dde0apb, as an ex-committee member, I hope you will be contacting Mike Pott at RMT to furnish them with your inside information.
I am not sure there is much, if anything, to say. I have opinions about how the club could have been run differently, but I know of of absolutely no evidence whatsoever that any of the people on the committee before me, with me or after me have committed any kind of offence or impropriety.
WHY WAS LITTLE WINGS AND NEWCASTLE FLYING SCHOOL FORMED CAN ANYONE TELL ME.
let me cast a little light on Littlewings. This is my understanding of the story.
Littlewings was originally called Crossco 167 Ltd; a standard form of company name issued to Dickinson Dees solicitors, who used to be at Cross House in the Westgate Road.
The company was incorporated on 4th Jan 1996, and immediately its name was changed to Littlewings (NAC) Ltd. IIRC the (NAC) bit was to differentiate it from the earlier failing Little Wings Engineering which had been an independent engineering firm based in the hangar. The new firm bought out the assets of the old Little Wings, at what many members thought was a seriously inflated valuation of its assets. There was a stormy AGM at the airport hotel about this. The Aero Club took the one issued share in the new company.
On the 2nd of August that year, feeling that the association with the name Little Wings was unhelpful, since some former customers had bad memories of that firm, the committee changed the name of the business once again to Newcastle Aero Engineering Ltd, the name it still holds. Some people continue to refer to the firm as Littlewings; a legitimate, if outdated misconception.
So there is really no mystery there.
AC became a director on 20 December 1995, and according to companies house has been one ever since.
When I was on the committee the business traded at a loss, but this loss was decreasing, and IIRC, it was felt that since it meant the club had control over its own engineering, and the promise of being able to control the fuel supply for the club planes, then this diminishing loss was a price worth paying.
Here\'s the statement of shareholders funds for the period ending on February 28 (or 29) for the following years:
2003 -106,398
2002 -66,886
2001 1,886
2000 -1,942
1999 -27,218
1998 -20,469
1997 -16,727
So, on 28 Feb 1997, the club was effectively giving the engineering firm a "credit facility" of 16.7k. By 2001, the business was actually worth £1,886 to the club; and heading in the right direction. But then it seemed to go horribly wrong.
On another measure, in 2001 the business had a retained profit of £3,828. the next year it was a loss of nearly £69,000 and in the year to 28/2/03 the loss was £39,500. No figures are available on my source for the year to 28/2/04, nor would I expect them necesarily to be available yet.
As I have said before, I think this turnaround is at
least as likely to be due to errors of omission, rather than those of commission.