The exact date is unclear, because 16-year-old Alan Twigg didn’t think to preserve it for posterity. And a lot has happened since, including a globe-trotting career with Rolls-Royce.
His first flight record book is buried somewhere in the loft, but at some point in the middle of October in 1965 he was at the helm of an RAF Gliding and Soaring Association T21 Glider and skipping off the grass at RAF Bicester into the air for the very first time.
Alan had come to visit his brother, who was in the No71 Maintenance Unit based out of Hangar 137. Their task was to collect damaged and downed planes from an ever-expanding radius around Bicester – eventually right the way down to the south coast. The unit recovered a Lancaster to Bicester while the elder Twigg was stationed at the base, and they pieced together a Spitfire in 137. Aircraft ranged right the way up to the Vulcan, which had been flying for 10 years when Alan first left solid ground.
He couldn’t have anticipated that the site would play such an ever-present role in his life. He was part of the gliding club that was based out of the Hangar 113, adjacent to his brother's, and which was formed in 1961. He has become the fount of knowledge of the post-war day-to-day history site, and today manages the still-active airfield.
His Motorglider has lived at and likely clocked the most flights of any aircraft from the airfield. One he won’t forget happened on 17 October, which was timed specifically to mark six decades of his flying.
'Twiggy' circled over the surrounding villages to Turweston and back – villages that would have looked remarkably similar to those beneath him that day in October 1965, but at the same time unrecognisably different.