SA A E& GLIDINGAugust- September 1967 3s 6d

WHEREAREYOU?Keep your airfield recognition up to scratch by giving a nameto this airfield somewhere in Britain. If you don't know itor guess it straight off, here are some clues to help you.

The name Tile main runway The towerof the headings are frequency is Dining facill ties

Airport Station 04/22 and 1313l. A/G 118.1 Mc/s. at airpor·t.Commandant is Hot.6ls nearby.

WlngfCdr:

-1C. V. Ogden. The helgh t of Customs categorythe airfield Is '8' llvailable

220 feet AMSL. during hoursoC operation.

COT IT YET?The name of Add the lifeblood Here's anotherthe Fuelling of any airport. Taxis. Public clue.Supervisor AVTUR, Transport and uThere is

Is J. H. RIR". AVGAS90 Hire Cars a welcome."and AVGAS are available.

iOO/1:Jl.

IftOOlUJ}uwtJiOwe/9

• JjI .... $Ut'

SHELL-MEX AND S.P. LTDOnerators in the U.K. 01 the Shell and the BP Aviation Services

SAILPLANE& GLIDINGOFFICIAL ORGAN OF THE BRITISH GLIDING ASSOCIATIONEditor: Alan Slater, M.A. F.R.Met.S.Associate Editor and Production Manager: Rika HarwoodMagazine Ass,istant: Nick,y Stothard - Club News Editor: Vvonne BonhamAdvertisement Manager: Peggy Mieville'Committee: Philip Will's Chairman, G. Harwood. W. Kahn, M. Simons

CONTENTS

"Malt" and "Ma.c" 318C. W. Bentson 321Aunt M.tilda ?21Yvonne Bonh.m 322Ann 'Welch 324P. A. Wills.. 327D. Chand.. 328C. Pennycui.ck 329

335R. Q. B.r:-ett 336

~37

M. Simons, A. E. Slater 33~

1. Picke·.l·Heaps. T. ZC2,lIy.W. Godfrey, J. Cramp. E, Scheibe 338

346356360367

The National ChampionshipsFinal Results

More About CirrusThe Freedom of' the HillsBGA NewsChampionship AwardsDutch Nationals ,.HI'-,14 ,ExperimentalOSTIV at StottgartSelf·TaughtCu-nim Champion'hipsSafely Panel New,Electri.c.al BondingWhom the "Bishop" joins together, let no nun put

asunderCook Compass Mounting ModificationA Thought Over the Knitting NeedlesKronfeld Cluh News"PossibJes" CompetitionLightning and Collision in CloudA :ross the Gangetic Plain ..How Gliding' Bega~ in TanzaniaGliding Certificates'Western Regiona]sWin a Swallow CompetitionBook ReviewCorrespondence

Club Ne\llsService NewsOverseas NewsMowri,ed Sailplane,

A. E. Slater and Rika

D, H. 'G. InceA. W. F. Edwards

M. J. MantingJ. S. William:onF. G. IrvingN. E. Jo~n,on

H. C. N. G:>:>dlt.rtR. A. NeavcsF. G. Irving

H.rwood 271290, 291

292294300:lOt10~

30S307~IO

311312314

Co.er phofoe.raph: Rene Comtc dc-monSlrates his Diamant at the National Chamionships.Pho:ograph by Charles Brown.

Publi.hed by Ihe Brilish Gliding Associlllon, 75 Victoril Sheet. London, S.W.I. Sullivln 7548/9P,inled b., The Amberl.,. Preu.. F.rnh.... Sun..,.

Vol. XVIII No.4269

LTD.E N GY 0 R K

5 A I LP LAN E5,D EKlRBYMOOR5

Comfort is no less important than performance - in a Don you get both: Not to mention the eose

of rigging and beautiful handling. Coreful engineering and painstaking development hove

produced 0 'Ship', that iJ fun to fly and a joy to own. Y'Qur crew .. ill 10.,... it too - th.. fully

fitted troiler, in which Q Dart is shipped, handles so nicely on the long retrieyes (which you

undoubtedly will have wh•• YOU own a D<rrl)! 50 move ah~d - fly a Dorl- you'll 10•• it!

CONTACT YOUR NEAREST SlINGSBT DEAlEll FOR DEtAILED INFORMAnON

SLINGSBY

!1~...--

TT was not the fault of Mr. J. P. Malla­.!. lieu's Department that he was late inturning up to open the National Cham­pionships: he is Minister of State for theBoard of Trade. but the traffic ,iam atAscot which delayed him on Saturday.20th May. was the responsibility of theMinistry of Tramport. However. AnnWelch was at last able [0 announce thatthe Minister was "on his final glide.3;\- minutes out".

As he came to rest alongside the Hi,llhTable in the big marquee. Phil-ip Willsexplained that, among the ships andtrade and other things the Minister wasresponsible for. somewhere in a far topcorner was Gliding: he would, in fact.see a glider "which will put up ourexports a bit",

Mr. MaUalieu explained tbat amongthe things he did not control was notonly traffic but the weatner, He did noteven control glidinj:. apart from navingto settle disputes with ATe: gliding. hesaid, "is controlled by the British GHdinj:Association, that wonderful body ofgenuine amateurs", But one subject forwhich he had special responsibility wasaircraft noise (laughter).

Mr. MaHalieu then presented theChurchill Award to John Simpson. whointends to use it to study the sea-breezefront: he will make a film and observethe phenomenon from a two-seater sail­plane as well as from the ground.

The Minister having declared theChampionships open, Ann Welch tookover to the strain of "Happy Birthdayto Yeu". and proceeded to explain thenew "Cat's Cradle" distance task-orrather, advised everyone to tackle thetask of reading the small print of the

Rules. As usual with new rules. therewere ways of frustrating their intention,and she added: "I've discovered a lotof gamesmanshjp, but I'm not telling."She warned everyone that, as last year.the borders of controlled airspace wouldbe patroUed; then welcomed DickSchreder. who had come from Americato fly an HP-14 hors concQurs (applause).

The weather was unsuitahle for settinga task at present, but there would beanother brie.fing at 1 p.m., and mean­while "Pat Menmuir will give you a briefrun-down on the gales".

The wind, Pat said. was blowinl! 20-25

--"--John Simpson recelV/Ill! tire Churchillaward from the Minister.

271

Pat Menmuir I!IVIIII! Ihe forecast on theopeninl! day.

kllOH on the wound, Rustin.'! to 35,andup alofl if was 35-40 kt. Showers wereexpected, but 1II0s1 of them would befurther nor/h. Cloud base 2,500 ft.: tops8,000 ft. alld occasionally 12,000 ft.: ther­mals good but broken by the wind.Tomorrow we would be under the influ­ence of a wave depression over SouthernIreland and as to Monday alld TUe.!day:"We always save the best weather forlater on, a~' you know."

Ken O'Riley, asked about the drop­ping zone. sa·id something about a"dril'ping zone". Philip Wills added awarning about Airspace, and also aboutobserving the ptoper courtesies to far­mers after landing on their property; hesuggested dropping them a postcardafterwards-thus incre.asing the sales ofBO A postcards. .

We were sorry to hear that HaroldDrew, vice-cl1airman of the Champion­ships organisation, was away ill withjaundice.

The J p.m. briefing was postponed to2.30 and that in turn was cancelled. Twoor three thunderstorms passed over in theafternoon. and Dick Schreder managedto soar under the base of one cu-nim.

272

Changes iD EDtry List .As usual. there were alterations in thIS

list after the version published in ourlast issue (I'. 202-3) had gone to Press.The corrections have been incorporatedin the Final Result (pag~ 290, 291).

Sunday, 21st May

At the 09.30 briefing the forecast wasnol very promising. A depression was toreach Ire/and by midday.. crossitrg theBritish Isles during the next 24 hours,with a warm front approaching from theS.W. Winds 200 0 15-20 knots. backillgand tending to freshen. 8/8 strato-wturning into cumulus by mid-morning.By 10.30 cloudbase was expected to riseto 2,000-2,500 ft. (a/l heights a.s.I.), topsto 5,000-6,000 ft., wilh modemte brokentherm!1ls. A slight impuwemellt was P()!i"

sible during the next hour bur cloudwould increase again and rain was ex­peJ::ted to reach Las/wm between 13.00­1400 hrs. Along the route condilionswould improve, with a chance of showersin East Anglia. but these wouid be fewand far between.

With this difficult weather situation itwould be necessary to get pilots away assoon as conditions would aItow. Aftergoing through the essential details ofbriefing quickly Ann Welch set a raceto Swanton Motley via Thame airfield,total distance 233.5 km. X=30 km., Y=66 km. Designated start. This task was

set for League I, and the same task, ifany, for League 2 if their launch wasnot held up too long by relights forLeag\le 1 (League 2's task was subse­quently cancelled at 13.30).

As nobody had bothered to rig befor,ebriefing, there was now a frantic hurryto get ready-rather reluctantly-to beon the grid by 10.30. Pilots scarcely be­lieved that they might have to take theair as they waited patiently on the gridand watched the unpromising sky rushby. The "snifter", however, did not cQmedown as fast as they all expected, andev-en reported finding 3 knots lift overAlton at 1.500 ft. Obviously as sOOn asc1Qudbase reached 2,000 ft. they wouldbe sent on their way. Just before noonthe order to launch was given and the1967 Nationals had begun.

Towing was not easy, nor was itpleasant, as the air was extremely turbu­lent, but the tug piiots did a very goodjo.b and 38 minutes later the 42 glidersof Lea~u~ I had all been hauled into theair. Iohn Williamson had a bit of amishaJ) on take-o.tf with his HP-14 (des­cribed by him elsewhere), but some bitsof metal were unbent and rejoined with­in 40 minutes, in time for him to jointhe relight queue, which was led byWally Kahn.

The strong S.W. wind backed unex­pectedly far t::> beccme S.S..E., so pilotsdid not need to give first priority tocounteracting any tendency to drift to­wards the edge of the Control Zone,where a patrolling aeroplane was watch­ing for them "in case..·.

This was as well, because they neededall their .attention for keepi.flg airhornt:on this first leg. For example, GeorgeCollins, though he got 2 knots lift undera cumulus for a start. sank at 6 to 8knots in a downdraught on his way tothe next one, so failed to reach it. lanStrachan ran out of thermals in com­pany with Dick Schreder at Basinli:stoke.then, after returning for another try, didso again at Reading.. First to arrive at the goal was Andy

Gough, and, as it laler transpired, hemade it in the shortest time-2 hrS. 54mins. (12.11 to 15.05), giv.ing an averageof 80.4 kp.h. (49.96 m.p.h.}. He deservedhis success for his persistence in keepingon track; he always looked srraightahead for the next thermal sourCe in­stead of being tempted into deviations.

While Andy G(lUgh's maximum heightwas 3,500 ft., Humph,ry Dimock spentmost of his time between 1,000 and 1,500ft. and only twice rose above 3,000.Wally Kahn, on the olher hand, reached4 500 ft.. (immediately after .a sink ,to8(0) and only one pilot e~ceeded thiswith 5 '000' ft

Of i5 pilots who· rounded the turning­point, nine rea-ched the goal. But manydrifted too far teJ. leeward. and a few ofthese even fetched un by the coast atKing's Lynn, 24 miles W.N.W. of th~pal. Whether they could reach it fromthere against the wind depended onUpenetration". For instance, David Innesand Simon Redman, each with an SHK,managed to make Swanton Morleyagainst th~ wind, whereas of two Ka-6pilots who also reached King's Lynn.Peter Dawson had to land there andTony Deane-Drummond found 4,000 ft.insufficiem tCl gel him mQre than partof the way te the goal-if he had justreached the finish-line, he said. he wouldhave pulled ofi' speed amd re-<:rossed itgoing backwards in the correct direc'­tion, south to north.

Oavid Innes, [on tne other hand, usedth~ technique' ot flying straight ahead

David Tunes, olle of the four pilotschosen to represent Britain next yearin Paland. Unlike the others, he willbe /lying in World Championships

tor the firs I time. (See page 300.)

SOme fatlrerly advice for BemardFitcheu.

a piece of marshland in Kent, whichPeter had coveted for a bird sanctuary.So he did a deal there and then. Beforethis, be had done one-and-a-half turnsof a spin for the first time in his life;his stall was not merely due to turbu­lence, he thought, but to the fact thathe was approaching a thermal throughair that was (in obedience to theory)rapidlyaccelcr'ating 'towards its centre,and so continually depriving him of air­speed. The severe turbulence not onlysent another oilot into an incipient spin,but made field landings extremely tricky;yet no-one suffered damage.

Br~nnig James had an adventure onthe way home; being stopped by anovertaking car after a qUick get-awayfrom traffic lights, he was told that histrailer doors were open and "something"had fallen out. In$pection of the trailerrevealed that tbe something was nothingless than the fuselage! Three-quarters ofa mile back they picked it up from thegutter-virtually undamaged.

SHKDart 17Dart 17RDut 17Dart 15·Dart 17RSHKSHKSHK

but slowing up as he crossed each ther­mal. He was, in fact, lucky to havereached King's Lynn at a1l, because hehad forgotten to pull in his wheel allthe way to Thame; however, after that,where the situation demanded fast glidesbetween thermals, he realized his per­formance was not what it should be,thought a bit, and hit on the cause.Before that. Wally Kahn bad tried tote1l h-im albout the wheel but was on thewrong wave--length, whereupon anothercompetitor, who shall be nameless,joined in with "Don't tell him-let himland." David and Wally reached thegoal. but the other pilot didn't-perhapssome moral could be drawn.

The wind was not the onlv troublein making Swanton Morley awkward toreach; for several competitors it wasdifficult to find. Wally Kahn started hisfinal glide to the wrong aerodrom~,

realised it wheo he was down to 1,000Ct.. but managed to get back to 2,000 ft.and then made sure he had the rightplace by asking his fe1l0w competitorson the radio the right sort -of -questionsto which they could answer "affirma­tive". Another pilot found it by merechance. as he landed there withoutknowing where he was!

Nicholas Goodhart, unlike nearlyeveryone else, found no difficulty get­ting to ihame, but later drifted over theFeos, where thermals were "few and farbetween". and be found himself cross­ing the same canal several times CAndyGougb complained of seeing a canalthat wasn't on his map). Nick, throughcaution, started his final glide unneces­sarily high. but nevertheless made secondbest speed.

Gerry Burgess, with a Dart IS, wasthe only Standard Class pilot to reachthe goal. He had missed briefing be­cause. after hearing the B.B.C. forecast,he was convinced there would be notask. so went back to sleep.

Bernard Fitehett; the youngest pilot at20, and flying in Nationals for the firsttime. missed the goal by only a coupleof fields, to the disappointment of thosewatching at Swanton.

John Williamson made a good effortin landing 6 miles short in a machine, theHP-14, whicb be had hardly flownbefore.

When Peter SCOll landed, he found'tbe landowner to be the owner also of

27·1

Leading resultsReached Goal

. GoughGoodhartKahnGarrQdBurgessBurtonInnesStoneRedman

k.p.lt.80.467.866.966.665.862.462.260555.3

km.201.5201.5194_5193'.0

Scoring DistanceFitchett Ka-6E*Donald Ka-6E*D.-Drummond Ka-6E*Williamson Hp·14* Standard Class.

~onday, 22nd ~ay

The warm front which had movedover the country the day before was stillwith us at the 9.30 briefing. The depres­sion west of Northern Ire/and, withassociated fro Ills, was clear of the BrilishIsles. Strong to gale force south-weslerlywinds over Ihe U.K. were indicated.Squally showers wilh a possibility ofthunderstorms, lightning strikes, cu-nims.hail, in facl everything under the sun,were forecasl. Surface willd 210· 22knots, gustillg up 10 30-40 knols.

Afte. this little lot had sunk in.League 2 pilots were pessimisticallyawaiting the fate that might be in storefor them ... Free Distance! This in­deed it was; however, Ann immediatelysaid that she would not send League 2off until cloud base reached 2,000 ft. over

Lasham, and (ldvised pilots to delay rig­ging till 10 a.m. at theearliest-"Theremight be some weather then." League1 was to be re-briefed at noon, but evenbefore this both tasks wer,e cancelled,the only scOres that day being made atthe bridge tables.

The briefing marquee began to getrather wet.

Tuesday, 23rd ~ay

At 9.30 QJn. the depression was fillingand drifting slowly north-eastwards. Un­stable soulh-westerly airflow over Eng­land and Wales, with showers-p4fficu­farly in minor troughs, which were ex­pected 10 swing west-ta-east across thecountry, first reaching Losham by noon.Showers becoming less frequent after15.00. Wind speeds generally less thanon Monday, with a tendellcy to agradual veer in direction from 240" to260°. A slighl possibility of wave activityand slrong broken Ihermals. isolatedthunderstorlns, etc., were forecast.

League 2 was again offered Free Dis-

A film was scheduled 10be taken during the practiceweek on competition flyinfl.Needless to say, this weekwas a complele wash-outtoo, and they rail behindschedule. Here the camerais being fitted to theSkylark 4.

275

lance. but aner first going 170 km. toRearsb." (Leicester). Nick Goodhartwanted to know "which side of theturning-point to pass if you don't knowwhere you're going beyond it?" Theanswer was: "Photograph it:' Gliderswere t:> wait en the grid from 10.30 tillcloud base had risen to 2,000 ft. Then,c:\asperatingly, several times League 2were at the "go" stage when a largeshower would loem up. When the troughdid arriv~. there w~re two of it; then,instead of clearing the air, the secondone was followed by one cu-nim afteranother. each of which the met. manpresumed to be the last.

Finally, pilots becam~ so frustratedthat a ){)t of chit-chat went on over theradio. One announced gaily that he wasflying from Upavon and climbing in acu-nim at 1,000 ft. per min. and didn'tanybody from Lasham want their GoldC. height?! It took some pilots quite awhile before they were convinced thatthis was a practical jo'ke. Another pilotwas heard to demand to be served witha cup of tea in the cockpit. Othersmanaged forty winks therein.

Le3gue 1 had been to briefing after brief­ing during this time, and at one of thesethey had been set a race to Bicester andwould 13ke off immediately after League2 had been launched. Their task was,however, cancelled at 15.30 after someof th.e piJots had already taken mattersinto their own hands and de-rigged.

As for League 2, shortly after onepilot had said "Nobody can aCCuse the

task-setters of not trying", the task wascancelled; the time-16.10. Of course, nosooner was this done than the sun brokethrolLgh and qlLile a number of pilotshad local soaring flights. The latest13mled at about 19.30. feeling a lotbetter after his first opportunity to flyduring the meeting.

The briefing marquee was geltin~

welter and muddier.

Wednesdly. 24th MayRain. AI the second briefing al 10.30.. More rain. At 11.30 ... Rain, rain.

rain.

After all had sung "Happy birthday.dear Wally", Dick Schreder was invitedto t~ll us scmething about the historicAmeri~an Natjonals last year. There,pilots complained of too much flying.Dick averaged approximately 7 hourseach d3y over a nine-day period. Afterhe had ta.lked for some 20 minutes offthe cuff. a lot of pilots must have feltthey would give anything to take up hisinvitation to fly in the AmericanNationals at the end of June.

By now our own Nationals were be­coming historic i:l a different wav.League I had had about 31 to 4t hours'flying. and League 2 none, with 5 daysgone.

Sawdust and sand appeared in largequantities to cover the floor of thebriefing marquee, and small trencheswere dug to drain away the puddles.

Roger Barre/t explaininR the photowophic evidence rules.

276

Thursday, 25th May

"Stop !r.e il you've heard this belore,b:1I tl;ere's a depression." At/er this in­troduction to tile 9.30 met. briefinK, wewere told tllat it had developed a "1V~ve"

which was approachinR CherbourR, and arrouRh stre/chinK northwards Irom therewas crossing tile counlry and could beexpec/ed about noon, when /here was arisk 01 Renera/ rain alld Ireauent showersl4f'fec/iIlR the errreme south 01 Enf,!b!ld.Fur/her /Iorrll, showers had a/readrswr/ed, and /hunders/orms were likelvto brew up 1I0rlh 01 latitude 52'. Cloud­base, at only 1,500 1/. durinR briefingshould lift 10 2,500 1/. m'er southernEl/gland. A sOUlh-wes/erl)' wind wouldblow 25 kno/s at 2,000 1/.. and /herma/5'lVould be modera/e /0 s/rong.

Whatever the weather, the organiserswould have to try to pull somethin.t: outof the hat. If not both Leagues, at leastLeague 2 must be given a task. andwculd have to start as early as possible.

League 2's task was Free Distap.cewith pilot-selected start-first take-off at10.30. X=30 km.• Y=60 km. (remem­ber these figures). League I, to be briefedat 10.30. were to follow immediately afterLeague 2, also on Free: Distance. Afterfive d.ays of no .f1ying, crews had 1;<;­C:lme rat~er lazy abo'ut riggihg. but

now it was all hands on deck to beready and out on the grid in time. Therewas no time to send the "snifters" up.even to check cloud base.

Ken Wilkinson was first off at 10.35.follcwed by Ron Sandford and Chri,Wills at 10.42 and 10.48. This brightperied lasted about half an hour. and thefirst seven take-ofTs were still airborne.However. the next 20 launches or soalmost accompanied their lUgs b:lck toearth. and the landing area was strewnwith .t:liders.

Chris Wills, however, had contacted athermal soon after release and was wellaway into cloud. so he was able toreach better weather to the nonh. Hecarried on in good style till he reachedThe Wash. where he sank rather low.and at this point h:: had to decidewhether to turn north or south. Henearly chose south, but then thought tinta lot of others. who he mistakenlyima.t:ined to be dcing as well as he.would be rn3.k:ing for Norfolk. so hemight do belle I' by .~oing north. H;wingmade this choice. Chris then recognised.seen dimly through ra·in. a sea-breezefront, so he joined it and proceeded tofly up the Lincolnshire coast, sometimesat only 800 ft.. to a landing near Louth.267 km. from Lasham (166 miles). afterfive and a half hours in the air.

But those other imaginary pilots gotncwhere ne3r Norfolk. Only one othercompetitor. Chris Simpson. had m3nagedto get beyond the O~ford region. ALeI' alaunc:) at 11.28 he had many ups anddown; betwe(n extreme limits of 7.500 ft.mlx;mum and 700 ft. minimum. till.north of Thame. he was surpri~ed tocatch an 8-knct thermal which took himto a landing north of Huntingdcn.147.5 km.

Ron Willbie was down near Ab:ngdon(t:4 km.) and Ray Foot a/ Abingdon(59.5 km.). It only needed four pilots(IO per cent) past "Y~ to make th·is acontest day. Bu! however hard thescorers tried to stretch the map andshrink the rulers, no more than 59.5 km.could be measured for Ray. and so.after 6 days, league 2 was still withoutany contest. Nor, of cour~, d.id ChrisWills gain official recognition as the day'swinner, though, if he had been. only100 points would have been allottedhim.

'277

Just before 15.00. League I werelaunched. but only 6 l'i1ots landed out.most of t.hem because they failed toscrape back to Lasham. There were 92contest launches for League 2. and 71for League 1.

The briefing marquee had duck-boardson top of the sand which covered thesawdust. which covered the mud; but themess was greater than ever.

Friday, 26th May

The depression was a little funlleraway 10 Ihe 1I0rth-weSI of /relalld. wilhG/?aill all unstable soulh-westerly. 20-25kllots. blowill/? over Ihe coulltry. Today.however, 110 trouRhs or thullderstormswere expected, bUI a few showers werelikely over the proposed task roules.Over southem Enpl.and ~'ame cirrus wasalso a possibilily, but our ever oplimistic

;m~

Lea/?ue 1 compeli-tors watch A lineBurns selectill/?her lake-off timeon 25th May.

mel. man said it was associaled with ajet stream. not a warm frolll. so did nOIIhillk it would seriously a.fJecl the moder­ale la stron/? broken- thermals he pro­mised 5-6/8 cumulus cloud wilh base at2.000 ft. liftillg 10 3.500 fl. Jaler in theday. with tops to 8,000 11.-12,000 ft .• but110 hiRher Ihan 15,000 ft., would becoverill/? the rOule.

It was Philip Wills's turn to be greetedwith UHappy Birthday dear Chairman".

Task fer League 2: Distance alonga line. N. to Tharne (66 km.), N.E. toTibenham (161.5 km.), then S. of W. toMadley (227.5 km.). Xo;30 km .. Y=60 km. Designated start. On grid 10.15.

Task for League 1: Race to Rearsby,170 km. X=30 km. Y=60 km. Desig­nated start. On grid behind League 2.

The by now somewhat djsjl1usioned

duck boards.

League 2 pilots were thinking in terrosofgetting a good launch time, hoping thata good sh.are of luck would be withthem-to protect them f,r,om too manyshowers early on-hoping also that thetlirning"points would not be hidden bycloud or rain-no Airway problems, andthe thousand and one oth'er thinj!s thatcould happen on a day like this. Gettinground Thame would be a great help, asthe second leg had a good downwindcomponent. On the whole, their fearswere well founded, as many of themcame up against this son of situation.

Launching started at 11.23, and. withthe crosswind and turbulence to co'ntendwith, the first fow pilots told the Directorover the radio that towing was too fastin these gusty conditions. This was soonput right and tug pilots were briefed towatch their speed.

The five pilots who rounded Thamebefl'}re 13.00 did best, as a shower at

12.55 brought a number of others downin quick succession.

Although David Ince (Thame 12.45)sank tG 500 ft, over Aylesbury and againat Henlow, he' reached the fringes ofsome cumulus and, between Bassing­bourn and Cambridge climbed to7,000 ft. After that, however. he flewbetween only 3,000 and 3,500 ft. as faras Tibenham, trying to avoid the .cIagaround the turn-ing-point by keepingnorth: but it was no good and he soonlanded.

Four others who turned Thame im­mediately after the shower between 13.12and 13.45 also got either to Tibenhamor nearby. One of these, Peter Neilson.saw the shower at Thame and hadenough height to hang back there for awhile before turning ,at 13.45. Dan Smithhad the same idea but wa~ lower, so hedid not get away with it but drifteddownwind and Was unable to get back.

Task routes for both Leagues. The free distance tasks on the 26,h and 28th are notshown.

279

League I. with Anne Burns to takeoff first. inaugurated th: l!lunching at12.56. The skY was looking more promis­ing. and only four pilots landed backfOT al'lother launch while the tail endof this League were still on the ground.

Nat every pilot bothered to cross thestart line. as they were loath to leavetheir precious thermals. Nick Goodbarl,the day's eventual winner. went west oftr!lck where there were more sunnypatches. but he very nearly came unstucknear Greenham Commem. Onc.:: he re­covered from thal, however. he had aclimb t::l 12.000 ft. between Didcot andOxford. and on leaving this cloud ondead-reckoning climbed to 15,000 andthen 16,000 ft. He had aimed to be clearand west of the Airway on dearing thecloud, and he pin-pointed himself as 6miles south of Gaydon. Crossing tbe'Airway in VMC. he ran into a snowstorm over Leicester at. 4,000 ft. Despite~"is. he had no difficu.lty in reacbingRearsby. although the sky was bleak .anddevoid of any thermal activity. Nick hadtaken 2 hrs. 15 mins. for the trip.

John WiJliamson. who had entered thesame cloud about '500 oft. above Nick.was not too certain of his dead-reckon­ing and brok.e off his climb at 8,000 ft.Alas, this was not quite enough to get toRearsby, and he landed 26 km. short.Alf Warminger entered Nick's cloud10 minutes later. so only reached 8.000 ft.before its lift petered out.

Mike Garrod patiently worked someweak lift from 600 to 1,800 ft. nearSywell, but this was the last tit-bit hegot and brought him to within 29 km.of the goal.

He was one storm ahead of a gagglewhich had to land at Oakley. This onestorm was worth an extra 427 points.rewarding him with 4th place for theday. instead of equal 30th for the un-

Hugh Mettam and Bill Sheparcl flewstraight over Thame at 13.30 withoutlosing much height. Hugh later made aclimb to 10.000 ft. near' Camlbdge. andarrived with Bill at Tioenham at 15.30,where both landed.

Alan Purnell, who was saved by a lineof showers near Thame. s.layed In goodlift at the ed,ge of -this line. After turningThame he went N.W. so as to cross theA·irway at a higher level. From ·Crardiddto Bedford he had to use weak lift till itincreased to a good 6 knots, taking himto 6.000 ft.. and gaining another 2.000 ft.on his way out. Zig-zagging be:weenBedford and Newmarket. he used variousfront edge. of showers.' and at Tudden·ham was cljmb;ng again at :2 knot;. Hethen staried to hell' static ·i)1te~ference onhis radio and assumed this to be light­ning. Two turns later he saw an actualstrike go straight down t::l grcwnd about2 miles norlh, and a few moments later,another one to the south. Since (le p!ece'of doud under which he WB ci~c'ing

looked exactly like the one frem whic,l1tbe strikes came. he waited tensely forthe next one to strike him, but went onhis way and into his final glide.

Those who had landed out nea'rLasham were now on their second o~third attempts and seve~al could nowchange their zero scores into a fewpoints. There were 65 launches forLeague 2.

DI'scussillR the previous day's evelltsbefore briefing. L. 10 R.: Rika Harwood

Nick Goodhart. Peter Seoll. '

280

JonesCarrIneeNeiIsonMcttamShepardScallon

Leading results

SHKSkylark 4Ka-6ESkylark 3DSkylark 3DSkylark 3FSkylark 4

244.0224.0211.5205.0197.5197.5197.5

82.5 km/h116km.*114 ..I11110 ..11092 .,89 ,.

GoodhartStoneWilliamscnGarrodDonaldWarmingerSeot!

tea he found Andy sitting again. in thevery same field. It's a small world!

John Delafield, having 1anded I mileN.t. of Benson. was luckier with hisrelight at 16,29; he climbed to 6.000 ft.nor.th of Basinlistoke and then to I 1.000it. and so doubled his distance almostexactly by landing near Towcester. Thushe was placed equal I1 th for the day.instead of 39th.

After it relight at 17.31, and still tryingto get away at around J8.00, JohnFielden climbed to 7.000 ft. near Alton.From there he reached Benson-2.5 km.better off than on his first effort. It allcounts!

Anne Bums had her last climb at Ben­son to 9,000 ft. and landed near ChippingWarden. As she so rightly said. "Onehad to do the best one could on a daylike this."

League I had 48 contest laullches.Gumboots were now ali the rage-the

briefing marquee was even muddier in­"Side than out.

Leading FesultsDOlrt 17SHKHP·14Dart 17Dart 17RDart I7RDart 17RDart l7R

* secring distance.

· .. muddier inside than Qut.

fortunate Oak!ey people. It just goes toshow!

Being east of track to dodge cu-nims.Peter Seot! found himself looking at thepointing of the brickworks chimneys nearBedford for almost 20 minutes. He wasfinally rewarded with a climb to 4.000 it.for stal1ing his final glide.

Mike Fairman landed in the samefield as Andy Gough. The latter wasjust leaving to hurry back to Lashamfor a relight. Mike, howeve'r. thought hewould call it a clay and went to a nearbycafe for tea. To his utter surprise. after

Dick Schreder andhis wife A "!lie

with lhl' HP-14.

281

Saturday, 27th May

CdoI.tr,*,:"I'G~M"--}-.tJI\.;(

~l~1.i~~

A depression (what, aRain?), with as­sociated low cloud and rain. was movin!!up Ihe C/rannel. and Ihe expeclOlion inl/re morninR w,as t/rat it would reach theThames estuary by eveninR. thus push·in!! the wind round from SE ~'ia E. NEand N to finish liP NW.

Ann Welch, hardly recognisable ingumboots, long plastic mackintosh andsou'wester, opened and closed the briefin~

in record time. promising another brief­ing for League 2 at 14.00, and League Icould at least go and find shelter fromthe eternal rain.

But at 13.00 a watery sun appearedand bits of clear sky as well, while adark mass of clouds to the east wasmoving away, not approaching. and thesurface wind was south, not north.

The depression had, in fact, changedcourse and its centre was moving north·ward to the Midlands.

League 2 brightened up like theweather and started rigging in caSe theyhad to go off in a hurry.

At the 14.00 briefing, weak to moder­ate ragged thermats in a 200'! I ~-20knot wind were promised. but cloud-basewould remain low. Anyone finding itbelow 2,000 ft. on their launch. Annsaid, must release without waiting to besignalled off. Pilot-selected launchescould start at r4.4~, and actually startedat 14.~ 1. Soon small gaggles were floating

282

around the sky, which in fact had aquite variable cloudbase between 1,600and 1,900 ft.

The task-Free Distance, X=25 km.,Y =50 km. Designated sta~t.

There was, however, some lift about,and as long as one could stay with itand take the risk of landing out a coupleof miles away, there was a chance. Thisctrance, when it came, was taken by 25pilots; some did so early on. and othersfrom their relights. The relights on thewhole did better by landing in the Ox­ford area, whereas the earlier startersdid not go so far.

Rika Ha~ood. who had an agonisingtime recovering from an embarrassinglylow height, was joined by David Ince alittle later, but the thermal petered outand they had to resort to "hillock"soaring near Streatley. The hillock couldhardly hold a Skylark and a Ka-6. soRika landed. For the next 30 minutesshe watched David scraping along thistiny hill, hardly more than 100 ft. overthe ground. If anyone deserved to get upagain and away, it was surely David,but he eveptuaUy joined Rika on theground.

The maximum points for the day, 190(6 pilots had passed Y), were shared by16 pilots. League 2 had at least hadanother contest day, though it took 88launches to do so.

Oh joy, we now had straw to coverthe duckboards, the sa.nd, and the saw''dust, so the muddy floor of the briefingmarQuee was decently buried at last.

Sunday. 28th May

Some areas of widespread thunderyrain were eXpt!cted to move NNE, leav­ing the task area in a ref!ion of strl1to-cuinitially, followed by some showers fal/­ing from an unstable laye; of alto-cu.Cumulus and cu-nims with violent thun­derstorms were on the cards to form bylate morning; these might possibly be­come organised into trollgh lines duringthe afternoon. Also patches of lowstratus could afJect hi!!h ground and

Leading resultsWilkinsoo. K.WiJlbieSnodgrassJeffersonEllis

(scorin!! kms.)Skylark 3D 40.0Skylark 4 39.5Skylark 4 38.5Skylark 3a 38.0Skylark 3 36.0

coasts in the extreme SW. Surface wind.variable but mainly 180" 112 knots, gust­ing to 25-30 knots. was forecast. withmoderate to strong widely-spaced ther­mals.

No one relis.hed this forecast! It wasto have been Cat's Cradle day. EachLeague was given 5 turning-points whichpilots could take in any order. and re­peatedly if they liked. 50 long as theylanded within the polygon enclosed bythese points and did not return directlyto the point they had last left.

League I had a larger polygon thanLeague 2.

Once more the weather spoilt it all.The forecast ligJ'lt wind soon gave wayto a strong blast from the south. so ithad to be downwind tasks agai~Free

Distance for both Leagues. X=30. y=60 km. Designated start. Last launch18.00.

Not until 14.50 did League 1 startlaunChing. The necessary relights werefitted into every 6th place in the (}therLeague. so it was not until 16.97 thatthe last pilot in League 2 had his firstlaunch.

It was obviously important to tryand stay airb.orne at the beginning asthe lime available was rather short ifone had to allow for short retrieves andrelights. This did not affect League 1 asmuch as League 2 with 1heir later start.

The middle of the flying period waseasier than the two ends. according toTony Deane-Drummond. and FranktrYing agreed that things picked up at17-17.30 hours due to high cloud clearingaway. Tony landed at 19.15 and thought

Great inlerest was shownin the Diamant. Rene Comte

explains some details ofthe tail-unit to Nick

Goodharr (/lid otherbystallders.

283

The scene witll typical cloudscape .011 Tuesday, 23fd May, when pilots were on thegrid for (> hours befor,e the task was cancelled.

he cauld have kept airborne till 19.30:but a strll later landing was by PeterDawson, who grounded at 20.0:1 hrs. atPeterborough after a final glide from3,200 ft. over Bedford.

George Burton, the eventual winner.started cautiously after a launch at15.02. Humphry Dimock, whom h<: ioinedat Abingdon, circling at 1,600 ft.. de­parted westwards from there, but Georgethought Oxford to the north would givebetter prospects. He soon found a work­able c1aud which took him to 6,000 ft.This S3.W him nicely rou;ld Bicester.where he met Wally Kahn, Who hadtaken off 12 mins. after him. Georgethen made a series of small climb3 ·incloud to 4,500 ft. This enahled him totraverse the Airway swiftly just belowits base. At Northampton he heardNick ever the radio, giving his positionas Bedford, weB to the east, but condi­tions north still looked more promisinJ!.and furthermore Leicester Airport (whoalso use 129.9 frequency) were givingthe wind as due south, 7 kts. He there­fore continued north. By the time heWas four miles south of Botlesford' hewas down to 700 it .. but the ground fallssleeply at this point and he managed 10cornact a wind-shadow thermal in thenick of time. strong enough to take himback to a shallow cloud with a base ashigh as 4,000 ft.

