Grass Roots Meet 2010

10th - 12th September

About Grass Roots Ballooning.

In the UK there is a large choice of balloon meets to fly from each year. Most of the large balloon gatherings or 'fiestas' are aimed at entertaining the public.
The purpose of the Grass Roots Meet is for as many balloonists as possible to gather on a social basis and fly for fun without the pressure of entertaining crowds - balloonists going back to their roots!.
At Sackville Lodge, Tim Wilkinson and his family provide camping and catering facilities for participants. We place emphasis on helping PUTs (Pilots under Training) with their flying training.
As a gesture of good will we also invite local farmers and landowners to fly from the event as it is their land on which we land throughout the year. The timing of the event is deliberate so that the recently harvested fields provide plenty of stubble on which to land.

Supporters of Grass Roots 2010

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Directions +

Accommodation

Site Entrance: N52 15.60 W000 28.03 GBOS TL 047635
Club House: N52 15.72 W000 25.75 GBOS TL 038637

Sackville Farm Airfield is near the village of Riseley on the Northamptonshire Bedfordshire border between Rushden and Bedford

Once in the village continue along the High Street passed the Fox + Hounds pub
Eventually you will come to a school on your right and a garage on your left

Just after the garage on the left you will see a tree lined private road with a gate house. Turn in here and follow the private road. After about 1/3 of a mile take the turning on the left (marked"Wilkinsons").

Follow the track and take a right turn next to the house marked Sackville Lodge. With the house on your left and farm buildings on your right, continue on for a short distance.

You will see a green aircraft storage building on your right. Turn left into the car park and from there walk between the building and hedge, through the gap onto the airfield. Walk down to the club house keeping the hedge to your left.
Keep a very good lookout for taxiing aircraft and be careful of aircraft starting up.

Friends, family and picnics are most welcome, but no dogs please.

See... The Hybrid Google Map : The Ordnance Survey Map : Directions (Print Version) Close Panel

Directions +

Accommodation

Suggested B+B's (Distances shown from Sackville Airfield are approximate)

Dardenne	High Street	Riseley	01234 709777	local
North End Farm	Riseley Road	Bletsoe	01234 781320	local
	49 Mill Road	Sharnbrook	01234 750715	local
The Old School House		Bolnhurst	01234 376754	3 miles
Woodlands		Milton Ernest	01234 822914	6 miles
The Windmill		Thurleigh	01234 771016	3 miles
Outfields Stables		Ravensden	07501 224178	5 miles
The Garth		Ravensden	01234 771745	5 miles
The Grange		Upper Dean	01234 709943	local
Middle Farm Villa		Chelveston	01933 625541	5 miles
The Hall Farm		Tilbrook	01480 860696	6 miles
Fairys Lodge Farm		Covington	01480 860441	5 miles
The Racehorse		Catworth	01832 710123	6 miles
Apothecary Guest House		Kimbolton	01480 860352 or 07753 573980	6 miles
Chestnut View		Spaldwick	01408 890216	7 miles
	38 West Perry	Perry	01480 810225 or 07866 895810	8 miles
Grafham Lodges	Highfield Farm	Perry	01480 810036

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"Countdown"

(Saturday 21 August 2010)

With less than a month to go here's a quick update.

"Getting Closer"

(Monday 16 August 2010)

With just over three weeks to go Time is getting short!

is Tuesday 31st August.

enquiry@aerostationery.co.uk

"Getting Ready"

by Tim Wilkinson (Saturday 26 June 2010)

'Team Sackville' is working very hard for Grass Roots 2010.

The set aside has been cultivated, will be smooth allowing us to use it giving a larger area to play with
The grass area is now all cut
We have toilets and showers booked
The NFU have promised the marque again
On the catering front:

Bacon butties, tea and coffee for the morning;
the Hog Roast is coming again for Saturday; Friday night looks like fish and chips on site;
the bar will hopefully be run by local pub on Friday and all day Saturday - unless anyone else has better idea

200 invitations to farmers to come fly with us, warning them you are flying, will be sent out ten days before the event
A 4000 litre bulk tank has been purchased with pump and meter, as well as the other tank
Contract for Calor to come with a 35,000 litre bulk lorry on Saturday lunch time and stay until finished in the evening, then leave us with 6000ltrs for Sunday - that's the gas sorted!
We've had confirmation the other day of a world class display for Saturday afternoon
We have collected a 77 tether envelope for training. We need a proper set of tether ropes - can anyone lend us some?!.
All PUT's make sure you have all your paperwork with you, as we may be able to help with the gas if it works out.
We will pay the gas for any PUT that completes a check out flight at Sackville during the event - book your examiner!
We are doing our bit, it is now up to you the balloonists - book up now, give us a chance to organise it for you - It is your event!!
Many thanks to the BBAC Committee and Chris Dunkley with your financial help.

