Osram asked me to relate this tale so I hope a few of you will find it interesting and maybe even a little amusing. Sorry if it gets a bit long but I wanted to add a bit of background information
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Background Info
Way back at the beginning of the 70's I was a member of 435 Sqdn ATC (Air Training Corps) the RAF's cadet force. As well as the typical military cadet fare of drill (square bashing), weapons training, assault courses and route marches Air Cadets also got a chance to go flying at RAF bases several times a year. The primary powered trainer of the period was the DeHavilland Chipmunk (like the one in my avatar) and I had lots of flights in these wonderfully docile tail-draggers. The thrill of doing aerobatics all over the sky when you were just 13-14 years old was unbelievable and I used to relish every flight. To supplement the powered flight experience we also went gliding and as the nearest glider equipped RAF base was only 16 miles away from our HQ we were able to go gliding far more frequently than we did power flying. As time went on I found I enjoyed gliding more than powered flight, partly because we flew gliders more often, partly for the serene beauty of floating around in almost total silence with just the 'whistle' of the wind over the wings and partly because once I started on the glider training course I got to sit in the front seat instead of the back
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The first glider flights I had were what were known as Air Experience Flights and these were undertaken in the beautiful Slingsby T.21 (Type 21). The pilot and cadet sat side-by-side in an open cockpit and each was able to watch the actions of the other as all the controls were duplicated. Just like when I went powered flying once we were airborne and stable the pilot handed control to me and I was flying the aircraft on my first glider flight, a truly amazing feeling! I flew the T.21 on many occasions after that and loved every minute of it and even progressed to doing take offs and landings.
I have Googled up a few links to images of the T.21 so you can see what this wide bodied lady looked like.
http://www.airliners.net/search/photo.s ... entry=true
http://www.lasham.org.uk/news/articles/T21/t21.html
http://www.mugshots-uk.co.uk/Photograph ... hings.html
http://www.sailplanedirectory.com/slingsb.htm
As time progressed and I aged (LOL) I became eligible to enrol on the glider proficiency course. You had to be at least 15 years old to enrol as the idea was that you should turn 16 just before the end of the second half of the course. The reasoning behind this was the ultimate goal of achieving your first 'solo' glider flight. You had to be 16 years old to do that and once completed you could apply for a Civilian Glider Pilot's Licence. There was also a change in the gliders we flew. No longer would we be sitting beside the pilot but we would be in a 'tandem' glider with the instructor in the back and we got to sit in the front seat! The T.21s were by no means new when we were flying them as they had been around for a number of years but the Slingsby T.31Bs we were going to fly on the course were positively ancient! They were nearing the end of their service life when I flew them and it was very obvious from the numerous patches on the wings and fuselage! The mark originally flew in 1949 and 131 examples were flown by the ATC. The flying controls were extremely basic and consisted of just a joystick, rudder pedals and a lever that operated the 'spoilers' used in landing. The cockpit gauges were spartan to say the least and had an altimeter, air speed indicator and a glass tube with a bead in it that was supposed to indicate if you were in a lift or sink situation (the instructor in the back seat had some additional instruments that included a compass and an improved rate of climb/descent indicator amongst others). The only other thing on the cockpit front panel was a large, yellow, wooden ball the size of a pool ball that was attached to a steel cable. The other end of the cable was attached to the tow cable release mechanism and this device features large in the tale I will relate below! Oh, by the way, all RAF gliders were flown WITHOUT the benefit of a parachute as these were considered to be too heavy and all cadets had to be weighed before starting flight ops for the day and those over a certain weight had a ribbon pinned to their uniform so that the instructor knew he had to change the nose ballast weight to a smaller one in those cases!
Unfortunately there seems to be very little information available on the net for the T.31B but I have included a few links below that show either the T.31B or the single seat predecessors the T.7/8 and there are some shots of the cockpits.
http://www.airliners.net/search/photo.s ... entry=true
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/markansell ... iders.html
http://www.vintagesailplane.org/winners.shtml
http://www.sailplanedirectory.com/Plane ... laneID=364
The scariest flight of my life!
I had already taken part in a couple of training days on the gliding course and was eagerly awaiting the next one but as winter was approaching I realized that I would have to wait until the spring before the training could continue. Imagine my surprise when the CO came into the training room one evening and pinned a notice up on the notice board and announced the next gliding course dates were out. There was a mad scramble to the board as soon as we had been dismissed as all those on the course tried to see when the dates had been set for. There was a loud groan from those nearest the board when they discovered that the first date had been set for the second Saturday in January! We were going to have to fly open cockpit gliders in the depths of an English winter! BRRRR!!!!
