6th December 2005
Congratulations to Russell Gammon ATX0031 for reaching 4530 minutes and being promoted to a Level 6 Small Jet Captain. Russell is one of our long term members who just refuses to stop! I remember Russell's attempt at landing a 747 at Shoreham; He landed no problem, it was just stopping that caused some cencern. By the time he stopped he was talking to Lydd Ground! Russell has been a good contributor and has compiled almost all the stories for our schedules. A valued member and a ginger nut too! Check out one of Russes PIREPs below:

"Playing catch up with the online flying, this landing sounded a real challenge so just HAD to join in. Overall flight was uneventful, the last leg was interesting though, witha 19kt crosswind from 210, flying course 123 deg was interesting, solved it by flying 123 radial out of UBG VOR and heading into the wind until I was on the beam, ended up flying a course of 131! overflew the airfield then did a left circuit to line up with runway 24, coming in over the mountain, crammed on anchors after 1st bounce (blush) and managed to stop before hitting the trees (woohoo!)"

6th December 2005
congratulations to Andrew Handscombe ATX0149 for reaching 2254 minutes and being promoted to a level 4 Twin Turbo Prop Captain. Andrew impressed us with his choice of Cessna 310L, now we wonder what he'll go for in this level... B58? 400LS? B200? Check out one of Andrew's PIREPS below:

"Route: LIBD BAR ANC VIL BLM CMB LFAC Bon Jour mon amie... Oh I get enough of this crap at work. Second leg of my return flight from Italy to Calais. I can see England, in fact if it was clear I could see where I was born in Ramsgate. One more leg to go and I'm home. Patchy cloud most of the way, but completely clear over France."

6th December 2005
Congratulations to Paul Brown ATX0172 for reaching 563 minutes and qualifying for his first promotion. Paul has taken the hardest step and will now be flying some of our Twin Props for the company. Congratulations Paul andhope you enjoy the new aircraft! One of Paul's PIREPs made me laugh! - LOL

"took farmer john`s for his 12 week check up at oxford hospital landed on 21 grass it was a rough landing, poor chap shook him up a bit"

6th December 2005
Congratulations to Roger Pilgrem ATX0150 for reaching 7198 minutes and for being promoted to a level 7 Medium Jet Captain. Roger has been flying our beloved King Air B200 aircraft and has been very parient with us. Roger's promotions are happening faster than we can cope with the paper work! - Keep up the sterling work Roger and thank you! Enjoy the Level 7 Aircraft and hope the Oil Deal works out!

6th December 2005
Congratulations to Ian Vilarelle ATX0155 (again!) for reaching 1282 minutes and for being promoted to a level 3 Single Turbo Prop Captain. Ian promised us he would be using the Baron and he has. All his level 2 flights were in the fantastic Dreamfleet Baron Twin. Enjoy the new aircraft Ian.

14th November 2005
Congratulations to Ian Vilarelle ATX0155 for reaching 540 minutes and for being promoted to a level 2 Twin Prop Captain. Ian is a fan of the Cessna Centurion II 210M but is now very much looking for a change the the Baron. Good luck Ian and I hope you enjoy the new aircraft.

14th November 2005
Congratulations to Colin Woods ATX0156 for reaching 586 minutes and for being promoted to a level 2 Twin Prop Captain. Colin has been flying our Piper PA28 Archer II but has now reached level 2 so will probably be flying something a little larger... Good luck Colin with the new aircraft.

7th November 2005
Congratulations to Roger Pilgrem ATX0150 for reaching 4486 minutes and for being promoted to a level 6 Small Jet Captain. Roger has amazed ATUKv staff at his VERY fast progression. Roger joined the company on the 11th October 2005 (yes, that's correct!) and has since then progressed at a phenomenal rate all the way to a Level 6 Small Jet Captain. I must admit that I was skeptical when I received another promotion request so I examined his logbook in great detail. Everything fits! So... congratulations Roger and look out Nigel, you're number one spot in our charts is under threat!

Enjoy the new aircraft Roger and thank you.

22nd October 2005
Congratulations to Roger Pilgrem ATX0150 for reaching 3099 minutes and for being promoted to a level 5 Large Turbo Prop Captain. Roger has zipped up the ranks skipping levels as the staff try to keep up with his promotions! - This is a very well deserved promotion and will enable Roger to fly our larger turbo props such as the ATR72-500 and Dash 8 models. Have fun with the new aircraft Roger.

22nd October 2005
Congratulations to Andrew Handscombe ATX0149 for reaching 518 minutes and for being promoted to a level 2 Twin Piston Prop Captain. Andrew has progressed very quickly and has gained all the minutes necessary for his promotion in our Cessna 172R. Andrew's PIREPs are of a consistantly high quality as can be seen below:

"Well Fall (Autumn to those outside North America) has fallen again to the wilds of Ontario. So the trees are turning colour and all the city slickers want to go see the beautiful leaves. So a charter to take a rich guy and his wife for a sight seeing trip into Northern Ontario. Terrible weather all the way to North Bay. Low cloud down to 4500 ft with a light fog. Also extreme high wind at all levels"

Once again, congratulations Andrew and we look forward to seeing your career progress further in the coming months and years. Enjoy the new aircraft!

16th October 2005
Congratulations to Roger Pilgrem ATX0150 for reaching 1186 minutes and for being promoted to a level 3 Single Turbo Prop Captain. Roger has excelled and progressed so quickly that he's actually skipped level 2 altogether and ended up as a level 3 Turbo Prop Captain. Great work Roger! Enjoy the new aircraft.

6th September 2005
Congratulations to Andrew Mills ATX0125 for reaching 2437 minutes and for being promoted to a level 4 Twin Turbo Prop Captain. Andrew has worked hard and has put in lots of time in our beloved Navajo and is worthy of this promotion. Once again, congratulations to Andrew and enjoy the new aircraft.