At Newark, with time getting on. oplvweak thermals between 1,000 and 1.200ft. could be made use of; so with a

2'84

final effort he scraped back to 1,200 ft..and from this height made his fi.1al glideto west of Scunthorpe. Far to the NWhe could see the cu-nims bui!dil'g overthe Pennines. J-Ie had net encounte;edany on the way.

Bernard Fitchett (take-off 15.03). afterReady landing at Ba!iingstoke. used avery weak thermal to keep going. Hefound that after Ox.fcrd conditions im.­proved considerably. and he was ableD use cloud streets- from: Oxford toNorthampton al a grcund speed of aboutSO m.p.h. The Corby steelworks C:lmeto his aid with a goed thermal to cloud­base (he did not do any cloud flying this'day) for the last time. At Grantham hecaught up with the high cover which hadpassed through earlier in ,the day, so hetl"ied to go more westerly where' thecover was less intense, The gaps ·betweenthe elol\d streets were, however. toolarge, so instead he used a very weakclotlo street stretching from Cranwellinto fle "murk". gliding abo'ut 30 milesfrom 2,600 ft. The pilots who had gonein a mo,e north-easterly direction allgot -caught by the high COver earlier on.

Rocky Stone, on his second attempt(take-off 17.15), had to land near Henley.On the approach he hit a tree and he waslucky to suffer only a broken ankle,cuts and bruises, but the glider wasbadly damaged. Until today he hadbeen lying in second place overall. butnow he was out of the running andlying in hospital.

Landin~ positions on 28th May.

(scori/l~ kms.)Dan 17R 233.0Ka-6E* 217.5Dart 17 214.0Dart 17R 206.0SHK 203.5Dart 17R 200'.5Ka-.6E* 200.0

(scorin.1l kms.)187.5

=167.0=167.0

152.0151.5145.0143.5

Monday, 29th May

landing. other than back at Lasham.meant no chance of a relight beforeclosing time. Consequently. whereasLeague 1 had 58 launches. League 2had only 44. and of those two pilols­Ted Stark on his third launch (16.45)and Dan SmIth on his serond (1726)­alone managed to scor.e off relights.

Leading resultsGreaves Dart 17RGoldney Olympia 419Lane Dart 17RFoot Skylark 3FCamp Dart 17RWheeler Ka-6E*Ellis SkyIa,rk 3* Standard Class

In League I:7 pilots flew over 200 kms.

17 pilots flew over 1'00 kms.In League 2.:

16 pilots flew o·ver 100 kms.8 pilots flew over 60 kms.6 pilots did nol score and I pilot did

not fly.

Leading resultsBunonFitchettGarrodCarrowBurnsDonaldDelafield• Standard Class

.League 2 started launching at 15.28wllh the additional handicap of a latestart. All deJ'ended on prompt thermalc.ontact on the first launch and slifficient!1ft to get far enough to score. An early

235

A hiRh-pressure rWRe should be Qverthe country by noon. DurinJt the morninRan: un.stable air mass with scatteredshowers would cross Lasham. The airwould then stabilise as pressure rose,and showers would become more scat­tered and thunderstorms unlikely. Goodstrong thermals, and large flat areas nearshowers. were the day's recipe. Wind at2,000 ft .• 2:50· /18 kt.

Instead of a short task to get everyoneback for prizegiving, full-sized taskswere set for both Leagues to make Ill>for all the loss of fiying time ipfli.cted ~m

them by the bad weather dunng theChampionships. So the main prizegivingwas postponed to a future evening atthe Kronfeld Club.

However, the winners of all but thelast of the Daily Prizes were known, so­these were duly presented by our Vice­President. Air Chief Marshal Sir Theo­dore McEvoy. There were, of course.only three in each League so far­League I: Andy Gough, Nicholas Good­hart, George Bcurton; League 2: RalphJones, Ken Wilkinson. Colin Greaves. Inaddition, Chris Wills received a specialprize for his magnificent flight on the25th, which would have won him anofficial Daily Prize if only someone elsehad flown 500 yards further..

Prizes to the three meteorologists con­sisted of "a different kind of liquid",with more taste to i$ than the one theyhad so lavishly provided for us.

Roger Barrett introduced Mr. JohnWare, who represented the only twoWillses who cause no confusion in theRating List-W. D. and H. O. His firmha<l already offered two Swallows andfour barographs for competit40n. andscholarships for training instructors. andMr. Ware carried on the good work byhanding P. A. Wills an envelope. thecontents of which "would not bounce".(Cheers.)

After Philil'l Wills had thanked thetug pilots, the wives. Harold Drew andall the others who had helped in pre­paring and running the Championships.Ann gave the tasks:

League I: a 200-km. triangle viaBicester and South Marston.

League 2: Cat's Cradle. for whichsuitable weather had at last arriv~;

League 2 had to be ,ready to start onCat's Cradle by 10.45. Their turning­points (Of corners of the polygon) wereLasham. Bieester. Broadway Tower.Keynsham and Andover; total perimeter307 km. X=3Q km.. Y=60 km.

By the time launching began at 11.06.showers could be seen building up in thedropping zone, and it was not longbefore pilots had to pull off between

All photograp-hs used in this article are by "Flight International", A. E. Slater,Peter Smith, Charles, Lagus, and P. H. Guest.

286

£44 9s. 6d.(U.K. Import Duty, Packing and Post paid)

THERMAL EQUIPMENT lTO158b Acre Road.

Kingston-upon-Thames, SurreyTelephone: Kingston 1261

"WINTER" Barographs1-:- .._- -:---~-- --,

League I (X;30 km., Y=60 km.,designated start) had w,,:tched Le~gue 2'slaunching "successes" WIth great mterest.Now it was their turn, Peter Hannemanbeing first off at 12.42. Only four relightsWere taken. Pilots tended to gaggle moreas they caught up the storms and showersin the Oxford area. The radio workedovertime as pilots went into cloud, callingtheir heights ;IS they climbed, althoughnot all could do so as some were on anRAF frequency. Others found it toodicey and did not go in.

George Burton was the first to turn atBicester at 14.03, 6 minutes ahead ofJohn WiIliamson and 8 minutes in frontof the main gaggle. They were climbingjust under and into a very large cloudnear Oxford.

Then came an "iDcideJ;lt". PaddyKearon in an SHK and Tony Deane­Drummond ~na Ka-6e collided insidecloud at 8,000 fe As it happened, Paddy'sfrequency was being monitored and tapedat the time at Lasham, while Tony's endof the story could be heard on 129.9m/cs.

The tape reads as follows:"I have been struck in cloud, Whacko"

287

(sc.orinR kms.)340.0294.5

=255.0=255.0

224.0232.0243.5

resultsSHKSkylark 3FSkylark 4Dart 17ROlympia 463Olympia 419Dart 17R

1.600 and 1,900 fl. to stay out of clo~d.Some managed to get away by /lymgright at the edges of the showers; otherscame flockinl! down to earth. By 11.41the 41 League 2 gliders had. beenlaunched and 26 were down. agam. Acu-nim stopped play for 40 mlns., so tominimise the time interval ·between firstand last launch, the remainder of Lea~ue2 continued streaming instead ofbemginserted in every 6th place among LeagueI.

Leigh Hood (take-off 11.29) startedwell with a climb to 15,000 fe nearBasingstoke. He had intended to go toAndover first but changed his mind togo to Broadway (108.5 km.). Icing washeavy. but as the day wore on. he hadto go high to cross the gaps and dodgethe storms. He climbed to over Gold Cheight four times.

Ralph Jones (take-off 11.35), who wonthe day with 370 km. and landed at17.40 at Basingstoke, commented laterthat he was lucky in being able to turnnorth in an area of sky where otherpilots were falling down; thus,. in hisopinion, an element of luck was mvolvedin a Cat's Cradle (but was It luck?).

Charles Dorman (take-off 12.26), whohad gone. to Bicester, then to ~road~ayTower. could not find the turnmg-pomt,so he back-tracked a little and made forKeynsham instead. This was almost intowind, but he managed to contact -theedge of a large line of showers and flewstraight and level for 15 miles or so, asfar as Nympsfield. From there he hadno trouble to get to Keynsham, thenback again downwind-this time to landnear Cheltenham. The potato field causedlittle damage, but it ~ook him sometime to get the mud out of the nose­pitot!

It is interesting to note that 7 of thefirst 10 places for the day had beenlaunched before 12.00 and were firstlaunches. There Were 78 launches forLeague 2.

LeadingJonesHoodCarrLaneDormanWilkinsonGreav~

(Paddy's call sign) "has been struck."Pal:lse. Andy Gough to Paddy: "By an­other aircraft?" Paddy: "I don't know-I have seen nothing; all I know is, 1have been struck, perhaps by a bird. butit seemed too heavy for that." Pause."I sti'll have control, 1 think, but aircraftis vibrating. I am straightening up tocome out of cloud." Pause. "I am out ofcloud; there is a large dent in the uppersurface and -leading edge of my starboardwing." Andy to Paddy: "How far outis the damage?" Paddy: "About two­thirds of way out. The wing is st.jj\ on."Pause. Paddy: "Is there an easy wayout of the SHK in case the wing comesoff?" Andy: "The main thing is to getyour legs from underneath the instru­ment panel." Another pilot to Paddy:"Be careful, when you jettison the

canopy. that the drag on your 'chutedoes not pin you in your seat. Suggestyou jettison canopy while you still havecontrol." Paddy: "I have slackenedstraps and can now see that the undersurface of my wing is also cut to abouthalfway back; it gives the impressionthat it is waggling." Another pilot toPaddy: "Keep your speed low." Yetanother pilot said: "Ori no account openyour divebrakes" (This was probablythe best advice he could have had.) Andyto Paddy: "You must abandon taskand land at Bjcester." Paddy: "I don'tlike having to do that." Andy: "It mightsave your bloody life; we can alwaysget another SHK-but not another PaddyKearon." Pause. Paddy: "I didn't knowyou cared, Andy."

A sale landing was made by Paddy atBicester, and shortly afterwa·rds he tookoff again in a Ka-6 belonging to Bicesterto be towed back to Lasham, where hereleased at 16.55 in the dropping zoneto do the task all over again! An hourlater he had to land at ... Bicester!

Tony Deane-Drummond had hearda loud bang and at first thought it mighthave been lightning. He had stra~ghtened

up a few seconds before. David Carrowasked him if he could see damage. butTony said he could liot see as it wasdark. and had to wait until he was dearof cloud. The glider was under controlalthough (clear of cloud now) he couldsee some 3-4 ft. of his wingtiJ) mis~ing.

. He nevertheless decided to continue thetask and turned at Bicester at 14.15.Later in the flight he made another

... Paddy KearQII illhis SHK.

J Deane-Drummol!d's •glider after landing a/

South Mars/on.

288

Minutes181.5212.4215.22J7.1219.5236.7243.0246.5302.3

climb-to 14,000 ft~ but still had toland at South Marston with five otherpilots. They had all stood off. to thenorth to aVQid a larg,e storm. but theair waseompletely dead after this storm.Tony will now never know if he couldhave turned South Marston with a full·span wing.

Later, Tony, a Major-General. com­mented to Paddy, an Air Commodore,that he th0ught it was carrying lnter·Service rivalry too far.

George Burton, who had climbed to9,000 ft. over Blenheim Palac;e. withPeter Scott followin.g him in the cloud500 ft. below, decided then to keepnorth of the eu-nims. Then fr(lm Fair­ford he could see wet runways at SouthMarston. On hearing that David Carrow.Wally Kahn and others were going towait north of South Marston to let thestorm go through, George decided togo through the storm and get cn. withit. He turned South Marston at 2,500 f,t­just after tne storm. and pressed on forhigher ground near Lamboum. Nowdown to 700 ft., he was confident offinding lift as the condttions lookednormal again. He was soon at 4,000 ft.and had no more trouble '10 Lasham.Peter &011 hit one of the storms andhad heavy icing, which, with heavy rain,brought him quickly down.

John Williamson gained 35 minuteson George Burton by climbing, to 14,000ft. on the second leg. and so could turnSouth Marston before the storm.

Nick Goodhart had seen a lot ,of light­ning around Brize Norton after comingOllt of a cloud at 12,000 ft. He lostheight to 5,500 ft. at Fairford. He turnedSouth Marston, got low over Membury.and from there had a difficult time toLasham. With 6 miles to go he hit sinkand was down to 600 it. al 4 miles oJ,l1.Then he oit rising air. and without circ­ling, flying at 55 knots, got back to800 ft. with 2} miles to go--enough tosee him across the finish li,ne.

Anne Burns also had plentY oftroubles on this trip. Water in the I'itothad frozen, her instruments failed. andlightning stfllu;k through her foot. Rathershaken, she pressed on. found the finalleg hard work with no obvious thermalSour1:e to go for. 'but made Lasham<>fter all.

The excitement of the day was still nol

quite over. Alf Warminger. who wasmaking a long final glide and stjJ.! un­sure of 'I'eal:hing Lasham. flew the lastfew miles as if he was sitting on CgJ!S.,

haJcdly daring, to move. He martage.;! it,but too low to put his undercarriagedo,wn, nearly one hour after the othershad got there. A very fitt,jng end to the1967 Nationals.

Leading resultsWilliamson HP-14Goo<lhart Dart 17Schreder HP-14Gough SHKlnnes SHI<.Burton Dart 17RHanneman Ka-6*A. Burns SHKWarlllinger Dart 17R

It is conceivable that, had the 83 pii~tsbeen at Lasham during this period fora holidaY. very .few. if any, would havebothered to rig and fly on any day exceptperhaps locally on the last ,one. 'TheDirectors, however, compelled them tofly and so succeeded in getting five daysof /lying, four of them Contest Days.

"Frankly I'm do;!! tyred of theseChampionships."

289

'"8 NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS 'RESULTS 20th to 29th MAY., 1967LEAGUE 1

Fioal Plaee Comp. Cootest 'Dale. Daily plaee io broekel•• followed TolalOpeD StaDdud Pilot No. Sailplane by daily Sl. Cl. placing where applicable poiots

2111 26th 281h 29th

I. H. C. N. Ooodhart (; Dart 17 936 (2) 1000 (I) 852 (10&) 946 (2) 37:142. O. E. Burton 367 Dart 1711 912 (6=) 4~7 (10) 1000 (I) 918 (5) 32873. D. S. Innes 432 SHK 912(6=) ~OO (8) 809 (I~) 931 (4) 31~8

4. A. W. Gough 25 SHK 1000 U> 15406=) 831 (12) 940 0) 2931S. M. P. Oarrod 261 Dart 17 931 (4) 63~ (4) 9180) 421 (20=) 290~

6. Anne Burns 19 SHK 677 (18) 413' (IS) 872 (~) 90S l7) 28807. I. P. Hanneman 278 Ka-6Mol 707 (17/5) 437 <13/2) 618 (21/7) 912 (6/1) 26748. C. C. Donald 140 Dart 1711 749 (11) 629 (5) 859 (6 =) 418-(22) 26559. 2. J. Delafield 372 Ka-6E 738 (14/4) 449 (11 = /l) 859(6=/2) 537 (9/2) 2583

10. J. S. WiIliamson 515 Hp·14 740 (13) 651 (3) 118 PS) 1000 (I) 2SOIJ11. l. A. J. Deane·Drummond- 454 Ka-6E 746 (12/3) 397 (16/3) 854 8 = /3 =) 491 (10= IJ =) 248812. D. D. Carrow 20 Dart 1711 71' (6) 303 (21 =) 884 (4) 491 (l0=~ 2393n. 4. B. Fitchett 390 Ka-6E 772 (10/2) 217 (29/7) 934 (2/1) 428 (19/8 235114. W. A. H. Kahll 4 Dart 1711 932 (J) 20800 =) 702 (18) 491(10=) 2333IS. P. M. Soott 477 lDart 1711 569 (20) S08 (7) 734 (16) 421 (20=) 223216. H. R. Dimock 366 lDart 1711 550 (21) 208 (30=) 831 (14) 491 (10=) 208011. A. H. Warminger 44 Dart 1711 247 (27) SH(I» 425.(25) 872 (8) 201>918. S. P.Oowson 345 Ka-6c1l 590 l'9/6) 368 (18/4) 545 (24/8) 346 (28= /9=) 184919. 6. P. G. Burgess 404 Dart 15 927 5/1) 292 m= /6) 105 (36/11) 491 (10=/3=) 181520. 7. R. A. E. Ounn 264. Ka·tiE 406 (22/7) 177 (34/9) 854(8= /3=) 30504/12) 174221. 8. J. S. Fielden 200 Dart 15 I 393 (23/8) 103 (39= /11) 833 (IJ/S) 328 (31/11) 1657:no A. J. Stone 336 SHK 90S (8) 663 (2) 56(9) - - 162423. J. Cardiff 272 Dart 1711 719 (IS) 480 (9) 133 (4) 251 (8) !S8324. J. D. Spotliswood 86 Olympia 419 171 (28) 449 (11 =) 636 (20) 237 (39=) 149425. S. J. Redmon 427 SHK 884 (9) 237 (27) 0(41) 363 (26) 148426. R. A. Neaves 197 Skylark 4 157 (29) 169 (35) 852(10=) 27005= ) 144827. J. D. Jones 409 Dart 1711 SO OS) 292 (23 =) 713 (17) 388 (25) 144J28. M. J. Smith 436 Dart 1711 III (31) 228 (28) 616 (22) 358 (27) 131J29. 9. I. W. Strachan 263 Ka·6E 11 (36/11) 186 (33/8) 657 (19/6) 431 (18/7) 129130. O. B. James 470 Dart 1711 374 (25) )88 ~17l 191 (29) 337 (0) 129031. N. W. Kearon 27 SHK 376 (24) 106 38) 567 (23) 237 (39 =) 128632. P. A. Will. I Dart 171l 278 (26) 431 (14) 24 (40) 439 (16=) 117233. 10. C. W. Bentson !S Ka-6E 77 (34/10) 309 (20/5) 279 (27 /9) 439 (16= /6) 110434. M. !;lird 68 Darl171l 103 (33) 292 (23=) ISS (30=) 409 (23) 95935. E. J. Meddings 80 Olympia 419 107 (32) 303(11=) 9407) 393.(24) 89736. E. G. Shephard 58 Dart 17 I 0 208 pOa) 304 (26) 307 (32=) 81937. E. Jerzycki 966 Dart 171l 0 323 19) 155 (30=) 27005=) 74838. 11. C. Pennycuick 125 Ka·6c1l 142 (30/9) 3 (41/12) 13903/10) 461 (15/5) 74539. G. T. Collins 171 Olympia 419 0 252 (26) 146 (32) 270 (35=) 66840. S. F. E. Will. 121 Dart 171l 13 (37) 103 (39=) 215 (28) 307 (32=) 63841. 12. M. C. Fairman 177 Foka 4 0 154 (36= /10) 77 (38/12) 347(28=/9=) 577Hors Coo<oonBelow 17 R. E. Schreder (U.S.A.) 514 HP·14 0 208 (30=) 717 (b. 16) 942 (b.2) 1867

I

~..

LEAGUE 2

Final Pia" H'cap ,I Pilol(I)' Comp. Conte.' O"te. Daily pia•• In braeket. To.alOptll Sld. % II No. Sailplane 26tb 17th 28.11 29th point.

I. 95 R, Jones 90 SHK 1000 (I) 0 778 (8)1

1000(I)

277~2. 95' P. 0, Lane 349 Dart !7R 830 (8) () 893 (3) 750 (4) 24733; 100 V,C, Carr 438 Skylark 4 966 (2) 55 (14) 539 (18) 790 (3) 23504. I. 100 D. H. G. Inee 75 Ka-6E 912 (J)88 (I"" 669 (12) 1 453 (16) 21225. 95 C. M. Greaves 24 Dart '17ft 287 (13) 0 1000 (I) 715 (7) 20026.= 100 F. 0, Cretney{ 87 Olympia 419 lOO (8) 707 (10) 1680N, Wilkinson t55 (27 =) I 718 (6)6,= 100 L. S, Hood 52 Skylark 3F liD (36) III (1) 548 (17) 911 (2) 16808, 100 D. S, Seallon 32~ Skylark 4 852 (5 =) 0 640 <D=) 180 (2) 16729. 100 F. W. L. Shepard 190 Skylark of 852 (5 =) 0 315, (25) 467 (l3j 163410. 100 C. A. P. Ell" 9 Skylark 3

I155 l27 =)

I

171 (5) 807 (7') 420 (21 =) 1553U. 100 P. J. Neilson 101 Skylark 3D 884 4) 0 228 (30) 430!'9=) 154212. 100 R, A. Foot 150 Skylark 3F 194 (23) 0 854 (4) 477 12) , 1525B. 100 G. Barrell 16 Skylark 4 228 (17) 135 (6) 681(ll) 441 (18) 149114. lOO A. D. Pumell! 411 Skyla,rk 4 728 (10) 303 (26) 1490D. C. Kerridge 0 459 (15)15. 2. WO N, W, Smith 355 Ka-6cR 155 m=) 0 770 ~9) 563 (10) 148816. 3. lOO J. H. Wheeler 43] Ka-6E 202 (18=) 0 807 6=) 464 (14) 141317. lOO H. S. Meuam 160 Skylark 3F 852 (5=) 0 82 (34) 446 (17) 138018. 4. 100 0, M. R. Ridd'ell 173 foka .. 508 (11) 12 (I') 393 (20) 420 (21=) 133319. 95 G. W. Camp 92 Dart 17R 265 (14) (> 826 (5) 209 (31) 130020. 100 A. W. Doughty 91 Skylark 3F 200 (22) 0 640 (13=) '15 (23) 125521. lOO R, Rutherford 41 S·k)'lark 4 181 (26) 0 366 (22) 689 (8) 123622. 100 L. P. Goldney! 72 Olympia 419 131 (35) 9)8 (2) 1227

J. Evans Q 158 (34=)23. lOO R. T. WiUbie 368 Skylark 4 202(18=) 188 (2) 595{15) 152 (36) 113724. 95 J. C. Riddell 95 Dart 17R 808 (9) 9 (16) 0 JI6 (28) 113325, 95 C. R. Simpson 109 Dar! 17R 147 '(31 =) 88 (1'1=) 236 (29) 513 (9) 104~26. 100 K. G, Wilkinsoll 445 Skylark 3F 192 (24=) 190 (I) 582 (16) 77 (40) 104121. 5. 105 C. G. Dorman 12 Olympia 463 242 (15=) 0 - - 727 (5) 96928. 95 R. A. Sandford 257 Dart 17R I 192 ~24=) 0 299 (2,) 430(19=) 92129. 100 D. C. Snod/Uas< 189 Skylark 4 147 31 =) 1830) 424 (19) 1:!l804=) 91230. 100 G, S. 'Neumann 317 Skyiark 3!

202 (18=) 95 (9=) 354 (23) 163 (33) 111431. 100 I. Paul 2 Skylark 4 242 U5=) 0 212(1) 352 (27) 80632. 100 D. A. Smith 42 Skylark 3D 18 (38) 0 259 (28} 354 (26) 691n. 6. 100 C. Wills 211 Ka-6cR 319 (12) 0 0 368 (25) 68134. 95 F. G, Irvinll 466 Dar! 17R 141 (ll =) (l 388 (21) .101 (38) 64235, 100 J. B. Jetrerson 37 Skylark 3D 136 (34) .180 (4) 183 (32) HI (J1) 61036. 1. 100 E. Slark 451 Ka·6cR 20208=) (l 169 (33) 234 (30) 60531. 8. lOO K. R. Aldrid&e I 51 Std. Austria 108 ()~ 0 0 49401) 602~8. 100 Rika Harwood 65 Skylark 3D 155 (2=) 88 (H =) 0 211 (29) 520,9. 9, 105 M. P. Seth-Smith UI Olympia 460 0(40=) 95 (9=) 0 318 (24) 47340. lOO V. TulJ 415 Skylark 3F 6 (39) (l 351 (24) 102 (39) 459Hort €ODcoors

/1Below 40 115 J. Everitt and others Capstan 0(40=) o(b. (0) 0 124 (b.36) 124

D·.URING. a recent visit. to West GeT­many 1l proved possible to call m

on Martin Schempp at Kircheim-Teckand spend balf a day going round hisfactory and ma'king a detailed examina­tion of the Cirrus.

The second prototype. which has aconventional tail, was almost completeand has since flown. On 8th J,une theCirrus, order book ran to 34 aircraft and,incidentally, 58 SHK's have been sold.Cirrus production, just starting, is ex­pected to rise la three aircraft per monthby 1968. It will be flown by Rolf Kunzfor Germany in next year's WorldChampionships and in addition it willprobably be flown by Swiss, Italian,American ,and Canadian pilots. SignorOrsi, of Varese, Italy, is buying the firsttwo prototypes..

The Cirrus made its eom~titjon de,butat this year's principal contest in Ger­many from 29th April-7th May. It wasflown by its designer, Klaus Holighau5.That the contest was won by RudiLindner flying a special 17-metre Phoe­bus. and that Holighaus, with relativelylittle experience on the Cirrus. cameequal 2nd. is perhal's some measure of itsfuture potential. On the 14th June Holig­haus failed to complete the 500-km. trioan.gle. by 10 km.-at.l:44 it hardly bearsthmkmg about. Which leads one on tothe design philosophy-the thick wingoffers high aspect ratio combined withlow structural weight. which in t'urnresults in excellent climbjng perfor­mance. Indeed, HoIigbaus claims that hefound it so good that he flew through­out the contest with 100-140 Ibs. ofwater ballast, which he did not find

292

necessary to jettison even late in the day.On a theoretical basis the cross­

country cruising speed of the Cirrus isshown to be bette.r than the BS-l forachieved rates of climb of up to 3 m.lsc;c.In practice it seems about equal to theBS-I on the glide at about 140 km./h.­better below this speed and worse above.Finarty there is the point that, with noflaps to adjust, it is impossible for thepilot to throwaway performance as aresult of continual small errors in speed Iflap relationship. Measured rate of rollthrough 90° at 1.4 Vs appears to bebetween 4 to 4J,- s.e.conds.

The Cirws is the third 'German plas­tic sailplane to 'go into quantity prOduc­lion, the first two being the Phoebus(manufactured by Bolkow) and theLibelle (manufactured by Glasflugel)-­although. Schempp-Hirth built the 'firsttwo Libetle prototypes. Cirrus, however.is unique in using a rigid foam plasticas a sandwich filler between inner andouter layers of glass-fibre instead of themore usual balsa plank construction,whicb is also used on the AS-12 andmany of the Akaflieg specials.

In point of fact, the first prototypewas built using balsa because this wastne only reasonable way to produce afirst-off and to achieve a master for themanufacturing of production tooling.

Ghss-fibre moulds are subsequentlyproduced by "casting" them on to proto­type wings and fuselage. MaTtinSchempp admits that tooling (;ost is highcompared with wooden aircraft manu­facture;. but he is aiming to break evenwith 100 Cirrus, and for quantities inexcess of this figure he believes that

plastic' sailplanes are highly competitive.He is sati1ified that ten years of Germanexperien.ce with plastic structur,es hasdemonstrated their integrity and fati,guelife-he believes that some early failureswere due to lack of understanding andadequate quality con.trol, particularly inthe curing process-in short, that the dayof plastic structures has arrived. In termsof static strength the Cirrus wing hasbeen loaded to the equivalent of nearly15 g. without any plastic failure, and itis claimed that there is no loss of mech­anical properties up to 60·C.

The aircraft itself is perhaps not quitesO elegant as the SHK-although this islargely a matter of opinion, but the firstthing that really strikes one is thesensible, comfortable and roomy cock·pit and the excellent all-round yiew. Itwas interesting to discover that theCirrus canopies are made in Switzerland,as a're those of the AS-12; and that theoptical qualities are equally outstanding.

Internally, many SHK features suchas in-flight rudder pedal adjustment. air­brake. j)arachute and undercarriage re­traction controls were in evidence. By acunning roller-blind arrangement it ispo~ible to adjust the tension cf thecanvas seat-back in addition to varyingits angle. One gained the impression,however, that with a reasonable ,thick­ness of seat cushion headroom might besomewhat limited. In view of the other­wise gCflerolls amoullt of space in thecockpit. this would b: a pitv. Otherfeatures in,e1ude: a nose air intake forcockpit ventilation which. surprisingly,incorporated an open forward-facingpitot tube and static vents On each sideof the cockpit close to the instrl,lmentpanel. Immediately to the rellr of thecockpit is a welded steel tube structurewhich carries the single retractablewheel and the wing mounting pick·uppoint.

Rigging is undoubtedly better than theSHK-although the manufacturers claimthat this can be done easily with onlythree people, ~t may he open to doubt.However. there is only one loose com­p~nent involved in rigging the wholealrcraft~th"e main wing pin.!

The tailplane attachment is particu­larly neat; it slides into a slot in the fin,engaging three spigots in the process,and w:,en 'fully home locks automati-

cally: in position. Locking is indicated bymeans of a short external wire rodmoving in a slot. This lock is also themeans of unlocking the tailplane whende - rigging. Elevator connections areautomatic.

The tailplilne is thin and features asm~1I elevator of only 30% chord, simi­lar to that first seen on the D-36.According to calculations 20% chordwo.uld have been adequate_

The fin and rudder have a thick pro·file, particularly towards the base. Thishas allowed the landing parachute (notused above five metres) to be housed inthe bottom of the rudder. The latter ishinged on its starboard side.

One modification still to be incorpor­ated in tl:le second prototype is a largetailwheel some eight inches in diameterwhich will be sunk into the bottom ofthe fuselage.

The wing structure is simp,Ie in theextreme. Sandwich top and bottomskins, a massive all-glass-fibre main sparand a single glass-fibre rear spar-thereare no ribs. Glass-fibre tubes in the D·nuse in e.aeh wingroot can carry waterballast totalling approximately 70 kg.Considerable effort has been made toreduce lower to upper surface leakagevia the airbrakes: these have been segre­gated fore-and-aft into enlirely separatec.ompartments for the upper and lowerDFS paddles respectively. In addition,each of the paddle, is fitted with a fairlysophisticated spring-loaded seal. Aileronsare upper-surface hinged without anyform of aerodynamic balance.

And 50 finally one comes to the price,which is Quoted as 29,400 OM for 1968d~livery, including tail parachute but lessinstruments-a somewhat daunting sum,but then this is a formidable aircraft.

One further thought for prospectivecustomers~water ballast 100-140 Tbs., asteel tube structure in the centre of thefuselage with stowage space above, alldthere is a proven two-cylinder four­stroke engine already, availa:ble, whichMarlin Schempp is activeJy consideringfor the next stage of Ci~rus development.

Max. LID of I: 44, minimum sinkaround 1.7 ft./sec.. and a retractablepower plant. for self-launching and re­trieving seems to suggest the prospect ofa Dew dimension to our soort. but this isanother whole subject" in itself.

293

THE FREEDOM OF THEHILLS

H E switched on his sealed barograph,strapped on his knee-pad with its

stop-watch, and squeezed himself intothe cockpit, threading his legs ar<)tIndthe oxygen cylinder ~nd wedging himselfinto the gap between a bulging mappocket and the radio. In the pocket wasa calculator, regulation maps, a pad oflanding certificates, an air-law booklet,and evidently a good deal more besides.From the floor he retrieved his specialsealed cameTa fOT photographing turn­ing points, strapped himself in, andstarted his cockpit check. Two of thethree variometers weTe working-evi­dently a satisfactory proportion-andeverything else seemed in order. Hetouched the undercarriage and flaplevers as if to say "this time there'sgoing to be no confusion". Then hetested his radio and finally closed thecanopy firmly.

Everything was ready--or was it? Hewent through the paper-work in hishead: maps and insurance inspected bythe contest organisers, and indemnitysigned-yes; certificate of airworthiness-yes; private owner group membershipand competition number tax paid-yes;gliding certificate and competitor'slicence-in his wallet; radio licence,barograph calibration chaTt, compasscard, parachute log card-yes; daily in­spection book: completed and signed­yes; goal declaration form completed

294

and landing certificate ready - yes;launching ticket-now what had he donewith that? He opened the canopy andundid the straps....

A little later he was launched on aflight wh ose purpose was to arrive at thegoal having had as little flying as pos­sible, thereby ensuring him the maxi­mum number of marks (worked outaccording to a rather complex formula),which would in turn ensure him a goodrating (worked out according to a verycl?mplex formula), which should get hima place in a competition whose chiefpurpose..... The otheT day I bought a bunjey-or,to be more correct, half a bunjey. It waseither half a barograph or half a bunjey,and I settled for the bunjey. A singlestrand of brand-new bunjey, ringed ateach end, with all the promise of theday's first cumulus. A bunjey that wouldlead us to places that have never beensoared before, views that have neverbeen seen, challenges that have neverbeen met. A bunjey that symbolises thefriendship that s~ms from competing to­gether against the elements rather thanseparately against each other.

Laurie Vandome' brou~llt it in from hisLand-Rover and laid it on the floor. Thefloor, I s.hould mention, of my house inAberdeen, situated barely a dozen milesfrom the nearest 1,000-ft. contour. Welooked at it, and marvelled that such a

diminutive coil could hold enoughenergy for our needs. We put a map onthe Boor beside it, and surveyed the hills-Bennachie and Tap 0' Noth, Suie andthe Hill of Fare, Cairn William andCorrennie Moor-and over all we €ouldpractically see the long white lenticu­lars that so often dominate the Aber­deen air.

The day after Laurie and Peter lameshad arrived we raised the Olympia 463'strailer into its mountain-climbing posi­tion by inserting three-inch blocks abovethe axle for extra ground clearance. Ibuilt this 5-ewt. trailer with mountaintracks in mind, keeping it as light aspossible, and making the last four feetof floor rock-proof from below. Thispaid off when it was suspended by itsends across a burn. the water gurglingbeneath its wheels. But its lightness wasa worry in strong winds, for unladen itbounced clean into the air at everycorrugation in the track. So if one dayyou find a trailer full of rocks comingdown a mountain, don'llaugh.

The following day dawned bright andclear, with a thirty-knot south-westerlyforecast. We decided on a tour of in­spe~tion of the possible launching sites.but took the Olympia along just incase.... First we went to Tap 0' Noth.a whale-back of a mountain with a goodsheer S.E. face (800 ft. by 2 miles)and a small N.W. slope, of which moreanon. The S.W. point of the hill risesconical! y to a vitrified fon at 1,.851 ft.,an~ half-way up .1 had found a bunjey­pomt on an earher survev. But beforewe reached this spot we had to cross asloping field up which the wind wasblowing with such enthusiasm that therewas only one thing to do-rig. Laurielaid out the bunjey with loving care.a.nd in no time it was being stretchedtight by the Land-Rover before my veryeyes.

Alas! I suddenly realised tba t we hadnot chocked the wheel, but just at thatmoment Peter released the tail, and witha single bound the Olympia was air­borne. I pulled back to gain height.levelled out, released, and turned to­wards the Tap 650 ft. above me. In oneshort sweet traverse of this conical out­crop I was at the top, to the surpriseof a Forestl"y Commission fire-watcher.A few more beats and I was at 3000ft. in the lift of a hill which the stre~m-

lines should de1initely go round, notover. Along came a scudding Scottishcumulus, and I tucked myself into itsthermal. March, in the North of Scot­land, and a steady .8 knots up untilcloudbase at 6,000 ft. I know it soundssil1y, but there it was.

I pulled out my map. Not one ma-rkedwith airways, mmd you, because thereare none within a hundred miles. Theydo say there is a Purple one occasion­ally, but it merges imperceptibly intothe heather of the hills. To the North Icould see Caithness, seventy milesaway, and would have seen more hadthere been any. To the East, Buchanrolled in vivid colours to the sea, andinto the wind the Gra.mpjan's mass ofcumulus seemed almost to outshine thesun himself. Let's go into cloud! Am Iwithin 5 n.m. of a gliding site? But Iam a gliding site! Am I bonded? Well,there's only one thing we bond in Scot­land, and I have none with me. Thecloud enveloped me. as was inevitablewith 8 up, just as I remembered thatanyway th~ Turn & Slip was on holiday.S) out I came, and moved into the clearair between the cumuli.