The appointed day duly arrived and we assembled at the HQ and awaited the arrival of the RAF transport to take us to RAF Tern Hill. The transport turned out to be a ram-shackled old bus that the heating system had broken down on and the seats were like iron. We arrived at the base like a package of frozen chips/fries! We did get a brief period to warm up during the pre-flight briefing when we were given the usual safety talks and the Met boys gave us a rundown on the day's weather conditions and then we were put into the back of a three ton truck and taken out to the field.
The gliders had already been towed into position at the downwind end of the field and the trucks with the winches mounted on the back were in position half way down the field instead of giving us the full length of cable available. We had a ceiling of 1,500 feet that day due to a low overcast so flights were only going to be 8-12 minutes in length, just enough for a single circuit and the landing approach. The winch trucks had been brought up the field in order to limit the amount of height we could get and to keep us out of the clouds. We jumped out of the truck and got ready for the first flight. There were three T.31Bs available that day and more than a dozen cadets so there would be long periods between the short flights. Luckily there were things to do on the ground like acting as the wing-tip man to hold the wing down while the glider was stationary and then running alongside the glider with the wing tip held at head height until the pilot had enough speed to be able to hold the wings level, operating the hand-held Aldis lamp that was used to signal instructions to the winch crew or riding 'shotgun' on the Land Rover that was used to retrieve the dropped tow cables and haul them back to the launch area. All the time we were out on the field the cold was biting at us as we were wearing the standard issue ATC woollen battledress of the time which was actually ex-RAF gear from just after WWII and knee length ex-RAF greatcoats (I still remember that the Ministry of Defence label in mine had the first issued date of 1945!)
The first couple of flights I had were chilly but no big problem. On the third flight I hit a snow squall just after dropping the cable and by the time I landed I looked like a snowman from the front as all the snow had stuck to my already frozen clothing! Flying in snow in an open cockpit glider is not the most enjoyable thing I can think of! Thankfully it was just a quick squall and did not curtail the flying activities for long but things were going to get a whole lot trickier on the next flight!
By the time my next flight came around I was really feeling the effects of the cold. I was shivering from head to foot and my hands and feet felt like solid blocks of ice. I ran over to the glider after it landed and had been pushed back to the 'start line' and switched places with the cadet getting out after handing my pocket log book to the instructor and strapped in. While this was happening the tow cable had been attached to the hook under the nose of the glider. I was at the point in the course where I was in charge of the glider from the moment I climbed in to the moment I climbed out so I told the guy on the wing tip to hold it up and I went through the pre-flight checks. There was actually very little to check on these old gliders and it was basically a case of waggling the controls to make sure the bits that should move did and the bits that shouldn't move didn't!
With the checks over it was time for a good look above and behind to check where the other gliders were and we were clear to take off.
I gave the order to 'take up slack' and the cadet on the Aldis lamp started sending slow flashes to the winch crew. The blinking light in the distance told me the crew had responded and the slack in the cable was being wound in. I watched the cable snaking across the grass in front of me and as soon as it went tight I shouted "All out" and the signaller started sending rapid flashes to the winch crew. A second later I saw a puff of black smoke go up from the diesel engine on the winch as the operator gave it full throttle and we were off! After a very brief period of noise and shaking as we bounced across the grass the old bird lifted off and all was silent save for the rush of wind over the wings. I eased the stick back until we were at the correct climb angle and then centred the stick and sat back to enjoy the elevator ride to the top.
All too soon we were at the top and I felt the typical 'nose bounce' that told me we were as high as we were going to get and it was time to drop the tow cable before the winch started pulling us out of the sky again. It was at this point the flight went to hell in a hand basket! I don't know if it was the effects of the cold or if I just had a mental freeze-up but I committed the ultimate sin when it comes to winch launches in a T.31B! Throughout all our training we had repeatedly been told that when it comes time to drop the cable we MUST push the stick all the way forward BEFORE we drop the cable to compensate for the effects of the cable drop as the sudden release of pressure on the nose WILL cause adverse affects on the glider if it is not in a nose down attitude!