20th August 2005
Congratulations to me! Well, I've finally made it, I've reached 10,728 minutes and can now get my Large Jet Captain Level 7 promotion. (Rich holds out his hand and shakes it!) My latest flight (In the Jumbo) is documented below:

Great flight, first in my new 747-400 by PMDG, used all the correct procedures after reading the manual about 5 times and consulting it about 200 times during the course of the flight. Stepped climb to FL390. The route used was one that FSNavigator created automatically, I then used the Company Route entry to import it into the FMC and then set about setting up all PERF pages etc and double checking everything. Take off was uneventful as I'd set all the SID waypoints for BPK6G into the FMC including intercept bearings etc. I let the aircraft follow the route and switched off various fuel pumps as I exhausted the contents of the centre tanks. I had to do a little bit of crossfeeding as the tanks were slightly unbalanced nearing 3/4 of flight but this proved to be easy. Upon reaching my decent point I set my MCP altitude to 2000 and let the aircraft do it's stuff as we sunk into some of the crapiest weather I'd seen for quite some time. A lot of checking and a ittle bit of intervention in the LEGs page left me perfectly setup for my ILS APPR which had been automatically set (freq and course) by the FMC. I switched the MCP to APP mode and change the ND to APP also and watched as the aircraft captured the LOC, then the GS and we descended. I switched off PACKs 1 and 3 incase of a go around. At this point I'd had enough of automation and decided to land the aircraft by hand. At 500ft I disconnected the autothrottle and AP and flew her down for a gentle 100ft/min touchdown. Whilst taxi'ing to the gate a started the APU and switched PACKs 1 and 3 back on. We arrived at the gate, cut the fuel from the engines and it was all over. Fantastic aircraft, fantastic flight!

All this automation makes me want to jump into my beloved Navajo for my next stint!

20th August 2005
Congratulations to Kieran Farrell (ATX0126) for reaching 6132 minutes. This is the most speedy of promotions, Kieran has zipped through the levels and now finds himself on level 7 as a medium size Jet Pilot. Kieran has been using a wide range of aircraft including the Cessna 172, the Twotter and 737-600. Congratulations Kieran and enjoy the new aircraft!

9th August 2005
Congratulations to Andrew Mills (ATX0125)for being promoted to a level 3 Single Turbo Prop Captain. Andrew been flying the Navajo recently, with his obvious class I wonder what L3 aircraft he will choose? Enjoy the new rigs Andrew and once again, congratulations.

9th August 2005
Congratulations to Richard Maidstone (ATX0081) for being promoted to a level 2 Twin Prop Captain. Richard has completed 537 minutes in his Cessna 172 and is looking forward to getting his hands on his new Navajo and taking it to Paphos on our Multi-Leg route. I'm sure Nigel and a cold beer will be waiting for you at the other end! Way to go Richard and once again, congratulations!

9th August 2005
Congratulations to Gareth Evans (ATX0032) for being promoted to a level 6 small jet Captain. Gareth has completed 4123 minutes with us which is no mean feat considering the quiality of his piloting. Gareth has been with ATUKv from the early days and we appreciate his continued time and effort. Thanks and congratulations Gareth! Enjoy the small jets!

9th August 2005
Congratulations to Peter Sharp (ATX0102) for being promoted to a level 2 Captain. Peter has reached 528 minutes by flying our beloved Beech A36. I hear that he's got his hands on another one of our beauties, the Seneca no less! We wish his well in his future with ATUKv. Once again, congratulations.

9th August 2005
Congratulations to Kieran Farrell (ATX0126) for reaching 4271 minutes. This is an extraordinary acheivement considering the short period of time that Kieran has been with us. This latest promotion puts Kieran within reach of the top pilots on level 6 which enables Kieran to fly anything upto L6 aircraft (small jets). I'm sure you'll all agree that this is a well deserved promotion and we hope that Kieran enjoys his new aircraft... what ever it turns out to be!

2nd August 2005
Well, one of our long time members (Gavin Dandridge, ATX0038) has now completed 2385 minutes and has been promoted accordingly to level 4. Being that Gavin has a real PPL I know many people will be looking at his PIREPS to see which aircraft he uses in this category. I for one bet you all a fiver that it's the B200!

I still owe Gav a drink for teaching me the difference between QNH and QFE...!

I've decided to celebrate this promotion with a nice bottle of Pinot Grigio (hic). Congratulations Gav and enjoy the new aircraft.

24th July 2005
Congratulations to Kieran (ATX0126) for reaching 2017 minutes and for being promoted to a L4 Twin Turbo Prop Captain. Kieran has been so busy in his Cessna 310L that he skipped L3 and has now been promoted with immediate effect to a Level 4 Twin Turbo Prop Captain. Congratulations to Kieran and keep up all the hard work. Enjoy the new aircraft.

18th July 2005
Congratulations to Adne (ATX0104) for reaching 2030 minutes and for being promoted to a L4 Twin Turbo Prop Captain. Now you can really have some fun in the B200 perhaps?

18th June 2005
Congratulations to Kieran (ATX0126) for reaching 511 minutes and for being promoted to a L2 Twin Piston Prop Captain. Kieran has been busy flying for ATUKv and should be proud to be let loose on our beloved Piper Navajo.

22nd June 2005
Congratulations to Adne (ATX0104) for reaching 1068 minutes and for being promoted to a L3 single Turbo Prop Captain. Even thought Adne has been with us for under a month he's already flown 17 flights for us and accumulated over 100 minutes. Enjoy the new L3 aircraft Adne!

7th June 2005
Congratulations to Adne (ATX0104) for reaching 514 minutes and for being promoted to a L2 Twin Piston Prop Captain. Adne has been very busy flying our beloved A36 to and from many locations. His skilled flying and attitude make thgis a well deserved promotion. Enjoy the level 2 aircraft Adne!

