Vintage gliding club celebrates 50th birthday in Gloucestershire
BBCA vintage gliding club is celebrating its 50th birthday at an airfield.
A rally being held to mark the International Vintage Glider Club's milestone involves 70 gliders and 200 owners from around the world, with planes dating back to 1936 on show.
Chris Godding, chairman of the Cotswold Gliding Club said it was a "fantastic privilege" to host the event at Aston Down airfield, near Minchinhampton.
"It's a fascinating history of aviation," he added.
"The essence of gliding is freedom, the ability to go anywhere and just to have that privilege and riding the thermals and the wave," Mr Godding said.
Gliders are unpowered aircraft that rely on currents of rising hot air, called thermals, to stay airborne.
They are normally towed into the air by a powered aircraft to be released at the desired altitude and are able to glide for hours and travel long distances in the right weather conditions.
Throughout the week, pilots and planes will be catching thermals as part of the anniversary event.
One of the members of the International Vintage Glider Club, Robin Birch, said Gloucestershire beat off competition from airfields in France and Germany to host the event.
"They both lay claim to having a part of the vintage gliding movement and I am very happy they came here," he said.
"Up in the air it's a mixture of peace, quiet, exhilaration and occasional bouts of terror.
"But it is one of the things you do that makes you feel alive," added Mr Birch.
The rally runs until 6 August.
The airfield was originally opened as RAF Minchinhampton and used by the RAF during World War One.
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