A (new) Inspector calls

Where did your interest in aviation begin?

I am not exactly sure what started my interest. One of my earliest memories was wanting to fly. My father used to read a lot of aviation books and we would watch old aviation films when I was little, so that probably helped! I used to like going to Wellesbourne Airfield Café to watch the aircraft, but it seemed like a bit of an impossible dream to fly myself with the cost of power flying, until I had a job and was earning my own money. However, I then discovered gliding when I was 16.

One of my dad’s closest friends was a glider pilot, and in 2010 he asked my dad if he wanted a trial flight. My dad declined, but my mum mentioned that I had always wanted to fly, so I took the opportunity instead.

My first flight was in an ASK13 glider on aerotow at Shenington Gliding Club, from Shenington Airfield, near Banbury, in July 2010. On that day, my dad’s friend sat me in various gliders around the airfield, including a red Ka6cr, which I now part-own along with two others in a syndicate! I never looked back after that, I was hooked…

Above Lucy at this year’s LAA Grass Roots fly-in.

Tell us about how you learned to fly

I had my trial glider flight in July 2010 and then did my first solo on 25 October that year at Shenington Airfield. Phil Marks sent me solo (a current LAA Inspector!). Following that, I applied for lots of scholarships and bursaries for young people in gliding and I have been very fortunate to be successful in receiving several of them, which really helped me along my flying journey. Since then, I have worked through various gliding qualifications – Bronze, Cross Country Endorsement, Silver Badge and a Standard Aerobatic Badge. I have recently been signed off for some more advanced aerobatic manoeuvres in gliding, including rolls. Alongside my own flying, I have trained as an Instructor. I initially qualified as a Basic Instructor, but moved onto Assistant Category in 2019 and then became a Full Category Instructor this summer. I have also flown some cross-country gliding competitions, including the Junior Nationals for several years and the Cotswold Regionals. I really enjoy competition gliding, whether that be as a competitor or being part of the competition organisation. There is something very exciting about the atmosphere at a gliding competition, with the unknown as to whether the weather will be exactly as planned and how people will get on, often with several gliders landing in fields and their pilots returning with stories of their adventures!

Since 2010, I have been part of the organising team for the Shenington Regional Gliding competition, initially as Competition Control and then as Deputy Director and Launch Master this year. Running that competition is one of the highlights of my year. We have a regular group of competitors that love to get involved with our schedule of evening events (including a quiz and fancy-dress hangar party), as well as the flying, which makes for a great atmosphere. This year we had a 1920s hangar party, complete with vintage Kirby Kite and Slingsby Petrel gliders. I was fortunate to be allowed to fly the Petrel the following day. It is always an awesome sight to watch 33 gliders launched by six tugs in less than an hour!

In 2016, with the help of a 12-hour Air League Scholarship, I converted my Glider Pilot’s Licence over to an NPPL and went solo in a Cessna 152. I later converted the NPPL over to a LAPL when they were introduced, and then completed the flying last year to convert the LAPL to a full PPL. Also, back in 2016, I completed the required differences training to fly motor gliders and then did a tailwheel conversion in a Super Cub in 2018. I have since completed my Night Rating and I am working on my Instrument Rating. Most recently, I have converted to flying the Supermunk in preparation for glider towing. While at university, I was also a member of the University Air Squadron, which allowed me to fly in Grob Tutors, as well as get involved in a lot of other activities, including adventurous training and summer vacation attachments, even spending two weeks with the Red Arrows.

I am very aware of how fortunate I have been to be offered so many awesome opportunities in aviation and I like to give back and help the next group of young pilots. I am part of the UK Junior Gliding Development Team, within which my main role is to organise the ‘Winter Series’. This is three weekends throughout the ‘winter’ (nominally October, February and April), where we visit a different UK gliding club. We arrange lots of two-seaters at each of these events, so it does not matter whether a junior pilot is solo or not. They get the opportunity to fly at a new site and in gliders they would not normally have access to; the whole idea being to enable junior pilots to realise what is possible in gliding as well as meet like-minded pilots. We often have about 100 junior pilots at these events. I have missed one Winter Series event out of 23 since I got involved in 2013! Because of these events, I have been fortunate to travel to many clubs across the UK, including the Long Mynd in Shropshire, where I have had many flights on the ridge, as well as flying at Denbigh in North Wales on the ridge or in the mountain wave, high above the clouds.

