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My first flight in a glider, apart
from my experiences during the War flying the Hotspur, Horsa and Waco
CG4a Hadrian troop carriers, was a winch launch with the ATC Gliding Instructors
School at Detling, near Maidstone in Kent - an ex-Battle of Britain fighter
station.
I wasn’t flying it at the time and I well remember feeling rather
exposed in the open cockpit sitting on the bare plywood seat alongside
my pilot, John Furlong. John was one of the people who first developed
the Ottfur release hook for safer winch launching. Up to that time, there
were a number of fatal accidents cause by being unable to release the
cable. It incorporated a spring loaded gate rather similar in appearance
to the TOST release.
Of course my first launch ever was a cable break, just as we were pulling
up into the full climb which seemed to me, a mere power pilot, incredibly
steep. However, we recovered to normal flight without any difficulty and
landed straight ahead. With only the tyre to absorb most of the shock
it seemed rather heavy and I was surprised that there was no damage to
the front skid. My main impression of the landing was the noise as we
hit the ground, and the sensation of speed sitting so close to the ground.
That was my only flight that day as it was to have been a hangar flight.
Next morning I met the instructors, Flight Lieutenant Jock Forbes and
Flying Officer Peter Mallet, both of whom had been instructors at British
Forces Gliding Clubs (BAFO) in Germany and had flown in the British team
in the World Championships.
I was learning a great deal by
just watching
Pete took me for three or four winch launches to get me familiar with
the Sedburgh. The first were up round and down lasting about four minutes.
On the last one we flew into a thermal and climbed up to about 2000 feet.
This was the first time I had climbed more than a few feet in a thermal
and I was able to grasp the rudiments of soaring techniques. But I was
learning a great deal by just watching the others fly. Unfortunately,
we then had several days of unflyable weather so it was taken up with
lectures.
At the time I had been on the staff of the Central Flying School (CFS)
at Little Rissington for several years at that time when there was an
opportunity to go gliding for a week. I managed to get a place on what
was an instructors’ course for civilian instructors from the Cadet
Gliding Schools which operated all over the UK at weekends and holiday
times.
I was not at all impressed by the ground instruction. In fact I was staggered
by the arguments between the students and instructors, largely caused
by lack of basic knowledge by the staff. Th |
