Thanks XD, much appreciated
You are correct in that at approx 11:45 we did run dry of fuel, which is a heart stopping moment when you have 145 helicopters on the ground and still have the afternoon to get through. Not something I want to go through again. We used 16,500 litres last year and 47,500 this year of which 28,000 was used on Sunday morning. We were extremely luck to be able to get our truck out to Oxford Airport during the race and get it back just before the end when the road traffic ground to a halt as they all rushed for the gate. Many thanks to Oxford Airport , definitely saved the day.
As for fuel shortage at the end of the day, we never actually ran out and everyone got almost what they wanted. FloaterNorthWest I gave you as much as I could, up to 1,000 Lbs, which you did say was enough to get you to Battersea and then Elstree.
Some operators did get fuel at various other destinations which I hope did not cause you too much inconvenience, if it did I apologise and promise that we will have plenty of fuel next year.
As for the rest of the day it worked but of course there are always things that will need tweaking. The reason for using the Northern side only is due to Silverstone’s plans for much development in this area, including new Pitts as I understand it. We will have had to move at some stage so as movements in 2006 were below what can be handled on the North it was decided to make the move this year.
The authority are concerned about mixing the small (R22/ 44) and the large (S76) but the flow rate was kept down to allow this to happen. It is obvious though that the former do slow the operation down and we may have to look at other alternatives for these types but without causing them too much inconvenience as over 20 of them in the park at lunchtime.
The parking worked well and as pointed out, by using marshals that do this for a living makes life much easier. Heli 1 you say that we were short of marshals, do you mean passenger handlers. If so this was not a cost cutting measure but if you were handled by Silverstone handling this was split between T1 and T2 and may have been a little over stretched at times. Our handling was done by Helicopter & Aviation, Angela and Alan, who know their stuff and as far as I am aware did a very good job.
We need to look at revising the terminals and maybe have individual tents for each operator. We may also move all the large spots to the middle of the runway and possibility of a couple more depending on spacing.
As pointed out there were more holds in the afternoon and this was mainly due to the amount of traffic trying to get to the gates from the park. In addition some aircraft got to the gates and then remained there for some time waiting for their passengers. We need to look at getting the first load of passengers to the parked aircraft so that they can taxi up to the hold point and depart rather than having to wait for a space to get to the gate.
ATC did a great job as ever and Helen is a fantastic SATCO. She was let down by several pilots but all the rest knew what they were doing.
As for the Merlin, it looked very impressive when it passed me down at the refuel area. I wasn’t at the tower so cannot comment on that stage of its flight. I do know that the crew were trying to give their pax a ride to remember. Their task for the day was to bring in service personnel who had served in Iraq or Afghanistan and had the misfortune to lose limbs during active service. Men and women of whom the youngest was 18 and a very humbling experience to see them all get off the aircraft when it landed. Silverstone gave them a great day out and I would hope they enjoyed their ride out !
At the end of the day everyone got all their passengers in and out, even Jenny McK who managed to lose three aircraft from her fleet the day before, not all due to technical issues as I understand it !! . We have spoken to most people who seem happy.
Bob and I welcome any comments that anyone has and are always looking to improve the system.
Many thanks to all those who took part and to all the staff who worked very hard.
Rgds
F09