Project Phoenix

Aim

To keep the Norfolk Gliding club surviving and be able to return to operations from the current CV19 crisis, with it's assets fit to use.

Covid and the current economic  situation, has caused our income has been hit hard from lack of trial lessons and general flying revenue. Usually a portion of the income generated from these would have gone towards our runway maintenance fund.  We have done what we can to reduce our overheads, but most of our outgoings still have to be paid.

We’ve had to prioritise our spending to ensure the survival of our Club. Without the income generated from the crowd funding campaign, we wouldn’t be able to invest in essential maintenance of our runways, and with disuse they degrade even faster. As a Community Amateur Sports Club, we run with volunteer labour from the members. We continue to support the local community with our Open Days; we provide free flight training by way of a youth scheme and last year sent the world's youngest pilot on his first solo flight, on his fourteenth birthday.

After the end of WW2, East Anglia was dotted with airfields left over from the conflict, most of them over the years have been ripped up and returned to agriculture. One of the few surviving airfields Is the former USAF base of Tibenham. During WW2 it was the home of the 445th Bomber group. Between 13 December 1943 and 25 April 1945 the 445th flew 280 missions, lost 108 aircraft in action and 554 aircrew lost their lives.

From 1943 until July 1944 Tibenham was the wartime base of famous Hollywood Actor Jimmy Stewart, who served there as 703rd Squadron commander. He, and many other veterans, and the families, have visited their old war-time haunt, and to this day we extend a warm welcome to those interested in the history of the base.

Tibenham itself survived the onslaught of the concrete crushers and although in that period we lost many of the buildings: the hangars, the control tower, nearly all of the hard-stands, the perimeter track and the end of one runway, in 1987 the gliding club managed to raise funds to buy enough of the remaining runways to continue to operate. Three years later, with help from America, club members and some grant aid, the club acquired the remainder, thus protecting Tibenham from the fate of so many airfields in East Anglia, that of being ripped up and now largely forgotten.

Our greatest assets are the three large runways – but this brings with it a cost. The asphalt is mainly more than 75 years old and it’s starting to show its age, weeds abound on the areas that are little used and potholes appear regularly. Whilst we do what we can with our limited resources and volunteer labour, funds are desperately needed to prevent further deterioration, not only to keep the gliding club viable and continuing in its mission to train new glider pilots, but as a living memorial to those 554 airmen who took off from them more than 75 years ago – but never landed on them again.

This project successfully funded on 26th February 2021