Birthday’s are for celebrating right? As long as we’re all agreed on that one then I make no apology for taking time out to celebrate what GAR has achieved since our launch in May 2009. It hardly seems believable that 12 months have passed since that day, a day which saw the start of something that, in all honesty, none of us believed would have developed in to what GAR is today.
We’ve published more than 150 features since then and covered almost every conceivable aviation angle – from airshows to airports, airlines to military aviation, pilots and aircraft, through to balloons and warbirds….you name it, there’s something here for you. But it’s not just about quantity, proud as we are that we have updated the site every single Tuesday for a whole year; it’s also about quality.
It’s not for us to say how good we are – but the feedback we’ve received from you, our readers, has been overwhelmingly positive. The comments, be they on the site, via the likes of Facebook and Twitter, or personal emails and even comments when we see you out and about have been extremely encouraging and we thank you all for letting us know how we’ve been doing and what you make of it.
We’ve not been above criticism of course and receiving negative comments is just as important to us. We’ve published all of those on the site too and responded to each and every one where we’ve felt that we needed to clarify something or make our position clear. Keep them coming, it helps us improve and if we don’t know that you don’t like something then we can’t even begin to consider doing anything about it!
We’ve also been recognised by our peers and when Flightglobal shortlisted us for a prestigious Aviation Web Award just seven months after launch (we eventually came second in our category) it was a proud moment for all of the team and perhaps when we realised that GAR was making a significant impression on a wider audience. Rest assured we’ll be striving for first place if we’re nominated next time round, although we must say that the NYC Aviation team were clearly worthy winners and well deserving of the praise heaped upon them.
One thing we’re all agreed upon is that we couldn’t have done anything without the support of those people who have been prepared to give up their precious time to accommodate GAR and talk about what they do and how they do it. There’s much to be said for the old adage that you reap what you sow, but some people have given much without knowing very much about us at all. You can’t ask for anything more than to be given a fair crack of the whip, and I don’t think we’ve let anyone down or abused the access that we’ve been granted. As I said above, it’s not for us to blow our own trumpets so let’s see what some of those contacts have to say about GAR as they help us celebrate our first birthday:
“What a blast of fresh air to the internet! I have never met a bunch of nuts with so much passion before - it is so obvious you enjoy what you are doing, so keep up the good work! We all enjoy what you are doing too! Only thing, please SLOW DOWN, or you will run out of things to cover before your next anniversary!” Guy Westgate – Swift Aerobatic Display Team.
“Congratulations to GAR from Team Tutor - from our point of view an excellent first year. Looking forward to working with you this coming season - must be your turn to buy the beer!! Well Done!” Flt Lt Bill Ramsey – RAF Tutor display pilot 2009/2010.
"Happy Birthday to GAR from all at RAF Valley, 4FTS and the Hawk Display Team! It has been really exciting to see GAR grow over the past year and we are really pleased that GAR has taken an interest in what we do and have helped to publicise our mission. We are glad to have made some good friends along the way too. The team from GAR has a refreshing, unbiased approach to journalism and a unique ability to get right under the skin of aviation, striking at the heart of what people actually want to read about. Congratulations on a superb debut year with many more to come I'm sure." Flt Lt Tom Saunders, 2010 4FTS Hawk Display Pilot.
"Happy Birthday to everyone on the GAR team from all of Team Merlin. Thank you for all the positive coverage and support shown in your reports and blogs so far. You are becoming quite the 'talk of the town' around these parts! Keep up the good work guys and look forward to working with you all again in the future." MACR Gareth Attridge, Team Merlin Manager, RAF Benson.
"Congratulations on a year of informative and well written updates that cover aviation in all of its manifestations, accompanied by excellent photography. Your behind the scenes reports on the UK airshow scene have been comprehensive and will hopefully help your readers see the effort made by organisers and display crews that goes into delivering a flying display. Looking forward to many more years to come!!" Dave Walton - TSA Consulting Ltd.
