Walking on Air is very sorry to announce the death of our recent Chairman Dave Tuttle.

Dave was a very competent glider pilot, in spite of his severe disabilities, who enjoyed cross country and aerobatic flying. After training at Portmoak he flew Walking on Air’s Schleicher K21 WA1 and some years ago a syndicate LS7 WA2.

He was a very early member of Walking on Air after breaking his back in an accident at Edinburgh University, which left him totally paralysed from the waist down.

He went on expeditions to The Cairngorm Gliding Club at Feshibridge, the Ulster Gliding Club at Bellarena in Northern Ireland and the Gruyere Gliding Club in Switzerland. On UK expeditions he would either sleep in a tent – which he erected himself – or in the back of his estate car to save money for flying, and fully entered in the social life of gliding clubs. He was highly intelligent, well read and always very good company. He never complained of health problems in spite of declining health which finally resulted in his death at the age of 66 on 27th April 2026.

He had many friends in the gliding community and will be missed by all those who knew him.