STANDPRETTY
FUSHIEBRIDGE
GOREBRIDGE
MIDLOTHIAN
EH23 4GQ
(Airfield) 01620 880332
16 December,
2002
Dear Member
Well it’s time again for a newsletter and I’m trying
hard to think of what to tell you all, after the dreadful summer which we’ve
just had. I was looking back at last
year’s newsletter and see that I wrote that it was a bad summer then, but it
certainly seems to have been worse this year.
Gordon reckons it’s the worst year he’s ever known since he started
flying. Let’s hope that this is not the
way of things to come!
Christmas
Dinner – Saturday 14th December at 7.30 pm
We had originally booked the George Hotel in Haddington
(the venue for the Safety Evening) for the Christmas dinner this year, but they
have just informed us that their two chefs have walked out and they could only
offer us haddock or steak pie and chips ….
So we cancelled that and Gordon and I went to Bonars at Poldrate Mill,
Haddington. This is the same place we
went to last year, but is under new management who have a very good reputation
(they are being awarded a Michelin listing).
The Bonar family used to run a restaurant in Gifford and acquired a
large local following. They then moved
to St Mary’s Street in Edinburgh where they ran a successful restaurant for
quite a number of years. This year they
sold that (to our very own David Bann, one of Gordon’s students – David is well
known as a great vegetarian restaurateur and his new restaurant in St Mary’s
Street is well worth a visit, whether you are a vegetarian or not!) and moved
to Haddington. Anyway, I’m telling you
all this because of the fairly mediocre service we received at Poldrates last year
(even though it was a great night!) because we are sure that Bonars will not
make the same mistake. They have
explained how the room will be set up, and how many waiting staff there will be
etc. It’s a lovely room (not the room
we were in last year, but a private function room) and they can take up to 60
people (and have done already, so they know what they’re talking about). The price is slightly higher than in the
past, but then we are hoping that the quality will also be of a higher
standard. Their normal Christmas dinner
menu is £25.95 per person (service not included) which I thought was perhaps a
bit steep for a lot of folk, so they have agreed to take off the more expensive
items on the menu and do it for £22.50 plus £1 service. Hope that’s OK. To ease things along on the night it would be helpful if everyone
could send in their orders along with their payment. The menu is as follows:
Artichoke
& Roasted Fennel Soup & Sauternes Cream
Crown
of Melon with Fresh Sorbets and Angels Hair
Candied
Port Risotto with Roasted Wild Mushrooms and a Truffle Butter Sauce
Roast
Breast of Lothian Turkey with Cranberry and Sage Stuffing and Jacket Chipolatas
Salmon
Coulibiac with a Lobster Sauce (apparently this is salmon in pastry)
Peppered
Duck with Fondant Potato & Sauce Cassis
Aubergine
Gateau with Fresh Parmesan & a Stew of Chick Peas and Italian Tomatoes
Christmas
Pudding with Brandy Sauce
Gateau
Cardinal with White Chocolate Geleto
Rainbow
of Ice Cream & Sorbet Terrine
So, if you’d like to come along to what has always been a great fun evening, please send your cheque made payable to ‘ESMTA’ (the club account) for £23.50 per person(partners extremely welcome) together with a note of your choice of food for the night. The Christmas dinner is nearly always oversubscribed and we often have to turn people away, so it’s first come first served! Cheques won’t be cashed until a few days before the date, but it does mean that we don’t have to hassle people for payment on the night, and since we need to pay a deposit of £5 per person it means that we can cover that.
The price does includes coffee and petit fours but does not include booze, and the restaurant has been instructed that, as in the past, people pay on ordering wine etc. This avoids the horror of bills being presented after people have started going home.
Speaking of going home, one person who has already put
his name down is looking for a lift back to Edinburgh, and is suggesting a
taxi-share or something similar. If you
want to do this you could let me have your names and I can try to fix something
up, or alternatively someone may like to take charge of organising it
themselves (hopefully!).
Come off the A1 at the big roundabout at the end of the
dual carriageway and go down the main road into Haddington. At the traffic lights by the Ideal Garage go
straight ahead. Where the road bends
sharply to the right, go straight on (ie don’t go round the bend!), past the Maitlandfield
Hotel on your right (there is a small car park just near the Maitlandfield in
case you can’t get parked at the restaurant), and on past the Tyneside Tavern
on your right. Bonars is a couple of
buildings further on, on the right, set back from the road. There are a few spaces in front of the
restaurant and, for those in the know, a private car park round the back (my
sister Caroline lives there).
As in past years we will be having a lucky dip, and
unlike in past years I am actually remembering to tell you about it (there’s
been a black hole in my brain every year and I have to end up phoning
everyone!). Every person who wants to
participate brings a gift to the value of approximately £5, wrapped and ready
to put in a large box. Gifts can be
anything – flying, pretty, rude….).
Remember there will be both sexes and non-fliers there so anything goes
and folk can swap their gifts if they don’t want them. It’s just a bit of fun.
OK is that all you need to know about that? Hope so!!
* * *
Now to other things – what have we been up to this
year?
Well, apart from sitting watching the horrific
rain/wind/fog from inside the portacabin, there has been a bit of flying going
on. Both instructors have been very
busy (as their students will testify…) when the weather has allowed, but those
days have been so few that we unfortunately had to cancel any idea of a
competition/fly-in day this year. I
know this sounds mean, but it’s been touch and go trying to make a living here
this year and to have a day of good weather when neither instructor could
actually work wasn’t an option. Let’s
hope that next year things are better and we can get something going.
