Originally Posted by
chevvron
Harumph.
'Clear of cloud and in sight of the surface?'
Until about 1977 when some major changes to airspace were introduced, it would have been possible to fly VFR as high as 5000ft amsl overhead Kenley. The base of controlled airspace at Kenley nowadays is 2,500ft amsl; when I got my 'C' at Bovingdon in 1966, you could fly up to 5,000ft amsl overhead but only if VFR, the base of controlled airspace was 1,500ft amsl
POBJOY: I would imagine that the medium cable break at Kenley would be the 'stinger' with such a small airfield; a low one shouldn't be so much of a problem.
Well Chev when it was your base site it was the norm. But Kenley was quite small by most RAF station standards (not suitable for Jet extension) and on a medium break it was as I recall quite important to turn in the correct direction. We did reduce the chances of a CB on a first solo by always using a new cable for this purpose, hence by dint of common sense and experience 'we actually performed a safer operation' now called ALARP 'as low as risk possible'. Quick thread creep as at this time watching a program on the Pegasus Bridge Glider assault. Never mind ALARP those guys were just B.......Good, and got it spot on first time out, in an amazing show of precision flying that has little equal in the Gliding assault world.