{"id":1420,"date":"2009-05-21T14:09:14","date_gmt":"2009-05-21T13:09:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/wordpress\/?p=1420"},"modified":"2009-05-21T14:09:14","modified_gmt":"2009-05-21T13:09:14","slug":"how-i-looped-the-loop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/nighthawk\/?p=1420","title":{"rendered":"How I looped the loop"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have a lifelong interest in aviation sparked by my father being trained as a fighter pilot at the end of the Second World War (he was too young to see actual action). Like all pilots, I’ve kept a flight log and, in the course of my near 61 years, I have now made almost 500 flights totalling almost 900 hours.
\nNine of my first 12 flights – made when I was 14 and in the Air Training Corps – were in a glider (the Slingsby T21B). That was 46 years ago and I never imagined that I’d be back in a glider but, for my 60th birthday, my good friends Andy & Georgeanne gave me a voucher for a flight in a glider from the Booker Gliding Centre<\/a> at Wycombe Air Park and I only got round to using the voucher today 11 months later.
\nNow some of my friends have asked me if gliding is dangerous and Booker helpfully provides a risk assessment which notes the average accident rates in the UK:<\/p>\n