Volume 8 No 3 Jun 1957.pdf - Lakes Gliding Club

new altitude to glidingOu R new lightweight oxygen equipmentmakes it possible for gliders to reach altitudes up to +0,000 ft.Compri~i,ng both portable sets and fixed installations, it features lowweight, simplicity ~nd low initial cost.. YOUR enquiries will be welcomed.NORMALAIR (AUSTRALIA) PTY. LTD.MELBOURNEYEOVILENGLANDNORMALAIR (CANADA) ·LTO.TORONTOPleasQ montion "Sailplane & Gliding" when replying 10 adYertlsemenu.

SAILPLANE AND GLIDINGOFFICIAL ORGAN OF TIlE BRITISH GLIDING ASSOCIATIONEdited I)y Alan E. Slater, M.A., F.R.Met.S.Published by The British Gliding Associatioo, 19 Park Lane, London, W.l.Ma.gazine Committee: Anstace Gladstone, Godfrey Harwood, Waiter Kahn, peggyMieville, Colin Moore, Veronica Plan, Ann Welch. Philip WillsVolume VIII. No. 3.June 1957Bi-monthlyCONTENTSTITLEAUTIlORLasham to Land's EndA. J. Deane-DrummondOther Flights on 6th April204 Miles Qui-and-Return in New Zealand S. H. GeorgesonSafety HighD. H. G.lnceGliding in Czecboslovaki

Lasham to Land's Endby A. J. Deane-DrummondATURDAY, 6th April, started well and byS 8.30 small cumulus had 'Sprung to lifeall OVer the sky. The wind was str,ong fromthe north-east and'it was clearly ,going to bean excellent cross-eountry day if it did notcloud over too much.Rather naturally, I had planned manytrips down to Cornwall, but somehow th~plans never seem to fit exactly the conditionsas one finds them. The first problemwas the declaration ofgoal. Should I go forLands End or should I play safer anddeclare one of the airfields beyond Trurwhich are all over 300 kms. from Lasham?The wind was blowing right down thepeninsula at about 20-30 knots, whichmeant that I WQuld need about 5,000 ft.over :Bodmin to make it. Conditions lookedso good and the fascination of getting toLands End made me decide on Lands EndAerodrome. I then marked off the five.mile points back to Bodmin, which is about48 miles from the tip.·Clouds were quite shallow, and so it wasvital that I kept where the thermals weremost likely to be strong, which meantstaying in the middle of the peninsula ratherthan attempting to use the sea breeze effect.If it was essential to pass over Bodmin, jtwas necessary to keep to the north side ofDartmoor, rather than allowing the wind todrift me down irtto the Plymouth area fromwhich it might be difficult to escape. Themost difficult pan of the flight was IjkeJy tobe between Exeter and Bodmin, and so itturned out to 'be.* See article in SAlLPLANE AND GLIDlNG,April 1957, page 92.I was launched by car tow at 10.30 a.m.and soon fOWld a thermal wltich blew meup to cloud base at about 4,000 ft. abovesea level, a mile or two downwind ofLasham. The clouds were now formed inlong streets a few miles apart and I resistedthe temptation to make too full use of them.I had ,to keep on track and only followedeach str~t down until I hit a strong thermal.From cloud base I steered off cross-wind tothe next street and repeated the process. Asa result I covered the first 100 miles in abouttwo hours and was nicely placed a few milesnorth of Exeter for the rest of the trip.Over Exmoor there was rather a lot ofcloud which proved to be still fairly active,and from whjch I extracted the last scrap oflift. As we passed over the highest hill justsouth of Okehampton I cursed when I saw,that the sky in front appeared to be completelyblue. However, as we came closerthere were a few small wisps of cloudsscattered here and there and these all.produced weak thennals. Over Bodminthere was quite a sizable cloud developing,and after a bit of a struggle we managed toget within reach. Sure enough a seriC$ ofstrong thermals pushed us up to nearly5,000 f.t., by which time we had drifted a fewmiles to the south-west. An being well, itshould now be in the bag, and I started tofl.y as accurately as possible towards thegoal. The air was now quite dead, but as Iwas well above the line at the first checkpoint, I inCl'eased airspeed to 40 kn1)ts,which I held for the Test ofthe trip.To my great astonisltment, just pastHayk, I flew into an isolated strong thermalwhich I circled in for a few turns. I alreadyA."'. E.~£- U MONe>!MI'/OGMM \ 6. -'I. s.,.IO?>O /130\\/1.50\\ -/!lSO\\1430-114-

204 MILES OUT-AND-RETURNNEW ZEALANDby S. H. GeorgesonIN(This IQ/iqut: flight in both directions along a slandiflg wave in tht lee of the Southern Alps,carried out above 20,fYiX)leet all the w,ay, was mentiolU!d in our Aprilissue andis here describedin full detail by the pilot.)AKE-oFF ftom Harewood Aerodrome inT the Skylark 3b was at 10.30 a.m., witha ground wind of020°. The wind backed to33'0° approximately and from the Met. ,thisdirection was held to around 3,000 feet.The tow behind the Tiger was uneventful,and no downcurrent was met until justprior to crossing the first range of hills intoLees Valley, when we struck a reasonabledowndraught ofabout 5·10 feet ,a second onthe vario. Turbulence fol1Qwed this, andafter crossing into Lees Valley I noticedsmall ,roll-type cloud in the lee of the hillsto the west of the valley. At this altiiude wepassed through heavy rain and cloud, withmarked tllrbulence, and I was frightenedthat the tow pilot would wish to turn back.However, he stuck to his gunsaod I releasedin the first lift I ,encountered of any con.sequence, at a little over 8,000 ft. Werocketed up to 10,000, where I promptlylost the lift and spent some time looking forit. The next two hours were spent in findingpatches oflift and losing them again. However,the ove,r-all picture was a steady gainof height,At I1.00 I had achieved my aim ofreaching 20,000 ft., which, under theconditions, I considered the right altitudeto set off for Burkes Pass. For the next tenmiles We encountered lift and reached aheight ,of about 22,,000 ft. ln the lee ofMount HUll a heavy downdraught wasencountered which caused quite 'a lot ofconcern, as the usual teclrnique for gettingout of this situation did not seem to apply.However, by sticking to my guns and facinginto wind, I eventually got back into lifta;gajn. We were able to keep a steady gainof height of between 20-22,fYiX) ft. goingsouthward until we 'reached the TwoThumbs FaJtge after crossing the RangitataRiver. Mount Cook was completelyobscured by cloud and most of theMcKenzie basin was also covered by cloud.-116-A very big downdrallght was encounteredhere, and once again I was able to get outof it by diving at maximum speed ofapproximately 108 knots. Lift then becamevery vigorous and we sailed blissfully up to25,000 ft., when I decided I had gon~ highenough for the next leg, which was thefifteen mile run down to Burkes Pass andback out to the same position.We arrived at Burkes Pass one and a halfhours after leaving Lees Valley. I was ableto photograph my turning-points, and wasabout to take further photographs of themagnificent view, when Il)oticed that I hadonly one 'film lett in the camera. It waslucky that I woke up to this fact, as I wouldnot have been able to pho:ograph my lastturning-point.The trip back was considerably slower, asthere was a head wind component and I wasflying at over 100 knots in order to makeheadway. The downdraughts were ex~,5. H.GEORliESON~ WAVr.. FLIGHT. 26.1,57-• 204 hilUS OUT &. ~TU"'NJII/ OC£ANI sc.-t..£ ~. M:L[S:I;'lt!SlJ"

tremely heavy whenever encountered, theworst being in the lee of the Two Thumbs,where I was forced down at a rate of somethingover 2,000 ft. a minute to a hei~t ofabout 13,000 ft. In the last set of circumstances,diving into wind produced noresults and I was forced to turn down windand pick up the next wave. I very nearlymissed this, as I almost flew through itbefore realising I was in it. This put mequite a long way back from the foothills andmeant that somewhere on the way to LeesValley I would have to get back into the firstwave, presumably from the foothills.For the first time for about three hours Imanaged to take off my oxygen mask andswallow some tea, which I felt very much inneed of owing to the cold and throughhaving no lunch. However, I quickly hadto put back the mask once the wave: hadstarted. I was able to build up height to alittle: over 22,000 ft. before starting outagain and had to resort to flying atmaximum pc:nnissible speed in order tomake headway. I got into the first waveagain about half-way between MountSomers and Mount Hutt without undue.loss of altitude:.The. Lees Yalley 41 the northern end ofthe route, photographed by Mr. Georgeson.-117-

the lower clouds took the form of S(;ud butwere evid_endy a roll cloud. High overheadwas a stratus cloud which had a beautifulcleanly defined leading edge, beyond whichthe sky was blue. The photograph, whichwas take\l at 20,000 ft., shows the leadingedge of the arch at the top of the picture.Thc lowcr cloud lying about 10-15,000 ft.was extensive in thc Mackenzie Basin butdid not exist east of those shown, or east ofthe sailplane's flight path. Landing time was17.15. The 6t hr. flight was done in relativecomfort owing to· the roomy and cQmfortableSkylark cockpit. The most importantfactor against cold was that it was draughtproof.SAFETY HIGHThe Diluter Demand Oxygen SystemHE development of aircraft oxygenT equipment has progressed from a crude"pipestem"-which literally dcliveredoxygen straight into the victim's mouthviacontinuous flow, with its mask andeconomiser or rebreather bag, to themodern "demand" system.sailplane pilots are already familiar withthe continuous flow design, and numerousexamples are to be found on gliders all overthe world.A lightweight mask has a continuousflow of oxygen delivered to it. Attached tothis mask is a rebreather bag, whichcaptures the initial portion of each exhaledbreath consisting primarily of unusedoxygen. Rebreathing makes it possible toeconomise in two ways, by using up thisotherwise unused oxygen, and by supplyinga reservoir to collect oxygen delivered fromthe regulator to the mask during eachperiod of exhalation. The mask itself isfitted with a valve through which the finalportion of the exhaled gases are blown off.In order that the supply of oxygen may'beadjusted according to altitude, the oxygenby I>avid [neecondition as if he were breathing air at10,000 ft. Since the continuous flow system,under maximum flow conditions, supplies100% oxygen, it may be assumed that40,000 It. is about the upper limit for theuse of this equipment. Although this is.basically true when the user is at rest, anymovement or activity may result in failureofthe mask to seal itself to the face and in"... any movement or activity"overbreathing of gas in the rebreather bag.regulator is provided with a manually The resultant inboard or inward maskoperated flow controller.leakage will dilute the oxygen supply withThe demand system is less weU known. air, making hypoxia very probable. As longThis was developed during the last war, as a as its limitations are observed, continuousresult of certain inherent drawbacks in flow is a good method of supplying oxygencontinuous flow which, although they do for flights at moderate altitudes, and it isnot concern us directly here, are neverthe- interesting that the American Militaryless interesting when comparing the merits Aviation Ceiling for this type of equipmentof the two designs.is 25,000 ft. The demand system was devisedBriefly, a man breathing 100% oxygen at40,000 ft. will be in approximately the sameprimarily to overcome this problem. As itsname suggests, this delivers oxygen only-119-

House,-.lames's,I.ondon,-120-

during the inspiratory phase of the breathingcycle, and extensive tests have shown itto be an improved method of supplyingoxygen at high altitudes, inasmuch that100% oxygen -is assured as long' as theface-to-mask seal is airtight.A simple valve fitted to the mask permitsexhaled air to be blown off to atmosphere.During inspiration this valve closes and noair is admitted to the mask.The demand regulator is a meteringsystem which controls the flow ofoxygen tothe mask. Basically it consists of a roundbox across which is stretched a thin rubberdiaphragm. Attached to the diaphragm is alinkage to the valve which opens or closesthe port -connected to the oxygen cylinder.When the mask is attached to the regulatorvia a hose connection and the wearer inhales,a sligllt negative pressure sucks in thediaphragm which in turn operates thelinkage and opens the valve. In practice, ofcourse, the victim is protected fr,orn the full1,800 p.s.i. cylinder pressUT,? by.two reducingstages, and the oxyg~n IS dehveretl tohim at ambient pressure."ceiling for this type 0/equipment • .."Oxygen regulators of t~e. dilut~f ~m~n~type incorporate an additional aIT mIxstage which conserves the oxygen supplyby nri,ung it with air at altitudes belowabout 31 000 ft. The diluter mechanismwhich ~es the air and oxygen consists ofabellows-.control1ed lever which in turncontrols the air and oxygen ports. As thealtitude increases, the oxygen valve slowlyopens and the air.valve ~Iowly.closes. ~usthe air/oxygen mixture IS ~aned a~cord:mgto altitude in al:COrdance with phYSlologJcalrequirements. Experience suggests that thediluter demand system is -good up to about40,000 ft.For the hardierspirit a pressure breathingdiluter demand Qxygen regulator, in conjunctionwith the appropriate mask, can ~used up to about 44,000 ft" but above thisheight the usual m~ aids. to. highaltitude daustrophobla becOme InevItable.-121-_~,-illt ....."high altitude claustrophobia . .."What does the diluter demand systemhave to offer? At a weight comparable withthe continuous flow system it PTovides:-I. Maximum economy, as the oxygensupply is automatically adjusted topersonal needs and altitude.2. Extreme simplicity: oxygen is permanentlyavailable at the regulator;to obtain delivery it is only necessaryto put on the mask and breathe in.3. Greater safety-particularly at heightsin excess of 25,000 ft.British ~gen _Aero Equipment ~jJ1shortly be marketing a gliderset which'consists ofa 4OO-litre cylinder together withthe Aero A·I2A dilut,er demand oxygenregulator ,and a mask and hose assell.lbly,and it is expected that one set at least WIll beseen at the British National Championships.The A·14 pressure breathing regulator,together with a suitable mask, will also beavailable as an alternative.WESTERN•AIRWAYSExtensive spdres stocks heldindudinil :FABRIC DOPE and PAINrPLYWOOD A.G.S. PARTS........... "Iw~WESTON AIRPORTWESTON-SUPER-MARE_. WISTON-SUPIR-MARI 27'00

