Update

I appreciate that everything has been very quiet on this front but at long last, things are starting to happen and from this point on, I think we shall see fairly rapid progress with the runway.

As you know, we have prepared the surface by ploughing, power harrowing, levelling and seeding with special slow growing grass. This is getting established now and will be ready for us to lay the runway.

The big hold up though has been the Grant. Although their literature states they decide in one month after the application, this has not proved to be the case and we have had to wait for months for a response.

Four weeks ago, we finally heard back from them with a series of minor questions about the legal wording of our Articles of Association and our planning status. All these queries have been satisfactorily resolved thanks to Bruce’s prompt efforts and we now know it is going before the decision panel at the end of this month. We can only cross our fingers at this point.

In the interim though, there have been some other developments which may have a positive effect on the project. One is a potential second grant through the RAF Charitable Trust and the other is an anonymous businessman who potentially wants to invest in adding another 200m to the length of the runway as well as levelling the “hump” next to the trees at the west end. Both of these are very exciting developments. If all goes well, we will end up with a 700m firm runway allowing winter operations in both directions.

All this activity will come together in August. Regardless of grants, we will be putting down at least 300m of runway as soon as possible so that we have the minimum required to get the two seaters off the ground safely this winter.