Sywell Revival fly-in

Nigel Hitchman · Post by **Nigel Hitchman** » Sat Sep 05, 2009 7:38 pm

Just back from an excellent day at Sywell today, the procedures worked well, airside access was fine and there were just over 300 visiting aircraft, a good effort considering the gusty crosswind and poor weather in Northern England. Beautiful and sunny in the morning, but clouded over by lunchtime.
The Exhibition area was much fuller than I thought it would be, with quite a few companies displaying aircraft, mostly the usual ones, but interesting to see the Rans S19 for the first time.
There were also several companies selling bits and pieces in the Marquee, Skydrive, Airworld and Gloster Air Parts to name some, plus some people with aviionics and GPS maps. Also a very interesting display of English wheels and metalworking.
Also very interesting to see was a part built Colomban Luciole.

It was great meeting up with old friends, some not seen since the last Rally at Kemble.

I left at 1930 and there were a couple of aircraft just arriving and about 70 had stayed overnight. Im told about 200 have booked slots tomorrow, so there should be more interesting aircraft to see, but also plenty of slots available for anyone else who wants to come. (as previously explained beforehand Sywell ATC were not strict or even worrying about slot times)

All together very well done an excellent day, thanks to everyone involved, particularly Sywell ATC. I would very much hope we can move forward from here for next year, but we definitly already have the basis of an excellent event.

Hope to see lots more people there tomorrow

David Broom · Post by **David Broom** » Sun Sep 06, 2009 4:21 pm

Thanks and congratulations to Sywell for the revival fly-in. The procedures seemed to work well, despite the testing cross winds, and the marshaling team from Air-Britain supporting the MKAS did a grand job. The guy in the tower did well, maintaining a pleasant disposition when dealing with so many people who had clearly not read the published procedures. Airside access arrangements seemed to please everyone. Lots of interesting aircraft, many old friends and a few new ones. A shame the food run short at some places but I guess the support that us mere mortals give to large scale events was underestimated. Perhaps it shows there is some substance in the Kevin Costner movie line "Build it and they will come". The hangar bash BBQ was pretty OK and it was good to see our LAA chairman having a vino induced Lazarus moment, casting aside his temporary walking support and boogieing harder than any other on the dance floor.

I hope that the businesses at Sywell did well over the weekend and consider it worthwhile to repeat in the future. If so, perhaps the LAA could seek their advice and get formally involved in next years event.

D. Evans · Post by **D. Evans** » Sun Sep 06, 2009 5:31 pm

Just got back home from Sywell. I was a drive in visitor and stayed overnight on Sat. at the Kettering Travel Lodge. I greatly enjoyed the event. The big guy handing out safety leaflets was cheery all day, the exhibitors were helpful, the Luciole builder fielded my Noddy Questions without wincing and there were plenty of interesting aircraft to see. The rather long queue at the burger bar did seem to be cast in stone at one point around Sat lunchtime but overall I thought it was a great success. More next year please
David Evans

Jim Gale · Post by **Jim Gale** » Sun Sep 06, 2009 6:54 pm

Well done the folks at Sywell for persevering. The weather came good enough, we even managed to fly the BaP2 G-SPDY up from windy Devon for the day on Saturday. The LAA tent was busy, great to see just about everybody from HQ in attendance. One of the staff even commented on the buzz it gave him. All the punters looked happy, lots of notes in books - well 3 years of new registrations to catch up with as well as meeting friends and old Rally mates. Quite like old times and wish I could have stayed.
The Milton Keynes crew were excellent. ATC were good, procedures worked.
Well done everybody!

It really was what the Association's membership needed. A central focal function for every member. All we need now is commitment for next year.

ChrisS · Post by **ChrisS** » Tue Sep 08, 2009 2:36 pm

I think I was at a different event (Saturday).....

All the airside stuff, procedures, ATC, Marshalling and so on was fantastic. My first fly in and really, really enjoyed that.

BUT.... the ground side was a huge disappointment, especially the catering arrangements. We spent a whole HOUR queueing for food, split into two attempts in restaurant and burger van (only one small one...)

Both ran out of food & ended up with a small bacon roll that didnt even begin to warm up after an hour standing in the freezing wind.

Goodie Bag contained a summer 2008 magazine and a half-thought through event brochure showing 3 food outlets...oh how we searched for the missing two..!

Then wondered aimlessly around the parked aircraft for an hour, realised it would be impossible to 'find' anyone - was hoping to meet some Jodel owners. So, frozen to the core and hungry, we left..... departures well handled, but not impressed with general airmanship in a few cases - I know you saw us, despite you putting head down in the cockpit & pretending to fiddle....barging in isnt funny & is downright dangerous... good job we had good brakes! I have your registration numbers saved......

So all in all, extremely disapointed & will seriously think again about going to another large event unless the basics are improved.

Chris

steveneale · Post by **steveneale** » Tue Sep 08, 2009 3:37 pm

ChrisS wrote: I think I was at a different event (Saturday).....

