Lovely picture Dave
I have just checked my old logbook and see I actually started my w/e course at 644 Spitalgate on 29th march '69 with 4 Lchs,then 3 Lchs on April 20th followed by some really consistent flying in June - interestingly I see I had 3 solo check flights towards the end of june but I guess that might have been to bring my dual flying up to min number of Launches for solo.
I remember some things about the course very clearly but other stuff very hazy - I remember the song played
ad nauseum on the naafi juke box by the u/t WAAF's was 'Breaking up is hard to do'
,looking at the dates I guess I stayed over in one of the barrack blocks a couple of times.I really cannot remember how we travelled up to Spitalgate from Peterborough as we did not have a sqn minibus,I do remember a couple of trips with our CO as he had access to cars from his car dealership but don't think they were gliding related trips,one of those car trips was to Cottesmore for some reason.
As to cadet solo numbers I do remember that the majority of our older/senior/staff cadets had gliding 'wings' and of course in those days they were all awarded for actual solo flying not just for training courses.I think the only senior cadet without wings had a slight eye problem - although I do not remember any sort of medical examination before the gliding course ?