I am fortunate to be able to say that all 3 of my Silver badge flights where flown in countries other than the UK. It is not unusual for glider pilots to travel abroad to get their badges. However I was on an RAF posting in Germany and was able to join in with one of our expeditions to the French Alps. This article is about my 5 hour duration flight and was originally written for the RAF Halton Gliding Club Newsletter:

How many Glider pilots can confess to a delay of just under 21 years from the first attempt to finally successfully achieving the duration element of the Silver badge. Giving up Gliding for 17 years had something to do with it, which is another story. However, back to my five hour flight, I only ever made three unsuccessful attempts. The first occurred on the 1st April 1969 (April fools day!). I was on a course at RAF Locking in Somerset, as it was once known, I had Friday afternoon free and the wind was blowing nicely North Westerly onto the local ridge South of Weston-Super-Mare airfield. All I had to do was arrange more time off in the morning, prepare the Club Olympia glider, winch, and tractor, position the winch, pull a cable out, find a winch driver, find a wing tip holder and go. This was all done in the days of when the RAF worked Friday afternoons. The Chief Flying Instructor (CFI) of the Club kindly agreed to my plans, he probably thought I could never organise it all. I finally managed to get two Club members to give up part of their lunch break to launch me.

So there I was in the cockpit of the Club Olympia 2b, number 185, nicely finished in silver with "Presented by the Nuffield trust" in black on the nose. The wind did not look so clever now! Oh well, pressonitis was in control, so up I went. Only 900ft, blast, or words somewhat similar. Hard left turn and off to the ridge. "We are off to lunch now, Bye" squawked the radio. "Hang on, its not that good up here, I am only just holding 850ft". "Too bad, see you teatime". I was on my own and struggling. A strange and perverse logic entered my mind, if I lose height and leave the ridge at 700ft and go back to the airfield there will be no one there. But if I stay here and don't go back to the airfield, I can stay longer and lower. All I had to do was mark out some fields along the length of the ridge and when things get sticky, just drop in. Well things did get sticky and I did drop in. A nice big long field into wind, it had to be long as I found out it was on the down slope of the ridge I was soaring! But long enough it was and I found myself parked safely on the outskirts of Hutton village. Following a short phone call to the CFI I resigned myself to sitting in the field till five when a retrieve could be arranged, RAF works Friday afternoons remember.

If you are enjoying this tale so far, it gets better, the next day a Saturday the CFI obviously thinks my efforts deserved better recognition. So off I go again, this time in a T21 two seater, sometimes known as a Sedburgh. Now after the events of the day before I am not going to be silly and land in field again, am I. Wrong! An 1 hour and 10 minutes later finds me in steep side slip approach (the T21 does a nice side slip) over a row of houses and into a farmers field about 500 yards short of the airfield perimeter. I didn't think that I had done anything wrong, I might have been a bit marginal at the decision height for leaving the ridge, and the T21 is not blessed with the best penetration into wind and I made the right decision on not trying to stretch the glide to the airfield. Landing a T21 in a field is not to be recommended, not because it is difficult, far from it, with a stalling speed of 27kts it will pop in anywhere. But the derig is not easy and guaranteed to make you the most popular member of the Club. It was all awkward struts and wing panels more suited to a Boeing 747 than a glider! Needless to say I wasn't invited to make further attempts at five hours for while.

Twenty one years later and I was with a Gliding expedition from RAF Bruggen to Sisteron in the Durance valley of the Southern Alps of France. The third attempt was a desperate scrape in an Astir, in rain, on the South West corner of the Hongrie near Sisteron on a day when everyone else was sat in the Clubhouse running a sweepstake on how long I would last. Landing after 50 minutes wiped out most of the punters leaving only two left, one of which had me down for excess of two hours! Five days later 23rd Mar 1990 and it all came good, a steady howling gale of 6kts Northerly on the Gache, a 2000ft high rock wall that runs for nearly two miles East to West. Once again I had picked a day when nobody else was interested, I dragged a reluctant tug pilot named Sammy from his leisurely French lunch to get me airborne. I was shortly joined by another RAF glider pilot, Kev Morley who was also attempting his five hours. He was 300ft below me in the RAF Laarbruch Gliding Club's "Twinpig" sorry, "Twin-Astir". The peace of afternoon was shattered only by the constant ramblings on the radio from Kev, obviously without a watch, "What time is it? How much longer have I got to do". The five hour flight became an anticlimax compared to my earlier attempts, and at the end I had 40 minutes flying to myself over the required five hours just enjoying the scenery of the Durance valley. Finally I am pleased to say I landed back at Sisteron Airfield, no field landing this time!

Is there a moral to the story? Maybe there is. If you ask the CFI if you can do something that you have got all planned out, he may say yes and then you have got to do it. Don't land a T21 in field. If flying for five hours get a watch, bag of "Nuttle Mintoes" and a comfy cushion. Pick a good day and therefore avoid being the subject of a sweepstake. Get a field landing check. Go to France. The list is endless. Part 2 to follow - My Height and Distance flights.

Note - The photo is the Astir number 742 at Sisteron - The Gache in the background

Click Here for Part 2