels.

Team members Guy Westgate, Peter Wells, Ian Gallacher and Paul Johnson took the trip, together with 60 other aircraft who made the fly-in, from Percival Vegas to Tigermoths, Lasers to RV4s and Czech Sport Cruisers.

With a gate prices at only £5, this must represent one of the best value days out in East Anglia for the 6,000 strong crowd, with hundreds of classic cars, motor cycles, tractors and engines and a 30 minute flying display with our “Twister Aerobatic Team” (sic) and the Turbs.

The weather was again superb and we had a good display, dodging the parks mighty oaks during the low passes.

The team would like to thank John Hill for the invite and Halesworth Lions for organising this fantastic event. A review of the event can be found here.

Goodwood Racecourse and Abingdon
2nd-3rd May 2009

The First Bank Holiday weekend in May saw a last minute rush to participate in two shows at short notice.

Our outing to Goodwood Racecourse for their inaugural race meet was a first for many reasons: Our first UK display of the year, the Twister's first time to Goodwood and the first time we managed a display 'in house', nominating team leader Guy Westgate as Flying Display Director.

The weather Gods smiled and we showed the 8,000 strong crowd the very best of glider aerobatics in-between the first two horse races.

Pilots Guy Westgate. Peter Wells and Ian Gallacher flew the display whilst Mike Newman took up his now familiar position behind the microphone, leaving Paul Johnson to catch some remarkable photographs from ‘The Trundle’ hill which overlooks the finishing straight.

Mike’s only regret was accepting a commentary position under the large overhanging roof of the stadium so he could not see with the upper part of the display. His commentary did not miss a beat however as the flying action was relayed on the giant TV screens in full view, that is until the camera angle change to a horses rear!

The Star of the show was Peter Wells, who worked until the early hours rebuilding the Swift glider’s disc brake after a firm landing disabled the Tost mechanism on the racecourse.

The weekend continued in Oxfordshire for the Abingdon Air and Country Show at the Dalton Barracks.  A last minute cancellation by the T28 provided us the flying slot and the glorious weather attracted record crowds. The organisers were a little surprised by the 10,000 strong crowd and there were 20-30min queues for the toilets all day!

Although cumulous built as the show started, the forecast showers stayed away and the clouds parted just in time for our display. We noticed there were more photographs posted on the web forums and Flickr than usual, perhaps due to the unusual blue sky backdrop!.

Star of the day was John Dodd, flying the DC3 as nimbly as though it were his own Pitts aircraft. The C17 also wowed the crowds as did the Chinnock.

Abingdon marked an important anniversary for the team, as it was exactly a year ago that we met Peter Wells for the first time and considered our team partnership.

We would like to thank Neil Porter and FDD John Davis not only for this years show, but also inviting us both in 2008. A review of the Abingdon Air & COuntry Show can be found here.

Spring Training at RAF Halton and Bicester
7th April 2009

Since returning from the United Arab Emirates, the team has been preparing for the start of the UK season.

Peter Wells has a new Twister, that will be through certification in the first few weeks of summer. G-RIOT has a new UL260i injected engine that develops 100HP with an inverted capability. The original 80HP Jabaru powered G-TWST will continue to be the mainstay this season as we start to build up a Twister Duo for 2010.

The team has kept up training flights throughout the winter, using the MDM1 Fox whilst the Swift was away. Our agenda is to stretch what is possible and determine what manoeuvres are safe, repeatable and reliable

Mike Newman has been learning to roll on aerotow, a unique and demanding skill set to master. He has now soloed the Fox and Swift rolling on tow. Progress now will be to lower the manoeuvre to our 200ft airshow height

.

We have looked at every aspect of our display to determine what we can change. The Halton based pilots, Ian Gallacher and Paul Moslin have been working to sharpen up the aerotow. Whilst The glider pilots have been trialing a new aft CofG position for the Swift to degrade the gliders stability and accelerate the snap rotations.

Garmin and Dynon have helped provide equipment to make our flights safer and reduce workload. The Twisters and Tug are newly equipped with the latest Garmin 495 GPS colour moving map, the engine parameters in the Twister are monitored by a Dynon system as is the Artificial Horizon.