In my southern foolishness I hadsupposed that this meant Instant Down,but instead I rose steadily between twoquite normal-Iooking clouds, until at8,400 ft. I cleared the tops 10 find themost brillia,"t sky I have ever seen.

o

Laun(.h Situ'

295

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Fully aerobatic British Cer:tificate of Airw~rthiness now granted.

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296

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The next day brought a brisk sun·bearing north-westerly, and we hurrieddown to Glenesk to try .another of myreconnoitred sites. But alas, the glidersnever saw it, for the access was fromthe south-east, involving a thoosand­foot climb to the crest of the hill. andthe snow 'deieated us. An .alternativetrack looked promising until it metLaurie's Burn (its Ordinance Surveyname!), and the more Laurie's face litup at the chaIlenge, the more the trailer­owners' faces sagged. When Lauric

There was not a hint of a lenticularanywhere. I sat up there in the sun,taking colour slides with a non-regula­tion camera, and pondering the chancesthat I was the only aircraft over t.hetwenty thousand square miles spread outbeneath me. When, to bring to a closea very pleasant tlig,ht. I landed in a field,I happened to walk ,back along thelanding run: there lay the ten-footlength of holding-back rope. Peter reallyhad let go!

That was the day, so it is said, thatthey had to put the gliders away at Port­mcak because of the wind.

When we returned to Aberdeen wefound that John and Pat Griffiths hadanived with a Skylark 4 in tow, corn.pleting the party. So on the morrow w.~

hurried up to Tal' 0' Noth, to find avery g~ntle breeze blowing up the field.which began to die even as we riggedthe Skylark. For launching the"bomber" in these conditions we addedan old bunjey beside the new one.making three strands in all. and chockedthe wheel very' carefully. John had dis­covered some old clothes line that hadrotted sufficiently to break when thecheck-rope came taut, but apparently notbefore.

The more we talked, the less the windblew. but soon each of us was (errone­ously) under the impression that theothers thought John shOUld be launched.a'ld John himself was strangely silenLSo was the wind. But the bomber wasdespatched with quite a .creditablelaunch of the hop, skip and jumpvariety. As I stood watching poor Johnturn along the hilI in the lifeless air asolitary snowflake settled-on the napeof my neck.

started talking about sever-al days' .civilengineering, and StuaJt WaIler, the restof us adjourned for lunch. A marveIlou5day on. but not over, the hills.

So when the foIlowing day deliveredup ,a lig~'1l north-westerly, with lowcloud and snow showers, we headedback to Tap 0' Nolh to try to launchoff the heather round the corner fromthe first site. It happened that the Olym­pia. by now christened "Cockleshell",was first up the track, but when thebomber tried to follow, the trailer stuckin the mud, being that much heavier.Then Laurie's Land-Rover itself stuck.and by the time Laurie had extricatedit by a pro.cess involving an infinitearray of tiny pulleys and much enjoy­ment, it was clear that if wo: got theCockleshell alone airborne we would befu~~ .

One advantage of the delay was thatat least it gave the Tal' time to come outof clOUd. and rather la'te in the after­noon I was catapulted off to try theN.W. slopc-a mile long but only 250ft. high (except just where the fort is),

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297

with a larch forest at its foot. and be­yond that an emergency landing field.On the far side of the field the grounddrops steeply into a narrow glen. I hadno intention of following it. It turnedout that the wind had just enoughstrength to keep me at the level of theridge, though well below the fort Itself.So for half an hour I plied up and down,level with the launch point, unable toclimb the conical hill. Sometimes I couldsee over the whaleback on to the splen­did S.E. slope-what a clutching handit must have been offering!

During this time I had been watchinga snowing c10udmass approach, and itsoon became obvious that I would haveto abandon my beat. Not knowingwhether the glen in front contained anyfields. I was hesitant to try an offeredline of escape on to the hill that guacdedits entrance, but the al,ternative was toland. so in the end I took the plunge.The hill worked. the glen would nothave done. But the cloud now stretcheda snowy finger out even to this haven,and I looked for a further escape route.

t need not have worried, for just be­fore the opaque curtain of snow arrived,the Cockleshell was lifted up towardsthe cloud. I went with the lift, passedover the first hill, and was soon carriedout over the blessedly-large fields ,to thesouth-east of Tap 0 Noth. The cloudcarried me at 3,000 ft. under its advan­cin~ edge (Turn & Slip still on holiday),until I was within reach of Bennachie,a splendid mass of isolated hill fourmiles long, with 1,000 ft. north andsouth faces. I flew to i~ welcomingslope. but could not relax for long­the snow was catching up with me, andsoon I had to flee to Cairn William, fourmiles further on. There I had the mor­tifying experience of seeing the east endof Bennachie-oow out of reach-stayclear of the hanging cloud, whilst thedarkest mass headed straight for me.The game was up_ I tried to hitchanother lift, but the cloud was tired,and I fled round the end of CairnWilIiam to a field near Monymusk,seventeen miles from Tap 0' Noth. Thedistance is no matter; the intense enjoy­ment of this type of flying derives fromthe unique and lonely harmony. of sail-

296

By now strong clOUd streets wereforming. even if cloud-base wasoccasionally very low. and r drove downone to the south, past Cairn William,and on to the Hill of Fare thirteen milesaway. This splendid hill. which is askingto have a gliding club put on it, kept

plane and sky and hill. I would soonerbe sixteen feet aboVe the heather thansixteen thousand-I have tried both inScotland.

By now it will be wondered whetherinviting John to Aberdeen was merelya ruse for getting more people to helplaunch the Cockleshell, and the next twodays only helped to confirm this sus­picion. For on the first of them thewind blew from nowhere in particular,and we had to be content with findinga new site for a north wind, two mileswest of Bennachie, and a mud-freeapproach to Tap 0' Noth. Both theseexplorations paid dividends. On thesecond day a passable northerly broughtsunshine and scattered snow showers,but John was mildly indisposed, so withheavy heart (or stomach, as the casemight be) we went out with Cockleshellalone. The new site west of Bennachieproved a dream, even though it wasonly at 999 ft .. atop a two-hundred-footslope. It finally brought home to methat on this sort of expedition one mustlook for launching fields near thebottom of large hills. Let the wind dothe work.

A couple of beats over the launchpoint, and I tiptoed across to Bennachie.This mas"Sive hill is not very steep, andit was delightful to arrive half-way downand saunter across its heather-smoothslope. In time I was high enough to pullout my sandwiches and my camera.Another sparkling day revealed hill uponhill to the south and west, and fieldupon forest to Aberdeen and the sea,each hedge and banJc. and road beingetched in a dusting of snow. West ofBennachie. past the launch J?<?int (wbereI could see Laurie toiling With the bun­jey), another north-facing ridge con­tinues the line, the whole -forming abroken escarpment twelve miles long. IeJl.ploited three-quarters of it, but at thefar end my courage failed me, and Ihitched a lift back to Bennachie in 11passing thermal.

••

•••

GLIDING HOLIDAY COURSES

me amused for twenty minutes, and thenI carried on another ten miles south-eastto the Hill of Durris. Alas, the tele­vision engineers beat me to it, for thehill is topped by a monstrous piece ofironmongery. This soon began to get onmy nerves so I retreated upwind onanother cloud street. crossing back overthe River Dee.

Deeside (Scottish Deeside, that is­not the hunting-ground of the famousand late-lamented Deeside Gliding Clubrenowned in the annals of auto-bunjeylore) is undoubtedly one of the fineststretches of country in Britain. Seenfrom 2.000 ft. (going up) in early spring,through air of transparent clarity. it isincomparable. Castles and fine house'S,farms and forests. hills and river, lie inperfect relationship to each other. Fromthe tidy outskirts of Aberdeen the eyecan trace the shining river past meadowsand towns until it is lost in the snow­covered highlands, its upper reachescradled between hills of ever-increasinggrandeur. Cover this scene with sun­shine and clOUd-shadow and view it froma silent cockpit: it is indeed incompar-

Dunkeswell Gliding and FlyingTraining Group.

Operated by F. BREEZE fromMarch to October 1967 atDun/{eswelJ Airfield, Honiton,Devon.

High performance two-seater.

Intermediate and High perfor­mance sailplane available.Winch, Auto, Aerotow.

Ab-initio to advanced training.

Accommodation available.

•••Why did we bother to put in so much

effort for a mere lit hours' flying?What is it that makes us dream of thehills even as we flash across a com­petition finishing line? It is many things,but principally it is the freed()m. It isthe freedom of complete independenceand self-reliance. To explore, to experi­ment. to pioneer, to enjQy the hillswhether over them or on them (or, onvery muddy days, in them). To share inthe satisfaction of operating indepen­dently with methods now so rare thatthey have not been scrutinised, dissected.codified and ossified by committees. Tomeet the challenge of flying in unknownplaces and soaring untried hills. To ex­perience the unique pleasure of glidingwith the minimum of equipment andwithout the diversions of badges andrecords and competitions.

These have their place. But I canvouch that whatever other flying I dothis year. none will equal these hourswrung out of the Scottish bills. hoursthat will never find their way into th,,·Annual Statistics.

able. Reluctantly I turned from admiringthe fields to analyzing them. and shortlylanded beside the river, at Milltimber.

With a score of six-and-a-half hours'flying to the host, and two minutes tothe guest, with one day left for play,we needed some exceptional conditions.In the event we could not complain, forthe fickle wind backed to the south-west,and blew strongly enough to makeground-handling difficult. John went offfirst bounce from the field at Tap 0'

Noth, and was soon beating along alocal wave between six and seven thou­sand feet. Unfortunately it was rathera grey day, so he missed seeing the coun­try at its best. Lenticulars, though nottext-book ones. were scattered aroundthe sky, but the air was rough and hos­tile. I was launched an hour later withsuch acceleration that I released tbebunjey under tension. leaving Laurie andPeter a fine tangle. As I explained later,I was only trying to coil it up after thecamp's last launch.... However, 1could do no better than John; perhapswe were at the bottom of something big.But at least John had three hours' fly­ing. and we landed together in a verystrong wiod just before the rain came.

•••

29<J.

BGA NEWSWorld Gliding Championships

The foLlowing pj')ots wcre selected tomake I,lp the Britjsh Team to go toPoland next year. Nick Goodhart,George Burton, Iohn Williamson, Ji)aNidlnnes, with Iohn Delafield, MikeGarrod, Rocky Stone and Andy Goughas reserves. Ann Welch has agreed toact as Team Manager.

AwardsRoy Bubble. CFI of the Kent club,

was awarded the Royal Aeto ClubBronze Medal for bis contribution togliding.

Arthur Speechley, Secretary ef theOxford dub, is to receive the TorchTrophy Award to acknowledge his ser­vices to gliding. The object of the Trustis to encourage volunta,ry work in sportat club and local level Congratulationsto both.

Airspace New,.1. The Chairman a~ks everyone to liveup to our excellent record and completethe Air Traffic Census forms (19th-26thJuly) and return them in the envelopessupplied.Z. A complaint has been received fromAldermaston that, during May, oneglider landed on their site. and anotherjust outside it. No police action isthreatened ill these cases, but our mainweapop of our high standard of self­discipline is blunted, and we shaH allsuffer if such events recur. Please ensureIhat they do' not. _3. Airway AMBER 25: From the 29thJune, 1967. the lower limit of AirwayAMBER 2:5 has 1x:en raised 'frem FL 55 toFL 65 al; follows:(a} between 11 n.m. south of Rexhamand 35 n.m. south of Knighton and(b) between 17 n.m. south of Glamorgan(Rhoose) and Berry Mead VQR beacon.

The SBAC Private Flyill2 Loan FundThe Fund was created in April, 1961"

by the Society of British AerespaceCompanies in conjunction with ShellMex and B.P. in su1)stitution for theKemsley Flying Trust. itself at thattime in process of liquidation foHowingthe retirement of Viscount Kemsley.

Following the pattern of the ~emsley

300

Hying Trust. gliding clubs-esta,blishedand new~as welI as syndicates wereable to complete loans OD simple exten­ded repayment terms at a very moderateimerest rate to help with the purchaseof gl:iders, and essential purposes,

Since the formation of the Fund, sixtygliding clu~s and syndica,teshave received loans totalling £49,653, which hasall been used for the purchase of air­craft, essential flyin,g equipment and forsite development. -

Unhappily it has been decided that theFund is to cease operation forthwith,and this means that no, more loans willbe made. All existing loan contracts will,however, be allowed lo run their course.

The loss of the valu<J,ble facilitiesgenerously applied will be gr,early missedin the gliding movement, in particularby new clubs a~ well as the small dubsready for expansion a,nd in need ofgliders and field equipment. Whateverthe reason for withdrawal of the Fund,the gliding movement here records itsvery grateful thanks for the greatmeasure of help afforded to it by theSociety of British Aerospace Companiesand ShelI Mex and B.P. through thePrivate flying Loan Fund.

Certification of Glass-fibre Gliders,The BGA Technical Committee has

decided that. sO far as structural integrityis concerned, glass-fibre gliders will onlybe rel!arded as acceptable for certifica­tion ,if they have obtained a full GermanCertificate of Airworthiness or if docu­mentary evidence is provided to theeffect that the structure has' been success­fully sUbjecied to the static and dynamictests required by the German airworthi­ness authorities.

This ruling relates only to the integrityof the primary structure, and the BGATechnical CQmmittee reserves' the rightto investigate other engineering featuresand the flying characteristics. It also re­lates to all types of glider using glass­fibre reinforced plastic as the main load­carrying material of the primary struc­ture. whether they are manufactured in'Germany or elsewhere.

F. G. lRVlNO, Chairman,BGA Technioal Commillee.

Skylark 3's and 4'sSome folk may not be aware that it

is possible to rig a Skylark 3 or 4 with

the ailerons incorrectly connected. Whathappens. is. this: . . . .

One Up IS fined 'and the aileron IS de­flected fully downwards.

Now if the other tip is offered up withthe aileron fully deflected downwardsalso. the rockers of the aileron control,instead of mating together, can form an"X" with the pads back to back. Themain pin can be inserted without diffi-culty. 'b'I' f . . .To preveht POSSI Ilty·o mls-rtggmgcarry out the following checks:I. Assemble both tips with the ailerons

neutral.2. When a'sscmbled check that the drOOl;)

is normal.3. Check by operating the control col­

umn that both ailerons are workingnormally.It is worth noting that a cockpit check

does not reveal this mis-rigging immedi­ately. It is possible to move the cOlltrolcolumn with tbe ailerons incorrecdyrigged, and the only indication that thepilot gets is that the movement in onedirection is limited.

R. STAFFO~D ALLEN,BGA Chief Technical Officer.

THE BRITISH GLIDINGASSOCIATlON

requires Q

DEVELOPMENT OFFICERThis is • new and chaU.etlging POlo' to develoPgliding.

Duries include:1. "os'.ring the development of club, by gi..-ing

'dvic,. and .ssislanu on finance. o,g_nintion.Idlhi'nis.tration. sires and f.dliiies.

2. liaison wilh Gov.rn..,nt Oe:pa'lm~ts. Spo,lsCCUftCillnd olh., b.odi.s in conjundion wilhth. Chair..-" 01 lIT• .,.I.-va,,1 8GA committw"s.

w. are loolting for SOmeone with dri.,e. _dm;nis­"ative experience and sound judgement. bperienQof gliding and club operalion desirable.

Starti"$1 _I.r.,.: £1.5.00 p.a. plus expenses. Prosp~tsdepend 0" Ih. fuJu:re of Iritish gliding.

Applications lhou'.d ,be, Marked 'Confid.,tilll· _I'dodd.....d 10 the S.c..t.,." British, GI,c1inllAssociation. Artill.,.ry MenstonS. 75 VidoriaSt...,. London, S.W.I.

National LadderArthur Doughty heads the list with

2,000 points. which has grown from 41to 61 l'llots for the month of April. Thenumber of clUbs taking part have in­creased from eight to twelve for thesame period.

CHAMPIONSHIP AWARDSLONDONDE.RRY CUP.-To the outright

winner i.n League I. NJCHOLl\s GOOD­HART, Dart 17.

FURLONG TROPRY.-To the outrightwinner in League 2. RALPH JONES. SHK.

KEMSLEY Cup.-To the pilot flying aclub glider who has the highest placingin League 2. DAVIO SOU.ON, Skylark 4.8th place. (Surrey and Hants. GlidingClub.)

FIRTH VICKERS T.ROPHY. - To thewinner of the team chaml'ionship inLeague 2. DAVID CRETNEY and NORMAN,WILKISSON, Olympia 419. 6th place.

EoN Cup.-For c-\lmpetition amongl'ilQts of whichever type of glider isnumerically the strongest in League 2.Awarded to the pilot of the glider ofthat type having the highest placing. VICCARR, Skylark 4. 3rd place.

CENTENARY TROPtlY.-To the competi­tor in League 2 who is under 30 years ofage at the start of the ChamPlionshipsand ·who scores the most lXlints 01'1 anytwo days. LEIGH HOOD, Skylark3F, 6thplace.

t. Du GARDE PEACH TROpIfY,-Awar­ded to the highest placed pilot who isflying in the other class from the out­right winner in League 2. DAVID INCE,Standard Class, Ka-6.E. 4th place.

SI,.INGSBY TROPHV.-For 'colTll'etitionamong pilots of whichever type ()of ~Iider

is numerical1y the strongest ~n League I.NICI-IOLAS GooDHAR'r, Dart 17. 1stplace.

PAN-AM lROPHY.-Awarded to thehighest placed pilot who is flying in theother class from the outright winner inLeague I. PETER RANNl:MAN, StandardClass. Ka~MDI. 7tllpllU:e.

MODEL OF KA-6E.-To be presentedto the pilot flying a Ka-6E in. d.th~rLeague who has gained most pomts Intbe 1967 National Championships. JOHNDELAFlELD, KJ!-6E, League I, 9th place.

301

1967 B.G.A. General Regulations:

"The only acceptablecamera is the KodakINSTAMATIC 25~'

The Kodak 'Instamatic' 25 camera has been specified by the BritishGliding Association as the camera to be used in competition gliding.

This is why..

It's easily loaded. The film is in a cartridge which simply 'drops-in' to thecamera. It only 'drops-in' one way, so you can't misload. There's no filmthreading-no fumbling. It has a double-exposure prevention device, soyou can't take 'two-an-one'. You have a choice of either black-and-whiteprints, colour prints or colour slides. The l{lrge, eye-level viewfinder lets'you compose your picture easily, instantly. Ifs light compact and easilystowed away when not in use; a pocket will do. The 'Instamatic' 25camera is rugged, reliable, inexpensive. It costs just 53/1 d. (case onlyanother 9s. 10d.) KODAK make it.

'Kodak' and 'InSlamatic' are trade marks.

302

DUTCH NATIONALS -21st May to 3rd JuneBy MENNO MANTING

TWpNTY-FJVE pilots entered on 22Ka-6's and three Sagitta's had been

selected to fly in this Championship. Forthe first time there Were five new Ka-6E'Samongst them. Launch,ing, as usual. wascarried out by winch, and take-off wasorganised from two separate strips. eachbeing serviced by four cables. Averagerelease height was 1,400 ft.

The Championships were held atTerlet and the organisation consisted ofthe Terlet staff and some volunteers.Meteorological services were suppliedfrom the nearby Air Force base atDeelen.

"Designated start" was introduced.and the opening of the startline followed30 minutes after first take off. Jt provedto be a successful contribution andhelped to create a fair chance for pilotsto begin the,ir task under equal localconditions.

Points were scored on seven days anda further two days had to be cancelledas less than eight pilots covered theminimum ,of 60 km. Our regulations hadbeen adapted to the English wstem ondevaluation of a I ,ODD-point day (ifmore than eight but less than 16 pilotscovered 60 km.). However, this rulewas never applied.

On the whole we were lucky with theweather-fronts passed Terlet as a ruleduring the evening or night, leaving usmore favourable conditLons during theday. .Day I-21st May.-Thermals moderate,

wind S.W. 20 knots._ TASK: lOS-km. triangle-Epe, Lochum,

Terlet. Eight pilots went round thetriangle twice and 22, completed the task.First: Aart Dekkers, followed by Ed vanBree and Jan Kater.Day 2-23rd May.-Conditions improv­

ing towards the weSL Thermals moder­ate, wind light westerly,TASK: 1I1-km. race to Seppe. Eight

pilots completed the task. First: 'E,d vanBree. followed by JOQP Jungblut andJan Kater.Day 3-26th May,-G0od thennals, wind

S.W. 25 knots.TASK; Distance along a broken line;

Dedemsvaart, 65 km. downwind, andZuid-Limburg, 180 km. into wind. Jaapvan Steinfoorn came first with '135 km.,followed by Reparon, 134.5 km. Third,Jan van Melzen.Day 4-27th May.-Thermals moderate;

bight S.E. wind with s):'Jteading alto-euapproaching Terlet.

Menno Manting ha/wing the winner's trophy to Ed van Bree, Champion jor thejourth time in succession. Is this a world record?

303

TASK: 1I0-km. race to Assen. Theweather turned out better thall forecast,although before noon it was difficult toleave the site. Twenty-one pilots com­pleted the task. First: Aart Dekkers, timeI hr. 56 mins., followed by Reparon withonly 50 secs. more. Third. Arie Breunis­sen.Day 5--28th May.-Thermals moderate,

wind light S.E.TASK: 212-km. triangle. Gramsbergen,

Wenningfeld (Germany), TerIet. Soaringstarted much later than expected andthermals were restricted by an inversionat 2,200 ft. No one completed this task,but the first three for the day. JoopJungblu,l, Frits Seytfert and Chris Rab,lamded near tile second turning point.Day 6---29tb May.-Strong thermals

during the afternoon. wind S.W. 20knols.TASK: Out-and-return to Venlo, 156

km. The wind was rather less than fore­cast and 17 pilots completed the task,which turned out to be a perfect racewith some dramatic and spectacular finalglides. First: Aart Dekkers (2 hrs. 34mins.), followed by Ed van Bree. Janvan Melzen, Jungblut and Reparon.Day 7-30th May.-The forecast pro­

mised strong thermals with a c.hanceof local showers and a light N.E. wind.TASK: 307-km. triangle. Mtinchen-

304

Gladbach (Germany), Weelde (Belgium).Terlet. It looked as if this was going ~be rhe day, and pilots crossed the start­ing line under ideal weather. Approach­ing the first turning point, pilots found alar,ge thunderstorm developing, and this,together with the dreadful Ruhr srrroke,soon turned iota !'Ca,soup conditions,and many pilots were forced down. someof them at the turning-point withoutbeing able to see the markers. A smallgroup managed to get round this pointand two of them nearly reached thesecond turning PQint.

First: Joop Jungblut, with Jan Ver­meer closely following. Third. Reparon,and Sanders fourth.

L~ding Ymal ResultsPrs.

van Bree Ka-6E 6395Jungblut Ka-6cR 5951Dekkers Ka-6cR 5587Reparon Ka-6E 5256Seyffert Ka-6cR 5067Kater Ka-6cR 4656

• • •Dutch Team for Poland

The best three pilots of the 1966 and1967 Nationals will com~te in a furtherselectiolill training session. A final deci­sion will be taken towards the, end ofOctober on which pilots will representHolland at Leszno.

"fhe following pilots are competing fori place in the team: van Bree, Jungblut,Dekkers, van MeJzen and Reparon.

YOUR AGENT IN U.K.

for

Schempp-Hirth CIRRUS and SHK 1

is

SOUTHERN SAILPLANES(Ral'ph Jones)

Tht'l,Ixton Airfield. Andover.Hampshire

Telephone: We.yhiU 313

CHANGE OF ADDRESS: Alan E.Slater, Editor of SAlLItLANE & GLID­ING, 'has moved to 9 FitzwilIiamRoad, Cambridge, Cambs.

HP-14 EXPERIMENTALBy JOHN WILLlAMSON

THE HP-14 made its flying debut inthis country only a fortnight before

the Nationals. Briefly test-flown by theBGA No. I Test Group and then byDerek Piggott at Biggin Hill, it washanded over to me on 11 th May. Theweather at Bicester was appalling. Wepressed on with the fettling and dealtwith minor snags as they cropped up. Atlast. three days before the Nationals, theweather c!eared up enough for us to fly.

Interest in the new "tin-ship" centredaround the use of tbe flaps which ex­tended over 70'1, of the 9pan. The con­cept is simple and attractive. The flapshave a tr~ple role. In addition to slowingdown the basically fast wing section forcircling in small thermals, they alsoprovide approach control and they limitthe speed to Vne in an emergency. Todo this they are designed to operatebetween 10° up and 90· down.

When I took her over. however. theprototype, No. 515, was fitted with adirect-drive flap lever which gave flapmovement down to only 60°. A 5-ft.diameter tail-parachute was fitted forapproach and speed limiting, since 60°flap is virtually useless for these func­tions. After ten rather damp circuits Iwas happy with the parachute approachtechnique. The 'chute deployed equallywell at any speed between 38 and 80knots. The deceleration was smooth butfirm. and the nose had to be put downat about 30° to keep the' speed safe. Re­packing was simple and the device be­haved impeccably.

Next day it became soara'ble, and inspanking conditions which suited herwell, "515" won the 98-miJe race toWorcester and back. Friday was dud andwe arrived at Lasham with II flights and7 hours on type. Dick Schreder arrivedat Lasham early on Saturclay with thesecond prototype, No. 514, which hadb~en completed the night before. He in­vIted rne to test the effectiveness of 90°flap for approach control. 1 was so im­pressed that I agreed to have "515" modi­fied overnight in time 'for a possible tasknext mOrning. III this way I could doaway with the parachute and some corn·

pensating ballast in the nose to lightenthe sbip by 30 Ibs.

The new system was a raek-and-pin,ionrequiring 4~ turns over the full range offlap movement. Approach with full flapis impressive. A 45" dive is needed tokeep the speed up to 50 knots. Thetecbnique is to keep the nose aimed atthe desired round-out point and thencontrol the speed with the flaps. If over­shooting., lower the nose and wind downmore flap to prevent build-up of speed.If undershooting, wind up flap a littleand raise the nose to improve the glideratio. Above all, the speed must not beallowed to drop too far in an attempt tQ,stretch the glide with a lot of flap, o~.

On belatedly raising the fiap, the glidersinks rapidly and there is no escape fromthe undershoot. At the speeds used (45­55 knots) on a normal approach. theflaps are light and easy to use.· Theapproach really steepens at about 70° offlap" so that although it takes three turnsto get that far, thereafter all approachadjustments are made with the last turnof the handle. On rounding out with fullflap, the HP-14 will float on and c,p.ground effect keeping bel' airborne rightdown to 25 knots. Quickly raising theflaps a couple of turns after round-outcauses her to sit firmly so that the wheelbrake may be used. With a littIe practicethe ship can be brought down a lotshorter than the SHK or even the Dart,to touch down at a mvch lower ground­speed-a good point in rough fields.

GUDER FDfANCEFinance for your glider or aircraft pur·chase can be arranged by telephoningor writing to COLlN OONALD (B.G.A.

lruuuctor).

Burghley Finance Company ltd.50 8URGHLEY ROAD,

PETERBOROUGHr.l.pho".: ,.'.,bor<>Ugh 5787

305

The HP-14Experimental.

Photo courtesy"Flight International".

There is always some speculationabou~ the behaviour of a V-tail glider ina crosswind. "515" gave no trGuble at allan{) I feel sure the steerable tail wheelwill alsQ help in this respect. The earlierparachute mo{)ification had resulteq in afixed wheel for me. It was noticeable ontwo days when the wind was directlyacross the Lasham runway that the twoHP-1.4's kept straighter than most ontake-off. In this context I owe it to theaircraft to explain the severe ground loopI experienced on the first contest day. Inall the rush to get the flap mod. done,that well- known aviation engineer,Murphy, helped with the .igging, Thepre-flight cockpit check did not revealthat one ,of t'he automatic ruddervatorconnections hadn't. The control surfacecould be pushed upwards and it thenmoved back to neutral under gravity. Thestick/rudder mixing system is such thatif one ruddervator is disconnected allcontrol movement, under flying loads.can be fed to the free rod. and no con­tml surfa,ce movement results. I attribu·ted the initial swing to the wing tit!holder, but when airborne and stillswinging to tne right I released. "515"ground·looped across an intersecting run­way, leaving a 2o-yard skid mark on thetarmac. I am convinced that most gliderswould have been wrecked. As it was. theprotective wing-tip plate was torn offand the aileron mass balance damaged,the tail wheel was wrenched askewand jammed, and the spun aluminiumnose cone was flattened on the under­side. Within the hour the wini tip was

306

pop-riveted back on, the tail wheelstraightened and the nose cone ignored,and we joined the last row of the launchgrid for the race to Swan ton Morley.

As is common with prot()types. "515"was heavier than expected.. This waspartly due to the stringent ballastarrangements required because so littletest-flying had been possible. At a wingloading of more than 6 lbs. per sq .. ft..I was at some disadvantage in weakthermals against some of the others. Thefl'aps up, slraight-an<!.level stall speedwas 41 knots IAS (position error notknown), and at 45· of bank she couldnot be circled comfortably at less than50 knots; 15· of flaj) pulled this downto an acceptable 45 knots. More flap putthe sink up and was usually not worthwhile. In turbulent conditions. however,I found it useful, when suddenly losingairspeed, to ease out another 10· ()f soto hold off the stall until the next gustedge arrived. .

With the flaps UP between thermals,the HP·!4 felt right at 70-80 I\nots. thefuselage lying almost level at thesespeeds. Optimum cruise speed for 5­'knot thermals is 90 knots. and at thisspeed the "51 Y' ran away from eveTythingexcept the most persistent SHK_ Whencleaned up in production, I feel sure theconsequent reduction in drag will resultin an aircraft well ahead of anything wehave seen in this country so far.

I took advantage of one high tow totest the effectiveness of the flaps as sPeedlimiters. At 1J0 knots. initial applica'tionof flap caused a nose-up trim; and as

the air loads decreased, full applicationcould be made at 90 knots.

Diving as steeply as I dared (l hadforgotten that loose articles would tumblearound my feet I) the s~d did not goabove 65 knots. I was confident that Icould thus cope with any inadvertentattitude in cloud. In the event I foundcloud-flying straightforward. althoughwith no trimmer there -was not the com­fortable "on-rails" feeling of previousSlingsby gliders.

My final incident with "515" came upthe Friday of the "Possibles" Contest,

2nd June. The first turning point of our500-km. triangle was obscured by l'Owstratus. I turned back to the nearestbreaks, five miles away, and descendedbelow cloud tops through a hole justlarge enough to contain a SO-knots circleThe hole revealed only a town and ara.i,lway station. Cloudbase was 300 ft.above ground level and the fields werenot large. The wind, forecast to be 10knots westerly. was, in fact. 5 knotseasterly, but I couldn't see that. HP-14'smake very neat round holes in sheep­netting fences-and don't come to muchharm in the process 1

OSTIV AT STUTTGART, 4th-5th MAY, 1967By FRANK IRVING

THE Osnv Sailplane Development. Panel is a group of people concerned

with glider design and/or airworthinessin their various countries. They meetfrom time to time under the benevolentand efficient chairmanship of Lt.-GeneralC. W. A. Oyens (Netherlands) and fromtheir deliberations emerge such works asthe OSTIV Design Requirements for Sail­planes, which is rapidly becoming agenuine international standard. The pro­jected "Sailplane Designers' Handbook"was perhaps a little too ambitious. andis currently in a state of suspendedanimation. Other activities of the Paneltend to be more controversy-provoking:the mention of a mini-standard-class(now. dropped) produced wild enthusi­asm m some quartets and a lot of no­enthu~iasm elseWhere; and proposals forchangmg the standard-class rules areregularly put to C.V.S,M. and equallyre.gularly rejected. It is certainly astI.m.ulating committee. as befits one con­tamlOg four or five celebrated designerst~gether with airworthiness representa­tI'fes from all the major gliding coun­tnes.

:JOe. Stuttgart meeting in May wasPflman.ly educational, being devoted todlSplaymg the current German state-of­the'art in the manuhcture and testing ofglass-fibre gliders. We had a paper fromDr. Epplcr on manufacturing methods,another from Herr SChatt on airworthi-

ness. and VISits to "Glasfltigel" (manu­facturers of the Libelle and the BS-l)and "Wagon \lnd Maschinenbau A.G."(manufacturers of the Phoebus).

Like any other material, glass-fibreresin has both advantages and dis­advantages. It is mainly celebrated forthe accuracy of contour which can beachieved together with such a superbsurface finish that the final product isof wind-tunnel-model quality. And. al­though all the manufacturing processesinvolve skilled hand labour, the numberof components is small and there seemsto be an overall saving in man-hourscompared with wooden construction.Against this, whilst the material isstrong, its density is fairly high and itsstiffness is low. So to confer adeQuateresistance against buckling without an

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307

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excessive weight penalty, a sandwichconstruction usuallv has to be used. Thelow stiffness also Implies that attentionmust be paid to aeroelastic problems.Other snags are that glass-fibre struc­tures may require a considerable reserveof static sbrength to deal with fatigue.current resins soften at lower tempera­tures than one would like, and controland inspection during manufacture isnot particularly simple. Finally, damag,ecannot be repaired by buying Messrs.Bloggs' "Jalopy-Bodge" glass-fibre repairkit and proceeding as for Austin Sevenbodywork. Damage to, say, the under­carriage attachments is likely to causeserious bother. On the other hand, themachines are said to be appreciablymore T~istant to minor damage thanthose of conventional construction. So,whilst one achieves a superb shape andfinish, glass is by no means the idealstructural material, and its use does notautomatically imply good detail design.Some features of these machines seemedunnecessarily difficult to inspect andmaintain, and we s~w e.xaml'les of theuse of glass-fibre 10 slluatlons wheremetal would have been much morepractical. Equally, there were some ex-

308

cellent examples of design (most of thewing/wing and wing/fuselage attach­ments, the nice big tailwheel of the BS­I. the rudder mechanism of the Lilx;l1eand. if yOll like a spring trimmer, thatof the Phoebus).

. Herr Schatfs paper was prepared forthe Working GrouD for Flight Safety ofD.V.L. (German equivalent of A.R.B.).It reviewed materials and their proper­ties, m~thods of construcJion, testing(static and dynamic}, flutter, and detailsof production and primary inspection ofmanufactured gliders. It was an impres­sive paper which indicated th<tt despiteconsiderable gaps in the knowledge ofmaterial properties, and known disad­vantages of the materials, D.V.L. arehonestly doing the best job possible atthe present state of the art to ensureairworthiness.

For example, the standard loading testfor a prototype wing is:

(i) Static test up to the "limit load"(i.e. proof load)..

(ii) Fatigue test, This is based on adesired life of 15 years at 200hours and 200 launc'hes per year.(\. scatter factor of 3 is assumed.so the actual test s.imulates 9,000

hours of flight. The loading isprogrammed to represent launch­ing, gust loads and landing,

~ijj) Static load test. to design ultimateload at room temperature.

(iv) Static load test to design ultimateload at 54 'C.

(v) Ultimate load test with the criticalloading at 54'C.

The distinction between (iv) and (v)is not very clear in the written report.I think (iv) refers to design ultimate,wher,eas in (v) they act.ually break it.

When questioned. Herr Schatt admit­ted that they would like to Jcn.<)w moreabollt the properties of gl~ss·fibre struc­tures and was. far from complacentabout the current situation.

"Glasfiugel" is a little works (abouthalf the size of Slingsby's) which makesthe Libelle and Bs"l, whereas "Wagonund Maschinenbau" is a subsidiary of8OIkow, about one-and-a-half to twicethe size of Slingsby's. They make Phoe­bus assemble the BOlkow Junior, ()ver­haill other Bolkow aircraft, and had JUStpushed out a prototype which lookedrather like a 4-seat Kittiwake.

The latter organisation is a small but

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entirely professional aircraft factory, andappears to be much more tightly organ­Ised t,han "Glasfliigel" in terms of in­spection prQCedures a.nd bits of paper.We got the impression that "Glasf!iigeI"worked in a less formal manner, butwith fewer people and being concerned-only with gliders (and industrial fans),the final results were much the same.Much in evidence at "Wand M" wasan optical inspection device eQlI-bling oneto. see the whole interior ofa completedwmg.

.AIl of the three type~ had very similarwmg structures. The skm is a glass-fibre!balsa/glass-fibre saodwi<::h. Each side ofthe sandwich consists of two layers ofunidirectional cloth and the balsa isabout 6 mm. thick. The "spar booms"are. fairly wide and consist of arrays ofrovmgs and they all ha",e two shearw~bs, againglass/balsa Ig,lass sand­WIches. The top and bottom surfacesare made in separate fe·male moulds, onesurface having the she.ar web~ attached,the other having glass-fibre channels intowhich the webs fit.. The two surfaces areassembled like a. plastic model.

