THE SCOTTISH GLIDING UNION A HISTORY 1934-2OO8 IAN EASSON ]|0 SlltS^t 8; i, *> n *: 0 ifl X o C The Scottish Gliding Union A History 1934-2008 by lan Easson Copyright © IKE Publishing 2008 Text Copyright © lan Easson 2008 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission of the copyright owner. Nor can it be circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that which it is published and without similar condition including this condition being imposed on a subsequent purchaser. ISBN: 978-0-9560820-0-8 Published by IKE Publishing Printed by Dolman Scott Ltd Acknowledgements I would like to thank everyone who has helped in the production of this book. From those intrepid aviators who had the foresight to record their flights and experiences, to the everyday club members who encouraged and inspired me to complete this work. In particular, I would like to thank the editors, past and present, of the international gliding magazine, Sailplane & Gliding, who have very kindly allowed me to reprint some of the stories that had long since disappeared from our club archives. In addition I would like to thank the numerous club members who have supplied me with photographs and material, some of which were of the highest standard. I would especially like to thank Derek Piggott for agreeing to write the Foreword and, finally, I would like to thank everyone who has contributed to the club magazine, Portmoak Press, over the years as their stories provided the idea for this book in the first place. Contents Introduction I Chapter 1 1 Chapter 2 5 Chapters 15 Chapter 4 31 Chapter 5 53 Chapter 6 81 Chapter 7 99 Chapters 119 Chapters 141 Chapter 10 153 Chapter 11 175 Chapter 12 221 Chapter 13 235 Chapter 14 253 Chapter 15 265 Chapter 16 277 Chapter 17 301 Chapter 18 317 Chapter 19 347 Chapter 20 385 Gliding Certificates & Badges 423 Abbreviations 425 Turnpoints 426 FOREWORD On the 30th August 2007, a flight of 1540 Km., nearly 1000 miles, was made by John Williams, a member of the Scottish Gliding Union, flying to and fro across Scotland, surprising everyone, perhaps even himself. This was by far the longest soaring flight ever made in the U.K. and put Portmoak, the home of the Scottish Gliding Union on the map and recognised world wide, as a premier gliding site. The flight was made possible by using wave lift and flying at 20,000 feet. By flying so high in the rarefied air, he gained almost 35% in speed and so could go further compared with flying at sea level. The flight took 101/2 hrs. and he averaged about 80 knots, 90 m.p.h. This book takes us through nearly 75 years of the SGU from 1934 to 2008 when gliding was developing from Primary gliders making hops timed in seconds, to John Williams's epic soaring flight in his Antares electric Self Launching Motor Glider in 2007. It is also packed full of interesting details of members' exploits. The Scottish Gliding Union began in Glasgow with a few members and moved around flying from different places in their early days. They finally found Portmoak and moved there in 1957. This site had many advantages. There are two nearby hills, the Bishop and Benarty, offering ridge lift and wave conditions in several different wind directions. There is plenty of room for launches and landings and it is close to the capital, Edinburgh, and in beautiful countryside with Loch Leven adjoining the field and making a good landmark for early solo pilots. What a find - meeting all these requirements I have happy memories of expeditions from my own club at Lasham in Hampshire as flying at Portmoak extended our soaring season into October after the summer thermals faded. We would go to explore the wave and hopefully to fly very high for International badge qualifications. Most of us didn't really take cross country flying seriously over such mountainous terrain and with the coast so close on both sides of Scotland. However, one of our pilots, Alan Purnell, who used to lead our expeditions to Scotland, was one of the first to fly long distance cross country flights from Portmoak using wave in the 70's. The SGU pilots showed us the potential of the site for record attempts so that now our pilots go to Scotland to fly for both height and distance flights in the powerful waves over the mountains. Often our expeditions would be fruitless because of bad weather, but once a pilot had flown in wave, they always came back for more. The magic of flying for hours in silky smooth air, without having to make more than slight movements on the controls for minutes on end, makes the experience unique and unforgettable. It was usual to have several days of rain or low cloud before the weather became flyable and this made a special bond between all who flew there, or so I thought. Perhaps it was really the delicious Malt Whisky. Each achievement called for a celebration and everyone joined in so that we made many friends amongst the club pilots and instructors. The Club pioneered giving glider training to several groups who would not normally have been able to glide. Members started a group known as "Walking on Air" with a two-seater glider specially fitted with an additional hand control to replace the rudder pedals so that people with physical disabilities, and normally confined to wheel chairs, can learn to fly gliders. A few years ago I flew with them in a Regional Competition at the Cambridge Club to introduce them to cross country flying. Several had already made their first solos and their enthusiasm was infectious. It was a real pleasure to fly with them and share their excitement at making their first field landings. Since that time many other British clubs have followed their lead and teach on similar gliders fitted with hand controls. The SGU has for many years encouraged university students from both the Strathclyde and Edinburgh University to try gliding and now they have their own instructors to fly with their student members. The club also runs a Cadet scheme for younger boys and girls to enable them to learn to fly at especially low rates. Reading some of the anecdotes in the book reminded me of being present and involved at the time and brought back very real memories. One of the accounts that I remember vividly was Nick Goodhart's epic goal flight from Lasham to Portmoak in the 1959 National Championships in his Skylark 3. Who knows what possessed him to declare Scotland! I don't think he really believed he would get that far and none of us knew of his declaration at the time. On this flight of 360 miles, he used thermals, storm clouds, hill lift and finally wave lift to complete the flight. That day I was flying in the same competition with Nick and also Anne Burns, Phillip Wills, John Williamson and numerous other names which are now legendary. Like Nick, I fell out of the sky and needed to take a second launch before I could get away from Lasham. I was making good progress but after about 4 hours I was forced down by the effects of a large thunderstorm near Sheffield whilst he made use of it, collecting ice on the way. My retrieve crew got me back to Lasham early the next morning but it took two days hard driving to get Nick and the glider back from Portmoak and the Championships were held up until he was back and ready to fly again. In those days of free distance flights and no radios, there was an art in retrieving. The crews would set out in which ever direction the pilot was expected to go and had enough knowledge of the conditions to anticipate which road to take. Except for London, there were almost no airspace problems so gliders followed the weather. The retrieve crews knew which roadside telephones they could stop at with a trailer and would periodically phone back to base to find out if and where their pilot had landed. When the pilot finally landed, this method shortened the time of getting to him. After de-rigging and packing the trailer, my crew would drive back a bit, stop and brew up some food. Then I would sleep in the back of the car, arriving at Lasham at about 2 a.m. That was a good day and an efficient retrieve. Talking of distance retrieves, in one week during a competition three tasks were set into Cornwall and North Devon and I had three retrieves from there. Remember, in those days there were no decent roads and it seemed to take forever trailing a glider up and down hills along the winding roads with what would now be a vintage car. Not long after this, free distance flights were dropped from the list of competition tasks, and out and return and closed circuit flights were encouraged to avoid the expense and exhaustion of such long retrieves. I was also present at Lasham when SQL) Director, Tom Docherty had been flying in our competition and decided to stay on afterwards. He had planned a cross channel flight with a view to covering more distance and waited for the appropriate promising conditions.