Above top First day at the gliding club – trying a Ka6cr for size (the one Lucy now part-owns).

Above bottom First motor glider solo – in 2016.

I also organise two-seater training as part of the Junior National Gliding Competition – this time giving 12 Junior pilots the chance to fly with experienced cross-country coaches and learn about cross-country and competition flying. I was fortunate to benefit from this training in 2014, so it is my turn to facilitate it now!

Below My first powered solo – also in 2016. hours the

My most recent achievement in gliding was that I formed, and lead, a team of 25 people to save gliding at Shenington Airfield, resulting in being one of the six founder members and initial Chair and a Director of Edgehill Gliding Centre, which has successfully reached the end of its first gliding season. I love encouraging people to work together to achieve common aviation goals and prove that the impossible can be done! I had been gliding at Shenington for 11 years and the most wonderful thing about my club was the people – they are like a second family. It did not want to lose that for the benefit of all the members and gliding as a whole.

Earlier this year, I was very fortunate to be selected for a Thomas Castle Aviation Heritage Scholarship (TCAHS) for four hours Tiger Moth flying at Sywell. I have flown a couple of hours so far and I am loving it! Thank you very much to Ian Castle and the TCAHS team for this wonderful opportunity. I am looking forward to glider towing over the winter and completing my instrument rating, as well as making the most of winter gliding in Wales and Scotland.

Tell us about your career so far

After leaving school, I spent a year working in a glider workshop before heading off to university to study medicine, and therefore become a doctor. After passing the first two years of the course, I decided that medicine was not for me and aviation was really where my interest lay, so I moved to Loughborough to study aeronautical engineering. I studied for a Masters in engineering there, including a year working at Rolls-Royce, and I was the Loughborough University Female Engineer of the Year in my final year. In 2014, I qualified as a BGA Glider Inspector with a wood repair rating, based on experience I had been gradually gaining from helping out in the workshop at my gliding club.

Since leaving university, I have worked as an Aircraft Structural Repair Design Engineer, designing repairs and modifications for aircraft that are no longer supported by a design authority. Furthermore, in 2021, I became a Director of the British Gliding Association.

Now you’re the new LAA Chief Inspector. What are you looking forward to, and what are your short-term and longer-term goals?

I am most looking forward to meeting all the wonderful Inspectors out there, whose work is absolutely integral to keeping our members flying. It is for the benefit of the members that the LAA exists, so I will do my best to help the Inspectors deliver the best service they can to the members. The depth of knowledge among the Inspectors and the wider membership is amazing, and I am looking forward to learning as much as I can from them. I am very aware of how much more they will know about LAA aircraft than me!

In the short term, there’s a number of items I hope will make it easier for Inspectors to do their job well. These include introducing a regular monthly update to Inspectors, digitising Inspector records, so that they are easily searchable, and updating SPARS (the main reference document for Inspectors), so that it contains the latest information and is fully available online. I’d also like to see the Inspector area of the website improved, so that it is easy to use and accessible to Inspectors and owners alike. As part of that, I shall be asking Inspectors once again to provide ‘Bios’ about the sort of work they like to get involved in.

I also plan to make sure our Inspector approvals and locations are displayed to allow members to easily find the right Inspector (a project that was already underway when I arrived). However, I am aware that a few of our Inspectors do not use email for communication, so I will make sure they are not left out and all required information is sent to them.

