COMBAT AND COMPETITION.pdf - Lakes Gliding Club

CHAPTER ELEVEN
A TESTING TIME
Horace Buckingham was delighted with the placing of his Olympia IV
in the Nationals and called a meeting to discuss its future development.
Present were Harry Midwood who had been the brains and the driving
force behind it all, Jim Cramp, Anne and myself.
A fascinating occasion, my first real encounter with Horace, and
the future direction of the whole project hung in the balance. My own
contribution - and my ability to grasp the relationship between the
extrovert, autocratic, boss of Elliotts and the independent creator of
his Olympia IV - might well be critical.
Harry had been a real friend in adversity when he came to my
rescue in the 1950 Nationals. His considerable abilities were matched
by an inherent, if less visible, toughness and he was very much his
own man. Horace, of course, had the advantage of controlling all the
resources, except the vital design and project management skills
needed for the next stage.
The tensions in that relationship had been aggravated because
Horace was not in the business of glider manufacturing to make
money. His original batch of Eon Olympias, or rather the 100 sets of
components from which he assembled finished aircraft to order, had
started off as means of acquiring licences for extra timber and keeping
his factory filled. Supplies were tightly controlled by the Government
in the years after the war.
As for the Olympia IV and Horace's desire to improve the breed
I sensed, from the tenor of his remarks, that he really wanted to run
a racing stable with the best aircraft and a top pilot to fly it.
Luck in being there at the right time and confounding those who
believed that the Olympia IV had problems seemed to have given me
the ride. That it was never put explicitly was of no great consequence.
Horace and I got on well from the start, and our relationship was
always based on trust.
Dora was a great ally. As his wife she took no part in any of the
discussions, but Anne and I sometimes joined her for coffee with
Horace after our meetings in the factory, and we were always aware
of her support.
'D 1 was one of Constance Spry's inner circle of experts, bandbox
smart and highly competent, yet kind and warm hearted, a splendid
foil to her buccaneering husband. Her charm and elegance had made
its mark on their home, overlooking the Kennet, where the forceful
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