Sailplane & Gliding 1966 - Lakes Gliding Club

L
OBITUARY
LC.OTTLEY
EONARD was a fine example of a
"bllckroom boy". tIe ran a garage
and repair workshop in a yard behind
some shops near Alexandra Palace. He
had been a fitter and probably a rigger.
tOO, in the first War, of which he seldom
spoke. He was a shy, retiring man who
f.ound difficulty in mixing with his fellows
and, as is often the case in these
circumstances. he assumed a somewhat
aggressive front. He first became known
to me in 1940 when the R.A.F. decided
to introduce gliding into the A:T.C.,
under pressure from Air Commodore
Chamier.
For economy reasons it was decided to
set the Cadets to build Cadet gliders
from kits of parts supplied by Slingsby.
This proved to be an almost impossible
job, due largely t~ lack of know-bow
and time. Ottley appeared on the scene
and I was the conta~t man - I soon
found L.C. hated officialdom and was
suspicious of anybody in uniform. Fortunately
I also was a garage man. but
even so it took a long time to break
down the barriers and get behind his
fa~ade.
He tume:d out to be a really first-rate
engineer, with all the enthusiasm and
know-bow we could possibly want. As
long as we could keep the high-ups, as he
called them, at a respectable distance,
he could and did work miracles.
In the early days of A.T.e. gliding,
with very few instructors and poor equipment,
we broke the gliders, and Ottley
received them on Monday mornings to
get them ready again for the next weekend.
He. with a few reliables and a
number of women and girls. got down
to the job in earnest-patching and repairing
and building gliders.
The Ottfur hook came to perfection in
his capable hands, and in fact he handmade
many dozens in the first year. The
basic idea was explained and a cardboard
model produced, and when he
realised the vital need for such a hook
he worked on it almost day and night
until it gained official A.R.B. approval.
The now almost universal landing
waetl was popularised by Ottley being
392
willing to experiment with poSItIOn and
size, often at short notice, working weekends
and long into the night. Fortunately
there was little knowledgeable official
inspection, so experiment wa'S birly easy,
and we who had to fly the machines had
complete faith in L.C:s skill and ability.
To spend an hour or two with
Leonard in his private workshop was a
revealing experience for any .engineer:
his array of tools, the condition of them,
the loving -care bestowed on them and
his amazing ability to use them, made
the best of us feel like apprentices.
Work was his hobby, as seen in his
many models, particularly a wonderful
railway engine complete and to scale in
every derail. made by his own handevery
nut and bolt. Also he made a
superb grandfather clock. which he
claimed (and I believe him) did, among
the more usual clock. indications, something
which appears every 6,000 years.
He liked to expound on this and his
audience never really knew if it was a
leg-pull or not
He could make anything and would in
fact have a go, especially if one quietly
suggested that it was even too difficult.
for him. He kept monkeys, which he
seemed to understand and like better
than men. We who were privileged to
know L.C. recognised Qur good fortune
to have met a genius. He was a great
character. I wish there were more like
him. J. F.
R. PHILlP COOPER
HIL Co(}per died on August 2nd, after
Pan operation, at the age of 64. He had
been living on only about half a lung
for some years, and only his courage and
tenacity can have kept him going for so
long.
Phil was one of the kindest and most
generous of men. I have been plodding
through myoid SAILPLANES but haven't
found when he first came into gliding.
He gained his C on the 29th July, 1'9'34.
In 1935 he joined with Jack Dewsbery
and Kit Nicholson in one of the first
syndicates, buying the Rhonbussard
which Joan Meakin (now Joan Price)
had aero-towed over from Germany the
year before. and they came and corn-