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Sunday 24/5/2009 marked the date of the BWND's (Bath, Wilts & North Dorset) Gliding club's Open Day at The Park airfield Kingston Deverill just outside of Warminster.

The event organisers could not have picked a better day to hold this fantastic event to introduce the general public to the sport of gliding, clear blue sky and warm sunshine...read on.

BWND's grass airfield shown below is situated on top of a hill overlooking Kingston Deverill, the airfield consists of 1 large building at the Eastern end of the airfield which contains a hanger, office, flight briefing room and other amenities.

On arrival at the airfield anyone who wanted to try their hand at gliding had to register their details and the type of flight they wanted, either Aerotow (£70.00) or Winch (£36.00) and then be weighed, the reason for the weighing is to first to make sure that you don't exceed the maximum weight limit of (16 Stone) and so that they can pair you up with an intructor of the correct weight to balance the glider.

If you wanted to keep your feet firmly on the ground, for a very reasonable £5 per person you could have a go at gliding without leaving the ground by using the full size gliding flight simulator shown below.

Once weighed and your details had been taken it was off to the Flight Briefing room where the instructors accompanied by a slide show introduced all to the fascinating sport of Gliding. The presentation lasted about 25 minutes and included a high level introduction to gliding followed by an overview of what to expect and how to put your parachute on! Then it was off out to the Landrover to be taken to the Eastern end of the airfield.

On arrival at the Eastern end of the field the next stage was to check in so your flight could be slotted in to the waiting list and then it was a case of simply taking in the wonderful views as well as watching the Gliders being catapulted into the sky or watching them being towed up by the aerotow aircraft.

Aerotow - This method of take-off involves attaching a Glider one of which is shown below to an Aerotow light aircraft shown further below by cable, the aerotow at the command of the airside controller and once all pre-takeoff checks are performed begins to accelerate down the grass strip with the Glider following behind and then at about 60mph the Aerotow gently ascends into the sky followed by the glider.

The Aerotow will take the Glider up to about 2000ft at which point the pilot of the glider will pull the release cable to detach the glider from the aerotow....the pilot is then on thier own to find Thermal's and stay up in the sky.

Electric Winch - This is the alternative launch to an Aerotow, at the Eastern end of the airfield near the hanger is a tractor shown below with a high powered winch system built on . The winch/cable is long enough to reach to the Western end of the airfield. The cable is attached to the glider and then once again at the command of the airside controller and once all pre-takeoff checks are performed the winch the does it's work.

The Glider is pulled along by the winch until it reaches 60mph which takes 2.5 seconds at which point the instructor pulls the joystick back, the glider then climbs until it reaches about 1000 ft at which point the cable is released.

My launch and in the Air - below are the shots I took when it was my turn to experience Gliding

If you want to try your hand at Gliding I would highly recommend that you get in touch with the Bath, Wilts & North Dorset Gliding Club at Longbridge Deverill near Warminster in Wiltshire. All the staff and Instructors at the Gliding club are friendly, professional and more than happy to answer your questions and will help you to get the most out of gliding.

I would like to take the oppertunity to thank the instructor who took me up in one of the gliders, his name was Steve. He was very knowledgeable and explained the various aspects regarding Glider's, Weather and what to experience when in the air. He even let me take the controls and fly the glider for a short time which was one experience I will never forget!

If you would like to get in touch with the Bath, Wilts & North Dorset Gliding Club regarding prices, events etc you can go to their website at www.bwnd.co.uk. - Back to the homepage

View full size photos of the Gliding Club Open Day