Straight and Level

What next for the Rally?

Eryl Smith Chairman

Over the years our annual Rally has provided a host of reasons to gather together, whether that be to display a newly completed or restored pride and joy, to meet with exhibitors to see the latest aircraft, equipment and supplies, or perhaps to pick the brains of the Engineering team or Pilot Coaches. Above all else it has been an occasion to socialise and renew acquaintances as we celebrate our passion for flying!

After 10 fruitful years at Sywell we were presented with financial terms for the use of the airfield which were unacceptable and made an event there unviable. Despite constructive conversations with a number of airfields we were facing the prospect of no event in 2022… that is until Mike Pearson, airfield manager at Popham, came forward and offered to host an event at the beginning of September. For those who attended the Grass Roots Fly-In it provided something different, and judging by the overwhelming feedback and reports in the aviation media, could be regarded as a success. A big thanks goes to everyone who made it possible!

But Popham is not Sywell and despite its many attractions it has its limitations, whether that be the lack of a hard runway, the limited hospitality facilities onsite and in the immediate area, or its geographic location which, coupled with the poor weather forecast

Updates from the Chairman and CEO

at the beginning of the week, deterred many from making the journey.

So what next for the Rally? I am in no doubt that members want the Rally to continue – but in what format and where? Ideally it should be relatively centrally located, offer hard and grass runways with sufficient aircraft parking and accessibility to camping and hospitality facilities. For so long Sywell has ticked all these boxes. Should it remain a three-day event? Should the Rally become a biannual event alternating with a large regional fly-in akin to the Grass Roots Fly-In held in alternate years in the north and south of the country?

An annual Rally on the scale of Sywell effectively requires exclusive use of the airfield and additional days to set up and break down, costs approx £100k to run – and remains reliant on a cohort of volunteers to stage. Even an event on the scale of the Grass Roots Fly-In will have cost in the region of £50k. Our risk-share model has ensured the viability of the event between the Association and the host airfield, as undertaking the full cost to the Association has been regarded as too great a financial risk and would entail significant increases in charges to mitigate the risk.

We will continue in our endeavours to secure an appropriate venue for a national Rally in 2023. In the meantime, your thoughts and ideas will be most welcome. No doubt it will be a topic for discussion as part of the Open Forum at the conclusion of the formal business at the forthcoming AGM!

I look forward to meeting with you in person or online for the AGM at Turweston later this month. ■

Steve Slater CEO

Writing this, I am still basking in a relatively warm glow of satisfaction at the superb, and it seems, popular, LAA Grass Roots Fly-In. As some pages further on will show, the event combined Popham’s legendary ambience with a closer, more tight-knit event and with more than 3,000 visitors on site and around 350 visiting the aircraft, everybody involved can feel proud of our achievement.

As Eryl Smith has written above, we are very conscious that this event, successful though it was, wasn’t a full-blown LAA Rally and we are now looking at what we can achieve next year. Have you any suggestions of how we can enhance our annual fly in? If so drop LAA HQ a line, we’re keen to hear your suggestions.

Sadly, as the personal letter from Eryl Smith (attached with this magazine) imparts, we have some more serious news, in that the LAA was targeted by an account fraud, with a scammer purporting to represent our bank’s security department. As a result, funds were inadvertently transferred to the fraudster’s accounts.

Of course. We are working with our bank, NatWest and the two recipient banks, to recover the funds, although their initial response was disappointing despite the fact that we were able to notify them almost immediately the fraud was committed. As a result of both internal meetings and an independent enquiry, we have amended our internal processes to reduce the risk of such a fraud happening again.

While it is, perhaps, a case of ‘closing the stable door after the horse has bolted’, this sad episode does serve as a timely reminder, both at work and personally, that we all need to be aware of the prevalence of such crime and take appropriate precautions. Let’s be careful out there.

The summer months have been especially challenging for LAA Engineering. During August and September, we went through a tough time with a high sickness rate and the unexpected resignation of an airworthiness engineer, on top of the inevitable planned summer leave. At one stage we were down to just one airworthiness engineer and one design engineer on site.

First of all, my personal apologies to those whose applications, for mods in particular, have been delayed. Also, my thanks to those members, who having had the situation explained to them, agreed to cut us a bit of slack.

The good news is that we have enabled some solutions. Our new Chief Inspector, Lucy Wootton, is now firmly in post. By the time you read this, a newly recruited airworthiness engineer (and LAA Inspector), Tim Skinner will have joined us, Ken Craigie has deferred his retirement in order to help Lucy get up to speed and Francis Donaldson remains on board as a consultant. In addition, I’m pleased to say the design engineer who was on sick leave has now returned to work. Here’s to looking forward to a more effective response to your queries in the coming weeks and months. ■