Humaround, er, yes, in a glider at Silverstone ......
and there was the occasion at North Dene, Great Yarmouth....I was supposed to be returning a pegasus glider (15 meter, nothing fancy, a French improvement on the ASW 19) from Nympsfield to High Wycombe, but it was such a loverly day, I got distracted and as the landscape unrolled beneath my wings, just turned North a bit to avoid sensitive places like Heathrow, Northolt, Luton, Stanstead, and then when getting near the Wash, had to choose between heading up to Scotland or going East until I ran out of land....which of course happened somewhere near Yarmouth. I toyed with the idea of flying round the oil rig out in the water, but chickened out, and flew up and down the beach for a while, observing the traffic situation at North Dene.....there was absolutely none at all, so I just set up a circuit and landed.
Didn't get much of a welcome, red landrover rolled up, five guys jumped out and without a word pushed my glider off the runway - their very first ever helicopter emergency was coming in from the oil platform, with one engine out, so they needed the runway, and here was this silly glider plopped down in the middle....
I apologised and apologised, and was forgiven, and they began to see the funny side.....
But then I heard about Justin Will's landing his glider at North Dene. He'd flown up from Exeter, or thereabouts, and like me had done a downwind dash. Can't remember the name of the well known and no longer with us aerobatic ace who used to fly at RAF Bicester, but he came along to North Dene with the tug. North Dene manager said no way I can permit you to tow a glider out of here, it's not long enough!
Somehow the manager was persuaded that whatever happened he would not be held responsible. The way Justin told it, he was pushed to the farthest fence, and told to hang on no matter what! The glider lifted off before the tow plane, which didn't lift off until ten feet from the end of the runway, and just made it over the earth bank before plopping down again in the driveway of the holiday camp, which was exactly in line with the runway. The combination of towplane and glider then gained flying speed with an astonished audience of campers, who couldn't believe their eyes......
Those were the days.....when we were young and foolish....