Wander00,

It's a long time since I've aerotowed a T21 but I seem to remember being exhausted by the time I got to 2000', just from holding the stick fully forward. Even with two of you, it must have been hard work.

Props

It was 125 GS at Langley!

Xa 286 ?
 

Anyone know where 'MY' aircraft has gone? Last known 'stored at Rufforth'
I havent totted the exact number of launches I did in her, and might not have flown her the most but it seems that way..... I miss her and want her back. I've tried T31's-reunited but just havent worked! Any T31 owners out there allow a Wood B cat and a Viking A cat a little pole?

Post 1969 Battle of Britain Air Display, Biggin Hill. Start of aerotow by Chipmunk of T21b back to base at Kenley.

http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/h...4/biggin2a.jpg

637 GS Gaydon
 

637 GS Gaydon

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I was priviledged to be a Staff Cadet (later CI and "B" Cat) at 637 GS Gaydon 1968-72 and then 622 Old Sarum '73-76. 2000+ launches T21, T31, Prefect, and Swallow.
Les Stockdale, Bill Walker, Bill Jones, Jim Morrow, Tony Dring, Dave Bellis, Pete Fanshaw, Ted Smith, Dave Austin, Paul Whitehead, Paul Whitters, Johnny Diamond, Brian Richardson, Woodbridge(!!), Tudor Pugh, Les, Rog Edge - where are you all now??
Hitch hiking in my ATC uniform from school in Solihull after rugger on a Sat mornings, driving the winch all afternoon, nightstopping on the floor in the office with the rest of the guys (no bunkhouse, Gaydon was on "care and maintenance" by then) maybe a couple of 3 min launches late on Sunday. Doing my weekend prep in the back of Ted's car on the way home Sunday evening, back again next weekend for the same all over again.................
Happy Happy memories and such a good upbringing for a tearaway 16 year old!
Jez Cooke.

WE992:

Here are a few more snippets for you. Most of my gliding was done in the RAFGSA (1963 - 1979) but I did start with the ATC.

08.08.55 T21 WG497 RAF Detling (Home Command Gliding Instructors School)
12.08.55 T21 WB925 As above

30.06 57 T31 XE810 No.662 GS RAF Edzell
30.06.57 T21 WB938 As above (I got 10 launches that day)
01.07.57 T21 WB923 As above
01.07.57 T31 XE785 As above (I got 17 launches that day including 3 solos)
04.07.57 T31 XE785 As above (3 launches)

XE785 is now in a glider museum in New Mexico. I was invited to go over there on the 50th anniversary of my first solo in her but I couldn't make it.

The next Air Cadets machine that I flew was the dreaded T53 XV951 at RAF Swanton Morley on 27.10.71. It did absolutely nothing for me. In fact, I remember Doug Bridson describing it as a very expensive means of raising a decent canopy above the earth.

I was told that some old buffer in HQ Air Cadets was suggesting that it should be flown with the airbrakes wire-locked one inch open so as to reduce its performance to that of a T31!

I was at Sutton Bank one day when a team from Slings appeared with a trailer and proceeded to get a T53 out and start to rig it. I was astonished to see them put the tailplane on before attaching either wing! As you have probably already guessed, they dropped the fuselage on its side so they put the rather bent remains back in the trailer and set off back to the factory.

Talking of T31s, I had a quick ride in XN238 at Swanton Morley on 28.10.71 for old time's sake.

Can't quite compete with JW411 as to date, but I did my A and B Certificates at Hawkinge from 30.9.1958 to 2.10.1958. 22 flights on Cadet Mark 3s WT918 and XA282. Maximum flight time 3 minutes! Instructors were FL Matthews, FO Mares, FL Ladley and FO Whittenbury.
Later progresed to the T21 at Polebrook and K13 at Weston-on-the-Green, and then got really stuck into gliding at Challes-les-Eaux in the French Alps.
No pictures I am afraid!

Laurence

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2208/...c343737f_o.jpg

All 1963-66 Swanton Morley

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2030/...4a6a6bb2_o.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2068/...fde82d80_o.jpg

Instructors L to R:
Dougie King, Geoff Naylor, Ian Ladley, Ian(?) Ross, Ron Whittenbury

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2092/...9aeffb45_o.jpg

Tony Bowen

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2013/...c45d98d1_o.jpg

and at Halesland...

