THE RLS GLIDER
In the December 1956 Magazine, Roy Wooley reports: "The Section has at last received its primary glider and throughout the Summer a programme of instruction was arranged and most cadets achieved some degree of proficiency." During the Summer Holiday that year, the RAF Section attended a camp at RAF Shawbury and, later, John Cater and I did a gliding course at
RAF Hornchurch. My recollection is that I did not fly on the School glider before the course at Hornchurch. (J. Alan Smith)
My greatest claim to fame was that the RAF section was allocated a basic glider, fired by catapult across the school field. I was the only one with a licence to fly it. ... What became of it? (Roy Wooley)
My memories of the School glider are somewhat lacking in
nostalgia. I experienced it after having obtained my A and B licence at RAF
Hornchurch in1956 (so I was 16 years late for the Battle of Britain, but it
wasn't my fault!). The gliders I flew then had open cockpits, but pilots had
solid walls round them up to shoulder height and they had instruments: air
speed indicator and altimeter.
The School glider had nothing in front of the pilot except the control stick
and the rudder pedals. Prior to take off, it was anchored to the ground. Two
teams of cadets pulled a bungee away from the glider in a V-formation: at this point
the pilot hoped that they were sufficiently full of the milk of human kindness,
not to let go of the bungee (for the non-technical reader, a bungee is a rubber
band with ideas above its station).
The pilot launched the glider by releasing the anchor. The idea was to fly for
about 100 yards at a height of about 10 feet. We were told that it took about
50 feet in altitude to recover from a stall, so getting up to 20 or 30 feet,
with a consequent loss of airspeed would not have been a good idea.
I remember on one occasion, F/O Tydeman discerned,
correctly, a certain lack of enthusiasm for the glider and said: 'NCOs, start
giving orders.' Bill Groves muttered, sotto voce, 'Everybody go
home.' (J.A. Smith)
Alan is quite right about the glider. I spent hours of last
lesson Mondays, and after school pulling that bloody bungee so that a chosen
cadet - I did not suspect it was you Alan - could skid for a few hundred yards
and wreck the hallowed cricket square.
But were you still at school when we went to Hornchurch for a gliding day and
took our own glider? We all had turns in a proper machine with a pilot, which
was towed up on a winch, but at the end of the day one of the madder pilots
took up the school glider and was even doing loops and other stunts. No health
and safety then!!! (Bill Groves)
I can't remember exactly when the School acquired that
glider. My glider course at Hornchurch was in the summer holiday of 1956 and it
must have been after that, otherwise I would have experienced the School glider
first; moreover, I left in 1959. So it must have been 1956-57, 1957-58,
or1958-59.
I don't think I flew it more than two or three times. On the occasion I quoted
Bill, I don't think I had a flight. I was doing the traditional thing of
projecting the impression of taking part in a group activity while expending
the least energy possible.
