Show Notes
After several hi-octane podcasts celebrating the magic of the Merlin-powered Avro Lancaster, and the roar of the mighty Eurofighter Typhoon, we’re back with, not so much a bang, but definitely not a whimper either, in fact more of a whoosh. This week the TLG team goes gliding. None of us knew quite what to expect ahead of our gliding debuts, but, as you’ll hear in our Full Flaps episode, we loved it! We hope this episode will open your eyes, as it did ours, to the glory of gliding, and the thrills it brings. It’s about far more than just genteelly floating through the air enjoying the view, although if that’s what you want it is one of life’s great airborne experiences. But it provides drama and excitement too, and as we discovered courtesy of our exuberant and generous hosts at Trent Valley Gliding Club at Kirton-in-Lindsey (www.tvgc.org.uk), there are things you can do in a glider you might never have thought possible. There’s all the usual stuff in the magazine episode too of course: Roy talks us through his attempts at his first landing in a microlight; Ask James covers quite a wide range of topics, which thankfully as our aviation expert James manages to answer; and Jez’s Quick Facts on gliding are, a bit like a flight in a glider, potentially never-ending. The TLG Quiz is as fiercely contested as ever with some top notch whingeing from both Jez and James. Please do join us for our latest podcast and be catapulted into the glorious world of gliding.
More from Top Landing Gear
Welcome to Top Landing Gear and our bonus edition of Full Flaps from Dunsfold Aerodrome. In our previous episode we spoke with Aviation Filming's owner Mike Woodley. In this episode we make our way out onto the apron and get guided tour around the three BA Boeing 747s with Aviation Filming Aerial Coordinator and Pilot Jamie Chalkley.
Welcome to Top Landing Gear Full Flaps and our full length interview with Mike Woodley, owner of Aviation Filming Ltd based at Dunsfold Aerodrome in Surrey. The company specialises in aviation content for film and TV, including a huge number of the Bond films. Among Aviation Filming's fleet are three former BA Boeing 747s which are regularly used as film props and a very famous Douglas Dakota. We met up with Mike in his office beneath the control tower of Dunsfold in May 2023 to hear some of his incredible stories about the film and aviation industry. Enjoy!
Welcome to Top Landing Gear as we turn our attention to an airfield that is close to all of us, both emotionally and geographically: Dunsfold Aerodrome, home of the Hunter and the Harrier. It was also used as the studio and test track for BBC Top Gear (a poor man's version of Top Landing Gear - wheels instead of wings!), home to the sadly defunct annual Wings and Wheels airshow, and the base for Aviation Filming, which provides aircraft and facilities for the film and television industry, including most of the Bond films. It's run by our splendid guest, Mike Woodley.
Join the Top Landing Gear team as they are given a tour of Croydon Airport by A380 Captain Ian Walker, former chairman of the Croydon Airport Trust.
Top Landing Gear returns as we continue series 5 by going further back in aviation history than we've ever gone before, to the earliest days of commercial air travel with our visit to the historic Croydon Aerodrome.