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

will go on into the foreseeable future", "as a pmgressive technology it has playedits part."There is a large number of e~cellent historic photographs, but only one of aglider - Lilenthars. Perhaps, .now .that progress in sailplane design is almostexclusively aimed at increasing cross-country speed, Mr. Stewart will transfer hisinterest to this subject. A. E. S.CORRES'PONDENCEA GUIDE TO CLOUD·FLYINGDear Sir,I hesi,tate ,to add further to the already voluminolls correspondence on thissubject; my only excuse is that the central topic has drifted from the basic know-howto the consideration of emotional factors in flying and flying training.Going back to my article "The Nature of Accidents" (December, 1963, p. 454),the plain fact is that you can have an accident simply because you get too frightenedto cope. You cannot guarantee that in your flying you will never get frightened,because even if you get so good that you will never frighten yourself (Which formost of us is unlikely), you can be pretty sure that there will be plenty of otherpilots around to do the frightening for you. The solution therefore is that. bytaking numerous small doses of anxiety over a long period, you can increase yourability to tolerate anxiety, so that when the big fright comes along,as come alengit will, you will not be incapacitated by it.There are situations which .are dangerous and frightening like dimbing a tree,and evolution made it so 100,000 years ago. There ate situati«;ms which aredangerous but not frightening like driving a car too fast (but in another 100/000years our descendants will have developed an instinctive fear in this situation).Finally, there are situations which are frightening but not dangerous, like divingoff a high board, and I think it is fair to say that sensible aerobatics and cloud-flyingfall into this category.If you are going to increase your tolerance of anxiety, a factor which may wellbe necessary for your eventual survival in the air, you must get skirt-weaned fromyour instructor at some stage of the game. When you take up cloud-flying yourbiggest problem is to overcome your fear of going into cloud, and in my honestopinion I think you should do this alone.Marlow. Bucks.D. BRENNlG lAMES.THE ARM-CHAIR PILOTDear Sir,I have always found Anthony Edwards's articles both interesting and amusing.His able work on the trapping of polars, and on cross-country flying, would surelywin him a place in any International Team of arm-chair pilots! I certainly do notwish to discourage him from writing more, but I fear that his practical work hasbeen sadly neglected of late. It may be revealing to see this erudite theoretical workput into practice. The theories unfortunately fail to take account of a pilot's previousexperience, ar.d its effect on the chosen course, which often includes more thermalsthan the bare statistics suggest! Even on my best flights, the barograph does notdisplay that orderly array of shark's teeth which is popularly represented as asine qua non of punditry!No doubt renewed practical acquaintance with glider driving will enabl~Anthony to enlarge on his basic theories, to include additional factors. Unfortunatelythey will probably then be beyond the comprehension of most of us!I would also like to add my support to Dr. lames's vi.ews on cloud-flying. Myexperiences with artificial horizons are similar" but I feel that any pilot shQuld59