Last Tuesday (12th September), 15 students from Years 10 to Upper Sixth, ventured to Cambridgeshire, where they attended an afternoon session, for the newly introduced BGA Go Gliding Initiative.

The program is one of just eleven selected winners of the Reach For The Sky Challenge Fund, which was jointly set up by the Department for Transport and the Civil Aviation Authority back in 2022. 

Olivia Davies (Lower Sixth) reflected: “The trip involved an afternoon's workshop held at the Cambridge Gliding Centre in Little Gransden. We were met with presentations, carried out by notable members of the Cambridge Gliding Centre and British Gliding Association (BGA) ambassadors, giving us an introduction into the multiplicity of jobs that aviation offers, before heading off into groups which we'd cruise in for the rest of the afternoon.

“We enjoyed tours of the Centre's hangars - where for some it even included a sit in the K-21 (the two seated glider usually used for beginner instruction) - seeing the different gliders, motor gliders, towing aircraft, winch launchers and the cyan painted, converted school bus. During the afternoon session, we participated in a STEM oriented sub-workshop, where we experimented with creating a paper aeroplane design, with the highest glide time ratio in mind, as well as testing different shaped wings to see which required the least lift, substituting an aerodrome only for a hairdryer. Although all of these activities were insightful, most importantly of all, we all had a go in the club's 5 wrap-around screen flight simulator, where we, though briefly, experienced the feeling of flight; sitting in a real glider cockpit and landing in the centre's very own virtually replicated runway. 

“I'd recommend this experience just based upon its welcoming and immersive nature, created by Cambridge Gliding Centre's members, to anyone who's even slightly considering a career that's physics or aviation related. The whole afternoon was a great way for us to gain insight into the aviation industry through acquisition of both theoretical and Practical knowledge of the field.”