Solent Airport Daedalus celebrates their 10th anniversary of the opening of their runway on Monday, March 10, 2025 at Euro Flight Training.
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00:00So Sean, explain where we are and what we're doing here today. Okay, well where
00:03we are is Solent Airport at Daedalus and we're in the headquarters of Euroflight
00:08training and we're celebrating heritage at Daedalus, of which there is a huge
00:14amount as aircraft have been flying here now for well over a century, even longer
00:19than the Royal Air Force and I'm also thinking back today that at exactly ten
00:25years ago to this moment I opened the new runway, the resurfaced runway here at
00:31Solent Airport at Daedalus, so a very special occasion which it's really good
00:35to remember because all of these success really stem from that. What's the
00:40reaction been like, people coming here today? Oh the reactions very positive, it's
00:44lovely to see so many people from the Daedalus Aviation Heritage Group because
00:50what they do is keep that heritage alive and that's what's so important, you know
00:54there's such a history here, this was the most busiest airport runway on D-Day
01:01when over 400 sorties were flown from here, the Spitfires etc, so it's a very
01:07very important location and it's so important that that heritage is preserved.
01:11My name is Terry Coombs, I'm the chairman of the Daedalus Aviation Heritage Group
01:17which is a merger of the Leigh Flying Association and Gosport Aviation Society.
01:22So we formed in 2022 under the new name so we can look after promoting the
01:27airfield and looking after the heritage of the airfield as well, you know for future generations to enjoy.
01:34And before that you were called? Leigh Flying Association, we actually had a
01:38hangar operation over at Hangar B and I was the hangar manager there, looked after seven aircraft.
01:43What does the group do now? Well mainly we've got pilots, plane spotters, aviation
01:50museums, nearly everybody's a photographer and we do coach trips, mini bus trips to
01:56airfields of interest, museums. We do fly-ins at Popham Airfield where we arrange for
02:02different groups of aircraft to fly and all meet up and we sponsor that.
02:05Hopefully do it at Leigh one day, a solo one day, and we have loads and loads of
02:11books dating back many many years right to modern day which are available for
02:17members to borrow and bring back. We have many many thousands of photographs going
02:23right back to the early days to yesterday. What early day photographs are you talking about, early 1900s, first aviation?
02:31Yeah, people tend to donate them to us, obviously I wasn't around in a week and people were to donate
02:37them to us you know and so we've got albums in there with older pictures on
02:42but we're going for an archival stage where everything we have is being
02:47processed and put in some form of order to go on to our website. And how
02:51important is Daedalus to the local area and industry? I think it's vital because
02:56A, it's employment scope of course, which is very important, it's a heritage site in
03:01itself, going back to 1917, lots of history with D-Day, we launched 400-odd
03:09aircraft on D-Day itself on here, and I think the local people also enjoy the
03:14heritage, they enjoy the open space as well, it's not a concrete jungle and I
03:18think people like to keep it that way. Lots of youngsters come to the viewing
03:22area, which is a fantastic place to meet, lovely cafe, watch the flying, perhaps get the
03:28bug and go on to a flying career. We have one young lad actually doing that, so
03:33we'd like to think we are as a group contributing to the future of the
03:37airfield. And you're here celebrating 10 years? Of reopening the runway and
03:43resurfacing the runway. And why was that vital to keep this place open? Well
03:48because airfields are closing all over the country, airfields of this sort
03:51stature and below, and along the south coast, if we lose Solent, Goodwood's still open, but
04:00there's not very many places for pilots to enjoy their pastime, or like our
04:05friends here, running businesses. Or training. Or training, yeah absolutely, yeah. So it's a
04:10vital place to have open, I consider, and plus the fact for the pilot that wants
04:16to fly in with his family, down the beach, they're there. There's not many airfields in
04:22the country can offer that, you know, and there's loads of little pubs around as you
04:25probably know, and the cafe as well of course, and it's a destination itself,
04:31where you fly to many airfields in the country, but in the middle of nowhere, there's nothing.
04:35You know, so we are so lucky here to have all what we have, and we have pilot
04:40members in our group that will take us flying when we can, so we get to get in the air as well.
04:44Do they store their planes here? Yeah, yeah, one of my good friends has got a
04:49hangar, in hangar P over the way, and whenever he can, he takes me. His wife is
04:54part of it of course, he's right, but when he's able to, he'll take me as well, you know, so
04:59It's fantastic. My name's Jack Lewis, and you are a trainee pilot that comes to
05:05the Dalys Airport. I am, yes. So tell me about that, when did it start? So for me,
05:09it started in April of 2024, and so for every sort of trainee pilot, sort of the last
05:14stage of their advanced training is their multi-engine entry rating, and their
05:17commercial pilot's license, and there's actually not that many schools that
05:21offer sort of a pay-as-you-go basis. This is probably the only one in the
05:24southeast of the UK, which is quite a big deal, and lots of schools require a lot of money up front, which this one doesn't, which is a sort of financial relief really, because there's quite a few schools, statistically in the last sort of year and a half, two years, that have gone bust, and students have lost a lot of money.
05:39Oh, so you don't have that risk, as you're just paying as you go? I don't have that risk here at all, the facilities are sort of, you know, they're getting better and better and better,
05:46there's new maintenance facilities coming here, we've got loads of aircraft to fly
05:49from, it's just been fantastic from start to finish. And you said you're not
05:53local? I'm not local, no, and most of the students here aren't local, we come
05:56from all around the country, there was a lady I was training with who came from
05:59Aberdeen, all the way down here to train, I come from sort of Kent, towards the
06:03Lyd Airport area, there's people that come from obviously London, Farrersfield really,
06:08there's Leicester, it's quite a diverse group really, because it is just such an
06:13attractive place to train. Why is it attractive to train? So you've got,
06:16obviously, the sort of facilities themselves here are fantastic, the airfield
06:20itself is extremely friendly, the staff here are fantastic and probably some of
06:23the most experienced instructors in the industry, and also the proximity to all
06:27the airspace, so around Bournemouth and Southampton, means that we can get a lot
06:30of different training approaches and things like that in which is really beneficial.
06:33And how expensive is it to become, to do your training? How long's a bit of string
06:38really, it all depends, I mean it can range from sort of £50,000, £60,000, £70,000
06:42to, if you go to a larger school where you're required to pay upfront, sort of
06:46£120,000 or more, so it's a significant investment and because this school is
06:51what we call modular, where we allow, they sort of allow paying as you go, it means
06:55that we can all hold down jobs and things like that, which obviously is much
06:58more beneficial to us as well, so yeah that really helps. And what do you hope
07:03to fly when you're qualified? So I honestly am quite keen on getting into
07:07sort of the maritime patrol search and rescue field, I sort of already sort of
07:12dabbled in it a little bit with my current job, so yeah, sort of wish to
07:15continue that sort of adrenaline kick when you get a call to go and help someone.