The University of Nottingham Gliding Club (UoN Gliding) is the

gliding Gliding is a recreational activity and competitive air sport in which pilots fly unpowered aircraft known as gliders or sailplanes using naturally occurring currents of rising air in the atmosphere to remain airborne. The word ''soaring'' is al ...

club of the

University of Nottingham The University of Nottingham is a public university, public research university in Nottingham, United Kingdom. It was founded as University College Nottingham in 1881, and was granted a royal charter in 1948. The University of Nottingham belongs t ...

. The aim of the club is to provide affordable flying in order to introduce as many members as possible to unpowered flight. Affiliated with the Cranwell Gliding Club (CGC), the club is open to any full or associate member of the

University of Nottingham Students' Union The University of Nottingham Students' Union (often abbreviated as UoNSU ( /ˈjɒnsuː/)) is the students' union at the University of Nottingham, England. It is a representative body that aims to represent students to both the university and th ...

Current status

The club is one of some 28 University Gliding clubs within the UK, and with over 130 members for the 2016-2017 academic year is also one of the largest. Flying takes place all year-round on weekends and bank holidays at RAF Cranwell, though several expeditions to other gliding sites are organised throughout the year.

History

The club was formed in the 1970s, and was officially affiliated to the Buckminster Gliding Club at

Saltby Saltby is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Sproxton, in the Melton borough of Leicestershire, England. It lies close to the River Eye and the border with Lincolnshire. There are approximately 65 properties (2021) within ...

Airfield. The founding member was Mr Brian Spreckley, then an undergraduate at the University, and subsequently the 1987 World Gliding Champion. In 1987 he was awarded the Gold Medal of th
Royal Aero Club
Then, in 2005 he was also the recipient of the FAI Paul Tissandier Diploma for services to gliding. In 1990 the club moved from Saltby to begin a new affiliation with the Four Counties Gliding Club, flying from

RAF Syerston Royal Air Force Station Syerston, commonly known as merely RAF Syerston , is a Royal Air Force station in the parish of Flintham, near Newark, Nottinghamshire. Opened in 1940, it was used by the Royal Air Force (RAF) as a bomber base during t ...

until 2004, and subsequently at

RAF Barkston Heath Royal Air Force Barkston Heath or RAF Barkston Heath is a Royal Air Force station near Grantham, Lincolnshire, England. RAF Barkston Heath has the Naval Element of No. 3 Flying Training School RAF (No. 3 FTS) which, for a period between appr ...

. The affiliation with Four Counties ended when that club moved to

RAF Wittering Royal Air Force Wittering or more simply RAF Wittering is a Royal Air Force station within the unitary authority area of Peterborough, Cambridgeshire and the unitary authority area of North Northamptonshire. Although Stamford in Lincolnshire i ...

. Since May 2005 UoN Gliding have been affiliated to and fly with Cranwell Gliding Club at

RAF Cranwell Royal Air Force Cranwell or more simply RAF Cranwell is a Royal Air Force station in Lincolnshire, England, close to the village of Cranwell, near Sleaford. Among other functions, it is home to the Royal Air Force College (RAFC), which trai ...

Club fleet

The current club fleet consists of: * Grob G103a Twin II Acro (NU2). Purchased in December 2006 from the RAFGSA, the ‘Twin II’ Acro is a high-performance two-seater sailplane made by Grob Aerospace. The aircraft is of T-tail configuration, with glass fibre construction, and is fitted with a non-retractable undercarriage and upper-surface airbrakes. It is designed for training, high performance, and aerobatic flying. *

G102 Astir CS 77 The G102 Astir is a single-seat glassfibre Club Class sailplane, designed by Burkhart Grob and built by Grob Aircraft. It was the first Grob-designed sailplane, with the first flight in December 1974. Grob had previously built the Schempp- ...

(NU). Purchased in 2011, the Astir CS 77 is a high-performance single-seater sailplane made by Grob Aerospace. The aircraft is of T-tail configuration, with glass fibre construction, and is fitted with a retractable undercarriage and upper surface airbrakes. It is designed for cross-country flying.
In addition to the UoN Gliding fleet, club members also have access to Cranwell Gliding Club's extensive fleet. This includes: * Two-seaters ** Duo Discus (R2) **

ASK 21 The ASK 21 is a glass-reinforced plastic (GRP) two-seat glider aircraft with a T-tail. The ASK 21 is designed primarily for beginner instruction, but is also suitable for cross-country flying and aerobatic instruction. Design and development Th ...

(R18) **

(R21) **

Scheibe SF-25C The Scheibe SF-25 Falke ( en, Falcon) is a German touring motor glider developed from the earlier Bergfalke glider by Scheibe Flugzeugbau. Since May 2006 the business has been run by Scheibe Aircraft GmbH. Development The company had produced ...

(G-SACN) * Single-seaters ** LS8 (R4) ** Discus CS (R8) ** Astir CS (R57) The club's members are not charged soaring fees (i. e. not charged a 'per minute' fee) when flying their gliders. Cranwell gliders are charged at either 20p or 25p per minute of flight time (first 10 minutes free). As per standard gliding custom, neither UoN Gliding nor Cranwell Gliding Club charge for instruction.

Fleet history

Current & previous aircraft owned by the club:

Competitions

The club, and its members, have a long record in competing in Inter-University, Regional, and National competitions.

Club

As a club, a number of competitions are participated in each year. These include events such as the Inter University Gliding Competition and the Inter Club League.

Individual

Many of the club's members have competed with success at the

Junior National Gliding Championships Junior or Juniors may refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * ''Junior'' (Junior Mance album), 1959 * ''Junior'' (Röyksopp album), 2009 * ''Junior'' (Kaki King album), 2010 * ''Junior'' (LaFontaines album), 2019 Films * ''Junior'' (1994 ...

, the premier Gliding Competition for those under 26 years of age in the UK. Some members have also gone on to compete in both National Championships and at International level. The club's founder, Mr Brian Spreckley, has gone on to become a Gliding World Champion (see club history above), and ex-committee-member Mr David Bromley was the 2017 UK national champion in the standard class,Standard Class & 15m Class Nationals 2017 Overall Results
/ref> placed 5th in the 2015 European standard class championship, and 13th in the 2018 standard class World championship.

References

External links

NUGC.net

UniGliding

Royal Air Force Gliding and Soaring Association

British Gliding Association
Gliding Club Gliding in England Flying clubs