I deliberately steered clear of most other sites because I only knew the south east although I do remember :
Kirton in Lindsey; a VGS co located with No 2 Gliding Centre before that moved to Spitalgate.
Catterick Right next to the A1 and deliberately ruined by the army building houses close to the runway.
Lindholme only in use for a short time.
Wittering mooted as a VGS but then the AEF/UAS people moved in.
Binbrook Closed when the RAF disposed of it.
and many (too many) more.

I was that soldier
 

Early Feb 1963 643 GS Kirton in Lindsey. Course been staggering on through foul and fouler weather since before Christmas 1962. C.O getting fed up with the sight of us miserable reprobates 3 in number who seem to becoming permanent fixtures and decides todays the day. Mates scramble 3 solos in deteriorating weather, snow flurries etc making life difficult. I scuttle 2 solos then sit in the cockpit for 40minutes waiting for a decent break in the clag. Suffice to say the last one was hairy in the extreme (I finished up sandwiched between two cloud layers) Age 16yrs and 2 months. Join the ATC and be frightened witless! Somehow groped back down whistling Dixie.

At 125 Gliding School Langley it took me 1hour 25 mins to get to first solo.

Clyffe Pypard
age 90

I obviously was an hours hog….:p

Land on the Airfield
 

I well remember the 'briefing' at Swanton in 63 for a continuous A&B Course on the Monday morn.
Given by the 'Boss' who was sporting a DFC still a Flt Lt.
' The Airfield is all yours this week I dont care where you land on it but keep it on the Airfield.' !!!

Did my A&B certificates 11/03/54 at 105 GS Cambridge in a Cadet Mk1.
Did my last solo August last year in a DG500 along the South Downs ridge. Had hoped to make 70 years but decided to be old not bold.

My '16th' was midweek so I commenced my course asap on saturday 3 Oct 1964 . Attended weekends only (mostly saturdays) until 7 Nov with a couple of days lost due bad weather: 35 launches incl solo checks then my final 3 solos so 38 in total; time overall was 1 hr 56 min.

Presumably K. E. BAILEY, DFC (156694) ?
I think Ian Ladley perhaps had the dubious distinction of being the oldest Flt Lt at one time ?

But by the 1950's/60's most of the full time Gliding Centre Instructors held possibly RAFRO 'J' class commissions ? perhaps with the CO and Adj still being regulars ?
Ian Ladley ceased being a regular in 1954 (medically unfit) according to London Gazette,unless he was reinstated later - no mention of that in the LG but LG search results are patchy at the best of times.

regards LR

Ian Ladley signed my P2 chitty on 30 Jul 1966.

Yep David Ince DFC and Derek Piggot also lost their RAF Aircrew medical category but it did not preclude them from Gliding (istr they were both sinus related but have not read their autobios for many years).

Dont play with the Very pistol
 

We had good weather on my March 63 course so no chance for any chat about Typhoons or Tempests, but during a tea break IL caught me looking at the Very Pistol and I got a mild rebuke, until I pointed out I had unloaded it before inspection, and normally 'played' with a Lee Enfield .303. We had a great course, and all of it out on the field other than the first day when we had the :- Please land on the airfield bit. In the evenings the Norfolk and Norwich Aero club were flying Tiger Moths, and I could not wait to order that little blue enamel badge from the BGA. It was a fabulous start in aviation and of course the organisation was at its peak. Having 'Soloed' on the Tues I thought that was my lot, but on the Friday I was put back in MK3 as I was 2 launches short of the min required. I was allowed the launches but then Douggie King took over and proceeded to have a 'time warp' moment and thought he was back in the 2nd TAF. The second launch was a repeat but included a mock rocket attack on the main hangar followed by a rather low level turn to land by the doors. In my 3822 I recorded this as ground attack practice, and a couple of years later back at Kenley after a rather 'spirited' P2 'mission' was accosted by the B Cat (not Frelon) and had the cheek to say I had been checked out on this exercise by one of the 'Gods' at the centre (and got away with it) !!! My goodness we had some fun, which (in the summer) included stripping everything off our MK 1 SWB Landrover, folding the screen down and having a real hoot (up to lunch time when we were told to put it all back again) by the 'seniors'. Our escapades in the evening after most had gone home, and we were finished with checking the cables for the next day, are still covered by the official secrets act and will not be released until 2030. 'Bill Bailey' later turned up running a Pub in Thornton Heath, (I think the DFC was on Lancs) but we never saw him at Kenley, (which was a shame)

Thanks for all the feedback boys - and I hope you'll all be pleased to hear that WT900 flew 12 launches (mostly Loughborough 'freshers') at Saltby last Saturday.

