Many years ago a friend of mine carried out a cross-country flight in a Swallow glider operated by the Air Cadets (we were both Air Cadet Instructors) and the ATC had six of them that did the rounds of the Gliding Schools. On landing after his cross country he called on the telephone for a retrieve (no radios available in Air Cadets then). I set out with the Land Rover and glider trailer (which looked like it could have carried a Horsa!).
As I was nearing the landing site I was pulled over by a police car which had been following me for some time. They asked me how long the trailer was and I gave what I thought was the appropriate response. I was then told that as the trailer was more than the permitted length I needed to obtain police permission at least 24 hours beforehand and had to have a police escort. I informed them that it was a glider retrieve trailer and that one of my pilots had landed his glider in a nearby field. Also due to the unpredictable nature of the English weather it was impossible to advise the police of future cross country flights, either times or directions! As soon as “glider” was mentioned they changed their attitude. One of the policemen mumbled something about indivisible loads not requiring a police escort, so they then spotted that the registration number of the Land Rover was different to the trailer! I then “educated” them with the fact that the Armed Forces used an individual registration for trailers as it was highly unlikely that they would be towed by the same vehicle more than once!
After some continued mumbling from the plods I again confirmed that my colleague had landed in a nearby field and that he would be waiting for the retrieve. “No worries,” they said, “we will escort you!” So off we set with the police car in front leading the way towards the area my colleague had given me.
As we rounded a bend we saw on the side of a hill a Swallow glider spread across the landscape in pieces, and in amongst the fuselage and the separated wings was a body….
The police car put on its blue light and siren and accelerated towards the “wreckage”. As we approached, the “body” stood up having been lying enjoying the warmth of the afternoon sun. My colleague had earlier made a safe landing and in an attempt to save time in derigging the glider had enlisted the help of the local populace to help him derig the glider and lay the wings and fuselage on the ground ready for loading into the trailer, hence the appearance of having crashed!
When the situation was explained to the police they saw the funny side of it and helped us with the traffic control while we loaded up the trailer with the Swallow.
I think it really made for an exciting day for them, they had never seen it before but would know what to do next time!
Of course nowadays we have things like mobile telephones which could well make things a little simpler.