Club History

The Annual Dinner-Dance look place on Friday 29th March at the Kings Arms Hotel and was attended by ninety members and guests. Dr J J Hayward proposed the toast to the club and John Gosling responded: At a later stage the absent, Chairman ~ voice interrupted proceedings to wish us well and to explain that he was in Munich on business. This was evident from the lubricated voices and beer garden music! The evening continued until the band finally admitted defeat at 1.0 a.m. to a floor full of twister’s intent on dislocating something! We have already felt the benefit of John, Everitt and the Capstan. and hope to win more pearls from this “Super Instructor” during his stay. 

Clubhouse improvements continue with the former committee room well on the way to becoming a small dormitory, under the inspiration of Suzy Johnstone. CFI Dave Schofleld’s birthday party was a great success and he was presented with the ultimate in cold weather gear – complete with tassel! We now have a Piper Cub tug and aerotow retrieves are available most days for those who land out at South Marston. We were sorry to lose Pete and Angela Higgs, who have moved away from the area after years 01 hard work for the club. The search is on for a replacement for our Blanik which has gone to the Crusaders GC in Cyprus.

The end of 1963 saw the AGM and the following have been elected to serve on the Committee for 1964: George Turner (C.F.I.), Ray Clark (Treasurer), Beryl Saunders (Secretary), Nell Eccles, Dan Ford, Stan Perry, Sam Colbourne, Peter Clifford and David Schofield. Since our last appearance in these columns Bernard Keogh managed two legs for his Silver C. with a five-hour flight in the direction of Lasham via Southampton. Another notable flight was that of Sam Colbourne in the Oly when he reached 10,000 ft. from Nympsfield. The T-21 has been modernised by having a permanent canopy attached. This, we hope, will encourage more pupils to take advantage of training during the winer months. Our fleet for 1964 will consist of a T-21. Swallow and an Olympia 2B with a possibility of a syndicate formation in the near future. Launching equipment comprises a two-drum winch the Princess. a rebuilt Jenzen and, ‘of course red’s never-ending support in the Terner. At present flying has ceased due to the arrival of the “new” clubhouse. The weekends are now producing able bodied working parties and we hope shortly to start serving fresh beer from a new bar. Although we have no gilded plate to offer soaring arrivals, we shall nevertheless, be very pleased to welcome and entertain anyone who should make South Marston their destination. By the time this is in print we should be fully self-contained and back to normal. 

During the last couple of months membership figures have again increased, so this year looks like being a bumper year, our membership now stands around the hundred mark. The new c1ubbouse is now in its fitting-out stage and a few more weeks’ work should see it finished. 6 Thanks to Bev Hill and his team of ardent workers the new tow car, which has been custom built for the purpose, is now with us. David Bailey organised a car rally one dark evening a few weeks ago, needless to say we ended up at a wayside inn. Our fifth annual dinner and dance was held during March. Next year we hope to award trophies for best flights during the coming year. Flying is getting well under way. the Olympia has had its C. of A This year should see more task flying than ever before.

Cross-country flying this year has progressed, as hoped, with a fair amount of success. We already have at the time of writing, two completed Silver C’s. These are the first to be attained within the Club and congratulations go both to Bernard Keogh and Peter Dainton-White. Keogh managed his third task by flying the Swallow to Dunstable to gain his distance. Darnton-White flew to Lasham, gaining both duration and distance. Four more Cs have been, gained: Fred Butcher. Malcolm Parkins, Jeff Turner and Bill Rawlings. Our CFI has instigated a novel approach to cross-country landing checks. The examinee is aero-towed out to a large field some four miles from our site and has to do a normal landing under real conditions. Derigging is not required as it is possible to aero-tow out again. We have negotiated with Mr. Neil Swanton, the owner of the site at Huish, near Marlborough, to use the ridge for hill soaring expeditions. For this we are very grateful, and no doubt we shall be meeting members of other Clubs at Huish. We have nearly finished the Clubhouse but work ceased a couple of months ago because our chief “Liberator” Stan Perry “acquired” a hangar. It is hoped to give a full account of both Clubhouse and hangar in a separate article.

