Not strictly military !!!!
I was lucky to be allocated to a Joint services gliding course at Bicester, RAFGSA Centre, early 80s as I remember. As an Airframe SNCO, I was welcomed as they needed some servicing and polishing doing. Having spent the morning of a fairly damp day doing a bit of work, with the met beginning to improve, I asked the CFI if I could tow out the ASK18 and give it a bit of a go. Permission granted and the duty car is towing the glider out. About 100 yards out on to the newly mown airfield I noticed that the one and only main wheel had stopped rotating, and was merely skidding over the surface. When we stopped and looked the wheel was jammed by a compacted mass of grass clippings. It took over an hour to remove the grass, it would have been quicker to remove the wheel to clear it. But then, I was only an A Fitt A ! But, had that happened before ? At the time nobody said it had, but you have to wonder. I note a 2.5 hour soaring trip from the eventual launch in my log book, a bit of work always paid off eventually.
Smudge
