Rallied!

[ChampChump]

I think a new thread is appropriate for this.

Thank you to all at LAA land, Sywell, the MKAS and all the others whose efforts, especially as volunteers, made me and others, I think, happy bunnies for a couple of days.

I can't think of anything to criticise. Sywell is ideally situated, has ample space for visitors of all sorts, the joining instructions were clear and simple, the airside access felt so much better this year, despite being the same process in theory, so well done all.

Had fun. Even made a sale at the flea market which covered my other purchases...

Bumped into lots of friendly faces, even when sober.

That's it.
Fun. Affordable. Flying.

[Tom Sheppard]

My first visit and it took my breath away.
A splendid day out. Met lots of people, absorbed lots of advice, lusted after lots of aircraft and thoroughly enjoyed myself.
Heartfelt thanks to all on the organisational team.

[linspuk]

Ditto from my wife and I too - we had a great afternoon on Friday, bought the things I was after and some opportunity purchases, and my wife reckons it's the best aviation exhibition/rally she's been to with me (she's been to Aero Expo a couple of times and the Kemble PFA rally). Maybe we have a slightly different perspective now that we're building our own, but thanks rally team for a great well organised time.

[nigel henry]

Great couple of days and boozy night! Thick head ! Well priced beer need ciders as well ! Great to see some old and new friends, camping was fun sorry Martin about the snoring !

A great couple of days and will be back next year with the other half and the Europa and tent ! well done all who made a great weekend and I spent £1500 on bits at the show that I wanted with another £5000 to other manufactures who attended for forward orders.

What a shame some suppliers missed out by not attending the premier event of the year The venue was great and facility's well laid out everything well organised and I spent 2 great days of looking and pondering £10 entrance for 2 days Bargain ! THATS ONE HAPPY FLYER/ BUILDER WILL AND HAS SPENT £6500.00 and will next year spend about £2000 at the show. So times that by a few hundred flyers and then a few thousand enthusiasts plane spotters and other interested people

Nigel Henry

[Will Greenwood]

Had a good time on Friday, think it would be good to have a few more trade stands in the tent if possible, apparently Saturday there were even more aircraft, which sadly I had to miss as i was doing LAA/PCS stuff at home, roll on next year.

[James L]

Just got back from Sywell. Dodgy weather meant the Sunday was a bit quieter than last year, but still had a great time. As a brand new LAA member, last year I flew in and knew no-one. This year I realised how many new friends flying has brought me in the past 12 months. Was great.

Things I liked: Groppo Trial, the guys on the Swift / Europa stands, the Eindecker and the guys from GSAL, talking to Russ Stein about his arctic adventuring.

Well done to everyone, especially the guys who help set up on Thursday. Great show.

[cirrusvfr]

Well done to all the team organising another great Rally, plenty to see and do over a couple of days. Sat night entertainment was enjoyable ! Prices for food etc very reasonable and having the Beer Fest was an excellent plus.
Glad that our group arrival on Saturday was accommodated....a lot of people made some complimentary remarks to us about it.

Maybe persuade the Met Office guys to come next year with their mobile caravan for some decent and real time weather info ???

[David Broom]

I wish to add my thanks to all of those involved in laying on the Sywell rally, allowing me and my wife to have a great time, meeting old friends, making new ones, drinking more than I should, spending more than I intended and having a thoroughly enjoyable and relaxing weekend.
Thanks guys and gals.

[Jonathan Holland]

Although farming commitments meant I could only attend for a few hours on Saturday, I too would like to say that it was a resounding success again. The atmosphere was relaxed and there was lots to see. It was good to see so many C of A types there too; potential LAA'ers who are seeing the light maybe?

As always, the chaps on the radio were superb, and showed a level of professionalism that sets the standard. I chuckled a few times at their polite yet firm response to some of the opportunists who happened to be flying past and who decided they might drop in!

Sywell was immaculate and gave the whole event a really smart venue. The tents were full of good stalls and exhibitors.

For me, the highlight was seeing the Eurofox, the result of Roger Cornwell's tenacity to get something new into the LAA arena. And wasn't it a lovely looking machine!

