In The Beginning..........
A TRIBUTE TO THOSE EARLY PIONEERS
A History of the North Yorks Sailwing Club
By Harry Hodgson
It is difficult to establish exactly when the NYSC came into being. Hang gliding seems to have got underway in the area of the North York Moors and the Cleveland Hills in late1973. I became aware of the existence of the sport when I saw an item in a Children’s Hour program on BBC television, which a surprising number of our early members claim to have seen. A worried-looking member of the program’s team (possibly John Noakes) demonstrated the latest thing in aviation on a shoestring, hot from the U.S.A. He skimmed the ground for about 50 yards down a slope, then dug the nose of the contraption into the ground. I was hooked, and I guess lots of others were too!
Maybe I should explain that the urge to fly had been with me since childhood, and for some time I had been thinking about taking gliding lessons at Sutton Bank, but with two kids and a mortgage it seemed more of a dream than a reality. So when I saw that program I was hooked, so much so that I went to work next day and tried to interest several of my colleagues in giving it a try. The idea was received with much laughter at my expense, so I began to think, well maybe it was crazy after all. Meanwhile, unknown to me, others in the Cleveland area were already taking an active interest in "hang gliding" as it was called. (An oft-heard variation of the name was "hand" gliding, used by journalists and politicians who, incidentally, wanted it banned by law). There were reports in the local press of small groups of people flying around various hills in the North York Moors. As I later found out, one of the very first groups included Dick Christon, Bill McGregor, Bill Bennion, and Derek Reynolds, and it is to these people and a few others whose names are forgotten, should go the credit for the start of the North Yorks Sailwing Club.
The first gliders to fly in the area were McBroom "Arion", built from kits by John Stephenson, Bill Hopkins, and Dick Christon with Richard Pratt and Mike Brown. Stuart Hodgson and Derek Reynolds built the "Skyhook". It was in late summer of 1973, the first flights in the area were from a site known as Black Hambleton, which you can see from the trig. point at Carlton, about 5 miles away in a SW direction. It’s a long straight ridge with a BIG landing area and NO TREES! Crazy, maybe – but daft? No way! Because of the site’s location, the meeting place before and after flying was the Pied Piper at Osmotherley. The landlord was very obliging and the opening times were "flexible". So it became the first "spiritual" home of the North Yorks Sailwing Club, and for the first few years the club meetings were held there.
In early 1974 I began seeing cars with roof racks and long bundles on top. I guessed what they were, but I didn’t seem to be able to contact anybody who was interested in taking it further. Then one morning at work, completely out of the blue, Dave Reid (earlier one of the mickey-takers) asked me if I would like to chip in £25 for an eighth share in a hang glider? Yes Please!
We purchased a brand new WASP 229B3 from the manufacturer, price £199. A few of the syndicate went to Sussex to collect and learn how to fly it, while another member, John Law, caught the action on his Sony reel-to-reel video recorder, then brought it back to Teesside – all in one day!
All our first attempts to fly the WASP were at Lonsdale Bowl, which was considered safe enough for beginners because it is not too high, but steep enough to make getting airborne easy, and it had a generous covering of bracken to soften the crash-landings. I don’t think any of the eight ever had a formal lesson, but we all survived! Who needs training courses? (I did hear of a would-be pilot whose second flight was from the top of Cringle).
Our WASP 229 was one of the few factory-built gliders in the area. A few companies were building them, but several were offering kits of parts, and/or plans and instructions for self-building. There were some weird and wonderful machines among them, like the Fledgeling and the Quicksilver. Those two did not rely totally on weight-shift, but had moveable control surfaces fastened by cords to the swing seat. (Flying prone came a year or so after). One enthusiastic would-be pilot, Dave Hill, went to Dickens DIY in Stockton, and bought about half a dozen lengths of rough sawn 2x2 for starters! He complained later about having to carry it home to Marton, because the driver wouldn’t let him take it on the bus! I’m told he was planning to cover the frame with a very large sheet of polythene. Fortunately, we talked him out of it. After all, I was Club Safety Officer!
