One flight from Penzance to Scilly on Tuesday, 24 April, went more eventfully than anyone would have thought. Half way across the channel, the helicopter started shaking a lot more than usual. One of the rotor-blades? safety tape had come loose in the poor weather, which made the ?centrifugal? forces unbalanced, shaking the helicopter wildly. The pilots had to decend to sea-level incase the aircraft became worse, as they did not know what the fault was at the time, and the pilot might have to make an emergancy landing, ditching in the sea. Of the full flight, 26 passengers, only one was a regular flier, and was the only one to notice the unfamiliar circumstances. On the islands, the emergancy services were alerted. Brintel?s aircraft, Foxtrot-Juliet, then made it to the island, ascending up the cliff face to get level with the airport. Rector Julian, from the local Church of England churches, said that the helicopter was shaking a lot, making it hard to make a landing, because the blades were not true. Rector Julian was on stand-by to aid the ?walking-wounded?, should an accident arise. The helicopter landed and they fitted a rotor blade up at St Mary?s airfield. They flew back without passengers.

The Tresco Marathon, run at the same time as the London Marathon, rasied a lot of money to benefit the research into Cystic Fibrosis. Guest runner Dr Stephanie Cook, an olympic gold medalist, presented the awards. Two other olympians attended. Roy Duncan was the only St Mary?s person to complete the marathon this year. The other ?Bulldogs? in the race were Roger Williams and Ros Hicks. Amoungst other local runners was Ryan Allsop from St Martin?s. One of the doctors researching CF said that “we are close to finding a treatment for the condition”. The joint winners were Chris Ledgard and Bob Brown. One an employee of the BBC, the other an enthusiast who had run 50 miles each day for 67 days around Australia. The Tresco website will be the first to publish further infomation on the race.

Part of the Isles of Scilly Museum?s timetable this year is a special weekend on the June 2 & 3, looking at the T W Lawson, ?the man and the ship?. Thomas Hall, an American enthusiast, will be coming to give a talk. Mark Groves, local diver, will give details of the wreck underwater. Richard Larn, trustee of the Museum Association, will give a talk on shipwrecks. A trip to the site of the wreck will occur in the afternoon, a charge of about ?5 will arise. On the third, Mark Groves and the BBC will be leading a dive around the wreck of the TWL. Overall, it sound like an interesting weekend. Locals and visitors are invited to join in.

The Isles of Scilly Coucil?s newish youth center on St Mary?s, opposite the Secondary School has had it?s diesel oil tanks burst. These tanks supply both the Carn Thomas and Jackson?s Hill School buildings. The spill started about 9:45 pm when the pipe was burst on the west exit to the youth center. The fire brigade hired a coucil digger to place a pile of sand in the way before too much of it flowed down the hill via the drains and into the sea below the dairy. The slick was diluted with hundreds of gallons of water from the nearby hydrant, which then saw all the run-off go into Hugh Beach.

Before this year, students at the secondary school have taken 8 to 11 GCSEs, depending upon their options and choices. This year, Year 9?s have only been given the option to take 8 to 9 GCSEs. This is how the previous system worked: they were given the eight main subjects (table below) and given the choice to take three more (Options A, B and C). Within each option catagory, they had the choice to conduct independant studies, where they would miss out on a GCSE. The Year 9 choices have been limited this year: they have only been given one option catagory: Option A. Their liberty to choose which design and technology to take remains. However, the new system will mean they can only take 8 or 9 GCSEs. This should not give them any disadvantage compared to mainland secondary school students, as this is common practise in other secondary schools. It is presumed that this measure was introduced by Ian Noble, the new headteacher, to improve the operation of the school after their OFSTED report. Past Headteachers: ? until 96: Alan Howells; ? until 97: Armyne Riddy (acting); ? until 99: Katherine Harvey; ? until 00: Alistair Mattley-Jones; ? currently: Ian Noble. Periods As from June, they are also changing the 30-minute long ?periods? to 50-minutes. Surplus Space Management and Joint Heads: The poor funding caused by the UK Government?s ignorance of the exceptional circumstances of the school has forced dramatic changes, with joint headmasters and the surplus-space problems. These changes have been so unwelcome to teachers and headmasters that the school has seen the moving-on and resignation of three headmasters and a temporary Head. The long-standing headmaster of the secondary school, Mr Howells, resigned in July 1996, getting out before the government forced surplus-space management, and joint-headmastership, on to the school. Surplus-space meant that per pupil, there should only be a limited square area of room space. The school had limited room as it was, but according to UK regulations space had to be removed. This lead to the selling-off of the Carn Thomas building. The result of the movement of all subjects into the main building has been total chaos: the english comments never has a libruary and drama room at the same time; tables have to be moved to conduct drama lessons; there is constant movement of subjects within the building, from one side to the other… Katherine Harvey was the first joint head of the Secondary School and Carn Gwarvel Primary School. It is now expected that the head will also be head of the primary schools on Bryher, St Agnes and St Martin?s. Protest Many of the staff have or are resigning in protest to the lack of compassion the government is giving, and are fed up with their working conditions.

Di Edwards and Kevin Sherris of the Isles of Scilly Gig Committee announced their final line up for the 2001 World Gig Championships. Facts about this year?s championships: ? 74 gigs; ? ?140 crews; ? 43 clubs; ? 6 non-UK clubs; ? 9 new gigs; ? 3 new clubs, Padstow Gig Club have not registered for the championships. They are often tied down with mayday celebrations. Port Issac appear to be undecided in what they are doing. They may use the Yealm gig ?Wasp?, or not come. It is because their gig, the ?Corsair?, will be doing an Irish Sea crossing with an Irish Crew from Courtmansherry. Pete Martin, one of the latest craftsmen to start gig building, is still building Penryn?s new gig. He has already built the Storm and Taran for Mount?s Bay, both of which will be racing in these championships. The list made by the IOS gig committee says that the away crews have registered 69 crews, but only 64 gigs. The clubs which over registered were: Gattewater (1), Culdrose (2), Mevigissey (1). Coverack?s ?Lark? has no male crew yet. ScillyNews has removed these extra crews for the list, which will be updated when any solutions arise. The island gigs should be able to have two free gigs. The island council are also under pressure from the gig committee to provide portaloos for the huge influx of people during the championships.

The IOS Secondary had their marathon on Wednesday 4 April. The sponsered run, in aid of the school itself, is run by the local physical education teachers, and other members of the school?s staff, along with helpers from the public en route to guide the runners, making sure they don?t take any short cuts! Top Positions: 1st Nathan Thomas, Year 9; 2nd Darren Hicks, Year 11; 3rd Robert Greenlaw, Year 11. The fastest, Nathan Thomas, beat the reining champion, Darren Hicks, by a matter of seconds, completing the ?8-mile course in around 37 minutes.