End of season awards

On Thursday 28 November, Goodwood Aerodrome held its Annual Awards Evening, celebrating the achievements of the students, Goodwood Flying School team and members. For the first time the awards took place in the Aerodrome Café, which proved the perfect place for everyone to gather.

The evening began with welcome drinks and delicious bowl food and was followed by an introductory speech by Rob Wildeboer, the Flying School Manager. He thanked everyone for their patience during the poor weather in the last quarter and went on to announce the winners.

The awards were categorised into; First Solo, Private Pilots’ Licence or Light Aircraft Pilots’ Licence course completion and Flying Instructor Course completion. Special commendation was given to 17-year-old Elyot Harmston. He is the youngest student to go solo in the Flying School's Piper Cub, something that was accomplished within minimum hours. Quite an achievement!

These were followed by specific awards in individual categories namely; Safety Award, which went to Richard Gale, Most Developed Pilot Award, which went to Janet Bendell, Student of the Year Award which went to Tallulah Stephens and Lifetime Achievement Award for Graham Turner.   

The final award was the Johnny Moss Memorial Trophy which was awarded to Tim Granshaw. This prestigious award was given in recognition of his progress from learning to fly at Goodwood whilst working in ATC and on the Flying School Ops desk, to completing his Flying Instructor course, (again with the Goodwood Flying School), to working for the Boultbee Flight Academy. Since working with Boultbee he has progressed from flying the Chipmunk, to the Harvard and ultimately to the Spitfire. Quite a journey and definitely something for our younger members to aspire to.

A special mention was made to Graham Turner who sadly missed the evening, but everyone present acknowledged just what an important part Graham had played in the development and continued success of the Flying School. We hope to see him back very soon and wish him all the very best for a swift recovery!