Well there I was, frozen stiff with numb hands and feet and my mind a total blank when I felt the nose bounce so I reached for the big yellow ball hanging out of the dash and gave it a good old tug to drop the cable. I was instantly compressed into the seat and the nose of the glider catapulted upwards until the aircraft was sitting absolutely vertical and starting to fall earthwards in a tail down attitude! Yup, I had forgotten to push the stick forward BEFORE dropping the cable and I was now experiencing first hand what all the instructors had been warning us about! I was not feeling any effects of the cold at that point as I was now sweating profusely but my mind was still a blank as I sat there in a cloud of steam and the wind whistled past my ears going IN THE WRONG DIRECTION!
A bellow of "WELL F@$%#&* DO SOMETHING THEN!!!" from the back seat snapped me out of it and in a blind panic I worked the rudder pedals like a cyclist in the Tour de France and whipped the stick around as if I was trying to stir paint in a 5 gallon bucket! After what seemed like eons, but was probably only a couple of seconds, the port wing tip started to drop and the nose followed it. A second later and I was still dropping vertically out of the sky but this time I was nose down and I knew what to do about that! I waited one more second to build up airspeed and then pulled back on the stick and the old girl picked her nose up and settled into level flight .... PHEW!!! The only problem now was that I was heading off at 90° to the take off line and a quick glance at the altimeter told me I was 500 feet lower than I should have been! I had lost 500 feet (or a third of my total height) while trying to sort out my tail first plummet!
I quickly asked the instructor what I should do as we did not have enough altitude to complete the 'regular' circuit and he told me to immediately turn 90° to port and follow the airfield perimeter fence to the road (in effect shortening the cross-wind leg) and once we were over the farmer's field on the other side of the road we could do a 180 and make a short approach landing. If we lost too much height in the turn we could put down in the farmer's field and the cows currently grazing in said field would just have to get out of the damn way!
As it happened I was able to make the 180 without losing too much height but I swear that when we crossed the airfield perimeter fence there was less than 30 feet between the bottom of the glider and the telephone wires along the edge of the road! As soon as I crossed the fence I popped up the spoilers to slow the plane and reduce the lift from the wing and she settled softly onto the ground effect cushion at about 10 feet from the ground and then gently sank the rest of the way into a perfect no-bounce landing! At least I got that bit right! Within 40-50 yards we had rattled to a halt and I pushed the stick hard over to drop the wing tip onto the ground. The recovery crew were right there as soon as we stopped rolling and we were wheeled back to the 'start line'.
I unstrapped and clambered out and when I turned to look at the instructor he was sitting there as calm as could be, twiddling with the windswept waxed tips of his handlebar moustache with one hand while he filled in my log book record with the other. He looked up at me with a grin on his face like the proverbial Cheshire Cat and quietly said "Well done, you at least got us back to the ground in one piece!" and then in a parade ground bellow that I am sure was heard at the winches halfway down the field he roared "BUT DON'T EVER F@$%#&* DO THAT AGAIN!!!!!" I threw him a rather shaky salute and mumbled 'Yessir, nosir, thankyousir" and wobbled my way back to rest of the crew on very shaky legs.
I was immediately surrounded and bombarded with all sorts of questions about what went wrong but thankfully the arrival of the NAAFI truck bearing sticky buns and giant enamel mugs of hot, sweet, tea quickly diverted their attention. As I sat on the bumper of the NAAFI truck a few minutes later with my frozen hands wrapped around the mug of warming nectar I suddenly realized something that sent a warm glow right through my cold body. Not once during that entire flight had I felt the instructors hands or feet on the controls! He had sat in the back and let me get on with it and never attempted to take control of the aircraft at any point in the flight. I put us in that difficult situation and I got us out of it again and back on the ground in one piece! Not bad for a 15 year old kid who was still in school!
It was a lesson learned the hard way but it is a lesson I have never forgotten and I bet if I were to climb into a T.31B today I would damn well remember to ram that stick forward BEFORE I pulled the bloody release cable!
). I am going to have to trawl the net to see if I can come up with some images too. I know we flew two types, one a tandem model and one a side-by-side model but I cannot remember the mark or model numbers off the top of my head.
and we had no Gliders 
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The funny thing is the pupil behind me just followed me and landed the wrong way as well 
. So there are one or two instructors that only instruct on the weekend. I had a fairly uneventful ride with one, flying apart from T/O and landing. Of course the instructor touched ground beautifully with the double seater, but after a second or two a shshshsh sound appeared and all the world around us started to look blurry 
I know, and tell the kids of today about it and they don't believe ya!