-EASY HANDLING should combine withthorough reliability in a sailplane intended foraJider club pilot training. Aviation cxperts andcnthusiasts are SU~ to a"l'reci.tc thc Ll4BLANIK sailplane, of perfect and wcll-provenCzechoslovak manufactul"e. It sencs for tbetraining of aJi

Czechoslovak pilols beside a "Sohaj". ofwood corrstructicm and 52ft. 3 in. span.The "Pionyr", a Czechoslovak two-sealer trainer with a fabric-covered slu/-!rame fIJM/age.a span' of46 ft.• and a permitted top speed of155 m.p.h.-124-

particularly good flying Qualities and is usedfor difficult aerobatic exercises.During 1956 pilots received the first oftwO new types of glider. They were thesingle-seater Demant and the two-seaterall-metal Blanik. The latest knowledge inthe building of such craft has been applied.to their design and construction. Both havelaminated wings, retractable undercarriages,and comfortable cockpits with transparentplastic hoods. their gliding ratio approachesvery nearly I :40. The Blanik hasa wing span of a little over 59 feet.Standards and qualifications in glidingare promoted. by the Central School ofGliding, which offers residential courses;it serves only higher specialised training.The work 'Of the School has already beenreflected. in a considerable improvement inthe flying skill of Czechoslovak gliderpilots. For example, in the newly introducedevent-a speed flight over a 200 km.(124.27 miles) triangular course-JaroslavHollan has reached 71 km. an hour (44.1 Im.p.h.) which is 5 km. faster than the internationalrecord established by Makula ofPoland. In a speed flight over a lOO km.(62.136 miles) triangular course the youngpilot M. Zejda topped 87 km. an hour(54.06 m.p.h.). Master of Sport JaroslavKumpost, who has r,epresented. Czechoslovakiainternationally, is also the first inlhe country to have won the F.Al. diamondbadge.These results in national and foreigncompetitions are encouraging proof of thesoundness of Czechoslovak glider designand they naturally help forward the furtherdevelopment of the sport and the skill of itsexponents.HOW THEY BROUGHT THE GOOD BOOZE.• or: ENTENTE CORDIAL!E sprang to the cockpit, the Pilot and meW And we thermalled and thermalled and thermalled all three ~Not a word to each o:her, we kept gaining height,10,000,20,000 and Paris in sight!And we shouted aloud, we were feeling so gay,As we came in to land down the Champs Elysees!There very soon gathered a tres enorme fou,And a gendarme came up and said "C'est defendu!"Car ce n'est pas un Runway, pas cette Avenue!"And he blew on his sifflet and waved bOlh his bras,And jamais was heard such a grand brouhaha!When parmithe ranks of the startled canaiUeAppeared a gentil ami from the F.AI.He frapped on our dos and embrassed both our jOUlt.And said he could peut-etre donne some aide a nous,For it happened he ported in his Deux ChevauxSome suitable cable pour un auto-towAnd he'd be heureux to donne us a launch bient6t!So we dragged our sailplane, I'Arc de Triomphe deSSO\ls.And fastened our bellS and cried. "A1lons-nous!"We sped down the length of the Champs Elysees,And tout le monde shouted "Adieu mad Anglais!"And all the way home, such was our elation,We did every imaginable aerobation,Until, 'neath lhe gleam of the evening star,We each helped the other walk out f the bar!E.A.L.-125-

Glider Maintenanceby R. C. Stafford-AlienThis article is the first chapter ofa "Maintenance Handbook" which will be published by theBritish Gliding Association. The aUlhor, who look a leading part in reviving the Oxford GlidingClub after the war, is now Manager ofthe London Gliding Club. The purpose ofthe beok is 10help privale owners, and people operaling gliding clubs in OUJ-of-1h£-way places, to keep thei,.machines in a good Slale ofairworthiness; and it should also be useful to the man who hopes10 get B.G.A. approval for his work.E may define Maintenance as work sort of toffee-apple of dust, sand and mudW carru;d out on a glider to prevent forming around the hinge. To strip everydeterioration, or to delay its effects, while hinge is a long job. Now, heavy oil doesrepairs may be defined as operations to creep into the bearing surfaces, and it doesrectify damage. These two definitions are not take long to go round a. glider and put aclearly not perfect since they do, in a sense, drop on each hinge.overlap. However, they are good enough The points which do require regularfor our purposes.attention are as follows:-Let us deal with Maintenance first. How- 1. The release hooks.ever much money we layout on the pur- 2. All control surface hinges.chase of a brand new "Super-Heaven" sail- 3. All pulley bearings (bearings onlyplaner it will, from the moment we take please).delivery, begin to deteriorate. But, by 4. Stick bearings and torque tubetaking a little thought, and putting in some bearings.work on it, we can keep that sailplane in 5. All control lever bearings and the pinsvirtually brand new condition. The first which connect the levers to the rods orthing we must deal with is:-Lubricationcables.6. Landing wheels unless of the sealedball-bearing type.It is more or less axiomatic that, wheremetal rubs on metal, some lubricant should You cannot do any hann by overbeused to reduce friction and pre1tent wear. lubricating provided (and this is important)In the general structure and control system the oil orgrease goes where it is meant to go.of gliders, the moving parts are all slow- You can do a good deal ofharm by allowingmoving, and fOr this purpose the best oil or grease to get into places where itlubricant is a good quality grease. Un- should not be. Therefore take great carefortunately most manufacturers are rather that no lubricants get into the wrong places.stingy in the matter offitting grease nipples, These are as follows:-which enable grease to be pwnped in with a I. On to any timber. If left, the timbergrease gun. Unless this can be done, it is will soak up the oil and eventuallyextremely difficult to get the grease into a become rotten.bearing, and no amount of grease slapped 2. On to any fabric. The same ,willon the outside of a bearing dOes any good happen.at all. Probably the best method may be 3. On to any cables. The result of this issaid to be: "take it apart, grease it, and put that the oil, or grease, will collect gritit together again." - and form a grinding compound whichThere is a good deal to be said for the use will wear away the cable where itof heavy oil, about SAE 140, for control passes over pulleys, or through fairsystems, particularly for control surface leads.hinges. Where the latter are of the usual 4. On to any rubber. If left, the rubberpin-and-split pin type, the only satisfactory will dissolve into a horrid sticky mess.way to get grease into them is by taking If you should accidentally spill a little o~them apart. Slapping grease on the outside in any of these places, wipe it up at once; Itonly seems to result in a frightful-looking will save you a lot of work in the end.-126-

Finally, how often should you lubricateyour glider? This is a difficult question, asso much depends on the conditions underwhich the glider operates and is stored.You will be fairly safe, however, if youmake a rule to do it abom every 20 hours'flying, or Once a month at least.CorrosionThis is the chief enemy of the STEEL inyour glider. There are several ways ofcombating it, but all of them depend oncovering the metal with a protective skin.Some steel parts are cadmium or chromiumplated, but the most usual method is by theu~ of some sort of paint. The principle tofollow is this: keep the protective skinintact. If you see any rust developing,remOve it carefully with a wire brush or fineemery cloth an

for overhaul. The difficulty is that even if properly. Use these tensions as a guide toone knows what is wrong with them, they the setting of aileron cables. Rudder cablesmuSt be checked fOT accuracy after any on most gliders are bungee-tensiQned in theadjustment, and this almost always requires, nose of the machine, and in this case theya special ,calibrating gadget of some sort. look after themselves as regards tension.However, to prevent trouble developing, the We are assuming, of course, in all thesefollowing points should be borne in mind:- tests, that the control circuit is properly1. Use good quality rubber pi~ for the lubricated.col1J1e(;tions, and replace it whenever Safety and Lockingthere are any signs ofperishing.2. Keep moisture and dust out of All parts of a glider must be so fitted andinstruments and their piping.locked that there is. no risk of anything3. Do not subject instruments to rough working loose or coming undone. We cantreatment, shocks, etc." and do not consider turnbuckles first. One commonlyblow into Air Speed Indicators or used type has a barrel in which ,there is aVariometers.socket at each end with right and lefthanded threads. Inlo these sockets screwCablesthe eyebolts. With this type, all the threadsMost gliders use cables in ,their control of the eyebolts must be inside the barrel ifcitcuits, and it is most important to keep the tumbuckle is' "in safety" or able tothe cable tensions correct. If the tension is develop its full strength. If any threadstoo slack there is a risk of tumbuckles show, then the cable must be increased infouling ribs or bulkheads, while if the cable length, by the addition of links, etc., tois, too tight the fittings may be subjected to allow full engagement of all the threads. Aunnecessarily large loads. The effect of "g" second type of tumbuckle, found onon cable loads must not be overlooked. In a Olympias and other gliders, consists, of aloop, for example, the elevator cable ofm0st right and left handed screw for the centralgljders is subjected to quite a big increase in portion, apd this fits into two sockets whichtension, since it is only supported at two ate swaged ()nto the ends of the cable. Inpoints about 15 feet apart. Due to the extra this type the central screw is threaded"g," it tries to sag, and if the tension was almost up to the middle, and there is atight to start with, the increase of tension different method of determining whethermay be veIY great . sufficient threads are engl\ged with theCables tend to stretch and shrink as the sockets to provide full strength. On eachtemperature increases or decreases, so they socket will be found a small hole, aboutmay require adjusting fairly frequently. t inch from the mouth of the socket, and"'hile on this point, remember that a sail~ this is the "safety hole." The socket is "inplane sittiflg on the ground in a temperature safety" if the screw has been screwed in pastof 7soF. or more, on a ,fine sunny summer's this hole. This must be verified, either byday, may well be at 8,000 ft. a short time looking into the hole or by feeling with alater, where the temperature will probably pin or piece ofwire. Thistypeoftumbuck1ebe around freezing point; so do not over- also has two brass locknuts whjch should betighten the cables in summer.screwed back against the sock-ets when theWhat is the COrrect tension for cables? adjustment is co~t. In spite of theseThis is a very difficult matter to desctibe in locknuts, the tumbuckle must be properlyprint, and is much better learnt by an actual wire-locked as described below.,

Locking wire \~I \(a)At least 3 full turns~§!~~-----~wireCable(b)Fig. Iitself) for at least three fu)) turns, butpreferably more.The second method, sometimes called the"figure-of-eight" lock, is preferable wherethe turnbuckle is in an inaccessible place,and the wrapping round of the ends is adifficult job. In the screw type of turnbuckle,each socket will be found to containsome more holes. One, near the cable end,is a little blind hole and was used by themaJcers to ensure that the cable was fullyhome before it was swaged in. This holedoes not concern us, but near it is a holeright through the socJcet. This is the lockinghole. The wire passes through this hole,crosses through the hole in the centralscrew, through the locking hole in the othersocket, and the two ends are twisted togetherwith at least 3 full turns (preferably more) toform a complete figure-of-eight as shown inFig. I (b). This may seem more complicatedthan the first method, but you will find thatit is not. One can usually fiddle the wire ineasily 'enough, but often the wrapping downof the ends is very difficult in a confinedspace, using the method of Pi,g. I (a). Theadvantage of the second method is thatonce the wire is threaded into place, and the-129-ends brought together, a pair of pliers canbe used to twist up. Whatever type of 'locking is used, always fold down endS ofwire so that no fouling can occur.Bolts are used all over the structure ofmost gliders, and all bolts must be lockedso that there is no danger of the nutaccidentally working loose. One simple wayof locking a bolt is to bash the end overuntil it is riveted over the nut. This is anadmirable method for bolts which, youhope, are never going to be undone. Thesnag is that if ever you do have to take thebolt out, it, and its nut, must be scrapped.and a new bolt and nut fitted. The nextmethod is by means ofa castellated nut andsplit pin fitted through a hole in the bolt.This is very satisfactory, but in awkwardplaces attempts to get the split pin intoplacecan lead to much bad language. Thereare on the market a number of so-calledlocking washers which do the job quite well.They have a serious disadvantage, however,in that all of them tend to cut the filting andthe nut with thejr locking elements, teeth,claws or whatever you like to call them.You will do well to avoid them on gliders.Lastly we come to the Stiff nuts, Nyloc,

WRONGCORRECTNothreadin shearor bearingFig.2Simmonds nuts or Pinnacle nuts. These areself-locking nuts and they really are selflocking.They have none of the snags,of theabove methods and should be used wheneverpossible. One small point: make surethat the bolt thread does go right throughtbe Dut, otherwise the self-locking elementmay not be able to do its job. These nutsmay be used over and over again, but rejectany which do not seem to be reasonablytight on the thread. As a rough guide, ifyoucan screw the nut right on with your fingersit should be scrapped. Same manufacturersprefer to use slotted nuts and split pins incontrol circuits, etc., where there is a cha~of the bolt rotating, and you should alwaysuse the same method as the manufacturer.One method of locking which is sometimesseen should not be used an gliders.This is the practice of screwing down asecondnut tight onto the first one. It is anunreliable method and usually damages thebolt threads.W.hen. replacing bolts with new ones,make sure that the new bolt is the correctlength. Bolts should not be fitted with their-150-threads in shear or in bearing.. Fig. 2should make this clear.For this reason a washer should always befitted, and you should check that thestraight portion of the bolt does actuallyreach right through the fitting but notthrough the washer.Wing pins should be good fits in theirholes and should be kept greased. Theusual way of locking these is to fit safetypins, though ifa machine is only very rarelyderigged, it is a good plan to use split pinsand washers. These do not rattle so much,and are not so liable to catch on clothing,etc. This can be a danger with safety pins inexposed places, and it is quite easy to pullopen ~ safety pin unnoticed from this cause.Finally, a few general points, Never lIsea sIJlit pin more than once. Always use tilecorrect size ofsplit pin or safety pin. AlwaysuSe non-corrodible split pins. Do' replacelocking wire with new-if you have to unlocka turnbuckle. Do watch for corrosion, badfabric, slack fittings, hinges, faults in woodworkfinish, etc., and deal with thesematters at once.

