Kenley gliding site.

[chevvron]

The Air Cadet gliding school at Kenley is about to re-commence operations at weekends in addition to the existing civilian gliding club.
Site elevation 556ft amsl cables up to 1,700ft agl.

[Kemble Pitts]

I'm told that, a few years ago, they used to hold an annual fly-in. Do they still do that (probably the civilian club I'd have thought)?

Great to see such an historic aerodrome still being used for flying.

[TheOddOne]

Flew past there last week. Active on a Wednesday. Wide berth given - Biggin were reminding pilots it's active. Good to see it hasn't been consumed by housing.

TOO

[chevvron]

Flew past there last week. Active on a Wednesday. Wide berth given - Biggin were reminding pilots it's active. Good to see it hasn't been consumed by housing.

TOO
It's still 'owned' by the RAF.

[Steve C64]

I did my glider solo in the MK3 Kirby at Kenley 38 years ago! Great couple of weeks as a Cadet drifting about a few hundred feet up. Strangely it has still been a resource to draw on through my current PPL training all the years later! Especially with EFATOs , the immediate push command has lasted from the multiple cable break exercises thrown at us back then, which really grabs your attention at those angles!

We also spent a good deal of time digging around the boundaries of the airfield looking for 'buried Spitfires' that were rumoured to have been earthed over at some point after the war. And, guess what ...we found one! Or something airframe like of the right material anyway. We left it to the next course to continue the excavation amongst the daily business in hand. (Just found a post about this in the forum! :))

Anyhow, Kenley was the trigger word for this spontaneous memory emission, the difference being this time, that, from the air, I'll be avoiding it rather than desperately looking for it !