COMBAT AND COMPETITION.pdf - Lakes Gliding Club

CHAPTER FOURTEEN OLD WAR HORSES
CACAC was consultative, it embraced all parties with an interest in
airspace - the airlines, BALPA 3 , the Guilds4 , sporting aviation in its
various forms, and the air traffic branch of the Ministry itself.
CACAC was an anachronism. The chairman, the permanent
representatives, and the secretariat were all employed by the Ministry.
So you found yourself arguing your case before judge, jury, and
prosecuting counsel rolled into one.
If the ATC and commercial interests ganged up on you, as
happened to Douglas Bader, you were in trouble. The old warrior had
come along to argue the merits of 'See and be Seen 1 - in other words
keeping a good look out - as a means of collision avoidance. As an ex
fighter pilot he knew what he was talking about, more than most in the
room, but it was contrary to their policy, so they refused to listen to
him. Then the chairman cut off all further discussion and, to the best
of my knowledge, his views were never recorded in the minutes.
At one meeting we were discussing a gliding matter, it may well
have been about Dunstable6 and the Luton Zone, when the same
chairman interrupted me rudely with the words:
"You're talking like Captain Goodhart!"
Perhaps it never occurred to him but, in that company, it was more
like an accolade!
Ken Wilkinson was chairman of the BGA at that time. When he
wished to retire, on being appointed managing director of British
European Airways, Chris Simpson became his successor. One day Chris
rang up to ask me if I would consider standing as vice chairman. After
those earlier years, so often at odds with the establishment, it was like
coming in from the cold. Sadly I had to refuse. As marketing director
of a newly merged group of companies, which needed a great deal of
attention, there were simply not enough hours in the day.
It was Karl Doetsch who had really stimulated my interest in
glassfibre, with his preview of the SB6 at Braunschweig, and even
more so when he had spoken about Darmstadt. That Darmstadt's long
established Akaflieg was developing a 'glass' sailplane as well was
hardly surprising. But the rumour that some of the students involved
had jobs lined up with sailplane manufacturers suggested that other
moves were afoot.
That rumour turned out to be true, and three of them - Klaus
Holigaus, Gerhard Waibel, and Wolf Lemke - were soon competing
against each other bringing successive generations of glass and carbon
fibre, and ultimately Kevlar, sailplanes to the market. And today with
237