Flying Club Conington

Today, Conington was honoured to be the starting point for a formation flight over Peterborough to honour the passing of Squadron Leader Bill Purchase. Bill flew one of the Chipmunks in the famous around the world flight.
Six Chipmunks, six amazing Chipmunk pilots and lots to remember.

Couldn’t be more proud

New Years Eve- the last runway light inspection of 2020 -and only one light out - all ready for a better 2021 🤞🏼

Dear all,

Just an update as promised on “ Our sort of flying”
The CAA here just issued the following

Limits on GA flying in England
Since 13 May some sports, in which it is possible to observe social distancing, are permitted. The government takes the view that recreational general aviation is a permissible recreational sport.
This excludes most training flights, as social distancing measures require people not in the same household to maintain 2 metres of separation. While these flights are a key source of income for many aerodromes, they cannot presently be undertaken in a way that reduces the risk of Covid-19 transmission to an acceptable level.
Whilst noting that online training and socially-distanced training on the ground can take place, the inability to undertake training flights will mean that some pilots will not be able to resume flying until further easing of restrictions is possible. We advise those affected in this way to monitor this page and wider government guidance for further updates.

Basically, this means that we cannot restart our training flights with our students and those of you waiting to fly your trial flights with us will also have to wait until better times. This is sad for all of us but we hope that the restrictions don’t last too long.

The airfield will remain closed for the time being whilst we assess how and when we can start up again to ensure everybody’s safety and also protect our people’s jobs.

If anybody would like to read the entire announcement, here it is.

Coronavirus (COVID-19): recreational general aviation We use cookies to collect information about how you use GOV.UK. We use this information to make the website work as well as possible and improve government services.

Hello everybody,
Just a quick update on how things are at the Airfield.
But firstly, we have to say that we are missing you all tremendously and hope that you and yours have been able to keep safe.

Sadly, Conington has to remain closed for the time being because the three things that Conington does best - that is getting people flying, welcoming visitors and feeding people - are all forbidden whilst we try to beat the Corona Virus together.
We are available to refuel essential service aircraft for obvious reasons but that is all.
Let’s hope that we can soon be up and running again and welcoming all of our friends back.
What a party that will be 🙂

A quick word for people who have booked, want to book or expected to fly their voucher flights with us. We are disappointed that we won’t be seeing you on the date you have booked or would have liked to fly and I know that some of you are concerned over your voucher expiring before you can fly.
If you have a Flying Club Conington voucher, we will automatically extend the validity for you. If you have a Virgin or an Into the Blue voucher, we recommend that you contact the relevant company and ask for your voucher date to be extended if it is getting close. They are usually very pleased to do this for you in the event of unforeseen circumstances.

We will keep you updated when new information is available which will allow us all to fly again.
In the meantime Conington sends you very best wishes and hopes that we can all stay safe and meet again soon.

Hello everybody,
It will be another two weeks until our Government review the Coronavirus situation and tell us what we are allowed to do. In the meantime, until we get the go ahead, we have to stay closed.
We miss you all and thank you for your good wishes.
At the moment we are closed for flying except that we have undertaken to support essential helicopter services - this means those who keep our gas, oil and power flowing by inspecting the pipelines and the national grid.
Please keep safe everybody - we look forward to seeing you all again at Conington soon.

Hello All

Greetings from Conington 🙂
In line with some other Airfields who have a choice, we are currently still open and will remain so unless we are instructed to close or a lack of staff causes safety issues.
The situation is rapidly changing though so if you are considering flying in, please remember to call ahead to make sure we are still operating and, if you need a licensed Airfield that we are still able to provide it.

The cafe may not be open so sadly, you will have to take pot luck on food and hot drinks - or bring a flask with you!

Can we ask (very politely 🙂) that people who visit follow sensible rules, read the notices, use the hand gel provided and respect the space of others. Most of all, PLEASE do not visit the Airfield if you are showing symptoms known to indicate COVID-19.

We know that many of you are following recent advice with respect to social distancing so we have cancelled flying club Conington flying training for this weekend at least - Self fly hire will be available subject to your being in check .
Other training organisations on our site may have different ideas so it is best to call your own training provider for advice on what they are doing.

A very big thank you is due to all of our customers for their support, practical assistance and kind words since the onset of restrictions.
Our staff and Club members have been fantastic – they are all a major part in the success of our Airfield and flying club and they have been very understanding and supportive of the Airfield in recent days.
We have several staff and club members self isolating due to concerns over pre existing condition or their age. We wish them all the best - and we miss you all!

At present the situation is fast changing, so we will keep in touch by Facebook with any news.

Go Safely

From Your Conington Family

Please can everybody keep an eye out for a Black Labrador bitch - missing from Abbots Ripton since Tuesday. People will be out searching this afternoon assisted by drones in the local area.

This from Geoff Smith- fingers crossed Geoff.

“Hi there - I'm helping in the search for a female Black Lab - missing from Abbots Ripton since Tuesday. We are looking to use drones in the search later on today in an area spanning Warboys, Wistow, Woodwalton and Upwood - see attached screenshots. This is just to give you a heads up in case you have anyone up in the air. Will confirm times when we have them as weather dependant.”

All are safely home. Thank you to all who visited and to our amazing team. We had such a good day in the sunshine.

The weather might not let us fly - but we are still having fun at Conington😀