Life Skills and Hobbies

Archaeological and sacred Sites

This flight takes you north to Liddington castle, then west along the Ridgeway to Barbury castle another Iron age hill fort, following the Ridgeway west then south west to Windmill hill settlement, from there to Avebury stone circle, south to Silbury hill the highest man made hill in Europe at 120 feet high and 4,500 years old. Next stop is the Kennet long barrow the largest burial mound in UK, south to the Wessex down land to the Wansdyke defensive wall some 28 miles long, and two Roman forts based along the wall. Tracking east we pass over further hill forts along the top of the downs, to the Giants grave and Roman fort on the top of Martinsell Hill. Finally we circle the stone age encampment on the easterly escarpment of Martinsell hill.

The flight is flown at a slow enough speed to have great views on the sites, and the student will be briefed on the effects of controls and can practise the initial flying lesson of straight and level.

Flight of the White Horses

During this hour long flight you will be able to view seven of the famous White horses of Wessex, starting with the white horse near Marlborough. Tracking north east to the famous White horse at Uffington, west along the ridgeway to the Broad Town horse, then south to Broad Hinton's horse, west to Cherhill horse and monument, south to the newest white horse at Devizes, made to celebrate the millennium. The final White horse is across the vale of the white horse just to the south of Pewsey.

Once again you will be briefed on the flight and will be able to take control and practise both straight and level flight and turns.

Wessex Waterways

The aim of this flight is to cover a route along either rivers or canals and their features. Starting with the river Kennet tracking east to Hungerford and then picking up the Kennet and Avon canal south west to the Crofton beam engine and Wilton Windmill. We then follow the canal west along the Pewsey vale past Alton barns and Bishop Cannings to Devizes and the Caen Hill flight of locks, on towards Bradford on Avon, returning along the downs past Olivers castle to Marlborough.

Historic Buildings

This flight will take in several famous and historic building starting with Wolf Hall, the Seymour's house, one of Henry the Eights wives. Then north to Tottenham house based on the site of Henry's old hunting lodge. Heading east we fly to Highclere house the setting for Downtown Abbey, turning on towards Littlecote house to the northwest of Hungerford, finally onto Ramsbury manor via Marlborough College and Merlins mount.

Bath Bristol and River Severn

The final flight will take you west following the Roman road towards Bath, we will over fly Bath and then track north west towards Bristol, routing around the north of Bristol onto the River Severn, and the two Severn Bridges. We then track east towards Badminton House, south east to Chippenham and over fly Cherhill Monument and White horse returning to Marlborough.

All flights are subject to weather conditions on the day.

GS Aviation

GS Aviation

About GS

The instructors at GS Aviation have a wealth of experience, with thousands of hours flying and instructing, and are career instructors, not just hour building on their way to a commercial pilot's licence. Graham Slater, the Chief Flying Instructor, has been flying since 1972, and has flownover a hundred different types of aircraft in this time, from Gliders to large single-engine aircraft. Graham has been instructing for 22 years and has amassed over 11,000 hours of total flying time.

Dave Cox and Martin Culley have both an ex-RAF background. Dave was an engineer on the Hercules at RAF Lyneham and Martin learned to fly in the RAF and served a Short Service Commission with the RAF Regiment. David Slater is Graham's son and started flying when he was 14 years old. He became an instructor four years ago, after completing a degree at university.

So we have a great team of friendly instructors, whose sole aim is to teach people to fly safely and to the licence standard required by the UK Civil Aviation Authority.