Death on my shoulder?
Third solo Mk111 that well known brick. It had been a les than brilliant February day with broken snow on the ground and wintery sleet flurries passing through. The school was eager to see the back of our course as they were well behind the 'solos expected' curve on the graph in some bods office. The CO kept me in the cockpit freezing my gonads off whilst yet another snowshower whipped through. True the sky looked a little lighter, true the wind dropped, and the bellow of wings level cable on left me in no doubt I was about to aviate. Fg Off Dean tapped my shoulder. 'Whatever you do son stay out of cloud'If it looks likely dump the cable and s turn as taught ok' Quick nod in reply.
Take off was fine. 800'was fine. The turn downwind was fine. Until I ran into cloud.
Character building. Certainly. Dangerous yes. No fancy intruments to rely on just 'common sence airmanship as taught. Don't move the stick, just pop the spoilers and see what happens. Dropping out of the cloudbase I'd still got 500' but my troubles were far from over for snow was now falling and broken snow camouflages an airfield like nothing else. The runway caravan all red and white squares had vanished. (I'd actually driffted more than 90 downwind and was expecting to see it on my port side- but coming out of cloud I'd put in on my starboard side was was unaware of the fact) At this point it's fair to say worried nearly became frightened and frightened wasn't far away from panic. Scan, lad scan and as if by magic I caught a glipse of hangers ahead of me and instantly regained positional awareness. A right hand circuit followed with a landing close to the caravan
The following conversation then ensued. C.O. 'Just for a minute there laddie I thought you vanished into cloud' Fg Off Dean standing behind him is vigourously shaking his head and mouthing NO.
'I may have just scaped the base sir. C.O. beams, that's the spirit'. Fg Off Dean claps me on the shoulder. 'Christ you don't know what paperwork you've just saved us'
So to all of you who doubt the value of Air Cadet Gliding, read and digest. Not exactly turning boys into men but teaching boys how to handle sticky situations if not with aplomb but with a degree of competence they never thought they'd gained. All down to superb staff, a brilliant flying syllabus and aircraft that though basic were up to the job And all this after just 25 launches. Sad to see it all fizzle away.