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Post by rocky14 on Apr 15, 2016 7:15:24 GMT
Hi Peter just an idea - no doubt already considered - a 'whats wrong' competition i.e doctor a light aircraft in a number of places and invite visitors to identify what's wrong. The entry fee will provide a small prize for the winner/s and some money for charity.
Mike
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Post by PB on Apr 15, 2016 7:17:30 GMT
Globaljet6000.. We are depending on you for using your 'contacts' and insisting that certain types come back on July 30th!!! Sure the 146 would be a good candidate for the static park as would many others who float through your airspace.. Sell, sell, sell.........The Air Day flyers are promised for this week.
Thanks very much!! P
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Post by PB on Apr 15, 2016 7:43:05 GMT
rocky14. Nice idea. Not sure who would volunteer their aeroplane for doctoring, but as I say, great idea. We have a degree of manpower availability considerations...To date few volunteers have appeared from the Forum, but NATS and the resident clubs should provide improved numbers. I'll keep your idea to hand for now. We're running a very generous offer for pilots attending the fly-in, apart from free landings, plus there will be an on the day competition that all can participate in using their mobile phones...Oh yes, and a raffle for winning a host of trial lessons that I've extracted from all our flying schools and even from Lasham... That plus securing the airfield, selling the Air Day concept, and overcoming a host of other infrastructure 'things' has kept me warm during the winter.
lynothehammer. I've managed to avoid joining the Twitter society to date, but stranger things may happen. We must remember that this is the first Air Day at Blackbushe and is something of a trial run for bigger things in the future. No flying display due to the heavy hand of the CAA following events at Shoreham last year. The media (southern ITV) are back on the 'lets make air displays safer' track again after this week's response from the CAA..They, the CAA, intend to police air displays more, and to do that they will charge massive fees to cover their new infrastructure and heavy regulation. Football matches are proven far more dangerous to human life than UK air shows...anyway, maybe we'll fly in the future, but this year at Blackbushe we are an open-house with a fly-in, static park for close up viewing, and various other events taking place. Tickets will go on sale very soon. The prime factor to remember is that we are intent on raising funds for our charity, Aerobility. As we all know, Aerobility do fantastic work on bringing the satisfaction, achievement, exhilaration, and pure joy of flight to the disabled and our injured service personnel.
I cannot think of a better way to utilise Blackbushe, while having some fun and putting extra life into the Blackbushe circuit in the process...I hope as many of our members and guests as possible will volunteer to help.
PB
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Post by lynothehammer on Apr 15, 2016 17:23:13 GMT
PB, apologies for seeming like i'm jumping the gun. I understand there'll be no flying and that's it's primarily a fly in day but surely it's worth contacting some of the air display operators even just to have on static as it's for a good cause.
Either way i'm looking forward to something new and local, whats the price of admission ?
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Post by PB on Apr 15, 2016 20:02:32 GMT
Lets put it this way. My original idea was a simple fly-in to put Blackbushe back on the "events" pages..but it kinda grew. Various ideas have been brought together so it will be interesting to see what results!! Air display operators are famous, and quite rightly, for taking large sums of money in return for a brief act. They acquired quite a good few thousands of £'s at my last big flying event way back in'77, now I'm looking at possible fuel in return for making an appearance depending on circumstances and who we are talking about. The RAF gave me vast quantities of fuel for taking the Dakota to some of their 'family days' but we cannot emulate quite such generosity..
An event of any kind involving the public requires a basic infrastructure, toilets, marquees, medical etc etc..before you even think of aeroplanes. The plan is to support Aerobility once we have covered the substantial amount of money already invested. The Air Day is not about making vast profits and spending the rest of the year in the Bahamas, just covering our costs and having some left over for our charity.
Whilst I have been in contact with numerous operators if you - or anybody - have any particular suggestions and especially contacts of rare/interesting aircraft operators who would look kindly on a new enterprise with a splendid charity in mind then please let me know, or follow up your contacts as you see fit.
I have much to do between now and July, and now is the time to clinch as much as we can - as economically as we can!
Air Day Volunteers will, of course, be given free admission, otherwise a small entry fee of £5 will be charged, under 2's free. As I say, a significant outlay has already been made and hopefully the Air Day organisers will not end up bankrupt as a result of their efforts. From necessity, ticket numbers have had to be capped...... So far as I'm concerned this is a learning exercise fitting an event into the unique political and geographical constraints that we find ourselves controlled by in 2016.
PB
More volunteers are hoped for, and all suggestions of aviation participants/contacts gratefully received.
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Post by rj on Apr 15, 2016 20:13:31 GMT
£5 seems a appropriate fee for a charity event and will reduce the numbers a little as car parking is limited and we could never cope with more than 100 cars at a guess. We are almost 25 years on from the last event of any size (where did the time go!) so a tentative toe in the water is sensible. Just need the British weather to co-operate!
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Post by PB on Apr 15, 2016 20:35:34 GMT
Just to clear up the car parking situation. There is no particular limit to the number of cars, last year's problems are last year's problems. We do not want to create any fears over car parking, this year's plans have fully over taken last year's parking question... 100 cars?? No sir, thousands if it were necessary...but the ticket cap will keep some control on numbers, it's the number of humans in a relatively limited space that is our controlling factor.
The weather's co-operation is a must. Some may recall the 50th Anniversary over a weekend...The Saturday it rained non-stop, vis was rubbish, and the only inbounds were the Cranwell boys who made in a couple of Tucanos. The Sunday. Wow, the sun shone and Blackbushe had the greatest number of visitors ever!!
If you're speaking to any private pilots who might be wondering what to do on 30 July, point 'em at BB. The first fifty arrivals will not only have a free landing, they will also be entered into a chance to win one of two prizes. Each prize being 200 litres of aviation fuel, that's odds of 1:25 I believe...!!
More will be revealed once the Air Day website is released, and our flyers are ready.
PB
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Post by simond on Apr 15, 2016 21:23:23 GMT
Beginning to see just how much work has already gone into the event - well done PB! And just realised that the day is titled the Blackbushe Air Day, acronym BAD - that means good, these days, doesn't it?! Anyway, I was just thinking that if we end up a little short on the volunteer front, we could always approach the two local air cadet squadrons; Yateley (2407) and 457 Farnborough (where one of my boys is currently a sergeant). Potentially a pool of fairly well motivated and disciplined young individuals, many of whom will have experience of helping out at events like Farnborough and RAF Odiham Families Day. Happy to make the approach to the boys CO if it would be of any help.
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Post by PB on Apr 16, 2016 7:44:13 GMT
Simond...Let's just say that the acronym resulting from the Blackbushe Air Day has been looked at, but time will show whether we should hang any meaning to it!!
What is really good is your proposal with regard 2407 and 457 squadrons. Past events have benefitted from local ATC help and I am very sure that they would be of immense value amid our guests, aircraft handing (depending on experience), and generally helping us to run the day in an orderly fashion. "Yes, please" and I look forward to hearing how it goes. You can always PM on here with updates.
Many thanks Peter B
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Post by rj on Apr 16, 2016 9:01:17 GMT
Through twitter have a possible Gazelle from The Gazelle Squadron (nearly 2000 followers does have its advantages) which would be great. Peter when will there be more info like the website etc? I have also started a thread on the UK Aviation Review Forum looking for aircraft and volunteers. forums.airshows.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=72221Peter would you like me to start up at air day twitter account? Really getting enthusiastic about this.
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