Our training flights at Bicester lead us to meet up with the Bicester Aerobatic Team (BATs), a group of glider pilots nuts about aeros. Their team leader Rachel Brewin plugged aerobatics and the Swift Team on the Chris Evan’s Drivetime on BBC Radio2 in May. You can hear her interview here...

Swift Team feature in Sailplane & Gliding Magazine
7th April 2009

The Team's participation at the 6th Al Ain Aerobatic Airshow has caused quite a stir.

The premier magazine for glider pilots worldwide, Sailplane & Gliding have run the story of our winter expedition to the Gulf, in a story called "Al Ain is a Desert Delight" and featured the CRH sponsored Swift in a tail slide on the front cover.

The article is supported by stunning photographs from Paul Johnson and the air to air shots we captured during the displays in the desert.

To read the article, click on the magazine cover (left)

Civil Aviation Authority CAP403 Revision
1st April 2009

Article 80 of The Air Navigation Order (ANO), empowers the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) to regulate civil Flying Displays within the United Kingdom.

CAP 403 is the publication that sets out the safety and administrative procedures to be followed by the organisers and participants at such events - Our display flying Bible.

CAP 403 was revised on 1st April 2009 to revision 11. An amendment that will effect our display is an increase to the minimum weather limits for aircraft with a stall speed of less than 50Kts.

These new limits would have affected at least one of our displays in 2008, however our signature 'Roll-on-Tow' manoeuvre can be flown to the Flypast cloudbase of 500 ft.

• Flypasts - Solo Aircraft:                        Minimum Cloud Ceiling 500ft   Minimum Visibility 1500m
• Flypasts - Formations:                          Minimum Cloud Ceiling 500ft   Minimum Visibility 3km
• Full Aerobatic displays - Solo Aircraft:    Minimum Cloud Ceiling 800ft   Minimum Visibility 3km
• Full Aerobatic displays - Formations:      Minimum Cloud Ceiling 800ft   Minimum Visibility 5km

For all our flights, Visual Flight Rules (VFR) of the UK Rules of the Air, require an aircraft to be flown in accordance with the Visual Meteorological Conditions (VMC) minima for the airspace they are in. Class F and G airspace (Uncontrolled Airspace), when below 3000 ft and at speeds less than 140 kts, VMC minima are 1500m flight visibility, clear of cloud and in sight of the ground.

The full CAP403 document can be downloaded here: http://www.caa.co.uk/docs/33/cap403.pdf

The CAA's guide to VFR can be downloaded here: http://www.caa.co.uk/docs/64/VFR_Guide_03_09.pdf

BAeA Dan Smith Trophy Aerobatic Competition
28th-29th March 2009

On the 29/30th March, Team Pilots Guy Westgate and Ian Gallacher joined a record 22 competitors for the Dan Smith Memorial trophy aerobatic championship at London Gliding Club, Dunstable.

The British Aerobatic Association (BAeA) competition is unique, as it is open to any glider pilot, however, everybody flies the same sailplane - a Schleicher ASK-21. BAeA medals are awarded to the top pilots, the elegant wooden trophy to the top ranked pilot who normally flys at glider 'Sports' (Standard) level.

The changeable spring weather gave us strong winds and isolated heavy showers on Sat, and flying was scrubbed. The Sunday started clear, but some lower cloud forced most competitors to fly a split program. By midday, the soaring gliders we on task, and the sun shone on both the 155th University Boat Race for another Oxford win, and the Dan Smith competitors to fly a single known program

The standard has risen every year, and this year was no exception with an unprecedented 10 pilots (half the field) scoring more than 70% after Fair Play System statistical processing.

Team pilots took top honours, the Trophy going to fellow display pilot David Gibbs (Navy Historic Flight).

  1st - Guy Westgate - 79.3%
  2nd - David Gibbs - 77.78% (Dan Smith Trophy winner)
  3rd - Ian Gallacher – 76.47%

The Dan Smith competition started in 1997, the year of the Hale Bopp Comet and was first directed by Jim Duthie until Ray Stoward swapped from pilot to Contest Director in 1999. After ten successful years, this was Ray’s last as Director and the BAeA honoured his commitment with his first gold.

