Rattlesden project gets given wings

Rattlesden Gliding Club is taking its plans skyward in a cross country journey to get more people gliding.

Glide Britain is the idea set up by Rattlesden’s marketing manager Simon Grice after he found the gliding community was an ageing population.

He said: “I found that the problem with gliding is that most people don’t even know about it at all.

“I thought gliding needs to get out there to a younger audience and show them how great it is.”

Flying a K21 glider, the team is setting off on a journey of more than 1,200km across the UK, visiting 13 gliding clubs.

As they glide they will be photographing images for a Glide Britain hardback book as well as producing videos for gliding clubs to use for their newcomers .

Already, through their fund-raising page, they have got more than £16,000 which Mr Grice knows is very useful.

He said: “It will give us enough to do some really great filming air-to-air and some brilliant photography, making this is a project that can hopefully inspire people.”

The trip ends will end on July 30 and Mr Grice feels gliding as a whole will benefit from it.

He said: “If you walked into a pub in Bury and asked ‘do you know what sailing is?’ I reckon 100% of them will know and we need the same to happen for gliding and that is what this project is about.”

For more details on gliding, go to www.rattlesdengliding.com or to donate go to www.kickstarter.com/projects/simongrice/glide-britain