1t..,'LL~ ,. ~ 'you\~. ''I?sFor and AboutInstructors'.J::LL ... _! ...This new feat lire, for which Mrs. Ann Welch, choirmJln oflhe B ..G.A. InStructors' Panel,)fill be responsible, is dedicated to those pillars ofgliding-the Instructors. /fany of themhave any iime left to ,contribute, the writer would be delighted, particularly iflelters are sentwhich aFe full ofnew ideas aboUl instrUcting or which discuss some controversial aspect ofthebest way to teach,It is hoped to give e'ach time news ofthe Instructors' Panel, and continue the adventuresofJ(Je. Ifhe seems to the re(lder to be a raJher en/.erprising chap, it shouldbe remembered thatall his lIdventures are true life stories that have taken p/(lce eUher here or abro(ld at some timeor ono/her.News of training metnods abroad will be included when available, and wme shy andretiring C.F.!. will be dragged into the limelight.Correspondence, b,.igJu ideas, and 01/ other contributions should be sent to the officeofthe British Gliding Association, clo ''It's all yours."THE ADVENTURES OF JOET was soonafte.r Joejoined the Club that itI_ happened. Bemg of a helpful nature loohad jumped on the Bea,ver as soon as heheard the shout of "mate wanted." No onecould tell him what to do above the noise ofthe engine, but he learnt the practical way,and spent th~ morning being driven up anddown the field h()()king the cable on andtaking it off again, until he lost count. Healso lost his turn but dismissed the sacrificeas being that ofa worthwhile Club member.Then it started to rain. By this time Joe hadbecome so familiar with his job of Increasingthe Launching Rate that he coulddo it with his eyes shut. He did not actuallyshut them, but put the cable parachute oyerhis head to keep out the rain and this hadthe same effect. Even ifhe could have seen itwould not have helped, because when theweak link attaching the cable to thebeaverette broke, the wire snaked away sofast that it was almost invisible. Unfortunately,but somewhat naturally, theparachute went too, and with the parachutewent Joe. It is always difficult to explainunpremeditated departures to frien.ds, andJoe found it particularly so in this case, ason landing he broke his jaw.\ \ ~ \ \\\\~""," \~." \A-131-'{!£,,\ \'Y'??'~4"""'-"-'\" \- ~ ~--------'.. =:':"""'.

THIS IS WHEREWE CAME IN .•"While we Were standing about ,discussing,this last flight a sudden sttonggust of windstruck the machine and started to- turn itOVCf. Everybody qtade a rush for it.Blank, who Was at one end, seized it infront .... AIl oyr effOrts were in vain. Themachine rolled over ... D. who had retainedhis grip', was carried along with it., and wasthrown about, head over heels inside themachine. Fortunately he was not seriouslyinjured, though badly bruised."W-ho wrote this? The Instructor incharge at 'the Wincham Gliding Clubduring the winter gales? No prize for theanswer. It was written by Orville Wrightin December 1903 describing the end of theday on which the first aeroplane flight wasmade.A MATTER OF SPEEDWhile carrying out category tests 1 havenoticed that very few instructors know thesimple and almost universal means ofchecking normal speed in flight. Manyclubs still send pupils on first solos indifferent types of gliders to those in whichthey did their dual training. Because of thisit is extremely useful to be able to give themsome means of checking their speed inaddition to descriptions of noise andattjtude, and reliance on the occasionallyfallible airspeed indicator.The pupil should be taught, while he isstill dual, that if he wants t,o confirm thathis flying speed is adequate, he shouldglance sideways alOng the undersurface efthe wing. If the underneath of the wing isparallel to the horizon or the leading edgeslightly lower down, the speed is sufficientfor nonnal flight. If it is slightly nose upfrom the horizon, the glider is TOO SLOWand the n0se should be lowered at once..With the knowledge that he can alwayscheck his speed positively by this means thepupil will have greater confidence in hisability to fly a strange type at a safe speed.This check works on all ordinary gliders,and particularly well with those used fortraining in this country. It does not. ofcourse, work when the brakes are open.B.G.A. CATEGORY RENEWALSAt the B.G.A. Instructors' Conferencein March this year. it was agreed that 50launches or 5 'bours as Instructor in chatgeon gliders during the preceding 12 monthswould be required for renewal of B.G.A.Instructors' Categories, in addition to therecommendation of the local C.F.I. or ameml1er of the Instructors' Panel. Therewill continue to be no charge for renewal.It was agreed also that the pass standardfor the Categpry teSt should be raised,although there would be no alteration to theQualifications required. Instructors whowish to obtain a category should applydirect to the B.G.A., who will send thc;m anapplication form and details of exactlywhat is expected. for the test. This will bedone, preferably, at the Instructor's ownclub ,by a visiting ell.aminer, or at a B.G.A.Instructors' school.-132-NEW INSTRUCTORSH. N. Gregg, CoventrY Gliding Club.Categorised March 1957.D. Lowe, R.A,F.G.S.A. Fenland G.C.Categorised April 1957.A. T. Morgan, R.A.F.G.S.A. Fenlanda.c. Categorised April 1957.ANN WELeH.THEBritish AviationInsuranceCOMPANY LIMITED•The oldest andlargest office specializing inCivjl AvjaJ.jprtHEAD OffiCE3·4· LIME STREET.LONDON. E.C.3Telephone:: MallJ:on House O~4.c (6 lines)

TOM DAVIDSON,C.FJ. - SCOTTISH GLIDING UNIONFrom among the varied brands ofcharacter to be found in any gliding club,we are indeed fortunate if we can select asC.F.I. one whose background of long andsound experience goes hand in hand withdependability and stamina.The Scottish Gliding Union is lucky inthis respect, as Tom Davidson, our C.F.Lsince 1950, is well endowed with all thesevinues.Tom's flying career began in 1916 whenhe joined the Royal Flying C01]lS. Afterone and three-quaner hours instruction heflew solo in a Maurice Farman Longhom,and so collected his Royal Aero Club Pilot'sCertificate at a time when a few of us werein short pants, and the fathers of our newermembers were still in their teens.Posted to No. 7 and No. 5 Squadrons inFrance, he flew B.E.s ~d B.E. 2cs, doingArtillery Co-operation, short.range bombingand photography. Then to single-seaterfighter work with 19 Squadron in RE.Us.Bristol Scouts and Morane two-seaters alsocame his way, and when 19 Squadron reequippedwith French Spads, Tom waspromoted to Flight Commander.In those days the life of a pilot wasestimated in weeks and, having miraculouslysurvived his first year of operational flying,he returned to England for a spen to takeover the A'vro Flight at Central FlyingBack to France again for a second bash atthe Boche-in 23 Squadron, noW flyingTom Davidson briefing a pupilfor her first solo at Ba/ado.School, Upavon. His job there was thetraining of single-seater fighter pilots.During this period he added more types tohis list of aircraft flown and he became oneof the first members of the C.F.s. Association.-133-

Spads, the fastest kite at that time. Unfortunately,however, "Archie" shot himdown when he was on a low flying missionand he spent the last year of the war as aprisoner in Germany.1939 saw him back in uniform, in theAdministrative Branch of the Royal AirForce. He was demobilised for the secondtime in 1945 with the Honorary Rank ofSquadron-Leader.His introduction to gUding came in 1947when he joined the S.G.U. and later becamean assistant Instructor. In 1950, whenAndrew Thorburn, the S.G.U.'s first C.F.I.resigned, Tom was elected, and he haswOrthily held the appointment ever since.He has done a lion's share of hard workfor the Club as C.F.l., and his polishedflying sets a very fine example to those whocome to him for instruction.To some of us the title "Fair weatherpilot" may aptly be applied-not so withTom. Rain, snow and winds that blow willnot deter him from making steady progressin the T2Ib with his latest batch of fledglings.A measure of his reliability is to befound in the fact that, of the four thousandodd flights he has had in gliders, more thanthree thousand five hundred have been doneas P.I. in the two-seater..A.T.0.5. T.I. V.AffairsA llOAJIDMeeting of the InternationalScientific and Technical Organizationfor Soaring Flight (OsTlv), held in Zurichfrom 1st to 3rd April, was attended by Mr.de Lange (president), Dr. Eichenberger,Miss Betsy Woodward, and Messrs.Agesilas, Gerbier, Boris Cijan, Reinhardt(for Wolf Hirth) and Alan Yates. Mr. A.Gehriger and Dr. Muri also attended forone session.StaDdard ClassThe Board was pleased to hear that theFederation Aeronautique lnternationalehad adopted, almost unc)langed, thesuggestions of Omv and learned thatseveral manufacturers were already at workon new "standard" sailplanes. Arrangementsfor the award of the OSTlV Prize forthe saJ1plane which is judged by an OsT1vJury to be the best combination of cheapness,simplicity and efficiency were discussed.This prize will be given for the firsttime at the World Championships of 1958.It was learned that designers in one countrywere already planning one sailplane to winthe Standard Class and Championship,regardless ofcost, and another to please theOsT1v Jury! It may be that the sailplaneused by the winning pilot is not "cheap toconstruct and operate" and is, therefore,not in the spirit of the class. The Osnv-134-Prize wiIl, in that case, be the more importantaward.Publication of Coagnu PapersMost of the papers read at the sixthcongress at St. Yan in 1956 have alreadybeen printed in Swiss Aero Revue, theofficial organ of OsTlv. Associate membershipof Osnv (2&. per year to BetsyWoodward, Imperial College, London,S.W.7.) entitles the member to the SwissAero Revue, which contains an Osnvsection-reprints of papers and bibliographieson gliding.The next congress will take place duringthe World Championships in Poland inJune 1958. Now is the time to be thinkin-gabout papers fot presentation there!Active Membership of O.s.T.I.V.The controlling members of OsTlV are thenational aeTO clubs, and in the U.K. thisresponsibility is delegated to the BritishGliding Association. In several countries,as in ours, the AeTO Club is primarily asporting body and has no special interest in"science et technique." The national aeronauticaland meteorological societies inthese countries are also likely to support theactivities of Osnv by financial help and bysending delegates. OsTlV is therefore tQconsider opening Active Membership tosuch societies.ALAN Y"TES.

B.G.A. NEWSNatianal Oampioasbips 1957T has now been finally decided that,I despite the present continuance of petrolrationing. all competition launches will beby aero-tow. The Regulations are beingprinted at present and will be available inthe near future.The main difference from J9:;5 is that thecompetitors wm be divided into two leagues,each having their own tasks and marks.The marking system is similar to last time,but with a few modifications to bring itinto line with F.A." ideas.There may be an hors concourr entryfrom abroad.GLIDING COURSES ABROADSwitzerlandPilots holding a C certificate and overmay fly from the Alpine Gliding SchQOI atRigi-Kulm, near Lucerne. Anyone interestedshould contact Albert Kirsten, ofSempacherstrasse I, LU/:ierne, or the AirAttache at the British Embassy in Berne.FI'IlIICeCourses are available at the FrenchNational Gliding Centres of Poot St.Vincent (near Nancy), La Montagne Noire(near Castelnaudary) and Saint Auban surDurance (Basses Alpes). Bookings shouldbe made with Service de la FormationAeronautique et des Sports 1\6riens, 1SSRue de la Croix Nivert, Paris XVeme.(Translation of French leaflet giving dates,etc. is available from B.G.A.).AustriaAlpine Gliding School (with whombookings should be made) at Zell am lee,near Salzburg. A limited number of translationsof the Austrian leaflet (and actualleaflet) are available if required. The WorldSport & Travel Association are alsoarranging Tours at an inclusive figure andtheir leaflet "Sporting Holidays 1957" canbe obtained from the B.G.A.Union Alpine Gliding School at Aigenim Ennstal, near Steirmark. A limitednumber ofleaflets with translation available.Bundessportschule, Spltzerberg bei Hainburga.d. Donau, Nie4er~sterreich. Nodetails or brochures available.; those interestedshould apply direct to the School."Choker" Scarf15/--135-NEWGLIDING TIEin T ER Y L E N E mixture(oilver gliders .nd .tripes on nary blue)12/6Mltching Silk Lined Scarf23/-D;l&O....'l to dub1/0" '1.....,;.ti,. .Nl1p«U/'XJW~' p~;

