VGC News/Newsletters - Lakes Gliding Club

seaters were not then in use for training and crashing was frequent,usually treated in a rather light-hem·ted way as seriousinjuries or fatalities were rare and damage to the gliders couldbe quickly repaired by skilled woodworkers.The gliders had no airbrakes or spoilers, so steep turns andsideslips were normally used on the approach. There wasalways an intense desire to stay up as long as possible and theart of thermal and wave soaring was still undeveloped. "Hillscraping" for long periods was the norm, often followed bybottom landings (or "sinkings")There was an interesting variety of modes of crashing ­usually on the approach, ie landing on the barbed wire fence,which cut one glider in two, hitting anything above groundlevel such as the windsock, the hangar, the dyke and on onememorable occasion, the club horse which was used at thattime for retrieving. Afterwards, it used to bolt whenever itheard the sound of plywood cracking and had to be sold.Most of this cl'ashery was repaired by the club's GroundEngineer, HaroId Holdsworth, who still lives in Bradford andhas fantastic memories of his days at Sutton Bank. (Thesewere published some years ago in VGC News, Ed)A collision once occurred between a Scud 11 and a GrunauBaby. The Scud lost its entire nose, landing in a large tree andthe Grunau lost its tail and fell inverted into a patch of thickbracken, but neither pilot was injured.In the autumn I went to work at the Bristol Aeroplane Coand occasionally went up to the Long Mynd. Here, when thewind was very strong they dispensed with the bungee and justpushed the glider over the edge supported on the shoulders oftwo men, one under each wing. In this way I had my firstflight in a Kirby Kite and found the launch as delightful andsmooth as the bungee.Early in 1938, with two other Bristo1 apprentices I he~lpedto form the Bristol Gliding Club, with a Primary and a Grunaupurchased from Slingsby with the help of a large governmentsubsidy intended to st,imulate the training of aviators for theimpending war. I became the club's official Ground Engineer,with Certificate of Competance No 3, which was fater supersededby the BGA Inspectors system. (When I re-applied forthis number a few years ago it was refused as being incompatiblewith the computer programme)We started training at Leightertorl, about 20 miles fromBristol, using bungee, rope and a Morris Oxford car with on'lythe three of us, one 'being the pilot, one the car driver and thethird, the ground crew. A short rope was used for hops, then700ft for circuit height. It didn't always work though, and onone rainy day, after a miserable 200ft launch I stalled theGl1.Inau on its final turn and ended up sitting on the grass withnothing in front. Most unfortunately, this took place at apublic meeting arranged to attract new members and demonstratethe safety of glidinglWhile with Bristols I visited Dunstable for the NationalGliding Contest in July 1938 and managed to complete mySilver "c" by flying to near Chelmsford. This was No 40, butmy International No is 1007, and my glider was the CambridgeI. We made occasional visits to Roundway Hill,Devizes and the Downs al Huish, for hill-soaring. On one ofthese trips I had rnyfirst aero-tow with Ralph Slazenger'sGypsy Moth - no dual instruction, just "Get in and follow thattug!"Later came the war and having been in the Civil Air Guardflying Gypsy Moths, I was called up into the RAF, butbecause of my "bad" eyesight and with an engineering degree,I became a Technical Officer. In 1940 I was posted to a topsecret unit called the "Central Landing Establishment", laterthe Airborne Forces Experimental Establishment. This was atRAF Ringway (now Manchester Airport), and here I joinedseveral other glider pilots well known to me. I was posted tothe Development Unit, which included being "Officer i/c TowRopes" and was a technical assistant to Robert Kronfeld, thefamous Austrian glider pilot and pioneer of soaring flight andwith whom I had many flights in all the types of troop andload-carrying gliders.We had several requisitioned gl,iders in the unit and one ofmy first jobs was to design a very primitive "tow-cable angleindicator" to assist pilots to follow the tugs accurately in cloudor darkness.Our C.O. was Mungo Buxton, t'he designer of Phillip Will'sHjordis. Tim Hervey, the pre-war manager of the London GCbecame the C.O. of the first glider training squadron, whichwas given about 15 Kirby Kites and moved to RAF Thame(now Haddenham) as Nol GoT.S. One of the instructors there,all pre-war glider pilots, was John Sproule, who appeared inNaval uniform, and who had been accepted into the Fleet AirArm as a pilot in spite of wearing glasses. When he was transfen'edto the RAF 'he became ,the only officer \vho wore bothwings and glasses!Mike now, with son Tony in the Kite's cockpit allddaughter-in-law, Susan at the wing tip. Photo Chris Hughes.After the war, I did very little gliding until I retired andfound it an ideal retirement hobby, especially when combinedwith the restoration of vintage gliders to flying condition.They are excellent for older pilots to fly as everything happensmore slowly than with modern, fibreglass projectiles, andrebuilding old gliders is a very satisfactory occupation foranyone who likes working in wood.The Vintage Glider Club, of which I became a member in1974, is a very friendly, relaxed, non-competitive club and itsannual rallies, both at home and abroad, make ideal holidaysfor families of all ages. Without the stimulous and encouragementI have received from other members of the VGC, theYorkshire GC and my son Tony, I would probably have givenup gliding many years ago.Mike Maufe18