Gold wings for Sergeant Love
Sergeant Michael Love has just returned from a week long gliding scholarship run at RAF Syerston. Cadets normally gain their blue or silver gliding wings, but his exceptional performance saw Michael soar away with his Advanced Gliding, or gold, wings.
The journey down to RAF Cranwell was a long and tiring task. I left Glasgow Queen Street station at half 8 in the morning and arrived at Grantham at 3 o’clock. I finally arrived at my destination at 4 o’clock in the afternoon. I was issued my security pass at the main guardroom and was shown to my accommodation., were I met Cpl Ross McGrath from 2452 (Shawlands) Sqn. We waited a while in the accommodation to see if there were any other cadets on the course, however, we soon found out that we were the only two doing the Gliding Scholarship this week. At half 8 that night, we were given our initial brief by Flt Lt Andy Rigsby, who I soon found out, was going to be my instructor for the week.
The following I was up at 6 o’clock and ready to move. So we quickly headed for the junior ranks mess for breakfast, knowing that a bus was coming to pick us up at quarter past 7. As the clock struck 7:15, we looked outside and saw the bus was waiting for us and so we grabbed our kit and jumped into the bus. It was then a 45 minute journey between RAF Cranwell and RAF Syerston. On arrival at Syerston, we were shown to the Cadet room, which is where we would spend most of our free time watching old video tapes like the Terminator. That morning we were introduced to the staff and our instructors. As I mentioned before, my instructor was Flt Lt Andy Rigsby. The aircraft I was selected to be trained on was the Viking. Cpl McGrath, however, was to be trained on the Vigilant. We were all given the weather brief by the Duty Officer, then sent out to the equipment store to be issued our flight suits. Once we were all kitted out with our flying gear, we went out to the hangers to retrieve the aircraft. Once the aircraft were out of the hangers, we towed them off to their respective launch sites.
On Monday, the weather was good enough that we managed to get a Aero-tow. An Aero-tow was used to allow us to get up to heights of 5000 feet, which would give us more time to go through the various lessons required for the GS syllabus. The first few Aero-tows were used to go over basic controls, adverse yaw and co-ordinated controls. While in the process of these lessons, we discussed all the different factors and effects that have impacts on the glider, for example, the use of thermals to create lift. Each launch was also a great chance to go over the approach and landing sequence, this meant that by the 4th launch, I was able to control the glider through the approach and landing sequence.
On Tuesday, my instructor was impressed at how quickly I had taken to the controls of the glider, so we moved on to the more advanced lessons. We covered stalling, balloon landings, the basic circuit and high/low level circuit situations. By the end of Tuesday afternoon, I had covered everything in the GS syllabus, apart from launch failures.
Then came Wednesday. From the moment we were ready to start, we got straight into the final lesson, the dreaded launch failures. We covered what to do during the event of a high or low level launch failure. After the launch failures, we did a couple of more circuits to allow me to completely familiarise myself with it. Then it was time for me to go solo. As I gave the command ‘All out’, my heart was in my mouth as I knew there was no turning back now. But once I was in the air, I returned to a relaxed state and concentrated on my circuit. However, I found myself starting to sing songs during the flight to help steady my nerves, which ended with me humming the tune of ‘ride of the valkyries’ as I was coming in on approach. I managed to land the glider with ease, thankfully, and was complimented by some of the other instructors as to how smoothly I landed. I had now finished my GS. The only problem now was , that because I had finished my GS, what was I to do for the next two days. So they allowed me to go on and do my Advanced Glider Training (AGT). I started the AGT on that afternoon, and managed to get the syllabus and 1 more solo flight completed before the day ended.
The following day, the winds were nice and calm, so I was able to complete my 4 remaining solo circuits and my AGT. This was a great achievement for myself because I was only supposed to do my GS, but ended up with my Gold wings.
On the Friday afternoon, before departure, we were presented with our wings by Wing Commander Mike Falvy, the OC at RAF Syerston. Shortly afterwards, we were taken to Grantham station and began our long trip back to Scotland.
Overall, the week was absolutely brilliant and I would encourage anyone over the age of 16 to apply for their GS as soon as possible.
By Sgt Michael Love