Fuselages are built in somewhatsimilar fashion. except that the BS-l issimply a glass-fibre tube (not a sand­wich) stiffened bv bowler-hat section'''frames'' of glass-fibre.

Impllessions1. The primary structures are carefully

designed.2. Some details are of a lower standard.3. 'The structural testing of prototype is

as thorough and _trustworthy as rhepresent state of the art permits.

4. Inspection of production componentsis difficult, but not impossible, andmuch depends on the skill andhonesty of the individual workmen.

S. In practice, the possibility of produc­ing a~ unsafe aircraft., from the p<>illlof VIew of the primary structure,seems extremely low.

6. The whole proce~ requi'res a largeamount of know-how, most of whichcan only be gained 'the hard way.

7. Minor repairs are quite di,ffi~ult andmajor repairs wlIl be expensive jobsfor the factory; as designed at pre­sent, much of the mechanism cannotbe inspected or renewed wit.hout cut­ting holes in primary ·structure.

309

SELF-TAUGHTBy N. E. JOHNSON

After one of Dr. Brennig lames's out­landings during the Nationals, he wassurprisingly greeted by a man who hadlauRht himself 10 fly on cheap, secondc

hand gliders. yet had made no contactwith the r.:liding world apart from read­ing this magazine. Here is his story.

I HAVE always been interested in any­thing that flies. and having a brother

that likes it too helps a lot-but youcould never get -him off the ground.

I had my first glider, a Tutor. abouttwo years ago, March, 1965,; it 'was ad­vertised in your SAILPLANE & GbIDING.Devon and Somerset Gliding Club hadit for £50, I had to knock a trailer to­gether to fetch it that Sunda,y. We didov,er 400 miles but ,it was worth it. Thewings were 1,lncovered, so I had to buyfabric and re"cover them, :but it gave mea chance to see how they were put to­gether.

I went on to an ,airfield where peoplewent to learn to drive, but I think theyenjoyed it as much as I.

The first day I never got off the run­way; I just tried to keep the glider goingin a straight line. I ended up in corn onthe side of the runway, and how manytimes I ended up in the bushes Icol1ldnot try to remember.

The next Sunday ,We went, I told mybrother-he was driving the tow-car-togo a bit faster. We started off and thenext thing I knew I was up in the airand I don't mind admitting it-I reallyheld on to the side of the glider. andwhere it went I let it go. in the bushesand corn; but I soon got the hang ofit, and was soon flying high enough toturn and come back.

I flew that glider for months until­the last flight of the day-I hit a pile ofconcrete. It was nearly dark, and itsmashed into pieces. I got out with onlya bump on the head. I thought that daywas the saddest of my life; I had noinstruments, so- I d.id not know ever whatspeed I was do-ing. So I Pllt it down tothat, and looked for a second glider.

I think that was advertised in one of310

your magazines also. I went to OldSarurn, near Salisbury, for that one, butin the m~antime I had built a new trailer,so I had no trou'ble there. This was alsoa Tu!\!)r, so I had a few spares. This oneI stripped down and checked it through,I was getting good at that now, havingr,epa4red the first one so much.

The runway I had been using had sjncebeen taken uP. so I had to find same­where else and, as you know, it can bevery hard.

I have been threatened with everythingyou could think of, but in the end Ifound a fllrmer who let me go on an air­field as long as I kept out of his corn;when learning to glide by oneself thatcan be' a job also. This 'drome was illsobeing taken up. I fl.ew from there manyweeks until-the second flight of the day-the IQW rope broke. I was about 200feet up, and, just going UP. could notturn round and land or carry on as therewere diggers and lorries up there. So' Iflew out over the crops, but went a bittoo far and tried to stretch the glide. andstalled it in the tOm, doing more damagethan if I had landed in there. It smashedthe glider to pieces. Another sad ·day­not having any instruments again.

The glider I have now is a KirbyCadet. I have no a,irfield yet but go in afield which is not very big so I 'have apulley tied to one tree in the corner withthe tow-car facing the glider on take-off.But this is not very successful. Once Iwas trapped in the cockpit by barbedwire with bleeding fingers and half thehedge down. But my glider was OK soI did not mind. It was tow rope troubleagain and instruments, Dot knowiniheight and speed. But we d\!) 'very well. Ithink:, considering I ·onlypay about £50a glider. and most of the repa.irs we doare patching, and I must mention brokenseats, I am very good at knocking thebottom out of them, I have bad so manythings happen, I just can't think of them.

I think gliding is just a;bout the bestsport there is, even in my little way, butmore so I think because I taught myselfand scared myself many times. But aslong as- I get scared, I know I am safe,and know I am not getting too confidentand careless.

I have also got seven cbildren-fiveboys, and they are just as k.een on glidingas r am, and they help me a lot.

CU-NIM CHAMPIONSHIPSBy NICHOLAS GOODHART

02, 14, 01, 29, 26, 16, 10, 58, 01,15. What have these figures got to

do with the 1967 British NationalGliding Championships? Robin Harper'snightmare after scoring the Cat's Cradletask? Iao Strachan's latest handicappingextravaganza? The code for determiningyour 1968 Rating List position? Thevital statistics of the latest high-perfor·mance glider? No none of these things;the figures aJe simply the daily rainfalltotals in one-hundJedths of an inch.They total 1.72 inches. This must be arecord for a Nationals aod it's one wenever want to see approached again.

But. of course. the reason for all theraio was high cumulus or cumulonimbusdevelopment, and this (,;ertainly added agood deal of spice to the days on whichwe were able to fly. The other tbing itdid was to necessitate a great deal ofcareful map-reading to make sure onedid not contravene the Controlled Air-

Nick afler landinJ: at Rearsby.Photo c()Urlesy of "Leicester Mercury".

space regulations. The fact that it wasnecessary to set tasks which traversedthe airways system introduced an un­wanted element of luck; if the cu-nimwas in an airway, and the dead space inthe FIR, O'ne was defeated. If the oppo­site was the case, one could make goodprogress.

It was. in fact, this situation of ClI­nims in the FIR and clear in the airwaythat enabled me to get to ReaTSby onContest Day 2. A climb to 16,000 ft.,starting near Didcot, followed by a lotof careful dead· reckoning navigation,brought me out., after 40 minutes oninstruments. five miles west of AmberOne near Edgehill at 11,000 ft. AmberOne itself was completely in the clearand. despite the heavy icing, the heightin hand was sufficient to glide clearacross to Bitteswell, where another cu­nim was building strongly.

h is of interest that the ;lchieved gHderatio with ice was about 19: 1 at 50knots indicated. Obviously, if a way ofshedding the ice could be invented, itwould be very valuable indeed. Withoutice 1 would have been able to do 75-80knots along the same glide path.

The lucky break of finding the airwayclear was the main reason I got toRearsby. and the big points lead this~ave me was the decisive factor in theChampionshi ps.

With the large amount of cloud-flyingbeing done. the risk of collision in clOUdwas excessive; this factor was clearlyapparent to all pilots, even disregardingthe fact that there actually was a col­lision. Fortunately the fact that mostpilots had good radio enabled a corn­monsense method of avoiding collisionto develop rapidly. In future Champion­ships (and indeed in everyday localflying where there is a probability of twogliders in the same cloud) we must en­sure that there is a specified channeland a specified altimeter 'Setling for ex·changing height information.

On the ground the Championship wasorganized with the skill which we ,pilots,who have all the fun, have come to takealmost for granted. Task setting, met.,

311

Nick all final Idide.Photo courtesy

..Flight Inlemational" ,

marshalling, towing, food, caravans,scoring, crowd control, guest organIza­tion, daily sCOre sheet printing, etc.. etc.-all go on so unobtrusively that one

might be lulled into thinking they hap­pen without effort. But one knows other­wise and to all these selfless individualswho did the work, many thanks indeed.

SAFETY PANEL NEWS-The first 180 days

FORTY-EIGHT accidents have beenreported so far this year. At this

rate, it looks as though we shall achievethe magic ton. The BGA is Qffering noprize to the pilot who has the lOOthaccident!

One encouraging fact to emerge froman otherwise dismal picture, is that nonew ways of breaking gliders have beendiscovered. This means that at least wecan concentrate 01-1 known failures oftechnique.

Ten accidents, have happened to pilotswith under 5 hours' experience as P.1­This is. of course, our old bugbear-lackof superv,ision al].ied tCl sub-slam!ardbasic tra,ining. There ,is 110 substitute forgood basic training with proper follow­up instruction which must be -do,ne on atwo-seater of good performance.

It is ,pleasing to note that mOre dubsare operating high-performance ttwo­seaters. What is now needed is their use

312

for checks. checks and still more checks,so that self-taught imperfections can bepicked up and eliminated.

Swallow gJiders are featuring moreand more often this year. I hope to bea'ble to say m0re about this ubiquitollstrainer at the e'nd of the year, but forthe present will confine myself to theremark that brake and elevator control

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must be sensibly taught if porpoisinR andheavy landings are to be avoided. Ifpupils are allowe~. to approach at 60knots .plus. surprlsmg phenomena arelikely to occur! From personal experi­ence 1 believe that one of the greatestweaknesses of our instructors is thelack of sta.ndardisation on approachtechniques.

A tragic double fatality in a T-21 haspointed the need for considera'ble cautionwhen flying less sophisticated gliders instrong wind-gradient -conditions. Of flyingin strong winds, the only thing to besaid is: "When in doubt, leave them inthe hangar."

Several shock ropes have come intocontact with various parts of gliders, andtbe Technical Committee are recom­mending a change in length of theseropes. This is just one j))ustration of the"share your experience" principle. Manvfaults in technique and design wouldnever be discovered if accidents wereroot reported.

Instructors instructing have been re­sponsi,ble for fewer accidents than nor­mal. An indication that we are improv­ing? To those instructors who have cometo rest in a cloud of dust and plywood,I would console with the thought thatflying training is as good a 'Way as anyof sailing close to the wind. and that·even in the best regulated circles trainingaccidents will happen.

This. however. does not absolve us ofcur responsibilitY to try and keep train­iog accidents to a minimum.

Winch failures (including cable breaks)are still exacting their toll-seven. to beexact. Two of these ha·ppened to pilotswith over 200 hours as P.I. This seemsto . indicate a tendency amongst ex­penenced pilots to press on in the hopethat the winch will recover power. Un­fortunately these accidents tend to beexpensive. for there is seldom an answerto flying too slowly near the ground.People tend to run out of ideas!

. Far too many pilots are taking off withal~brakes unlocked. I have gone intopnnt about this, already, but wiU reiter­ate that there is no SUbstitute for careful,complete cockpit checks.

Two gliders have been victims of poorground-handling, the resultant blowing­Overs proving yet again that if correctground handling procedures are ignoredor allowed to become sloppy, the

supreme penalty will be paid. Of all theaccidents, blow-overs are the most in­excusable and must directly be attributedto lack of supervision by people :whoshould know better.

The problem of misreading altimetershas arrived to plague gliding just as ithas plagued power-flying in the pastPilots have pulled off aerotows at 1,000ins-tead of 2,000 ft. and have causedthemselves considerable embarrassmentBefore rushing off to design expensivealtimeters that require electricity andother scientific wonders to operate them,it is worth remembering that gliding is asport in which judgment is often worthmore than technology. If a pilot releasesat 1,000 ft. there is no problem if he canmake it back to the field. Using this factas a basis. we can devel€YP a technique tominimise the risk of being out of glidingrange when pulling off. It is recom­mended that instructors teach their pupilsnot only to find the airfield befol'e pull­ing off, but decide 1f the angle looksreasonaible. If it is, then the site is withing,Iiding range. Of course, if the pilotalways releases at 1,000 ft. because hecannot read the altimeter. there is aremedy. I will leave it to our readers towork this out! Tug pilots can help tominimise the risk of outlandings byremaining within gliding range of thesite during the whole of the climb.

A very dexterous crew have discoveredhow to rig a Skylark 4 with the tip!centre-section bell-cranks overlapping,thereby effectively nalving the number ofailerons. Skylark 3's cap also be treatedin this way. Ray Stafford Alien hasissued a note on this (see page 300).

At no small cost it has been provedthat tugs and loose coils of launchingcable do not mix. All tug operators arerecommended to keep a careful watchon those spare lengths of caJbles and longbits of wire removed from snarl-ups.

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313

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314

ELECTRICAL BONDINGBy FRANK IRVING

As most readers will know, a sadaccident occurred last year in which

a pilot. flying a Skylark 4, lost his lifeafter being struck by lightning. Sincethen. it has become mandatory to fitgliders having RG.A. Certificates of Air­wortlliness with a simple form of bond­ing if the cloud-flying category is to beretained. Moreover, a glider fitted withthis bonding has now suffered a light­ning strike: it was damaged, but thepilot received only a very slight electricshock. This seems to be a good oppor­tunity, before the Cu-nims of latesummer appear. to explain the effects oflightning strikes and the objects andlimitations of the present approvedsystem.

Probably the best document on thissubject is Reference I. It is m3!inly con­cerned ,with the protection of the occu­pants of the glider, and it .explores thematter with a wealth of experimentaland theoretical detail. Briefly. its find­in~ are as follows;-

If a potential difference exists betweenvarious parts of a human body, a currentwill flow which will produce variousphysiological effects. depending on theintensity and duration of the current.Ideally. the current should be so low thatthe pilot is quite unaware of it; but atthe worst, the maximum effect shouldfall short of exciting rel1exes or paraly­sis of muscles so as to cause temporaryloss of control of the glider. The currentsand times involved are of the order ofmilliampS and milliseconds. Obviously.if large currents occur, permanentdamage to the body can be caused.

Voltages can be induced in the follow­ing ways;(i) Electromagnetically. 1£ a large and

varying current (due to a lightningdischarge) passes through conductorsin the glider. a voltage will be in­duced in the pilot himself. A typicallightning flash would involve amaximum current of 100,000 amps.,the duration of the flash being about10 microseconds. Shielding the pilotby 8 conductors disposed symmelri­cally around him would usually

limit the induced voltage to anacceptable value.

(oH) Electrostatically. If the .pilot is In­sulated from the glider, and the latterbecomes electrostatically chargedwith a high voltage relative toearth, there will be a potentialdifference between the pilot and theglider. depending on the variouselectrical capacitances of the pilot­glider'"Cafth system. If the pilotthen touches the glider. he willreceive a shock. The screening men­tioned abQve just about suffices toreduce this effect to an acceptablelevel.

(iii) A further effect can be produced asa result of a lightning flash close tothe glider, when .a ·current passesthrough the pilot as a result of therate of rise of voltage during thedevelopment time of the discharge(about 100,000 v. in a few milli­seconds). This also depends on thecapacitan~ of the pilot with respectto earth. The efficacy of the abovescreening in this case is not veryweB established. and the only realprotection consists of covering allthe surfaces of the cockpil with aconducting substance.

Another effect, {lot mentioned in Ref.1. is that various metallic parts of thegl·ider. if insulated from one another, canachieve different potentials, either by in­duction or by electrostatic charge. Largepotential differences can therefore existbetween. say, the control column and therudder pedals, since the associated con­trol runs are often independent. A par­ticularly grave danger can occur duringa winch launch when the pilot. holdingthe stick. achieves some very high poten­tial and then takes hold of the releaseknob. which is connected to earth viathe winch cable.

All of the above relates to protectionof the pilot. If possi'ble. one would liketo protect the structure of the aircraft aswell. Both Ref. 1 and British Civil Air­worthiness Requirements Section Dpropose broadly similar measures: a"main earth" system of conductors is

315

Bow '10 gel uSlULPl.A1VE AND Gl.mDlG""Sailplane and Gliding" can be obtained in Ihe U.K. al all Gliding Clubs, or send

24s. (post incl.) {or an Annual Subscriptjon 10: The ·Britis.h Gliding Association, 75Vicooria Streel, London, S.W.1. Single copies and most back issues are also available,price 4s. (,po.l incl.), Enquiries regard.ing bulk orders of 12 or more copies, al wholesalepric·es, should be made to The Brilish Gliding Association,

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run along the fuselage and across thewings. "Stricker plateS" at the extremi-,ties of the machine, and all significantmetal components. are connected to themain earth system. Section D providesa more elaborate earth system than thatproposed by the P()lish authqritills, butwith appreciably less screening for thepilot. The main earth conductors speci­fied in Section D seem remarkably small(flat copper strip with a cross-section of0.009 sq. in.). A rough calculationsuggests that, even more remarka·bly,such a conductor' should take 100.000amps. for about 30 mioroseconds. Thiscalculation is very rough indeed. andprovides little guidance about effects ont.he ad.iacent structure. The mechanicalf@rces on the conductors, are likely tobe very large, and the copper would beon the verge of melting. IncidentallY, theheat input reaches the staggering figureof 450 megawatts per foot.

Putting BCAR-type bonding into atypical single-seat glider in the course ofconstruction would involve a weight pen­alty of about 12 lb. and would ,pmbablycost £35-£40. (The Polish weight estimatefor the Bocian is 22 Lb.) Installingsimilar bonding ,in an existing gliderwould be an extremely difficult andc()st-

316

Iy exercise, and the BGA TechnicalCommittee felt that it would not begenerally acceptable as a mandatorYmodification. ,It was. therefore, decidedto concentrate on an inex.pensive andsimple form of bondinp; which wouldprovide a useful measuT.eof protectionto the pilot only.

The type of bonding finally adoptedconsjsts simply of connecting tOl/:ether allthe .control runs which end at levers orknobs in the cockpit, together with anyother significant metal parts with whichthe pilot is likely to come in contact (e.g.the instrument panel). So far as the slowbuild-up, of electrostatic potential isconcerned. the pilot and all c.ontrollevers, etc. will be at the s.ame vDltage,and he is therefore unlikely to receive ashock from this souree (nor from thewiJ;lch-launcIi case mentioned a·OOve). Italso prov·ides some measure of screening,since the pilot is nartly surrounded bvin.terconnected push-rods. cables and theinstrument panel However, as Faradavcages ·go, these components only pro­duce a rather porous one. So there willbe some measure of protection againstvoltages induced electromap;neticallY. butnot very much, and considerable pro­tection against electrostatic charges or

other potentials anslftj:\ from effects inwhich the times involved ar.e milli­seconds rather than microosec@nds.

The j(lider structure and control runsare not afforded any significant protec­tion by this system. It will no,t. forexample. prevent the aileron cablesfusinj(. The intention. ho,wever, is thatthe pilot should remain capable of takinJ:emergencY action (such as baling-out)should the glider be damaged, and thathe should not suffer painful or disablingshocks in .less extreme circumstances. Theone recent occurrence suggests that thebonding of the Dart successfully achic'vesthese aims.

It is by no means clear that evenBCAR • type bonding would preventdamage to the glider in the event of adirect strike by a major discharge. Get­ting in the way of 100.000 amps. seemslikely to cause some bother, even if itgoes through the earth system ratherihan through control cables. The danjterof loss of control would doubtless beappreciably reduced. but rhe high tem­pera tures attained by the cond uctorsmight well lead to other dama!!e. Allthis. howe..er. is in the realms of specu­lalion.

To summarise. the BGA TechnicalCommittee has tried-apparently withsome measure of success - to providereasonable protection for the pilot at anaeceptal,)le . cosl. But lar!!e electricalstorm-clouds are inherently danjterous;they can ca.use serious damaj:\e to larl1;eaircraft. and the Technical Committee

- certainly would not claim that thepresent bondinJ: renders flight in suchclouds completely safe. We have simplytried to reduce the more drastic effects ofa strike. and pilots who wish to avoid anasty fright and the possibility of damaJ:eto the machine should a..oid suchclouds.

Of course. there is nothin,g to preventa.n owner installing r.eally comprehen­sIve. bonding to J:jve more complete pro­tectIOn. and the' Technical Committeewill. be very happy 10 provide derailedadVice to anyol1e wishinj( 10 do so.

Refere~e: J. ZIELINSKI: "The Prp­tectlon of a Glider against the Effects ofa LIJi(htning Strike, and AtmospherlcElectflclty," OSTlV Publication V (inFrench).

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at

DUNSTABLE DOWNSon

27th and 28th AUGUST

at

2.30 p.m.

Ascending parachutists.

Free fall parachuting.

Balloon races.

Glider aerobatics.

Display by T-iger Club.

Spitfire f1ypast.

1915 Fokker.

Glider races.

Replica of the 1783 Montgolfier

Billloon on view.

etc.. etc. ,etc.

Visiting aircraft byP.P.O. please contactDUNSTABLE 63419or by radio 130.4 mc/so

GLIDER AND HELICOPTER JOYRIOE5FROM 10a.m.

317

WHOM THE tBISHOP' JOINS TOGETHER,LET NO MAN PUT ASUNDER

(Sequel to: // Ain'/ All GlidingFeb.-Mar. issue, page 28)

Diamonds Are ForeverNo falcon struck me from the air.For far above I flewIn Golden Heights-my home was thereSafe was my heart from you.

In single splendour. waves I rodeOn Silver Journeys far afield,To no man was allegiance owedFor no man to my heart appealed.

Yet you. whose warmer methods. usedThe thermal bubble's !'Ower to flitFrom cloud to cloud. had me bemused.One glance from you and that was it'

And now my skill I pass to thoseWho queue to fly the Twenty-OneFrom circuit-bashing that I choseI get the same amount of fun.

And if, my love. my tongue is roughAs leaden-fisted turns you make.Do not despair or take the huff­Instruction's habit's hard to break.

No further glories now seek I.On gems my thoughts no longer linger.No trophies from the F.A.J.Can match the diamonds on my finger.

"Mal!"

RESPONSEOh for /he Win~s of a Dove ~

Ah! Got you! Now th<;re's no escape.I shot a racy line.

You feH completely for my charms.Please change your name to mine.

Together. side by side, we'll fly.In summer skies we'll play.Now no more solo stuff for usAnd only one will pay.

But what is this? You've hours galore!While I have but a few.And when we fly. why. you're P.lAnd I am poor P.2.

Alas. Cruel Fate! that I should fallFor one whose log informsOf multitudes of flights in chargeThrough Rain and Hail and Storms.

And should we fly in TandemIn Blaniks or Ka-Ts.I'll have a back seat pilotTo nag me thrOUjih the heavens.

With a "Watch your speed. you go tooslow."

And. "Now your turn is slipping."Until from my poor fevere<! browThe sweat is quickly dripping.

Then I will pine for days long past.When all alone I flew.The old 2B obeyed my handAnd talked not back like you.

Oh woman! STOP! Instruction's power'Has gone right to your head.There's but one craft that we can shareAnd that. my sweet. is (censored).

"Mac"

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and cross ecuntries. Cut the frustration and fly with us at tf;~ new gliding site.

Aero-tow facilities available 7 days a week. Ab initio power instruction, also

P.P.L. conversion from Silver C. All private owners welcome. Ideal gliding

holiday site. COMPTON AliAS AIRFIELD, SHAFTESBURY,DORSET. Telephone: Fontmell Magna 32.8

315

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COOK COMPASS MOUNTING MODIFICATIONBy "CHUCK" BENTSON

MOUNTING a Cook compass can bea problem, and the location usually

selected, for want of a better one, ison the side of the canopy above thepilot's e)bow. Disadv~nt<!ges o~ thislocation !Dclude separatIOn from instru­ment area, obstruction, and difficulty injudging angle of tilt acCtlrately. Conse­quently, man~ pilots require an addi­tional conventIOnal compass.

If a mirror is mounted on the gimbalat an angle of 45 degrees to the faceof the compass, the compass can beviewed horizontally instead of vertically,and ean be mounted at the top of theinstrument panel, or on the front ofthe canopy, where it will be more freefrom magnetic influences. The minimummirror size is t.75 ins, x 2.5 ins. Themirror should be directly above the dialof the compass, at 45 degrees, and asclose as possible. The mirror may bemounted by bonding to a piece ofaluminium shaped to suit the particulartype of gimbal fitted to the compass.

In my experience. the location of theeompass on the front of the canopy,with the top of the mirror just below thehorizon, seems to be most satisfactory.The advantages of this modification are:

(a) The compass is most easily seen andscanned..

(b) The angle of tilt can be veryaccurately judged, the compass ateye level, ensuring accurate readingsfor coming out on course or settingcourse.

(c) The indicator needle is seen torotate in the same direction as theaircraft is turning.

(d) When flying in a southerly direction,the points of the compass appear inthe normal sense, i.e. South. ahead;East, to the left; West, to the right.

I did not find it particularly disturb­ing that the numbers on the dialappeared as mirror images, and soonlearned to read them quickly. It wouldbe better if th~ instrument were fittedwith a mirror image dial so that it wouldappear normal when viewed in themirror; also, North could be arrangedto appear at the top of the presentationby reversing the pointer and dial.

I have found that the mirror mountingas described above greatly enhances theusefulness of the Cook compass, and Ibeliev~ that with this modification morepilots would find the Cook compasscompletely satisfactory as a primaryinstrument.

A THOUGHT OVER THE KNITTING NEEDLES

By AUNT MATILDA

IN m~' opinion fox-hunting is on itsway out-probably within the next

twenty years. Further to this (and foreveryone's sake, don't let's start a cor­res~Ddence about it) one basic reasonfor Its being on the way out is not thatthe Great B.P. is concerned about anyPossible cruelty to the fox, but Qecausepeople who hunt foxes are consideredto be a Privileged Class: and nothing~oUld be a grl?ater crime than .that nowa-

ays. UnluckIly for the ordmary com­[non 01" garden fox-hunter, their imagehas been ruined by a minority who con-

sider their superiority when mountedupon the Noble Beast sufficient to enablethem to ride over the countryside re­gardless of crop damage and to' insultthose humble peasants who get in theirway.

Now, Glider Pilots, let us have a littlethink about this and examine your con­sciences.. You, too, an of you, are aprivileged class. (Cries of Rhubarb,Rhubarb, My Old Man's a Dustman,etc.) Let's get that quite straight. Youare lucky en()ugh to have a full comple­ment of limbs, you are not in your

321

dotages, and you have enough brains tomaster a simple Theory of Flight andread what the A.S.!. says, even if youdon't understand the Rating System. Aswell as this, you have sufficient money.I know you will an immediately fall offyour seats laughing at this idea, but let'sface it, an awful lot of people cannotafford to glide--I mean, they really donot have sufficient lolly, not just thatthey just bleat about it like you lot.Further to this, an even greater numberof people never have had the oppor­tunity and good fortune to become ac­quainted with any flying machines, muchless those extraordinary beasts withoutengines.

So at some time, as you break thespeed limit along the back roads withyour trailer and glider (which you can'tafford, of course), someone is going toask you: "What have you got in thatbig box?" There you are, the bigglamorous Master of the Air in your.little cotton flying suit, your head stuffedwith lofty ideals about breaking rec,ords,and you confront this wretched nig.no~,

doubtless a Sunday driver with all hiSsticky kids, and to amuse your crewand demonstrate what a witty lad you

are, you answer: "An eight-legged polopony", or "a boa constrictor", or a"gir~ffe lying down on its side". Andeveryone laughs gaily except the en­Quirer and his sticky kids, who realisesomeone is taking the mid out of theirdad-who does not wish to again displayhis ignorance and so keeps quiet. Butyou, brother, have made an enemy-nota friend.

For years and years instructors haveemphaSISed to their pupils the impor­tance of being polite and courteous tofarmers. Strange, then, that only lastweek a farmer should have said to me:"If you know of any of those bl ... yglider pilots you can...." (unprintable).But don't let us think only of the land­owners, first priority though it may be.Let us also consider the man in thestreet and future public opinion. Do youknow anything about crocodile hunting?Of course not. Why, then. expect ,everycitizen to know about the subtleties ofyour chosen 'Sport? For your own sakes,give a courteous answer: be helpful.kind and smile . .. with 'em, not at 'em.

MANNERS, GENTLEMEN, PLEASE (ANDLADIES)!

THE

KRONfELD CLUB'14 BASEMENT

ECCLESTONSQUAI\l • SWI

THE. club .always h~s a comparativelyQUiet tlITle dunnll the summer

months, but this may be because somedo not appreciate that We are open everyweekday evening, 6-11 p.m. Wednesdaysis club night and there is always a talkor a film show-as will be seen from thelist opposite. We are always pleased tosee visitors to L1ondon fmm home orabroad. The annual subscription is still£2 and overseas and countrY membership

322

(for those living 40 or more miles fromHyde Park Corner) £1.

An interesting evening is promised forthe 23rd August when Roger Barrett.Chairman B.G.A. Flying Committee.will lead a discussion on competitivegIid·ing in the future whieh he has en­titled "Wither Gliding Compet'itioos".This will be an opportunity for everyoneto air their views.

A date for your diary is Wednesday.4th October, 8 p.m., when the c1ub'sannual Wine and Cheese Party will takeplace. Tickets will be 10s. at the doorand all are welcome.

AVlAnON ART SOCIETYThe Society exhibited at the Biggin HillAir Fair, the Nationals and the R.A.F.A.Annual Flying Display at North Wealci.

At the preview at Biggin Hill SheilaScot! presented a picJure on behalf ofthe Society to the C.O. of R.A.F.Abingdon. The painting, by Norma.nHoad, depicted the start from Abingdonof Beryl Markham's east-west crossingof the Atlantic in 1933. 'Among thosepresent were Edgar Percival, who de­signed the Vega Gull in which she flew.

The Society's annual exhibition andcompetition in the Kr<imfeld Club willthis year be held from the 25th Octoberto the I1 th November inclusive.

For those interested in exnibiting­paintings have to be in by Tuesday,. 10thOctober. and entry forms the week pre­viously. Exhibitors must be members ofthe Societ.y: annual subscriptLol1 £2.

Y.C.B.

of Lectures and Film SbowsWednesday at 8 p.m.·

Training Experiences with aPowered GHder. Peter Jeffersand Peter Ross.Films: The Air Force MissileTest Centre, Airlift Hawaii andVietnam.Feature Film:(see posters).

Film: The Captive River.$t0ry of the building ofKariba Dam."Wither Gliding Competi-tioos". Discussion led byRoger Barrett.Ro'lls/ Bentley Pageant 1964Muloorina. Land speed recordattempt by Donald Campbell.Air Touring to Portugal withLuton Flyang Club; arrangedby John Argent.Feature Film:(see posters),

• • •

Diary

July 26

Aug. 2

9

16

23

30

Sept. 6

13

20 AviationMaking..Mahaddieled),

Problems In FilmSq. Ldr. Hamish(previously cancel-

Sheila Scott· presenting the palntlnl( to the CO of RAF A bingdon,Group Captain R. A dams.

323

"POSSIBLES" COMPETITIONBy ANN WELCH

THE original idea of the "Possibles"Competition was to enable the con­

tenders for the British Team to flyagainst each other in the same tr-pe ofaircraft. This now proved impoSSible toarrange in the short tim~ available, andso pilots continued to use their owngliders.

The Competition was held immedi­ately following the Nationals at Lasham.Although little or no new informationon pilot capability came out of the con­test, it enlarged the rather small sampleof 1967 performance, which was all thatwas possible in the Nationals weather,and confirmed previous knowledge.

The weather for the "Possibles" wasa great improvement on the previousweek, everyone being able, at last. todiscard gumboots. There were four taskdJlYS. the first allowing ~ 300-km. tri­angle to be set. Twelve "Possibles" flewthe task. as well as two hors concourspilots. Of these fourteen, thirteen com­pleted it. The only pilot to land out wasJohn Williamson in th.e new HP-14. Heran into heavy sink on the final glideand ground to earth only two fieldsshort. Had he got in, he would havebeaten the V.K. record by sevenminutes. and the next nearest competi­tor by 17.

The next day provided a 200-km. Out­and-Return. As conditions turned out.this could have been bigger, althoughthe weather area available precluded a500-km. triangle. All pilots completedthe course with flight times between 2~

and 4 hours.On 2nd June the forecast held out a

real chance of a 500 km. triangle. andthis was set. the course being Lasham,Corby Town, Sleap airfield, Lasham.Unfortunately a mass of rotten airmoved in much more extensively thanexpected from the East Coast and.literally, put a tongue out across thefirst leg. John Williamson and DavidInnes nearly reached the first turningpoint. but had to land in very poorweather. So that was the end of the first500-km. contest aHemp.t.

On the last day, the weather showedevery sign of reverting to its previous

32-1

enfeebled variety, although a reasonableperiod of thermal activity was expected.The course set was a flat triangle of 240km. : Lasham. Wylye Bridge (west ofSalisbury), Guildford Cathedral, Lasham,the gliders passing close to base on thesecond leg. The weather did not brewproperly, so the first turning point waswithdrawn to Andover airfield. In almostdrifting conditions everyone set off in arelaxed mood since tbe task was justgoing to provide some pleasant flying,rather than prove much competitively.Four out of the sixteen pilots flying onthis day completed the course-JohnWilliamson, now in a Dart 17. with fas­test time. The others were John Cardiff,Colin Donald and Andy Gough.

The "Possibles" Competition thenended with the meeting to select theBritish Team.

Organizationally. the "Possibles" Com­petition was very interesting. It showedthat a competition of up to fifteengliders flow'n by experienced competitionpilots can be run completely by onlythree pe:>ple apart from tug pilots. Thedivision of labour works as follows:

Person I. Obtajns met., sets tasks,gives briefing, controls laun­ching. logs take-oO's, andassists in start and finishline timing.

Person 2. Prepares briefing boards andturrung - point information.sets up and is responsiblefor timing of start andfinish lines. and providesseorers with log sheets.Assists if necessary in or­ganizing retrieves_

Person 3. Assists in marshalling take­offs, develops and assessesturning - point photographs,works out and producesdaily and final scores, andtakes retrieve messages, ifany.

This is, of course, only practical with(a) pilots who are willing and able tomarshal themselves in the right order,when everyone has radio; and whenphotography is used for obtaining evi-

dence of rounding the turning point, and(b) organisers working well as a team.There w~,re other. reas~ms ~hy t~e"possibles CompetitIOn, ID spite of Itshi2h-key na~ure, wa~ fun. In theNationals, with 80 .ghders, the org~n­izers have, of necessity, to nm the thmgon a formal bas~. Changing. the !ask atshort notice, asklD~ some pilots If theyconsider that the right moment to starthas come, and avoiding controlled air­space cOf!lers with "un,:",ritten" extraturning POIDts are u~practl~al, an~ couldresult in some unfairness ID a big com­petition. In a small expe~ contest theyprovide no problem, and give extra flexI­bility to get the best from the weather.

Such a competition tends, also, tohave a higher proportion of closed cir­cuit tasks, which reduces retrieving.Since crews were short in the "Pos-

/..~ eu.i;;',~;2J~ .4-77 r~c4-_I~~ Ar /3J~ .....1­.stowe.S~ _S~~.,(S~

b~ AA.aa,...~ te..t-MI'!:.C ~~ ha.~t1'rj~.v/~~~ ~~.s~ ~ Ulhurc.'tU h, CPt~ ~

1 k

4An informal landinR certificate.

.JOBN BVLMESwaffham Road

Bottisham. Combs.Phone: 323

forREPAJRS, ( of A's, OVERHAULS,

and T.2Ib. HIRE

sibles", it was agreed that all trailersshould stay at Lasham until the gliderslanded. This work~ very well, withcrews driving for eaeh other's pilotswhere this helped. The stay-at-home rulewas relaxed on the' 500-km. day, so thatthere should be no risk of the n:ext day'sflying being compromise<!. In the event,this did not matter. Having crews atbase also helps communication betweeneveryone, due to the extra quantity ofradios on the field.

Arising from the unusually high quan­tity of cloud flying which the 1967Nationals produced, the "Possibles"Competition was run with eommon alti­meter settings, and as far as possiblea common cloud-flying frequency. Forthe future a single cloud-flying frequencyis essential Apart from reducing theactual risk of collisiDn, which is small,it will enormously increase peace ofmind, which in a major championship isimportant.

In any gliding competition the bestpossible met. arrangements are thosewhich the Met. Office kindly provide forthe Nationals. If this cannot exist, thenext best is to be able to telephone agliding met. man at his office after get­ting the general picture from the BBC.One knows by then the questions to ask.We were most grateful to Peter Wick­ham for this arrangement.

I would like to end by thanking RikaHarwood and Ray Stafford Alien formaking up such a fine organizationalteam, Pete Dawson for being the univer­sal retriever, the Lasham staff instructo'rsfor their great co-operation, and finallythose Lasham members who 'W,ere long­ing for a launch at the same moment asthe "Possibles" were getting airborne.