There was one field day when we took the School glider to Hornchurch, but I
don't recall any flights in proper gliders so it must have been a different
occasion from the one Bill remembers. (J.A. Smith)
... things indicate that it was no longer extant in 1963. It was certainly still "at school", all nicely folded up and packed away in it's little "hangar" in July 1962.The concrete base of the "hangar" (in reality a prefabricated concrete garage) can still be seen. So did the glider fly off to airfields (or cricket squares) new between July 62 and September 63? And would this have had anything to do with Tydeman leaving the school? I'm speechless in wonderment at Bill's assertion that "one of the madder pilots took up the school glider and was even doing loops and other stunts." That man deserved a VC! (David Maltby)
I would have gone for 56/57 as I'm fairly sure that I was a second year when it arrived. Any advance on Winter of 56/57? (David Maltby)
I remember watching a glider launch from the field, near the woodwork room, diagonally across to the cricket practice area. It flew so low that it bounced off the slightly raised roadway, the glider skid leaving a deep groove in the roadway. I wonder if the evidence remains today, or whether the road has been resurfaced. (John Hawkins)
Oh, it was still there in '63. I watched a few attempts to launch it across pitch 4 - thankful that I was safely out of the way. It was probably still there in '70 when I left, but after that? Maybe it can still be seen on a dark summer's night, "flying" silently around the school fields with no-one at the controls... (Steve East)
Birth of glider: I'm sure it was spring 1957 - I think we built the concrete garage in the Easter hols. For the entrepreneurs amongst us - is there a theme park ride or an arcade game lurking with gliders like this? Machine guns on the wings and a touch of right rudder on take-off might eradicate half of the bungee team in seconds! (Roy Wooley)
Glider: This is perhaps part of the wider question of what happened to the CCF. The glider may been phased out before the RLS CCF contingent closed down. If it was still there when the CCF was closed then it presumably went back to the RAF as it was government property. (JAS)
The glider was definitely up and running during my time at the school (65-73). I even saw it leave he ground once! Tydeman was still teaching at the RLS during my time, but I think he left around 1967. Perhaps the glider did leave with Tydeman, but later than the above posting indicates. I think I have a picture of him somewhere, inspecting the CCF with Jake. In my time, there was always a slight worry amongst some of the lads, that in time of war, CCF members would be called up first. Well, at the moment we are waging a war against Foot and Mouth, and the army have been called in to help. If we have any ex-CCF members with experience of dealing with sheep, healthy or otherwise, take one step forward. The rest of you, fall out. (Vince Leatt)
Ah yes, the glider. I spent sufficient time with it that, at
a push, I could probably still remember how to assemble the damned thing. As
(many) others have posted, summer cadet evenings were often spent hauling on the
bungee to enable other cadet to execute a "ground slide" - this was
where the glider had damned great boards fastened over the leading edges to
spoil all the lift, and the stick locked forwards so that there was absolutely
no hope of getting the bugger airborne. The job of the victim was to use the
ailerons to keep the wings level until the slide stopped - usually short of the
drive, in my recollection.
After I did my A & B at Debden, I was privileged to take off in the old
string bag once or twice to the dizzy height of 10 feet or so. It was ever my
ambition to land it on Derek Reynolds, but sadly the opportunity never
presented itself. The maddest thing I ever saw was when "Tiddles" Tydeman saw fit to
tow the school glider to Debden on a Gliding field day, and then proceeded to
attach it to the winch and fly it up to 600 feet! This confirmed two
things:-
1) RAF pilots are insane.
2) The school glider flew like a brick.
Personally, give me a good old T21 any time! (John Bailey)
The photographic evidence of the first manned flight reveals not a catapult launch, but a towed launch in a southerly direction. There is obviously still more to tell. (John Hawkins)
...or has the photographer captured it just prior to the bungee release? …or was the bungee even released? I'm sure there were no towing facilities. Unless it was attached to the back of Ron Smith's bike (out of picture).Whatever, another look at that photo confirms all I've ever said about the machine and the state of sanity of all who ever strapped themselves into it!...and is that a "Biggles"-type scarf I see flowing out beneath the starboard wing?...and that is surely higher than 10 feet! I hope Ron was pedalling fast! (DGM)
As the pilot in the photograph, I can assure readers that it was a bungee launch. Just imagine a towed launch from the RLS grounds! (J.A. Smith)
Del Franklyn totally detested the CCF and was not above the odd bit of light sabotage, e.g. stopping his van on the drive right in the middle of the 'V' made by the elastic bungee used to launch the school glider. I believe he was a pacifist, along with his other better-known problems. (Hondaboy?)
