IN1951 I WAS AN ASSISTANT instructor with No 142 Gliding School of the Air Training Corps at RAF Hendon. We had a wooden hut and hangar on the north perimeter by the railway line, beyond the huge hangars of the US Naval Air Attache, and met on Sundays. My job was to support the two principal instructors (rather aged squadron leaders) and take the young lads for air-experience flights in a side-by-side two-seat Slingsby T.21 Sedbergh. Hendon lay within the pattern for London's Northolt Airport, so we were limited to an altitude of 800ft. On good days, when there was lots of lift, our altimeters often misread. This particular day was a "good" one, and the winch launch was immediately followed by lots of "green ball up" as I circled the Edgware side of the airfield. My passenger was a spotty-faced lad on his first-ever flight. Up we went, further and further out over the houses, a strong green showing unfailing lift over the rooftops. Below was Burnt Oak underground station.
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