Rob L wrote:..Gliding course (to solo) at South Cerney in motor Ventura ..
then there's a good chance that one or more of your Instructors would have been former Air Cadets of mine (3 went from Staff Cadet to QGI there)
My first Chippie flights: RAF White Waltham [
sic] when HQsAC was still there. AOC would sometimes come out from his office to fly Cadets. Last (as adult Instructor) RAF Woodvale during Camp at Sealand. Last Bulldog: Newton, during Camp. Last Tutor: Colerne, routine local AEF day.
[At WW in '60s most AEF pilots were still WW2 or National Service generation. Pilot was required to do first take-off and last landing, but some acceded to my request to do circuits, and allowed me to handle T&Gs (stick, throttle and flaps) from rear seat despite having no view forward
ISTR that by the time Chippie left AEFs rule was that Cadets must have hand and feet off controls when below 1000' QFE. Anyway, when I started my PPL (C140s, so also tailwheel) in Canada, with Chippie-trained former or still current RCAF pilots who were also civilian FIs, one remarked to me on my first flight that I 'seemed to have done this before'
]
First Air Cadet Gliding: VGS at (IIRC) Dunstable Downs, Kirkby Cadet Mk III. Later (as adult Instructor): basic course to solo, South Cerney, Kirkby IIIs. Last during AEG visits with Cadets: Venture, South Cerney; Vigilant, Little Rissington. However, as a long-standing Cadet Instructor, I was invited with others (and with some surviving former ex-ADCC Cadets) to a day with the 'Vintage Flight' then at Hullavington, and had one trip in a Sedbergh. I was allowed to fly myself down there, and took with me one of the former South Cerney QGIs.
Happy times, and definitely got me hooked. There was no prior flying connexion in my immediate family, who all thought this a further reason to reckon I was a bit weird
(mere guide at) Jet Age Museum, Gloucestershire Airport
http://www.jetagemuseum.org/TripAdvisor Excellence Award 2015
http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Attraction ... gland.html