325

POLISH GLIDERSFOR HAPPIER. SAFER GLIDING

_...--1

HERE ARE JUST TWO GLIDERS-BOTHO'ESIGNED FOR PERFORMANCE FLIGHTS

UNDER VARIOUS ATMOSPHERIC CONDITIONS.

SINGLE·SEATER, FOKA 4is IIuilIIl tIIItar.. 1Ii1Jllile slllld"d tlIss If OSIIV. 1lI~ is desilftlld Ief tJIlrf8lmance

mghls under an, almosph8lU: COflditiens.

Wilt Slllll: 15.fIU. Asped IQ: 18.5. Ilesl glidilll 111.: 34

Hever exceed sII'd: 260 kilomekes per hour. Rying weight: 386 kiloR/ammes.

TWO-SEATER, BOCIAN011118 il3 mlny Might q..lities IHIlIw millg thrlrlllic ClIIIditians. aocia is SliIdJlIIr

1111_" 1lIIIIr'" 1liPIl, ThIlillls' _Is "" • tlldllll, and !bete lie CMtJIedcontrol colullln~ which mike tile grrder id..r for ba.!ic trlining.

Wiag SllII: 18 .ella. A$IIICI rll.: 16.5. Its! Prlq ralil: ~

HMI tueed .: lOO kiIttIIekes P!!I he!!<. F~ifli '"'itM: 525 lulllirammes.

326

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LIGHTNING AND COLLISION IN CLOUDBy pHILlP WILLS

THE Thursday evening before the startof practice week for the Nationals,

Iustin arrived at home with the D.arttrailer and a face of doom, announcmgthat, to get his Diamond height, .he hadgone into what seemed a decaymg cu­nim somewhere near Banbury, and at21 000 ft. the only lightning flash in thecl~ud had struck the machine.

Possibly bec.ause this last winter wehave all had our contIols bonded, hehimself had only received a slight shock,and Kittv and I were so relieved to havehim back that the damage to the Dartwas almost a pleasure. The lightninghad struck the tip of the metal web ofthe metal {wood bonded spar, about 5ft. from the wing-tip, burning a holethrough the ply bottom surface of thewing, ran to the opposite wing-tip, andburnt its way out through an identicalhole in the ply at the same point there.

This left me without a pair of wingsfor the Nationals, but that is anotherstory, illuminated by the sportsmanshipof Ron Cousins, who provided me withanother pair.

Then ensued the worst and wettestfortnight in gliding history, on the lastday of which the Army, in the shape ofTony Deane-Drummond (Ka-6E) and theAir Force (Paddy Kearon flying anSHK) collided with each other in a cu­nim north of Oxford. Damage to theKa-6E was relatively slight, but with itswing sheared through well aft of what ithas instead of a spar, the SHK was onlyby a miracle brought to earth in onepiece.

Lightning strike and collisions incloud - two of the most dramatichazards of high-peTformance gliding. Wehad better look at them a bit moreclosely.

Within the past six years I can recallat It:ast six cases of lightning strike inc~-mms in this country. In these, fiveaIrcraft were damaged, ,one destroyed,iill~lilots fairly seriously shocked, one

The curious thing is tbat, prior toth~t, I cannot remember any cases ofthiS sort in this country at alJ, but IconclUde this is simply because only in

the last few years has there been anysufficient number of flights in cu-nimsfor the actuarial consequences to showthemselves.

I must do some wildish guesses here,but I should be surprised if during thissix-year period there had been morethan an average of 100 flights a year incu-nims. If this is so, the risk of adamaging strike in these clouds is of theorder of I %. This risk is reduced in ametal aircraft, and by ,bonding the con­trols in a wooden one, but nothing canavert catastrophe in the event of a directstrike. Although the single fatality wehave experienced is insufficient to formany conclusions as to the order ofcatastrophic risk, it seems to me that thissort of general risk figure is altogethertoo high, and nothing can be done aboutit except to keep out of cu-nim.

Coming to 'cl04d-coIlision risks. Ithink we have had two such collisionssince the war, one aircraft lost, nocasualties. In this time there have cer­tainly been tens Qf thousands of cloudflights, So the risk is much smaller thanthat of lightning-strike in eu-nim. But inthis case it is p'ossible to reduce it stillfurther by senSIble use of radio, and theBOA is working on a scheme which, ifpracticable, will soon be promulgated.

I have written these notes in a hurry,to catch this issue of S. & G., so I havenot had time to check my figures as Iwould have liked. But I am anxious toget the general picture over without de­lay, as I believe it to be.

DONCASTER

~ ~SAILPLANE SERVICES

LINE SIDE TOWNENDYORK ROAD. DONCASTER

Phone: OD02. 65381

327

ACROSS THE GANGETIC PLAIN AT 76 Km/h

O N the second day of the First In­-- dian National Gli{!ing Rally, theMet. predicted ground winds 10 kt.,likely to go up to 19 kt.. in the after­noon; at 2,000 ft. 3300 /25 kt; 5,000 ft.,310 0 /30 kt., 10,000 ft., 290° /28 kt. TheTask Committee decided on Free Dis­tance.

Maps started coming out and A. K.Sunderajan (Birla, Kartik I) and V. B.GUPla (Delhi, Kar~ik II) declared Sultan­pur as their goal, while the other three,V. V. Nanda (Kanpur. Ka-7). F. J.Ghaswala (Ahmedabad, Kartik I) andmyself (Deolali, Kartik 11) declared I.I.T.'Kalyanpur Airstrip, Kanpur, as our goal.I was the last to take off. at 11.15 I.s.T.

At 11.46, cable was released at 1,000ft. (300 metres) and immediately I en­countered 0.5 to I metres lift which tookme to 800 m. in 25 mins. It was hardgoing, and during this time I had driftedto Badarpur, about 15 km. from Safdar­jung. Meanwhile Ghaswala had alsojoined mealJd now we were just tail­chasing each other and allowing our­selves to drift with the win<!. The liftdied out arid we started heading towardsFaridadad. Height got lost rapidly and Iwas down to 500 m. before I could en­counter lift and climb back to 800 m.•only to come down again.

I was down to 300 m. this time whenI saw ripples. in a wheatfield on theother side of the River Jamuna andnoticed a kite soaring rapidly over it.Immediately I dashed towards it. crossingthe river at probably the lowest possibleheight that so far anyone has done, andcau·ght that God-sent lift at 250 m. Thelift was a fairly good one. about 2 m.per second, but very rough, and in 15millS. I wall at 1,600 m. and croSlled theMat branch of the Upper Ganges Canaland struck the main railway line nearWair. A series of good lifts, followedby fast dashes at 60 m.p.h., saw me by­pass Aligarh two hours after my take­off.

From Aligarh I started keeping my­self between the Ca,wnpore branch of theUpper Ganges Canal and the G.T. Roadand was making fairly good progres~when about 15 km. before Mainpuri I

326

started feeling sick. I was in a severedowndraught and was down to 300 m. Afield was kept in sight when I struck apowerful thermal. ReJieveil. and feelingon top of the world, I climbed to 2,000m. and then the next hour saw me work­ing a number of good thermals anddashing between them at 80 m.p.h.

From Mainpuri I had started follow­ing the Canal, but when it bifurcatedand started going too much off mytrack, I left it and once again started acompass course of 120 0

• After I hadcompleted four hours ·of ftight, 'a severe6 m. per sec. downdraught brought medown once again to 300 m. from 2,900m. As the last few thermals were verygood, I had not bothered to take a ther­mal till I was down to 2.000 m. and fromtITis height. when I started looking forone. I could not find any. My only con­solation was that I had crossed 300-km.line for Gold C distance leg. However.at 300 m. a dust devil was encounteredand up I went in -I to +6 m. per sec.rough lift. The lift took me to 2,000 m.After one more thermal I saw the hangarand UT. Campass 10 km. away andmade a straight dash for it from 1,600m. at 60 m.p.h.

Flight over, a feeling of joy and ananti-climax were experienced. It wasSunclay and there was no one near by.Mter some time a Chokidar was see;]and I called him to come and help meto take the glider to the hangar. A callwas sent to Area Control. Delhi andDelhi Gliding Club through KanpurFlying Control. and then I was taken tothe visitors' guest hostel of I.I.T. by Mr.J. W. Gleott, the American' test pilotattached to I.I.T. and an official observerof the Aero Club of India. who alsosigned my landing certificate.

The flight of 379 km. was completedin 4 hrs. 58 mins., giving an average of76.30 km. per hour. It gave me Gold Cdistance and a Diamond for goal-alsosecond place in the Free Distance con­test, first place going to A. K. Sun­derajan, who landed near Rai BareH. 20km. short of his hoped-for 500 km.

DINESH CHANDR."

HOW GLIDING BEGAN IN TANZANIABy COLlN PENNYCUICK

I WE.NT to East Africa to see the wildbeasts and birds in the Serengeti

National Park, but this proved to be lesseasy than I thought. Covering the 4,000­odd miles to Nairobi took 12 hours. butthe further 200 miles to the Serengetitook 5 days as it turned out; not, of course,plodding across the wilderness. but wait­ing for an .aeroplane. staying luxuriouslymeanwhile with Touy Hyde, the C.F.I.of the Nakuru Gliding Club. I was notsorry to get in this way an unlocked-foropportunity to visit this celebrated club.the hospitality of which is well known toS. & G. readers from the accounts ofvarious visitors.

I went u.p there on a Saturday andmet Rim Molineux, who was wheelinj!out his brand new.. immaculate Ka.-6.which he had only had for 3 weeks. Ipaid it a few well-deserved compliments.and to my ama2;cment he strapped meinto it and launched me. You can't bemore hospitable than that. It was 4 p.m.and Bim apologised for the state of thesky, wb·ich, he said, c().IJld hardly beconsidered soarable. The cumuli hadflattened out and there was no sunshinewithin reach of the winch launch. How­ever, I found some weak lift at 800 ft.above the ground, and a(ter some care­ful scraping it built up into a brisk ther­mal. I seemed to get no nearer c1oud­base and became suspicious of Rim'svario. but when I eventually got there(~t 14,500 ft.) I found I was going UJ)lIke a rocket-it just took a long timebecause it was so far to go, even withthe ground being at 6,000 Ct. I cruised~apJ)iIY around at 13,000 ft. plus for an

OUr or so admiring the scenery. andeventually fumbled my way down shortly~efo.re sunset. After this promising intro­

UCUOI'i to East African gliding I had to~cllO~ a pressing invitation from BrianC ~k:'lDS (now Tony Hyde's successor as

. .I.) to stay. and get on a nocturnalbfs back to Nairobi to catch my acro­I' ane to the Serengeti.N~ccording to the original plan, the ex­b uru T-31, which was being bought~r Hug~ Lamprey, the Director of the

engett Research Institute, was to have

been aero-towed over there the week­end before I arrived. but they had to doan aero-towing experiment, which wentall right, and then they landed, and therewas this ditch. and. well. I went to seethe Insurance broker in Nairobi. whowas very helpful and said everything wasbeing done that could be done; but itwas a fact that there was no T-31 in theSerengeti. This was not a bad thing as itturned out. as I spent a busy three weekslearning the names of the various beastsand birds, eSJ)ecially the vultures andother thermal soarers. I also weighed.measured and de-rigged a few. andlearned how to move around withoutgetting eaten, which is very important inthe Serengeti.

After Hugh had had a chat with someer his influential friends. the sawdust

I

Two lappel-/ace vultures in a thermal.Ow.ing to their wing loading, theircircling radius is about half that of aKa-6. Their span would be between

8-8~ /1.329

Hugh Lamprey during a breather in the Rift Valley-shortly before the wheel felloD the trailer.

began to fly in Nairobi, and about 7thJanuary or so we learned (to our care­fully concealed astonishment) that theT-31 was once again airworthy. Veryregretrnbly, however. no tug was avail­able to bring it across the 200 miles ofprickly wilderness separating it from theInstitute's base at Seronera. There wasnothing for it but to go and fetch thething ourselves, which was feasible asthe Nakuru Club had rashly offered to,lend us their trailer. At five in the mom­ing on the 8th we [boarded a LandRover and set off along the road. whichmay sound a straightforward thing to do,but I should explain that the ternl "road"in East Africa has a somewhat widermeaning than is usual in the BritishIsles. Roads vary from the tarmac kindwhich you just belt along, through dirttracks to chains of slithery sandpitswhich you negotiate, mostly sideways, iDfour-wheel crawler.

We ,picked up the glider at WilsonAirport, Nairobi. I asked if everythingwas there and examined ,it suspiciously.Struts? Yes. Wires? Amazing quantities.There were about the right number ofpins. all with safety pins. Were there anyinstrument panels, I asked. Ah yes, theysaid, the instrument panels~well, theywere in Nakuru, but could they send

330

them? We would get them in a week. Iwould only be there another week. Ipointed out, so we aIL reflected on thissad fact and eventually we shruggedphilosophically and set off.

For 40 miles we sped along the tarmac.in holiday mood, after which our roadleft the main road to cross the bottom ofthe Rift VaIIey, which is about 30 mile,Swide at that point. This -was one of theworst hits of "road". roasting hot. andmarked by tall columns of dust, at thebottom of each of which was a vehicleyawing slowly from side to side in th"sand, mostly in bottom gear. We bumpedand crawled painfuIIy across. greatlyhindered by a light following wind.which engulfed us in our own dost cloudwhenever we slowed down a little toomuch. so that we were forced to acceler­ate blindly into the opaque murk 1norder to get out of iL The sun was set­ting as we started up the slope at thefar side of the Rift Valley, congratulatingourselves on having passed the worst.

It was then, as night fell. that thewheel fell off the trailer. It did tills bywriggling around on the studs until theholes were so enlarged that tije nuts justwent through them, and tben it fell off.we had to admit defeat, and. after prop­ping up, the axle, removed the hub with

its tormented studs, so that Hugh couldtake it and the wheel back through thesand bath to Nairobi.

Glider pilots are always being accusedof greater ~evotion to their gliders thanto their wives. but how many of youhave spent a night with a T-31 in aderellct trailer in lion country? .1 wasleft behind. to ~end off the Masal. whoalso inhaoblt thIs area. and are apt toborro.w useful things like tyres withoutpermission. None came as it tumedout,and I spent the night and much of thefollowing day inside the trailer shelteringfrom the sun and dust, which I after­wards regretted when 1 learned that theMasai usually investigate any unfamiliarobject by stickoing their spears through it.Hugh returned about 3 ·p·.m. the dayarfter the wheel fell off, by which time Ihad nearly finished the iron rations (abag of nuts), and greedily devoured thesandwiches and orange pop which hebrought. The Ford people it) Nairobi haddone a magnificent piece of surgery onour hub and wheel which we fitted backon and found as good as new. Onceagain, as night fell, we clambered up, theRift Valley escarpment and pressed oninto the nighL

The going was somewhat better andwe made good time to Narok. afterwhich I took over. We had a nastymoment when two rhinos appeared inthe headlights. one of them cavortingabout just beside the road. The road wasquite good here. but surfaced with loose,grave!. and when I saw this rhino Istupidly hit the brakes. causing the LandRover and trailer to start snaking. Hughsaid very clamly, uKeep going straight"and at that the Land Rover straightenedout. more in response to Hugh's willP<?wer than because of anything I did~lth the controls. The rhino luckilyPivoted round to point away from theroad Just as we passed. and if it chargedus it missed.

IWe went through Keekerok, the last

P a~e in Kenya, at about 10 p.m., afterwhich the «road" degenerated into arUtled track. We raised a ragged cheeras we passed the notice board markingthe frontier, making Hugh's T-31 the~st glider to enter Tanzania-, and also

. ·Well. we think it 'was the first. In­dthlgnEdan~ denials should be addressed to

e Itor.

the Serengeti., which begins at the fron­tier. We stopped for refreshment at thesource of the Bolagonja River, a finespring set about with trees. and crashedthrough the bushes, torch in hand, to fillour water flasks. The place smeltstrongly of bUffalo. which made merather nervous, but Hugh knew some­how that there weren't any around.Further on we were .delayed momentarilyby a lioness who insisted on walkingrather slowly in front of us up themiddle of the road. and another timeHugh. who had taken over again,stopped and whistled tlp- a leopard.which came right UP to the Land Roverin the light of his torch.

We arrived safely at Seronera at 3a.m. on 10th January. which was a verysignificant day -in the history of Tan­zania. When we woke up we got theT-31 out and rigged it on Seronera Air­strip. As the Scientific Council of theSerengeti had met a few days before. theadmiring crowd which assembled towatch contained a number of d,jstin­guished persons, including. the Directorof National Parks. the Chief ParkWarden and two professors from over­seas. Seronera Airstrip is a mile lonf:.and we had laid out 1.200 ft. of fencingwire as an auto-tow line. To the up­wind end of this we attached a Toyota(a species of Japanese jeep), and to theother end the glider. The Toyota wasdriven by Hans Kruik. a Dutch zoolo­gist known for the dash and precision ofhis bush driving in pursuit of the fleet­footed hyaena. on which he is the lead­ing authority.

The sky was nicely sprinkled with.cumuli. and the only flaw in the scenewas the absence of an instrument panel.

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331

Luckily I happened. to have brought aCosim in my luggage, whieb I had tapedto the bottom of the hole where thepanel should have ~en, and also analtimeter. which I stowed down the- sideof the cockpit where I hoped I would bea,ble to get at it. I did not consider thelack of an AS.I. a serious drawback,what with no speed-to-f1y ~ale on theCosim.

The launch was a little slow, but onceI got airborne I went up all ri~ht. lean­ing OVer the side to watch the Toyota'sprogress. There was no time to fish thealtimeter out of the bih~~ to check mylaunch height. but Hugh said it lookedabout 700 ft. On the way up I noticed adust dev'il to one side of the run andabout half way alonR. so immediatelyafter release I turned and made for it. Ifound weak. lift and circled carefully,getting a:bout 2-3 green on the Cosim.With persistent scraping the eminent.gentlemen below dwindled into littlespecks like ev,erybody else. and soon Iwas at 12,500 ft., having to duck outfrom under the clouds to avoid gettinllsucked in. I s:ayed up a couple of hours.cruising about the local area and havingno trouble keepinll the T-31 above I J.OOOft. I soon got frozen rbeinll; dressed as atropical zoologist) and when I was sureeveryone must be impressed by myability to stay uP. I thankfully camedown to get warm.

After this highly satisfactory in­aug1,lral flight we spent much time angtrouble improving the I'aunching system.We lengthened the wire to 1.800 ft.. andfinding we could not get the full hei",h,tout of this on the airstrip, we exte.ndedthe run for another mile into the bushfrom the eastern end of the strip, Hu",hpioneered this route at full throttle. withthe glider (and me) attached. deftlyavoiding various difficulties which arenot mentioned in the B.G.A.'s !'iotes onnew sites. The more obvious hazards.like trees and termite mounds. are eas'ilydodged, but there is an animal called thewarthoR which diRS vertkal-sided pitfallsfor the unwary, a,bout two feet deep. andwide enouRh to hold one. or possiblytwo. warthogs. I never did find out whatthe warthog does with the earth. asthese hO'les never have mounds besidethem. and if you are driving flat out theeasiest way to find them is by fallinR intothem, which causes you to stop' instan-

332

AS-K13The two-seater glider fQr all through training,

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6416 PoppenhausenWasserkuppe. W. Germany

AS-K 13, K,8 S, Ka 6CR, Ka 6E

taneously_ The other animals. mostlyantelopes of various kinds. giraffes.hyaenas, ostriches and so forth, juststand around on the run, but mostlystep aside to let you pass. We had nolions on the run while I was there. al­though there are plenty armmd. but rgathered the thing to do is to look themstraight in the eye and keep going. For­tunately the occasional itinerant elephantswhich come to push over the trees mostlystay along the Seronera River. nearlythree-quarters of a mile from our run.which is just as well, as an obstreperouseleph3'nt on the run could came a verypoor launch.

Nimbly avoiding an hazards. we gotour launch height up to 1.200 ft. a.g.1.(the ground is at 5,000 ft.), and Hughdid some .lengthy soarin~ flights. Oneevening we did some dual in order to gethim his Bronze C. The first circuit wentall right, but the second launch wasrather hurried as there was a cu-nimapproachinR. As we went up the launchI saw that the rain was about a mileaway. and part of the cloud was over us.We got a splendid launch. the best wehad ever had two-uP. and after release I

was surprised to see the altimeter s~ootUP another 200 ft. when I tapped It Im ntioned thiS to Hugh, who said thegre n ban appeared to have stuck at thelOP of the tube, and then I noticed thatthe ground seemed to be receding inrather a striking way.

Now, getting sucked into an Africaneu-nim in a spoilerless T-31 with nooxygen or J)araehutes is not my idea ofa good idea. "Let's get out of this," Isaid. This seemed a straightforward planat the time, and Hugh turned and droveaway from the storm at 60 knots (we hadan A.S.I. by this time). Mler about twomiles of this hectic progress. with nosedown and wires shrieking, we had gainedaboUl another 50 ft., and I was gettinjl:nervous in case we suddenly flew intoturbulence at this speed, which is ratherfast for a T-31. I decided to try anothertactic. and, taking over, I appHed 70degrees of bank and full top rudder, andstalled it. We gyrated lopsidedly for abit and at last the altimeter began un­willingly to unwind. At 800 it. I deemedit safe to head back towards the air·strip. and, of course. we didn't make it.Hugh neatly sidestepped a nasty rash ofwarthog holes, and landed very smoothlyon an animal·free piece of ground. Welugged the ldider back to the airstripthroulth the rain. and kept further awayfrom cu-nims after that.

The reasons for my visit to Seronerain the first place were ornithological. andI was disappointed to meet only one ortwo birds on my first soaring flight. LaterJ watched Hugh soaring along withvarious vultures. a secretary bird, and alanner falcon, which he identified for meby radio. and in due eourse I soared withvarious yultures myself. If the vulturesWanted to gain height they took non~tice of us. and went past us up themIddle of our circle, but often theywould formate on us. Sometimes theyflew behind or to one side (}f the ldider,and a favourite place was a few feeta~ove the wing, looking over the pilot'ss oUlder-at the variometer, I suppose..

The vultures have wing loadings abouta t~lrd that of the T·31. and their aspectratios are arouod 7 or 8. This combina­Hon is forced on them, I suspect, by theneed .for adeQuate tak'e-off performance,:nd In s~aring both wing loading andspect ratIO are unduly low. They are

very ~ood at sitting in narrow cores; even

several thousand feet above the ground,but are only about as good as a T-31 ina straight Idide. Various species of vul­tures and other birds habitually soar upto c10udbase (usually 5,000 to 7,000 ft.a.g.!.) but when searching for food theyoften cruise about in straillht !-ines a1about 500 ft., putting their feet down.presumably to act as airbrakes, when theyfly through lift. They have an amazingability to maintain beillht a few hundredfeet up· without cirding, and th.ere is aneagle called t1:le Bataleur which special­ises in, this, and seldom goes up in ther­mals in the conventional way. Allvultures are indefatigable scrapers, andwill circle do~edly in any scrap of tur­bulence as low as 50 ft. As soon as onegets away in a decent thermal, othersusually appear like mallic from all sidesand join it. showing some, but by nomeans absolute respect for the estab­lished direction of circlinll.

One other thinll- I don't think theysmell thermals. I dissected a few, and ifthey had a sense of smell I don't thinkthey would be able to smell anythin~except themselves. The Serengeti ther­mals are not particularly smelly anyway.

Riipp~Jrs GrilJon 1'IIllure, showill1! Ihelow aspecr rario, recran./llllar. ri~slQ(lt.'d

winR rypical of thermal soarinf( birds.Span ahollr 8 fr.

333

On the long tow home·you .appreciate the advantages

of Rubery Owen independenttorsion bar suspension.It is the only SQspnsion

really suitable forglide~ trailers.

334.

GLIDING CERTIFICATES

19677.12.66

9.57.5

25.4

DIAMOND GAIN OF HEIGHTNo. Name Club 1%73/53 L. S. POUItOD Midland 19.13/54 C. Slack Phoenix 18.23/55 C. C. Foot PhoeniJt 18.23/56 P. E. Dawson Phoenix 18.23/57 R. Kirkland Eagle 21.23/58 E. J. Morris Odiham 21.2

DIAMOND GOALNo. Name Club2/220 L. S. Poulton Midland2/221 G.B. Atkinson Leicester2/222 D. C. Austin Phoenix2/223 J. H. Wheeler Eagle

GOLD C COMPLETENo. Name Club 1967168 L. S. Poulton Midland 19.1169 J. N. Stevenson Scottish 2.1170 C. Argent London 12.3171 G. B. Atkinson Leicester 9'.5172 D. C. Austin Phoenix 7.S173 J. H. Wheeler Eagle 5.4

GOLD C GAIN OF HEIGHTName Club 1967T. Slack Phoenix 21.2K. L. C. Phipps Phoenix 21.2A. V. Hartfield Eagle 21.2R. C. Cosser Imperial Cot. 2.1M. T. Hill Midland 22.2H. Dyce Fulmar 25.2G. D. Preddie Scottish 2.1Mrs. R. Partridge W. Wales 28.2S. B. Marshall Scottish 4.2K. J. Byatt Airwa~ 18.3G. B. Atkinson E. Midlands 18.3M. J. W. Harper Bristol 18.3E. A. Staton Midland 23.3J. T. Morgan Bannerdown 11.5

N SILVER C COMPLETE192' Name Club 1%7193~ A. R. Milne Scouish 2.11934 J. E. U. Walla"" S. Command 7.10.641935 ~ Farmer East Midlands 23.21936 . S. Davenport Fenlanlt 5.31937 g. R. Hodgson Fenland 1.3193 . Flogdell Feoland 1.3193~ ~. C. CoUin. Coveptry 16.31940 . A. North Aldershot 14.31941 A· J. Brooks Bristol 18.31942 . Johns Swindon 19.31943 D. W. Fea.o.n Wycombe 3.41945 ~. R. A. Maitland MIdland 20.31946 G' A. McGinn Bann.mown 23.3

. A. Humer Fenland 3.3

1947 J. A. Lynch Bath 19.31948 A. B. Mi1ne Scouish 30.31949 J. Pignot Wrekin 28.319SO P. C. B",y Bristol 15.31951 B. T. Kelly Bicestcr 31.31952 P. B. A. Thompson Surrey 1.41953 S. K. Marsh Midland 19.31954 B. W. D. COutts Bannerdown lA1955 M. F. Meek Southdown 24.31956 C. Brooldie1d Chiherns 25.31957 W. E. Shackle 618 G.S. 1.41958 F. Turner Dorset 16.41959 A. V. Amold N.W. Ireland 18.12.661960 A. Machin Cleveland 24.31961 A. W. M.unton Wrekin 22.31%2 D. V. Stcunor Thames Valley 16.41963 A. Baggalay Hand1ey Page 22.41964 E. R. Belhin Booker 18.41965 C. W. D. Watson CranweU 23.31966 E. Ain.cough Midland 29.31967 J. Cawthorne Bicester 21.41968 D. A. Bow1ey Phoenix 29.41969 W. I. Kvte Moonraken 16.41970 R. G. Hallon Kent 26.41971 R. Larkinson Staffordshire 22.41972 R. Comb. Shape (France) 15.8.661973 G. F. Bailey Bath &. Wilts 29.31974 C. P. Hopkjns London 3.51975 J. D. Beckett Bieester 30.41976 P. S. Bryan 611 G.S. 22.419771 G. D. Butler-Madden Fenland 11.51978 E. N. B3ker Thames Valley -9.S1979 J. Mc1myre Nimbus 10.51980 B. H. Latimer Thames Valley 2.5

THERE'S ONLY ONE "0"in

SOARINGin Canada it stands for

o for Sajlplaneso for Instrumentso for Towropes

o for Accessorieso for Serviceo for Information

Box 26, Sm. D. Toronto 9

Oh to keep 'em Flying

335

WESTERN REGIONALS

Nympsfield 17th·25th June

THE 33 competitors at this year'sBristol Clul!lcompetition were only

able to fly on two days out of a"possi1>lenine-and o,ne of these was a 1~5 maxi­mum-point contest! A succession oftrougbs and fronts that advanced, slowedand eventually stopped over the Cots­wolds brought impossible gliding weatherin the middle of flaming June. Pilots andcrews took to hydrogen ballooning, golf.bird-watching at Slimbridge and increas­ing the bar profits of the Lulsgate Arms.

Day I-18th June-TAsK: 140-km. Tri­angle, Broadway Tower, FaringdonFolly. Nympsfield. X=25 km.. Y=50 km.

From a dear blue sky at 13.00 de­veloped unforecast ,cu. co,v,er whichspread to 8/8 whilst most competitorswere still on the first leg. Ralph Jones

(hors cOllcours in a SHK) and TonyGaze (Dart 17R) pair-flew from abQuthalfway round the triangle and eventu­ally landed at Aston Down-just 3miles from the finish.

Day 2-2:lst June-TAsK: 116-km. Raceto, Husbands Bosworth. X=30 km.,Y=60 km.

A 20·knot westerly and a front due toreach the middle of England by 15.00gave the opportunity for a face to theCoventry Club's site.

Thermals were strong but rather diffi­cult to use up tQ about 2,000 ft. a,bov,esite. Higher than tbat and up to clOUdbase (about 3,700 ft.) conditions werevery good-as Ralph Jones showed byfinishing in a time that was 30 minutesbetter than the next man! Barey Golds­borough, llying a Sky, finished highestamol)llst the pilots who were seeking a

FINAL RESULTS I WESTERN REGIONAlS

Place H"cap Pi!ol(.) Sailplane Dale Oune) 'Telal% I .... 21st POi'811

1. 95 R, Jones (Hors Cone,) SHK-I lZ5 1174 1Z992. 115 1. B. Gold,borough Sky 33 1000 10333. 100 J. A. findon Dart 15 11-7 803 9204. 95 F. A. O. Gaze Dart 17R 125 777 9025. 100 11,. Q. Barren Dattl?'1l - 8,36 862

E. Hull 26 -6. '>S C. G. Day Dart 17R 5 777 7H27. 95 M. H. B. Pope Dartl7R t,> 759 7788. 100 D. W. Lilburn Skylark 4 17 734 7519. lOO D. W. Corric~ S~d. Austria 19 721 740

R. H. PCUOtl'10. 105 1. S. Wade Olympia 463 I 701 70211. 100 1. L. Smoker Skylark 4 23 668 69112. 95 E. J. Chubb Dart I?'R - 644 670

W. E. Malpas 6 -13. 95 R. H. Prestwieh. Dart 1711 41 570 61114. 100 R. W. Brighton Dart 15 - 576 604

R. C. Stoddan 28 -15. lOO M, B. Hill Ka-6cR 2 - 569f. J. Purchase - 557

16. 100 A. J. Watson K,,-6cR 0 210 27017. 100 H. Dr~w Siylark 4 - 207 212

Ann Weld> 5 -IS. 120 J. Webster Olympia 2. 3 171 17419. 105 B. A. Davies Olympia 463- 0 131 1.1120. 120 M. J. Gibl>ons Olympia 20 - - 37

2i.D. W. H. Roberts 4 33

100 K. R, Man,ell Dart 15 .17 0 1722.= 100 M. Wood Siylark"

I8 0 8

22.= 100 J. M. Hancock Dart 15 - 0R. R. Trott 8 - 8

24. 95 F. W. Fay Dart 17R 6 0 625. 100 C. D. Duthy·Iomes Sky'lark 3F 0 0 0

'136

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Our workshops guarantee first c:Iass C's. of A. and repairs carriedout by a highly skilled team under ideal conditions.

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Our experts are always ready to help solve your problem.

call in, write or phone-KEN FIIPPSouthdown' Aero Services Ltd.Lasham Airfield, Alton, Hants.Telephone Herriord 359

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rating.On 23rd June all competitors were

despatched, with trailers. to HusbandsBosworth. while the organisation flewover ,in the tugs all set to start Part Twoof the task-Ca1's Cradle d·istance to­wards the north, and the forecast-goodweather! .

Gliders were .positioned for a desig-

nated start, but the snifter sniffed to noavail under 7~/8 stratus. Reluctantlycrews derigged and 24 trailers completedthe return leg to Nympsfield.

Thunder and lightning provided anappropriate ending on Sunday, 25th June.The results (which will count for ratingPUl'poses) are as shown:

ROOER BARRETf.

WIN A SWALLOW COMPETITIONSemi-Fiaals Results for North and South Competitions respectinly

Cell/res Pilot Glidinf.? Club ExaminersPortmoak . T. Snoddy Ulster & Shorts R. N'''''e~a;';';v;';''es=----SUltan Bank P. S. Oglesby Ouse J. DelafieldHU~bands Bosworth M. C. Barker Derby & Lanes V. earr

NMe1r (Staffs.) R. Brown Lincolnshire. J. Ha.nds

ympsfield T. Gore Worcestershire P. Mmton

Dunstable D. West Imperial College J. ElIisRAF Locking T. Webster Dorset G. CollinsBooker D. Wyllie Surrey & Hants R. HubbleRAF Upavon P. R. Luckett Kent M. BaconPerranporth N. Ellis = Ist Cornish (they tossed J. WiUiamson

J. Daniel = 1st and Ellis won)Finals and prizegiving will be held at Lasham from 28th-30th July.

337

BOOK REVIEW

GLIDING: A Handbook on Soaring Flight, by DEREK PIGGOTI. Publishedby Adam and Charles Black, London, 1967 (2nd Edition). Price 30s.

THE revised edition of Derek's book, like the first, is quite excellent; it is ameasure of its excellence that many of the chapters written ten years ago are still

entirely valid and have needed no alteration. It would, indeed. be alarming for manyof us. schooled in the Piggolt tradition, if we discovered at this stage that Derek hadsuddenly developed profoundly different views about circuit planning, turning. land­ing. etc. For the most part, it is reassuring to find. the earlier chapters are reprintedjust as they were. with occasional minor alterations of wording and a few briefadditional paragraphs.

Important changes have been made in some of the later sections. Moderntheories about thermals are incorporated, with an interesting diagram on page 141that might, perhaps, have been better supported in the text. There has been someessential revision of the instrument chapter, and, of course. the J.S.W. glide calculatoris given ,a well-deserved page. The paragraphs on lightning have also been chanll;ed,but the dangers were by no means ignored in the earlier edition. so aga·in the altera­tions are mainly of emphasis.

There is no chapter, nor appendix, on powered training; perhaps it is too earlyfor this, though it won't be surprising if the next eDition has (0 be quite different. Itis, however, not too soon for chapters on the technique of flying with flaps, para­chute airbrakes and the use of radio. These are absent. It is therefore probably nolonger quite true to say the book comains "everyth,ing the glider pilot should know".It remains a thoroughly dependable standard work, well produced with many newphotographs, and will undoubtedly enjoy a continued success.

M.S.

Svaeftyve Hanbogen" by P. H. NIELSEN, P. TRANS and P. WEISHAUPT. Pub­lished by Flyv's Forlag, Copenhagen, 1966.

T'HIS "Sailflyiog Handbook", sponsored by the Royal Danish Acro Club, is afull-blown book of 350 Large pages printed on high quality paper. It starts with a

lavishly illustrated review of sailplanes of various types, including a two-pagedetailed drawing of the Dart reproduced fram Flight, and notes on internal structuraldetails. It goes on to cover aerodynamics, navigation, club organisation and equip­ment, safety, instruments and the many other aspects of gliding.

Meteorology gets the longest chapter with 56 pages, and includes tephigrams.One looks especially for the writer's ideas on that controversial subject, the structureof therma'1s; he draws a continuous airstream from the ground up to and into acumulus cloud, but in a section on clear-sky thermals he refers to them as "bubbles"with a short life of 10 to 15 minutes. Evidently a disciple of Georgii, he also classifies'''high- thermals", "evening thermals", "wind thermals" and "ocean thermals".

'The bibliography starts with Cloud Reading for Pilots" by Ann Douglas (nowWelch) and includes books by Ludlam and Scorer, Piggott, Stafford Alien, Wallington,and Lorne and Ann Welch.

A.E.S.

CORRESPONDENCEPROFESSIONALISM

Dear Sir,J feel impelled to point out some fallacies lev·ident in a recent letter from Mr.

D. Carey (S. & G., April. 1967) regarding his attitude to private owners (P.O.'s);

338

I admit to having joined this exalted class recently, after six years of workingtowards it, so undoubtedly I am prejudiced. too.

Of course, P.O.'s spend more time in the air, having paid for it. However.they generally require of a club the minimum of effort-usually one launch withluck. The wear and tear that club equipment and personnel undergo is almostentirelY the result of training procedures which involve hundreds of circuits andslogging retrieves.

