Annual total LAA flight hours?

[Alan Cooper]

Out of interest hopefully Brian or engineering can quote a figure for the total hours flown by the entire LAA fleet annualy.I would imagine this figure is known as permit renewals return an individual airframe figure.The skies have seemed awfully quiet the last few years even on good weather days.I believe activity is down as much as 50% from previous years.Fuel sales and hours flown are perhaps the best indicators of activity.Regards Alan

[Brian Hope]

Hi Alan, haven’t seen you for a while, hope all is well with you. I think we probably can come up with some figures but unfortunately the person that knows how to extract that info from the database is off sick at the moment. When she returns I will ask if she can get the last three years' or so figures and that should give a reasonable indication of the current trend. My gut feeling is as yours, we are seeing less activity.
At Kent Strut we are introducing some impromptu weekend fly-outs to give members a good reason to fly. We have to get more bang for our buck I think, and by introducing more of a social aspect into our flying - meeting up at an airfield for breakfast or lunch for instance - I hope people will enjoy their flying a bit more and be encouraged to participate. Devon does the same thing and call them 'scrambles'. The idea is easy enough to do, we’ll simply send an email around out to Strut members on Thursday or Friday if the Saturday weather looks flyable, suggesting a suitable destination up to about an hour away. Members can come if they wish but will know the likelihood if they do is that they will meet up with some fellow Strut members for a natter and a sticky bun.
I’ll come back as soon as I have any news on the LAA fleet flying hours.