Performance of the AV-22 Two-Seaterby Charles FauvelT HE e'xamination by the Flight TestingCentre of the performance of this twoseatersailplane has confirmed the polarcurve (j)f velocities given herewith, whichshows that the AV-22 corresponds well toan all-purpose biplane: for dual controltraining, ab inirio, advanced and highperformance;and, if flown as a singleseater,for first solo, training, and highperformance with suitable equipment,including ballast if desired. It is normallyfurnished with radio, and optionally withrespirator.With the first model, NO. 01, a glidingangle in the region of 1 in 26 was attained(actually 1 in 25.6); this value will beexceeded in No. 02, which will incorporatesome refinements and will shortly put in anappearance. Its drag, moreover, remainsIc;ss than that ofconventional single seatersof 15 m. span and 5 m. length.The instructor's seat ,is raised nearly30 cm. (I foot) at the centre of gravity, andmoreover gives him exceptional visibilityand comfort, while he makes use of thesingle instrwnent panel in front.Thanks to the purchase premium, themachine will sell at about a million francs(£1,015) only to the clubs, complete inflying order with basic equipment (supplementaryequipment also benefits fromthe premium).Examination ofthe recording instrumentshas shown that the maximum speedattained with two up by M. Fauvel and hismechanic M. Herve, during the high speedtrials carried out for the Flight TestingCentre, was actually 270 km/h. (168 m.p.h.);this represents the highest controlled speedever attained iD France with a glider, and inthe same flight a pull-out of 5g was carriedout, likewise the highest measured."AV-22", rhe twoseaterversion ofM. Fauvel'sfamous''jfying wing".(Block reproduced bycourtesy of"TheAeroplane".)-136-

During this high-speed trial, a speed of230 km./h. (143 m.p.h.) was maintainedwhilst descending several hundred metres,giving a rate of sink of 13.30 m,fsec.(43.6 ft./sec.) or a gliding angle of only 1,2°.This enables the actual minimum dragcoefficient of the aircraft to be obtained,which is thus shown to be only 0.0153 (forthe AV-36, the minimum drag coefficient is0.0154) despite an old-fashioned thick aerofoilsection which, although having favourablecharacteristics at mOd\;ratc angles .ofattack, 'has quite a high minimum dragcoefficient.ROBERT KRONFELDOn lvinghoe Beacon in 1930. L. 10 R.: Robert Kron/eld beside h.is ..Wien"'; J. R. Ashwell­Cooke (chairman, London Gliding Club), the Prince 0/ Wales, and E. C. GO/'don England(chairman, B.G.A.).IN selecting a pioneer of motorless flight tests three years after,as the subject of a shorl biography, one's Soon he became an instructor at thefirst choice naturally falls on Robert historic gliding centre on the Wasserkuppe,Kronfeld.. He was not the first to glide, nor one of the Rhon group of mountains nearwas he the first tQ soar; but he, more than Flankfurt-am-Main; and here, during theanyone, freed the sailplane ftom depen- German national contest of 1928, hedence on hill slopes and showed how it became the first pilot to use the upcurrentscould be flown to great heights and over under cumulus clouds by making an outlongdistances. Not until this was proved and-return flight to the Himmeldankbergpossible did soaring fljght really catch on in and back, 4! miles each way, returningone country after another, our own against the wind under a cloud street (aincluded.term not then invented). As an instance ofBorn in Austria, Kronfeld started gliding Kronfeld's care in leaving nothing to chancein 1927 at the Rossitten school in East in competition work, I remember seeing hisPrussia, and flew his C test there late in the team on that day repeatedly give him theyear, with the air below freezing point, exact wind direction by lying down end-toalmostcertainly in an open primary glider, end on a neighbouring promontory, theas the type was still being used there for C Pferdskopf.-137-

Kronfeld was flying the "Rhongeist," aV-strolled machine which was the prototypeof the "Professor," the first quantityproducedhigh-performance sailplane andthe only one for the next three years (two orthree came to England). Dr. AlexanderLippisch, the designer, then produced ahOlled-up and larger-spanned version, the"Wien," the cost of which was defrayed bythe City of Vienna.. In this, Kroafeld begaabreaking records all over the place, startingon 15th May, 1929, with the world's fistrlOO-kilometre soaring flight; it was madealong the Teutoburger Wald, a range oflowhills which pass Oerlinghausen, ef morerecent gliding fame.At the 1929 contest on the Wasserkuppehe flew the Wien 89 miles to Hennsdorfwith a climb of 6,644 ft. on 20th July,making deliberate use ofa cold front for thefirst time; and then, on the 30th, 150 milesto Sienlas, near Bayreuth, startin& with aclimb to 8,494 ft. inside an enormouscumulus cloud. All these figures wereworld's records, and in. the following year he'raised the distance to 102 miles.Windsor) on Ivinghoe Beacon, helped by afew London Gliding Club members; theaffair was kept a dead secret and there wereno crowds.Next year Kronfeld was back in Englandin order to win a Daily Mail prize of£1,000for a double glide across the Channel on20th June, first from an aero-tow to 10,000ft. at St. Inglevert, and then from anotherto 9,000 ft. at Dover. This was the openingday of the competition, but the DailyExpress got one up on the Mail by having aCanadian opera singer cross the day beforefrom a tow to 12,000 ft. over Folkestone,using a Professor.A week later Kronfeld was demonstratingat Hanworth, the "London Air Park."From here, aftl;}r an aero-tow, he flew theWien across London to Chatham -on 30thJune 1931; then, after another aero-toWnext morning, he soared back to Hanworth.This time he had brought over not only theWien, but a curious new machine, theAustria, with a flimsy-looking cantileverwing of 98 ft. span, a hanging nacelle, anda boom supporting .the tail. It was the lastword in purely slope-soaring de

the adjoining hill. At a lecture to theSociety of Arts in February 1939, hedescribed his methods, and gave hisopinion that "the future .of gliding willdepend very much on whether gliding, eansystematically be used with success aspreliminary instruction for aeroplanepilots."One must confe~s a disappointment onhearing the great pioneer of highperformancesoaring talk like this. Andwhen, on meeting him at Dunstable duringthe war, I suggested that gliding should beregarded primarily as a means to soaring~ight, he dismissed such an outlook as"idealism." But in 1947, when he landedat Bramcote during our national contestafter flying straight from Switzerland, wherehe had met the leading soaring pilots, hehad obviously been infected with theirenthusiasm, and a visit to any post-warWorld Championship would, One feelscertain, have won him over for good-ifhehad lived to see one.THE WAR 'YEARSDuring the war Kr.oTJ!eld threw himselfwhole-heartedly into mllitary gliding, andhis war-time career will be found well andappreciatively described by Robin Fenderin the SAILPLANE & GLIDER for March1948. His efforts won him the Air ForceCross in 1943. When it was over, he becamea test pilot, and in February 1948, wastesting a large taiIJess glider, built as a tryoutfor a larger powered machine, when itperformed a violent "bunt" and itsoccupants were subjected to extremely highnegative "g". His companion remainedsufficiently conscious to escape by parachute;but Kronfeld's injuries were such asto have probably caused instant death.Only a few days before this, an unexpectedside of Robert Kronfeld's characterwas revealed when, at a chancemeeting in the Royal Aero Club, hedescribed to me how he had once cured afellow-officer of a severe neurosis by applyingthe classical technique of psychoanalysis,though he had no medical training.So often does the versatility of a clever mango unsuspected by those who thought theyknew him well.NQw, to perpetuate his name, we havethe Kroofeld Club in London as a meetingplacefor all those who owe so much to hispioneering.A.E.S.-139-WORLD GLIDINGCHAMPI'ONSPAY TRIBUTE TOVENNERACCUMULATORSD~ar Sir,Il is It'ilh Ilr~a' plCQsur~ ,lrar I omable to "f'O" .ueen. In 'he World GlidingChampiOlfship dll~ in no Jmall mNSW, (0your V~nnD' c,Us.QIf tlt."O oUl of tht uvm days 0" whichCOnt~sl flyIng rook pIQC~, Ih~u '~'~r~ heavy,hWrd~rstorm$ a."d in eo

Given good wings, you••COMPETITION SUCCESSESRECORD FLI,GHTSLINGSBYSAILPLjS LI:N,GSBYWrite f6rSAILPLANKIRBYMOORSIDEYOR'K'" Pioneers ofJ-140-

keep GOOD MEN DOWNandrs ofl.NES...... from........................BRITAIN............ AUSTRALIA..................NEW ZEALAND......::::::......SOUTH AFRICA::::::" S. RHODESIA.................... HOLLAND.............::::::......SPA IN.. -...:::::: & ARGENTI NA.ES~,(3rochure~LYD.ritisb Gliding"IKIRBYMOORSIDE 312 & 313i•t-141-

Another New Zealand Wave Flightby Jon Hamilton(1f this flight proves to have been Mr. Hamilton's jive-hour Silver C durarion resr, it maywell be called a 1957 Version.)T 10.30 on 25th February I was towedA from Harewood in nor'west conditions.W. Small, the tow pilot, was using a PiperSuper Cub and I flew a Skylark Ill, andtogether we spent an uncomfortable hourbefore we parted over Lees Valley some30 miles upwind of the aerodrome.This was my first flight in wave conditions,so I was pleased to have reachednearly J4,{)()() ft. on 'tow and to havereleased in a very promising area. Aftergoing up a few thousand feet I thought Iwould fly forward one wave-length topowerful lift which was shown by cloudformation a long way below. However,this was not as easy as it appeared and I gotmyself tangled up in the cloud, messed upmy cloud flying and came out downwindin rough air. In this region the accelerometer(a sprung mass, friction-damped,instrument) showed + 3g and -2g with theA.S.1. varying from 60 to 80 kts. This wasmost uncomfortable· as I could not preventmy legs flying up and hitting the instrumentpanel.**See note at end of article.S.£.FE.ET)),(00DIAGRAM OFFLIGHT PATH25.2.57.15.\3JHAMILTONWAVE ~LIGHTIN SKYLARK 3NEW ZE.ALANDS.15LANDN.W.N.W. WINO50 KTS.

By th.is time I was down to 5,000 ft., 25miles from Harewood, but I was able tokeep aloft ~n very patchy lift until Iencountered good wave lift at 3,600 ft. overthe aerodrome. It took me an hour to reach18,000 ft. although at times the lift ex·ceeded 15 ft./sec. I had the feeling that thewaVes were arranged as peaks of liftdistributed at random rather thac as ridgesof lift, though later on and clQser to themountains the ridge type of formation wasmost pronounced.I dropped 5,000 ft. by going upwind a fewmiles and then spent nearly an hour and ahalf climbing to 28,000 ft., dodging aboutamong these imaginary peaks, sometimeslosing height, often finding lift at 15 ft./sec.and always keeping 20-25 miles downwindfrom the mountains. There was 'a layer of 600'scud cloud at about 10,000 ft. and the bestlift seemed (0 be found above these little 900cotton-woolly clouds. The great nor'·west I'll.arch was the ~nly other cloud and thisformed a sheet at perhaps 40,000 ft. with itsleading edge over the mountains and itstrailing edge miles out to sea. It obscuredthe sun throughout the·flJ'ght.The final lift from 24,000 to 28,000 wasdone in II minutes and this rate of climbHMlEWQOD,N£WZ&t\LAND, 3.40 P.M LOCAL TIME, 252.57.WtNDSTR[WG"rH & DIRECTION) TtMP£AATV_'E, ~IELATIvr. HUMIOITYO-..--r----.--,--..--r----.--,--~M~.300 .30,4llOZ4,OfJO'~ 1ll,OOO'600100 10.000'$,Of)IJ'.i't',~SVr.hc.4-+:.-+----I--+-+~+_f~-"b 10 ZO W -40Tl:Mp'1 I I I I·C."oo -SO -40 -JO -20WII~D DIIIECTlQW:Orf\UE Z8050 60 70 80: 1 I I-10 q +10 +20300 J20 340 Nhrs. with cold feet completed a thoroughlycould probably have been maintained for a enjoyable flight.long way, but I had doubts about the ••••oxygen equipment,. so decided to lose [Mr. Hamilton's last three words throwheight by going upwind. I passed through some light on his. outlook on !ife. It isat least one more good wave but did not reported that in the violent accelerationspause until reaching the mountains at encountered, his ·shins were cut when they21,000 ft. Here I turned across wind and h dflew north-east for 25 miles, keeping about it the instrument panel, an as each time20,000-22,000 ft. in the first wave upWind this occurred the .edge of the panel hit theof the foothills.same spOt, in olden days this woulli havebeen called torture, and not thoroughlyAt 16.00 hrs. I turned back, feeling cold, enjoyable at all. This turbulence shook offas I only had nylon socks on under thin all surplus glue and wood-chips etc., leftshoes. The cloud below had by this time inside the wing and possibly stuck on withformed itself into ridges with clear air in dope. During the flight Mr. Hamilton also'between, and there was no difficulty in in error allowed the speed at one moment tochanging to the wave just downwind at the exceed ma"imum placard speed, possiblyfoothills. In this wave I flew south-west for reaching 140 kts. This happened when he50 miles then explored upwind for a short had no horizon. The aircraft flies sotime before turning and cliving towards effortlessly at high speeds that he onlyHarewood. noticed it when he saw the win~-tipsHowever, the second wave downwind bending down.from the foothills seemed particularly Subsequent careful examination hasstrong,. and I could not resist zooming up revealed no damage except that the loose2,500 ft. in an incredibly short time in it chips inside the wing rattle when they areand then. pulling the brakes out Once mOre shaken.and heading for the aerodrome, which was Mr. Hamilton is obviously a pilot tostili over 30 miles away to the east. A T.V. watch, so we hope his hand will be a littledive, a loop, and then a landing at 17.15 more ready to the brake-lever next time!]-143-

