jump to navigation search royal air force gliding & soaring association type charitable sporting and recreation organisation founded raf detling 1949 headquarters headquarters rafgsa centre raf halton england and scotland number of locations 8 locations area served all raf personnel and armed forces personnel engaged in adventurous trainiing in gliding services adventure training and flying training total assets 60 gliders 8 glider tugs and equipment to operate them . website 1 the slingsby t. 21 was one of the first two aircraft owned by the royal air force gliding & soaring association . the royal air force gliding & soaring association is a british organisation which provides recreational flying in gliders to raf personnel . contents 1 purpose 2 history 3 clubs 4 aircraft 5 see also 6 references 7 external links purpose edit the royal air force gliding & soaring association rafgsa is a voluntary organisation which exists to provide recreational flying to all raf servicemen and women in particular those normally employed in ground duties . the rafgsa centre is at raf halton employing a full time staff to provide central organisational training and workshop facilities . 1 the joint services gliding centre jsgc located at the rafgsa chilterns centre raf halton is part of the joint service adventurous training jsat air sports organisation and provides training courses for military personnel . history edit in 1945 the british air forces of occupation bafo in germany began using captured german gliders to provide recreational flying for raf personnel . this resulted in a demand for similar facilities in the united kingdom and the royal air force gliding & soaring association was founded in 1949 . the first aircraft a slingsby t. 21 and a prefect were bought in march 1950 and stationed at raf detling . by 1952 27 gliders were being operated at seven clubs around the uk . 2 in october 1963 the rafgsa centre was established at raf bicester absorbing the windrushers gliding club which had been formed in january 1956 at raf little rissington later moving to bicester . 3 in june 2004 the centre moved to raf halton . 4 clubs edit apart from the rafgsa centre at raf halton there are six regional clubs run on a voluntary basis and based at or near raf stations . each offers initial training for novices as well as cross country flying for more advanced pilots . 5 rafgsa chilterns gliding centre raf halton bannerdown gliding club keevil cranwell gliding club raf cranwell fenland gliding club raf marham fulmar gliding club easterton kestrel gliding club raf odiham wrekin gliding club raf cosford aircraft edit approximately 60 gliders were in use in 2010 including the following types 6 grob g102 astir grob g 109b rolladen schneider ls8 18 scheibe sf25 falke schempp hirth discus schempp hirth discus 2ct schempp hirth duo discus schempp hirth janus ct schempp hirth ventus 2ct schleicher k 8b schleicher ask 13 schleicher ask 18 schleicher ask 21 slingsby t61 falke six chipmunk and two pawnee tugs were also in use . see also edit gliding gliding competitions gliders air training corps references edit rafgsa website retrieved 3 aug 2011 flight 23 may 1952 rafgsa website gsa history retrieved 3 aug 2011 windrushers gliding club website bicester airfield history retrieved 3 aug 2011 rafgsa website list of clubs retrieved 3 aug 2011 rafgsa fleet distribution external links edit 2 retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title royal air force gliding % 26 soaring association & oldid 739908078 categories aviation organisations based in the united kingdomgliding in the united kingdomgliding associationssports organisations established in 19491949 establishments in the united kingdomhidden categories use dmy dates from february 2014use british english from february 2014 navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 17 september 2016 at 20 59 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia developers cookie statement mobile view