'TAKE UP SLACK'.pdf - Lakes Gliding Club

Field right across the approach path of our gliders
using the south west run. Dunstable Council tried
very hard to get hang gliding banned from the
Downs but a court case failed and the hang gliders
stayed. Eventually their club and the LGC came to
terms and relations are now quite amicable. The
vast improvement in the performance of the
modern machines enables them to soar well and
on a brisk wind day as many as a dozen hang
gliders may be seen over the Hill at any one time.
Some of the hang glider pilots have come down
from the Hill and joined the LGC, Pete Harvey (one
of their champions) and Dick Perry, to name only
two.
Paragliders are the latest manifestation and look
very graceful floating up and down in the lightest
of airs.
Malcolm Humphries, resident tuggie in 1978, found
the cockpit of the Chipmunk he was flying was
filling with smoke. He made an emergency landing
successfully, but in a field right next to a housing
estate. Not daring to leave the machine unattended,
he spent three nights sleeping under a wing until a
new engine had been fitted and the aircraft flown
back to the Club.
In 1982, one fine June afternoon saw the approach
of a cu-nim and all gliders were hurriedly got to
safety except for five at the launch point. As the
storm developed, a whirlwind was seen to come
across the airfield, and in no time at all there was
chaos. An AS-K 18 was hurled into the air leaving
its wingtip still pinned to the ground. The Ka 6e
number 175 was a complete write-off. An AS-K 13
disappeared inverted and finished up on the
central reservation of the Tring road. Paul Davey
tried to sit out the storm in the cockpit of the
Kranich III and saw a glider falling almost on top
of him, striking the Kranich's wing about two feet
out from the fuselage. Peter Underwood was in the
cockpit of his K 6 at the front of the take-off line.
He also sat out the storm without realising the
mayhem that had occurred behind him, and was
absolutely amazed when he opened the canopy
and saw all the wreckage strewn around. Pat
George's Prefect lost its nose and had its port wing
broken in half but Adam Downey has since rebuilt
it. All in all it was a very costly afternoon, and a
grim warning as to how quickly the weather can
change.
There was some interesting helicopter activity at
the Club when the chapel at Ashridge was having a
new steeple fitted. The traditional building methods
had bowed to modern technology and the new
structure was a cone made of GRP. It was decided
that the easiest way to erect it was to lower it from
a hovering helicopter and this was duly done,
using LGC as a base of operations.
Commercial photographic sessions are quite often
held on the airfield, particularly by car firms, but
there was one which was a bit different. John
Jeffries, the Manager, did a deal with 'Health &
Efficiency' Magazine for them to photograph nude
models with a gliding background. He was quite
successful in keeping the news about this event
from the majority of Club members and arranged
the shoot at a quiet part of the airfield down by the
Lynchets. JJ of course had to supervise the
operation to ensure no harm came to our precious
glider. The AS-K 18 was wheeled down and a
buxom wench was flashing her more-than-ample
bosom for the cameras when, what's this? Two
workmen wearing white overalls and carrying a
long ladder between them are making their way
down the slope. Workmen? Hardly. They are none
other than Dave Cornelius and Len Cross making
sure that they are not missing anything! The
AS-K 18 was sold off to another club the following
weekend and when the pictures eventually
appeared, the other club suffered the notoriety.
When the film industry tackled the great story of
the 1944 airborne attack on Arnhem, the expertise
of John Cardiff was called upon in the making of 'A
Bridge Too Far 7 . For some of the flying sequences,
John flew a Blanik with a camera mounted in the
Clearing the wreckage
after the 1982
whirlwind.
TAKE UP SLACK • 4?