90 years young, Tom Docherty is still contagiously enthusiastic about life and especially his love of gliding.
Tom has soared over Scotland’s skies to break many records since he took up the sport in his teenage years in Dundee.
Now his son and grandson are following in his footsteps.
When we meet for a chat on a dreich September morning, it’s clear that despite being in his 91st year, Tom Docherty is still as sharp as a tack.
He is keen to share his stories of adventures in the sky and much more.
Getting airborne with the Air Training Corps
Tom, who was born in Dundee, got his first taste of gliding when he joined the 1232 Dundee Squadron of the Air Training Corps as a teenager.
“It was one of the best things I ever did,” he says.
Part of the training included travelling to Dyce Airfield to learn to fly an elementary all-wooden glider. Tom says that he was hooked from the first moment he took to the skies.
He was required to do national service in the RAF after he finished his apprenticeship in joinery.
Tom completed most of his national service training as a glider pilot, drawing on his early experiences through his long years in the sport.
“It felt very natural to me, having started at 15, to learn about the art of soaring – using a thermal and knowing exactly where the lift is.”
The lack of engine noise means that gilders enjoy encounters that other pilots don’t.
“Flying with a buzzard close to your wing but they won’t stay long with you, especially if you get too close.”
Tom was Scottish cross-country champion in gliding for 13 years. In 1969, he was the first person to achieve a gold distance flight from Portmoak to Rotherham. He also soared to a record height of 26,000ft, which won him the Alan Boyle Altitude Trophy.
Tom’s unexpected landing spots
A group of borstal boys and a French hotelier are among the people who have welcomed Tom Docherty back to terra firma after flights in his glider.
He recalls one long flight when the conditions changed suddenly: “I realised, I’ve got to get myself down. I realised I was over the North Sea and headed for Boston [in Lincolnshire] and landed in a playing field.
“I was quickly surrounded by a load of children and it turned out that I had landed in the worst borstal (juvenile detention centre) in Britain.
“I had to give a talk on gilding before I could leave.”
Special welcome from French hosts
When Tom made his first cross-channel flight, flying an amazing 666km to Joigny in north-central France he received the red carpet treatment.
“I was running out of ideas for a landing spot when the cloud cleared and I spotted a track on the hill cutting into a forest.
“It turned out to be a private landing strip. So I did a quick circuit round the town and somebody there spotted me and motored to the airfield.
“He took me to the Gendarmes so that I could register my landing and then I made my way to this hotel which turned out to be one of the best places to eat in France.
He wasn’t charged for the incredible food or the room: “that’s the nicest reception, landing and nicest help of all the flights I ever did.”
Tom’s adventures haven’t always gone according to plan. He recalls one serious accident in Fife in 1967.
He was piloting a light aircraft towing a heavy two-seater glider when the tow rope didn’t release. His Tiger Moth bi-plane crashed head-on into Bishop Hill.
“I was unconscious for around 15 minutes and initially I thought that I had lost an eye.
“I got out and started walking down the hill and it suddenly popped open [blood from a head injury has glued his eye shut].
“I thought, ‘Oh! That’s good!'”
Guardian angel flying with Tom
“Most people die in towing-related accidents,” he says matter-of-factly, “God was looking after me that day.”
A devoted member of the Catholic Church, Tom believes that God has had his back on more than one occasion both in his business career and in gliding.
In the case of this particular incident his parish priest agreed: “I thought every Catholic knew it was a waste of time to argue with a Bishop!” wrote Fr Hendry at the time, “Even a wee one like Bishop Hill.”
Not giving up on gliding adventures just yet
Still keen to get airborne, the nonagenarian’s trips now tend to be in tandem with his son Adrian rather than solo excursions.
The only thing that hampers his air time these days is discomfort if he has to sit in one position for a long period of time.
Tom claims that his days of competing and chasing records are over.
“I have achieved everything I wanted to achieve in gliding,” he says.
Then, with a glint in his eye, “but it wouldn’t be too difficult to fly from Scotland to France. If you take off from Loch Leven, fly up to Aboyne and catch a wave it would be easy to get down to the south coast…”
That appetite for adventure might not be sated just yet.
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