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So who are we?

The formal name and address of our group is The Flying Subsection of the IBM Club but everyone generally calls us The IBM Flying Club. We are a non-commercial social group open to employees and retirees of IBM (UK) Ltd. The Club aims are based on promoting Safety and experience for our members (click here for a membership form) as well as introducing new and potential IBM pilots to our Instructors and the world of aviation. The Club, formed in 1981, is active throughout the UK. Due to the location of IBM sites, some 75% of members fly around Central Southern England but this should not be a deterrent to you. Club membership over the years has been generally stable at about sixty to seventy members. Despite having no physical base or building of its own, the Club is extremely active and was perhaps the first flying club to use E-mail links to bring its members together, as well as to disseminate Newsletters and forthcoming Events.

Disclaimer

The opinions of the IBM Flying Club or its members which are expressed or recommended on this or any other linked pages are not necessarily those of the IBM Corporation and should not be construed as such.

Why are we here?

The IBM Flying Club exists primarily as a safety organisation to support its members who have an interest in General Aviation. Skill levels range from ab-initio pilot to CPL/IR.  Many Club members own their own aircraft (outright or as a member of a syndicate) and many other rent from usual sources. The IBM Flying Club does not own any aircraft.

A Newsletter is published as required which contains trip reports, news, safety tips, advice and proposed experience building trips. This relies heavily on input from Club members; however we welcome articles from all sources (but not commercial advertising. Articles for inclusion in the next Newsletter should be emailed to the Newsletter coordinator in MS Word format.

An informal 'drop-in' takes places on Friday evenings, usually at the IBM Hursley Club bar from about 20:00 onwards.  We sometimes move around the Hampshire area so it may be worth your while to check with the chairman before going to Hursley.  If you are interested in flying but don't know where to start, why not come along have a chat? Please note that the IBM Hursley Club bar is only open to IBM Hursley Club members and their invited guests.

Benefits to Members

The primary benefit of the Flying club is that it provides a forum for communication between members. The bulletin board (forum) which is available to members is an excellent communication vehicle that is widely used. Some members use it to publicise their weekend flights, looking for others to join them; some use it to ask for advice or guidance; some use it to advertise events; and so on. Since we implemented the bulletin board it has certainly helped to improve the feeling of belonging regardless of the geographic spread of the members. As you can see, our members have a wide and varied experience. We have one member with a frozen ATPL, a number of members with IMC ratings, a number who regularly fly abroad, a number who own their own planes, a number who rent on a regular basis; we have some folk who regularly fly from grass airstrips and those who fly from international airports; we also have a lot of members who used to fly, but who still enjoy talking about flying and joining the fly-ins where space (and weight and balance) permits. They're all accessible via the bulletin board. Most of our loan kit is safety related as is described elsewhere. But we also have our own Garmin GPS 195 for loan and an ICOM transceiver. For pilots who have no experience of a GPS, we can provide you with a view of the benefits of a GPS for secondary navigation, and, in some cases the limitations of a GPS - it runs on batteries! The ICOM can be useful for fly-ins, or in some cases as a backup for your own avionics - we always carry our own and it has proved to be useful on at least two occasions. We also have recently started a 'mentor' scheme where someone who is just going through the trials and tribulations of gaining a PPL can be provided with someone to help guide them through the jungle of air law, navigation, and so on. Given the generally poor weather during the winter months we have usually arrange a number of Zero Feet events. These have included a chat about the Red Arrows; a talk from Eric Moody - the pilot of the 747 that lost all of its engines when it flew through a volcanic ash cloud over Java; a talk from NATS about airspace and a CAA Safety Evening. Other Zero Feet events included a trip to the AAIB, and also a trip to ATC at Lasham where they service 737s etc. We do not stand still. We have negotiated a deal with Transair whereby we can obtain significant discounts on their wide range of products. Transair catalogues are widely available or you can have a look at their website on www.transair.co.uk  We have also arranged a discount on Pilot magazine, and will provide a loan chart (for a discounted fee) on an annual basis. Finally, we have funds available to us that we can use to the benefits of our members. These are used for many purposes - to subsidise the loan charts, to provide the safety subsidies, to subsidise landing fees for fly-ins, and so on. We are always open to ideas. One recent idea was to provide access to the Met Office subscription services for our members which we have now done. Just remember that basic membership is available for £5 per annum - given the escalating prices associated with aviation, we cannot think of a better bargain!
 

What do we do?

The main feature of the Club is the emphasis on safety and shared flying experiences. One popular activity of the Club is teaming up inexperienced pilots with more experienced members of the club for experience building trips. Regular 'talking baggage' flights take place, where 3 club members will take a 'plane to 2 destinations in a day. The left hand seat pilot on any leg pays the bill for that leg, the right hand seat takes the radio work and navigation, whilst the back-seat pilot 'rides shotgun' and is the 'talking baggage', double checking on the actions of the two in front. This enables 3 pilots to get parallel experience whilst only paying a third of the cost, allowing trips to further destinations to be within budget. This is not unheard of in other clubs, but it is a regular feature of this one.

Whatever the subject in aviation, the Club usually has someone with an interest in it. Some of our members are practising Instructors who can teach, examine, or provide checkout services to members and non-members alike.