My Air Experience Flying and Glider Training Logs One of my original ambitions was to be a pilot in the Royal Air Force. I had a great interest in aviation from an early age both through constructing Airfix and Revell model aircraft kits (I had over 60 models hanging from my bedroom ceiling at one point and my pocket money was index-linked to the price of an Airfix Series 1 kit!) and reading articles and books by John W. R. Taylor (I still have my copy of The Eagle New Book of Aircraft given to me in the early ‘60s and from which I gained much inspiration). These hopes were dashed when I went for a school medical aged 11 and was told that I was colour-blind. The Doctor tried to cheer me up by telling me that there was no future as a pilot in the RAF as pilotless missiles were taking over (!!!). Strange to tell but in my late ‘30s I had a further opportunity to take a colour-blindness test and this time I passed! (but not with flying colours.....;-) ) I was very lucky that my school (Bristol Grammar) had a Combined Cadet Force (CCF) Unit. I was a member of the Royal Airforce Section and we had regular opportunities to go Air Experience Flying - both locally and whilst away on Annual Camp. Colour blindness wasn’t a problem with this so I went as often as I could. Date Aircraft Registration Location Time in Air 15 Jun 1972 DHC Chipmunk WK 609 Staverton (Gloucester Airport) No 3 AEF 26 minutes AEF P2 15 July 1972 DHC Chipmunk WK 522 RAF College Cranwell Lincolnshire 11 minutes AEF P2 10 Oct 1972 Lockheed C-130K Hercules XV 304 RAF Lyneham Wiltshire 45 minutes AEF 26 Oct 1972 DHC Chipmunk WP 962 Staverton (Gloucester Airport) No 3 AEF 31 minutes AEF P2 14 Dec 1972 DHC Chipmunk WG 350 Staverton (Gloucester Airport) No 3 AEF 40 minutes AEF P2 01 Feb 1973 DHC Chipmunk WD 376 Filton No 3 AEF 36 minutes AEF P2 18 Jul 1973 DHC Chipmunk WK 522 RAF Wyton Huntingdonshire 45 minutes AEF P2 27 Sep 1973 DHC Chipmunk WK 609 Filton No 3 AEF 40 minutes AEF P2 26 Feb 1974 Vickers VC10 XR 808 RAF Brize Norton Oxfordshire 120 minutes AEF 19 Mar 1974 Vickers Varsity WJ 945 RAF Little Rissington (Central Flying School) 125 minutes Flew over Filton then Brecon  - Air Route Nav Exercise 23 Mar 1974 DHC Chipmunk WG 350 Filton No 3 AEF 30 minutes AEF P2 16 Jul 1974 DHC Chipmunk WP 962 RAF Colerne No 3 AEF 17 minutes AEF P2 Just before I left Bristol Grammar School I had the opportunity to go on an Air Cadet Gliding Course. On my last flight in a DHC Chipmunk the instructor had said he thought I handled the plane pretty well and asked me if I had thought of taking up flying as a career. I told him I was colour blind and he said “Oh, bad luck”. I told him that I was going on a gliding course and his response was “Well, you do as much gliding as you can”. I’ve never forgotten this. The Gliding Course was a week’s “intensive” training in T21 and T31 Gliders and took place at the RAF’s second oldest airfield at Old Sarum near Salisbury in Wiltshire with 622 Flying School. This was great fun as, because I was 17 and had a provisional driving licence, not only did I learn to fly, I also learnt to drive. I was given about 20 minutes worth of tuition on the mysteries of double de-clutching by a Royal Army Ordnance Corps Corporal called “Chalkie” - I think he was supposed to be on a bomb disposal detachment but took more interest in the gliding activities and would cadge a flight whenever he could. This “tuition” was enough to allow me to drive a Land Rover around the grass airfield towing a special trailer which was used to recover the gliders from wherever they landed on the airfield (no runways). This was quite an efficient operation as the alternative was to manhandle the glider back to the launch point. Once the glider was loaded on the trailer and strapped down the pupil still sitting in the cockpit would normally have finished his pre-flight checks “CBSIFTCB” (Controls, Ballast, Straps, Instruments, Flaps (none!), Trim, Canopy, Brakes) by the time the glider had been delivered back to the launch point. My Air Cadet gliding log is below: Glider Pilot Training at 622 Flying School, Old Sarum, Wiltshire, UK Date Aircraft Reg’n P1/P2 No of Winch Launches Time in Air (Total Minutes) 03 Aug 1974 Slingsby T21b (Sedbergh TX1) WB944 P2 6 29 03 Aug 1974 Kirby Cadet TX Mk III – (Slingsby T31) XA294 P2 2 6 05 Aug 1974 Kirby Cadet TX Mk III – (Slingsby T31) XA294 P2 4 8 06 Aug 1974 Kirby Cadet TX Mk III – (Slingsby T31) XA294 P2 1 3 07 Aug 1974 Kirby Cadet TX Mk III – (Slingsby T31) XA294 P2  3 5 08 Aug 1974 Kirby Cadet TX Mk III – (Slingsby T31) XA294 P2 Cable Break Exercise 9 11 09 Aug 1974 Kirby Cadet TX Mk III – (Slingsby T31) WT901 P1 Solo check with CFI 2 4 09 Aug 1974 Kirby Cadet TX Mk III – (Slingsby T31) WT901 P1 – Cert A & B Solo flights 3 6 When I left school I joined the Bristol and Gloucestershire Gliding Club at Nympsfield but quickly learnt that the Air Cadet training I’d received wasn’t enough to convince the CFI that he should let me loose on the club single seaters and so essentially I had to start again, this time learning on the higher performing Blanik and Bocian. Unfortunately, finances were rather tight as a student and so I had to abandon going solo. I tried again a few years later when I moved to Cambridge, joining the Cambridge University Gliding Club - then based at the Imperial War Museum at Duxford. However, finances once again became a problem when I bought a house (as did my health - I had glandular fever) so this put paid to my aspirations. I’ve flown in light aircraft since (a DH Tiger Moth and a Robin Regent DR220) and have been gliding a couple of times at Shobdon and after a gap of ablout 9 years at Gransden Lodge, Cambridgeshire but nothing more serious. I did also do a parachute jump for charity at Ipswich Airport, Suffolk. That was a most amazing experience! I’m currently building an extension on the side of the house so this has to take priority over anything else at the moment....

 
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