The team would like to thank Cindy Copsey for battling with the scoring computer and Mike Barrowman who will take over from Ray next year. We wish Ray well in Competition retirement.

A full report from Dunstable can be found here: http://www.aerobatics.org.uk/results/2009/dansmith_2009/dansmith.htm

2009 CAA GAD Display Pilot Seminar
19th March 2009

On the 19th March, Team Pilots Guy Westgate, Mike Newman, Brendan O'Brien and Justyn Gorman, Paul Barker, Peter Wells, Paul Moslin and Ian Gallacher braved the unseasonally hazy anticyclone of the Vernal Equinox, to fly up to the CAA Display Pilot Seminar at Duxford.

The aim of the Seminar, as previous years, was to communicate changes in the ANO, CAP403 and all issues relating to Display Flying, to review the previous display season and improve flight safety through awareness and knowledge.

Following the CAA's successful focus last year of 'I am my brothers keeper', the new theme was announced as 'pressing on.'

Presentations started with our very own Justyn Gorman, talking on "The Perils of Display Flying", a light hearted look at the way we can all manage the risks of display flying at airshows and transit flights. Justyn drew heavily from his own accident a year ago, and encouraged us all to re-asses the notions of Safety and Risk Management

Aviation Psychologist John Chappelow continued the theme by analysing different risk areas and personality types for pilots using the Eysenck model . He summarised that emotionally unstable introverts should do more training drills to cope with emergencies whilst Extroverts needed to exercise personal restraint. Finally Risky Shift, the tendency for groups to make riskier, more extreme decisions than solo pilots was a wake up call to all display teams.

Martin Withers presented the Vulcan XH558's display season from a pilots perspective and after lunch Andy Offer described his business models for our ever changing economic climate.

QBE Insurance salesman Jerry Flaxman finished the seminar, and offered the 150 display pilots attending a new idea, a policy that would pay-out if bad weather forced a no-show or no display; this might reduce the need for pilots to press on to get to a venue, to guarantee to get their show fee.

The team would like to thank Duxford for hosting this excellent event and waiving their landing fees for the dozen or so aircraft who landed, and Robb Metcalfe, head of the CAA Flight Ops Inspectorate, who retires in a few weeks time.

2009 Promotional Film
12th March 2009

Matt Robain of Lifted Films has finished compiling our 2009 promotional video. A 6 minute rough edit posted on YouTube found its way onto several aviation forums and within a week had been viewed a staggering 7,000 times!

This preview video has generated some very positive comments,

"One of the best recent new displays I have seen. Amazing stuff! Good video too" - AndyR on forums.flyer.co.uk

"Oh my word, I'm not sure which is better, the aerobatics, the camera angles, or the fact that it's set to the eternal musical genius of Nick Bracegirdle. I am in awe."  - Spike on gliderpilot.net

The Final Cut of the video can now be viewed on YouTube, Vimeo, Y! Video or by clicking here and features "Empires" by Chicane.

Thanks must go to Matt Robain of course, but also Absolute Brighton, Laurel Grove and Planes TV for their film footage.

Al Ain Aerobatics Show 2009
28th-31st January 2009

The Al Ain Aerobatic Show is over for another year and has successfully transitioned from a military to a Civilian airshow. Team pilots Guy Westgate, Paul Moslin and Peter Wells flew the displays, aided by Ian Gallacher, Mike Newman.

For the past 6 years, the best of the best have displayed at Al Ain, shipped in from around the World. This year was no exception with performers from USA, Italy, UK, Hungary, Sweden, Russia and Saudi Arabia.

The flying acts were all superb, the highlights being Zoltan Veres in his brand new MXS, so new it was still in grey primer fresh from the factory, Will Curtis back in his 525Hp Sukhoi 26, The Scandinavian Airshow team lead by Jacob Hollander, with 2 lycra clad “sky cats” walking on the wings of a mighty Grumman Ag Cat and the Russian Polikarpov warbirds with an engaging display style reminiscent of an angry bumblebee.

