COMBAT AND COMPETITION.pdf - Lakes Gliding Club

CHAPTER FIFTEEN FULL CIRCLE
break the rules rather than prejudice a competitive flight. It was a
dreadful, quite undisciplined, statement coming from an experienced
individual. Peter Hearne was horrified. He made no bones about it.
Any more of this and he would recommend that his company
withdrew its sponsorship.
The discussion grew heated and there was always the danger of a
guest or a journalist in the room who might create trouble for the
gliding movement if he understood what we were about. I dug Chris
hard in the ribs and suggested that the meeting was becoming
unconstructive, that we should cool it and move on to other things. A
nasty moment and one thing was certain - some guidance on task
setting adjacent to controlled airspace must be issued for the following
year.
There was another rumpus that week. The penultimate day always
involved a final trophy polishing session and an overall review of the
prizes. When we looked for the EGA trophies, which are awarded each
year in perpetuity, they had not arrived. I rang Barry Rolfe, the
Secretary, at home and he confirmed that they were still in the office
at Leicester. When I suggested that he might like to collect them
himself, and drive down to Lasham, he didn't sound very happy.
I hung up and turned to Bob Bickers for help. Within minutes he
was back to say that by some extraordinary good fortune there was a
Chinook going that way on a training flight! It would make a landing
at Rearsby if the the BGA could get the pots there in time. Barry was
much more helpful when I spoke to him again. Perhaps he had
registered the likely repercussions of a Nationals prize giving without
the BGA pots!
The Chinook was back by mid afternoon with our precious
hardware on board. Once again the Odiham choppers had pulled our
chestnuts out of the fire. But when I rang the Station Commander to
thank him, he insisted that there should be no publicity, or letters
from the gliding movement, in case higher authority misunderstood.
The chap who handed out those errant trophies to the winning
pilots, on the following day, was a perfect choice. Tom Kerr was on
the point of retiring as Director of RAE Farnborough. He had been an
RAF pilot during the war, and took quite a shine to gliding, and we to
him. Tony Mattin, Chairman of Lasham, and I worked hard on Tom
to give it a try. We nearly succeeded too, until he became so involved
with the privatisation of the Royal Ordnance Factories that he could
not spare the time.
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