Latest News
Gyronauting with Dave Wells
If you’re looking to be amused, educated, and entertained all at the same time, go to Dave Wells’ story about preparing to fly in his beloved Gyrocopter Midge on our Stories of Flying Visits page.
There are plenty of other stories of club members flying around and about to read too.
If you have a story to tell, please contact Elaine at the club.
08 October 2024
Fly-in success - Despite the grey skies!
Although the weather was disappointing, a great time was had by all who attended our Fly-in on 20th & 21st September. The burgers and sausages were a huge hit, cheffed by our own Norman Sutherland and there was a steady stream of visitors throughout the day.
Not so many visited by plane however due to the weather! Nevertheless, the prize for the furthest travelled and best turned out fixed wing went to Bill Maziek in his home built Bristell. Bill flew in from Oldmeldrum with his wife, a much shorter journey than his flight to Oshkosh from Scotland this summer! Find Ed Hick’s Oshkosh interview with Bill on www.flyer.co.uk in the “Flyer TV” section.
One other aircraft did also fly in on the day and the prize for furthest flown and best turned out Gyro went to John Noble who flew in from Kirkbride with Ian Coates as P2.
Scotland’s Youth Aviation Charity, Take Off, based at the SAC also ran a bookstall during the day where some of the excellent collection of Jim Allan’s library combined with various items offered by other club members raised a total of over £500. Jim was especially pleased that his signed copy of Douglas Bader’s book raised the excellent sum of £100 all on its own. Our thanks are due to Mark Hillier, the Head of Operations at www.spitfires.com. Mark was part of the on-site Spitfire crew and is an historic aviation specialist. He helped Take Off to price the items correctly, and indeed bought a few himself. There are still books left to buy – if you’d like to arrange to look through the collection, please get in touch with chair@scottishaeroclub.org.uk. We may also put some of the items in the shop on our website in the coming weeks.
To all of you who helped to make this event such a success, in setting up, cheffing, bar-manning, merchandise-selling, providing flight experiences, de-rigging and tidying up the following Sunday morning – A BIG THANK YOU!
04 October 2024
HIAL Fees
While we wait for HIAL to confirm a date for us to come along and discuss with them ways to encourage more GA traffic to use their airports (the reduction of recently increased fees and removal of recently added additional fees being a good starter for 10), they have written to us to clarify the new “Navigation Fee” in particular as follows.
HIAL have amended their airports’ Fees and Charges documents to make it clear that pilots will only be charged a Navigation Fee if they are landing or carrying out practice approaches or touch and goes.
Where an ATS is provided for overflight or transit then there will be no charge.
Posted 04 October 2024
Laurencekirk Strip Re-Opened
Farmer David Gammie has re-grassed and re-opened the strip at Laurencekirk.
The strip lies between Laurencekirk and Auchenblae. N56 52 10 W002 28 04 (according to Bob Tadmans’ Sky Demon).
The runway lies in open countryside on an 04/22 orientation with no specific circuit directions. The elevation is approx. 220ft and there is a slight upslope on 22 with two gentle undulations part way along. The runway is 750m x 20m according to owner.
PPR is Essential – please all David Gammie on 0772 186 6677.
There is no parking area at the moment due to adjacent potato crops but David is planning to create one for next spring. You should therefore park at the extreme end of the strip until further notice. A few minutes walk to the east from the strip (down the farm track shown in the photo below – the runway is the green strip mid way up the photo on the RHS of the track) is the farm yard. Just beyond the yard is a farm shop and informal cafe serving toasties, baked potatoes and soup at present, although this may change at a later date.
SSE are apparently considering erecting pylons to take transmission lines to Tealing from the north which may affect this strip in the future. David is very keen therefore to encourage us to use it now. There is no landing fee so do pop along and make use of the shop/cafe.
(midway up the photo, green strip running left to right on RHS of roadway.)
Posted 04 Octobe 2024
Keeping clear of Danger - A message from The Tower
Dundee ATC works with the radio room at Perth to coordinate the safe transit of traffic going into Dundee using the RNP or ILS approaches. They will call and ask us if we have any traffic to affect and we duly pass along the details of any aircraft KNOWN to us.
The Dundee 09 RNP starts about 3000 feet over Perth Airport, with joining points over the Friarton Bridge and Stanley, then descending over Perth Airport towards Dundee.
The ILS traffic goes beacon outbound towards Perth before turning back towards Dundee, penetrating about half a mile into the Perth ATZ at approx. 2000 feet during this turn.
