Volume 16 No 1 Feb 1965.pdf - Lakes Gliding Club

(3) Dry adiabatic rate up to cloud base only: 14.30·16.30.22nd OC.L; 14.30-11.00,26th Nov.; 12.00-14.30, 21st Nov.(4) Stable below cloud layer: 13.4()-15.40, 4th Nov.; 11.00-13.00, 9th Feb.In so far as any lesson can be learned from these few examples, it seems to bethat the morning should be the best time to try climbing IOto strato-cumulusfrom below.Die Kunst, Sicher ZD Oiegen, by Flugkapitiin F. Rrrz. Published byLuftfahrtverlag WaIter Zuerl. Steinebach Worthsee, W. Germany. PriceDM 5.20.HIS book on "The Art of Safe Flying''' won the 1963 Flying Safety Prize ofT the International Flying Safety Foundation, New York. It takes 4() differentsafety rules in turn: each has a page to itself, starting with a report of an actualincident or accident, follQwed by a discussion of the factors involved and endingwith a short summary in heavy type. On the opposite page in eac·h case is anamusing cartoon; seven of these show sailplanes in awkward situations. The bookis well done and deserves translation into other languages.A Colour Guide to Clouds, by RICHARD ScoRER and HARRY WEXLER.Published by Pergamon Press, Oxford, London, Paris, Frankfurt. and byThe Macmillan Company, New York. Price 12s. 6d.ROFESSOR R. S. ("Dick") Scorer is well known in British gliding; the late Dr.P We1tl.er was a distinguished and versatile American meteorologist, whose lastjob, we believe, was analysing the photographs from the first Weather Satellite.This is a beautiful colleclion of 49 colour photograpj}s of clouds, selectedfrom a larger "Colour Encyclopaedia of Clouds" by the same authors. "Theobject of the book," they say, "is to enable the reader not primarily to give theright name to a cloud but to get to know how it ~urs." Many of the clouds areseen from above, taken from high ground, aircraft or space vehicles. Each photois described on the opposite page, and there is also a substantial introduction on"Cloud-building Motion Patterns", with many diagrams. .Some useful hints on observing, measuring, photographing and sketchingclouds are given at the end. But if you sketch an ordinary cumulus only every5 or 10 minutes, as recommended, you will have at most two or three sketches.According to the authors. "The sky c!l.anges most rapidly at sunrise and soin an hour's observing then you will usually see more changes than at any othertime." That is why Dick Scorer got us all up at sunrise on a course at Dale FortField Centre. And that is why, at the World Gliding Championships at Madrid,he went up on to' his hotel roof every sunrise and thus became the British team's"secret weapon" which brought victory.Of Flight and Flyers: an aerospace anthology compiled by OLlVERSTEWART. Published 1964 by Nownes, London. Price 35s_HIS is one of thc best historics of aviation ever compiled. It consists of extractsT from the most significant writings on the subject - mostly narrative - interspersedwith well-informed and often spicy comments by Oliver Stewart. Thereis no room here for even a summary of its contents; they takc the subject up tospace travel, and cover the past 60 years in detail, with a bit at the beginningabout balloons and early flying experimenters.Mr. Stewart thinks the glamour accorded to the Wright brothers has led toother early ilwentors being given insufficient credit, and regards the first successfulpowered flight as that by Clement Ader in Francc in 1890, though admitting themachine's lack of control. He regards speed as the outstanding factor in aviationprogress, saying: "The picture I seek to present is a picture of speed developmentthrough aviation to space flight." Of aviaticlln he writes: "Its period of growth,development and cxpansion is over," Ilnd though "aviation as a means of transport58