On the ground between flying displays there were model aircraft and an impressive driving stunt team, the ‘Brotherhood of Destruction’ lead by American Mark Hager.

The red desert sand proved to be the most spectacular backdrop for a white glider and the deep blue skies showed up our orange wingtip smoke beautifully.

The Twister drew admiration from everybody who watched Pete put it through its paces, but the warm 27C temperature and 870ft airfield elevation knocked the performance slightly.

The flight line on the northerly edge of the airfield was angled perpendicular to the huge 4000m runway, so the sun stayed behind the action for the afternoon and with staged seating and soft reflected light off the sand dunes, team photographer Paul Johnson was in snappers paradise, reportedly taking over 4000 pictures over the 4 day event.

We achieved two unofficial World Records at the show, performing first 12, then 14 consecutive aileron rolls on aerotow along the crowd line. Commentator Brendan O’Brien did a superb job of getting the crowd enthusiastically oohh-ing and ahhrr-ing in all the right places during the glider flight.

The team would particularly like to thank Yousif Hassan Al Hammadi, president of the Emirates Aviation Association and MarieLouise of the Abu Dhabi Tourist Authority who organised the show, also Leon and Paul, the air traffic controllers who kept us on the straight and narrow. Finally Will Curtis who invited us and Mike Wood, who smoothly directed both the Aero GP and the Airshow.

More photographs from Al Ain can been found in the Gallery. A full review with photographs of all participants can be found at Flightline UK.

Photography by Paul Johnson/Flightline UK, Guy Westgate and Ian Gallacher

Silence Twister feature in Pilot Magazine
20th January 2009

Pete Well's Twister has caused a lot of interest in the Media this year, and it was inevitable that one of the big flying magazines would pick up the story.

Pete flew to Little Gransden airfield in November to meet with Pilot Magazine's Editor Nick Bloom. Nick was the UK advanced aerobatic Champion in 1990 in a Pitts, and prides himself on flying all the aircraft reviewed in the magazine, so Pete watched from the airfield as Nick put the Twister through its paces.

Pete then flew formation aerobatics with Pilot magazine's photographer, Keith Wilson in a Yak52, to take the remarkable photos including January's cover picture.

Needless to say, Nick loved the Twister and has written a glowing report in the magazine.

To read the article, click on the magazine cover (left)

Team Swift prepare for the Al Ain Aerobatics Show 2009
22nd December 2008

The Swift Team is very proud to announce their invitation to the Middle East’s premier airshow, Al Ain Aerobatic Show 2009.

There is a fairly well trodden path of the best British flying acts taking some winter sun in the Middle East. In recent years The Matadors, The Blades, Team Guinot, Mark Jefferies and Will Curtis have shipped their aerobatic aircraft out to the area, but it remains a significant logistic hurdle to deal with packing the containers, customs, marine freight insurance, engineering and spares provisioning.

Our brief from Will Curtis was to expect a hangar to assemble the team’s aircraft, some fuel – everything else we bring with us or buy in Dubai.

The 40ft long ‘high cube’ container was delivered to RAF Halton Airfield, and in 2 weeks we carefully packed the Team’s S1 Swift glider, PA25 Pawnee towplane and the SA180 Twister belonging to Peter Wells.

The first casualty of the Container was our bespoke glider wingtip smoke, as dangerous goods are not permitted in Containerised freight or by UAE customs without elaborate permissions and licences. We were permitted to ship our eco-friendly engine smoke-oil however as Shell Ondina is marketed as a food safe machine lubricant.

The container started its Month long sea journey this week, next stop Jabel Ali port and Al Ain mid January. Thanks go to Pete Wells, for his expert fabrication of the many fittings required to safely secure the derigged aircraft parts in the container.

DARS Post Season Flying Display Symposium
4th-5th November2008

Over the 4th and 5th November, Team Pilots Peter Wells, Guy Westgate, Mike Newman and Media Chief Paul Johnson attended the DARS (Formerly DASC) Post-season Flying Display symposium at RAF Cottesmore near Oakham, Rutland. The symposium’s main aim, as the DASC events before, is to promote flight safety to military and civilian display teams and organisers.

