Air Cadet Historic Flight

Joey Beard is organizing this fundraiser on behalf of John Williams.

Donation protected

621 VGS Historic Flight (HF) was formed in 2003 and consists of current and past members of 621 Volunteer Gliding Squadron, together with other like-minded individuals, who united to preserve and operate former Air Training Corps gliders from the 'wooden era'. The aim of the group is to provide a flying museum so that ex glider pilots and cadets from the past can relive the experience of flying these delightful machines with a secondary aim of introducing young pilots of the modern era to being able to get a handson experience of what went before them.

All the aircraft are maintained and operated to British Gliding Association (BGA) standards. Members pay an annual subscription, the proceeds of which are used solely to fund the upkeep. All servicing and more in-depth maintenance are carried out by inspectors who themselves have links to these aircraft or the Air Training Corps and have every wish to ensure their survival into the future.

Operating separately from the Air Cadet publicly funded gliding school the self-funded group had been very fortunate at Hullavington Airfield to share the cadet facilities at no cost which meant every penny could be ploughed back into the restoration of each glider. The 13 years spent at Hullavington in the cavernous ex RAF hangar promoted the perfect environment for maintaining and more importantly promoting the longevity of the gliders as they could remain rigged and covered protecting the precious fabric covering.

A very sad day came when Hullavington was sold by the MOD and the current cadet gliders moved to RAF Little Rissington. Unfortunately, the RAF decided they could no longer support the operation of privately owned gliders and the Historic Flight was required to leave.

The main members of the group had to do some serious soul searching and were faced with the realisation that the Historic Flight had been taken as far as it could, and the time was here to disband.

Nobody could ignore that since inception the Historic Flight had grown to five airworthy gliders and a separately owned Venture Motor Glider along with a large spares package plus all the launching support including a 1950’s Wilde Winch which started life as a WW2 Barrage balloon winch and is believed to be the only one left in existence.

With that in mind a renewed vigour took over to find a new home albeit in the commercial environment of a BGA gliding club. After a false start the Historic Flight has found a new home with Bristol and Gloucester Gliding Club at Nympsfield. They have made us extremely welcome offering all kinds of support, but we have to pay our way. With thanks to our loyal members and a handful of new recruits, we have managed to support ongoing operations at BGGC since Summer 2020. However, the funds are running out. We have set up this page as a temporary measure to enable donations from those that wish to see the Historic Flight continue.

Donate