DANISH GLIDING IN 1956by Per WeishauptHE Royal Danish Aero Club's glidingT statistics for 1956 show all-roundprogress. Membership went up to 475 (in25 civil clubs) plus 109 Air Force membersand 218 passive. (Denmark has about 4.2million inhabitants.)The number of C certificates issued wentup from 30 to 56, and ofofficial governmentissuedS licences (permitting cross-countries)from 18 to 30. Ten Silver C's and two GoldC's were issued.. There were 46 Silver, Goldand Diamond "legs" against 34 the yearbefore.The average number offlying days for theclubs went up from 23 to 37 (there are nopermanent centres as in many othercountries). The number of launches went u!'from 9,140 to 12,528 (it was higher justafter the war), and the number of glidinghours from 1,247 to 1,636--the highest ever.There were 42 distance flights. totalling3,560 kilometres against 45 with 3,119 in1955. For the first time triangular flightswere done. The number of instructorsfunctioning was 72 against 62 in 1955.The number of gliders went up by one to70. the new one being an L·Spatz. Thisfleet is composed of 21 open Primaries (ofwhich four are two-seaters), 33 intermediatetypes (mostly Grunau Babies) and 16 sailplanes(of which five are two-seaters). Halfof the training is still done on single-seateropen Primaries, as the clubs have not moneyto buy two-seaters. Danish gliding is notsubsidized.For the first time the statistics includeinformation about the gliding activities ofthe Danish Air Force (not included in theabove). With 13 gliders, of which four aretwo-seaters, the Air Force performed 6,318launches and 1,052 hours. These hourscannot be compared with the civil hours,which consist of pure gliding time, while theAir Force time is total time includingtowing time of 998 aeroplane tows.The Danish Civil Air Department hasjust issued new regulations for gliding,worked out in co-operation with the AeroClub. These give the gliding people morefreedom and "self-government" but addedresponsibility. All certificate of airworthinessinspections will now be carriedout by the club's own inspectors. Newpupils must interview the doctor and mustbe entered with the Civil Air DepartmentMld obtain their S licence within four years.------F. Vicent Llorente------LEX Aldott writes that the presentA Spanish gliding champion, FernandoVicent Llorente (Vicent is his father'ssurname) unfortunately lost his life whenflying in a Jodellight aeroplane in companywith another pilot at Cuatro Vientos,Madrid, the aerodrome where the 1952World Champi

The1956-57 Australian Championshipsby Commander Tony Goodharts I sit, wrapped in an overcoat I haven'tA worn for four years (the fuel promisedfor yesterday has Dot arrived), looking outon the March rain lashing the window andthe already damp English landscape, it isdifficult to get myself into the mood towrite of the 19'56-57 Australian Championships,during which the temperature went tothe high 90s every day and the brilliantblue sky was lightened on onty one day by afew, very few, fair-weather cumulus.The New South Wales Gliding Associationwas charged with the responsibility oforganising the championships, and choseNarromine as the site; but this choice wasnot popular with prospective entrants fromVictoria and South Australia, due to itsgreat distance over indifferent roads.Funher discussion led to final agreement onTocumwal Aerodrome as the site. This is alarge (four 6,000 ft. runways) disused airfield,at one time populated by V.S.Super Fortresses. There is still one there,and the story goes that, when the Americanspulled Ollt, this lone duck wouldn't start, sothey just left it. Nearly all the buildings havebeen dismantled, except for a few behindbarbed wire, where the R.A.A.F. store largenumbers of aircraft more of antique than TOIlY Goodharr ill the !tangar at Toc/lnlwol.military value.The writing of the Championship Rulesfell to me as being the only person available and, in the now accepted way, the topwho had attended other National marker each day was credited with maxi­Championships. As the competing aircraft mum points (in our case 100).were expected to be anything from high- The Victorian Motorless Flight Groupperformance sailplanes down to humble (V.M.F.G.) and associated syndi;ates hadtrainers, I felt that some handicapping moved virtually all their facilities, includingwould be essential, and accordingly a 6 aircraft, to Tocumwal for a whole monthperformance factor was allotted to eath type covering the Championship 10 days. Theyvarying (very roughly) inversely as best were thus in a position .\0 produce 5 entriesgliding ratio times speed for' that ratio. and would have had six but for the fact thatTwo classes were originaJly planned but, at Don Brown (who will no doubt be rethepilots' meeting, it was agreed to combine membered by Surrey and Army Clubthem so that any glider flown by two or members) had struck a thistle stump onmore pilots would count in the Team Class landing at the end of a 300 km. goal flightandany pilot who fl:ew three or more thistles grow big in Australia.competition days would count his average South Australia was rather sparselypoints in the Individual Class. Marks were represented because the dates choseng.iven for distance with bonuses for goal clashed with the apricot (or it may have(20%) and completed return flights (50%.) been plum or orange) picking season.-145-

Mal Williams (standing) and Frank Hudson,of New South Wales Gliding Association,who ran the contest.However, an Olympia of distinctly orangehue arrived as did also Ted Pascoe's selfdesignedan'd built "Spruce Goose." .Thisvery neat tiltle 30 .ft. ~panner weighedappreciably less than Its ptlot.. .New South Wales was, rather disappomtinglyonly represented by a Grunau, andthe R.A.N. Gliding Association producedthe: LO 150 and a hastily modifie:d T31 b torceplace their Schneider ES 56 which hadspun in a week earlier:There is no flying or gliding club at, ornear Tocumwal; but Bill Iggulden,presi'dent of the Glidin.g Federation. ofAustralia had, with hIS ever bubblmgoptimism'and tact, convinced the localChamber of Commerce that the Championshipswould put Tocumwal on The Map,and further he had encouraged the localR.A.AF. Maintenance Unit to take a keeninterest. As a result the pre-organisationwas generally good, an excellent ca!1teenwas provided .and ID mned by the ladles ofthe Golf Club, and most pilQts arrived w,iththeir ain;:raft in time for the openIngceremony. Incidentally, the open!ngpractice day turned on the best soaTlngweather of the whole meeting.Theday·to·day·organisation was handledquite remarkably well by two members ofthe N.S.W. Gliding Association, FrankHudson and Mal Williams, to whom thehighest praise is due.The only I'eal shortcoming was t~elaunching organisation which the offiCIalorganisers, the N.S.W.G.A, had beenunable to provide. It tbus fell to theVictorian Motorless Flight Group toprovide the winching; this they did mostwillingly, but their winches are old andthere· were unfortultate delays.The Weathet'Except 00 one day the inversion sat firmlyon us and our activities, at. times as low as2,500 fl., though usu~ny lifting towards5,000 ft. by late afternoon.The R.A.N. Gliding Association hadbrought an Auster, and t~is, (wit~ itsR.A.A.F. pilot) wa·s pI'e~ mto serYIce. todo a regular mornirtg met. flIght from .whlchDerek Reid (known to many at Redhl!l andLasham) was able to produce very goodforecasts at briefing each day.The FlyingThe tasks for the day were announced bythe organisers' at the morning briefings;they tended to get. discussed--;-and som~timesaltered-dunng the bTlefingl thiSmight seem somewhat unru'ly but in fact wasprobably as goo.d a; soluti?n as any, consideringthe relative mexpenence of man>: ofthe competitors, and of the task-settmgcommittee.I will not go through each day in ~tail...,...I don't have the. necessary information, any-146-way. The first day, 28th December.' was.aface to Narrandera (\'OO odd rrules) Inwhic.h only "Ouo" Brand managed tocomplete the course, though several othersgot within a few miles. ~he s~ond day wasa race round a 4.5-nule tnangle; greatdifficulty was experienced getting away andthe LO· 'ISO was the only aircraft to completethe course or in f.act to score anymarks at all. At the next morning briefingthe other pilots very sportingly voted .togive me 100 points for tMc daY whileDQ you wish to mar great ~"-distances in 1957? . )".:::JTh." ... iec:ommend out LO-1S0'. You fly "singIhe adjustable (laps, quite slow in thumals with 68km/hand also very faSI wilh 110kmfh end more ar • 'Hr.,good l/O·'-.lioWOLF ltlRTH d.ll1.b.H..NakrniT.cl.Wed Germany

counting themselves a no contest day (bythe rules 20% of competito:rs had to scorefor a contest day).After that We had a succ~sion ofsix poordays. in which we tried progrcssivel'y shortertask$, ending in a forty-mile race whichthree pilots compkted. Two of the dayswere so hot and airless that the pilotsmutually ~greed /lOt to compete, and we allwent swimming in the Murray Riverinstead.Then came the good day in which sevenpilots flew 789 miles between them,. .includinga first cross-country of 62 miles inthe Naval modified 'T3Ib by Charlie Grose.After that we tried an 8O-mile out-andreturntWice without anybody getting back,.though the Spruce Goose made a valiantattempt on the last day.The results are shown tabulated. 'Theprizes were pJ:lcsented by the President oftheG.F.A., Bill Igglllc!en,. at a small ceremonythe morning after a first.-class farewellbarbecue party.INDIVIDUAL CHAMPIQN,-This honourdeservedl¥ and pOpularly fell to DerekReid. who flew consisten*ly well on his onlythree days and spent most of the other dayswinch driving, or otherwise helping.TEAM CHAMPIONS.-The teaM of .threeV.M.F.G. members, Otto Brand, DonBrown and Allan Patching, flying theirSchneider Nymph, clearly won this trophywith a margin of 128 points over theirnearest contender.AGGREGATE 'TROPHY,-Although notoriginally intended, the organisers generouslyawarded this to me for having tottedup the highest total score in the LO ISO.The Championships were aconsidetablesuccess, despite disappointing weather anda certain amount of disorganisation due tolaunching delays,. aM just under 3,000 mileswere flown. I would., however, like to makea few recommendations to futureorganisers:.-(i) Try to select a site near a largecentre of population so that goodpublicity may be given; e.g. WaggaWagga has a ,daily newspaper, abl'oadcasting station and a populationof 12,000; Tocumwal hasneither, and only 1,200 souls."LO- J50", the winning soUp/ail.:! in the team class, at the starting point.Courtesy "Australia" Gliding.';-147-

Char/ie Grose, in the Navy's nwdified T31b,in which he mode his first cross-country flightof 62 miles.(ii) Aero-towing if possible-but jf not,two really efficient winches can copewith a dozen competing aircraftadequately.(iii) Get all the arrangements cut anddried and published several monthsbeforehand.I sincerely hope that sooner or later I maybe privileged to compete again in a futureAustralian Natjonal Champjonships..Team ClassAircraft andperformance factor PilotsLO ISO (0.8)Nymph (1.0)Skylark 2 (0.9)A. GoodhartO. BrandD. BrownA. PatchingG McDonaldW. BurgessD. ReidPoints6,0995,122384.3-148-Aircraft andperformance factor PilotsSpruce Goose (1.4) E. PascoeGrunau (1.6) B. ReidR. LeeG. BeckworthGull IV (1.0) J. 199uldenW.lgguldenT31 b 0.8) C. GroseW. CatchpooleM. KokegeiT. TooheyG. StricklandOlympia (1.0) D. SchultzC. BuckleyGrunau (1.6) D. JohnsonKookaburra (1.3)The only monlhly gliding magazi~in Ihe world printed in EnglishPoints364.1341.4139.4136.294.873.318.6AUSTRALIAN GLIDINGJournal 01 tk. Gliding Fad.ali.... 01 AlDlro&.Editor:R. AshB. CunninghamO. BeckwithM. MortonJ. LilleyIndividual ClassPilotAverage Points1. D. Reid 84.72. R. Lee 78.73. A. Goodhart. . 76.44. E. Pascoe 72.85. D. Brown 62.86. O. Brand 59.27. A. Patclling 55.38. J. 199ulden 42.59. G. Beckwith 29.310. W. 199ulden . . 27.3followed by W. Burgess, C. Bucldey, C.Grose, W. Catchpoole, G. McDonald, D.Johnson, D. Schultz, B. Reid, T. Toohey,R. Ash, M. Kokegei, J. Lilley, B. Cunning.ham, and M. Morton.Allan AshSubscription t- 30 a.hiD;ng. Australian2~ ,k:ning. S'erling 3.50 &10110.. U.S.A••nd c.nad."Australian Gliding:' Mineside Posl Office,Mount [sa, Queensland, Australia