End News

Articles

"How Grass Roots Came About"

When, in 2008, Rob Cross had his entry to the Bristol Balloon Fiesta turned down he decided to set about organising his own Balloon Meet – whereMore... he could set the rules.
He knew he wanted a summer version of the Icicle Meet or in other words another ‘Harvest Moon’ – a large no-hassle grass-roots event, where everybody could come along and enjoy themselves.
With the help of Mark Stelling Rob was introduced to Tim Wikinson, the owner of the airfield at Sackville Lodge near Bedford. When Rob visited Tim at Sackville the site quickly revealed itself as being a perfect venue for a Balloon Meet of the kind Rob had in mind and with little persuasion Tim gave the nod and suggested anything was possible. If Rob was thinking of 100 balloons Tim wanted to double it to 200!
Tim is the latest generation of Wilkinsons to live and farm at Sackville and as the event drew closer he assured Rob that there would not be any landowner problems because he had personally invited 80 surrounding farmers and told them they could fly in the balloons – a condition of entry to the event was that every pilot should fly a farmer.
Tim Wilkinson is one of those guys who can fix most problems in no time he had arranged gas refuelling, a hog roast, toilets, bar etc. Everything was in place to ensure everyone had a great time. He had even negotiated with suppliers that with a couple of days notice they would postpone if the weather was bad.
The forecast for the planned weekend of 6 September 2008 was awful so the whole event was postponed three weeks until 27 September – this allowed time to secure the use of an NFU marquee free of charge care of the BBAC!
The re-scheduled weekend loomed with a perfect forecast and the event was called ‘On’ – only possible in this age to the internet. ‘Team Sackville’ as they became known congregated at the airfield on the Friday to set things up – a bar was created, an area for pilot registration together with signage for the site, all from raw materials lying around the airfield. The NFU team arrived and erected the marquee – very professional.
Throughout the weekend we wanted to make sure that as many people as possible could fly so much matchmaking took place to ensure lone pilots, PUT’s and crew were all drawn together. Farmers were assigned to balloons and ‘swaps’ were arranged between balloonists and flying club members.
All in all, judging by the feedback the initial aims of the first Grass Roots Event had been achieved with everyone enjoying themselves.

"Back to Our Roots"

