Shobdon Young Eagles 2003 report

The Young Eagles weekend was a great success when measured by the look of excitement on the faces of the 24 Leominster ATC cadets plus their CO Val Hickin. The association between Shobdon & Leominster ATC 151 goes back a long way & the cadets have become a feature at the Shobdon Air Race weekend for many years. Recently they have become part of the Aviation Awareness weekend & this year were at the first Shobdon Strut fly-in. So we were delighted when the powers that be relaxed the rules & allowed ATC cadets to take part in the YE project.

Saturday 28th June was a perfect flying day with sunshine & a few clouds with a light westerly wind. In the end 9 aircraft were available for the day, including 5 home built machines. However fate was to play a cruel hand & we lost one aircraft before any flights had got into the air. G-BZAM David Corbett's Europa was involved in a collision with a marker board & suffered damage to its prop. So David had to retire hurt from the scene, we hope that the prop will soon be repaired & G-BZAM back in the air.

Now down to 8 aircraft we began flying using the Call signs Eagle 1 to Eagle 9 (Eagle 4 having pulled out), the shortened call sign certainly helped to reduce the workload for Robin Lewis in the tower & all flights got off with the minimum of fuss. John Bally flying his German Registered Bolkow 207 flew three cadets, Bill Lowe flying the Archer also flew three. These two aircraft being four seaters gave the lucky cadets three flights each, one up front & two in the back. The others were not so lucky having just one flight each. David Barr-Hamilton flying his Jodel "Moby Dick" took two cadets. Adrian Lloyd in his Kitfox flew three. David Johnstone in the Avid (superior Kitfox) flew three cadets plus Val Hickin on Saturday & another three cadets on Sunday. David Webb in his Rebel (It takes a rebel to fly one) flew three cadets & apparently got up to 5,000 ft & was chasing the clouds. Finally David Garrett in his Jodel flew two cadets.

We had an incident free day in the air although it became very thermic & the flights were a little bumpy in some of the lighter aircraft. None of the cadets was airsick although one of the lads in the four seater Archer had had enough after two flights.

On the ground however things were a little more fraught. Having seen G-BZAM hit a marker board, we were amazed to see a freak gust start to toss planes around with the result that Graham Shimmin's Banbi G-CUTE was severly damaged by a weight Shift micro light which crashed into his aircraft causing considerable damage to the tailplane. The very last thing Graham needed as he was due to fly to the Isle of Man on the 30th June. I gather from Graham that he has found a good local repair shop & that the Aircraft will be fit to fly into the PFA Rally at Kemble. However it was a cruel accident to happen when he had so generously given his time to fly the YE's. One other aircraft was involved in this little incident, David Johnstone's Avid G-BVLW was tipped onto one wing tip & saved from further damage by Hereford Flying club members who rushed out to hold it down. The free wheeling prop was spinning far too fast to try to stop by hand & had to be slowed down by holding the spinner. No damage occurred & subsequent flights were satisfactory.

All in all a very satisfactory weekend with all the cadets looking forward to another go next year. We have learnt from this year that the event can be run with the minimum of fuss, thanks to Val Hitchin who sorted out the admin for the cadets with his usual efficiency & to Robin James who was in charge of booking out the cadets on the day. Thanks to all the pilots who donated their time & aircraft

David Johnstone


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