EDWARD HULL 'Take Up Slack9 Hjstory of The London Gliding Clu 1930-2000 * ^ V DWARD HULL Published in 2000 by WOODFIELD PUBLISHING Bognor Regis, West Sussex PO21 5EL, UK. © Edward Hull, 2000 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, nor may it be stored in any information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission from the copyright holder. This book is No. .................. of a limited edition of 500 CONTENTS BIBLIOGRAPHY ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS FOREWORD INTRODUCTION Chapter 1 BEGINNINGS Chapter 2 ANCIENT HISTORY Chapter 3 THE THIRTIES & FORTIES Chapter 4 THE FIFTIES & SIXTIES Chapter 5 THE SEVENTIES & EIGHTIES Chapter 6 THE NINETIES Chapter 7 SOARING INTERRUPTUS Chapter 8 FIELD DEVELOPMENT & BUILDINGS Chapter 9 GHOSTS Chapter 10 CATERING Chapter 11 CLUB GLIDER AND TUG FLEET Chapter 12 THE TEST GROUP Chapter 13 WINCHES ;•••• ;, ,>;;:;.' '•••••.'•-^^ Chapter 14 TRACTORS Chapter 15 TRAILERS .'•:::.;;^ Chapter 16 THE WESTHORPE TRAGEDY Chapter 17 AEROBATIC COMPETITIONS & AIRSHOWS Chapter 18 RECORDS Chapter 19 THE LONDON BALLOON CLUB Chapter 20 COMPETITIONS & EPIC RETRIEVES Chapter 21 • AIRWAYS ••: --;;':M:v/- ::^^ Chapter 22 EXPEDITIONS Chapter 23 THE VINTAGE GLIDER CLUB Chapter 24 GLIDERS : -- :.': '•-'" ^^ Chapter 25 2000 AND ONWARDS 118 APPENDIX I CLUB OFFICIALS 120 APPENDIX II ANNUAL TROPHIES AND AWARDS 121 APPENDIX III MAJOR COMPETITIONS HELD AT DUNSTABLE TAKE UP SLACK • 3 BIBLIOGRAPHY THE WOODEN SWORD Lawrence Wright Elek ON BEING A BIRD Philip Wills Max Parrish & Co SAILPLANE & GLIDING British Gliding Association LONDON GLIDING CLUB GAZETTE London Gliding Club ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS My thanks are due to many people who have their devotion to putting my text and pictures on to contributed stories and memories to fill these computer disc, editing and generally advising on pages. If I have omitted your name from the list the production of this book, nothing would have below, please accept my apology. come about. M.Beach, M.Bird, G.Boswell, J.Cardiff, P.Claiden, Most of the photographs are from my own R.Clear, L.Collins, L.Costello, J.Currie, A.Doughty, collection supplemented by those from Les C.Ellis, A.Erskine, M.Fairman, P.Hearne, Moulster, Les Collins, Chris Wills and Lou Costello M.Hodgson, JJeffries, W.Kahn, P.Langford, whom I thank. B.Middleton, G.Moore, L.Moulster, T.Newport- Peace, G.Nixon, R.Pollard, F.Pozerskis, P.Ramsden, Front cover: THE OLD AND THE NEW C.Richardson, M.Riddell, D.Ruffett, F.Russell, Tony Hutching's magnificent picture of Robin May M.Russell, V.Russell, M.Simons, D.Smith, G.Smith, formating his AS-H 25 on Geoff Moore's SG-38 T.Southard, B.Stephenson, G.Stephenson, M.Thick, Primary. M.Till, S.Tomlin, P.Underwood, C.Vernon, R.Walker, A.Welch, R.White, C.Withall. Back cover: NOSTALGIA Eric Collins soaring the Downs in the Kassel 20 in Extra special thanks to Laurie Woodage, Roger 1933 watched by his wife and their dog. Barrett, Peter Parker and Tim Godfrey. Without 4 • TAKE UP SLACK FOREWORD by Ann Welch ORE, MBE ioneering days are always exciting, with Pilot Regiment. The Club site became a prisoner of their unexpected twists and turns, war camp. particularly if others involved have P enterprise and determination even to the Post-war, as glider performance and speeds extent of pigheadedness. The early days of gliding improved, the field had somehow to be relieved of fully explored this unknown route to the future, its deep gullcys and cable-catching obstructions as with the London Gliding Club at Dunstable in the well as becoming larger. The story of how this was forefront of any drama, confusion and fun that was achieved, again by its members, is a lesson for any going. other club with a similar site problem. Take Up Slack' is a history in anecdotes of the My first contact with Dunstable was in 1937 when I Club from its 1929 inception mixed with the went on the Anglo-German Camp (not then called embryo EGA, beginning with its search for a flying a course). I already had an aeroplane 'A' licence field for its (very) primary gliders. The first site that but without much money, and very few hours. A showed any promise was Ivinghoe Beacon after friend told me that gliding was cheaper, but which came Dunstable Downs. Once having a another dismissed it as aerial tobogganing. home, even with the coldest, dampest bunkhouse However, for ,£16 for two weeks with everything ever (I slept in it!) enthusiasm was irrepressible. included I ignored the derisory bit. I arrived at Pilots with all of 50 minutes total flying became Dunstable station by train, walked to the Club and instructors and