Rissington

[Resasi]

There was a group of gyro enthusiasts based at Rissington in England and when I went solo it had over 30 gyros based there.

The airfield, RAF Little Rissington (ICAO: EGVL) is situated just North of the largest UK station for the RAF, Brize Norton. A former RAF station in Gloucestershire, once the Central Flying School and Red Arrows base, it was built during the 1930s. Now home to 637 Volunteer Gliding Squadron, the primary military unit provides elementary flying training for Combined Cadet Force and Air Training Corps cadets. The airfield also used as a relief landing ground, training area for nearby helicopter untits from RAF Bensen and a special forces parachute training and dropping area.

An aviation company Devonair operated the FBO from the southern hangars where we were. Unforunately Devonair the FBO and the RAF ran into some issues and Devonair lost it's FBO status which then grounded all civilian operations from the airfield earlier this year. A hugely frustrating time followed. All civilian fixed wing aircraft had to leave along with most of the gyros, A small group, the RAF Autogyo Flying Association were allowed to remain, but not allowed to fly while various issues were resolved.

It seems that at last most issues have now been resolved and next week we will be meeting up there to hopefully resume flying. Summer has passed, it's getting cold, but hopefully we will be flying once again.

[GraemeClarke]

Great news. It looked to be the ideal place to fly gyros from.
Graeme

[EI-GYRO]

Delighted to hear this, Leigh.

Maybe we'll have a nice winter.

[Resasi]

It was certainly a great place to fly gyros from. Up on a hill it was deep in Cotswold country which is very picturesque surrounded by gently rolling farm land with a variety of crops, farm houses and some pretty big old country houses.

This is an old clip taken a while back, poorly edited unfortunately, but is does give a good idea of what is there. In the clip which I had not watched for ages spend far too long on fitting the camera, and taxiing to and from the active.This particular flight was when the RAF cadets were active which meant I could not hang around but had to leave the circuit, and when rejoining, follow traffic in the transport command type circuits/ mini x-country's they seem to love. There was one ahead of me in the circuit, one behind and one waiting to depart, hence my flight down to the runway to land by the turn-off as the one ahead climbed away and the one waiting went into position for a quick departure.

Autogyro Flight round our airfield. - YouTube

When alone during a weekday, we could utilise taxiways and perimeter track which got us off far quicker. There used to be quite a good collection of fixed wingers that shared it with us but on the radio and with PPR we had a pretty good idea of who was around. Nice group of people and we all mixed in very well. It won't be quite the same without them as we are now down to about six gyros.

Can get a bit bleak during the winter months and as most were open single seaters without the benefits of the RAF's enclosed cabin not that many of us who flew then. I remember on return from Kenya once, going there on a really sunny February day with Tony and some others, I think it was around 4C and feeling really keen went up. I was down in around thirty minutes, two pairs of gloves and my hands had still got so numb I couldn't feel them.

We'll be there this coming week so I hope the wind and rain won't be too bad, but it will be very good to be there again.

[okikuma]

Leigh,

I always have an affinity towards videos and aerial photos of the English countryside.

My Dad always said the sight of the White Cliffs of Dover and the English countryside was always a welcome and soothing view, especially when returning from a long and hairy mission over the Continent.

Thank you for sharing.

Wayne

[Resasi]

Wayne, my dad spent his time in N Africa, Ceylon, Burma, and only towards the end England. There I have no doubt that he saw the same sights as yours during his time there, though in fighters probably much shorter times in the air and not so far away.

The Mustangs I believe the only ones with the range to accompany the bombers over Europe, he was mainly Hurricanes, at the end Spitfires.

[Resasi]

Delighted to be able to report that gyro flying has started again at RAF Little Rissington. A new service club the Royal Air Force Autogyro Flying Association http://www.raf.mod.uk/rafafa/ has been able to recommence operating from today.

The Chairman Wing Commander Peter Croft has been in some fairly lengthy negotiations to get the club back flying again there and today members of the club all signed the new Flying order book and were briefed by Peter on the new procedures.

Viv flew in in his RAF 2000, Tony flew test flights on a Cricket and AV18. I managed an hour in the Bensen and Peter got some hops in on his AV18 and new Rotordyne rotors which were reported by Tony to be extremely smooth.

It has been a long and quite frustrating wait over the last few months but it is a great place to fly from and we are all very happy to be able to be able to get going again. Thank you Peter.

Luckily the weather was kind the sun shone wind was moderate and the rain held off until late in the day at which point we closed up. Hopefully we will still have some sunny days before the temperatures drop too low. I do not function well in cold weather and will shortly be doing my snow bird routine and head for Africa

[GraemeClarke]

Congratulations Leigh.
On another topic, how do you mount your go-pro. The vids are very steady.
Graeme

[ckurz7000]

Great news, Leigh! Hope to visit you there some day...

-- Chris.

[okikuma]

Leigh,

We both had Dad's from the "Finest Generation."

I have much admiration for the RAF aviators who protected England from above.

Wayne

[Resasi]

Graeme I mount the camera itself in foam tubing which has been split. I start the camera then put that into the foam halves which have two tie wraps which hold them together. This is then mounted on the keel beam immediately above the nose wheel again with a further two nylon tie wraps round the frame coming down to the keel at that point. I think the foam absorbs some of the vibration.

Chris if you ever head this way, you have a bed in London and transport to Riss.

Wayne, my father's log book humbles me. He was in combat operations at 17 in front line fighters. At 17 I was feeling smug flying a Cessna 150 from A to B.