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Old 29th Aug 2008, 09:15
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Fitter2
 
Join Date: Jul 2007
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No, but they were still doing it (at Upavon) after ETPS moved to Boscombe in the 1960's.

For a glider pilot the sight of three very experienced pilots, none of whom had any gliding experience whatsoever, climbing into a Chipmunk (1) and Sedburgh (2 & 3) and then performing an aerotow was cabaret style entertainment. I never saw them break anything, although many of the manouevres were not in the book.

I was told the priciple was that, as they would eventually have to fly an aerodyne of some variety where nobody had previous experience, and handling might be 'interesting', then they might as well get an equivalent experience in something low-cost.
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