One of the members, Roger Watts, owned a farm at Rattlesden, on which the original World War II airbase for the U.S. 447th bomb group was situated. Part of one runway remained intact, and at 1200 yards long was ideal for winch or aerotow launching. In the words of one of the members of the splinter group, Mike Lee, "It was like going to Heathrow".

Roger Watts very kindly offered the use of the runway and the old control tower as a clubhouse and a hangar for the one glider the club then had the opportunity to fly. It was an old Slingsby T-21, a side by side training dual seater. This was also donated by Roger Watts himself.

The T-21 had to be rigged and de-rigged every flying day for the hangaring in one of the ground floor rooms of the old control tower. This room is the present day briefing room, and to this day a hole can be seen in the wall, where the nose of the T-21 went in order to be able to close the door without damaging the tail.

In 1976, it was very much a family affair, the club consisting of eight to ten members. Ralph Brooker became the first Cheif Flying Instructor (CFI) of the "Rattlesden Soaring Group" and Roger Watts became the chairman.

As the group grew, they became recognised by the British Gliding Association for the purposes of flying procedures and training, and the name of the club was changed to Rattlesden Gliding Club. A small hangar was built by the members, and Humfrey Chamberlain and Paul Handover donated two new gliders. These gliders (K-7's) became the clubs two training tandem two seaters, and at the same time, two single seaters were purchased for club members use.

In the mid 1990's the club had enough finances to purchase the main runway from Roger Watts in addition to enough land nearby for a cross-strip and a dispersal area with room for a much larger hangar. The new hangar was again erected by voluntary members, and is the envy of many other gliding clubs.

The original concerns regarding security of tenure at Whatfield eventually came to pass, however, many years later, and the Essex and Suffolk Gliding Club is now based at Wormingford, near Colchester in Essex. Both clubs still retain close connections and Rattlesden Gliding Club now forms part of a network of East Anglian gliding clubs who work (and play) in harmony under the auspices of the British Gliding Association 

Today, the camaraderie and generosity that formed the club originally is still evident. The club now has one hundred full members, has a modern (GRP) fleet of gliders (which can be seen in The Fleet , two winches and a Citabria tug. Roger Watts is now president of the club and the family atmosphere remains.