Oxford University Gliding Club
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| Base Airfield | Bicester Airfield |
| Founded | 1937 |
| Membership | 97 student members (2015/16) |
The Oxford University Gliding Club (OUGC) is the gliding club of Oxford University, flying from the historic Bicester Airfield. Membership is open to students and staff from both the University of Oxford as well as Oxford Brookes University. The club currently operates a fleet of two gliders.
The club was founded as part of the Oxford University and City Gliding Club in December 1937, and the illustrious German pilot Robert Kronfeld was its first chief flying instructor (CFI). The club started flying from Cumnor Meadow in the spring of 1938, but the site is now lost, lying at the bottom of Farmoor Reservoir. Later that year, the club flew from a site between Aston Rowant and Lewknor at the Chiltern ridge. At the outbreak of war in 1939, all sport flying stopped in the UK, but the club reformed in 1951 at Kidlington before moving to RAF Weston on the Green in 1956.
In the mid 1970s Oxford University Gliding Club and Oxford (City) Gliding Club split. The Oxford Gliding Club stayed at RAF Weston on the Green, while OUGC moved to Bicester Airfield (sharing facilities with the RAFGSA and their gliding operation). At this time, the club had just one glider, a Schleicher Ka 7 from the German manufacturer Alexander Schleicher, obtained thanks to the generosity of a local dentist, Peter Pratelli. This wood and fabric glider was soon supplemented by a Grob G103 Twin II glass fibre two-seater, EGN, again via a loan from Pratelli, and the Ka 7 eventually moved on to another club.
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