Na_P. WildburJ. J. ConnollyJ. F, WesthorpeJ. A. EdwudsK. O. KingJ. AukettL. J. Bittle.toneL. I. S. Fra..,Gliding CertificatesClub~A.r.C. SchoolSoulhdownB.A.O.R.LondonNo. 6240.S.Perak F.C.No. 642 0.5.SurreyDerbyshire .t.LancashireC CERTIFICATESClub 0'Nam~A.T.C. SchoolM. C. Hall No. 642 O.S.R. A. Pre.ton CoventryJ. E. Beasley SurreyD. C. RatclifTe LondonC. W. H. Knight BristolV. L Sweet SurreyR. W. Shaw RAFWindrushers'F. A. Cooper LondonCQrrectif)n to list in February issue, p. 36: R. P. Bateson oJtained C Certificate atAigen, Austria, not at No. 625 O.S.AJ'6rtlu"""u ""Ih "rnll/a"c. should b. """0 Cholro. "',eu Lsd., J, Co,k S,., Londo", W.I. (REG6"'()(1'17)le..,. ~d. pe' w..,d. Mill/mum Sf·. Bo~ """'H" 1 SO. at,... RqJll"10 Box "umb..,. shouldb.,.""o Ih,"'_address.PUBLICATIONS SITUATIONS VACANT..SOARING"......,Official ~rganof the Soar.ing Society of America. Edited by R. C.Forbes, British Gliding" Champion 1951.Obtainable from SoaringSocietyofAmerica,Inc., Post Office Box 7J,Elmira, N.Y. Applyto your Post Office for a currency form.THE METEOROLOGICAL MAGAZINEhas for seventy years been the authoritativesource of information for those whose interestsdemand a knowledge of weather. It isyours for the modest annual subscription of29s. including postage. Published monthlyby Her Majesty's Stationery Office, price15. 3d. (post 2d.) from the GovernmentBookshops or through any boo~lIer.GROUND ENGINEER (full time) requiredby the Southclown Gliding Club at Firle.near Lewes, Sussex. Assistance with acc:ommodation,andsalary by arrangement. Plenewrite to the Secretary, Cobnor, 2 SouthDrive. Felpham, Bognor Regis, Sussex.CHANGE OF ADDRESSTHERMAL EQUIPMENT LTD., Agentsfor the British Commonwealth for "Winter"Glider Instruments & Barographs, announcethat their adclress for correspondence is now33b, EcclestonSquare, London, S.W.1.FOR SALEKITE Ha, perfect conclition. Air brakes"Sky" canopy. Wing tip moo. C. of A.toApril '58. With trailer £425. Apply F. G.hying, Lasham.AIRCRAFT TABLE MODELS Scale 1 :50. High-class finish, varnished in eithernatural wood or ivory. The base is rectangularwith a stylised cloud. All types ofsailpl'ane cost onIy 8.50 OM. Flugzeug­Modellbau Werner Reuss, Gottingen,Fliederweg 4, West Germany.-149-WANTEDWANTED. High performance glider withor without trailer. Apply K. Weininger.Sywell Hall, Sywell, Northampton.OL'lMPIA CLASS SAILPLANE required,with C. of A. Ehrhardt, 6 East AtheItonStreet, Durham.PHOTOGRAPHS suitable for repl'oductionin SAILPLANE & GLIDING would bewelcom.e, especially for the fr,ont cover (if'of the ,correct shape). It is regretted that nofee can be paid.-ED.

Long Mynd Easter RallyHE traditional Easter task-flying rallY ofT "the Midland Gliding Club attracted 14entries this year, club-owned and prjvate.Friday, 19th April, a "practice day,"brought the best flights, by four who gaveLympne (195 miles) as their goal. NickGoodhart reached it, Philip Wills wentbeyond it to Dover, Mike Gee reachedl-Iornchurch (148 rnil~), and Noel Ansonlallw:d .a1 Betchworth, the Surrey Club'spre-war site. Wills, passing north ofLondon,. found excellent cloud. streets fromDunstable on, but Goodhart struck a badpatch around Tunbridge Wells and therebymissed the 300 km. speed record by 20minutes. Others tried a 22-mile triangle tothe west, and Mr. and Mrs, Burns wentround it in turn.Saturday's task was a race to Shobdon!lea.r Lcorrunster, and back, 45 miles in all.A frontal overcast all morning prevented itstaTting till the afternoon, when Ric Prestwichset off at 1.40 and got back I hr.35 mins. later, the return journey havingbeen made at 100 m.p.h. from the 8,.500 ft.top of a large cumulus IllJl,ss sitting overShabdon. This cloud was still there an hourand a half later when Wills arrived; he tookI hr. 3 millS, to do a climb to 8,000 ft. at theMynd,a fast glide to Shobdon, a climb to7,500 ft. there, and a fast glide back at70 m.p.h.; but he landed in the wrong placeand earned no speed points, Four others,George Burton, Tony Good'hart, JohnPringle and Brian Jelferson, rounded theturning point and got a good part ofthe wayback, and B. R. Wright landed there.EasterSunday was occluded.Monday's task was a pilot-selected goal.The cwnulus looked gOOd'as far as it couldbe seel\, but .tha~ was not far, because ofthick haze, which the pilot.s found ratherto5CAL.('" MILLS! ,50 \0"-150-

hampering, though it was clearer south ofLudlow. Wills and Nick Goodhart decidedon an informal race to' Inkpen, the Goodharthome; both landed in Gloucestershire.Martlew took the ancient Petrel nearly asfar as the two Skylarks, landing only threemiles short of his goal of Staverton, theGloucester Club's fonner site, whileSailplanePetrel (P)Skylark 3 (P)Skylark 2 (P)Skylark 3 (P)Skylark 2 (P)Skylark 2 (C)Skylark 3 (P)Skylark 2 (C)Skylark 2 (P)Skylark 2 (P)Olympia (P)Olympia (C)MU-13 (C)T21b (C)Final ResultsPilotsD. MartIew, G. BuTtonH. C. N. Goodhan, G. A. J. GoodhartR. H. PrestwichP. A. WillsB. JeffersonJ. W. S. PringIeD. Bums, Anne BurnsB. R. WrightD. LoweJ. KnottsN. P. AnsonB. H. SmithSeth SmithS. Neumann ,and others(C) Club aircraft.A COURSE TO ATTENDAPrestwich was the only pilot to reach hisgoal, a modest one at Newtown, 18 miles.On Tuesday the upcurrents were so poorthat tbe task, a race to Shobdon, wasscrapped. At the final briefing, tribute waspaid to the excellent met. briefing giventhroughout the Rally by "Jock" Findlater.AE.S.ClubLashamLashamMidlandLashamDerby & Lancs.CambridgeLashamMidlandMidlandMidlandLondonCambridgeR. Naval G.:S.A.Cambridge(P) Privately owned.CorrespondencePoints167163.5155.5147.86867.462.24024.819WEEK'S residential course (In "Weather Dear Sir,and Flight," to be held at Preston With the arrival of what we ferventlyMontford Hall Field ~ntre, Montford, hope will bea cross-country season equalnear Shrewsbury, from 3rd to· 10th July to that of last year, may I through Y0t!T'1957, is announced by the Field Studies columns make a plea to the pilots who makeCouncil.use of the suitable farm fields on which theyare fortunate enough to make their un-The principal lecturers are Dr. R. S. invited landing, to at least acknowledgeSCorer (Imperial College Dept. of h' . l._ r: cd.Meteorology), Mr. C. E. WaJlington t err appreciallon to tu", ,arrner concernLast year there were rumblings at certain(Meteorological Office) and Mr. F. G. National Farmers' Union meetings and inIrving (Imperial Colle~e Dept. of Aero- the farming Press, and it would be mOstnautics), which is as much as to say that the unfortunate if the agricultural industry tookcourse will have a strong gliding bias. the view that indiscriminate glider landingsElementary meteorology (including cloud were detrimental to their interests throughphysics) and aerodynamics will form the the thoughtless actions of a section of thebasis of the course, for which a knowledge gliding fraternity. It is not perhaps appreciofadvanced mathematics is not necessary, ated that a 10 to 12 acre field which is of athough any who wish to discuss mathe- convenient size to use for a landing, wouldmatical aspects with the lecturers will have cost a fanner about £50 a year or nearly £1ample opportunity. The emphasis of thecourse is upon observation out of doors,per day or nearly 2s. per hour, and from thefarmer's point of view there is no morewith particular attention to weatherphotography and the recognition of clouds.reason for a glider pilot, or anyone else forthat matter, to use his field without hisThe fee for the course is 8 guineas (with permission, than for him to go into hispossible extra transport charges), and next-door neighbour's house and use hisfurther information can be obtained from telephone without first asking pennission.The Warden, Preston Montford FieldCentre, Montford Bridge, Near Shrewsbury.F. C. WORLEY.Grange Farm, Woolstone.~151-

*Chosen alikefor theGLIDERTRAINERFIGHTERBOMBERAIRLINER• • •because of theirRELIABILITYLONG LIFEACCURACYECONOMY[ PULLINI ELECTRICALI1 TURN AND SLIP INDICATORSR. B. PULLIN& CO. LTD.PI-IOENIX WORKS, GREAT WEST ROAD, BRENTFO RD, MIDDLESEXT.I.ohoo~., EAUo; OQI1/3 & 366113 G.-m., PULlINCO. W••ohooe, Loodoo-152-

Detection and Location of Thermalsby Air Commodore L. P. Moore, C.B.E.I None's limited experience of thermalflying, the first symptom almost invariablynoticed on ~tering or lea:ving athermal has been a qUIck: change ofaIrspeed.But only recently has otle found that thenature of this change is related to directionof fl.ight in relation to wind direction, asfollows:-(4) Entering thermal into wind or"falling out" downwind-suddendecrease in airspeed.(b) Entering downwind or falling outupwind-sudden increase in airspeed.(c) Falling out crosswind on downwindside of thermal-rapid airspeedchanges up and down and burble.The significant thing about these gusts isthat they are usually the first indication ofentering or leaving a th~rmal; the sequencebeiIli a sudden gust or lull followed by asense of acceleration up or down followedby a variorneter reading; the lag betweenthem being the result _of the sailplane'sinertia. It seems therefore that gusts andlulls may be a good-if not the bestindicationof the presence and location ofthetmals.It occurs to me that the above experiencemay well be explained by the accompanyingdiagram if we agree the theory now widelyaccepted, that thermals drift downwind at alesser speed than that of the Wind; treatingthe thermal as an obstruction in the path ofthe airstream.By reducing t he ground speed of thethermal to zero andconsidering a hori~ontalcross-section ofit and ofits environment onthe plane in which the sailplane is circling,we have the air around the thermal streamingdownwind past it, producing eddies inthe wake and a local increase of windspeedon the flanks. The diagram depicts andel\plains, I hope, adequately how I believethe phenomenon is caused.If this explanation is right, a device thatwould measure airspeed differential betweenwingtips ought to go much further in providinga means for detecting and locatingthermals, as follows ( opposite sides of a diaphragm could beDIAGRAM r.AI!t$1JLl..P />IUC1..E.NTTA(. :lltNJluN. A .TH"ItAfIt~01

made to show airspeed differential, and itwould probably be fairly easy to differentiatebetween the differential related tocircling flight and that arising from a suddengust or lull. The above rules would bedifficult to memorise at-first, but with theaid of a ready reckoner and some practice,would soon become fairly instinctive. That"kick in the pants" may be held to be amOre convincing indication, and so may thetilt of a winglip, but they only indicate afail accompli. Gust indication ought togive an appreciably earlier and longerdistance indication of the presence anddirection of a thermal centre.It looks as though there should beappreciable variatiol15 in pressure around athermal as a result of local changes in thespeed of passage of surrounding air, aconcentration of streamlines on either flankdecreasing pressure while a high-pressureregion builds up on the downwind side.Does tbis help to account for the earplopping experienced in strong thermalconditions? And could that lead to falsetransient readings of the variometer?HitheJ'to I had always associated suddengusts and lulls with the sudden vectorialaddition or subtraction arising from thechange in vertical velocity Qf the sailplane'senvironment. No doubt this does contributetowards the phenomenon, but wereit the only factor, we could expect anincrease in airspeed 011 entering a thermalirrespective of direction of flight in relationto wind direction-which is n01 whatactually happens.Quick reaction to thermal indication is animportant thing, especially when flying fastbetween thermals, lest we overshoot them.Is sudden change in airspeed iD the sense Ihave suggested a reliable pointer? If so, isit the first pointer of the several differentones? ]f it is, it may be the best to go by.The famous and reliable PE RAV rA barograph. Models for sailplanes(left) and for aeroplanes (right). - For details write to:PERAVIA LTD. BERNE/SWITZERLAND-154-

THIS GLIDINGWHAT has happened to the Press? Afterall these years of cluelessness, has itsuddenly dawned on them all what thisgliding is really about? Since our last issuethey have perpetrated nothing worthy ofinclusion in this column. Not one ambulance,not onenre brigade, has rushed up toan "aircraft crashing in flames" after wmesailplane has made a normal landing in afield. So, to fill the gap, here are somechoice pieces from the club news in thepre-war SAILPLANE & GLIOER."One (If ~ur instructors was asked anumber of questions by a sincerely interestedbystander who finally observed: 'Isuppose, when you turn down-wind, yourcontrols are all reversed then?' "-YorkshireClub."Circuit of the Kirby Kite, piloted byKaye, whose head only just appears out ofthe CDCkpit. Old lady, seeiI\g him for thefirst time as he comes ill to land, remarks:'Oh look, George, there's someone init!"'­Derbyshire & Lancashir,. Club."Small daughter, aged three, helpingenthusiastic glider pilot to carry his lunchto the car: 'Shall I carry the thermal flasks,Daddy?' "-London Club."Member of the public, to companion:'I was out here on Wednesday and there wasone glider up in the air for nearly half anhour trying to get down and couldn't; thenanother glider went up and showed it theway down.' "-London Club."An old lady took up a very prominentposition on the site, one Sunday afternoon;to watch our activities. On being info.nnedthat it was rather dangerous on thatparticular spot, she replied: 'Oh, that isquite all right, I'm sitting on a newspaper.' "-Derbyshire &: Lancashire Club."One of our members was tackled by anacquaintance who had read, in a newspaper,of a cross-country flight of forty miles.Like this:-'Did you say he was launchedby catapult ...?' 'Yes.' '... and he wentforty miles?' ·Yes.' 'Gosh! What acatapult!'" - Yor}.:shire Club.How to get "SAILPLANE AND GLIDING" AUSTRALIA: Stockists: Hearn's Hobbies, 367, Flinders Street, , ~< Melbourne. }, ~ NEW ZEALAND F. M. Dunn, N. Z. Gliding Association, Box 2239, >Christchureh. SOUTH AFRICA: The Aero Club of South Africa, P.O. Box 2312, }, Maritime House, Loveday Street, Johannesburg., U.S.A., CANADA & Please apply direct to British Gliding AssQCiation.> oTlIER COUNTRIES: Single copies 2{8d. or 16s. annually. (50 cents or, $3.00 annually).> SCANDINAVIA: Hans ElIerstrom, Gronalundsgatan 9B, Malmo, S.Y.,> ~~ < >Green Leather Cloth Binder, taking 12 issues (2 years): 15s. post free from B.G.A.