by Rob Cross (reproduced courtesy of Aerostat)
Following the success of the 2008 Great British Mass Ascent where approximately 40 balloons took part, it was with great excitement that we launched Grass Roots 2009 at the start of this year.More... Once again the event was scheduled to take place at Tim Wilkinson's Sackville Lodge airfield just north of Bedford over the weekend of September 11.
The event was planned to be deliberately similar to last year, with the emphasis being placed upon laid-back, fun-flying and socialising - a private event run by balloonists for balloonists.
The Grass Roots team remains unchanged with Tim organising the logistics such as catering, gas and camping, Peter Gray running flight control including pilot registration and debiefing, Mark Stelling as Meet Safety Officer and met man and myself as general dogsbody.
The amount of effort that Tim and his family contributed to this event should not go unmentioned. They have been living and farming in the area for generations so were able to use their friends and contacts to source catering andeven provide flexibility to "roll" the event should the weather not suit the weekend in question.
Tim also wrote to approximately 140 local farmers to invite them to fly in the balloons at the event - we ask all participating pilots to fly a farmer. A lot of effort has gone into creating positive landowner relations and to have a meet run by a well established farming family certainly helped with landings as most of the landowners knew Tim and were expecting us. Tim took his balloon check flight earlier this year so could now enter himself as a bona fide balloon pilot! We were further helped by NFU Mutual who generously loaned us a marquee again free of charge, plus a generous grant of £1,000 from the BBAC - thank you!
As the weekend approached, it was clear from the large number of entries that this would be a popular event. Only weeks previously Tim had unfortunately hit a power line and his balloon wasn't going to be repaired in time. We needed to call the event the Wednesday before to give everyone ample warning.If it was too marginal we knew that many of the long distance participants probably wouldn't make the journey.
This year's call wasreally tricky. A mass of high pressure was building but there was evidence to suggest its centre would remain too far north so we coculd be contending with the north-easterly winds rotating around it. Luckily the high was eventually forecast to fill out which meant that the Saturday in paraticular was looking good so we called the event 'on'. All this was done by e-mail - without e-mail it would be impossible to run this event.
The NFU team arrived on the Thursday to erect the marquee and, during the course of Friday, the rest of the site was prepared and many balloon teams arrived. Few teams were ready to fly on Friday evening and there was no official briefing but we provided the met forecast to people could do a self-briefing.
Ian Chadwick and Ian Warrington couldn't resist the opportunity, so the event was off to a flying start. Later that evening Tim, his wife Angie and family prepared an impromptu meal in the flying club house. This proved popular asit saved many folks having to leave the site - the meal was great value for money and kiddie-friendly which really helped out mmany of those with children who might not have liked facing the prospect of finding an expensive pub meal.
Meanwhile Mark and Angie went off to the local cash and carry to create a bar. Their vehicle returned sagging under the weight of booze. In true grass roots style a bar was swiftly created; Mark was like a child in a sweet shop and we weren't short of volunteers to help run the bar, especially Steve Roake!
Meanwhile teams were arriving from all corners of the UK (Bristol, Norwich, Somerset, Kent, North of England, Isle of Man and so on). Eventually it was off to bed knowing that the Saturday morning forecast was looking good.
On the Saturday we called an early 6am briefing. All was indeed looking good andthe marquee was packed. We also go to great lengths to ensure crew, pilots and balloons get matched so everyone sees some ballooning action - there were cases of PUT's turning up with balloons but no pilots so we always try to get everyone the support they need. Approximately 40 balloons flewthis slot in really nice conditions. This year the harvest had been earlier than last year but there were still plenty of places to land. Everyone debriefed with Peter Gray.
We actively encouraged folk to bring interesting and vintage balloons to inflate during the day and this became evident during the course of Saturday when various envelopes were inflated and tethered or hopped across the field. We also try to encourage PUT's to the event - after all they are the future of ballooning and should not be put off from attending large meets.
Mike GUnston onceagain ran a "tether school" for PUT's who needed to get this signed off as part of their training. No fewer than eight were signed off and thanks to Jamie Edwards who kindly lent us an envelope for this.
Meanwhile Derry Moore conducted some balloon inspections. There was pretty much someform of ballooning activity running all through the day. One of the highlights was seeing Nigel Carr's balloons, G-GEES and G-GEEZ, hop together across the field. Martin Freeston and Sandy Mitchell brought G-HOPS, the hop special shape, for a hop. Another rarity wasG-DUMP, a Customcraft hopper.
At one point a Merlin enngine was heard in the distance and suddenly out of nowhere a Spitfire buzzed the airfield and did a full display including loops and victory rolls.
This was set against a deep blue, cloudless sky and was simply awesome. Nobody except Tim knew about this appearence but it had been planned using "connections" from the flying club. Unfortunately for Tim he missed the display as he had gone off site to repair the gas tanker that hadbroken down a few miles away. Tim can fix any problem!
Throughout the day Tim's family had been hard at work from the word go with catering for everyone by providing hundreds of bacon butties, teas and coffees and by lunchtime the hog roast was swinging.
Before long it was time for the evening briefing by which time there were balloon trailers everywhere. Again, the forecast was very good with a light breeze taking us towards Bedford. The fabulous conditions saw 71 balloons take tothe air. I flew Susan Barley from NFU Mutual - I was delighted she had taken the trouble to attend as she could see first hand how the marquee was being used and the great lengths that had gone into promoting positive landowner relations. Everyone returned from good flights to refuel and enjoy the evening meal and bar that had been arranged with caterers.
Sunday dawned breezy but it didn't stop approximately 20 balloons flying. This was the last official slot of the meet and mid-morning we held the rather tongue-in-cheek awards ceremony which included the following:
Crate of beer awared to Phil Hooper for his relentless efforts to encourage scores of Bristol pilots to attend the event.
Tavistock Tankard, generously donated by Mark Warne and Peter Harding for the most intersting retrieve. This was awarded to Ed Chapman who managed to get part of his envelope draped on a power line. Nobody was injured and the electricity people were very helpful.
The Biggleswade Trophy. After much hype, this is becoming the most sought-after award in global ballooning. This year it went to Paul McKinley who, during the course of the weekend, had both his tether and recommendation signed off and went on to do his successful check flight with Chris Dunkley on the Sunday morning.
So all in all a good time was had by all. We were overwhelmed by all the nice messages we received after the event. In total there were over 100 balloons in attendance which is pretty good for an event in only its second year. There were almost no landowner problems. Someone landed on a landowner who had been promised an SA many years ago which wasnot honoured so this made sure it will now go on the map. Many landowners visited the event to learn more about ballooning.
I'd like to thank everyone who contributed to the event's success. Tim and his family did an amazing job and worked incredibly hard to make it work. Thanks to Mark and Peter for all their efforts and Steve "the Golden Retriever" Cook for assisting behind the scenes.
Finally, huge tahnks to YOU - all pilots and crew for attending without who there would be no event. In true grass roots style we make up a lot of it as we go along, and we hope to see as many of you as possible next year over the weekend of September 10 - 12. We don't intend to change a thing!

