Where to find news about Booker Gliding Club

This blog has served us well for a long time and there are some fantastic stories and photos of our adventures over many years. We are still having a lot of fun, but the place to keep up with the news is now Facebook . You don't need a Facebook account to view.

You can also check out our website for information about gliding in general and Booker Gliding Club in particular.

Or you could just come along and have a chat. 

You will find us at Wycombe Air Park, Marlow, Bucks SL7 3DP. We look forward to meeting you.

Booker Gliding Club is back at Wycombe Air Park

After leading a nomadic existence for the past two years, flying at Chiltern Park in 2021 and then briefly at Abingdon, Booker Gliding Club has finally been allowed to return to its historic home at Wycombe Air Park. It has been amazing to get back in the air and see those old familiar landmarks - and to spot some changes.

The club's committee is grateful for the support of loyal members who stuck with the club during the fight to return home.

Booker Gliding Club and Wycombe Air Park, our home of decades

 Have you noticed what’s happening at Wycombe Air Park? Back in February 2021 Bucks Council fenced off the southern part of the airfield – resulting in the airfield manager banning gliding on unspecified safety grounds – and leased it to Stage Fifty, who are busy building a film studio before their planning application has been decided. This development has been on the books for a while and is enshrined in the 2019 Local Plan, which also requires that the gliding club should be moved to the north side of the airfield. The council spent a lot of time and money on plans for a glider take-off track, planning permission for which was granted in December 2021, but this is not now progressing because the airfield manager says no – so the gliding club is homeless and facing closure.

There’s a lot that’s wrong with this situation – a decades-old gliding club which has introduced thousands to low-cost flying forced off its home base, council-sponsored building going on without planning permission, a community asset trashed, and an airfield manager with his own plans for development of the airfield - he’s the CEO of HeliAir so one can only imagine what that might mean.

If you would like to comment on the planning application, ref 21/07902/FUL, you can find it on the council website (when it’s working) here: https://publicaccess.wycombe.gov.uk/idoxpa-web/

The date for website comments has passed but you can still email your comments to planning.wyc@buckinghamshire.gov.uk