25th May 2005
Congratulations to Jez B (ATX0047) for reaching 4097 minutes and for being promoted to a L6 Small Jet Captain. Jez has now flown 48 flights for ATUKv and is progressing up the ranks extremely quickly! By the time I get my Flight Sim PC back up and running I'll be Jez's co-pilot! Check out Jez' latest PIREP:

"This was the paid-for leg of a flight from Nice to Ronaldsway. We'd been chartered by a famous ex-F1 driver resident of the isle of man to take him home for a business meeting after spending the weekend in Monaco. (His private jet had gone technical at Nice). Nice flight, cruised at FL250 -some nasty weather interspersed with some lovely blue skies! This qualifies me for L6!!! Bring on the jets!"

4th May 2005
Congratulations to Jez B (ATX0047) for reaching 3013 minutes and for being promoted to a L5 Large Turbo Prop Captain. Jez has now flown 41 flights for ATUKv and has now got another well deserved promotion. Check out Jez' latest PIREP:

"Return flight from Winningen-am-Mosel in Germany after dropping the Willis family off there for there wine and wurst break :) No passengers on board unless you count the crate of wine I brought back 'for personal use' :) Cruised at 11000 - about a 30kt headwind most of the way back and you can really feel the little beech is near its ceiling as we were often only getting about 155Kts ground speed. Lovely approach into Norwich - still not quite all there on the approach - the ILS seemed a little less than 3degrees - only intercepted it on late final - but the 'picture' out of the window looked fine...strange. nice flight though. Think this is the qualifier for level 5 - so let's see!"

4th May 2005
Congratulations to Tomas Rokos (ATX0086) for reaching 915 minutes and for being promoted to a L2 Twin Prop Captain. Tomas' backside is still recovering from a 10 hour flight! Nice PIREPS Tomas:

"Just few days ago I started to advertise ATXUKV and already got first bigger task. Three business men + 1 secretary :-) need to go visit their subsidiaries in Germany, France, Italy and Hungary. This will take one week, but I expect some fun. The company which pays me for this is some marketing spin off from big steel industry consorcium. They will pay wihtout any problem and I will enjoy one week over Europe with Mittal Steel Holdings. First leg was from Prague (Czech) do Dresden (Germany)."

25th April 2005
Congratulations to Richard Forster (ATX0085) for reaching 2086 minutes and for being promoted to a L4 Twin Turbo Prop Captain. Richard has skipped level 3 as he's worked so hard and really put in the time. Congratulations Richard and enjoy the new aircraft!

13th April 2005
Congratulations to Richard Forster (ATX0085) for reaching 705 minutes and for being promoted to a L2 Twin Prop Captain. Enjoy the new aircraft Richard!

13th April 2005
Congratulations to Pete McManus (ATX0015) for reaching 10,008 minutes and for being promoted to a L8 Large Jet Captain. This is quite an acheivement and something to be proud of. Pete is only the second pilot to reach this prestegious level.

7th April 2005
Congratulations to Rob Jones (ATX0078) for reaching 554 minutes and for being promoted to a L2 Twin Prop Captain. Enjoy the new aircraft Rob! Rob is now going to be taking the Seneca V down to Cyprus. Hope you've got a spare room nige!

7th April 2005
Congratulations to Jez B (ATX0047) for reaching 2008 minutes and for being promoted to a L4 Twin Turbo Prop Captain. Enjoy the new aircraft Jez! Excellent PIREPs Jez:

"This should be my final flight to qualify for a level 4 twin turbo captain. Mr and Mrs Hooevargen are dutch business people who are looking to open an 'enlightened' hotel in Brighton. Being very busy people they hadn't got time to sit at Schipol and Gatwick so they chartered us to take them point to point. A straightforward flight cruising at 8000', not a lot of weather - was a bit foggy over Belgium. Landing on 21 at EGKA was as exciting as ever with those hills coming up at you on approach! Bring on the C441!"

19th March 2005
Congratulations to Barrie Myers (ATX0052) for reaching 1071 minutes and for being promoted to a L3 Single Turbo Prop Captain. Enjoy the new aircraft Barrie!

19th March 2005
Congratulations to Nigel Crump (ATX0034) for reaching 10037 minutes and for being promoted to a L8 Large Jet Captain. This is a very important promotion as the next steps are not in aircraft size but in seniority. Congratulations Nige! Nigel has always produced outstanding PIREPS but this may just be the best yet! - Check this out for Nigel's latest PIREP.

"Continuing our around Africa tour, this week we transported two members of a mountaineering team to the APT at Kilimanjaro where they were to join the rest of the team climbing the mountain. When the call came in we asked hesitantly how much gear they were taking with them, expecting about 2 tons of stuff, they replies 1 backpack each as the rest of their gear went down with the C130 the rest of the team had hired. Phew..!! Meeting them bright and early in the morning we loaded their reasonably heavy backpacks in the A36 and got started. Fortunately the runway at HKEL is nice and long, as with the early morning temperature already at 28 degrees and the APT elevation of just short of 7000' we were going to need some room to get off the ground. I leaned the engine out whilst doing my pre departure checks so we had the best settings for T/O. With the thin air at this ALT, the heat & the weight on board we got off the runway with plenty of room to spare but had to orbit over the field to gain ALT as our 550 FPM ROC just wasn't going to get us over the nearest mountains enroute. Having climbed to 10000ft the view was stunning despite the broken cloud cover and for as far as the eye could see there were mountains popping their peeks up through the clouds.. Amazing.! Our pax kept me well informed of the names of all the hills and mountains along the route, it seemed they had climbed them all. As we turned onto the final leg of the flight at TV mount Kilimanjaro came into view even though we were still some 40 minutes out from the APT. The closer we got the more stunning the vista & once again our pax were pointing out where each of their bas camps was to be on the route to the top. After an uneventful landing I wished them well and let them know if the climb was too much there was a heli rental place just round the corner from where we were parked.. They laughed and explained that this was their last climb before they took on Everest.. Brave or stupid?? I really am not sure."