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3149/...c81bb0f4_o.jpg


http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2414/...3d605e76_o.jpg

Pilot - Pat Hudson.
Prefect with "cutaway" canopy for flying at Halesland - to stand a fighting chance of seeing the field!

2 Sheds- Wot cracking pics,esp., Halesland:ok: And a few faces come back to haunt me too...:oh:

Halesland!!. An instructor put a Sedburgh down in a nearby field due to poor judgement. It was late afternoon, and it was decided to secure it and leave it there overnight, Being Staff Cadet [613 Halton] I volunteered to spend the night with the offending instructor and one other. We spent the night in the back of a Bedford 3 tonner, with a gas stove and a paraffin lamp secured to the roof. Cooked bacon and eggs. Unfortunately, said paraffin lamp was leaking straight into the food. Three very sick people later in the day. Have spent better nights, usually with women tho'.
Next morning we all manhandled the complete aircraft across two fields, dismantling two dry stone walls to achieve this. Happy days!!

4 Hr Aero Tow, and SM 62-64
 

We did half an hour at a time, but it was pretty tiring and VERY cold. The Swanton Morley pics bring back memories from the dingy recesses of what passes for my brain - was in the back of a Land Rover there when the Cuban Missile Crisi broke

Wander00

I can remember reading an article in the old S&G about a new T21 being delivered by aerotow from UK to Sweden.

T21
 

Would it float if you had a cable break? I doubt if 'Ditching procedure' is in the manual!
Guy

From what I can remember the time over the sea was kept to an absolute minimum and they routed through Belgium, Holland and Denmark. I think it took them four days!

I suspect they had muscles like Popeye by the time they got to Sweden.

T21 WJ 306 (ex Halesland) now has a spring trimmer and sealed aileron gaps. She aerotows far better than in her original form but it's still horrible! Not so much the trim as the "interesting" aileron response>

4 hours on aerotow! 'kin 'ell. They don't make 'em like that any more. 10 minutes is quite enough & then pull the yellow knob with huge relief! A really slow tug helps a lot though.

Incidentally WJ 306 also now has the "official" winch launch CofG hook. It gives 50% higher launches than the standard hook (record is 2150 feet on the wire at Weston on the Green) but then the ATC didn't really want high launches as I understand it!

I did my very first solo's in XN246, and now I get to see her every weekend working at the Solentsky Museum in Southampton

http://i170.photobucket.com/albums/u...z/SN200597.jpg

More Information on Sedbergh WB956
 

"Written Off " on 15/4/1955. It certainly was!!
I was a 15 year old ATC cadet passenger at the time, taking an experience (!) flight from RAF Detling. The Squadron Leader pilot (I shall not name him) got us too far downwind, and elected to land in a small sloping field. Unfortunately there was a wire fence, with concrete posts, stretched across the field and we went through it in a high nose-up attitude. The glider was sliced in two, just behind the cockpit. The front portion, with us in it, tumbled down the sloping field. We stepped out of the wreckage with only minor injuries.
Fortunately this event did not deter me from gliding, and I went on to do two very enjoyable years as a staff cadet at 621 GS, Weston-super-Mare & Halesland.

Only did an aerotow as passenger with Tony W at Mendips 40th? birthday do from Halesland, but bu99er me 10 minutes was plenty long enough... mind you, it was march which didn't exactly help.

Apparently, the trick is to use a bungy cord to hold the stick forward if you're going any distance:ok:

Bungies and Barges
 

Ahaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
The secret is out!!
We used to aerotow Barges with the aid if a simple bungee cord with hooks on each end (the same that used to hold our satchels onto the back of our bikes).
Slip the hooks over the rudder pedals, and adjust the cord up (nose down) and down (nose up) the stick, and hey presto one could rub both hands together at length (to keep warm) whilst the bird flew in perfect (?!) trim......
I was wondering when that "wizard wheeze" was going to surface!
Memories, memories!
Jez.

BBC Interlude film of ATC gliders in the snow
 

I have a VHS copy of a film made for the BBC of T21, T31 and T53 all being flown in the snow from 615VGS Kenley, its about 5mins long and set to the Beatles instrumental "Flying", there's only about 10 words spoken during the whole thing. I got my copy from the COI about 20 years ago, but the original must be late 60's or early 70's (whenever they were evaluating the T53).

I joned 615 in 1974 (I'm still there!) and remember the late Alex Watson, talking about how the camera crew were being flown in a Helicopter which failed to keep up during the launch and it had to take a run at it.

I will try to find a way of converting it to a digi file and hosting it somewhere