"In Praise of Sackville"

by Edward Lubbock (reproduced courtesy of Aerostat)
The second Sackville – ‘Back to Basics’ – meet was held in 2009. I didn't attend the first meet in 2008 as there was a ground-swell of opinion that the meet might have serious repercussions & it was generally felt that a plethora of new sensitive areas (SA’s) would be the likely outcome. As National LRO I decided to sit on the sidelines to suck-it-and-see! - but the meet was a resounding success, leaving me with no alternative More...than to bite the bullet and go to the next meeting.
What a breath of fresh air greeted me. The location was first class, there was no pressure to fly and Rob Cross together with his ‘partner in crime!’ Tim Wilkinson pulled off what must have been the UK meet of the year. Breakfasts were fantastic, briefings were exemplary and the constant availability of refreshments was second to none. Apart from the excellent flying, the hog and lamb roast deserve special mention.
So that brings me to the other point – how many new SA’s resulted from the meet? The answer is NONE!! Both Tim and Rob had taken on-board the mammoth task of notifying all local farmers and landowners of the meet. The outcome was a very healthy tolerance towards the ballooning fraternity. In fairness, one SA was added to the local map but that was already a problem waiting to happen and was not a direct result of the Sackville Meet.
In conclusion, top marks to Rob and Tim for all their efforts in taking us back to where ballooning should be! A fun sport, to be enjoyed by enthusiasts and a meet which made it clear to the landowners and farmers that the last thing we want is to cause them problems. Local farmers and participating pilots were encouraged to get together to foster a better understanding of each other’s perceptions. A number of local landowners took up the offer and I think that they left with a more positive attitude. Rob – sign me up for 2010!!

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Tethering –

Ballooning activity at the event isn't just confined to the morning and evening free flying.
During the day participants are encouraged to bring their old or unusual balloons to tether or 'hop' across the airfield.
We also run the established 'tether school' where PUTs can have their tether officially passed and signed off by a qualified BBAC instructor - this is a big step towards gaining the PPL(B).

Instructors –

There are always BBAC instructors on hand if PUTs need to do an instructor flight as part of their BBAC-approved flying training syllabus.

Farmers and Landowners –

As a measure of good will we invite c.200 local farmers and landowners to fly in the balloons at the event as a 'thank you' to them for having balloons land on their fields during the event and during the course of the year.
Part of the conditions of entry for balloonists is that they volunteer to fly a farmer.
We reinforce our positive relations with the farming community by having use of an NFU marquee at the event which is generously loaned to us free of charge by the NFU.
We ask that after each flight you give the customary gift of a bottle of wine to the farmer/landowner on whose property you have landed.

Training –

Pilot training runs through the heart of the event, whether it's helping with the provision of instructors or simply making PUTs welcome to a mass take-off event, after all today's PUTs are our pilots of the future!
We also intend to offer PUT's the chance to sit their PPL written exams under exam conditions in Tim's house - provided that they have told us and a resident examiner what subject papers they would like to sit!
Where we can we will sponsor the gas for PUTs to help them on their way.

Check Flights –

The 2009 event saw the first PUT (Paul McKinley) do their successful General Flight Test with examiner Chris Dunkley from the event.
If you want to aim to do your GFT at this year's event we will do everything we can to assist including sponsoring your gas.

Inspections –

There will be BBAC-qualified inspectors to conduct annual inspections of balloons.
If you would like to make use of this service please contact the event organisers beforehand, or arrange directly with your preferred inspector.

Flight Swaps –

Sackville Lodge Flying Club is friendly and there are many based aircraft.
If you would like to 'swap' a flight in a fixed-wing aircraft for a balloon flight please feel free to liaise directly with the flying club members.

Relaxed/Sociable – Fun Flying !

Unlike commercial meets or 'fiestas' there is no pressure to fly from this event.
It’s deliberately sociable with most participants camping on site.
The social 'hub' is the NFU marquee, and catering is provided throughout the weekend (for details see under 'News' section).
The whole idea is that everyone comes along and has lots of fun!!

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