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Aviation History
1958
1958 - 0087.PDF
FLIGHT, 17 January 1958 89 Still going strong with many clubs and groups is the veteran Tiger Moth. This photograph, taken by Peter Shephard of the Rochester Fly- ing Club, shows one of the club's Tigers flown by instructor Vic Arnold. Two Tigers and one Autocrat make up the fleet of the club which, with S/L. F. Holt as chief flying instructor, is operated by Short Bros, and Harland. WITH a total of seven R.A.F. flyingclubs in operation at present, planshave been made for the formation of an R.A.F. Flying Club Association.This would follow the example of the R.A.F.G.S.A., which caters for gliding andsoaring enthusiasts in the Service. The first two R.A.F. clubs to be formed wereat Middle Wallop and Thorney Island. Following various difficulties these clubswere forced to disband, but not before their example had been followed by No. 47Squadron Flying Club at Abingdon, where S/L. D. P. Bouinois (now at Air Ministry) was squadron CO. This club, formed inDecember 1954, now has 30 members, and had logged 700 hours' flying by the end of last November. In 1956 No. 83 Squadronat Syerston and the R.A.F. station at Upwood formed flying clubs, which have since flown a joint total of a further 700 hours. Mem-bership of the 83 Squadron club now stands at 80, and the club has established such a sound financial foundation that members'subscriptions have been abolished. The remaining four clubs, formed last year, are at Watton,Manby, Boscombe Down and Little Rissington. Most of the R.A.F. clubs operate Tiger Moths or Austers, which are normallypurchased with the aid of a loan from the Kemsley Flying Trust. The Abingdon club, which repayed 80 per cent of its loan withineight months, achieved 22 first solos and four P.P.L.s during its first year of operation. Its operations include parachuting andglider-towing in addition to flying instruction. ANNUAL dinner of the Association of British Aero Clubs will- again be held at the Waldorf Hotel, London, this year. Tickets for the dinner, which is at 7 for 7.30 p.m. on Friday, February 7,cost 30s and are obtainable from member-clubs of the Association. The tradition that this function is an all-male affair continues. A NEW Italian two-seater sailplane, the C.V.V.8 Bonaventura,has been designed by E. Preti and built at the Polytechnic School of Milan University. Construction is all-wood with plyand fabric covering, and the laminar wing sections are NACA 65618 (root) and NACA 63212 (tip). First flight of the new sail-plane, which is estimated to have a maximum gliding ratio of 1 :40, was made just before the end of 1957 at Venegono, theAeronautica Macchi field near Varese, by Commandant Mantelli. The Bonaventura is to be delivered to die Italian gliding schoolat Rieti. Dimensions include: span, 62ft 3in; length, 26ft; wing area, 220 sq ft; aspect ratio, 18; gross weight, 1,058 lb. ONCE again a question concerning gliding, raised in the Houseof Commons, has produced a long Ministerial answer com- bining the customary shoal of platitudes with an incredibly smallamount of information. The question, raised by Sir Roger Conant on December 19, referred mainly to gliding in the R.A.F. and theA.T.C. If the R.A.F. was to obtain recruits through gliding, he CLUB AND GLIDING NEWS said, the Service must do two things: it must interest the potentialA.T.C. recruit in the sport of gliding, and it must be able to tell him, once interested, that he would obtain better gliding facilitiesif he joined the R.A.F. than if he did not. At present A.T.C. gliding training went no further than the "B" Certificate; betterresults would be obtained if soaring experience were included. While it might not be practicable to extend all A.T.C. training upto "C" standard, the use of T.42s for aero-towed launches, rather than winch-launched T.21 Sedberghs, should be considered. Sir Roger concluded by asking for the latest information onnegotiations for Lasham, where the Surrey Gliding Club and other clubs had suffered insecurity of tenure for many years.In his reply, Mr. Charles Orr-Ewing, Under-secretary of State for Air, said that gliding certainly was a delightful sport. Anythingwhich he could do to make it more widely available he would most certainly do—provided that it did not lead us into economicdifficulties. Other points from Mr. Orr-Ewing's speech included the following: — "We feel that, while gliding is a fine sport and one very especiallyappropriate in the R.A.F., it should continue to be regarded mainly as a sport and that the mainspring of its advance should therefore be theprivate initiative of individual enthusiasts. We do not feel that we should be justified in extending the financial help that we already give. . . . "The amount of gliding which we do in the A.T.C. is not insignificant.We have one full-time gliding school and 20 weekend flying schools, and in the six months up to September 1957 no less than 46,000 launcheshave taken place in the A.T.C. . . . "The Royal Air Force no longer wants the (Lasham) airfield and thereis no other Government need for the land apart from a minor Ministry of Supply interest which need not at this stage affect the main question ofthe airfield's future. We therefore intend to dispose of the land. Natur- ally our first thought would be to offer it to the former owner. "Before we can get down to this, we must take account of the views ofthe local planning authority on the future use of the land. We have had preliminary discussions with the authority and have now applied formallyfor a planning determination. When this is received the district valuer, who has been instructed on our behalf, will open negotiations with theformer owner. That is the order in which these things must work. . . . "I can give an assurance that I and my hon. friend the Joint Parlia-mentary Secretary to the Ministry of Transport and Civil Aviation, with whom I am in constant touch on this matter—and who, in turn, is keep-ing the British Gliding Association fully informed—will continue to keep a close personal watch on the problem. We are glad that we have beenable to help the clubs at Lasham in the past, and we are fully mindful of their present and future interests. . . ." Below, the new Italian two-seat sailplane built at Milan and known as ll>e CW.8 Bonaventura (see news item on this page). Right, two keen young members oftheW.J.AS... Carol Coker and Sandra Ansley, who have been receiving air-experience flights at tan Oaks Aero Club in return for catering help at weekends.
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