South Marston is a hive of activity these days with a wave of enthusiasm ‘for work off the field. (Some people have to be persuaded to fly!) Taking shape in the workshop. under the guiding hand of Stan Perry, is “The Monster~- a two-drum winch powered by an A.E.C. 7.7 litre diesel engine. On completion this will be mounted on a diesel lorry. Blast-off should be sometime in May. Flying wise, we are grateful to tug friends Howard Greenaway and Harvey Britton for their visits, enabling many members to “pass out” Oil aero-tows. Incidentally, we expect to have a resident tug shortly. Visitors are always welcome, especially on “At Home” day, Saturday 9th June.

This year has begun very well socially by the establishment of a regular Wednesday club night (visitors welcome), which has consisted of food, provided oy “volunteer” wives, film shows, work and talk, mainly talk. Flying has not been neglected, however, and the flying list is long. with newly acquired young members ~wanting their turn. Some of them were introduced to us as a result of a very good coverage which we received in the local Press. Plans are under way for an early task week in May, with high hopes of good weather and Golds. A long-overdue exploration of one of the local ridges has at last been carried out successfully by Malcolm Parkins, and it is to be hoped that we shall all soon have the opportunity to expand our flying experience in this direction.

THIS year has been a very busy one for the club. With the purchase of a F-100 we have solved our launch problems and we look forward to making next year a record one. Achievements include six Silver Cs. Eleven solos and a considerable number of hours logged. The club’s social calendar /Jas included many parties and the annual Dinner and Dance was a truly spectacular event. The proposed two-seater competition which had to be cancelled, was a great disappointment to all concerned. So many people put a lot of hard work into preparing this event. We. are hoping to try again in 1967, with better results. Private ownership has enlarged the number of gliders now accommodated at week-ends it is, not uncommon to see a Skylark 4, Dart 17, T·21, Kite Il and Grunau busy trying to out-soar each other. The club’s OIy has had one of its most hard worked seasons. A club task week produced some excellent flying, with very professional results. 9 Although our fortunes this year have been at their lowest, the enthusiasm of club members has carried us through the year in leaps and bounds and we look forward to 1967 with, high Diamond hopes.

At our recent Annual General Meeting, it was officially announced that as planned. our CFI, Ken O’Reilly, had handed over his duties to Bernie Keogh. We take this opportunity of expressing our gratitude to Ken f.pr the splendid job which he has done for the club and wish him many fat thermals in the coming season, when he will be no longer chained to the T-21. It was with great regret that the Committee accented the resignation of our treasurer, Ray Clark. who’s skilful handling of the club finances has been vital to the smooth operation of the organisation. The officers now are: L. Colquhoun. chairman: B. Keogh, CFI Mrs. M. Davies, secretary; and M. Parkins, treasurer. Margaret Davies, in addition to becoming our new secretary, has also distinguished herself in the air by obtaining her A and B certificates in a remarkably short time. We look forward to seeing much more of her now that she can fly unchaperoned!

This season has shown great progress in the’ cross-country activities of our members and many previously home loving pilots ha.ve groped their way down wind to qualify for incipient pundit-hood. 8 Our more experienced pilots have also had a good year and between them brought the cross-country mileage to a total for the season greater than all other previous flights from this Club. The Club fleet was expanded earlier this year by the arrival of the Blanik which the owner, Chris Day, has arranged to be available for advanced training. Chris has recently completed his Silver C in the “Tin Ship” upon which we all congratulate him. Our plans for the winter include the establishment of a semi-permanent hill site for ridge-bashing and a visit to Portmoak in February in the hope that the famous wave conditions there will cooperate with those of us hardy enough to make the pilgrimage to the frozen north. This summer we were glad to welcome a group of new members from the Royal Military College of Science, Shrivenham, which included a number of very experienced power pilots who quickly adapted themselves to the idea of aeroplanes without fans on the front and soloed with the minimum of delay.