Flying Trips
There have been various trips around the country which
members have done – plenty of trips over to Oban etc, so it’s good to know that
folk have been taking advantage of those few good days, but for Gordon and me
the highlight of the year (flying-wise) was definitely the trip to Plockton in
August. Great fun! There were 24 folk who were there for bits
of the weekend, most of us trailering our planes up. I think there were about 8 or 9 planes up there and three who
actually flew up there (two of them were 503 Alphas – you don’t need a 912 to
do it!). The village was very busy as
it was the weekend of the sailing regatta, and accommodation was at a premium
but we had a great fun weekend, with PDG Helicopters being really good about us
using their hangar. The weather was
mainly good, with Saturday being a beautiful day and Sunday seeing quite a bit
of low cloud. The midges were out and
about but didn’t seem to affect everyone’s enjoyment too much.
It was so good that we’ve already decided on dates for
next year’s visit (and a few of us have booked rooms in anticipation!). We thought that September would be a better
time – the weather is often better and the village is quieter so the weekend we
have in mind is 5th/6th/7th September –
although Gordon and I will be coming up on Saturday and staying until the
Tuesday.
Rodent Damage
One of our unlucky members who flies regularly has had
the seats in his aircraft badly damaged by mice. We sent an email to members telling you about this and asking for
suggestions. In the short term, Bryan
Smy’s suggestion that all dangling tapes from trike covers etc should be securely tied up (they act as
little rope ladders otherwise) seems the best advice. Mike & Kim Forsyth have given us the name of their vermin-destroying
chappie so I’ll contact him and ask him to quote for putting poison down, but I
reckon it could be pricey. We’ll come
back to you on that. In the meantime,
put traps in your seats!
New
Clubhouse Portacabin
Having been up to Dounreay to see the portacabins which
were for sale up there, and having said that we would like them, there has been
a deafening silence from our contact, so once again we are keeping our eyes
open. We need at least 3 portacabins in
good condition, preferably open plan rather than separate.
Christmas
Trip/Holy Island
We normally try to arrange a flight down to Holy Island
at Christmas time, though perhaps this is not such a great idea bearing in mind
that we have been requested not to fly there (due to the large bird population
which is there all year). It would be
good to go somewhere though, in a bundle!
How about Saturday 28th December? We could always go to Beal on the mainland where there is a pub
with a field, or other folk might have better suggestions.
Gigha
We didn’t have a trip to Gigha this year, mainly due to
the change of ownership of the island and hotel. We have had one report of members flying over and having trouble
with transport from the village back to their planes. If anyone has any other comments before we think about whether to
try to get there next year, please let us know.
Safety Evening
We had a very well attended Safety Evening earlier in
the year when Keith Meakin and Phil Jackson from Edinburgh Air Traffic Control
came to speak to us, Gordon said a few words about safe flying at the airfield
and in general, and Graeme Ritchie rewarded those people who had managed to
stay long enough with his fabulous slides.
It was a good evening, though Gordon would have like a bit more time to
cover circuit procedure etc in more depth.
We’ll have another one either next year or the year after, depending on
whether the level of flying warrants it!
Air Traffic Visits
Our relationship with Air Traffic Control was benefited
further by their inviting limited numbers of members to visit the ATC tower at
Edinburgh Airport. There were about 3
or 4 groups who went along and it was very enlightening and interesting. It may be that if there is enough interest,
we could ask them to organise some more.
Those who would benefit the most would be the people who tend to fly
around/through the Edinburgh Control Zone.
The visits did show how useful it is to be on radio and to speak to ATC
without worrying about disturbing them or feeling embarrassed about it. The ATC guys then came out to East Fortune
to have a go at microlighting as a way of thanking them – they loved it!
Again, a call for anyone who is getting this letter by
surface mail but has an email facility – please let us know your email address
as it saves a fortune in time, postage, paper etc . We also tend to send out snippets of stuff to those with email,
which don’t get sent by post.
New medical forms
The new NPPL medical forms are now available and we
have a stock of them here. Applications
for, or holders of, the NPPL Microlight licence must use these. The old pink forms are still valid for
holders of the PPL Microlight licence and again we have a few of these left or
they can use the new NPPL medical forms.
The BMAA will not be supplying any more pink forms.
The validity periods for the NPPL medical were not very
clear when first issued. The following
has been published by the CAA Medical department to clarify the position:
Age when
medical assessment undertaken:
·
Up to (and including) age 44 – valid until 45th
birthday, or for five years (whichever is longer)
·
Age 45 to 59 – valid for five years
·
Age 60 to 64 – valid until 65th birthday or
for one year (whichever is longer)
·
Age 65 and over – valid for one year
The medical certificate has also been altered. It now bears the CAA logo to make it look a
little more official and there are some changes to the notes for the doctor
which should explain the requirements and examination procedure a little
better. We have copies of these notes.
Quik
There has been a lot of chat about Pegasus’ new Quik
flexwing which came up to Scotland but unaccountably missed East Fortune. Gordon has spoken to Pegasus about this and
has been assured that once it has received Section S approval they will be
bringing it to us for demonstration….
Line painting
The runway lines are in dire need of repainting and we
have bought some paint to try to do this, but of course on days when the
weather is OK for painting, it is usually also OK for flying and therefore we
would be very grateful for any offers of help from members to do this.
Dave Coutts needs help!
Dave has asked if anyone has a manual for a Canon Laser
Printer model LBP4 Lite, which he would like to borrow just until he gets the
hang of it. If you can help, please
leave the manual with us and we’ll pass it on.
Well, I think I’ve prattled on for long enough now, and
as usual as soon as this has been sent I’ll think of all the other things we
should have said, but for now best wishes for Christmas, the New Year and a
good winter’s flying.
Hope to see you all on the 14th!
Yours sincerely