"Happy 1st Birthday to GAR from all at RAF Waddington International Airshow. It has been a pleasure working with you over the last year and we wish you every success in the coming year." Charles Skiera - Deputy Display Co-ordinator, Waddington International Airshow
So what have we done? The list is long and I as sit here writing this it’s almost incomprehensible that we have found ourselves in so many privileged positions so early in GAR’s life. We held a private photo shoot with three of the RAF’s 2009 solo display teams at an international airport – a shoot which saw Karl personally directing £67 million worth of Typhoon which was being moved especially for GAR. Karl photographed the VPG’s Vampire T.11 air to air – from a Cessna 150! We’ve flown, and crashed, the Hawk simulator at RAF Valley! We've flown in for real, thankfully less dramatically, an Extra 300, the Swift Aerobatic Display Team’s ‘borrowed’ Chipmunk, a Met Police EC-145, one of the RAF’s ‘new’ Chinook Mk.3s and alongside insect spraying C-131s.
We’ve exclusively revealed three 2010 display paint schemes - Hawk, Tucano and Breitling Wingwalkers. We’ve been behind the scenes at DHL’s East Midlands hub during it's busiest time in the dead of night. One of us, Geoff Hibbert, experienced his first ever flight in a light aircraft and explained how it helped overcome a fear of flying. Glenn Beasley travelled to RAF Scampton to meet the 2010 Red Arrows and Robin Hood Doncaster Sheffield for a one on one with the mighty An-225. Paul Filmer has reported from the depths of Siberia and across the USA, Paul Dunn from the likes of India, New Zealand, America and South Africa. Doug Green got in on the act with his tour of Australian museums, John Higgins loves his Saudi Typhoons and has supplied a vast number of quality images for our features. We’ve been behind the scenes at numerous airshows, interviewing the organisers behind the likes of RIAT, Kemble, Waddington, Southport, Dawlish (for whom Karl built their new website) and Abingdon.
Guest contributors have also featured and Andy Matheson’s superb look back on his time in the Falkland Islands proved extremely popular, as did Mark Broadbent’s airshow retrospective and Paul Dopson’s report from the Lorraine Mondial Balloon Festival in France.
All of this has been done in our spare-time, somehow fitting in GAR ‘work’ with jobs, weddings, new babies, family and even, in my case unfortunately, broken bones! But you know what, we wouldn’t change a thing. We’re proud of what we’ve achieved and the time in which we’ve achieved it and are determined not to stand still, our aim being to continue delivering the same level of content, both in quantitative and, most importantly, qualitative terms. That’s why we’ll be working hand in hand with PlanesTV, not only to help them deliver content for their airshow highlights packages that you might now have seen across the web, but to deliver EXCLUSIVE video content for GAR. We’ve got new people joining the GAR team, spreading our net even wider to bring you more content from farther afield and different perspectives. We’re launching a Battle of Britain microsite to commemorate its 70th anniversary which will include unique content from the BBMF – a partnership officially ratified by the MOD and the RAF. We’ll also be increasing our 'behind the scenes' peeks at UK airshows so look out for very special reports from the likes of Waddington, RIAT and Kemble.
GAR wants to interact with its readers so if you have a question for the author or a comment to make on this feature, please click on the button below. The best comments will appear right here on GAR.2010-05-20 - Ron A
Happy Birthday. Stunning photo's and great articles, keep up the good work love your articles on vintage jets F4's still rule.
2010-05-18 - alex mcdougall
Hi excellent work . Remember when Karl used to contribute to fighter control, his pictures just get better and better.
2010-05-18 - Mark Kwiatkowski
Congratulations on a fantastic first year guys and recognition from your peers. Brilliantly written articles with some excellent photography that accompanies them. Keep up the great work.
2010-05-18 - Michael Hind
Congratulations on a top, top year. I'm sure you all didn't expect this much success so early. Here's to another great year. See you soon.
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