any who could use a hammer built was hooked. Gliding had everything about flying winches or repaired gliders. Everyone was kept fit - that I liked and wanted. Out in the open with ever and hungry - by endless bungee launching. Kind changing skies, watching the antics of other people took on the bar and the catering. By the beginners, helping to mend gliders, listening to mid-thirties the Club's financial wizards had pilots talk about their hairy flights, going on enough money to build the famous Clubhouse retrieves to unknown destinations; trying to make designed by Kit Nicholson. a Dagling soar on the Hill for 5 minutes to get a 'C and being promoted to the Grunau Baby took By the start of World War Two the Club was well all one's concentration! established and internationally famous. During the conflict Club members joined the forces, notably Ted Hull's book is divided into a chronological providing a competent nucleus for the infant Glider history of the Club and its members followed by a series of specialist chapters ranging from winches to ghosts. It is a very readable story about enterprise, both individual and corporate, in the 'gang' sense of that word. For the many people who have stayed with gliding for more years than they care to think about it will bring back happy memories. For new pilots it is a revealing glimpse of how gliding left its stone age. Ann Welch TAKE UP SLACK INTRODUCTION he old Rolls Royce teetered on the edge ago. Before their recollections faded forever, it of the slope and rolled forward, gathering seemed to be a good idea to ask around and get speed and rocketing from bump to bump them on record as a sequel to the early history of as it plunged down the face of Dunstable the LGC written by Dudley Hiscox. Much of it is T trivia but then this all provides an insight into Downs. In spite of having no driver at the wheel it kept a straight course, flattening the scrubby gliding during a bygone era. Different people, bushes in its way. Bursting through the last line of different machines, different methods. Those were hedgerow, it reached Hangar Ridge and veered the days when a cross country flight was a down the incline to finish with its nose high up in downwind dash without the aid of radio, GPS or the bushes on the Lynchets pathway. Walter mobile phone, when retrieve cars followed the Neumark was the first of the London Gliding Club presumed track of their pilot and phoned back to members to reach the vehicle and saw to his base hourly to see if or where he had landed. The surprise an ancient lady seated in the back of the days indeed when not many glider pilots were car old saloon. In his soft spoken, precise English he owners and had to rely on a Club retrieving vehicle politely enquired of her, 'Good afternoon madam, to get them back from an outlanding. did you have an enjoyable ride?' Some time later a young man appeared, enquiring after the fate of As the three little words 'Take Up Slack' signal the the passenger. Looking for his inheritance, perhaps? start of the adventure that is embodied in each and every flight in a glider, so let it open this collection This is one of the fund of stories that old-time of tales of epic flights, the records, the members of the Club bring out when their development of the London Gliding Club and of memories are jogged to recall events from long the characters that made it all happen. 6 TAKE UP SLACK Chapter 1 BEGINNINGS he earliest reports of gliding take us back XI ,000 prize for the longest glider flight of over to the times of Greek mythology with the thirty minutes at a meeting to be held at Itford on story of Icarus and his father Daedalus the South Downs. Although thirty five gliders were who constructed wings of feathers and entered for the competition, only ten materialised. T many mediaeval attempts to As the days went on, longer and longer flights wax and inspired conquer the air. Wings were strapped on and were achieved until a Frenchman, Maneyrol, in a jumps made from church towers, usually with fatal tandem winged glider of his own design and results, as man tried to copy the birds. Around construction, flew for three hours and twenty one 1800, a Yorkshire baronet, Sir George Cayley, who minutes to take the honours. The event did not built up an incredible record of invention and encourage any long term interest in gliding and it experimentation, turned his mind to the problems was not until 1929, when the stories of great flights of aviation and within a few short years had being achieved in Germany filtered through, that reasoned out the theory and aerodynamics 'Aeroplane' magazine organised a lunch for involved.