Camphill
CAMPHILL: Gliding site (Also known as CAMPHILL HARM and GREAT HUCKLOW)
Note: All four of these pictures were obtained from Google Earth ©
Operated by: Since the1950s: Derbyshire & Lancashire Gliding Club
Note: In the 1957 The Aeroplane directory, the fleet was given as: One Skylark 2, one Olympia, two EoN Baby's, two Tutor Cadets T.21 and T31 two-seater trainers
Note: These three pictures from postcards produced in the 1960s, for a world gliding event, were kindly provided by Mike Charlton who has an amazing collection. See, www.aviationpostcard.co.uk
All the captions on the postcards show the site as being then known as GREAT HUCKLOW.
Location: In/near Great Hucklow, 1nm N of A623, 6nm NNW of Bakewell
Period of operation: 1930s to -
Runway: 2001: 02/20 1400x50 grass
NOTES: In 1977, apart from gliders, it appears that the Scheibe SF.25B G-BCTD was the only powered aircraft type based here. Venue in June 2001 for a Vintage & Classic Glider Rally.
I’ll take stab at this, assuming exactly the same site was in use? In mid July 1939 the “National Gliding Contests” took place from GREAT HUCKLOW. I’ve since found this confirmed in as much as the National Championships that year took place at CAMPHILL. As they did in 1949.
HANNA REITSCH
I discovered an odd story regarding Hanna Reitsch in Women with Wings by Mary Cadogan. Hanna was of course perhaps the most famous German test pilot from the mid 1930s and during WW2. She certainly acquired notoriety as ‘Hitler’s test pilot’. To what extent this is justified I have no idea, but the Nazi propaganda machine certainly exploited her achievements.
After WW2 Hanna took up gliding and soon began setting new records and in 1954 had been granted a visa to be part of the West German team attending the international gliding championships at CAMPHILL. However, the Bonn government made the Aero Club withdraw her from the team as it appears some British newspapers had been linking her name with Hitler. Hanna was so incensed by this turn of events that she severed links with the Aero Club and avoided any involvement until a year before her death in 1979.
After WW2 a smear campaign was mounted. Mary Cadogan makes these points; “Hanna laid the blame for much of this on the Americans who, she felt, were vilifying her for her refusal to work with them. Whether she was the victim of a particulary ugly smear campaign, or whether she was simply paranoid, it seems that she was almost driven to take her own life.” In 1951 she published an autobiography, Fliegen mein Leben (Flying My Life).
I find this particularly interesting as Mary goes on to say; “Post-war recognition came to her from countries other than Germany, however, including India (where she took Prime Minister Nehru gliding), Ghana (where she ran a gliding school for several years) and the once-hated America (with President Kennedy receiving her at the White House).” I expect you will also see the irony here, with India and Ghana both recognising her brilliance, and both being countries with very close ties with the UK. Mary Cadogan also cites Woman of the Air (1986) by Judy Lomax. Two more books to add to my ever growing wish list to one day read.
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