Originally Posted by
chevvron
It was all predicated on 'teamwork'.
Even a brand new cadet arriving for AEG would be told 'put your foot on that wingtip' and thus be given something to do. Staff cadets, not much older than those new cadets, would brief you on what bits you could touch and what bits not eg the handholds forward of the tailplane and the 'rim' of the cockpit; you would always be told what to do and you were there to fly so you took it all in and retained it for next time.
Then under the watchful eye of a staff cadet once again, you were told 'wing up six inches', then 'wings level' etc.
People like you and I Pob were essential to the workings of the school and in turn, we bestowed knowledge and ability on the ab initio cadets and of course at the same time, we were learning from the instructors and passing their knowledge on.
Best gliding club in the world and all free; now gone.
I have to add that, later in life when I became an ATCO and was lucky enough to be posted to Farnborough to scrounge flights in things like Wessex, Puma, and Lynx helicopters, I found them comparatively easy to handle in the air and during low hover operations and I'm convinced my experience of low speed flight in Air Cadet gliders helped with this.
Well said sunbeam, you actually started to handle a real aircraft within minutes of arriving on site, after that nothing seemed impossible or unusual.
We could do it all again. Of course being mentored by other Cadets made it all very 'do able', not rocket science. Then we piled them all in the 1 ton Austin and another Cadet drove them off to lunch, frequently the long way round (for fun) to pick up the winch drivers. Our Austin was an open back pick up with a turret hole next to the driver, usually seen with a course Cadet with his body stuck out of it wishing he had a 50 caliber !!.
Never had a reason to unload the spare wheel that was on a ramp behind the cab 'thank goodness'.