19th March 2005
Congratulations to Mike Townsend (ATX0056) for reaching 1197 minutes and for being promoted to a L3 Single Turbo Prop Captain. Great PIREPS Mike and enjoy the new aircraft!

"I was hired by an aging couple who have just returned to Scotland after 50 years in Canada. They wished to see the east coast of Scotland from the air. Leaving Dyce, we immediately turned for the coast running up past RAF Buchan and Peterhead before swing west to head past Fraserburgh, Macduff, Lossiemouth, Kinloss before turning northwards at Inverness. Foolowed the coast up to Wick and then head for Kirkwall for a visual approach. Glorious winter views across Caithness and Sutherland."

5th March 2005
Congratulations to Jamie Methuen (ATX0045) for reaching 4218 minutes and for being promoted to a L6 Jet Captain. Way to go Jamie, enjoy the new aircraft.

"Return and position to LGW - followed a snow storm over the north then got stuck in a hold over the mayfield beacon!"

5th March 2005
Congratulations to Gareth Evans (ATX0032) for reaching 3014 minutes and for being promoted to a L5 Large Turbo Prop Captain. Now that ATR is yours! - Well deserved Gareth!

"Got charter by chance whilst refuelling at EGPA. Dropped in to EGNT to drop passenger off at EGKA."

27th February 2005
Congratulations to Jez B (ATX0047) for reaching 1054 minutes and for being promoted to a L3 Single Turbo Prop Captain. Enjoy the new aircraft Jez. Here is an exampe of Jez' PIREP:

"Return flight ferrying two hotel owners back from Blackpool where they'd been looking at a prospective hotel to buy to start a chain. The owners were really upbeat - they've made an offer on the hotel and will be travelling back up there next week to sign the relevant contracts. I did a fair amount of sweet-talking to them, saying that there would be discounts available for regular flying with us and they're very keen to take it up with us - so the office had better get ready for a phone call from them. Cruised at FL195, so-so weather, quite murky most of the way and had a very lousy approach into shoreham runway 21 for the first time. That runway is so narrow - is it really that bad in real-life? Such a swine of an approach being in the lee of a hill as well. Surely it can't be that difficult as jets fly in and out? Anyway, this is my single turbo qualifier flight - so here come's the meridian (maybe - I love the Golden Eagle now!) :)"

21st February 2005
Congratulations to Mike T (ATX0056) for reaching 606 minutes and for being promoted to a L2 Twin Prop Captain. Mike's not long been with us but has already completed a fly-in. Enjoy the new aircraft Mike! Here's Mike's latest PIREP

"First fly-in the the VA. First off the tarmac, but it wasn't long before the more senior guys were wizzing past at twice my GS. However the flight gave me plenty of time to admire the scenery in which I spend so much time mountaineering. Thanks to ATC, who remained on line so that I could land under control. Great job. On the approach I got some good views of Naples, currently my home city!"

21st February 2005
Congratulations to Stuart Martin (ATX0046) for reaching 523 minutes and for being promoted to a L2 Twin Prop Captain. Stuart has only been flying for us for a short time but has already got comfortable in our Cessna 177RG. Hope you enjoy the Level 2 aircraft and once again congratulations.

9th February 2005
Congratulations to Barrie Myers (ATX0052) for reaching 595 minutes and for being promoted to a L2 Twin Prop Captain. Barrie has been flying the Cessna Centurion which is quite a substantial aircraft for a L1 Pilot so will, I'm sure, be quite at ease with most of our L2 aircraft... Enjoy the new aircraft Barrie!

6th February 2005
Congratulations to Gareth Avans (ATX0032) for reaching 2095 minutes and for being promoted to a L4 Turbo Prop Captain. Gareth has been a consistant flyer in our VA for quite some time now and this is a well deserved promotion that allows Gareth to fly some of our more powerful aircraft.

5th February 2005
Congratulations to Russ Gammon (ATX0031) for reaching 3114 minutes and for being promoted to a L5 Large Turbo Prop Captain. Russ Has been an active member since he joined long ago. Not only is he able to proficiently navigate and fly to all kinds of locations but is able to do so in a special style I like to call "The Russ Way". Russ is continuosly posting in our forum and keeps the rest of us on our toes. Russ is the co-pilot we all want as he keep the laughs comming and is a top pilot to boot. See below for one of Russ special PIREPs.

Took daughters boyfriend out for a spin around local countryside. Did a few circuits/TAGs of Cranfield and then VFR'ed the local roads over to A1, then North to Sibson, near Peterborough. The broken cloud over Cranfield degenerated into unbroken murk at 2 1/2 thousand ft with on/off rain, but was clear enough at 2 thousand to follow the A1. Announced intentions at Sibson and dropped in, no problems. Stopped for coffee and doughnuts before returning via Northampton to Cranfield. Intended to land at Sywell to investigate small museum there, but weather wasn't getting any better and visibility was dropping all the time, so scurried off South back to Cranfield. Brilliant sunshine over Milton Keynes (what can I say!!) landed nice and sweet with nary a bump. Chris enjoued himself immensely, and hardly complained at all about the bumping around under the clouds.

4th February 2005
Congratulations to Pete McManus (ATX0015) for reaching 6635 minutes and for being promoted to a L7 Supersonic Jet Captain. Pete is a very proficient pilot who has flown all kinds of aircraft for ATUKv and has now qualified for our Concorde! - Pete is currently our number two pilot! Enjoy the Concorde mate and be careful; it does bite!

4th February 2005
Congratulations to Chris Molson (ATX0029) for reaching 3052 minutes and for being promoted to a L5 Large Twin Turbo Prop Captain. Chris has been VERY active not only in the air but also in out forum which is always nice. Chris is currently looking forward to getting his hands on out new ATR for which I canunderstand! - Hope your upto reading lots of manuals Chris! - Enjoy the new aircraft mate.

