A few words from Colin Thomas, who organised this year's Exercise Soaring Eagle course:
Fulmar Gliding Club hosted a 5-day gliding foundation course at Easterton between 4th and 8th July. The course was open to members of the whole force across the Services, but preference was given to those serving at RAF Lossiemouth. The aim was to allow individuals to develop their management, communication, core values and teamwork via the unique experience of gliding. Three gliding instructors came to Easterton for the week, two full-time instructors from the RAF Central Gliding School and one volunteer instructor from RAF Cranwell gliding club. They were supplemented by one of the Fulmar or Highland instructors on each flying day and on Friday 8 July, instructor duties were handed over to our local team when the visitors had to head back home. Highland and Fulmar members also turned out every day to assist with winch launching, log keeping and general ground duties. We also called on the services of our own tug pilots to provide aero tows on three days, allowing the students to experience longer flights including some wave soaring. Finally, the trusty Venture motor glider was in use throughout the week to provide the students with cross-country flying experience.
Eight students assembled at Easterton at 0830 on Monday 4 July. Most had never met before and the majority were stationed at RAF Lossiemouth although two had travelled up from RAF stations in Lincolnshire. With an average age in the mid-twenties, they brought a youthful enthusiasm to the club. Among the team were two who had previous gliding experience and one qualified service pilot but the other five were novices who weren’t entirely sure what to expect. Their initial trepidation was dispelled by a thorough briefing whilst the low cloud slowly cleared, and we were ready to start launching at about midday. The emphasis for the week was on winch launching and that first day consisted of 16 glider flights with the majority being 5-minute circuits. A few weak thermals were around, however and the longest flight of the day was 29 minutes.
Tuesday dawned much brighter and this turned out to be the busiest day of the week with 12 winch launches, 5 aerotows and 5 motor glider flights. The longest flight of the day in a glider was 47 minutes. Wednesday was disappointing as the wind had picked up significantly and the forecast was for gusts to 30 knots all day. We kept the gliders in the hangar and concentrated on briefings and some simulator flying. The students were also treated to a tour of local WWII airfields, some of which had housed Fulmar and Highland gliding clubs before they both ended up at Easterton.
The weather improved again on Thursday, allowing us to make up for the lost flying of the day before. Although the wind wasn’t as strong, it still proved a factor and we saw a bit of wave over the airfield. With the help of some aerotows, most of the students experienced the pleasure of flying in wave lift with the longest flight of the day hitting one hour – this being limited by the need to share the glider with some other students! Come Friday, the wind picked up again and the gusty conditions proved a test of our students’ newly-found flying skills. For this final day of the course, winch launches were given to those who were near solo and the remainder had their final chance to experience wave flying. All five aero tows resulted in flights of more than 30 minutes with the day being rounded off by another glider flight of one hour. Unfortunately, due to the gusty winds it wasn’t possible to send anyone solo but several students were very near to the standard required.
The statistics for the week are impressive, considering we only flew 3 ½ days. We had a total of 46 winch launches, 22 aerotows and 17 motor glider flights with a total flying time of 30 hours. The funding for this course was provided by the Royal Air Force under a programme of adventurous personal development training to improve personal and team resilience to positively impact performance, as well as physical and psychological wellbeing. We hope to run another Soaring Eagle course in 2023.