In some cases, P.O.'s are to sQme extent subsidised by the effort of clubmembers. Generally. it's the other way round. P.O.'s generaJly form the backboneof clubs (even the BGA!); they provide instructors, experience and incentive. Thetrue "average solo pilot" that Mr. Carey writes about is all too often a personwho rolls up at the week-end and unfortunately misses out, but at this stage hisdub activities cease. A nucleus of devoted souls run most clubs, and do all thework:. This nucleus almost always includes P.O.'s (who have the biggest stake inthe well-being of their club). along with the most enthusiastic of the club solopilots. In many cases, the average week-end pilot's contribution to club activitiesis a moan that an aircraft wasn't made available to him at his leisure.

I am sure that, taken as a whole OVer all the people who require club ·effortexpended on them, the P.O. most frequently returns to the club value for effortexpended. I also realise that some hard-working solo pilots do get a raw deal. Mr.Carey, in his enthusiasm to capitalise on class distinctions, has forgotten the largenumber of people who join clubs, dabble at training, dabble at soaring, and grumblea'1l along that life hasn't been made easier for them, whilst makjng. no effort tobring this about. Ours is a sport requiring dedication and some sacrifices, whichis unfortunate. But until this situation changes, Mr. Carey's efforts might well bedirected more usefully towards eradicating the tremendous wastage of voluntaryeffort inherent in club operations (as he said previously: S. & G., Oct., 1965),instead of trying to merely make money out of many who provide that effort

Many people can easily become private owners if they are prepared to makesome sacrifices, unless, like Mr. Warren (S. & G., Dec., 1966), they refuse to settlefor anything less than a Sigma or HP-II. I get weary of people who won't flyan Oly 2 because it is so inferior to a Dart. Olympias hal'e done Gold Cs (1 didmy 300 Kms. in one and it was a piece of cake, with the right weather), and Ihave heard of people who have actually worked overtime, and given up smoking,to get into any Oly syndicate! The answer to many grumbles can often be foundin the argument of the grumblers.Australian National Univ~rsity. Canberra J. D. PICKED-HEAPS

OUR LOVE OF FREEOOMDear Sir,

I believe gliding enthusiasts are endowed above the average with a love offreedom. The British movement has until recently contrived to maintain acorres!'onding freedom in its administrative organisation, with a minimum ofbureaucratic regulation and interference, whether from inside :lr outside. This isnow changing.

Some people will justify the changes by pointing to cban~s in the design ofmodem gliders, changes in the attitude of and affluence of modern glider pilots.or even changes of Government! It is my contention that none of these factorsrelal.ly justifies those changes in the organisation and practice of the sport ofg Id109 which stultify freedom.

. Bureaucracy is not a monopoly of Civil Servants. Many of us must admit -to~n lOner urge tQ orderliness (though it's frequently unsatisfied). When it comes to

uman affairs, orderliness can only be assured by regulation-and this is wherethe cla~h with freedom occurs: Designated Start is more orderly and efficienttha~ Pilot Choice. Safe standards of !,ilotage or aircraft airworthiness are mOreeaSIly achieVed by the. adoption of uniform instructing or inspection methods; thesemust. then be enforced by regulation-in ever greater detail, from braided copperbondlOg wire· to Bronze C aerodynamics exams. If efficiency is the sole criterion,an organisation will be better and stronger if it is finally controlled from the centre

339

-~ven a "National Centre".For most people these problems really resolve themselves into the questjon

of where to draw the line. As with art, a better line will be drawn if one standswell back and views the particular question in the perspective of gliding as awhole. Many detailed regulatory requirements, while appearing desirable in theimmediatt' close-up context of the specialist problems they're designed to remedy,are seen as tiresome, time-wasting and nit-picking bureaucracy when examined inthe sunlight of .the big practical gliding world outside.

Please let us strive 10 retain our freedom, even if this ,involves some inefficientamateur fumbling.Londolt Gliding Club, Dunstable TOM ZEALLY

GLIDING HAZARDS THIS SIDE OF THE IRON CURTAINDear Sir.

Now that Great Britain stands on the threshold of joining the Common Market.it's timely perhaps fol' glider pilots to be informed cf some of the risks tbat canawait them the further side of the Channel in an entirely different world of adminis­trators.

On Thursday, 27th April, 1967, at 13.40 hrs. iocal time, a member of the GoldenRiver Aviation Club, finding thermal conditio-ns promisin~, set off in a club BreguetFauvette from Wevelgem airfield on a SO.km. distance fllgh,t to complete his SilverC. A northerly IS-knot breeze sped him on his way, and some three hours later hetouched down without mishap 200 kms. further, close to the Paris-Lille auto-routenear Scnlis, wh·ich lies 45 km. to the north of Paris. He dutifully informed the FrenchGend<lrmerie and the French Customs of his presence, an{! settled dc,wn with apleasant feeling of accomplishment to· await events, which were not long in forth­coming, though along some rather unexpected lines.

A phone call from a French Excise Officer in Paris ordered the Gendarmerie atSculis to arrest and imprison the pilot, to confiscate and impound the glider and towa·it their arrival. Our young club member was taken to and put into Senlis jail.where he passed the night and the better part of the following morning, deprived ofhis tie and belt as a common malefactor and with nothing to sleep -on but a hardplank. Food was provided after ,insistence through the kindness of a gendarme's wife.

Next morning he was taken in front of the magistrates and charged as a contra­ban<Jist for introducing into France undeclared merchandise in the form of a glider.He was released pending trial of the case seven weeks later, and the glider remainsconfiscated in the meantime.Golden River Aviatioll Club,WevelRem Airfield. Nr. Courtrai, Belgium. A. W. QODFREY

THE TEAM FOR POLANDDear Sir,

The method for selection of the team disclosed in S. & G. for June/July canby no process be described as democratic. The system outlined is a closed shop.Members of Parliament are elected by the franchised, not by a small group of M.P.'s.

It is time that justice must not only be done, but must be seen to be done,and everyone knows of ways of influencing or channelling a voting system of thetype described. I had hoped that my letter to S. & G. would have been publishedin this issue.

It is not a matter of making a better choice; how the remainder of the teamis selected is immaterial, or their order of precedence. Any of our top pilots arecapable of winning the contest. It is precisely for this reason that the reigningNational Champion should have a flying place in .the team, whoever i.t happens tobe. The over,iding point is that it has happened! What objection can there beto making the Champion an automatic selectIOn?Newbury, Berks J. E. CRAMP, A.S.L.A.E.T.

340

POWERED TRAINERS AND THE SCHEIBE "MOTORFALKE"Dear Sir,

r should like to express some opinions regarding powered sailplanes to readersof SAJLPLANE &. GLIDING, with particular reference to the "Powered Trainer Co-ordinating Committ~ Report" appe~ring in ~he April-May issue: ..

Firstly, concern109 powered sailplanes m general. A special classificatIOn forsailplanes with en~~nes was first establi~hed by the German autho:ities in 1956-57,and this has fac~latated development ID Germany. We at Schelbe FlugzeugbauGmbH have been interested in this development and. having built about 100 poweredsailplanes to date, can speak from some experience.

Emphasis can be placed on soaring performance, through retractable powerplant or t.he -like. ("pure" .sa~lplane with ~ower). o~ alternalively more on the pow<:redtlight regime, With the hmlllng case bemg the hght aeroplane capable of soanng;between these, the whole spectrum of intermediate forms is also availa:ble, e.g.. prac­tice sailplane with power plant. Our hitherto existing Motorspat:z and Motorfalketype are laid out more or less in the latter direction, while our new SF-27M. de­veloped in co-operation with A. Obermeier (llIerschwalbe), is decidedly a hillh­performance sailplane with engine.

It ·is our point of view that the powered sailplane should be designed to soar, andalso to do some things the plain sailplane cannot, such as:

Launch itself.Fly .as long as, as high as and as far as necessary to contact atmospheric lift,

and if this is not found to fly anyway.Retrieve itself from overland flights.Fly in and out from under airways or other areas with restricted operating

altitude.Self-launching and self-retrieving capabilities imply the emancipation of severalhelpers who would probably rather be soaring themselves, elimination of equipmentsuch as winch or aeroplane which burn fuel at a much more rapid rate than thepowered sai,lplane and a saving in the time needed to set all this ancillary machineryinto motion. Even without this support, the degree of utilisation possible, i.e.. thenumber of flights and flight hours which can be flown per day, is considerably greaterfor the powered than for the unpowered sailplane. In short, a successful poweredsailplane design allows more soarin~ a't lower cost.

Fortunately, a few firms such as Nelson in the D.S.A, SUTvol in France andSolo-Hirth in Germany hav!: been interested enough in this problem to produceen.gines specifically intended for powered sailplanes. Experience in Germany with theHlrth F·IO engine of 26-28 h.p., developed by &>10 in 1960-62 and built by Hirth­Benningen, has been quite good since its introduction in 1962. The F-IO powers theMotorspatz, Motorfalke, Krahe and SF-27M.

In their report, the Committee compared various hypothetical or still untriedpOwered trainer designs ("ideal project", "Er·ic Reed specification", R.F. 5) as wellas. ~everal light aeroplanes (Beagle PUJ}. Condor, Jodel D-117, Boelkow Junior), butarbnrarily dismissed the Motorlalke with the comment "unacceptable climb perfor­Thance for ab-initio training". We challenge this exclusion as absolutely unwarranted.

e fact is that the Motorfalke is the only machine considered which has actuallybeen shown in practice to have suitable flying characteristics. including ability tothke,off satisfactorily f~om most airfie.lds, for use in training !lliding pilots. It is truet at the Motorfalke, WIth a rate of chmb of 250-300 f.p.m. With tWQ occupants, fallsff: short of .the 500 f.p.m. called fa: i~ the "ideal" trainer speoificat~ons; ho.wever.c 1mb an~le IS, after all, the more slgruficant parameter from the pomt of 'VIew ofsafety, and in this respect the Motorfalk.e compares very favourably with the light:ero~lanes. such as. th~ Juni?~, being consi~ered. (The sine of t~e dim~ angle isIqua to the rate of climb divided by the lIlrspeed and, With a wmg-Ioadmg of 5.5a~s./~. ft. (compared with around 13 Ibs./sq. ft. for the Junior), the Motorfalke fliessa·saalplane speeds.) Th.e· Motorfalke has the low induced and parasitic drag of asailplane (wing aspect ratio over 15 compared with about six for the JuniC'r) and is

me 300 Ibs. lighter at gross than the Junior; quite obviously, a rather more341

sta.rtling difference in !(Iide angle, to say nothing of sink rate, would become evidelltthe instant the engines were switched off (or failed !).

In our opinion, one stands to gain considerable advantages by utilising a"powered trajner", i.e., a powered sailplane; however. ODe should strive in trainingto fly the trainer as much as possible without engine-to soar-and it ~bould there­fore have good soaring characteristics. It is our judgment that the engine power andclimbing reserve should not be too great, so that the milisatioD of lift remains ofinterest to the pilots. Our own view js diametrically opposed to the Committee'sadmittedly "surprising" conclusion that "the Qverall trend becomes progressively lessfavourable the closer the a·ircraft's characteristics approximate to those of a IIlider".In fact, we find nothing whatsoever among the results presented in Appendix 2 tosupport this conclusion. True, Col. 7, Fig. 2, gives smaller values for "Power FlyingTime Required Hours" for the aeroplanes, but these figures were derived by thearbitrary procedure of "'assuming six hours' total flying, power and gliding, in eachcase, and deducting gliding as aero-tows at 20 mins. each". In other words, theCommittee in deriving these figures supposedly revealing the estimated effects ontraining efficiency of differences in flying characterisLics of various possible trainers,did so on the premise that these differences would not affect the number of flighthours required. We can find little justification for th,is or many other assumptionsupon which the Committee's conclusions were based.

The inexplicable exclusion of the Motorfalke is especially peculiar consideringthat it is the only aircraft meeting the low airspeed requirement of the "ideal"specification, and that it has the glider flying characteristics which the Committeeconcludes are "essential" for teaching almost all ab initio exercises. While the Com­mittee was apparently very well informed concerning the R.F. 5, we wonder if it wasaware that the Motorfalke is priced at less than £2.000 ex-wor·ks, including instru­ments. Had they been fully advised of the facts .. their "value analysis" would un­doubtedly have shown the Motorfalke to be the "best buy" as a powered trainer forgliding, certainly among aircraft now flying.

In contrast to speculations a-bout designs and procedures which are still umried.a substantial body of supporting fact concerning the Motorfalke has already beengained sin<;:e delivery began in 1965. Results of a questionnaire returned by 30Motorfa!ke owners in autumn 1966 confirmed that a substantiae! proportion of flighttime had been spent gliding withaut power. Some 9,000 flights had been made UP tothat time. mostly self-powered (the Motorfalke can also be winch-launched withthe engine stopped). With about 4,600 flight hours, approximately 2,900 were withand 1,700 without engine assistance. Some 300 pilots were estimated to have par­ticipated in the flights.

A new vel'sion of the Motorfalke, with modified configuration and <;:onverted VWengine. is now being developed at Scheibe Flugzeughau. This machine will have ahigher rate of climb and will incorporate other improvements making the aircraftstill more ideally suited for use as a powered trainer.Dachau, West Germany

THE CHAIRMAN OF THE POWERED TRAINER CO-ORDINATING ();)MMITIEE commenas follows: ODe welcomes Herr Scheibe's comments because they reflect vi.ewbased on eXlleri~nce, of someone who is making a very significant contribution tIhe cause of the motor g·lider.

Much of what he says concerning the wider issues is strongly supported by aarticle which wm appear in the next issue.

On the question of the report and its exclusion of tbe Motorfalke:I. At this stage my committee is only concerned with the selection of a suitabl

"self-launching" aircraft for glider pilot ab-initio training-nothing more.2. We have good reasons, based on our own practical experiences, for the rate 0

climb requirement.3. The final paragraph of Herr Scheibe's letter suggests that in spite of hi

criticisms he does not altogether disagree with our findings. May we please havmore information from him soon about the new VW-engined Motorfalke?

342

MURPHY mobile transmitter/receiver130.4 m/cs. Dash-mounting. £35 o.n.o.Guest, Keats House, Harlow, Essex.21713/23422.

KITE 2. Rebuilt 1965. Major overhaul1966. Current C. of A. and Insurance.Fitted trailer, plus other extras. £400.D. H. Roberts, 85 Thomas St., Aber­tridwr, Caerphilly, Glam.

TRAILER, suitable for ,olympia orSwallow. Reasonable condition, goodtyres. 2 in. hitch. £45. Telephone Bristol76112.

SKY-!575 or offer. Inclusive recent(major) C. of A. Trailer also available.Excel1ent condition. Apply BiIJ Malpas,3 Linkside, New Maiden, Surrey. Tel.01-625'0030 (home), 01-564-5000 (office).

J8 ARTIFfCIAL HORIZON-£35. BillMalpas,3 Linkside, New MaIden, Surrey.

ONE large Trailer, suitable Blanik,Bocian or 419-£150. Also new UltraAir Set, £95. Box No. $0.267.

TRANSCEIVERS. G.E.C. Courier. Ultravigilant. Pye Bantam. From stock.Second-hand ,base transmitters and port­able transceivers V.H.F. from £15. Typeapproved by G.P.O. and A.R.B. RadioElectronics. North Bradley House,Church Lane. North BradJey. Trow­bridge, Wiltshire_ Phone Trowbridge5306.

BRAND NEW boot mounted Pye Cam­bridge complete two-way radio installa­tion, with dashboard contr-ol panel; bothfreq uencies. Thorpe Avia ti0n Ltd.. 177Lincoln Road. Peterborough. Phone68818 until 7.30 p.m.

460 Comp. No. 460, well equippc:d trailerand aircraft art. horizon, audo. vario,parachute. Low flying hours. £1,575.C. L Faulkner, Staden Manor, Buxton,Derbys. Buxton 2184 (home), 2844 (off.).

SHEAR-Pin Weak Link Wire .098 in.dia. galvd. 5/- per I'b. bobbin, plus 1/6post and packing. Doncaster SailplaneServices, Town End Estate, York Road,Doncaster.

FOR SALE

~ Joot G~noine B:I'~aiIU i.te~tt e'rcryoDe: •HUKe slOck. GOVERNMENT SURPLUS

CLOTHING AND EQUIPMENT. inc. flyingsuits from 25s.; flying belmets. anar2ks. OUI­door clothing, camping. immense variety ofmiscellaneous ex·Government. equipment. Eve-rso useful-you will be sure lo fiod somethinGyou need-and at 3 bargain price too! ~nd

TODAY for our 30·page CATALOGUE-8d.post free Or please call at LAURENCECOR ER. 62.-64 Hampstead Rd.. London.N.W.I. 2 mins. Euslon. Warren St. It will bewell worth while! Postal customers buy withconfidence-prpmpt despatch, refund guaran­tee. Dept. SG.

AJ}-;;rriJem~nlS. with ,emilrance. should be Sf!"' 1o Che;ron Press Lld., 5 CrawJord Street, London,11'.1 (01-93/5 28/d I:>e' s~:::e ,J 1/~1t a.a~~:d;'d:::;~~mum 21/-. Box nlm'/Jers 6/- exITO. Replies 10 Box~)e,.f slOU

SUPER TUTORModified wing spar, Spoilers. lO-yearInspection carried out December,)966. Also one year C. of A. from

that date.This machine completely re-coveredby Handley Page and is in First Class

condition throllldlout.Including Trailer capable, of carryingSkylark. Set of spares including wheelhubs. tyres, air speed indicator, wind-

screen, parts manual for machine.Machine at Dunstable with one year's

parking included.RUISLIP 6871 £250

GEN U INE reconditioned steel grey ex­RAF Flying Overalls. 47/6, postage3/6. State height and ohest measure­ments. Huge selection of camping equil'­men~, specialists in group camping. Tar­paulm & Tent Mfg. Co., 101-3 Brixton.::!.Ill, London, S.w.2. TULse Hill 0121.

DART 15. Modified wings. Ful1 panel,Pye radio and trailer. Provjns, 20 Mal­bern Crescent, Scalby Road, Scar­~gh. Tel. 3092.

~tITE I. Good condition with basic in.rurnents traJ'le C' f A B DSt bl ' . r, . 0 . asc un-a e. £300 o.n.o. Box No. S.G.269.

fiw YS a selection of light aircraft instock from £375 to £5,000. Your glideror your car welcomed in part exchange.40% deposit, bal.ance up to 2 years.Light Aircraft DIvIsIon, Shack-Iet?n A:Vla­tion Ltd., Head Office, 175 Piccadilly,London, W.!. Hyde Park 2448. Telex263975.

343

FOR SAtE (continued)

RAF-type single drum WINCH, FordV-8, some spares, at Booker (where nowall aero-towing). Cost £125. Offers toHARWOOD, CISAVIA, 8 Prima Road.London, S.W.9.

SKYLARK 4. No. 189, fully equippedwith Bendilt horizon. Cook ElectricVariometer plus audio, oxygen and allinstruments, covered trailer in excellentcondition and parachute. £1,470. D. C.Snodgrass, Flat 9, Fairhurst, TelscombeCliffs, Newhaven.

TWO T-21's with C. of A. Price £1,000and £900 o.n.o. One two-drum AECdiesel winch. Fluid flywheel v.re-selectorgearbox £700 o.n.o. Two WIld winchesFord V.8 single-drum. Offers. One FordDextra diesel tractor. £150. WycombeGliding Centre, Booker, Marlow..

1963 FOKA 3, only lOO hours, BritishC. of A. to July, 1968, complete withinstruments and trailer-£I,4'95. ThorpeAviation Ltd., 177 Lincoln Road, Peter­borough. Telephone 68818.

SKYLARK I1IB/F, with new C. of A.Equipment includes mull'i-radio. twovarios, one with audio. 750 litre oxygen,J8 transistorised self rigging trailer. newwinter bara, aB mods including aileronservos. Just resprayed, high speed finishred on white. Holds all U.K. waverecords. £1,300 with trailer and basicinstruments. No prangs, as new. Re­placed by new ship. C. Ross. Over­glimms, Fintry 201, Nr. Glasgow.

T-31 with mod. embodied. 10 year C. ofA. valid from September 1966. Immacu­late con<lition and available immediate~y.

£300. Porthcawl G.C. TeI. LIantwitMajor 555 Ext. 405 (.business hours).

PREFECT 308, C. of A. from purchasedate, 10+ and complete recover in 1966.Immaculate condition with White flyingsurfaces and Blue fuselage, airorakes andcomplete Instrument Pane!. ElectricalBonding Mod. incorp. £450 o.n.O. Peak100 two-seater, complete with instru­ments. C. of A. from purchase an<l para­chutes. Ply cover trailer inc. £] ,000 orhighest offer. CrossfeIl Elect. Vario withAudio. £30. Enquiries to Sailplane &Engineering Services Ltd.. BowdenLane, Chapel-en·le-Frith 2432.

344

1966 DART 17R Competition No. 1402nd League 2, all white with full com­petition panel and oxygen. Only 90hours. Including well built moderntrailer; Pye Bantam and parachute avail­able. This is probably the best DARTin the country-a,100. Thorpe AviationLtd., 177 Lincoln Road. Peterborough.Telephone 68818.

"PYE Ranger Mobile R/Ts". D'lshmounting 129.9 or 130.4 mc/so PhoneKen Barton. Luton 21151 (office), Dun­stable 63749 (home).

MIN T21B, in first class condition withC. of A. to April 1968, is now offered forsale. Fly it., buy it. First offer around£850 secures. Cotswold Club, R. Bunker,6 Notgrove Close, Tuffley, Glos. Tel.29266.

ZUGVOGEL 38 (1963),17 metre, glideratio 36, with full panel, art. horizon,audo. vario, parachute, trailer. 270 fly­ing hours. 180 launches. Excellent condi­tion. £1,300. J. HaUblick. Eriksfliltsgatan74b, Malmo, Sweden.

V.H.F. Radio Telephones, 130.4 m/cs.,car models. overhauled, complete. £30.Lightweight crystal controlled receivers,new. £26. Radio Communications Co.,16 Abbey Street, Crewkerne, Somerset.

TWO DRUM WINCH. £150 o.n.O. No, airstrip forces sale. J. Teesdale, Uffing­

too, Stamford (3888), Lincs.

STAMPS

PURCHASE, exchange gliding postagestamps.. Write Frank Foz, 343 East 30thStreet. New York, N.Y. 10916.

SITUATIONS VACANT

CHIEF FLYING INSTRUCTOR. Ap­plications are invited for the post ofC.FJ. at Lasham at a salary of £1,600.Applicants should forward full particu­lars of experience and qualifications to:Mr. J, A. Atkinson, General Manager,Lasham Gliding Society Ltd., Nr. Alton,Hants.

GLIDER REPAIRER required. Goodconditions and rates. Hulme, SwaffhamRoad, Bottisham. Te!. 323.

WANTED

GRUNAU .BABY Port Wing. Write AirMail: Chairman, Nakuru Aero Club,P.D. Box 45, Nakuru, Kenya.

Cash waiting for Dart, Skylark 2 or 3, orsimilar performance sailplane. ContactThorpe Aviation Ltd., 177 Lincoln Road,Peterborough. Tel. Peterborough 68~18.

WANTED, Trailer in good condition,suitable Skylark Il. E:G.C., 17 CoambesGrove. Rochford, Essex_

WANTED, Damaged high-performanceSailplane. ~epairable proposition. Alsowanted, Barogra1ph and Soaring Instru­ments. Full details; including price. B0xNo. 5G.266.

IRVIN Mk. 5 Parachute in really goodcond~tion. State price and particulars.Box No. SO.268,

WANTED urgently {r.. in EB32para­chute. Price aDd details to Jenkins 22Primrose Hill, Bath. '

PUBLICAnONS

SLOPE SOARING with a radio controlmodel sailplane is a fascinating pastimeand a typical phase of aeromoderIing.Read about this and other aeromodellingsubjects in Aeromodeller and Radio Con­trol Models and Electronics, the world'sl~ding magazines published :mopthly,prtce 2/6 each. Model AeronautICal PressLld., 13-35 Bridge Str~t, Hemel Hemp.stead, Herets.

FINANCE

FINANCE for your glider or aircraftpurchase qn be arranged by telephoningor writing to CoIin Donald (B.G.A.Illstfllctor), Burghley Finance CompanyLtd., 50 BurghJey Road, Peterborough.Rin~ Peterborough 5787."AUSTRALlAN Gliding" - monthlyjcurnal of the Gliding federation ofAustralia. Editor Peter Killmier. Sub­scription $3.60 Australian, 30 shillingsSterling o.r 4.25 dollars U.S. andCanada. Write. for f(ee sample COP)!,"AustraJ,ian Gliding", Box 1650M,G.P.O., Adelaide..

It will, of COUl'se, be understood that ,h~ B,it;s.'h Gliding Association cannot accept responsibilityfo,. the claJ-"!s made by 'Qdvt!rIU~"s in .l·~uilp1ane and. Glidi,IIl".

'the sailplane with an excellent reputation.

Successfllll in most Evropean Nationalcompetitions: 19,66.

First place in EngLand, in Switterland andItaly.

Second place in Germany.

Model 1967 with tail chute', available stillfor tbe 1967 season,

Schempp Hirth KG,.~7311 Kirchheiftto.Teck

W. Germany

Agents in U,K.

SOUTHERN SAILPLANES"Thruxton Airfield.Anclover. Hampshire

345

CLUB NEWS

C LUB NEWS this issue concerns itself with Ilews of what has been going onin and aroUl)d the clubs whilst the Nationals were going on at Lasham. We

would like to have more photographs in this section, so if you have anythingsuitable we would like to see it.

Copy for the October-November issue should reach me, typed double spacedon foolscap, not later than 16th August. Copy for the December-January issue bythe 18th October at 14 Little Brownings, London. S.E.23.19th June. 1967 . YVONNE BONHAM (Mrs.)

Club News Edi/or

ALBATROSS

A T the time of writing, the future ofthe club is still in the balance. We

have a firm offer of 50 per cent fi.nancialaid from the Department of Educationand Science, but are awaitin.~ a decisionon the 25 per cent local authorities pro­portion of the total.

We have been flying from our presentsite for nine months and, as anticipated.it has become obvious that we canDotextract the maximum value from ourrjdge unless the Club expands. At Easterwe were faced with the frustrating experi­ence of seeing our sole T-31 remainin~

airborne for average flights of 10 minutes(from 650 launches). leaving an idlewinch with no other aircraft to launch.The club's first C flights were madeover the Easter weekend, by Ray More­croft and Fred Sloggett, and althoullhsuch flights might not seem outstandingevents to other wetl-established clubs.tbey have inspired the Club Committeeto seek a speedy solution to the prob­lem of increasing our flying potential.

At the May Committee Meet·ing. dis­cussions centred around the possibilityof purclTasing a T-2l or similar aircrafton a syndicate basis, and also me!hodsof erecting a portable-ty·pe hangar. whichhas been offered on a rental basis by a

346

firm of scaffolding specialists. If theseprojects are actioned at our June meet­ing we anticipate a rapid increase inour airborne time. as we shall double ouraircraft availability and no lon,ger haveto carry out the daily task of rigging andde-rigging,

To improve our launching facilities.Bill Dyer, our Treasurer. who holds acurrent PPL, has purchased a part in­·terest in a Tiger Moth which is soon tobe fitted with a hook. It will be based atRoborough. but we look forward tore~ular visits by it to our site.

On the social side. we have intro­duced a monthly get-together at variouslocal inns. Since our clubhouse is at thesite. about 25 miles from most members'homes, and does 110t possess a bar. theselocal gatherings are proving most popu­lar (especially with the landlord of theselected rendezvous).

We were honoured to receive a visitfrom John Williamson on behalf of theBGA Instructors' Panel. and regret thathe chose a day when the little greenmen also decide.d to call. We can. how­ever, confirm that they were not LockinggreQ1lins, as they arrived well beforeJohn. Everything happened that day tomake it one of those we try 1101 toremember. The tractor broke do,wn, thewinch becam.e highly temperamental and.

K.N.S.

as an encore, the aircraft deveh)ped apuncturc. It must be difficult to introduceJohn to something new in gliding. butwe certainly can claim fame in thisrespect. as it was the first time he hadever helped to repair a puncture on aT-3\. It was with a sense of achieve­ment that we eventuaIly saw John air­borne. and proved that we do occasion­ally fly .from our site. We enjoyed havinl!John With us, and greatly appreciate hissound advice regarding our future aims.

Now that the holiday season is inmotion. may we once again extend awarm invitation to all gliding types whomay -be on holiday in South Devon. Oursite is bordered by outstanding coast­line belonging to the National Trust. andeven if you only view it from groundlevel. it is well worth a visit.

F.C.S.

BATH AND WILTSAT the fifth AGM our Treasurer an-

nounced that he relUClantly advisedthe committee to increase fees for thesecond year in succession in order tokeep our heads above water.. Continuing its programme of expan­

sion the club had experienced a year ofheavy outlay on equipment and alsosuffered a hard knock by being unable tosell the Kranil;h through it being de­c~red unairworthy because of gluefailure. Herein lies an object lesson forother young clubs. Don't buy cheap air­craft. It rarely pays off in the long run.

Our sec(:md; soaring week of the year.held to colllcldt: With the spring holidayproved a great success. The recently ac2QUlred Skylark 3F is turning out to be avery good buy and is putting in a lot ofhbts and co~seQuently bringing in valu­a e revenue ID the form of soaring feestoeam its keep.

During the week a number of Silver:W1 B{onze legs were flown. The greatestaf- uc befell Alan Musselwhite when. tehnear.ly four hours in rough thermals

till tl e 3F he suffered air sickness and hado and.

i Yet another syndicate aircraft has putS:.~ndappearance in the shape of the e'-l­theInon .Grunau. Its present owners wishalre ~rev'lous ones to know that it hasa n~nr~een up to 5,000 ft. and achieved

r of good flights, one of almost

t~o hours. Everything else apart. it feelsright to have a Grunau on the airfit:ldagain.

BLACKPOOL AND FYLDEOUR absence from these pages has

not been due to a decline. far fromit; we are steadily developing the clubwhich is in sound health. A regula;Newsletter contacts our members fromBlackpool to Burnley. and Lancaster toManchester; we have block member­ships ,from both these universities. Wecannot fly from Blackpool (Squires Gate)any longer. the grass areas have beencovered with obstacles. and commercialoperations leave very few interludes. Wehave settled at Samlesbury airfield all theyear round. thanks to the generous co­operation of British Aircraft Corpora­tion. The number of flying days per yearhas risen steadily. also the proportion ofthermal soaring days. -

Sunday, II th June. was a good ex­ample. one member did both his Bronzeflights within three hours, and our Olym­pia explored 10 miles of sea breeze frontover the M.6 at Preston between 18_30and 19.00 hours. Waves have only beenused on one occasion of east ;wind.although wave clouds appear frequentlyfrom all directions. Regular contactswould surely be made if we could !lainaccess to one of the many promising hillsof Nor~h Lancashire. Pendle, Longridgeand Falrsnape remind yon irresistibly ofPortmoak; we have our scouts out.

Meanwhile. the treadmill turns and sofar this year we have sent off three firstsolos. got three C badges. two Bronzelegs and five Bronze C completed. Oneof. our young men who progressedQu~ck]y ~ solo and C badge has sin<:egamed hiS PPL on an ATC FlyingScholarship. and is now at the Collegeof Air Training, Hamble. We are en­couraged to believe that our hard workhas worthwhile results.

K.E.

BRISTOL

SI.NCE a certain rem~rk in 'the lastIssue a more determmed effort has

been made to fly to Long Mynd. RoyGunner missed it during our task. week

347

A Nympsfie/d trailer comes to the rescue of a Ti/?er MOlh which had to land whenits en/?ine cui.

in May but achieved Silver dis~a~ce,

landing further north. In June a VIsItor.N. Gaunt. from Sutton Bank, flew fromNympsfield to The Mynd, landed to col­lect the Pot. and flew back. The nextday D. R. Carson d,id the north/southtrip" so we can expect more "pottery" nodoubt.

On the ground, improvements areevident by the tarmac floor of the oldhangar and the completion of the steelerection of the new hangar. About one­third of this project is now completed­only 1.700 man hours to go!

It would not be out of place to finishwith a warn.ing to members and visitorsabout the Lyneham Special Rules Zone.This SRZ is a mere 10 miles south-eastof our field. Full particulars of theextent of the Zone and Area. togetherwith procedure. were published in thelast issue of S. & G. Infringemertt of theregulations could severely jeopardise thefuture of our sport.

T.R.G.

CORNISH

A T the moment (June) our enthusiastsare digging the foundations for our

new hangar. It was fully intended to havethis complete by now but it seemed totake a long time to decide if we wereeligible for a, grant. Apparently one can­not get a grant unless one has a 28-yearlease and the local authority, much asthey are willing. are unable to grant alease for this period an what is actuallypublicly owned land. However, we aregoing ahead. from our own resources.with a steel framed building clad with

34~

asbestos with sheet steel sliding doors. Ifanyone feels they may benefit from ourexperience they are welcome to dro,p usa line.

The courses are going extremely welland we are enjoying marvellous holidayweather.

In the clubhouse we have yet againre-organised, refurbished and redecoratedthe bar and we have a fortnightly socialevening to look after the profits.

The Blanik and Olympia 419 have.both together with the Swallow and 463.been keeping our mem'bers afloat.

J.M.H.

COTSWOLD'OUR Chairman. Roger Bunker, has

. retired to take up the duties ofCFT and the club presented him with aninscribed lighter to show its appreciationof his untiring work on our behalf. If hethinks he is in for a rest cure now.however, he is mistaken. It would be bestto dispel a viscious TumOUr at once a'bQutRoger. He was not chosen as eFI justbecause he has a leather helmet. Seri­ously, though. he brings a unique know­ledge of spinning to tile club. and it wasiust unfortunate that his last attempt wasin a Ford A,nglia.

The new Olympia and Ka-7 are doin~

splendid service. The one having beenchristened "Max" to pair UP ,with "Min"the T-21, and we are thinking of cal1ingthe other "Overdraft" for reasons nottoo difficult to imagine.

The "Quinney" Tiger Moth has beenalong to give us a taste of aerotows,aDd we would like to record 'Our thanks

D.A.V.

to all the Wor.cester c\ub mem~rs fortheir kindness In all~WInR us their fieldfor a Saturday excursIon.

We are, at present, actively chasing aneW site, as we are being pushed fromLong Newnton by airspace and hangarproblems.

COVENTRY

THE weather havin.g suddenly decidedto get more seasQna!>le in the last

few weeks. there has 'been a mad rushof Gold C attempts. and we are pleasedto say that Alwyn Findon's flight in hisDart 15 to Grimsby on a dog-leg viaKidlington, brought him success.

Sunday, 11th June. saw the ,departureof four pilots on Gold distance flightsfor Plymouth, but when most werethinking it was "in the bag" the seabreeze did its worst and all fell shortthis side of goal, the furthest distancebeing achieved .by Rieg Ludgate in theclub's Skylark 4, about 15 miles short.

On 3rd June we were host to theHusbands Bosworth Steam-traction Rally-an annual village fete held this yearfor the first time on a corner of theclub's field, and as the weather was kind,with a very large attendance, we feel thiswas a very successfu.l exercise in publicrelations, which we would like to repeatnext year. Much beer was consumed inthe evening by a private Skylark 4 syndi­cate, who had rigged their aircraft at theRally and had become hoarse in extol­ling the joys of gliding to hoar,ds ofspectators and little boys!

FOl!lr potential instructors were packedofr to the Mynd in June to join in withsome lOCal members there for a week'scourse in instructing.

B.F.

CUMBERNAULDN0W t'hat the summer ,is really with

. . us we are settling down to a serioustrammg pattern at our new ·site. Somevery interesting local thermal flights havebeen made and in a recent s~ll of 'north­westerlies wave has been ~CoJftacted asIow as 1,000 ft.

Our first solo at this site took place<'n 11th June in our newly acquiredPrefect (ex-Coventry GlidinR Club) andOUr congratulations go to Mike Cowieon obtaining his B certificate. We a~e

looking forward to quite a few firstsolos later this year.

Membership is rising .and a club courseis being run in July w.ith thoughts ofanother one in August with possiblyaerotow facilities.

T.J.G.

DERBY AND LANCS

A FURTHER phase in the field im­provement plan is in progress­

trenches, trenches, everywhere-it lookslike the Western Front in 1916. Drainpipes are being Ia-id , anu are beingcovered by a layer 0f stones to givebetter field drainage. After pulling stonesout of the fi'eld for 30 years, we ar.e nowbeginning to stuff a few back in. Revengeis sweet!

