Seahawk glider pilots gain sponsorship
Two Pilots of Seahawk Gliding Club based at Royal Naval Air Station Culdrose have been awarded major sponsorship by the Geoffrey de Havilland Flying Foundation. (GdeHFF)
Jordan Richards and Jake Matthews have scooped their prestigious awards, which exist to support aviation and help young people fulfil their ambition to be able to 'reach for the sky' ,after being members of the Royal Navy’s Cornish Gliding Club for three years.
They completed summer courses during 2010 and 2011 and have made rapid progress to go solo and achieve their Glider Pilot’s Licences in record time. Jordan has gone on to qualify as British Gliding Association Basic Instructor and Jake has followed his passion as an Aerobatics pilot. In the meantime they have injected energy and enthusiasm into Seahawk Gliding, provided tremendous support on the ground in all sorts of ways.
The next step in their aviation careers is to move on to powered flying which will enable them to fly as tug pilots providing aero tow launches in the club’s Super Dimona motor glider. With the generous funding from the ‘De Havilland Fund’, which immediately recognized the potential of these two talented and highly enthusiastic young pilots, they were each granted £2000 sponsorship to further their flying dreams.
“We can’t quite believe it,” said Jake Matthews. “Without this help we would have not been able to take this major step in our flying careers. We hope to do some local fund-raising on behalf of the GdeHFF to say thank you for this amazing award”.
Jordan and Jake will travel to Oxford to conduct their training at ‘Sportflying’ at Enstone Aerodrome where they need to complete nine ground exams, 13 hours of flying to gain their National Private Pilot’s Licence and convert to the Super Dimona as well as qualify for a Radio Licence. Jordan Richards added, “It’s going to be a busy time ahead but well within our capability, we hope to return to Culdrose much better aviators for the experience and a chance of a lifetime.”
And Seahawk Club are over the moon at their award winning fellows. “This is a tremendous boost for Jordan and Jake, two really outstanding young pilots,” said Club Training Officer Commander Chris Bryning. “It’s a great benefit to the club to have these keen and enthusiastic young members on the tug pilot’s roster”.
Chief Flying Instructor George Kosak remarked, “A huge ‘thank you’ has to go to the Geoffrey de Havilland Flying Foundation for this tremendous boost to the club. Not only will it be great advantage to Seahawk Gliding, it’s allowing Jordan and Jake to advance their fledgling flying careers to the next level and their ultimate ambition of becoming Royal Navy pilots”.