ench Government Aid to SoaringHEN, on 23rd and 24th February, theW French Soaring Association held itsthird ,annual assembly in the great amphitheatreof the French National School forAeronautics, commonly called by itsstudents "Sup Aero," M. Agesilas. directorof the Sport Aviation Department of theAir Ministry and the French delegate toOSTlV, furnished some very interestingstatistics of the aid that the French Governmentprovides to the soaring movement.The main Ji'urpose of his discourse was torefute rumoUf;S circula.ting among Frenchsoaring pilots to the effect 1hat the govc:m·melltwas letting them down as far as newmaterial was concerned. M. Agesilaspointed out that fo.r equipment alone theFrench government had, in the last sixyears, set aside very great credits, and hecited the following very eloquent figures·:1951: Nil.1952: 300 million francs.1953: 3501954: 4001955: 3801956: 7951957: 740To these credits, M. Agesilas continued,an annual allowance of 600 million francshas to be added for the functioning of theSport Aviation Department.• A million francs is approximately£1,000.A .ai/4bl~ ill all part. of th~ worldC. P. WITTER LIMITED1;14 FQREGATE STRUT, CHESTERby Wait H, bait-156-M. Agesilas to(~k special pride in thegre3't increase in credits obtained since heoccupied his presellt post from 1956 on.He also mentioned that he has prepared afour years' programme calling for a yearlybudget of one milliard francs (£1,000;000)for equipment.Passing to the results obtained in thoseyears, M. Agesilas reviewed the constructionprogramme and the utilisation of the abovecredits. Among many other figures, hecited tbe cost of some of the latest Frencllsailplanes: .P11Olotypes:3 Bregllet.901I AV·22 (two-seater FlyingWing)I Breguet-904 ..1 Bregllet-902 (two-seatertrainer now under Olionstruction)..2 WA-20 "Javelot" (singleFirst series of20 Breguet-901 ..Second series of 10 Breguet-'90I ..Series of 15 Breguet-904Preliminary series of 6 WA-30Millionfranes60247040seater high-performance) 32To these prot~types has to be added thesttatospheric sailplane which is still in thestage of study and on which already morethan 100 million francs ha-ve been spent.From the prototypes, M. Agesi1a~s passedto the cost ofthe series production ma~neswhich have been ordered by his departmentc:Millionfran.cs9647100"Javelot" 15A series of sever~l Emouchets, a singleseaterinitial training plane, as well asseveral trailers, haye also been constructed.M. ~ilas finished his discourse with ageneral review of the actual status .Qf Frenchsoaring activities,. and he expressed hisbelief that the future of this great sport isnot as black as some have painted it, andthat he would continue tQ be one of itsstt,ongesl supporters.

CluL~Ass~m1onNavs•ENTRIESare coming in for the competition for the best design for a newheading for this section of the magazine. One is shown at the head ofthis page, and others are to be found on pages 162 and 164. Letters of praiseor condemnation are now awaited, together with further designs from anyreader who may have any bright ideas.L.J.H. ofBamet prefers the original design to the one published in theApril isS'Ue, and we quote some remarks from a letter too long for reproductionin full-". . . the sailplane of the old heading had the virtue offorming an integral part of the design, as much cannot be said for the newheading in which the lines made by the admittedly beautifully drawn sailplanelead the eye away.Jrom the rather brittle and static italic wording whichincludes an ampersand of doubtful legitimacy it is my contention that asailplane is not a' necessity in the heading improvement should accruefrom having the club names in a lighter face italic sans serif type."Will Club Press, Secretaries please note that for the August issuecontributions should be sent in, typed double-spaced on one side ofthe paperonly, so as to arrive at 33B, Eccleston Square,. London, S. W.I, by 18th June.GoDFREY HARWOOD,Club and Association News Editor.CORNISHINce our last report we have made aS modest start. We aeTo-towed t./leOlympia from Culdrose to Perranporth, andover the Easter weekend carried out some26 laun.;:hes with a total flying time of3 hrs. 27 mins.Spectators with all known forms ofvehicl~ peIIColated from the cliff road andthe peri-tracks onto the three runways, andprovided quite a problem of ground trafficcontrol, which we must solve before thesummer swann of visitors to Cornwall setsin. There is, however, the consolation thatthe gospel of gliding is being propagated.Our membership figUl'eS have risen to«l active and 17 associates. By the time thisissue is in print we hope that ourfieet willinclude a T31, a Tutor and a nib. Thehangar should be finished by then, andWally league, of Imperial Motors Ltd.,Redruth, has promised us a second FordV-8 ·on loan with a reconditioned engine.Our programme at first covers sitefamiliarisationnying. and refresher flightsfor Instructors, tuition for the many tow~car drivers, and general flying for members.on Thursdays and at the weekends. Threeor four Instructors are prepared each to·devote a week of their annual holidays togiving instruction, and we therefore hope toarrange 3 or 4 courses of a week's durationbefore the autumn,J.W.E.B.-1S7-

Flying suits or bridalveils-arrything goes forgliding! In this pictureMr. and Mrs. GerryHarrison are about to belaunched irtto married lifein the Coventry Club'sT21. (We hope shereme.mbered 10 strapherselfin).COVENTRYOURS up until Easter we€:kend total 190H from 1,600 launches. On 31st March,we did 100 launches for the first time thisyear although 95 had ~n reached onseveral previous occasions. In the last twomonths Littlejohn, Bark, Farren, S. Haynes,Findon and Mary Neal have gone solo.The recent warm weather gained us a newbatch of C pilots, namely Watts, Dobson,H. Greenway, Tyler, Joan Cunninghafn.A. Cunningham and R. Brown.Sheila Gregg has now added a Silverheight to the ~ hour leg she has alreadyattained, thus furthering the honour of theGregg family. Dr. Gregg, the club's chairman,seems to have taken his dutiesseriously by supplying us with four successfulpilots, himself, daughters Sheila andHeather and son Richard, now taking pilottraining with the R.A.F. in Canada.Richard sends us the interesting news thaton one flight in a Havard, he was intriguedby a superb looking lenticular cloud. Hewas unable to resist the temptation to findout if it worked and positioned himselfbelow the windward side with powersettings corresponding to 300 feet perminute descent. Sure enough the lift tookhim from 8,000 feet to 17,000 feet, at whichheight be broke off the climb for personalreasons. Oh, for a Skylack!Speaking of Skylarks, we had a visit froma Dunstable pilot who landed al Bagintonon 20th April and was later acro-towedhome. Perhaps he was "returning thecompliment" after Mike' 'Hunt's trip fromBaginton to Dunstable in an Olympia onthe previous day.Also on the 20th, Vie Carr did an out andreturn to Leicester, reaching 9,800 feet onthe way. He says that's as near Gold heightas he wants to be without getting it.The Club Olympia was broken on across-country flight on 13th April arid thefollowing weekend the T21 was also putout of action for Easter.The Tutors have had several good soaringflights recently to. between 4,000 and 5,000ft., one of which took Peter Berthelsencross-country to Edgehill, a distance of 21miles on )3th April.Other cross-countries this year are VieCarr, travelling 28 miles and R. Tarver 25miles both on 6th April, in Olympias. On7th April, D. Cunningham reached 27 milesand on 13th April, G. Harrison reached 25miles also in Olympias.The club certainly seems to have springfever or tax rebatitis because we have hadthree more marriages lately. Bob Comptonto Jean Kitley, John Graham to GloriaNaysmith and Gerry Harrison to CathyLiquorish. Our best wishes to them all.Cathy and Gerry were foolish enough tohave their reception at an hotel near theaerodrome. 1P.ey paid the forfl;;it of a tripin the 1'21 in fu11 regalia.B.H.T.-1~-

CROWN AGENTSOUR A.G.M. was held on 11th March,when the reports by the Chainnan andTreasurer showed that the club is improvingits position. It is now an associate memberclub of the B.G.AThe first "Crown Agents' Monday" ofthe 1957 season was held at Lasham on 1stApril, and was attended by three Flyingmembers, two Associate members and onemember from Kenya. The day was brightwith a moderate E.S.E. wind, and there wasa fair amount of thennal activity. The next"Crown Agents' Monday" will be on 3rdJune.The value ofstarting active club membershipearly in the season and pressing on withdual instruction is well exemplified by therapid progress made by one member whojoined in February, went solo on the2-seater early in April and got his C, wasconverted to the Olympia at Easter, and sonow has a good soaring season ahead ofhim.J.E.G.H.DUBLINWH,o,T had so far been a blank year puton a very different face oVer theEaster Weekend. Beginning on GoodFriday, the first two launches both "connected,"resulting in a flight of just on thehour by Mike Harty in the Kite IIterminatedby a splitting headache ratherthan lack Qf lift~and a first cross-countryby Con McNulty in the Grunau. which fella little short of Silver distance.Saturday was very similar-first JimContostavlos, a "refugee" from the LondonClub, put in forty minutes in the Grunau.Launched soon after, Jim Bellewin the Kitemade a successful goal flight to a friend'sfarm thirty miles away-a good goal todeclare according to the retrieve party, whoreportedfinding Jim trying to hide .thebottle behind the hedge. In fact the flightcould have been continued for somedistance, there being quite a lot of heightleft in hand at the end.FiBally, but by no means least, ConMeNulty 1}ad another attempt on hi.sCOSIM VARIOMETER8were used by a I I countries competingin theWORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS 1954in England, and were also used on an l3ritishmachines in the Championships in Spain whichgained 1st, 3rd, 9th & 11th in a -field of 39 singleseaters." IRVING" TYPETOTAL ENERGY VENTURJ"COSIM"WATER TRAPS & NOSE PITOTS"COOK" COMPASSLeaflets on request to:Cobb-Slater Instrument Co., Ltd."Cosim" Works, Darley Dale, MatIock~~Pbone : Darley Dale 2138-159..,..

-160-distance leg, again in the Grunau. Unfortunatelythis also just feU short, but toput in your first two cross-countries in twodays is not bad going!Sunday was a blank day, but on theMonday the weather cleared for 10118enough to enable a good proportion of thesolo pilots to put in soaling flights of up to,an hour's duration.. Altogether a memorableweekend.Plans for the future include a proposedWhit Weekend Rally of all the Irish Clubsat our home field of Bcaldonnel. This wouldbe the first event of this Idnd ever held inthis country, where the gliding movement isstill largely in a very early stage. Let us hopethat the next issue will record its success., 'f.B.B.HANDLEY PAGEIT seems at the time of writingthat petrolrationing will, be with us for a littlelonger. The usual efforts have been made toincrease the launching rate, using, a singlecable anu still Jllaintaining strict petroleconomy. A solo motor-cycle has beenused for cable fetrieving and appears to be asuccess. Some doubt was expressed initiallyabout usin,g this system over grass, but used,away from the runways no incidents haveoccurred so far.Quite a number of new members havebeen welcomed into the flying field recently,,so the T31 is working overtime. The. Tutorhas yet to complete its "C. of A." Its arrivalon the flying field is eagerly awaited bythose solo pilots who are not yet convertedto the Rhonbussard.On the 23rd March Ron Janes qualifiedfor his C while flying the T31. This was allthe more creditable as the RhonbussardARCHIE LlTnEDALE(A,.,y Glidi-ng Club}can get lor yau Of your aircraft"'ery MOde",. ,.rel of insur.nu with ,.·etUa!JIbl. ultderwr:t.n. i"~cluding life coyer without.ny additional premium,Th:iJ i. "eeu,. J.'" ind~nd.nt,ilnd it is Myjob 10 know how 10 g.1 Ih. best ral•• for .ny''/'Po of policy.Nalu,.Uy I charge nO fM.My .dd"l$ iSJ69 NORTHFI£lD ROAD, THATCH AM.no.. NEWIUn. BUKSI1IR£tolo, THATCH"'" 3329'couldn't stay up, but On the 13tb AprilMike Wilson managed to, get this machineaway on the foulith attempt. The first climbended at 4,350 ft. over EIstree, being curtailedby the need to remain in VISUALMET. CONDITIONS. The machine wassoared for I i hours, but conditions did notseem to be good enough to warrant settingoff for Lasham.The following day Alan Vincent climbed600 ft. in the same machine but was unableto stay up. On bOth days,. at R.adlett at anyrate, the tbennals SQemed tricky to centrebelow 2,000 ft.Our C.FJ., Geoffrey Wass, is hoping todo a SC'Iies of stability tests on one of ourmachines in the near future. This will be inorder to obtain B.G.A. "Test Pilot"aPPl'Oval.Paul Langston. who evaluated positionerrors and drag coefficients for the Skylark2, has now joined our company, and we,hope to, fo/'ce him int.:> our gliding rankssoon,A.E.ISLE OF WIGHTFINAL figures fOT 1956 flying w~e 1,701launChes and 1)2 hours. This showsverY clearly our lack of CroSS-COWltry andsoaring flights. In an effort to remedy thissituation every soarable rid'ge on the Islandhas been visited and the landownersapproached. Our success to date has beenrather limited, farmers treating us with amixture of disbelief and incredulity. Wehave obtained permission to operate from avery promising ridge-.but so far onlyduring the winter. Previous permission to,o~rate from Newbam Down may now bein jeopardy due to the proposal to erect aT.V. mast in the neighbourhood. Otherproposals are now in hand and we ale ,at theJl1()ment awaiting decisions from two landowners.Owing to the reduction of availablehangar sp~e we now have to rig and de-rigour T21 b, a job at which we are rapidlybecOming proficient. Among our otherproficiencies of late we include the coveringand doping of complete wings along withcolour spraying-and consequently theGnmau is now resplendam in Turkey Redand "Cream, a fact which will no doubtplease visiting "throttle-benders." Severalhundred man hours have gone into the re­Qovering and Cofa work on this aircraft,