If I remember Derek Piggot earned a place on the Empire Test Pilots School but his medical showed him to be high tone deaf (like many wartime pilots) so he went to ATD Gliding at Detling.

Thanks for the correction Paul,I did ponder after I posted that it might be deafness,as I said - I have not read the book for some years.
ISTR it was similar for David Ince - I think he had actually completed the ETPS course when he found out about his sinus problem,I should have a check through his book,but it is a little late now and I do not want to disturb the boss as she is at work early tomorrow.

regards LR

D H G INCE,RAF ,No4 Cse,ETPS 1946......Nothing on Piggott; H C N Goodhart RN ,Same Cse.

Only 12?
More than once I flew 8 AEG trips in a Mk3 in about 1.5 hours, then other pilots would take over and do the same until dark.
That was the thing with Air Cadet gliding; get as many people airborne as possible but by all means do a bit of soaring if the chance occured. I did try a few civil clubs but it was so slow and time wasting I couldn't be bothered.

We did have quite a few other gliders out as well Chevron! With only one winch and one tug you just have to wait your turn for a launch.

I have no record of the number of launches or flight time during my training at Hendon in 1960 but it must have been similar to yours, all done in the Mk3. Winch, crosswind, downwind, base leg, finals, spoilers out, land .... no time for anything else and definitely no soaring. How on earth did you record your airborne time, with a stopwatch with a second hand? I wish that I could remember the maximum height we achieved, I seem to remember about 600ft and I doubt it could have been more than about 800ft., but it was a long time ago.

Don't know what system was used at other schools but at Halton, White Waltham and Bovingdon there was a log sheet which had to be filled in then initialled by the pilot before takeoff along with takeoff and landing times which were recorded at the launch point. Most instructors/AEG pilots also noted their times on their own kneepads in order to cross check.
As for maximum height in the circuit, the proximity of Hendon to Runway 23L approaches at Heathrow and Runway 25 approaches to Northolt would put stringent limits on that irrespective of cloud base or height gained off the launch and it would also limit Runway 05R departures from Heathrow and Runway 07 departures from Northolt; the height limit I mentioned earlier regarding Kenley (5000ft amsl if VFR) would not have applied at Hendon as it was in a different type of airspace where IFR control started at the surface.

Timing the flights !!
 

As far as Kenley was concerned a MK3 jaunt was normally booked as 3 miins and the T21 poss 5 (The BGA used to describe our activity as Aerial Tobogganing but were happy to take our money for the Badge and Cert). Frelons 'escape' to the west was a rare one, and indeed I do not recall ever seeing a chart at Kenley let alone a briefing on airspace. The usual issue for us was traffic heading for Biggin Hill which was getting very busy after it replaced Croydon for club flying. Kenley was not really the ideal spot for an 'out landing' but again I do not recall ever having a briefing on that situation and indeed I had decided that if one got clobbered by some severe 'sink' it would be down the hill to land on the Whyteleafe common (or cricket pitch) and then flee the Country. Local knowledge would have made this a safe option but no doubt excommunication from the system would have followed,(after 'the system' recovered from such an event). It was interesting visiting other local units :- Tangmere, Manston, and West Malling, as it brought home how 'quaint' Kenley was compared to these other 'Jet Fields'. Actually Whyteleafe Cricket pitch had featured in Reach for the sky (filmed at Kenley) so my defence would have revolved around that. As Chev remarks Kenley 'is not large', so why did the nerds at HQ allow a substantial wooden fence to built on the peri track as this reduced its safety margin even more, it beggars belief.