Navy glider pilot's success at interservices championship

Royal Navy Glider pilots toasted success at the 2013 Inter Services Regional Gliding Championships, ISRGC when they dominated competition from both military and civilian teams. 

With the Royal Navy hosting this year event at Husbands Bosworth Glider Centre in Leicestershire, service teams flew alongside civilian entrants to the Midlands Regional Gliding competition; running concurrently with this years inter service contest. 

“We came here to compete”, Said Lieutenant Rob Hines, Royal Navy Team Captain. “It’s been a fantastic week of hard fought competition against the other service teams. We ended up dominating the field, proving we are not just here to make up the numbers”. 

It turned out to be a clean sweep for all the Navy flyers, Lieutenant Will Ellis and Warrant Officer Andy Farr both from Heron Gliding club, winning individual Open class and Club class events respectively. Team honours were also secured by the senior service with some steely eyed help from Captain Paul Jessop, and Lieutenant Rob Hines. Not to be completely out done by these seasoned pilots, Jordan Richards finished an impressive ninth overall in his first ever competition. He was awarded the “Sproule Mug” by the Royal Navy Gliding and Soaring Association as the most improved RN Club Glider Pilot at this year's competition. Best performance at the Inter service Championships by a Navy Glider Pilot also went to Lt Will Ellis. 

“It has been a real team effort”, Said Commander Chris Bryning, secretary RNGSA. “It’s such an excellent result right across the board, from ground crew supporting the team on the ground to Pilots competing up in the clouds. I'm not sure that Navy Gliding has ever has had such a comprehensive result before!” 

And results like this are helping Navy Gliding ride a particularly successful “crest of a wave” at the moment. Lt Rob Hines hopes this triumph will encourage others to come along and have a go at one of the RN Gliding clubs. In all there are three; Seahawk Club at RNAS Culdrose, Portsmouth Club based on the old Daedalus airfield and Heron Club at RNAS Yeovilton. “Gliding in the Navy is looking good at all levels. We run annual expeditions, which over the past couple of years have included Germany, France and South Africa, are open to novices and experts. We’re getting very competitive at the top end of competitions and even at grass roots for Adventurous Training (AT) there are plenty of opportunities, giving us a greater selection of people to choose from.”