RAFGSA Chairman’s Official Blog Page

I am delighted to have taken up the chairmanship of the RAFGSA – albeit rather late in my career - and I very much look forward to guiding the Association through the next few years. It was a rude awakening to the challenges of Chair to work through the unexpected closure of the Crusaders Club. That was not how I wanted to start my tenure, and the loss of the fantastic opportunities offered to Service personnel on the Island is a great loss. We did our best to support the club’s future but, regrettably, continuing as an RAFGSA club has proved impossible. I very much hope that the club’s civilian stalwarts – who have given years of invaluable service to the RAFGSA - will be able to secure an alternative operating site from which they can continue their long history.

When people ask what my agenda is, I think it fairly straightforward. Fundamentally the RAFGSA is in great shape – we have a wonderful group of people, a fantastic fleet, some well-founded sites and relatively solid finances. So the immediate focus has to be on current operations where our mantra always has to be safety first. Coming back into the world of gliding after a few years away it is heartening to see the dramatic progress that the British gliding in general has made in the area of winch launch accidents. The new focus on rigging accidents is especially topical as this year’s season gets under ways and the beckoning cumulus and first outlandings add to the number of gliders being put together for the first time in many months. But perhaps the biggest challenge facing us all this year is the airspace associated with the Olympics; needless to say, the broader aspects of safety and supervision surrounding this subject are critical not only to individuals but also to the gliding movement as a whole. Please make sure that ALL activity which might go anywhere near the restricted zones is heavily supervised; mistakes here will be magnified out of all proportion.

Having got that off my chest, and taking a broader look at the Association, it is very clear that people are under great pressure in a number of clubs. At the top end of our Association we have fantastic opportunities such as the Chilean exchange, the Sisteron expedition and competitions at international, national and regional level. But the life-blood of the Association is at the grass-roots of our clubs where the routine activity of trial lessons, more advanced training, force development and expeditions are underpinned by the bonhomie of club life. Nowadays even that sometimes feels under threat as our rightful position as an authorised encroachment comes under close scrutiny, as environmental and H&S demands require more from us and as operational activities squeeze individuals’ leisure time. In short, life at the grass-roots is not straightforward – and often it is tough. And what makes it tougher is the shortage of people to do the most basic of tasks. So my agenda is, quite simply, somehow to turn the tide on the apathy amongst our remaining Service personnel that appears to surround activities such as gliding and get more people involved. Station-based FD days are a great way to introduce people to the sport – as are trial lessons for civilians – but “one day wonders” are not going to solve our membership crisis. And I use the word “crisis” advisedly because most clubs are currently existing with around a dozen full-time and hard-core service members. I want to put in place an initiative that will make a real positive difference to that number. And I look to all in the Association – civilian,reservist, veteran, contractor, Service, friends, family – to come up with the means to achieve it. I know it’s a tall order; but if we don’t do something dramatic now, the great future the RAFGSA deserves may not come to fruition.

So that’s my agenda – safety first, membership second. I want to get around all the clubs to understand what your challenges are. Please use that opportunity – or the more usual e-mail of IM – to tell me your views. We need action now to make sure that RAFGSA has a really positive future providing that unique opportunity for Service personnel to participate in genuine air-minded adventurous training. Meanwhile, I wish you all the very best in the coming soaring season and look forward to seeing many of you as I visit your clubs or at the Inter Services at Wittering in August.

Ted Richards