Brought the lads back from the stag night but not before they had to get the Groom released from police custody.Something about walking down the street butt naked wearing pink furry handcuffs???????? I didnt ask questions.They slept most of the way back and no mess.Was told they would use us again for another stag party they have planned in the summer but maybe somwhere different. Lousy weather below fl3 so flew above it all the way until was almost on top of sheffield.Very windy on approach,almost blew me off the runway.

4th February 2005
Congratulations to Jes B (ATX0047) for reaching 505 minutes and for being promoted to a L2 Twin Prop Captain. Jez is one of our more recent additions to our staff database but has fitted in immed. Jez has been active in the air and in our forums - way to go Jez! Enjoy the Twin Props!

Chartered by 3 errant squaddies who went on a stag weekend to brighton but missed their train and were desperate to get back to base at the Ternhill Barracks before being reported AWOL! Cruised at 9000'. Really interesting flight over lots of airfields I didn't know existed. Crossed over the EGLL approach corridor - watching all the aircraft on approach was pretty interesting!

31st Jan 2005
Congratulations to Jamie Methuen (ATX0045) for reaching 3070 minutes and for being promoted to a L5 Large Twin Turbo Prop Captain. Jamie is a reasonably new member of ATUKv but has put in lots of valued work for us and has as such been promoted from a L2 Captain to a L5 Captain. Jamie has put a lot of time into the PA-31 and I'm sure will continue to do so with the Dash 8 and ATR 72-500. A well deserved promotion.

This was GRIM! The BA crew were obligin but the weather was so NOT! Climbed up through the murk at Biggin and all was well but the approach to 12 was so choppy that declared MISSED early then vecotred BACK into the Bristol zone and back out! The wind veered and we vectored IL for 30!!!!! When we Kep the Autopilot on down to 1000' then disengaged while maintaing the rudder trim settings. This helped!! VIs was OKbut precip. SO heavy - windscok horizontal on touch down and some SERIOUS aquaplaining!

26th Jan 2005
Congratulations to Chris Moleson (ATX0011) for reaching 2194 minutes and for being promoted to a L4 Twin Turbo Prop Captain. Chris is a really dedicated member of staff and has come on in leaps and bounds (excuse the phrase) and is a regular both at our Fly-Ins and in our forums.

Took Plane enthusiasts back to Sheffield after a wonderful day at the museum and surrounding areas. They slept all the way back and also gave me a keyring as a momento.I would rather have the money!!!! Very quiet flight back though,I did worry when I first heared the rumbling from behind me!!!...I shouldnt have worried it was just Mr jones snoring. - Great!

12th Jan 2005
Congratulations to Graham Crossley (ATX0011) for reaching 4460 minutes and for being promoted to a L6 Jet Captain. Graham is one of our longest serving members who joined back when ATUKv was starting out. Graham has recently aquired the ATR72-500 from Flight1 and now has quite a bit of experience in this aircraft. We hope you enjoy the Jets Graham!

IFR FL180 Route: BIG T420 TNT M868 ADELU Another connecting service - nice earner. Flown on-line using new ATUK server

8th Jan 2005
Congratulations to Jamie Burrell (ATX0021) for reaching 4104 minutes and for being promoted to a L6 Jet Captain. Jamie has been an active member of ATUKv and has not only been busy in the air and in our forums but has also provided some first class liveries including the latest two for our 737 and ATR. Jamie is also very good at filling in his PIREPs; see below for one that made me chuckle!:

"Not a bad flight. The wind was amazing today and made for difficult to follow track. The take off was very nearly fatal as the gusts caught me when at about 30'. I could see down the runway out of the side window. Its ok to do this kind of thing in a MkII Escort not a plane!" (Ed - I always had problems getting my old MkII Escort past a bank angle of 25 degrees though my 2CV would bank upto about 50!)

7th Jan 2005
Congratulations to Chris Molson (ATX0029) for reaching 1246 minutes and for being promoted to a Single Turbo Prop Captain. Chris has been very active in our forums as well as in the sky and was the person who found the Navajo manual on the internet that has now arrived. Here's is Chris's latest PIREP:

"Had to cut short my rest up in italy as 4 Very rich Italian football club directors needed to get over to greece to sign an up and comming greek star before other teams got to him. I did wonder why they didnt have their own private jet but was told they needed to go in secrecy.Who am I to complain???They pay very hansomely."

7th Jan 2005
Congratulations to Jamie Methuen (ATX0045) for reaching 559 minutes and for his first promotion. Jamie now sports the Twin Piston Prop Captain job title! Well done Jamie. Jamie has only been a member for a short time and already he's turning out PIREPs like the Pro's... See one of his PIREPs below:

"Cathay Crew flight Cautious of "flying by the book" planned IFR route - METAR looked OK - but local obs at SHM said otherwise! Dptd 03 straight into MIST and climbed to 4500 en route. IMC until out of the murk came the QE Bridge!!!! Right of track we were!!! but we have been vectored to the East of LGW and right out to the easter end of LHR's airspace - we were soon to find out why. Just enjoying the view when back into mist! That was the story all the way down to 2500 [asked to expidite] excitment as BA 734 "jumped the Q in front of us then I elected a high and flapless app to 27L to avoid causing a jam. Crossed the threshold at 92KTS [not quite text book] then touched at 75kts 1/2 way down - exiting on one of the rapid exists - immediately a A320 cleared to land behind. Slight jam on taxi way hence the high fuel burn."

1st Jan 2005
Congratulations to Nigel Crump (ATX0034) for reaching 6263 minutes and being promoted to a Level 7 Supersonic Pilot. This is the highest status our pilots can acheive and it's quite something that Nigel has reached this in his relatively short career. Nigel's piloting skills are outstanding and as such he's always giving sound advice to many of our members. Here's his latest PIREP.

