RAF Cadets Glide Over Kenley

After a long break over the winter term four of the RAF air cadets were finally able to get up in the air at RAF Kenley for a chance to go gliding. Saturday provided a break in the weather in the midst of two stormy days giving beautiful sunny views when flying. The day started with a briefing including how to put on a parachute, and bail out if everything went wrong.  Thankfully, none of us needed to use that! After the briefing, we went out to the runway to help set up the gliders and then each of us had a chance to launch and get up in the air twice.

The first flight enabled us to see what a glider can do and how it feels then in the second flight we were able to take control of the aircraft to actually fly under supervision. Whilst waiting for our flights we each got to practice attaching the winch cable which gets the glider into the sky, checking for clear skies to launch into, and steadying the wings while the aircraft gained enough speed to balance on its own. This was all under the careful watch of 615 Volunteering Gliding Squadron officers and the staff cadets that gave up a day to help run this. Despite the cold, every single one of us had a brilliant time and are now eagerly waiting for our next chance to get back into the air.  Our thanks to all the volunteers that made the day possible.