Although I had given up flying planes earlier in my career he (ed. Tydeman) indulged me with some trips with him over the years - he was a splendid Glider Pilot. Like me he flew the five-bar gate with wings (i.e. bungy launched CCF Glider (K4?) that a number of you endured) in ways you were never supposed to (I think this is recorded in earlier correspondence). I know he made a heavy landing in a glider and damaged his back... (Bill Broderick)
I saw a bungee launch once and I think I saw the plane held aloft with a single wire. It flew like a kite (David Silverside)
Alan: As our man on the spot, I must accept what you say is true. However, can you clear up my confusion. It would appear that the glider has travelled some distance from its launch point, and yet the bungee is still taught. How long did it stretch to? If it was a single cord, how did the glider miss the boys pulling it? I recollected a V-formation bungee launch, so that these boys were out of the immediate flight direction. Was the bungee not dropped during the flight? (John Hawkins)
I can't remember that particular flight. It is only the fact that Austing gave me the photo and stated that I was the pilot and the date was 22 June1959 that indirectly authenticates the record. It was always a V-formation: a single line would have been dangerous to the labour force. Can anyone remember a winch-launch from the RLS grounds? I'd have thought that it would have been too dangerous. (J.A. Smith)
From the vaults of my memory I can report a sighting of the Glider in the early seventies. I think this must have been circa 1972-73 just prior to the CCF being disbanded. I recall that every Thursday, the CCF attended school in their "Military garb" rather than the royal blue blazer. I must have been gazing out the window during a lesson in Room 1 which overlooked pitches 1 & 2 and there was the glider complete with bungees in V shaped formation being pulled away from the glider by a group of "cadets" very much in tug of war style. Unfortunately I never saw lift off. It seemed to be dragged across the pitch and then get stuck in the mud. However there was a story that it managed to get air borne that season only the crash nose first on a good length on Derek's hallowed cricked square. Whereupon DFR emerged in a state on enrage - history does not recall what he said but there were a fair few impressions of the conversation doing the rounds at school at the time. (Michael Jamieson)
Glider - the last sighting? When I joined the CCF as a third
former it seemed to be thriving. We all wore Army uniform for the first year in
what was known as the 'Basic Section'. After that we either moved to one of the
three arms of the service or left. The Royal Navy section was low on numbers
and I was asked to join it for my second year in the CCF. I think they had
heard that I made model boats at home. All was well for a couple of years and I
reached the dizzy heights of Leading Seaman. I think it must have been during
the Autumn term of 1972 that the Royal Navy section
was disbanded through lack of numbers. I was moved to the Royal Air Force
section but I didn't like the uniform or the demotion to Airman, so left.
I think the idea of a Comprehensive school having a CCF didn't quite go
together, but I can't remember that the CCF disbanded completely before I left
the school. I do remember that when we met with boys form other CCF's when on courses, they usually came from Public
Schools.
As to the expense to the school, I understand there was none as it was run by
the Ministry of Defence for the purpose of recruiting boys into the armed
services. In particular as officers. To that extent it
was moderately successful as I know of a few who did join including myself.
As to the glider, I don't know what happened to it. However, there is a similar
example in the Southampton Aviation Hall.
The story I remember about DFR and the CCF was that one year the inspecting
officer came by helicopter and landed in the middle of the 'clicky'
square. I seem to remember seeing photos of this in one of the CCF huts. (Ian Petitt)
The inspecting office did indeed come by helicopter one year - 1968 I think, but don't quote me - I was on that parade! We were also treated to the rare and truly hilarious sight of JPC wearing a mortar board for the occasion. However, at the risk of spoiling a good story, the chopper landed on the artificial wicket between Pitch 1 and Pitch 2 and not on the hallowed square. Regardless of what DFR may have thought, Messrs. Risebrow and Macaree would have been singularly unimpressed if it had landed on their handiwork. (John Bailey)
The recent discussion of the school glider has been
interesting, although I don’t remember there being one during my time at the
school. It set me searching for my old gliding logbook as I thought I might
have flown the same type in 1955. It turns out that the ‘aircraft’ that I did
my first seven (2 minute) flights on was an S.G.38, an ex Luftwaffe one, in