On the mechanical side, the Thorny­croft twin-drum is back in action, andthe Bedford twin-drum now seems to bebanging on a1'l six. I,n addition. we areeagerly awaiting the' arrival of the Dop­peltrammel ... Doppeltra ... Dop ...the new German winch!. It boasts fluiddrive. two ·drums, eight pots, and 240rampant gee-gees. We s'hall be able tolaunch the entire fleet-on one cable-simultaneously!

Our fleet is now complete, two Cap­stans. two Swal1ows, a 2B and a 460. Thegrey T-31. No. 1, has been retained. Shewas .the pride of the training fleet only ay·ear ago, but the arrival of a Capstancaused the dust to rest heavily on herwings for a wh;ile. She is ill demandevel'y weekend forioy rides. and is re­garded in awe by the all-Cal'stan post­solo pilots who are now beginning toappear on the Swallow list. The conver­sion phase had its problems. as oneTutor pilot said, "Every time I'm passedout on a ship. it gets sold!" Hangarpacking, too. has had its problems ...

The better weather has brought wi·thit cross-country t1y,ing. Alan -Beckitt,mounted on the Dart l7R, declared andreached Sutton Ban,k on 27th March. viaSheffield and Doncaster. Tom Smith, inthe Skylark 4, went to Sutton Bank also.on 22nd May. SeftoD Hawley com­pleted 80 km. in the Olympia 460 forhis Silver C distance on the recent taskweek for pre-Silver C pilots.

This was held at the end of May and52 launches, 44 hours 36 minutes flyingand six cross-countries were completed.

349

In fact. 'anyone wishing for a pleasantweek's flying from 22nd to 26th Maycould not have done better than to cometo the sunny heights of Camphill . . .II's a lot safer than landing in thesesecret Atomic places!

Bar receipts show that a certainamount of drinking has taken placerecen.tly. R. H.

DEVON AND SOMERSET

W E have had our first visitor-ayellow Skylark from Booker-and

it is surprising how this lessened the feel­ing of isolation which sometimes creepsover us out here in the wilds.

Achievements for this period compriseC certificates for Chris Slade and KenJenkins, Bronze for Arthur ClapI' andat last Brian Weare has managed tobreak out of the magic circle boundedby Merryfield on one side and theRampisham masts on the other. Havingreached Cerne Abbas, this, subject toconfirmation, C'Ompletes his Silver C. Hegot his five hours ill the Eagle--ratherlike driv~ng a bus in a car rally! Al­though Pete Slanley shot off to Andover

one sunny d<J.Y. he omitted to carry thatsmall but vital barograph. Mjke Dixonalso got his live hours and Mike Fa·ir·dough height and distance for Silver C.

The ground crews, if trn:y will forgivethe term. have been busy on activifliesranging from cesspits to winch gears andit really takes dedicat·ion to forego thiswonderful soaring weather and stick tl;)tbe earthy jobs. Not.a little credit ~oes tothe Welsh Wizard of lorries and hard­core-Jim Wat]cins.

The Nationals produced a 20th placefor John Fielden of which the club isproud and a little excitement in thematter of his house burning down duringthe competitions-if you can't set theplace alight one way ... ! !

One old friend and ex-club member,Reg Chubb, dropped in 'On 10th Junefrom Tarrant RushlOn in bis beautifulDart 17R. The tenth Commandment was,I am afraid. well and truly broken. Thecaravanserai has grown ama~ngly sincelast writing and the vast improvement .inthe weather has enhanced the attractionsof our new site way beyond our expecta­tions; come and see for yourselves.

A. E. R. H.

THREE COUNTIESAERO CLUB LTD.

Blackbushe Airport, Camberley, Surrey(ON .!l30 TRUNK ROAD - 45 MIHS. FROM LONDON)

Special Courses for Glider Pilots to obtain

Private Pilot's Licence

Normal Courses for Private Pilot's Licence

Night Flying - Instrument Flying - R/TBoard of Tfade Approved Course 35 hours

Residential Courses available

Grill and licensed Bar

CF." Derek JohnsonExecutiye Manager, G. D. D. FreemanYATEUY 2152 (Management) 3747 (Operations)

350

--5PHDW::;EL;:l....._ .....__

~LPLANES ~SHEPlEY lANE, HAWK GREEN,

MARPlE, CHESHIRETelephone: 061·427 248'8

Whether il's matle of wood 01 Metal, or just plain sticks Md string, weare the firm with the space, the staff, and the years of experience to

give you a rapid and first class job, on your next C. of A. or repair.

As we have such a l4rge staff, the majority of overhauls placed with uscan be completed between weekends, and at very reasonable prices.

...........................................................•.......................WHY NOT TRY US NEXT TIME?

.....................................- .

DUMFRIES

A DVERSE weather during the pastfive weekends has cramped flying

at Dumfries, but frustrated membershave founel employmen.t carrying outvarious jobs, such as re-constructing theglider trailer, and repairing Winches. etc.

We were pleased to welc:ome a visitfrom Ray Stafford Alien. who examinedAlex Aswel1 for his Glider InspectionTicket. which has now been granted bythe BGA Technical Committee.

We have also had a visit from BorderTelevision. who made a film at Dumfriesfor. the new outdoor sports progr<\mme.

TWhlch was shown in the Border area on

b ~ursday, 1st June. This. we hope. willnng us a few extra members.RYaD Fenion has comJ)leted the cable

welding machine, by using this methodof rCDairiDg the cables we will be ableto do a,way with tying fancy knots. Weh.asten to add that the new knots de­SIgned by Charlie Park gives us a 500 perC~nt better performance than the pre­ViOUS knots used.SlaWe welcome back to the club. Ian

elt. Who has been in India for the

last 14 months, he has already had hisjacket off in the two;> days he hasattended. We would appreciate it if manymore members would do the same.

ESSEX

SINCE our last news in the S. & G.the Essex club has grown in leaDS

and bounds, membership has forgedahead and we are now consider·ing awaiting list for prospective members.

Our fleet consists of a T-21, Ka-7,Swallow and Sky·lark 2. A great deal ofour good fortune can be attributed toour new pulley method of launching;this has Droved to be a real boon; ca,blecosts. which were our largest single ex­penditure. have been cut by well overhalf. the launch rate has been raisedconsiderably and fumbles down to aminimum. this couDled with aerotows(which for the help and assistance fromthe BOA we would not have had) hasinjected a feeling of success that hascarried. us buoyantly through the lonl!:winter months and into what promisesto be our most successful summer seasonyet.

351

The Skylark, whith is our latest at­ouisition, has been r,eserved for BronzeC pilots and a,bove, this has resulted ina few of our older members who werequite content to just bash around thecircuit fallin.g over themselves to get thenecessary qualifications to fly it. Surpris­ing what a little incentive will do.

The clubhouse, which has been lan­guishing somewhat, has had a long 'Over­due facelift, everybody sloshing emul­sion about with an abandon not seensince tbe formation of the club, and ajolly good job they made of it too, it isnow worthy of anyone who may dropin from a tross-country for a pint and ameal. Put a ring around North Weald onyour maps and drop in, you can be sureof a welcome.

KO.

GRAUNCHESTER

GREAT news from the soaring. grounds! A situation which at one

stage looked, as we in the flying gamesay, "dicey~ turned out to be a triumphof man ov,er machine. Our eFI who, yOuwill remember, has figured in our cor­respondence ,before-we refer, of course.to Alf Turnbuckle-tnis intr~pid pilothas proved himself worthy of his posi­tion once again, by gaining his Silver Cheight iD c.loud.

Some doubts were expressed about hisqualification as a "solo pilot" in as muchas the T·31 did take-off on a normaltraining spin with a pupil. Bad luck,GeTtie!

Alf tells us that at 4,000 ft in a. cloudthe glider took charge and the sit\lationthat existed was not as Alf expected itto be. With lightning re.actions Alf issuedthe dramatic command "Abandon ship,and stand not on the order of thy going."YOIJ will remember that Alf is a J:)Oet

Grasping ,the ~ituation and the side ofthe cockpj,t, Gertie launched herself intothe dank and misty void. The stage wasnow set. Relieved of Gertie's weight (nonard feelings. Gertie) the glider settl eddown and Alf found himself once moremaster of his fate. Moments later. at10,000 ft .• Alf burst once more trium­phant in.to the blue. Unfortunately, theupper wmdsbeinj( what they turned outto have been, Alf found himself, as hethought, temporarily uncertain of his

352

posItion. As the altimeter unwound, thetemporarily uncertainty became perma­nent. Again this lightning reaction, Alfrealised that the glider pilot's moment oftruth was nigh-a field landing.

TIle scene, dominated by high tens'ionwires and factory chimneYs. did not deterhim. Summing IJP the situation at aglance, Alf s,wung into' the approach,Unfortunately. the centre of gravitybeing where it. was-no Gertie. remem­ber, and what AIf maintains were "freakmeteorological conditions caused by t.l)ecurl-over from a nearby Chapel of Rest"-the trusty T-31 en,tered the tail spincase (we know our jar,gon). This causeda vertical descent culm.inating in anarrival on a tombstone in the Gardenof Remembrance of Graunchester UrbanDistrict Council Cemetery.

Thanks to the fact that the .glider wasnot damaged can be given to old ColonelTodworthy-much mourned grandfatherof our Cha.irman, Major Todworthy, ofTodworthy Bros.. Gents' Outfitters•Graunchester. Tel. Gr;}unchester 270,

It was upon the wreath placed grate­fully ,by the British Legion lhat verymorning that Alf settled. Nothinltdaunted, Alf left his bird in the ha.nds ofa member of the local const.atbulary whowas lo.oking for his helmet, which hadbeen dislodged by a rotating wingtip.

"I have to find a farmer," said Alf."You'll 'be better off looking for the

gravekeeper," Quipped the BobbY.. Now we come to the Question which

must have been in all your minds. "Howwas it possible to determine the exactheight at which the flight became solo?"

Fortunately for AIr, in her unl're'meditated exit, Gertie 'struck the baro­graph with her foot, leaving a distinctivekink an the trace. Our official observer.Mike Rometer, entered into eOrresl>ond­ence with Roger Barrett, of FlyingCommittee fame.

The period of suspense while theFlying Committee sat was unbearablenot on-Iy for Alf but for all his pupilstoo. FinarJy, the magic letter arrivedagreeing that the height gain fromGertie's left fOOl low point mark indeedhad earned AI! the first leg of thecoveted emblem.

One que.stion remains. Who l'aid forthe flight? Come clean, Alf.

W,A.R.N.

KENT

FROM a flying aspect, April and Mayhave not been very exciting: satis­

factory for trainin~ and circuits andbumps. but disappointing for the lack ofgood cross-country da ys.. We had two Silver distance le~s en1st April-Dennis Monckton and RayHallon to Redhill, both in Skylark 4'sand later in the month Ray ,l(ot hisheight. thus completinl<l his Silver C aswell as holding top pOSition on the clubladder. _

The latest feat was Dave Brown'sflight in his Skylark 4 to the Southdowndub at Firle on 10th June. the first timethis had been done from Challock. Howabout someone from Southdown flyingup to us?

May 7th produced what must havebeen a club record-"average time ocrlaunch"-day, with 49~ hours from 46launches. which included two successfulfive hour attempts.

We are proud to publicize tAe factthat our CFI. Roy Hubble. was awardedthe Royal Acro Club Bronze Medal thisyea for his contribution to J(Jidin~ andnone of us at Challock would hesitatein underlininll this.

The Kent Club was well represented atth: Billgin Hill In:emational Air Fairin May. providing both gliders (andpilots) for the double aerotow as well ashelping Slin~sby's and Derek Piggottwith the T-53.

Unfortunately. we end ·.ona sad notein record'inJ( the death of Eric Gook on16th April after a long illness. Heae:1ieved so much for the club in hjs2~ years with US and as a memorial tohim we have introduced the Eri.c GookTrophy. to be presented annually to thepilot making the fastest flight to theSouth down G.c..

M.H.

LAKESON the few reasonable weekends in. February. Mareh and April we en­JOYed good flying ill fairly strong south­westerly winds. These have enabled usto use Our 1,969 ft. Black Combe ridge~ advantage. Nick Can. John Craven.

on Hawkes. Pete Redshaw and Gill~currah have obtained their Silver C

uratlon flillhts. Matthew Hall. Ron

Haw~es. Ces Baay and Gill Scurrahhave ob:ained their Silver C gain ofheight.

Ron Hawkes is now ab:e to in:itructeach Wednesday afternoon and eveningand mid-week flying is provinl/; verysuccessful with enthusiastic membersgaining extra valuable experience.

Our Aus;er has had its C. of A. whic:,included repainting and is new re:ldy faTa busy summer.

The second "home-made" winch iscomplete and will be in use for theSummer Courses. It uses a octroI V8engine mounted on a diesel lorry chassisto ac; as prime mcver.

1. G.

LONDON

MIKE GARROD. who for s!'me timepast has been' writing th~se notes.

has now handed over to Martin Simonsso that Mi'<e can g:ve his energies to theChairmanship of the Club Flying Cam­millee. to which vital position he wasrecently el'ccted. Terry McMullin. whohas worked nobly in this capacity forseveral years. felt he was due for somerelief. Congratulations to Mike on hiselection. and also on his exceilent ocr­formance in the Nationals and selectionas a re;erve for the British team. Alsowe congratulate Garden Camp on hisengal/;ement. and welcome John Morriswho ioined the instructing stafT at t!-reb:~inni.ng of the course seas:Jn. Theclub has been recruiting members veryrapidly this year. which has kept all thetwo-seaters. including the new Ka-13.very busy. The Ka-13 i:i proving verysuccessful both for basic traininl: andcross-country work. and another one isexoected to arrive in AugUS1.

The ccotinued airfield leveHinll opera­tions have been speeded up recently byBedfordshire County Council, who bavebegun work on road improvements closeto the club gate. Large quantities ofchalk rubble from their excavations werevery - sensibly used to help fill up thenotorious Dunstable Gulley. so althoughthe club has lost a little . land. the ad­vantage is probably ours. It must be con­fessed that the site looks a bit untidyillst now becausc of all the dumping. butthe exposed chalk probably .~eneratesl!;ocd thermals and the long-term pros­pects are extremely good.

353

The Club will bold tbe almost tradi­tional Air Display and Balloon Meet onthe Bank Holiday weekend 27th-28thAugust. Everyone will be most welcome.Visitors who intend to arrive by air areadvised to get PPO from DunMable63419 or by radio on 130.4 mics.

M.S.

MIDLAND

THE last issue of SAtLPJ.ANE & GLIDINGdid not include any Club News from

the M.G.C. although our winter waveflying was very well reported. Waveactivity is not so prolific as it was earlierin the year but there is still the occa­sional good one.

Recent weeks have seen considerableactivity directed towards site mainten­ance a,nd improvement. The tnliler parkhas been evacuated. levelled and coveredwith hard core which. when the ,iob iscompleted should result in a better air­craft rigging area and much less mudaround the place.

The number of private owner groupson the Mynd has now risen to nine withthe arrival (a few months ago) of aDart 15 Owned by Alan Jones and AlanGriffiths. Thus the tendency to privateownership continues although on nothinglike the scale of some clubs. No doubt,our lack of acro-towing ,is a major factorhere.

The ladder competition has provedpopular. In the National list, as at 31stMarch. 11 M.G.C. pilots were in­cluded in the 41 listed. This strong repre­sentation owed much to the superb waveconditions which we enjoyed earlier inthe year.

Unfortunately we had to cancel ourown competition. but a number of ourmembers have entered competitions else­where.

On a semi-competitive bas'is. NickGaunt flew in ftom Nympsfield tocollect the appropriate collectors tankardfrom our bar and two days later DaveCarson flew down to Nympsfield to gethis Silver distance and to regain thetankard.

Currently, Cambridge University arewith us for their usual June fortnight.

On Sunday. lltb June. an RF-4 \Vasseen thermailing over the Mynd. Is th.isa glimpse into the future?

K.R. M.354

OXFORD

THE very regrettable fatal accidentinvolving our T-2IB has raised con­

sider3Jble discussion en the most suitablereplacement. Following our Secretary'sclever Questionnaire ,distributed to lllcencertain people's operational experienceson the current two-seat lraininll; ll;liders.the Polish Bocian lE came out best tosatisfy our general requirements a.ndpurSe. By the time this is in print wehope to be operating this interestinp; air­craft. In the mean~ime the gap has beenfilled by a T-2IB on hire from theB.B.A. Club at Booker.

A belated pat on the back must go toJohn Pratelli and the Dart ]7R No. 330for winning the "]966 Heini DittmarWanderpreis" trophy awarded annuallyto the youngest pilot who soars for moreIhan five hours starting <rnd finishin~ atUnterwossen, the German Alpine soaringcentre - well done, John. the scenerymust have been breathtaking.

Recent unmentionable weatber hasgiven way in mid-June to really crackinllconditions to produce numerous $toadthermal flights in the locality. -togetherwith an 80-mile upwind out-and-returnby Nick in his Skylark 4 No. 169 and a113-mile downwind trip to Dunkeswellby John A. in his Dart 17R No. 330.unfortunately somewhat short of hisdeclared goal. Perranporth. due apparent­ly to the progress of the sea breezefront.. On the same day we congratulated ourresident .C.O. of Weston-on-the-Green,Fl. Lt. Peter WiIliams, on soarinJ! theRAF GSA Grunau Ba,by to gain his C.Afterwards he suggested tbat he hadthoroughly enjoyed the experuence, butwould not let the bug ,bite too hard-weshall see!

. C. J. T.

PORTHCAWL AND DISTRICT

THE club is getting settled down andoperations at Stormy Down are

already more streamlined and a littlemore professional Ihan our early "flyand find out" period. The T-3l has beenput to good use in the past six monthsand has logged 900 launches. We arenow searching for a more advanced two­seater; a Ka-7 is in the offing.

lvor David and David Raymondvisited our friendly gliding club atMindefl. Germany. This club nas alreadygiven us a GrUnau Baby and a Cumulus.Thc Cumulus should be ready for aBGA type test ,at the end of Augustaftcr its major overhaul.

The Ball held on 2nd June was atremendous success and we all thank ourdynamc member Jess Emeny for herbard work. The committee members ofthe South Wales gliding club attendedand a great debate on griding in Walesensued at the bar before it was brokenup by the wives. Some interesting pointswere discussed relating to the future.

Our T-31 is for sale and we welcomeenquiries.

J.A. M.

SCOTTISH

A T our A.G.M. in May AndrewThorburn retired as Chairman. due

to other commitments he had to declinea Directorship of the club. Andrew's 30­odd years of ulltiring enthusiasm. initia­tive and hard work speak for themselves.

T. P. Docherty now bears the onus ofthe Chair with support from W. A.Shanks as Secretary and A. R. Dick asTreasurer.

The Action Group have replaced thebent cattle grid at the entrance. putwarning reflectors on the j1;ate posts andcut a considerable amount of grass. Oursecond cable laying bus-winch is nearinll:completion. The Saturday early morninll:COurse for beginners is proving mostsuccessful. Enthusiasts are ready by0800.

Three recent social activities produceda remarkable amount of interest andVisitors. We held an "At Home" oneFriday ,when it poured with rain and noflying was possible. The coffee eveningrun in conjunction realised £35.

Numerous aeromodel enthusiasts dis­plaYed their radio-controlled craft onanother evening when we could not CopeWith cross-winds.

hOur annual Car Treasure Hunt took

t e form of an economy run this year.Blind flying instruments would have beenab welcome addition to wei!lht as cloud,asc came down to ,meet llS 011 occa­

Sion.M.B.R.

SOUTHDOWN

THERE have been several good cross­country flights and a lot of local

soaring has been done by our ever­increasing band of Olympia 463 pilots.Wave has been contacted on a numberof occasions in a S.S.W. wind. ChrisHughes and lan Agutter being the mostnotable exponents.

We have had many new members inthe last few months .and their keennessfor an early start is very encouraging. TheT -21 list is longer than ever and in fair­ness to ab-initio members the committeehas decided not to accept more newmembers for the time beinjt. A waitin$tlist has been started and is $trowin/t.

The plans for the new clubhouse. aTerrapin building. have finally beenapproved and permission for buildinp;has been j1;ranted by the local council.We now have the financial arrangementsto complete and building the foundationscan begin.

We hope that thl; clubhouse will pro­vide the basis of an active social side tothe club. which up to now has beensadly lacking.

P.C.

STAFFORDSHIRE

W E have been visited recently by anumber of disasters-the loss of

our T-31 on Easter Saturday being theworst. It was left facing into the windwith only one rather lip;ht person on thewinp; tip and nobody in the cockpit. agust of wind got under the raised wins:.snatched the T·31 out of the hands ofthe unfortunate person on the wing tipand threw it over a couple of carsparked nearby. When arrivinp; at thefield shortly after,wards the other p;liderson the field all had one wing into wind.one person in the cockpit. one lying onthe wing tip and one on the tail. whichmust have made a distinct change fromthe usual pastime of glider pilots stand­,ing about talking. I often feel that it is apity that Trappist Monks do not run agliding club and that members of otherclubs could v'isit it to see how remark­ably efficient it was-but I am alwaysconsidered to be a bit anti-social.

The other disasters which haveoccurred have been with our winches.

355

tWlJ differentials having seized up' on ourdiesel winch and two clinches havinltburnt out on the Jaguar-engined petrolwinch. However. the Technical Commit­tee. in between do.ing cross-countries.seem t@ find and fit clutches. differentialsand automatic gearboxes with extremerapidity and an enormous amount ofhard work. The latest mod. of an auto­matic gearbQ\li, to the PC;trol winch hasbeen giving launches of 1,50(), fL in theCapstan.

Three cross-countries have been donerecently, all in the Club's Olympia 2B.The last of these was marred to a certainfxtent by the use ef a sledji:c hammer inthe de-rigging with consequent damageto the superstructure.

Frank Tcwnsend's cross-country toI{earsby via a height of 6.500 ft. was ahigj11y commendable first cross-counlryfor two legs of his Silver C.

We now have a T-21 as a rep,lacementfor our T-31 and when the winch Drob­lems are finally sorted out we hQPe toenlarge the scope of our training pr,o­!!:ramme.

R. B.L.

SWINDON

THE progressive trend in the club'sactivities has been maintained over

the past few months. 'both in the flyingand soeial soher"es.

The annual Dinner-Dance, held at theend of March. was a very successfuleveninl/:. Our guest speaker was "Nick"Gocdhart, who enlijlhtened us on theflew Lyneham Special Rules Zone. nowestablished 0f1 our doorstep and withwhich we are now learning to live. Alsoduri,ng the evening trophies were pre­sented to Fred Butcher and Eric Winningfor club achievements in 1966.

The May task week, although notblessed with particularly goed weather.produced some good flights, Dan Fordgetting a well-deserved five hours. andJack Purchase a very near miss to GoldC Distance,

We would like to brinll to the atten­tion of all power pilots that prior per­mission must be obtained from AirTraffic Control before visitinll SouthMarstcn. since the airfield is now inrellular use by Messrs. Vickers.

E.J. W.

355

YORKSHIRE

THE spring waves brought Goldheights to Joe Provins. Dart 15. on

23rd March and Fred Knipe. Skylark 4.on 30th April. On 4th June. SarryGoldsborough and Mike Wilson addedbars to their Gold heights in wave. andtheir radio transmissio-ns hom~d on theCarJton~based Dart 15. which t.hen alsoexceeded 10.000 ft. David Lilburn laterachieved 9,000 ft. before se,tting off on anortherly cross-country.

Chris Riddell. flyinll in the Nationals.,made what is believed to be the !ong,estcross-country by a Yorkshire club mem­ber in the U.K. by magically transform­ing a Cat's Cradle into a dog-leg, andlanding at Rutforth. within Sillht oJ theBank. after covering 351 kms.

Recent welcome visitors include JohnMacKenzie, in the Burns' SHK 0-0 17thMay, from Lasham; Tom Smith in hisSkylark 4 from Camphill on 26th Mayand D'ick and Mrs. Scbreder by car ,to avery successful Cheese and Wine PartyOD 13th May. The Avi'O Glidinll Clubspent a week at the Bank in early Jooe,as did 1. Vesty from Leicester-. who.having missed his Clacton-on-Sea Dia­mond declaratio-n by some three mileson 7th June, repeated the flight success­fully on the 9th in hi~ Ka-6.

Oavid Pietsch. from Australia, hasrecently joined the Staff as Second Assis­tant Instructor. At 18 he holds a Goldl;Vith two Diamonds: we all hope he get~his height at the Bank.

M.J.C.W.

SERVICE NEWS

ALDERSHOT (Odiham)

THE yea,r started in February withHcward Jarvis goi,ng solo, and Jim

Morris picking' uP a Diamond heillht atIssoire. March broullht Eddie North aduration f1i/!ht on the Duostable ridgewhic:1 completed his Sih/er C.

Have you ever noticed tbat lhe best'spur in a predominantly male club is to/let a girl fespecially a prelty one) creep­ing ahead? No sooner had Heath'erDavenport got her firsl lell of the

Bronze C wben this wa~ followed byToM Boston and Bm Barnard, andsev,eral others whQ gained their C cer-tificates. .

The cadet course at Netheravon withTed Shephard rllnning it producedseveral solo~. .

Deninis Dlllon from the East MidlandsClub had a nic·e reward while at Odihamfor the Nationals. Having serviced th~

Ch,ipmunks to go out ~n patrol hewinched us all onc mornll111 and thenwhen f1yin!=t himself gained his C-

Our lauaches this· year are already upon I~st year and we hope to keep thispace up, especialh: when o~r secondwinch becomes servH:eable agalll shortly.

J.E.M.

BANNERDOWN

WELL, we were warned. Our localcountryman said. "In January if

the sun ,1Ppear, March and April willpay full clear". He might have added thatMay wou!dn't be any better either. andcertainly the mixture has been thewildest yet. The u.ncertainty of it aB isthe spice of our sport and in the circum­stances the record for the p~ricd was nettoo bad with 788 launches for 156hours.

Geor,l(e Lee. who took part in Trans­port Command unefficial ·task, week foraspirants at Rcester. showed his tail tothe field in an .Qut-and-return to Shore­ham. he was s{cond in a sortie to Win­canton via Devizes in the Olympia 419.and finally again in the 419 he headedthe field in an out-and-return to Winkley.collecting Gold distance and Diamondfor goal 'in the' prOCess.

P.H.

FENLANDPOSTINGS have taken their toll again,, first to go was our CFI Lemmy

Tanner. who is now at Spitalgat·e fillinga kstaff gliding post. Colin EJliot hasta 'en over with Geoff Barr-elJ as hisdTeputy. Derek Butler is now Qur

reasurer.e Secondly, Laurie Rowe. our (amehJ:lgmeer. is off to the ~inistry and hasB~nded over as techlllcal member todill Wales. OUI thanks are due to both,eparted members for their hard workand enthusiasm while with the club.

We have at last moved into our newclubhouse which. thanks to the workers,is clean and well decorated. furthermorecheers all round. the bar is open again,we have a lot of first solo's to catch upon!

The aeroplane stakes are up andclown. The loss of our Olympia 2B and460 has been 'partly offset by the receiptef another Ka-6cR.

Geoff Barrell was eur representa~ive atLasham, being placed 12th in the seconddivision. His retrieve team were heardmuttering something about "weather"and "bar".

Fly·ing has continued steadily over Ihepast two months, very few days havebeen lest to weather. The winches are tobe seen very early these days; our besteffort recently was 139 launches in someII hGurs.

R.G.J.

FULMAR

THE duI> was pleased to learn of theaward of the MBE in the recent

Honours ~ist to our CFI, Lt. B. G.Gunter. wbo as the staticn Motor Trans­port Officer.

We take this opportunity of con­llratulatiolt our former CFI Dave Inneson winning third place in the Natio.nalsand gaining a plac.e in the 1968 BritishWorld Championship team.

The club lost the services of two in.strllctors, Hugh Blake and John Eatwellthrou!=th postings, and Sa-rah Wilson wasmost reluctant to leave us JUSt after shehad corwerted to the Skylark 2.

H.D.

HUMBER

FROM the memo·ries of the old WhiteRose Club a new venture has been

born at R,A.F. Lindholme-The HumberGliding Club. We have been beset b,ythe usual troubles .that affect embryogliding clubs but progress, althDuldrslow. has been steady. Two aircraft !:rebeing flown. a T-21 and a Grunau 3.and our Tutor. now undergoin!=t .a face­lift. should soon take to the air.

We are already expeniencinl/; the satis­faction that makes all gliding 'Workworthwhile. in that three of our a,b-initiomembers, Bill Pattison. Tom Barnes andChristine Salm<J.n have gone solo. In

357

addition. we have had one re-solo. KenSnape, Bill Pattison got his C certific.ateand Yorky Kitchener his B CategoryInstructors Rating.

We have alreadY had our first visitor.Jack Bowers. from the Doncaster· Clubin his Ka-6. He was most welcome. andour CFl Austin Billington. and Officerin Charge, Sq. Ldr. Roy Salmon.sincerely hope he was the first of aninflux of visitors, both with a·nd withoutaeroplanes.

c. s.

RAFGSA (Bicester)

EVENTS have been rather over­shadowed by the Nationals and

Team trials. in both of which our C.F.].Andy Goul:h put up most creditableperformances in the S.H-K.

The expedition to Nympsfield earlierin the year went wel·l, and worthy ofmention are the achievements of BillMartin who went there with about fivehours' experience and came away with afurther 20 hours, Bronze C and hei~ht

and duration lells of the Silver.I had intended to mention in the pre­

vious issue that now and then we getwave in the Bicester area and TomWilJ.iams proved evidence of this whenhe went to 10,000 ft. in early March.Later in the month Paddy Kelly did thethree le~s of his Silver C on two con­secutive days using a combination ofridge and thermal lift.

Our membership figure is well up nowand it is hoped that overall actl'ievementswill exceed last Year.

A.E.B.

WREKIN

JOHNNY MORRIS, our first CFI,left the Service to ,go to the London

Gliding Club. John was in at the verybe.l!:inning of the club. and uncleI' hisguidance the club ,grew to become avery signlificant member club in theR.A.F.(J.S.A.

Many will know that though we onlyof)erated for ei!!ht months of the G.S.A.year, the Wrekin Club narrowly missedcarrying off the Bicester CuP. theR.A.F.G.S.A.'s major trophy, and didget the Founder's CuP. Since then wehave )lone on building to our present358

firmly established pOSItIOn. At the fare­well party. several presentat·ions weremade. including a portrait of our firstsoaring aircraft, Olympia No. 26, pre­sented on behalf of all the members byour Chairman, Group Captain H. Dur­kin. We shall miss John. but wish himall the best in his new position "outs-ide".

Tony Phipps has taken over as actingCFI, and celebrated by taking the Sky­lark 3 up for his Gold C height-un­fortunately the cloud was not as innocu­ous as the forecast as its appearancesuggested, and it retaliated by strikinghim! Damage from the lightninll strikewas externally not extensive. and be wasable to return to Cosford unscathed. butthe aircraft has gone away for a maiorinspection of the wings for internaldamage.

Three attempts have been made aGold distance. and several at Silver, butthe goals eluded us at this time. We aredoing a lot of flying, and have just helda successful soaring week for some ofthe members. "Dinger" Bell and "Abbo"Maunton have been to Bicester. and gottheir AssistaDt category, &0 our P.Isupply is healthy.

H.F.O.

CRUSADERS (Cyprus)

THE Crusaders Club at one time helda reputation for very little soaring.

There ·is plenty of convection in CYprus.and occasional wave. Unfortunatelv. ourpossible sites have been restricted to thecoast and vuloerable to the inflow of seair. la spring; the stronger north-weswinds often form sea breeze fronts oveour new site. and so this April we hela camp to exploit their possibi),jtieInstructors. Tim Oulds, Bill Dickson.Len Barnes and Tony Simms took leavin turn to cover the month. The sebreeze frollt materialised on a number 0days, giving lift up to 5,000 ft. at maicloudbase. curtain cloud at 4,000 ft. anmarked turbulence over the strip. WithSwallow and T-21 We flew 142 hours fro1,004 launches. The Swall.ow averaged 2minutes flying per launch durin,g thmonth. Landing out was made impossiblby local political disturbances. but yOuscribe did a 100 km. cut, and scrapback. to eastern Troodos.

The clubhouse is improving. Our mai

c1ubroom is built of three trailer cara­vans sails wheels, and is now equippedwith' a bar. We also have a kitchen,workshop and have .acquired. andpositioned, two more trailers as a bunk­houS . Ron Young constructed the club­house, and Anne Barnes and Pat Juddha e converted it into a home. Unfor­tunat 1'1', we still have no hailgarage andcraft have to be de-rigged durinlZ theweek.

ur membership is about half R.A.F.and half Army. The United Nationsfor e provides a small, but keen contin­gent from Austria. We now have ourfirst Army Instructor, Ron Young, whohas just returned from a successfulcourse at Bicester.

R. P.S.

E. GLE (Detmold, Germany)UR fleet has now increased and

consists of a. Ka-4. Ka-7, twoSwallows and a Ka-6.

Earlier· in the year, an R.A.F. Ger­many expedition to Issoire resulted in aDiamond heij!ht for Bob Kirkland and a5 hours and Gold height for Alan Hart­field. Two visits to the Minden Ridj:\e,more conveniently at hand. have pro'duced two 5-hour duration flights.

On our own site, two courses havebeen run for ab-initio students fromlocal units. Generally, satisfactory re-

suits were obtained and even morestudents would have soloed if we hadnot been hampered on some days byrain or strong cross-winds.

Among other soarinJl f1ighls and cer­tificates gained the most notable are aDiamond goal flight by Jeremy Wheelerand the completion of a Silver C byBO'b MacLagen.

A.J.A.

NIMBUS(Geilenkirchen, Germany)TT now being June we can look back~ on the first part of the year andconsider, was it worth it? And theanSWer, of course, is, as always, a bigyes. We already have our second SilverC this year-Jim McIntyre achievingone after much hard work at theWasserkuppe in thermal lift. Eddie Prattcompleted his with 5 hours over GeiIen­kirchen on 4th June in the 463. Also onthe list are six Solo's, two or three Cs.four completed Bronze C's and numerousBronze Legs, Silver heights, cross-countryaHempts and various other successes:our bours are not inconsiderable too.

We look forward now to the R.A.F.Germany Championships in July, one ortwo more expedjtions and many big, fatthermals.

M.J.W.

The Nimbus Gliding Club {leet and some of their members standing by.

359

OVERSEAS NEWS

We would be pleas~d to receive news for this section from every country In

the wcrld where soaring is dcne.-A. E. SLATl'R, Overseas News Editor.

AUSTRALIA

AUSTRIA

BELGIUM

! NVITATIO:-l TO GHENT.--We have thepleasure to inform you that we are

CANADA

THE final rusb of preparations for th::Centennial Nationals - is evident

everywhere as this is being written. Thecontest starts only a few days from now.and. some of the pilots who have longerdistances to cover have proba-b:y lefttheir homes. The latest word from theorganisers is that entries are lag,llin,ll­like their British cousins, Canadians areapparently not very fast off the mark.but there is no holdin,ll them once theystart. Some foreign entries are b~Jieved

1:) be in. but on the whole the overseasparticipation promises to be disap;)Oint·ing. Perhaps th:: distance is too ,lliea!. or

organlsmg. as in preceding years. our"Journees de Gand" from 12th to 15thAugust. with the traditional Receptionon 11 th Augu,l at 20,00 hours. We en­close the regulations similar to those ofprevious years.. and the entrar.ce formwhich we ask you to return. duly ccm­p'eted, by 31st July at the lates't.

We wcu:d b: happy to meet you. aswell as your gliding friends, in the warmatmcsphere of our meeting.

GHI:NT AVIATION Cl-UB.50, Bd. Gust Collier.Galld. BelRium.

NOTE.-The BGA has several copiesof t:le regulations and the entry ferm,Particulars to be filled in on tlle fOlminclude., among the usual ones. the com­panies with which the pilot, sailplane

'and transport vehic~es are insured. Therally rakes place at the aercdrome ofSt. Denis-Westrem.

