Compton Abbas Airfield

After a very tasty lasagne, some reduced price drinks and a catch up, 60 of our members settled down to listen to our very own David Morgan chat about 'The Falklands Conflict from the Cockpit of a Sea Harrier' - our February Compton Club Night.

Compton Abbas Airfield was the original creator of the long standing and extremely popular New Years Day Fly-In! Last year saw one very brave pilot manage to find us through the cloud, wind and rain. This year...a hundred times as many visiting aircraft made it to Compton...on a perfectly crisp clear Winter's day.

The weather outside was cold, wet and miserable…but the atmosphere at the Compton Abbas Christmas Club Night was warm, friendly and Merry!

Fuel at Compton is now only £1.48 and only £1.43 for our resident pilots. With a UK average of £1.62 this is almost 20p per litre cheaper...so come in and get your fuel with us!

The airfield was closed for a couple of days in late October to enable us to work on the Eastern end of the runway. Fortunately it was pouring with rain so none of you would be able to fly anyway! Compass Paving, which is run by one of our members, removed two dumper trucks of earth and laid down some perfo ground reinforcement in the areas that needed it. The test driving that was done on it the next day made for some very positive comments. Thanks to some of our very clever agriculturally educated members (including Captain Fertiliser and Captain Grass) the runway is looking greener and smoother than ever...so we'll be watching your landings!

Considering the misty murky weather we had on the 6th November - there was a great turn out to our Quiz Night - with Mrs Hughes in the kitchen turning out over 50 curries, and youngest Hughes on the bar topping up your many drinks (and with cost price drinks we got through a fair amount!). Mary Belcher worked very hard on producing an excellent quiz for you, and Nick and Peter made a couple of entertaining quiz masters!

On the slightly rainy morning of October 19th six aircraft and twelve excited people prepared for the flight to Bembridge on the Isle of Wight. By the time we got down to the coast it was a beautiful clear and sunny day, and despite the interesting crosswind on landing at Bembridge (20 knots with a crosswind component) we all landed safely without too much excitement!

Andrew Dixon has joined us as our brand new CFI. It would be a bit of a struggle to find anyone more qualified for the job than Andrew - who's extensive career has involved flying both modern and vintage aircraft including some 12 years flying DC-3s and DC-6s for Air Atlantique before combining 4 engines and tailwheels with the B-17 that he can be seen regularly flying at airshows. He has been an instructor in the Isle of Man, at Biggin Hill, RAF Woodvale and is now based in Bournemouth as Head of Training at Pilatus UK Ltd. Andrew is both a PPL and Professional Pilot Examiner for all types including the PA46 PC12 and DC3. In addition to the “day job” Andrew flies various historic aircraft including his own Percival Pembroke “Percy” Andrew has amassed some 27,500 hours, over 15,000 of which are on tailwheel aircraft included in his total are some 12,000 hours of instructional experience on all types. Andrew is full of great new ides for the club and we're all excited about the new plans which are being formed as we speak....watch this space!

The plan was to gut the whole of the downstairs restaurant and club house this year. However we are hanging on to the reserves and waiting to see what happens with the economy before we make any dramatic changes.

We have had more members join us this Summer than ever before. This would be fantastic news anyway, but in the midst of a recession its even better! We are up on last year with regard to flying activity and the amount of people using the restaurant - so rest assured that we are staying around for a bit longer yet!