Editor’s note:- Picture above is of a Wasp hang glider from the 1970’s from a collection of photos
and records of the British Hang gliding museum, (http://www.british-hang-gliding-museum.co.uk/)
After a few months of flying the WASP, its shortcomings were obvious to such vastly experienced aviators as we now were, so individuals, including myself, started building our own improved versions of it. Widen the nose angle a few degrees, take a yard or two of billow out of the sail, and when it flew in a permanent stall, cut away the trailing edge a few inches at a time until it would fly! Later modifications included fitting out-riggers to the leading edges, and battens to the sail, and eventually my own became a reasonably decent glider to fly.
By this time, we were flying more adventurous sites, most of which are still favorites. It takes some guts to launch into space on something you have sewn together on the kitchen table, with a frame you have cobbled together in the garage, and has never been flown. But it was FUN, (and much easier when fortified by a liquid lunch in the Blackwell Ox, which was our new watering hole).
Pilot skills were improving rapidly, and landing back on top of the Model Ridge became the norm rather than the exception. It was a great leap forward when someone (I can’t remember who) made it round into Cringle for the first time. We had been flying there for some time, but we were carrying up - and sometimes down again without getting a flight! We were fit though. I do remember it was Colin Potter who was the first to make it to Hasty Bank – it was an achievement ranking alongside the first Moon landing! But I seem to recall he didn’t make it all the way back, as APPOLLO did.
The membership in those days was probably under 30, and mostly local. A few pilots from the George Caley and Dales clubs joined us. But the drop-out rate was high, and the subscriptions modest, so our bank balance didn’t amount to much, certainly not enough to meet a crisis. For some time we had been flying Carlton Bank whenever the gliding club members were not on site, or when the conditions allowed us to take off from the low westerly above the cattle grid, but we were not popular with the gliding club. As at Sutton Bank, we were threatened with legal action, for infringing on their airspace. Eventually, we reached an agreement with them, which allowed us to fly under agreed rules, and upon immediate payment of an annual fee, which at that time I think was about £150.The only trouble was that we didn’t have that kind of money in the bank. An emergency meeting was arranged at an old building (The Settlement, long since demolished) on Newport road. As I remember it, less than 10 members turned up, and we had to chip in about a tenner each to secure the site. It was about that time the membership subscription was increased to £12.
As flying skills improved, pilots from all parts of the country (and the world) began to travel further a field, our membership increased steadily, and trips abroad to Achill Island and Dingle Bay were arranged. They were well supported, and some great flying was enjoyed. The value of Carlton Bank and the Model Ridge were being recognised outside our own area, and many pilots from the Dales and George Caley clubs joined as associate members. Our club rules prevented people living outside a defined area from becoming full members. This caused some resentment, and eventually the rules were amended. Our membership began to increase, as did our bank balance. It was around that time we secured the exclusive flying rights to the Model ridge. Because of the quality of our sites they began to be used regularly for organised events, like the National league competitions. The most notable event I remember was the staging of a round in the "Americas Cup" competition on the Model Ridge, with pilots from many parts of the world competing. On a light note, I recall that before it got under way, it was a bit misty and not a lot of wind about, so a few of us locals acted as "wind dummies." I’ll never forget how amazed some of those international pilots were when we top-landed. They must have thought we were either top-notch pilots or just plain mad! The competition eventually got going, and was a great success.
Well, with events like that taking place on our sites it was obvious that hang gliding was now an international sport, the N.Y.S.C. was on the map and its future secure. The introduction of paragliding also has strengthened the club, in terms of membership and activities and the equally important finances. There is no reason why the North Yorks Sailwing Club should not go on from strength to strength, into the 21st century and beyond, and I feel privileged to have been a part of it. Now retired, I can look back over twenty-five years of memories of friends, places and wonderful flights, which will always be with me.
Footnote: I wish to acknowledge the help given by Dick Christon in providing documents, pictures and memories of the very early days.