Presidents Corner

Chris Wills would like to thank on behalf of the VGC, all those who have organized National and International Rallies for us. All of them have tried their very best to give us good times and, have succeeded to a more, or less extent. We know that they have all really tried. In 1997, Maurice Renard's effort was beyond imagination as he had to import on to the site the entire infrastructure to enable the Rally to take place. In spite of the sometimes indifferent weather, he gave us a really good rally, and everyone enjoyed themselves. To have anyone, or teams, who are still prepared to give their time to organize our rallies, is a marvellous thing. It is clearly no good picking a good site if none of our members are there to organize our Rally We thank Josef Ott and wish him good luck for every success in organizing our 27th International Rally at NITRA in SLOVAKIA, where we are going for the first time.

British Gliding Hreitage In Danger.

We have come upon a time of great difficulty to find new owners for our priceless collection.

For Sale have been the SCUD 2, which is in danger of going to the USA, the BAC-7 , which is in danger of having an engine put in it.(SHAME!), the HARBINGER, a WEIHE, and two Slingsby SKYS.

All these aircraft, except perhaps for the 2 SKYS, have been for sale for some time but no offers have been made for them.

Their present owners have become older and, in spite of achieving magnificent restoration and flying performances, they feel that their ancient sailplanes should be found new owners IN BRITAIN, who will look after their machines and take them safely in to the new century. We are all only caretakers of our sailplanes. We have done our job well. Our gliders have often long outlasted their original owners, who did great flights with them in the pioneering time. We need to make sure that their next owners look after the famous gliders as well as they did. We call upon our members to try to find suitable future owners for our gliders, in their clubs.

Our VGC members in Britain have done so well with their restorations, helped sometimes by the excellence of Slingsby's and Elliott's Aerolite glue construction that our gliders have gone out to Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Belgium, Holland, France, Switzerland and the USA. We seem to be on to a good thing, but this could result in us having little left of our Old Glider Heritage in Britain.