Competitions
Current Competition: "Pre Preflight Checklist" (closes 15/10/2010):
Analysis of recent infringement reports shows better preflight planning could have avoided the problem in some cases (not all). As all UK GA organisations, the CAA, and NATS, are trying to encourage good pre-flight planning through the AirSpace Safety Initiative, the FlyOnTrack web editor is offering the chance to win one of his Pre-Preflight Checklists for free on a 'lucky draw' basis.The ' Pre-Preflight Checklist' is nothing to do with any particular aircraft you want to fly, it's a personal checklist - something you'd use on yourself before even leaving the clubhouse. It's an aide-memoire to list many of the items a consciencious pilot might consider before flying, and it contains many pieces of useful information all in one place, from listening squawks, through website and phone numbers concerned with planning, to appendices covering all those things pilots sometime have trouble remembering, such as visibility rules and met decodes. You can read more about it here: Pre Preflight Checklist description - no need to buy one, you may win one for free.
ALL you have to do to be in the lucky draw for one of these checklists is to forward some proof (by email to FlyOnTrack, address later) that you are on the CAA's chart update notification scheme which runs either by email or news feed from the CAA site. The proof may be (for example) a notification (old or brand new) from the CAA site that your details have been registered or changed for such distribution, or an actual chart update sent to you by the CAA under this scheme. All the notification scheme is, in simple terms, is that you tell the CAA which VFR chart you have bought, and they will send you any permanent changes that happen in the period before the next release of the chart - the updates that will be on a future chart once issued. So if you bought a Half-Million Southern' VFR chart, and a new danger area or TMZ was permanently established before the next issue of that chart series, such an update would be notified to you, so that you could mark it on your chart copy.
How do you sign up for this free VFR chart update notification scheme? It's on the CAA website (next year it is likely to be on a NATS site). (As usual, a reminder of hte address is on the LINKS page here on FlyOnTrack.) Simply go to www.caa.co.uk/charts and then click on the 'amendments' link on the left for your choice of VFR chart scale (1:500,000 or 1:250,000). This will then allow you to sign up for the specific chart(s) you have currently in use.
So to enter this competition, send any proof that you are in the CAA's email or RSS notification scheme to FlyOnTrack - to try and avoid the usual problems of unwanted mail, please understand why there is no clickable email link here. The email address to send your entry is, as you would expect, 'flyontrack', and it resides on the UK version of hotmail, that is 'dot co dot uk', not 'dot com'.
Only one entry per person please, winner notified after mid October and mentioned here without contact details, no substitute prize or money (prize retails at £10.99), the draw will be after competition closure on October 15th, the 'first out' will be emailed to the address the entry came from. The organiser's decision final, no discussions entered into, no responsibility accepted for entries or notifications going astray. If the apparent winner (first out of the draw) does not, when notified, provide a UK address for the prize to be sent by the end of October, the initial draw will be cancelled and a new draw will be re-run. No use will be made of any email or contact details except for this specific competition.