Following a request by operations to check a couple of locations in Iceland for a possible new flight hub, our first stop is to be BIRK. I arrived at Gatwick on a beautiful morning, a few scattered clouds, the wind was calm & despite the temperature only being 5 degrees in the early morning sun it felt quite warm. Having completed the external pre-flight I set about the cockpit pre-flight routine, check the weather, NOTAM's & RNW in use. The runway in use was 08R and from our stand at gate 37 that was about as far away as you could get, so it was going to be a long ride to the RNW. We threaded our way thought the taxiways to 08R and were soon lined up and ready to go. I smoothly advanced the power, released the brakes & the Citation X was soon at rotation speed. Climbing to our cruise level at FL450 you could just see some clouds far away to the north of our position but the rest of the country seemed to be bathed in sunshine. As we passed our last UK marker at Inverness the horizon began to look darker and darker the closer we got, here comes the Artic sunshine. By the time we reached MY (Myggenaes) it was almost dark again and we started to see the northern lights flashing across the upper atmosphere in front of us. It was an amazing sight and you almost wanted to stop the world turning and pause the flight right there so you could sit and watch, but unable to stop the world this week I took a few pictures for the company notice board. Sadly we had to descend leaving or heavenly light show behind to concentrate on the approach. I studied the approach plates one more time while we descended, check the WX and began the approach. There were a few CB's about which caused us some light turbulence but nothing to worry about. Intersecting the ILS for 19 we cruised down the glide slope until the brightly lit runway came into view, from there the approach was visual. The landing was smooth and with the speed brakes & reversers deployed we were able to stop well before the middle of the runway. The taxiway signs are not brilliant here so we slowly found our way to our assigned parking (of which there is not a great deal), but in the Artic dawn with all the surrounding buildings lit up and the snow on the ground, BIRK looked quite a picture. Having found our parking spot we shut down and secured the A/C and headed off for a well deserved cuppa.

1st Jan 2005
Congratulations to Gavin Dandridge (ATX0038) for reaching 1085 minutes and being promoted to a Level 3 Single Turbo Pilot.

The PIREP below was a flight that Gavin made in real life with himself and Russ to meet me down in shoreham. I can vouch for the landing as I saw it with my own eyes...! Way to go Gavin, good to see you both.

(Real Life Flight!) - Russ and I were due down at Shoreham to meet 'The Boss' so we met up at Stapleford and took Piper G-SACI down to the south cost for a quick meeting. It was a clear winter’s day but with a good wind blowing. There was a 14 knot crosswind on both take-off and landing. En-route the wind was blowing about 35 knots across out path making it hard to hold a true course for dead reckoning. We eventually made it to Shoreham and met 'The Boss' for lunch. Route: Brentwood DCT Tunbridge Wells DCT Uckfield DCT Brighton Marina DCT Shoreham.

1st Jan 2005
Congratulations to Gareth Evans (ATX0032) for being promoted to a Level 3 Single Turbo Pilot. He may not put much in his PIREPs but he's a damned fine pilot and tends to fly in dreadful conditions. For christmas he wants shoreham to install an ILS approach! - LOL. 1163 Minutes flown.

1st Jan 2005
Well, this is kind of strange, here I am writing the comments in my own promotion. Congratulations to me (Richard Georgiou - ATX0001) for reaching the grand total of 4226 minutes and for promoting myself to a Level 6 Jet Pilot!

Luckily myself and the ATR were sitting in BIKF due to fly a relocation flight to Heathrow when we received a call over the radio. Iceland Air had managed to break one of their fleet and had no spare aircraft to take a load of British citzens back to Heathrow. ATUKv welcomed them all aboard and made this flight into a profitable one. Alt: FL230 Route: BIKF BREK1A BREKI 5911N ERAKA UN581 BEN UN590 GOW UA1 CALDA DCT MCT BNN1B EGLL. Performed the Climb by hand using trim and STAR and approach manually using VOR/ILS, not FMS.. What an aircraft! All 16 Icaland Air passengers were very thankful and will use us in the future. We even gave them a fantastic sunset as we descended for EGLL..

29th Dec 2004
Congratulations to Russell Gammon who has now reacheed 2019 and has been promoted to a Twin turbo Prop Level 4 Captain. Not only is Russ great in the air but is also very busy in our forums, a well deserved promotion Russ! Russell has always produced good PIREPS; see his latest one below:

Planned run up to Shannon to collect new Piper Cheyenne for ATUKv, with 2nd pilot on board to bring G-EMMA home to Cranfield. Weather was glorious on take off, but soon deteriated over Irish Sea so had to file an IFR flight plan, climbed to 9000ft over the sea to clear tops of cloud but was ordered to 4500 when flight plan filed. Cheers guys, had to fly through the muck, turbulance was worse than when joyriding with Gav! Approach to Shannon was smooth, runway appeared out of the gloom at about 1000 feet, landing was ok, with small scare when Cessna had hearing probs and nearly took off right in front of us. Doh! Taxiing to GA parking saw new plane waiting for us G-SETI. I know I said they were ugly, but the thought of a new ride, sent thrills through me. Can't wait to get her painted up!

Enjoy your cheyenne Russ!

22nd Dec 2004
Congratulations to Nigel Crump ATX0034 for reaching the grand total of 4239 minutes and for his promotion to a Level 6 Jet Captain! Not only has Nigel been very active in our forums and in the sky he's also provided ATUKv with free professional hosting to sort out the reliability issues we had. A well deserved promotion! Enjoy the Jets Nigel! check out nigel's latest PIREP... excellent!