So, for aircraft departing 09 and climbing to the east, the line of hills ahead is close to the ILS area. Also, if flying a wide “bomber-circuit” for 27 and you are over the line of hills to the east of Perth Airport then, once again you’re close to the ILS area.
Overhead joins, especially from the east heading towards Perth can also put you very close to both of the Dundee approaches.
We know that in Class G airspace it’s not required to talk to anyone but can we ask you please, when flying between Dundee and Perth, just give Dundee or Leuchars Approach a quick call and let them know of your intentions. This will help to minimise the risk to you and other aircraft. Listening out on 121.080 for our “All Stations” broadcasts while in this area will also help to reduce risk.
Thanks!
Perth Airport Tower Team.
Posted 04 October 2024
Royal Aeronautical Society's President's Conference
Design, Build, Fly 15th & 16th October 2024
The following message has been received from the Royal Aeronautical Society. Anyone interested in attending this conference, which is being held in London, should contact Mary Doner. You can find Mary’s contact details below.
As a representative of a LAA local Strut, I’m contacting you from the Royal Aeronautical Society with a special offer to join us at our upcoming President’s Conference: Design, Build, Fly, taking place on 15-16 October 2024 in London.
The RAeS President’s Conference is one of our annual flagship events and will be hosted by our President, David Chinn FRAeS. The theme for the 2024 conference is ‘Design, Build, Fly’, which aims to address the skills gap in the UK aerospace sector of people with expertise covering all three elements of designing, building and flying/launching an aircraft or rocket. There is a focus on the GA sector with a number of great speakers joining us from this sector, as this seems a good place to start an initiative like Design, Build, Fly, including Simon Tilling, CEO of the LAA. You can view the full programme and speaker line-up on our website.
Therefore we’d be delighted to offer you a special discount of 50% off the booking rate as a representative of a LAA local Strut, as this conference would be a great opportunity to hear from experts in designing, building and flying light aircraft, as well as meeting and networking with a wider like-minded community to discuss the importance of LAA Struts and local clubs in advising and inspiring people into flying in a practical way.
Please let me know if this is of interest and I’ll set you up with the discounted rate. I hope we can welcome you to the President’s Conference.
Mary Doney (she/her)
Events Manager
Royal Aeronautical Society
4 Hamilton Place
London
W1J 7BQ
+44 (0)207 670 4344
Mary.Doney@aerosociety.com
Posted 19th September 2024
Ladies Day at the SAC
We are very happy to report that our Ladies Day held in conjunction with our training partners, Alba Airports, on Saturday 14th September was a huge success! Twenty-five women joined us and were wowed by their experience at the Scottish Aero Club. Unfortunately, the weather did not play ball this year, however everyone who attended will be back over the next few weeks to take up the offer of the air experience flight with their designated pilot.
A HUGE THANK YOU to all members, their spouse’s and friends who came along to help out on the day. A special thanks to the pilots who offered their aircraft and time to take our guests flying. This was the second Ladies Day held at the club and was another rip-roaring success which we should all be proud of.
We were also lucky to have a reporter and photographer from The Courier with us throughout the day. Please click HERE to read the positive and engaging article along with photos published in yesterday’s Courier, including a front page lead and a double-page article inside.
Posted 18th September 2024
SAC Merchandise
Looking for a stylish update to your wardrobe, a birthday/Christmas gift or, a gift for a friend?
We now have new stock of Round Neck T-Shirts, Polo Shirts, Caps and Lightweight Shell Jackets available in S, M, L and XL.
Please speak to Elaine at the Club 0r, to see images of the items available, please go to our Shop page HERE
Posted 22 August 2024
Missing - SAC Projector Table!
The Club’s Projector Table has gone missing. It’s a 2-level black purpose-built unit and can’t be found anywhere at the Clubhouse and Hangar.
If you’ve borrowed it, please return it as it is now needed. Or if you’ve stored it away somewhere safe where we haven’t been able to find it, please let us know where it is. No names needed, just the table!
We’re happy to lend equipment but we need to know where it’s gone, so if you wish to borrow something, just let Elaine or a Committee Member know before you take it – many thanks!
Posted 15th August 2024
Sales, Purchases, Syndicates
If you’re looking to buy or sell an aircraft, buy or sell a syndicate aircraft or if you have an aviation related item for sale or are looking to purchase something, please go to our Aviation Sales Purchases Syndicates page HERE.
There are some things there you might be interested in!
