Wednesday 8th March 2012

'Where the young lead - the oldies follow.' No, although our youthful CFI is the driving force behind 'Operation First Impression', it's the Kelly College CCF gang who also deserve a big vote of thanks for putting so much effort into sprucing up the airfield.

Inspired by the improvements carried out so far, a big crowd of club members turned up on this non-flyable day to make further inroads. It's impossible to give everyone a 'name-check', but while Secretary Sandra grappled with the files, and Steve Lewis and Trevor Taylor carried out transplant surgery involving their Jantar glider and its old and less old trailers, the rest of us were pointed in various task-related directions by Don.

Over the horizon, Dave 'Gorse-Ripper' Rippon (Zetor tractor) and Andrew 'Bog-Buster' Beaumont (JCB) had a field day annihilating the island of gorse and levelling the ground on the north corner of the stub runway. That was until Andrew's steed blew an hydraulic hose, when he joined Robin Wilson and Steve Raine in the more physical task of attaching tractor strops to clumps of gorse, and then manhandling them into heaps ready for burning. The outcome is amazing and will give us a much-increased landing area.

Piles of gorse waiting for a pyromaniac

Overseeing the whole exercise was our Field Manager, Phil Hardwick, who seemed to be everywhere; directing... advising... assisting... - while at the same time, replacing fence posts and, later, levelling some of the dryer parts of the field with the roller attached to the big tractor.

Don continued to focus on sprucing up the area around the hangar and clubhouse, and in the process assembling yet another load of cash-generating scrap metal for the Tea Swindle Fund, while I was able to make some inroads into clearing years of accumulated guck, sludge,. leaves and algae from the diesel tank bund and supporting structure. Don and his wife, Pauline, also took a couple of hours out to undertake a promotional tour around Tavistock to persuade key institutions and other local contacts to come to our Open Day.

But I've left one of the best bits till last. While at the front of the hangar Don was waxing lyrical over the 'scrap or spares' potential of the blue Land Rover (a supposed non-runner bequeathed to us by Perranporth), Ged Nevisky was working behind the building trying to resurrect the slumbering beast. Eventually, with a bit of help from the tractor, it came to life and was then kept running all afternoon. Ged will now advertise it via E-Bay as a restoration protect rather than a heap of bits.

The forlorn looking Landrover as it was delivered to the airfield is now a runner thanks to Ged.

STOP PRESS: I'm off on holiday - so expect sunshine, easterlies and wave from this weekend until the end of March.

Bob Pirie