Royal Air Force Gliding & Soaring Association

Warrant Officer Arthur William Charles Gough BEM, (b. 2 June 1924), founded and for some 20 years ran the RAF gliding centre at Bicester as its Chief Flying Instructor. He was killed whilst giving an aerobatic display in a LET L-13 Blaník glider whil performing an aerobatics display at RAF Brize Norton on 12 June 1982. He was then 58 years old.WO Gough is also included on the armed forces memorial and armed forces roll of honour.[5]

In 1985 the then Sergeant Andy Gough was feted for his performance in the 1985 RAFGSA Championships when he flew cross country from Aston Down Airfield, near Cirencester across the North Sea to Holland, thus beating the previous record of 315 miles by a further 3 miles.[6] The 'Andy Gough Memorial Trophy' is awarded annually to an outstanding RAFGSA member

Jock Wishard Ron Newall, Ian Strachan, Con Greaves, & Paddy Kearon were senior gliding instructors as well as RAFGSA or BGA competition pilots [7]

Richard B Stratton (1923 - 2007) FRAeS was Chief engineer was also a licensed (and sometimes controversial) CAA inspector He joined the RAF with a wartime commission and served as a flight engineer on Short Sunderland flying boat-bombers until 1949 when he joined Sanders Roe as a test pilot on the he flight test programmes on the Saunders Roe Princess, and the Saunders-Roe SR.53 rocket plane

He was a notable pioneer of aviation engineering and later an innovative influence in light aircraft and gliding practices especially safe aerotowing, winching and scroll-gear machining and elastic rope bungee launching (described below) .

He also successfully converted (after some difficulty with the CAA) military de Havilland Canada DHC-1 Chipmunks to the civil register as suitable for aerotow, which bought some notoriety and financial reward to the RAFGSA in the late 1960's to early 1970's

This conversion was quite controversial because military chipmunks had a Coffman cartridge starters which required the services of a qualified armourer and a licensed pyrotechnic store. Dick disconnected the linkage, but not the assembly, as it would have altered the balance of the aircraft. Starting the motor by swinging the propeller can present an extremely dangerous risk of decapitation, and accordingly the CAA was extremely reluctant to certify the aircraft, until Dick pointed out that it was not actually illegal and provided done by a trained mechanic, reasonably practicable. The other disputed modifications included a plywood seat panel over the pilot’s parachute well and a dymotape embossed plastic label inscribed IAS VNE 120KT (indicated air speed velocity never to be exceeded is a mandatory 120 nautical miles an hour (222Km/h!)

Dick later converted some with Chipmunks with Gypsy major airframes to accept to Lycoming engines and successfully fought for MOGAS (automotive gasoline) to be used in some cases where the AVGAS (Kerosene aviation fuel) had been specified. He continued to instruct, aerotow and innovate well into the 1980's[8][9]