Well done LAA. You delivered, again.

[J.C.]

The event was great...Shame so many of the pilots were not.
On the way in I heard so much chatter on the radio from pilots that clearly had done no planning whatsover let alone read the instructions..

Having followed the approach pattern myself , even though there was no one else in site and the temptation was there to cut the corner, I was allarmed when having called no 1 as required, a Robin dropped out of the cloud at a high rate of knts and overtook me yards to the left and promtly called finals.

He had obviosly done a straight in approach from above cloud.

I kicked right to miss him and went for the hard . He carried on regardless , caught up the guy touching down on the grass and then did a late overshoot.

Whist there I witnessed several incidents of Pilots ignoring Marshalls giving stop signs. I even saw one brave Marshall stand right in front of a plane who left to the last second to jump out of the way. The plane carried on regardless.

Then there was the actual collision on the ground resulting in the write off of a lovely RV.


May I suggest that next year the commitee invite Specsavers to have a strong presance and maybe sponser the event.

[Nick Allen]

I dropped in by car Sunday afternoon, and had a very pleasant time wandering around.
Good to see the Groppo Trial in the flesh, as I've been following its development in Italy. Good looking plane, in my opinion, and a high-wing you can actually see out of properly! That goes high on my Christmas wish-list.
The Grass Strip Eindekker looked rather nice too.
And great to see the Luciole: somehow bigger than I was expecting, i.e. looked more like a proper aeroplane! Beautifully built too.

[tnowak]

I was waiting for someone to comment on the airmanship. I followed the flow around onto final, was lined up and becoming No. 4 for the grass, good spacing from No. 3 when, what appeared to be a Taylor Monoplane, approached from my right, and flew over the top of me. Very scary when I can't see above in my high wing Piper and wasn't sure where he was. He then descended in front of me, the gap now around 100 ft.
Fortunately was able to go for the hard and land long.

Would like to find out what the Taylor Monoplane pilot's planning consisted of......
Tony N

[mikehallam]

Or the Pitts that landed around 12.10 Saturday. If he'd flow downwind any closer it'd have been a head-on. As it was he cut in & down requiring the airmanship & look out of others to spare his worthless skin. I was enraged enough taxiing in to consider having a serious word with him, except
a) He stalled his engine & couldn't restart so was stuck !
&
b) As still under marshallers' control I zigged around the accident where two a/c parked on top of each other.

Apart from that the 1500 ft QFE [i.e.nearly 2,000 ft] min.Pitsford circuit was blatantly broken by a stream of high wing monoplanes at least 1500 ft below, contrary to the issued instructions and risking upsetting the non flying residents under them. Fortunately with hard as well as grass several near misses were avoided.

With the very recent circuit pattern death at Shoreham in an air to air by skilled pilots one wonders why LAA types either like sheep follow each other wherever they please &/or have no idea of airmanship.

I enjoyed the Rally, but not risking my life in the last few miles of arriving there.

mike hallam.

[Nigel Ramsay]

The rally was indeed a great success from every point of view. Brian, Ian and I received a lot of positive comments and it's important to thank the many volunteers and Sywell folk who made it all possible.

We will be having a Rally Wash-Up meeting to see what we can improve BUT the one thing we can't influence is AIRMANSHIP!

The old rallies were pretty good from the airmanship point of view and I don't know what has changed unless it's the gap of several years without an event leading to a knowledge gap where newer members have no previous experience (a larger number now whereas when there were rallies every year the number of new pilots doing it for the first time represented a much smaller proportion).

It has been busier at Cranfield in the 'old days'!

If anyone has any positive suggestions how things can be improved in the circuit please post!

[Nigel Hitchman]

Great Rally lots of interesting aircraft and everything seemed to work well for me, well except the weather on Sunday! Good to see a fair selection of vintage aircraft, as well as all the homebuilts. Too many highlights, but one must have been to see Martin Jones's Rollason Beta finally in the air after 35 years or so! Looked superb. Looking forward to it being even better next year.