OPEN CLASSDiamant 4.582.7Libelle 4.266.6Elfe 4.092.0Diamant 4,015.7BS-I 3.998.0Zugvogel 3.892.0

CLASSKa-6E 5.065.2Ka-<:cR 4.906.5Spatz 4.763.1Ka-f5E 4.613.4Ka-6E 4,128.7Ka-6E 3.408.6

RENECOMTE

H0:-lOU~ FOR PRESIOENT.-YOU will be

pleased to hear that Bill Jllgulden.President of the G!iding Federation ofAustra!'ia, was made an M,B.E. in theQueen's Birthday Honours List. No onedeserves it mare. Jt was awarded. ofccurse, for services to ,lllidinll,

PETER KILLM1ER

STANDARDI. Eric'; Schreibmaier2. Harro Wodl3. Herbert Pirker4. Ernsl Sch ratfcl5. Ing. Adolf Girschick6. Obit. Hans Prader

LEADING RESULTS:I. Dr. Alf Schubert2. Johan Fritz3. Rudolf Seiler (Switz.~4. Erich Gehrer5. Reinhold Sturr6. Otmar Fahrafellner

N ATIO:"IAL CHAMPIONSHfPS. - Thesewere held in Klagenfurt from 13th

to 27th May. Winners were Dr. AlfSchubert with a Diamant in the OpenClass ar:d Erich Schreibmaier with aK3-6e in the Standard Class.

number of entries. but was graced-by thepresence of several of the country's toppilots. 'Good flying was reported byeveryone. without any spectacular recordsbeing broken-just wait until theNationals!

The Alberta Soarin~ Council, a co­ordinating and organjsin~ .~rollp forseveral clubs in the provine<: of Al'b~r.t.a.is once aga·in to be credited witharFang;,n~ to supply familiarisation f1i.~hts

at the Air Cadets' summer camp. and itis th1nks to their past activity that theAir Cadet League of Canada is taking: amore serious look at glider flying for theboys. even to the extent of aCQuirin~

several sailplanes of their own.O:-rrAERO

SEJSiRUP AGAIN CHAMPtoN.-The DanishNational Championships took place

at the Amborg cefltre from 4th to 15thMay, starting with excellent weatherwhich gradually deteriorated. so that thefour last days were unflyable. However,seven valid competit·ions were flown.

For the first time, p1rticipation wasnot free; admitted were the first 15 fromthe rating list, the first 10 from last year'sB-championshios, and up to five moreat the discretion of the Gliding Corn­millee of the Royal Danish Aeroclub.Among these was. for the first time. aforeign guest. Adam Witek from Poland.f1yi,ng a Danish Foka 4 placed at hisdisposal by Aksel Feddersen.

The first da·y. 4th May. a 203-km. Tri­angle was completed by 27 of the 29nilplanes witb Witek and Ib Braes(Foka 3) both winning at a localrecord speed of 74.7 k.p.h. CarstenThomasen (Ka-6) was third. P. V. Fran­zen (SHK) fourth. Leif Corydon(Vasama) fifth and Niels Sejstrup sixth.

Next day's flying along a line towards'Skagen. with a strong easterly head­wind component, was won by Franzen(120 km.), followed by H. Lindhardt(Ka-6) (111 km.), Corydon (110). Witek(108), and Braes (100).

A 114 km. OuHj.nd-Return in theafternoon of 7th M ay was completedonly by Sejstrup (32.1 k.p.h.} and OleDidriksen (l;;,a-(,) (31.8), with Witekthird (88 km,).

Next day's 215-km. Triangle was com-361

DENMARK

... -Glidervvork

:=1C~,~

~ """'.-

C11 ADYlBHAUIS MD BlPAJBS

perhaps Canada is still an unknownQuantlty.

On the club scene. the most prominentdevelopment is the soaring holiday campplanned by the Red Deer (Alberta) Clubf~r the l.ast week of July. which willprobablY be extended into the first weekof August.

Another near-future occasion on lheIccal scer~ is the official openinJ,t ofRockten GliderpOfl. the' recently-ouill(during the l.ast year) hDme of SosaGlidir.,g Cl.uo. The dub has been operat­ing from the base for nearly a year aftera fashion, but everythin/! is completedneW .md an official opening is .\:llannedfor 8t.h JulY. Let us hope lhe Man Up­stairs does not rain on your parade.

With recent publicity in the NationalGeographic magazine. the Readen'Digest and by virtue of the Wait Disneyfilm "The Boy Who Flew With theCondors". shown on national T.V. net­wcrk.s. ther.1) has heen a significant in­creas.e of public interest in soario/!. andan influx of new members. even in ex­cess of the training facilities of mostclubs.

On the past side. the lonll: week-endtype of contest is ever popular here. Twoclubs held such on the Victoria Daylong week-end (20th to 22nd May). andbeth report as good turnout as could beexpected. The Q:ttcr supported one wasthat held by the Cu-Nim Gliding Club ofCalgary, Alberta. with an entry Ust ofnearly 20' sail'planes-very good for a1001 rhree-day contest. The other one.held in the east. was organised by theGatineau Gliding Club. of Ottawa. ~blyas?isted by Rideau Gliding Club. ofKingston. Ontario, only just over 100miles from Ottawa. So what, it's a bigcountry! This contest attracted a .lower

pleted by seven and won by Franzen(46.4 k.p.h.), followed by Sejstrup (44.6),Thomasen (44.3) and Ejvind Nielsen(Vasama) (42.2). Witek went downshortly after tbe first turning-pOint. whileBraes thought it to be a speed event.turned back to Amborg. landed, lunchedand took o.ff again to discover that it wasa. question of keeping flying.

On 9th May two completed a 309-km..speed event on a broken leg leading107 km. to the SOllth (Roedekno). then202 km. to the north to Borup glidingsite.. A head wind component 0)1 the firstleg (which only counted for about 225of the possible 1,000 points) meant thatmore time was spent om this. than onthe rest. Joergen Lauritzen (Ka-·6E) wonwith 40.7 k.p.h. and Lindhardt had 40.3.while Ejvimd Nielsen was third with306 km. Several pilots struggled formore than eight hours.

All went down near the first turning­point of .tbe lOO-km. Triangle OD 10thMay, when weather suddenly collapsed.Late in the afterno:on things improved;UP to 1,700 melres cloud base was fo undnear Arnborg, from which it was pos­sible to gl ide past the first and secondturning-points. The glide ratio of theSHK meant v.ictory (628 points) to Fran­zel1, for 74 km., followed by SkovgardSorense.n (Vasama) (72 km) and KjeIdDahl (Ka-8) (71 km.). SejstruD was 8tbbut still in the lead with 4,530 points,foilIowed by Franzen with 4,19.3 andEjvind Nielsen 4,022.

Fighting ,in dry therrnals on 11 th Maytoward Boru.~, many pilots went intoKarup control zone, while those whotried to keep out had to land. Only afew succeeded in evading it and tocontinue. As there had been severalwarnings from ATC the preceding days,it was found necessary to do' something.and a dozen pilots who next day ad­mitted to have been in the ,control zonewere disqualified, with the result thatthe few innocent pilots with some resultonly got a few points, Skovgard Sorensenwinning with 87 km. and 214 points.

Another good day was badly wantedto forget this day, but did not come. So,Sejstrup won, as in 1959, 1961, 1963 and1965. This time, however, with a muchlesser margin than the more tban 2,000points in 1965.

Witek, who had not. flown in Denmark

362

before the contest, was SULP -j~ by theweak and variable conditions and saidhe learned a lot -and would go back andtell about the, special conditions. He per­formed the longest flight in his 3.500hours' gliding career with a 7 hr. 55 min.flight resulting jn 251 km.

On the Whole, the five Fobs partici­pating had a difficult time, while the fourVasamas did something better and themany Ka-6's even better. The SHKproved very suited in all kinds ofweather. Unfortunately the five Pir~ts

ordered by Danish clubs did not come intime to be compared with other types atthis event.

PER WEISHAUPT

Leading Final Resu'lts1. Niels Sejstrup Ka-6 45302. P. V. Franzen SHK 43173. Ejvind Nielsen Vasama 40224. Carsten Thomasen Ka-6 38645. Adam. Witek Foka4 36846. Holger Lindhardt Ka-6 3584

HOLLAND'T'HE VICTOR BOIN CONTEST was held1. this. year on 29th April, and the

traditiona,1 Free Distance task was flownfrom Hil\lcrsum. Forty-,eight pilotsfrom Belgium, Germany and Hollandtook part. E. Wesselius (Ka-6cR) and C.Guldemond (Ka-6E) won the day with2'54 km., followed by D. Cornelisse(Ka-6cR). 250 km. As the winners areboth Dutch, it is likely that this eventwill again be held in Holland next year.

On 4th May the Aero Clu'b of Nij­megen organised a one-day contest fromtheir site at MaIden. The task. twiceround a lOO-km. triangle. was Dot com­pleted by any of the 21 competitors.Furthest distance, 151.5 km. by G. OrdeI­man (Sagitta). Second. A. Dekkers(Ka-6cR) 140 km. Third, E. van Bree(Ka-6E). 96.5 km.

Another one-day contest took place atGilzeryen on 6th May. The 38 pilotswho took part had to, fly round a trianglefor three' hours. Intermediate landingswere permitted, but time was co'untedfrom the first startline crossing. Thisevent was won by A. Dekkers (J(a-6cR)with 115 km., followed by 1. van MC'izenKa-6E), 105 km. and E. Reparon and T.van Gurp (Ka-6£ and Ka-6cR) 100 km.

J. TB. v. E.

On 8th May. E. Repa-rcn ~rokethe Dutch out-and.-ret!!rn r.eeord with aflight of 305 km. In his privately-ownedKa-6E.

From the U.S.A. we hear th":t HettyAmade. once our best ~oma.n pilot andstill holding Dutch natlOnabt)'. rea~~edDiamond height at Fremont Sky SallmgAirport.

Six Gold C distances, including twogoals. have already been flown thisseason between 14th March and 21stMay. . .. A'

The DIrector-General of CIvIl vla-tion opened the new workshops ~t ourTerlet Gliding Centre on 15th April. andmany guests and visitors were present tocongratulate the Director of the Centre,Menno Manting. and his staff, and thearchitect, Ed Veugelers, on this magnifi­cent building. There is no doubt thatthe gliding movement as a whole wil·[grea tly benefi t.

INDIA

I N April we had the first National Glid­ing Rally at Delhi. In the Rally five

clubs-Ahmedabad Gliding and FlyingClub. Birla G.C. (Pilla1'li), Delhi G.C..Deola.li G.c., and Indian Institute ofTechnology G.C. (Kanpur}-enteredseven pilots. The Rally lasted from 15thto 23rd April, 1967. During the Rally onenew AIHndia Record was e"itablishedfor 200 km. Triangle and. the existingrecord of l40-km. Out-and-Returnequalled. One pilot completed the Dis­tance leg of Gold C and Diamond forGoal.

In the Ral·ly, four clubs were flyingKartik gliders and one Ka-7 glider. TheI<;artik 11, which I was flying. is a goodhlgh'performance sailplane, with a glideratio of I: 32. and compares favourablyWith the Ka-6. The 2oo-km. Trianglerecord was also established in a similarglider by Mr. Prem Gupta.

I enclose a report of my flight from~fdarJung Airport to !.IT. Airstrip

alyanpur. Kanpur. which gave me 2ndplace in the Free Distance competitionand also Gold C Distance leg and~Iamond for Goal. tbe laner being moreImPortant to me. (See page 328).t Pilots thinking of visiting India haveo Obtain prior clearance from the

Government of India before they can

fly in a gliding club. For this. theyshould apply through the Aero Club ofIndia, "F" Block, Connaught Place. NewDelhi-l (in duplicate).

DtNESH CHANDRA

IRELAND (Dublin)

THE new airfield at Ballyfree, used inthe Rothman's International Air

Rally and Display, has been madeavailable for gliding; already threesafaris have started to explore the possi­bilities of this new site, which offersridge, thermal and wave. Our Blanikand Ka-6 took part in the air display andbrought us enquiries from prospectivenew members.

Last month D. Begley and A.McCarthy went solo in the Ka-7. C.Curley flew 47 miles for Silver distancearid P. Kilkelly attained 16,000 ft. inthe Wickl'ow wave (well do.ne, Peter).Four of our memb~rs.are takinf. a PPLcourse on our tug Mike Bravo .

C. GARR

NEW ZEALAND

I NTERNATIONAL TEAM. - Mr. W. D.Jones. President of the New Zea.land

Gliding Association. has announoed thefollowing team to represent New Zealandat the World Gliding Championships inPoland in June. 1968.

A. P. Fowke (Matamata)R. C. Reid (Auckland)A. R. Cameron (Auckland)P. K. Heginbotham (Wellington)Manager: J. H. Roake (Tauranga)

In announcing the team, Mr. Jonescongratulated the selected pilots, ande~pressed his confidence in their abilityto uphold New Zealand's reputation inthe sporting world. He was particularlypleased that, for the first time, NewZealand's four top-ranked glider pilotshad been available for selection. and hewas sure that the experience gained bythe team would be of tremendous bene.fitto the gliding movement in this country.

A. P. (Tony) Fowke, a Matamatafarmer. is the current New ZealandGliding Champion, having won five outof the seven days at the 1967 NationalChampionships.

R. C. (Ross) Reid was New ZealandChampion two years ago, and finished inthird place this year. He is also an en­thusiastic yachtsman.

363

A. R. (AlIan) Cameron was second inthis year's Championships, and has beenin the top placings for several years. Hewas a member nf tile New Zealand teamin the 1965 World Gliding Champion­ships.

P. K. (Peter) Heginbothatn was NewZealand C.hampion last year, and hascompeted with success in AustralianGI·iding Championships on two oCCa­sions. He is also active in the administra­tive side of gliding.

J. H. (John) Roake has been involvedin all aspects of gliding, and recentlyassumed the roIe of Editor of the maga­zine Gliding Kiwi. He has been asso­ciated with the organisation of DistrictGliding Championships on several occa­sions. and was Director of tbe 1967National Championships.

Ross MAclNTYRE

PAKISTAN

SOARING in Pakistan was started byCcl. and Mrs. Mikulski. who came

to P'akistan from Poland .. They demon­strated soaring in Karachi in 1952. andthe Pakistan Air Force made glidin~part of their training programme - atleast for a few years.

Mr. MinoD Marker brought a SlingsbvT-2l Sedbergh to his home town Que.ttain 1956 and learned to fly on this ship.In 1961 he founded the Quetta Soaringand Flying Club, and since Ihat timeabout 120 soarirrg pilots have beentrained in Quelta. The spacious hangarwas also largely built by Mr. Marker.and in it I saw a new Slingsby Capstantwo.-seater, two Slingsby T-21 two­seaters, two Olympia 2B single-seatersand one Grunau aaby. They were com­fortably spaced; leaving room for addi,­tion of future equipment.

The launching method is winch tow.done with a Pfeitfer winch, imp:Jrtedfrom West Germany. Unfortunately, notow plane is available.. The 1,5OO-fl. run­way permits winch tows to about 500 ft.maximum and due to Quetta's powerfulthermal activities many flights of longerduration have been made after winchlaunches_ Several times pilots haveSUCceeded in getting into wave up'currents, reaching altitudes up to 23,950fL (7,300 m.).

Mr. S. M. Mumtaz, formerly of thePakistan Air Force. is fully employed as

364

Chief Flight Instructor and has accumu­lated more 'Ihan 2,000- hours in sail­planes. One of his students. Derrick P.Middlecoat, was the one who flew anOlympia 2B to the highest wave altitudehitherto reached in the Quetta area. If atow plane was available, the number ofwave flights would greatly incr,ease, sincelenticularis clouds are a cQmmon sight inQuetta's sky.

When I visited the QueHa site, waveclouds were standing all over the sky.The date was 8th April, 1967. But. dueto a Government regulation dating fromthe Pakistan-India war of September.1965, I, as a foreign national, was notpermitted to fly, which really was a pity.The wave clouds were clas3ic and theelub ships were equipped with oxygen.Efforts are being made to abolish thisrule, which at present \)rohiboils sportingflights by foreign nationals in Pakistan.It ap~ears c:ol'1tradictory in a countrywhich makes efforts to attract foreigntourist>. The Quetta site would be wellworth visiting' fr,om a soaring pilot'spoint of view. The ciimate is always verydry. so that summer temperatures risingto 128' F. do npt feel as bad as theysound. Tbe t.hermals are terrific. thecloudbase very high and wave cloudsappear very. very freQ uently. If Qu.ettawere located in the United States. itwould be .a Mecca for soaring peop~e.

The friendly spirit of the Quetta soar­ing fraternity was vividly illustrated by

. the faces look.ing at me with the sameyouthful enthusiasm, when in the evefl­ing at tea time we all sat round a tablein rhe Lourdes. Hotel at Ouetta. To myleft was the turbaned head of a youngstudent who prepared himself for theMullah calling' in Pakistan's state'rel;igion. Even tho.ugh he had. little under­standing of English, his eyes never losttheir enthusiastic expression, and helaughed with his pals whenever theylaughed at some part of my story. Therewas the eager face of Derrick Middle­coat, a Christian Anglo-Pakistani. andright next to him the handsome face ofChief Plight Instructor S. M. MUlTltaz,wh(} again was a follower of Pakistan'Sstate religion. All these young men withlove of soaring in their hearts were look­ing up to Minoo Marker. their soarini\friend and sponsor, who belongs to theParsee Community. I can only wish that

after removal of !I:le pr~ventive. rest~i'7lions many soanngpllots wlH VISItQuella eIther by car [rem Euro'pe orlIying 'up on P.I.A:'s excellent. airlineservice from Karach~ to Quetta m abo!!ttwO hours. A frtendly welcome IS

certain.(For correslJoll~ence with the Quetta

soaring and Flymg qUb, contact theHon. ~cretary, Mr. MIilOO K. Marker,clo Marker Alkaloids, Quella. "\ccom­modation. dght minutes by car fromthe soarin~ site. is available at theLourdes Hotel, with all meals Rs 32.50per day, or with all eJlpenses included.about $8.00 per day.)

PETER RIEDEL

EDITORI"L NOTE. - Peter Riedel wasamong the German soaring pioneers ofthe early 1920's. and obtained the world'sseventh Silver C in 1932. He has spentmany years in Canad.a, and we last sawhim in Argentina at the 1963 WorldChampionships. He is now with PanAmerican World Airways at Karachi.

RHODESIA (Gwelo)HAVI~G seen an .the news from .the

variOUs clubs ID your magazine,the Commillee have nominated me tobring you up to date with the (gliding)happenings in this part of the world.Perhaps I could give you a very briefhistory to start with:-

Our club, the Midlands Gliding Club,Gwelo, Rhodesia, was formed inJanuary, 1958. A pranged T-31 wasbought from Umtali Gliding Club, re­buIlt and flown for the first time inJune.. 1960. This T-3.1 is still doingsterling (sic!) service, having. during itsCareer with us, bad three major prangs.

Other aircraft in the club have in­~IU<led a Kirby Cadet (donated to M.G.C.

Y Selukwe on, amalgamation in 1962ancl written off in a prang in February,~?4) and a Wolf (bought from Salisbury

l!dmg Club in March, 1964, and alsoWfltten off in a prang in October. 1964).h Currently ~ying and in g~ocl tl'im we

ave a Spahnger-I g of SWISS manufac­~ure of about 1939 or 1946 vintage. ThjsIS a gull-wing medium-performanceSachme. bought from the Johannesbur~lz~mg Centre, ~atagw:anath. in August,

, ,complete with trailer.

Finally, the pride of place in theclub's fleet is our Skylark 38. Since itspurchase, complete with all blind-flyinginstruments, oxygen and trailer inNovember, 1964, it has ,earned numerousawards and QuaJificatiens. Some of theseinclude nine Silver COs. five Gold C's andfive Diamond goals. Our current mem­bership stands, incidentally, at 15, and allthe machines are club owned. Specialmention must be made of our youngestflying member, Mark Penberthy. whoturned 16 years in March, 1967. Markgained his Silver C in December. 1966.and completed his qlla!·ifying number ofhours to fly the Skylark on his birthdayin Mareh.

Our site is some 3~ miles from Gweloon a disused ex-R.A.F. aerodrome, com­p~ete with clubhouse, workshop andhangar. The main runway has beenextended .to a length of about a mile_

A recent innovation has been thefitting of one-watt V.H.F.. radios into theSkylark and S-18. These, together withthe set working on the ground. keepeveryone in touch with what is happen­ing in and around the field. It ,is quite aregular thing, too, to. chat with theSalisbury Club pilots whenever they areai~bQrne some 200 miles away. Ourclub altitude record is currently held byBarry Tur-ner who flew to 17,000 ft. inbecember in the Skylark. Barry unfor­tun:ately missed his Diamond height byonly sOO ft. This was due to him havingto abandon the attempt when he en­countered severe icing conditions. Thebrakes iced up, and this restricted anyfurther flying in the cloud.

We are waiting for the onset ,of ourhot season (August to November) at themoment. The Limited Class competitions(machines with a glide angle of up toI in 27) are scheduled to take place inthe first two weeks of October, After thiswe are hoping to collect remainingDiamonds with 500-km_ flights to theBotswana border (Plumtree) and back.Perl1aps even a few Diamond heightgains may be obtained also. We wouldbe pleased to hear from any other clubsin the world who have T.V. brakes kingprohlems during gain of height attempts.This bogey has been a real problem andlooks like being quite an obstacle if wedon't get some satisfactory solution toprevent it. J. C. M. MOGO

365

RHODESIA (Salisbur)

W-E are nearly into the middle of ourwinter and the thennals are still

bubbling. In fact, on one Sunday recentlyat 5 p.. m. three sailplanes were at 6,500ft. playing around just under c1oudbase!So you can gather that ma.ny hours ofsoaring have been accumulated by thekeener types. With clouds still around.cloud-flying Jjractice has been done onmany days by many pilots. Cross­country flying has been somewhat limitedby the fact that landing fields sti.\l havebumper crops in them, or that they arecovered in long grass which is mostly~JVer six feet in height!

It is more than evident after sixmonths' operation that we have an ex­tremely valuable asset in the PiperCruiser fBlanik combination. The Cruiser.which replaced the. Tiger Moth, basnever looked back. for we have quickert0WS. less fuel ,is used, maintenance isdown and therefore utilisatiol'l is higherwith subsequent benefits to the cluP. Allthis helpS to keep each tow to 1.500 ft.at 1Os.. Is this possibly the cheapest On­subsidised aerofow rate in tbe world?

The Austria of John Saunders is backafter its tussle with a ploughed fieldduring last year's Nationals. It isffyingas well as ever. We regret to report thatthe Bergfalke is in hospital. and it willbe some time before she has fuilyrecovered! She wasn't looking where shewas going one evening when her wing­tip clobbered some long grass.

The. whole airstrip is having a face­lift. Widening of the runway and exten­sions to the undershoot and overshootareas are well in hand, the object beingto make landing and taking off muchmore comfortable with the peace of mind

Dunkeswelllight Aircraft limited

5-enior Inspector Approval C's of AMajor or Minor RepairsGlider Trailers for Sale

Dunkeswell AirportHoniton,Devon.Tel. Honiton 350

366

that goes with more room. and also tomake way for the record entry we hopeto have for this year's Nationals.

Perhaps there are a few of you whorea.d these pages who will be in thispart 0f the world so wby not come andvisit us while you are here, and we w.illdo our best to give you a taste ofRhodesian thermals, as well as Rhodesianbeer!

MIKE McGEORGE

SOVIET UNION

W ORLD RECORDs.-Four new world., records by Soviet glider pilots

were announced on 20th June by NikolaiGolovanov., sports commissioner of theChk.alovCentral Air Club of the U.S.SR.

In a flight tCl a fixed goal. AnatolyZaitsev and passenger Vladislav Khari­tonenkCl covered 916 km. in a strai"dltline to break the word record of 702km. for multi-seater sailplanes held bySoviet t>ilot Pave! Antono.... They tookoff from an airfield in Tlila region in atwo-sea ter glider to fly to the villaj.te ofStepanovka on the Azov Sea coast.·

~Il a free distance flij.tht a.Iong t,he sameroute and in a similar sailplane. YuriKuznetsov and passenger Yl!Iri Barka­shev broke the world distance record of829 km. set by Victor Shevtchenk.o.U.S.S.R., four years ago.

Excellent results in L-13 two-sea'tergliders were shown by woman pi!otTatiana Pavlova with passenj.ter LansaFolomeshkina on a predetermined routeand by pilot Isabella Gorokhova withpassenger Zina,jda Kuznetsova on adistance flight. They covered 870 km. asthe .crow flies to break the world recol'dsof 619 km. held by Soviet pilot ZinaidaSoIovey.

.The details of these record flights arebeing forwarded to the F.A.l.

Novosti Injorma.fiOIl Service

UNITED STATESLow and Slow

In recent months a fringe organisa­tion comprised in part of ind,ividualswithin the SSA, and in part of non-SSAmembers, has begun to take form. Thusfar it has no more than two dozenmembers. most of them scattered aboutthe V.S. The point of mutual inter,;:stamong these individuals is achieving ~lid·

ing flight with limited means. Amqng

MOTORIZED SAILPLAN.ES

the loosely knit membership. connectedat this time only by a newsletter. arepeople who h~ve designed•. built andflown hang ghders !Jf vanous sorts.replicas or reproducuons of machmessuch as those used by LilientiUll, Pilcherand the Wrights, and primary gliders.An arbitrary cut-off point of L/D= 10has been establi.sh~d for e~deavours toQualify for admIssion, but like much ofthe rest of the policy of the group, thisis not to be taken too seriously.

Qualifications for membership. suchas it is. are an interest in simple flyingmachines (with small velocities in alldirections), and the possible payment ofa dollar or two per year to defray news­letter expenses. If you want to learn ofthe work being done, the designs pro­posed, the gliders built and flown. andthe people involved, contact Ernil Kissel,21154 Sullivan Way, Saratoga. Cal'ifornia.

CROSSING AIRwAys.-In a list of theuses to which a motorized sailplane

could bc put, Egon Scheibe (producer ofthe Motorspatz and Motorfalke) in­cludes, besides the usual (lnes, a sug­gestion that the motor could be used forcrossing airways route.s underneath thelower boundary of the airway.

ROUND THE WORLD.-'-James Bede, aYoung American designer who has al­ready produced a STOL machine anutwo ultra-lights, is adapting a Sc.hweizer2.32 sailplane to take a 210.b.p. Conti­nental IO-380-C motor. The leading edgeof the wing will serve as a tank and~,IOO litres will be carried. The wing spanIS extended to 19 metres With thismachin~ he proposes to fly round theWorld In six days via Spain, Arabia,touth~.rn India, Northern Australia and

a,wall. (There is no mention of soaring.)Air et Cosmos.

~~TORrZED OLYMPIA.-Ghent (Gand)AVJ:atlon ClUb has fixed a motor-<:ycle~nglne on a metal-tube pylon on top of?e wing of an Olympia sailplane. It has

a r~ady made several flights "a !'entiere~atlsfaction de ses utiIisateurs". (There is

o mentIOn of soaring.)Conquel'e de rAir.

.. .. ..

Bristol Gliding CluhNYMPSFlEI.D. GLOUCESTER

w. offer excellent thefMeI. hill and wave 501,;"g af asit. on ..... westeln edge 0' the CoIIW~dl, NHr StroudFlc:.' includes Skylark a. OIYfllpia. SwaUow. Prefec.1 a.d

Dual Training Machines. A~rotowin9 available.ConIfor'ab!e Clubhouse. first·dass Canleon. BunkhouM

afld ..,.S,,"unef Gliding Holiet.ys for ab-initio Non·M.lftbers.

Write to: BRISTOb GLIDING CLUBNYMPSFlflD, Nr. STONEHOUSE. GLOS.

Telephon" UUY 342

CORNISH GLIDING & FLYING CLUBPERRANPORTH. CORNWALL

Gliding courses in modern lIeet lromMarch 27th - B.G.A. categorised in­

structors-line soaring-lovely coastalairfield - ideal for a different family

holiday.

Details with pleasure from:D. C. Bolton. Spindle Gott8ge, Trispen, Truro·

The Derbyshire and LancashireGUDlNG CWB

Camphill, Great Hucklow, Nr. Tidetwell,Derbyshire

Th. Club has three dual (ontrol glidersIlnd offers elemen·lary. intermediare and high per'or..aace r.cilities anettraining. PrivateOwneu tatered fo,. Th. (oM'o"abl.ClubHouse. Dormito,ies and Cant.." are u"d... the care of •Resident Slew.,d and SI~rdH1. At Camphill lhere .reall Ihose things which make Ihe complet. Gliding Club.W,ite 10 Ihe Sec,et.,.,. '0' details o' Mefnbeuhip and

Suftlmer (04IU...

Telephone T;de,_1I 207

Devon &Somerset GtidiDCJ Clob Ltd.,North HW. Broadhemburt.

Honiton. Deyon

1967 Holiday Gliding Courses (up to solostandard) 15 Gns. per 5 days course.

"Junior league Weeks" (for "$010" piloh)5 Gns. plus launch and soaring fees. Bett'lfthan ever at our new site, Thermal, Ridge

and Wave soaring.Apply Cours" Sec., "Sunnybank", P"ncroSl,

Hemyock, Cullontplo/t. £)".on.

367

INDEX TO ADVERTISERS

Bc:lUmont Aviation Litera:ure 312Brislol Gliding Club - 367British Gliding Associalion 301Burghley Fin.nce Co. Ltd - 305Cbssificds - 343·345Pc"er Clitrord Aviation Ltd. Back Co~-er

Cobb Slater Inslrumenl Co. Lld. 309Condor Group Services Ltd. 319Co~njsh Gliding Club 367Cco;o:fell V..;ometers - 297Derbyshire and, Lancashire Gliding Clu!' - 367D.yon and Some",et GlidiVI( Club - 367Doncas:-er Sailplane Scrvice~ 327Oor""t FJyin~ Club and Aviation Ccnl'" 318Dunkesweil Gliding and Flying Group 299D~nkeswell Light Aircnh Ltd. - 366Flu~ uvd Fahneugwcrke A.G. - 314GlldcfWork - 361J. Hulme - 325Irving Air C!JuJe of Gr=1 B~itain L:d. :08Kent Glid inG Club 368Ko~kL~. 3~

L"nd's End Gliding and Flying Club 368Lasham Glid;ng Society Ltd. Inside !lack CoyerVictor Lawrence (Merchants) Ltd. 343Londov Gliding Club 317. 368M:dland Gliding Club 368MOlcimport 326Noxo AYiauon .ndlndu'trial Equipmen: Ltd. 320Ontaera Co. 335Rubety Owen & Co. Lld. - 334Sailplane &; EnGineering So..ices Ltd. 307S,ilplane & Gliding - 316Schempp-Hirth K.G. • 34SAlexJnder Schleicher SCgd!iulldeugbau 332Sco:tish Gliding Union Inside B'ck CoyerShell r.~ex & S.P. Ltd. Inside Front CoverSli!lll'by Sailplanes Ltd 270:;:outhdown Aero $eryices Ltd 337Soulhern Sailplanes 351Speedwell Sailplanes - 351Sport,ir Ayiolion Ltd. 296Stevenson-Ebcntheuer 331The:nnaJ Equipment Ltd. 287Three Counties Aero Club lid. JsOwest Wales Gliding Associalion Inside Back CoyerYorkshire Gliding Club Inside Illcl< Coyer

MIDLAND GLIDING CLUBThe long Mynd, Shropshire

Tel. Linley 206Ab initio training

Advanced inst;uctionRidge soaring Ihermals, wave flying

Excellent residential clubhouseGood food Bar

RESIDENTIAL SUMMER COURSESWrite to Miss. J. ·Hnton.

104 Copthome Road, Shrewsbury,Shropshire.

368

-T=-- -- -LONDON GLIDING CLUB

bun.table Downs, BedfordshireTelephone: OW 2 63419

EXPERIENCED INSTRUCTORS?The London Club has been trainingglider p:Jots up to the highest standardsfor more than thirty-five years. Wewere the first club to <m1ploy a profes­sional instructor; we now have four.

SOARING ALL THE YEAR ROUND?We have good thenn31s in spring,summer and autumn, and in winter wehave hill soaring.

TRAINING COURSES?Apply immediately 10 The Manager(SG), at the Club. There may st;1I be afew vlKancies for this year.

LAND'S ENDThermal and Sea-breeze soaring.

14 miles of cliff.Regular 5-hours prospects.

Every holiday fac.ility for families.Ab inilio on T21.

Progressive training on Blanik, Skylark illAero-towing·, Blind flying, Aerob~tics, etc.

Course SKrelary: Mr. C. P. GILLlAM8 The Valley, Porthcurno, P,enzance, Cornwall

HOLIDAY COURSES

HOLIDAY COURSES FO~ BEGINNERSAND OTHERS

One week or more, April to mid-0ctoberProfessional instructors

Modern resident:al Clubhouse. licensed Bar

Excellent thermal and ridge soaring inbeautiful open countryside

For lull details send S.A.E. to:

KENT GLIDING CLUBCHALLOCK, AS'HFORD. KENT

Telephone: <:hallock 307

11

Scottish Gliding UnionPORTMOAK. SCOT1.ANDWEt.L.

BY KINR055Telephone: Scotlandwell 243

T E WAVE SITEcellent Hill. Thermal and WaveSoaring in beautiJul surroundings

Comfortable ClubroQrT15. excellentbedroom accommodation, full catering

and barSeven days per week

Balanced Club Aeet Resiclentln.structorAero Tow Facilities

COURSES FOR BEGINNERSAND OTHERS

JUNE TO SEPTEMBERVisitors and visiting aircraft welcomeADVANCED BOOKINGS NECESSARY IN WRITING

Write to the Secretary for furtherdetails

WEST WALESWithybush Airfield.. Have,fordwest,

Pembrokeshir.Th. Club is cenh~lIy lilu.r.d fo, ove, 70 miles ofrqr~".1 Perk: Coutline ofl,rang uupoilt b_ch~ .nd

eAcellen' facilities fo, open ai, ~olid'YJ.

Gliding HoHd.y Co,use. oPen iny ....k SunuM' andWinter. Launching f,om ,hree 'unways by "'.uto-Io_,

winch and ••ro-Iow.for the beg'nn.... inurucfion on sid,,.bY-Sld. Slirlsuby

1·21 .nd sw.now.Fo, n" .dv••nd. high perfOf~nc. ".jninS! onCaps'An. A.,O-fow.I by TugiINSl6f. S~rin9 on N. E. Wand S 'adng cliffs. Accommodation is 'uJly licens.drasidential ClubhouM. with mele and female dOlmitori.5

with new inl.,ior sptung sing" IHdJ.Illustrated brochure a,.d d....i1s from Gliding Secre'er."

J. Hosk.er. 7 Alexandra_1."ace, .,ynmill, SWlns...

Yorkshire Gliding Club (Pty) LimitedSUTTON BANK , THI RSK , YORKS

Visit one of Ihe oldest GIKling Clubs in the country.We Ire delighled t.o extend our tlcilities 10 members

of other clubs.W. offe, ,A magnificent ridge wiln sOiting from South to Norlh

West. bcellenl Wlve and Thermal condilton$,ll,g. modern dubnouse witn full time domesfk: staff.

Good selection of solo mlcto!ine,.

Advanced Iwo·'5eeteu with professional instructors.

We look forward 10 your visit.Ring Sullon IThink) 237.

Surrey and Hants Gliding ClubCIIlIlounc:es that its fleet now comprises

ONE DART 17RTHREE SKYLARK 4's

TWO SKYLARK 3'sTHREE SKYLARK 2,'s

The Surrey and Hants Gliding Club welcomes new members who are alreadysolo pilots of Skylark standard. Train to this standard in the Lasham GlidingSociety's School. Write to the Secretary for membership details of the Clubor the Society, or better still pay a visit to lasham and see for yourself theunrivalled facilities we offer.

The Secretary, Ldsham Gliding Centre, Hr. Alton, HantsHerriarcl 270

LASHAM GLIDING CENTRE

GLIDE AHEAD WITH A "BLANIK'.HOLDE'R OF THE U.K. TWO-SEAT HEIGHT RECORD

* Unsurpassed two-seat performance

* Fully aerobatic-Flies equally well inverted

* Corrosion proof all metal manufacture-low maintenance costs

* High I'aunc~es achieved through low drag and weight (Empty 650 Ibs.}

* Pe,rfect for all training especially instrument flying

* All purpose sailplane - ideal for club or syndicate

* Winch belly hook now filled

WEll PROVEN-NEARl Y ONE THOUSAND BUILTDelivered U.K. £1,9 50

(including instruments)

Duty £2.33(if applicable)

IMMEDIATE DELIVERY H.P. FINANCE ARRANGEDOVERSEAS ENQUIRIES WElCOMED

Distributor for U.K., Eire and Canada:Peter Clifford Aviation Limited, Oxford Airport, Kidlington, Oxford.

Tel.: Kidlington 4262 Cables: Cliffair, Oxford

Sole Exporter for Czechoslovak Aviation Products:Omnipol Limited, Washlngtonova 11, Prague 11, Czechoslovakia.