In the longer term, I will be looking to develop more Inspector Training

Seminars. These have been wonderfully established by Ken Craigie, to include some more interactive elements. I was fortunate to observe Ken running one of these events at AAIB Farnborough in early September. I still plan to host the seminars at exciting locations around the UK. I know Ken has picked some great ones so far – the de Havilland Museum, Jodrell Bank, the AAIB and the Falkirk Wheel to name a few. I would also like to develop Inspector Training outside of the required four-yearly refresher, and increase the number of ACAMs (Aircraft Continuous Airworthiness Monitoring - essentially an audit of an aircraft) completed by LAA Engineering each year to help us have a better awareness of the condition of the ever-expanding LAA fleet and what we can do to help owners and Inspectors to better look after their aircraft.

I also think it is important that I, and all the other members of the LAA Engineering Team, have the opportunity to get out on the ground to assist with ACAMs and meet members and Inspectors if they wish to.

Tell us about your own flying

So far, I’ve logged 400 hours in gliders, and 100 hours flying powered aircraft. Of the 31 types I’ve flown, most recently I converted to flying the wonderful, supportive people I have met in aviation who have helped to shape me and my career to where I am today.

Supermunk (a Lycoming-powered Chipmunk) at my gliding club, so that I can do some glider towing. I love the feel of flying it – it is so responsive!

In terms of gliders, a friend kindly lent me their Discus to fly cross-country this summer. I loved it – the controls were so light and easy to handle, plus I think the shape of the wing is beautiful, especially with the wing tips! I narrowly missed out on completing 300km for my gold distance and diamond goal, landing out in a stubble field just south of Northampton (see picture). I have had a share in a Ka6cr glider for almost 10 years and it is still a delight to fly. I have also had a share in a T61 Falke motor glider since last year.

Any favourite aviation books?

One of my favourite aviation books is First Light by Geoffrey Wellum. I found the memoir of a young fight pilot in the Battle of Britain fascinating. I also enjoyed reading Spitfire Women, about the Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA) in WWII – something I would like to have been part of if I was around then!

Any lessons that you’ve learnt from flying?

Your

best aviation moment and flight – and why?

One of my favourite aviation moments to date was flying in ‘wave’ lift over Wales. I was high above the cumulus clouds and I looked over to Snowdonia to see the peaks pointing up above the clouds. I just thought how amazing and privileged I was to be looking at that sight!

Do you have any aviation heroes?

I cannot think of anyone famous that stands out as a particular ‘hero’, but I have been inspired by friends around me in various aspects of aviation to date. My two close friends and fellow Inspectors in the club workshop at Shenington, John Rogers and Tim Donovan, have encouraged me and supported me for the past 12 years, always giving freely of their time to teach me something new, lend a second opinion or let me borrow their tools (although this has happened less often as my personal tool collection has grown!).

Then there is Steve Pozerskis, part of the team who set up UK Junior Gliding and got me involved. I often wonder what I would be doing now if I had not been welcomed into junior gliding when I was – it was such an eye-opener to the world of aviation out there and the sort of flying I could do, as well as a fantastic group of friends. I try to keep the original vision of UK Junior Gliding going, by bringing in the next group of junior pilots and boosting their confidence and knowledge.

These are just a few of my personal ‘heroes’, but I could probably write a whole article about all the

Students will often do exactly what you ask them, so be careful what you say when conducting a flying lesson!

Do you have any ‘fantasy hangar’ aircraft that you’d like to own or try?

I would love to own a Supermunk or a Supercub. I have particularly enjoyed flying both of those vintage aircraft. I have always wanted to try flying a Dragon Rapide. There is something elegant and sophisticated about that era of air transport. And, of course, I would always love to fly a Spitfire or Hurricane!

In terms of more modern aircraft, I would love to fly in some of the modern kit-built aircraft that the LAA oversees. I have not had the opportunity to fly in such aircraft to date and I would like to learn more about them.

Do you have other non-aviation hobbies/ interests?

I used to be into Irish dancing pre-Covid. It is something I need to get back into!

Any advice for other aircraft owners and pilots?

Something I have learned from the gliding world, which is definitely applicable to the LAA, is that if you are going to buy an aircraft, make sure you take an Inspector with you to check it. On many occasions, I have had to resolve problems with gliders recently bought by an owner who did not ask for any help when looking at the aircraft ahead of purchase. ■