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

out that while the proposal was madeunder the guise of a safety measure. itwould actually decrease safety by forcingmany aircraft out of the higheraltitudes down to the already well-populatedlower airways.The frequency with which Odessa,Texas, has been the start of successfulworld records flights, I am sure. mustmake many soaring pilots feel tbat onlya few days' visit there any summer, withanything better than a Primary, will producea bag full of Diamonds, at least.But alas, in the words of the popularsong, "It Ain't Necessarily So". Odessaconditions in the summer are doubtlessvery good by British standards, but youcan't just go out and break a record anyold day. I suppose the chance of havinga 500-km. day in Britain must be aboutI : 75 in the summer, while it is probably1: lOin Odessa. But sometimes a lot ofsuccessive tens of days pass without havingthe longed-for "one". As an example,I trailered out from California to the1959 soaring camp at Odessa. needingonly the Distance Diamond. Sixty-seven'cross-country flights were made during thetwo-week period by various pilots. and theaverage distance was 151 miles. The onlyreal good distance flight was one of367 miles" made by Harland Ross, whowisely saw there was not much use startingfrom Odessa, and took a 100-miletow west, to the mountains, before startinghis flight. The best I could do was160 miles to a town called Muleshoe,Texas-about the last place I wantedto see that day. It was 3,000 miles oftrailering befor,e I got home, without aglimpse of a Diamond. That year, Marfa.at the edge of the mountains. about 150miles south-west of Odessa would havebeen a better starting-point. But thenthis year, while records were being setfrom Odessa, the Marfa soaring campwas having spotty, and definitely notrecord, conditions.HARNER SELVIOGEHE Soaring Society of America isT being guided by a new president in1965, John D. Ryan, who was theNational Champion in 1962_ He succeedsWilliam S. lvans who served for twoterms.The 1965 V.S. National SoaringChampionships have been scheduled for29th June to 8th July at Adrian, Michi-86gan, 70 miles south-west of Detroit and33 miles north-west of Toledo. The terrain,weather and a record number ofentries are expected to make for a verykeen competition.No accurate figures for overall soaringactivity in the V.S. have been compiledfor 1964. but some statistics on thenumber of badges earned through 10thNovember will give some indication ofthe level of activity. Badges completednumbered 10 Diamond, 28 Gold and 125Silver.Wave soaring is becoming more popularas new locations for this activityare explored and developed. At leastseven sites turned out over nine flightsthat exceeded 30,000 feet and another25 or more that exceeded 20,000 feel InWashington State, conical Mt. Ranier,14,400 feet high, has produced waveflights to just over 30,000 feet.One-design interest has been heightenedby revitalisation of the 1-26 Association,which specialises in promotingactivity with 4O-foot span SchweizerI-26's. Over 250 of these sailplanes havebeen manufactured by Schweizer. manyof which were kits completed by homebuilders. Owners, and pilots flying themfor hire, vie for a point championshipand for honours at various regattas heldthroughout the year.There were 30 I-26's entered at thetenth Annual 1-26 Regatta at Elmira,N.Y., and the Association has nowre!istered 18 "Flights", groups of threeor more 1-26 pilots. A growing esprit decorps indicates that 1-26 activity willbecome even more significant in thefuture.LLOYD LICHERWEST GERMANYSTATISTICS for 1964 were given atthe annual conference of the GlidingCommission on 7th-8th November bySelf Kunz. There were 25,000 gliderpilots with 2,500 sailplanes, and 190,000hours were flown from 700,000 launches.Cross-couotry flights totalled 650,000 km.(404,000 miles). Plying instructors numbered1,750, and workshop leaders1,000.In the' decentralized national contest,Reinhold Stuhr, of Bissingen, won with2,501.6 PQints, followed by Rudolph