"This was a positioning flight to move a newly painted Seneca to our new hub in LIBD. WX at EGKA was miserable with drizzle and a low cloud base and the obligatory embedded CB's just to add a little interest and a lot of turbulence. We took off on 03 and climbed to FL150, not managing to clear the turbulence from the CB's till well past FL120. After turning at Zurich and heading across the Alps we ran into a strong head wind that was not forecast. The head wind really played havoc with our already tight fuel calculations and we ended up making a fuel stop at LIBP just one hour short of our destination, but without we would not have had sufficient safety margins at LIBD. Arriving at LIBD the WX was not great. The cloud base was just 1000 AGL so we made a low level left hand circuit for Rnw 07 at 800 ft and landed without issue." - Way to go nigel!

8th Dec 2004
Congratulations to Gareth Evans. Gareth has reached 561 minutes and has been promoted to a Level 2 Twin Prop Captain. Once again congratulations and we look forward to seeing you in the skys soon!

8th Dec 2004
Congratulations to Gordon Volker for being promoted to Level 3 Single Turbo Prop Captain. Gordon actually requested a promotion to Twin Prop Captain but his work has been exemplary and he's reached 1121 minutes so we've promoted Gordon to Level 3.

Left St Mary's at 20:05 into a very clear windless night, The Aircraft running fine I levelled off at 5000 to enjoy the stars. Cruising at 130 I went by St Just at 20:20, Wind now 295/09. 40 nm from plymouth the sky started to cloud up. Was over plymouth at 20:49 wind 305/10 Vis 20. Passed Bill of Portland at 21:24 wind now 328/11 Vis up to 30. Could see St Catherens lights from a long way out and passed at 21:44. the overcast has cleared with wind 017/10 . As the sky cleared the wind swung around to 239/11. Lots of stars out. Air a little bumpy as I neared Shoreham. Wind settled to 237/11 will land Rwy 21. Touched down and taxied to parking shutting down at 22:15. A very nice flight.

6th Dec 2004
Congratulations to Gavin for his first promotion. Gavin is now a qualified Twin Prop Captain and well deserved too. Not only has Gavin been very active in the sky (505 minutes experience) but also in our forums. I'm sure I'm not alone in thanking Gavin for his time helping us all in there. Well done and we look forward to your next PIREPs...

No passengers for this flight. I was in Le Touquet after dropping off my last client. ATUKv head office called me to tell me that there was another client in Calais that would need collecting. So this was just a positioning flight to get myself and my Piper Archer in place ready for the next flight. It was a quick hop along the cost. Route: Visual all the way and flown under VFR.

6th Dec 2004
Congratulations to Nigel for reaching Level5 !! Nigel has been working hard for ATUKv not only in the air (3068 minutes) and in our forums but has also recently resprayed our beloved Navajo. Nigel will now be trusted with our brand new ATR and the rest of our Level 5 fleet.

Final leg to LIBD to deliver our first newly repainted Navajo to our new hub in Italy. Will be returning to EGKA with the Seneca V from LIBD to have it repainted. - That's excellent news!

4th Dec 2004
Congratulations to Jamie Burrell (ATX0021) for being promoted to a Large Turbo Prop Captain. Jamie reached 3001 minutes recently and we have no hesitation in giving our this well deserved promotion. Jamie is not only very active in the air but also in our forums, our picture gallery, and instrumental in creating ATUKv liveries and hub textures.

"Excellent flight. I even caught the glideslope properly which brought me down perfectly. At 50feet AGL and about 200m away from threshold I spotted the lights. It was that much of a pea souper. Knocked off the autopilot throttled up a bit and pulled gently on the stick and glided on to the tarmac. Awesome, even if I say so myself. Dont go to Luxembourg if you can help it though. The duty free shop is no good." - A true professional.

1st Dec 2004
Congratulations to Graham Crossley ATX0011 for being promoted to a Level 5 Large Turbo Prop Captain. Graham spends a lot of time flying for ATUKv and has been instrumental in our good name! Graham now has 3118 minutes to his name! Way to go Graham and enjoy the Large Turbos!

28th Nov 2004
Congratulations to Nigel Crump ATX0034 for being promoted to Twin Turbo Prop Captain - Level4 after completing 2048 minutes. Nigel is very active in the air and in our forums. Thanks again Nigel for all your hard work, you help to make ATUKv what is is today. Enjoy the Twin Turbos!! Below is an example of one of Nigels excellent PIREPs.

During our stop over in Cork we encountered mechanical problems with the Commander 115, and due to the clients time constraints we had to hire an available aircraft at Cork and continue on to Predannack with the understanding that the mechanics would bring our aircraft to us as soon as the repairs were complete. We scoured Cork aerodrome for an aircraft and all we could find a available was a Cherokee 180F, not idea but it would have to do to keep the clients happy. We took off in miserable conditions, low vis & rain and struggled to haul the Cherokee to 8000ft to get above the weather. With a 26 Kt head wind for the first leg we struggled to make 70kts ground speed, so the trip seemed to take for ever. On arriving at Predannack we were informed by ATC that all runways other than 13 were unavailable due to works leaving us with no option but to land with a 14 gusting 28Kt crosswind. We worked our way down finals and landed quite smoothly considering I had almost full deflection on the left rudder at the time, but we where down. The clients left us for their meeting happy and thankful that we got them there on time, and me hoping that the mechanics get the Commander back to me before the clients need to move again.. What a day.

24th Nov 2004
Congratulations to Chris Molson ATX0029 for reaching 522 minutes and being promoted to a Level2 Twin Piston Captain. Chris has flown many flights to get this promotions and his PIREPs are outstanding! Enjoy the Twin Pistons Chris! - "Returned to Shoreham with the 3 refinery workers. They were looking for another great night out and I convinced them that Brighton would have all they need. Looks like I might have another flight tomorrow to take them home. Money money money. This lot will make you even richer RICH" - "I may be Rich by name but I'm not even close by nature! - Rich"

23rd Nov 2004
Congratulations to Pete McManus ATX0015 for being our first Jet Captain. Pete has reached 4022 minutes which is one hell of an achievement! Enjoy the Jets Pete. Pete is our most experiencd pilot and has now been promoted to a Jet Captain. I will be creating another rank whereby anyone who reaches the heights of 6000 minutes can get to fly the Concorde! With staff like Pete onboard I'm sure ATUKV can afford one! Once again congratulations Pete, you make us proud!

