Throwback Thursday

I've got a bit behind with uploading my blips this week, so here's my rather late entry for Throwback Thursday which KangaZu suggested as a blip category for the month of August.

This tiny badge - no bigger than the nail on my index finger - is the first goal for anyone who is learning to fly a glider in the UK.  It's known as the 'A' Badge, and to get it you need to complete a single successful solo flight and be able to show a good grasp of the rules of the air.  I suppose 'successful' would include landing safely, though at my gliding club they used to joke that any landing you can walk away from is a successful landing!  I remember my 'A' Badge flight very well indeed.  It was flown late in the afternoon twenty-five years ago on Sunday 09/09/90, after I'd had a short training flight with my instructor Alan.  Little did I know that it was actually a 'check' flight to make sure I was ready to do my first solo!  I was both horrified and excited all at the same time when Alan jumped out of the glider, did up the straps tightly in the empty rear seat where he'd been sitting, and said "that was great, Jane - now go and do it again on your own".  I was the first student that Alan had sent solo, so it was memorable for him too.  It seemed pretty unreal as the tug plane inched forward to take up the slack in the tow-rope and then throttled up for the take-off run.  The glider lifted off from the ground sooner than usual without the weight of an instructor in the back, and I followed the tug around the sky up to 2,000 feet before releasing from the rope and doing a few figure-of-eight turns this way and that to get a feel for handling the aircraft with less ballast on board.  The glider seemed a little more twitchy with just me in it, and I could hear the metal strap buckle in the rear tapping gently on the glass fibre seat behind me which was a bit spooky.  As it was early evening and the sun was starting to go down, there was no 'lift' (currents of warmer air which can carry a glider up higher if you fly in them) - so my flight lasted only 12 minutes.  I did a circuit around the airfield (which I had kept in sight during the whole of my flight) and lined up on the final approach just exactly as I had done on my check ride, with the airbrakes (spoilers) cracked half-open.  With its lower all-up weight the glider floated along just above the ground for much longer before settling gently on the grass, and I kept the wings level until it finally came to a halt.  My extra photo was taken by Alan just after I'd hopped out of the glider - relief and triumph plainly written on my face!


I continued gliding and also flying powered planes for quite a few years after doing my first solo, going on to attain a Private Pilot's Licence.  My favourite place to fly gliders was over the Cairngorm Mountains in Scotland, where we climbed up to many thousands of feet in the most stunning cloudscapes, and could see Balmoral Castle and Royal Deeside spread out far below us - one of the most magical experiences of my life.