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Which site is bringing back memories of my days as a gliding instrucxtor and a private pilot - single engine - viusal flight rules . . although I also did many hours of practice in a genuine old Link trainer at the Ulster Flying Club where I took my PPL.Today that costs £6138.00but I paid the equivalent £1868 because a s a glider pilot with a C certificate I was only reqquired to do 10 hours dual training
The Ulster Gliding ClubLearn to fly at low cost with the Ulster Gliding Club, Bellarena, Co. Londonderry, Northern Ireland.
www.gliding.utvinternet.com/Ulster Flying Club
Learn to fly with us or simply take a trial lesson. Trail Lessons make great birthday and presents.
Newtownards now has the only flexwing school in Ireland that the IAA recognise and the only school that you can get a flexwing Irish licence.
The Ulster Microlight Club is situated at Newtownards Airfield, Co. Down, N.Ireland and is run by Qualified Flying Instructors Ken Crompton (Fixed Wing) and Gerry Snodden (Flexwing).
Flying Microlights is a sport that is quite unique and it has been said that it's the most fun you can have with your clothes on & we have actually had people say that to us in more direct terms on numerous occasions so it must be more than just a figure of speech!
But you know, the flying isn't the only good thing about this sport. The flying is the icing on the cake and the cake is the very active social side supporting it - The Ulster Microlight Club. When you begin learning to fly with us you'll become a member of our club and become one of a group of keen aviation enthusiasts
ULSTER MICROLIGHT CLUB - NEWTOWNARDS, CO. ANTRIM, N.IRELANDand the most spam filled geustbook I have ever seen
The Ulster Gliding Club historyIn the early 1960's the late Naomi Christie negotiated access for the club to Long Kesh airfield near to Lisburn. Here, the use of a winch and long tarmac runways enabled very high launches to be achieved.
A disused open ended blister hangar was converted to a club hangar and a new Blanik two-seat training glider was purchased with the help of donations from members and relatives.
in which I received my first flying lessonsA single-seat Eon Baby glider and an Olympia II glider were provided for solo flying.
The winch was retired in favour of a reverse-auto-tow or pulley launch. This employed an old Bedford barrage balloon truck as anchor point for the pulley around which piano wire was pulled by a powerful car.
Initially the car was a straight-eight Buick followed by a variety of ex MOD war surplus staff cars some of which were still painted in their desert colours.
The main tow-car from 1964 up to the time the club was forced to vacate the airfield was a 1954 Cadillac Fleetwood. This 5.25 litre V8 monster weighing in at about 2.5 tons was capable of 0 to 60 in 10 seconds which was very fast in those days.
High launches were assured and when the wind was strong it was possible to kite the gliders up to unprintable heights. For spare parts, the club bought a powder blue Cadillac Eldorado coupe that was believed to have been owned by Diana Dors.
Considering the rapid growth of the club and in order to support further development, the club was incorporated as a company limited by guarantee in November 1966.
The first directors were Joe Taggart, Jeremy Bryson and Gordon Mackie.
A new Slingsby T49 'Capstan' two-seat training glider was purchased in 1967. in which I flew my first solo
In 1967 and 1968 the W.D. & H.O. Wills tobacco company sponsored a glider pilot competition to find the best trained early solo pilot.
First prize was to be a new Slingsby Swallow single-seat glider for the club that had trained the winner. The UK was divided into northern and southern regions with a separate prize for each. In 1967 Tom Snoddy came a close second and received a new Winter barograph for his efforts. In 1968 Laurence McKelvie finished in first place in the Northern Section to win the Slingsby Swallow. Unfortunately the Slingsby factory could not meet the order for two Swallows in time so the two winners had to content themselves with new high performance Schleicher Ka6e's that were available ex-stock.
All of this success was largely thanks to the dedication and hard work of the club's then CFI Grenville Hill.
the club was called
ULSTER & SHORTS in those days
Long Kesh
The previous weekend, Roy Pollitt, our new treasurer, had made 56 minutes on a day of zephyr easterly breezes, in what appeared to be weak wave off the Isle of Man. Roy broke off the flight from about 2,000 ft., and only when in the circuit did he realise that he had misread his watch and would miss the hour needed for a Bronze C leg. Monica Galloway, realising his mistake, had frantically been trying to call him from the control caravan but, unfortunately for Roy, the Skylark was without its radio that day . .
CFI Grenville Hill and instructor Joe Taggart were leading the C of A programme on the tug at the time of writing. The wings are being re-covered in Joe’s garage and the rest of the aircraft in the hangar for, we hope, an aeronautical rebirth in March.
Finally, a remarkable milestone. Club veteran Carl Beck completes 40 years of gliding
loss of our Super Cub in a forced landing on the mudflats at Newtownards after engine failure during a launch. The pilot, Jim Wallace. has now recovered from his injuries and Lawrence McKelvie, in the back seat, walked away unscathed.
Chairman, Gordon Mackie,
At the Dublin GC’s dinner on January 30 the IGA announced its intention of awarding a tankard to any pilot flying the 2 17km, in either direction, between our field at Bellarena and the DGC’s site at Gowran Grange. Not so much a milk run, perhaps, as the Guinness run, once the shuttling starts.
I made an illegal attempt to fly from Long Kesh to Dublin in the Olympia and landed out near the Mountains of Mourne
The youngest flying instructor among the 11 at the Ulster Gliding Club is to be their new chief. Billy Craig, 28, who is a quantity surveyor when he is not up in the clouds, has been appointed to succeed Jeremy Bryson, a two-times world championship contestant, as the chief flying instructor at the club’s Bellarena airfield, near Limavady. Billy, who lives at Oakland Avenue in east Belfast with his wife Mary, a temporarily retired glider pilot, and their two children, started learning to fly when he was 14 and the club was still based at ‘Long Kesh'. He soloed immediately after his 16th birthday, you can’t do it legally before, and has been an instructor for 10 years.
I remember him well on his first visit to the club, and his hang around days when he did odd jobs and sold hand made calenders to earn pocket money to pay for his teeange gliding lessons.
Rob Rodwell
Jeremy Bryson, from Hillsborough,
happy memories of Irish whisky at his home and a stop over avoid driving home afterwards
Thanks Jeremy !
After years of selfless service by Bill Craig —from a 14 year-old schoolboy trainee to 31 year-old retiring CFI — and his wife Mary, her-self a solo pilot, we have lost them to job promotion and Cheshire. Some mainland club will reap the benefit but we hope to see them back as visitors. Laurence McKelvie is our new boss
To recruit the future Bill Craigs, we have slashed the subscription by more than half for all members under 18 and full-time students under 24. R.R.R.
noted to jog my memories of 1967 - 1969 (when we returned from Belfast to work in London) from http://www.gliding.utvinternet.com/notes71-90.htm
where you will find the dates and much more
RE Staff Band Aldershot
Musician Watkins with trombone
trombonist Hugh
