John Williamson Copied from Gliding Australia
A tribute to John Williamson A Tribute to John Williamson John Shapcote Williamson (John Willie) 29 October 1928 - 3 June 2020 First published and in Sailplane & Gliding (UK) I had the pleasure of meeting John Williamson at Benalla where he was resident in the early 1990s. He helped me achieve my first 300km and introduced me to the JSW Calculator which I used on every flight into the 2000s long after I purchased my first Garmin GPS - to check that the Garmin was giving me accurate data. John was a gentleman and great glider pilot and I am sure many Australian pilots remember him well. Sean Young Gliding recently lost another of its legends with the death of ‘John Willie’, inventor of the John Willie Calculator and mentor to many young glider pilots John’s father was the novelist Henry Williamson, whose experience in the trenches of WW1 made him a dedicated pacifist. This did not deter John from joining the RAF in 1947 and training as a radio fitter. He started gliding ...