Chatham House is the home of the Royal Institute of International Affairs in London and they have developed a simple rule adopted at the DARS meeting to encourage openness and the sharing of information, such that the participants are free to use information received at the meeting, but under the 'Chatham House Rule' must not the identity the speaker, or that of any other participant.

The presentations included talks on the Royal Air Force Role Demo and Blue Eagles who both highlighted the Regulatory 'grey areas' and challenges with limited equipment to achieve their 2008 displays. Military display pilots have a very different authorisation process to award a PDA to each display and not a DA (Display Authorisation). As such their (fixed) display routine is defined during the approval process at the beginning of the year and resulting lack of flexibility can lead to issues. The Civilian DA is more flexible.

Another presentation on the Vulcan reported their years summary and revealed that they had only flown at half their planned displays due to weather and unservicability. The other interesting presentations described the events surrounding RIAT's weather cancellation this year and the Typhoon's 2008 display diary.

End of 2008 Season Review
3rd November2008

The very enjoyable show at Rendcomb with the Guinot Team marks the end of our second amazing air show season as Team Swift and we would again like to thank our long suffering crew for their enthusiasm, patience and persistence. At the start of the year we set about expanding our team and welcomed Ian Gallacher and Paul Moslin who gave us access to not only the many RAFGSA assets and resources at Halton but also years of valuable experience, both in engineering and glider operations.

Our intention for 2008 was to create a display to showcase the progression of glider history with a Swift and Lo100 formation display. The huge difference in performance between the 2 aircraft was a giant hurdle to overcome, and we displayed this combination at Abingdon, Cosford and Farnborough.

According to the Natural Environment Research Council, the UK registered its wettest January to August period on record. The Met Office also reported that this Summer was the second wettest since 1985, with 358.4mm of rain between 1 June and 31 August, second only to last years summer that was itself the second wettest since records began in 1914.

The summer washout was made even worse with fewer hours of sunshine than usual,  caused by the position of the North Atlantic jet streams, which blocked the warm, dry weather from southern Europe.

Apart from the weather related accident  that befell our Extra300L in May, the conditions have been extraordinarily kind to our team and we have not failed to arrive at a show venue, although the July fog (sea fret) at Sunderland and waterlogged car-parks at Goodwood in May cancelled some display flying.

The loss of the Extra300 was a huge blow to everybody and the massive personal impact to Justyn, Paula and the Extra Syndicate was felt by us all.

However, the show had to go on and we successfully substituted the 250HP Pawnee for towing duties at Biggin Hill. Comments have shown a split reaction from spectators. The Pawnee is no match for the Extras 300HP performance and it does not share the Extras sleek lines. On the other hand, the Pawnees size and bulky appearance gives it a presence, and combined with a fantastic smoke system makes it an appropriate airshow display aircraft.

The newest addition to the Team is Peter Wells and his diminutive SA180 Silence Twister. The Twister is a modern composite interpretation of the RF4 Motorglider, with a symmetrical aerofoil with a Spitfire lookalike wing planform. Peter got up to speed very quickly and added a great new dimension to our display.

We have weathered several teething issues again this year, the main concern being the glider wingtip smoke. Despite testing in USA and extensive development with a UK company, we have learnt that smoke is an art not always a science. Minute variations in composition and packing compression have given varied results from perfect smoke, fires to inert smoke that will not ignite at all. Plans are well underway to establish the perfect product for next season.

We have proved ourselves again to be an exciting, flexible and reliable display act, with 35 glider display flights at 28 venues in front of 2,693,500 people this year including 1 Wedding, 1 Birthday Party, 2 Beach landings and 6 seaside flights. We also pioneered some new aerobatic manoeuvres on the aerotow including chandelles, simultaneous opposition rolls with the Extra300 and the corkscrew with the Twister.

So to the following, we could not have done it without you thank you! - lets do it all again next year bigger and better!

(Photography by Pete Atkinson, Karl Drage, Paul Johnson, Peter Steehouwer, Guy Westgate rand Steve Petch)

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