Originally Posted by
POBJOY
I do not recall our ACP books had any Gliding info, although they did cover principles of flight and basic instruments. (no instruments in a MK 3).
For most Cadets their first (and only) hands on 'contact' with an aircraft was in the gliding world. It started with getting them out of the hangar and went from there until they were put back later. This was an important part of the operation as after the first day you had covered most of the ground handling and also launching. Remember before control caravans became available there was no airfield facility for signalling or briefing and Cadets were briefed in the cockpit. Then there was the use of BATS which was the primary method of launch control before mounted aldis lights came about. On some airfields you had to have a midfield BAT man to pass on the signals. This was a lonely post usually situated on a high point or possibly an old pill box. I do not think anybody actually died doing this, but I do recall they could be forgotten at times and had to revived with hot drinks. Of course the secret of the whole operation was everyone was involved all the time on some task or other, and before retrieve trolleys were the norm there was lots of walking back with gliders to the launch point. If you were unfortunate enough to have a Sedburgh out on the field when a squall came through then it was festooned with Cadets to hold it down with a couple in the cockpit holding the spoilers out. By the time it came to your turn to fly YOU WERE PART OF THE SYSTEM and knew what to do. Utterly brilliant operation all run by volunteers, and eventually all let down by numpties at head office.
Theory of flight ACP had a page or two on glider aerodynamics and the met APC discussed thermal generation though I suspect the latter was included tongue in cheek given the MK 111 brick tendency, then again I recall and incident where a Corps Barge ended up being sucked into a cu nim handing the crew some sort of endurance record. Can anyone throw light on the incident ? Our CO was always wary of any latent thunder in the area and quick to call a halt if it looked to be heading our way.