21st Nov 2004
Congratulations to Russell on his promotion to Level3 after completing 1060 minutes. Russell deserves real praise for learning so much in such a small space of time. Enjoy the Turbo Prop's Russell. Russell has been a very active member of our forums and has spent time and effort learning how to fly for ATUKV. Well done Russell! Check this out:

"Picked up 4 boffin types from the rigs going to BP place in Hale, so next stop Liverpool. Weather grotty, clouds building nicely up to FL110. Overcast at Scouseland atrocious ILS all the way in, had to call missed on short final as there was an MD80 on the runway! Wasn't expecting that! Went round again dropped in sweet considering 1st visual was only 2 miles out. Glad to get down on this one!" - Excellent!

21st Nov 2004
Congratulations to Nigel Crump for accumulating 1114 minutes. Nigel has been very helpful in many ways to ATUKV and we consider it an honour to have him on our team. Nigel has now been promoted to a Level3 Captain. Once again congratulations Nigel and Enjoy the Turbo Props! Nigel flys in real life so has been active in our forums offering help left right and centre! He's also a computer chap and has helped me with advice for the site. For this we thank you! Thanks again Nigel and enjoy the new aircraft!

14th Nov 2004
congratulations to Nigel Crump, not only is Nigel our newest member but he's also just been promoted to a Level2 Captain after gaining 502 minutes experience. Nigel joined ATUKV on the 8th of November and has already been an active pilot and on our forums. Enjoy the Twin Pistons Nigel !

12th Nov 2004
Congratulations to Pete McManus ATX0015 for reaching 3016 minutes and for being promoted to a level5 Captin, the ATR is fantastic and I'm sure you'll enjoy it! Peter has been a member since 3rd Sept 2004 and is already our most experienced pilot. Pete regularly performs flights to and from many locations including UK and Europe. He has mastered the ILS approach, IFR navigation and the B200 with excellent professionalism and as such should take pride in his new position as a Large Turbo Prop Captain. Well done Pete and enjoy the ATR.

9th Nov 2004
Congratulations to Russell Gamon (ATX0031) for quickly reaching the dizzy heights of 576 minutes and being promoted to a Level2 Captain. Russell has some great PIREPs to his name; why not take a look at his stats... Enjoy the twins Russell ! - "After a day off, took a jaunt up to Sheffield to spy out the (potential) new facilities. Went visual all the way up, followed the M1 then did the last stretch from memory as I was up that way a few weeks ago. Everything going fine until the crosswind screwed up my final and I nearly ended up landing on thr grass! DOH, kept my cool and just scraped in. Not a very good entrance though :(" - Excellent !

4th Nov 2004
Congratulations to Jamie Burrell for being promoted to a level4 Captain for completing 2058 minutes. Check out his PIREPs! Enjoy the twin turbo's Jamie! Jamie is VERY interested in the Boeing 737 so will be doing some test flights for ATUKV in the future.

2nd Nov 2004
Congratulations to Graham Crossley and Peter MccManus for being promoted to Level 4 Captains. Enjoy the Twin Turbo's chaps! Graham reached the grand total of 2046 minutes and Peter 2030. this is a fantastic acheivement and shows the dedication of our pilots. You make ATUKV proud! So, what will it be? B200 King Air? Piper Cheyenne 400LS? What ever you choose I'm sure you'll have as much fun as I do!

20th Oct 2004
Congratulations to Mike Reil (ATX0018) on being promoted to Level3 Single Turbo Prop Captain). Mike has now completed the grand total of 1035 minutes flying time. Mike enjoys flying the speedy Cessna 310L and loves touch and go's! Way to go Mike!

16th Oct 2004
Congratulations to Jamie Burrell for being promoted to a Level3 pilot (1117 minutes flown). Jamie can now fly in the Single Turbo Prop class (any of the aircraft in Level3 or lower)... Jamie is great when filling in his PIREP's... Take a look...

10th Oct 2004
Congratulations to Jamie Burrell for reaching the grand total of 575 minutes. Jamie has now been promoted to a Level2 Twin Prop Captain... Jamie tries to keep his flights as real as possible by using the real life time and weather for all his flights (which means he runs into some pretty awful conditions once in a while!)... Congratulations for the promotion and I look forward to seeing some of your fantastic PIREPS soon! "Taxi to parking slot, donned my RayBans and tripped over my own shoes laces. Damn, so close to a perfect flight." - hehe

6th Oct 2004
Congratulations to Peter MccManus (ATX0015). He's reached the grand total of 1009 minutes and has now been promoted to Level3 (Single Turbo Prop). Peter is only the second pilot to be promoted to Level3 and we wish him all the best in his new role. Piper Meridian?

3rd Oct 2004
Congratulations to Graham Crossley (ATX0011) who has just been promoted to a Level3 captain! after completing 1367 minutes! Enjoy the Turbo Props! Graham is our first Level3 Captain and I wish him all the best with the Single Turbo Props.

28th Sept 2004
Well, congratulations to our newest pilot Mike Reil (ATX0018) who has now been promoted to level2. He's completed 560 mins...

28th Sept 2004
Congratulations to our newest level2 member. Peter (ATX0015) has just been promoted as he's reached the dizzy heights of 549 minutes!

19th Sept 2004
Congratulations to Graham Crossley. He's the second pilot to be promoted to level2... Graham is now flying the recently added Cessna 421C Golden Eagle.

15th July 2004
Congratulations to Stephen Wilkins for being the first pilot to be promoted to Level2. Well done Stephen!