Sounds like it was absolutely awful

Suggest you come to Sywell instead next year with the rest of us and you will enjoy yourself

Steve

Nick Allen · Post by **Nick Allen** » Tue Sep 08, 2009 4:20 pm

but not impressed with general airmanship in a few cases

When you get lots of planes together, the airmanship is inevitably not going to be uniformly good -- just a cross-section of actuality! I still have fond memories of flying into Kemble for my first PFA Rally...and the Sky Arrow that cut from the grass approach to the hard, right in front of me. I went again next year, just better prepared for the unexpected!

Alan Kilbride · Post by **Alan Kilbride** » Tue Sep 08, 2009 6:05 pm

You should have gone to Sywell Chris. I had a great weekend. Met up with friends, had a wander about and chatted with lots of other Jodel owners.
I must admit that the food situation was almost the same as where you went though. Improved on Sunday, with plenty to eat.

Jim Alex · Post by **Jim Alex** » Tue Sep 08, 2009 7:53 pm

I must say I was impressed with the general standard of cross-wind landings.

menestrel · Post by **menestrel** » Tue Sep 08, 2009 8:31 pm

hi to everyone, just want to say i had a good time on sunday. i drove in so missed the action in the sky. i was impressed with the way it was run and i agree that the guy on the gate was great, happy and pleasent every time i went through. true the food supply could have been better but im sure it will be sorted for next time. all in all a good time, met some real nice people and look forward to next year lets hope the weather can do better. regards to you all bill dobinson

Brian Hope · Post by **Brian Hope** » Tue Sep 08, 2009 8:59 pm

Sorry you were disappointed Chris. A first event is bound to have a few teething troubles but personally I thought the weekend went extremely well. The food situation certainly needs improving if we have a repeat event next year, but that's not really a show stopper in my view, and I was there from Friday to Sunday so had to rely on the foof outlets. What was good was catching up with so many friends and seeing so many interesting aircraft. Ron Souch in the 1929 Travelair 4000, Francis in the Optica, nice Supermarine Mk26 and plenty of contemporary homebuilts and classic/vintage types - certainly plenty of interest. Also enjoyed the mini exhibition which saw the first showing of Skycraft's Rans S19, Richard Teverson's fantastic Luciole project, some superb English Wheels too.
There's always a chance that you'll see poor aimanship, though to be honest I have rarely experienced it. You must have been unlucky, or perhaps you have a higher benchmark than I do.
I think we've exchanged emails about Jodels, and had you sought me out I would have been more than happy to meet with you at my aircraft. Anybody on the LAA stand could have located me without too much trouble.

macconnacher · Post by **macconnacher** » Tue Sep 08, 2009 10:53 pm

I enjoyed my self on the Sunday.
Lets start planning now but no major growth only obvious tweaking such as food and an official Friday start.
Still would like to revert to our old 1st WE in July slot we then have very long light evenings - ideal for meeting people. Also prior to FAMILY Holidays so can take time off without conflicting with other family members.
Need it in Dave Wise's diary NOW so avioding this years problem where I travelled down from Northumberland on the Saturday since my holidays were booked before the event was firmed up. Even attending on the Sunday left my wife to sort out from my holiday.

Steve Slater · Post by **Steve Slater** » Wed Sep 09, 2009 1:30 pm

Was well impressed as a Saturday visitor (by road, too windy for me!!)

Congratulations to all the organising team. An excellent, friendly event with (as far as I remember) a lot of the atmosphere of the old PFA rallies.

The only drawback was, as pointed out above, the total failure of catering.

Any Sywell regular knows that The Aerodrome restaurant struggles to handle more than a couple of dozen people on a good day. The normally excellent Pilots Mess and a single extra burger van were never going to handle over a thousand people a day. This mistake was all the more surprising as most food stallholders will come for nothing, taking the finiancial risk away from the event organisers.

Given that the Pilots Mess ran out of food entirely at about 1pm, was there not a flight safety risk, of a bunch of starving, low blood-sugar aviators staggering back to their bases?

Rant over. All congratulations again to Sywell and LAA/MKAS volunteers on an otherwise excellent event. Looking forward to next year!

Matt Dovey · Post by **Matt Dovey** » Thu Sep 10, 2009 5:15 pm

I visited by road on the Saturday with the girlfriend.I was impressed by the amount of aircraft that flew in.Had a good look round a few aircraft and crossed them off the list of future new aircraft for myself and the GF.So I was happy.
I was disappointed with the static park and vendors.Was not much to see there.As mentioned before the catering was not up to much.I dont think you could of charged any more than £5 entrance fee.
I think as a dress rehearsal for next year it was a good exercise.
The GF made a good point the organizers of next years flyin might want to look at.She tried to search the internet as you do now days to find out what the flyin was all about and what to expect.All she managed to find was something about a airshow at Sywell last year.She is none aviation type who does not know what web sites to look at so used Google.If we want to attract more people next year then this problem may want looking into.

Ian Melville · Post by **Ian Melville** » Thu Sep 10, 2009 7:31 pm

I also noticed that Googling 'sywell revival' got last years event. It was linked fron the main Sywell site, but I also found it less than informative for those driving in. Basic stuff like when the event was opened and closed to ground crawlers. And who was exhibiting.

Since 2010 will be an LAA afare I don't think this was too important