· . . '. '""\OUTSTANDING ·1-26 flIGHTS iOUT and RETURN217 MILESALTITUDE21,000 Fr.~.GOAL FLIGHT195 MILESDISTAN(;E279'~ILES~.100 KM. TRIANGl.E31.9 M.P.H.- ....~DURATION·OVER 7 HOURS,These are examples of some of the many excellent flights made in Schweizer1-26 "One Design" Sailplanes. Although small in size - 40-foot span - the 1-26is BIG in performance. In a relatively short time this compact, easy.to.fly sailplanehas pr·oved its p",rformanee capabilities by winning Gold' "C" and Diamond' "C"Awards.The 1-26 kit is an excellent way to get acquainted with metal aircraft (on·struction. A minimum of special tools is required since all parts are prefabricatedand welding is already complete. This is fhe ideal way to become experiencedwith rugged, long·life metal construction.Increasing interest in one·design regattas with friendly competition in identicalaircraft. ~kes competition flying practical for everyone. Join the growing trendtoward this type of flying by getting a 1·26 now. Compact packaging keeps transportationcosts to a minimum.BACKED BY 2S YEARS OF AIRCRAFT EXPERIENCEWrite for f," literat.e, prices. and deli".,., schedules.EXCLUSIVE EXPORT REPRESENTATIVESAVIQU.IPO, INC.25 B£AV~R STREET .NEW YORK 4. N~W YORKAmsterdam BongkokCoroco. Lisbon LondonRio de Janeiro SantiagoBrunels Buenos Aires CalcuttaMontre.ol New York Pari.Sydney Toronto Washington, D.e.-161-

and among, the many who have helped,Messrs. Adams, Dyer, Gavaghan, Morris.Richardson, Smith and Wilcocks are to becongratulated on their constant allendance.Whilst on the subject of maintenance, EricDyer and "Ricky" Richardson do deserveespecial mention when it comes to vehiclemaintenance, without them we should havelost quite a few mQre flying hours.This year we are making every effort toincrease Qur nwnber of launches and moreespecially the hours flown. This will mean areally big effort from eVeryone, as we shallbe using the airfield in conjunction withscheduled services.P.W.KENTTHE week prior to Easter has brought the_ best results todateinourflying with no lessthan four seJ'arate Silver C legs and sevenC certificates in the good thermal conditions.On Saturday 13th April, Ted Day in theSky became the first member to complete anthree legs of a Silver C at Detling. Regained his final leg with a distance flight of64 miles from Detling to Tangmere.The following Tuesday, 16th April, lanAbel organised a day's flying for Prefectpilots trying for C's. This proved veryfruitful as Bemard Kirby, John Bailey and"Jonah" Jones got their C's on half hourthermal flights. "Jonah" in fact got athermal off the launch and reached 4,800 ft.lan also had a good day as he was able tocomplete his Silver C with a distance flightof 35 miles in the Sky to Ramsgate.-162-Good Friday also- brought three moreC's.Phillipa Buckley, -Sue Parkinson and"Nobby" Clark. Mike Foreman in the Skygot Silver C distance with a flight toManston 33 miles and Bill Bridges in theOlympia thermalled for 5 hrs. 10 mins. at5,200 ft. for h,s Silver C duration, butcouldn't claim height as he lacked a barograph.Steve Green flying the Prefect gothis C on Easter Sunday in thermals whichwere definitely few and far between.Other flights which were of interest wereBernard Kirby's I hr. 10 mins. in thePrefect at 3,000 ft. on Easter Saturday andRoy Rubble's I hr. 13 mins. in the Sky at4,000 ft. on Easter Monday.Looking back over the first year of theClub's activities since last April, membershiphas steadily increased from the original4{) flying members to now over 100 andassociates 50.Launches have reached nearly 5,000which we hope to exceed next year, the2-drum winch being constructed by KenO'Riley and Frank Tilley will help considerablyto make this possible. A secondtractor recently purchased is greatly neededas our old Fordson is beginning to feel thestrain after such continued good service.In March with the mild weather, thegrounQ was firm enough (we have no runways)for auto-towing the Olympia and T31which helped relieve a hard-pressed winch.During March and early April with anorth-easterly wind we had quite an amountof thermal flying. The Sky was flown onhourly and half-hourly flights in companywith the Olympia at heights of 2-3,000, ft.The T21 also had its fair share of thermals

eaching 1,800 and 2,000 ft. on 2O-minuteflights.C.M.KENYAF LYINGhas been continuing at Nakuru(100 miles N.N.W. of Nairobi), butexploration of the Nairobi area is going onapace with a view to finding a suitable sitewhich will not interfere with the considerableinternational air traffic around Nairobi.The first three months of the year weredry, hot and dusty, producing numerousdust-devils and occasional thennalsinwhich the "Queen Mary". could be soared.In January Paul Thornpson taok youngAlIan B::rnhardi (aged 12) for a quiet driveaJ'ound the circuit in the TIt b. They metone of these whoppers at 500 feet over thehangars, and eight minutes- later werefloating around 7,200 feet higher up (at analtitud-: of 13,900 ft. a.s.l.) still directlyabove the hangars. Th~ opportunity waswo good to be missed, so they set off for;-..rakuru Town, some eight.' miles away andachieved the distinctionQf being the firstglider (and the first schoelboy!) in history tofly ,Over Nakum, 'incid-:ntally making thefirst goal and return flight ever in EastAfrica.Another first waS recorded in Februarywhen Paol Thompson and Milly Visagietook oj' for a hangar flight just before darkand were whisked up 3,000 feet in a coldfront. Going up was easy; coming downwas a battle against the green, with theairfield rapidly disappearing in the dark,ness.The green ball persistently rear:ed its prettylittle head in spite ,of full spoilers and thesteepest possible sid-: slips but eventually.height was lost by a series of screamingdives and tight circles in every odd scrap ofdown. A night landing was made well afterdark in the lights of an improvised headlightf1arepath._Training is continuing in the T21 b, andthe standard of instruction is improving asthe instructors gain eJlperience. The instructors'latest fledgling at the time ofwriting is Norman Burbidge, who gainedhis A and B certificates after only 30 twoseaterlaunches, having had no previousflying experience at all.On the same day Tony Stocken obtainedhis B certificate, and Piet Visagie qualifiedfor his C. Piet's C was most gratifying as itis only the third to be won in East Africa.alKi the firs t to be gained by a strictlyab-initio pupil. He was convinced that theCadet would never soar carrying his 16!stone, but he counted without the kindlylocal thermals. He bumped ,into one at 600feet, rapidly gained 1,803 feet and then le~tit in a hurry when he was sure he had hisC sewed up, lncause he was caught short bya "gippy tummy."Our youngest pupil at present is PatHarry Mason, Chairman, and other members of the Bulawayo ,Gliding Club,. handling hisKirby Kite before take-offat Denver airfield.-163-

Neylan, aged 14, who is turning out to be anatural pilot. He has been promised hisfirst solo on his 16th birthday, but he'll bepretty tired by then of carrying instructorsaround as ballast.The response lo gliding in East Africahasbeen most heartening, and there seems tobe no doubt at present that the sport is hereto slay.P.B.E.T.KIONFELDquite a lot more !opace during our talks as ithas been obvious for some time that the oldlecture room was far too small.Ideas are always.welcome as to suitablespeakers or topics for Wednesday eveningsand any suggestions should be made to:The Secretary, The Kronfeld Club,Basement, 74 Ecdeston Square, S.W.I.LONDONSINCE our last notes We have been gettinginto our stride for the season and aerospeople will see from the list of talks, towing is much in evidence; but on the 7thA these are not being held every week in April a small group of private o't\'11ers withJune and July as they are our slackest the Scud 11, Gull I and an Olympia revertedmonths, but the Club will still be open on to old times and went flying from the northall Wednesdays. face of lvinghoe Beacon with bungy29TH M..w, 8 p.m.-"Aids to High Per- launching. A new hazard to gliding wasformance Soaring" by David Ince. discovered when Norman Preston landed5TH JUNE, 8 p.m.-"Gliding in Australia" the Gull I in a nice field, and then read aby Cdr. G. A. J. Goodhart, D.S.C. notice on the fence saying, "Unexploded19TH JUNE, 8 p.m.-Film Show.missile!> keep out"!261li JUNE, 8 p.m.-"The R.A.F. Forma- On Saturday, 13th April, three memberstion Squadron" bY Sq. Ldr. Topp of aUempteda 100 kilometre triangle. Geof'freyR.A.F., North Weald.Stc:phenson was the only one to manage it,10TH JULY, 8.30 p.m.-Film Show. flying to Buckingham-Chinnor-Dunstable,17TH JULY, 8 p.m.-"Meteorology for the and then proceeded to do a 30 mile out-and­National Ch:unpionships" by Wally return flight. This was in his Skylark Ill.Wallington. Charles Ellis in the Skylark 11 reachedIt is hoped that by the time these notes Ampthill and had to turn back, and Godfreyappear the wall between the bar and Lee in his Sky turned back at Royston.the lounge will have been taken down, Easter produced some really goodmaki!1g a large lecture room and the bar and weather on the first two days and muchcoffee bar will now be in action in what was activity ensued. Sunday was not very good.the old lecture room. This should give us Arthur Doughty however, reached 5,700 ft.-164-

in his Kite 11, and this was the best performance.On Good Friday, John Jetrries was theflrst away off a winch launch in the veteranSCud 11, and he reached Watlington 25 milesaway. Two outstanding flights were madeby Flank Foster, Skylark 11, to Lasham andback, and by Geotrrey Stephenson, SkylarkIII to Malvern Beacon and back, the formerJ04 miles at 36 m.p.h. and the latter 158miles at 37 m.p.h., within 8 miles of theBritish out.and-return record. Both CharlesEllis, Skylark 11, and Godfrey Lee, Sky,found little difficulty in doing the 100 kilometretriangle, the former by StoneyStratford and Chinnor, and the latter byBedford and Royston at 30.9 m.p.h.Dan Smith then took the Sky on a 60 miletriangle, via Olney and Sandy. Dr. ArchieErskine took his Olympia 72 miles toCOlchester for his Silver C distance. CedricVernon flew the Gull I to Warfield, 31 miles,getting 4,300 ft. en route. Even the twoseaterswere not to be ol.\tdone; and JohnCurrie and Vjc Pollard reached 4,400 ft.from a 500 foot winch launch and flew tQLeighton Buzzard and' &ck, finding onethermal of a genuine 15ft. per second!Mike Russell flew a neat 39 mile square,Bletchley-Tring-Berkhamsted-Dunstable inFrank Foster's Skylark after he had gotback from Lasham,. and reached 5,500 ft.Roger Bradford reached 5,400 ft., and JeffButt the same. The total air miles for GoodFriday were 632 miles. Godfrey L~ hadgot up to 7,400 ft.On Saturday, Colin Richardson flew theSkylark II to Baginton, a 53 mile goal flight.John Jeffries in the Scud II went to Witchfordnear Ely, 49 miles. reaching some6,000 ft. en route. Peter Dirs in the Prefectgot to Bilsden, 5S miles, for his Silver Cdistance. JeffButt took theBlue Olympia toNewborough, S6 miles. Air mileage forSaturday, 213 miles.Sunday was not nearly so good, but theSCud 11 with John Jeffries made a nobleeffort to get away three days running from awinch launch. However, he was forceddown at Totternhce after a good try! DanSmith in his Olympia was aero-towed out ofLuton Airport and reached Deenethorpe8 miles N.N.E. of Kettering. Conditionswere difficult in the extreme around Dunstable,and no one else got away in spite ofmany tries.The total cross-country milesfor the-165-Easter period work out at 890, which ismost encouraging.Our Annual General Meeting takes placeon 27th April, and will be reported in theneltt issue.P.F.NEWCASTLET HE shape of things to come becameevident on 31st March when AndyCoulson in the Skylark, Hetty White in theblack Tutor and Alan Pratt with a pupil inthe TlI were all seen to be soaring i]1 thesame thermal, the times being as follows:Skylark 25 minutes, T21 45 minutes, andTUtor 32 minutes. Hetty was launched to800 ft. and her maximum height was 1,600ft. She is therefore the second lady memberto gain her C certificate in theclub's history.After a fortnight of indifferent weatherthermal fl)ing started in earnest.SUNDAY, 14TH ApRaThere were three noteworthy flights bythe Kite II piloted by Ian Paul who reacheda height of 4,200 ft. during the course of af1igh~ of 2 hrs. 20 mins.; by Andy Coulsonin the Skylark who reached 4,500 ft. andwas airborne for 2 hrs. 17 mins. and byDave Wilson in the Olympia, who gotenough height to go prospecting over theTeam valley in search of some waves whichwere visible from the field but unfortunatelywere too far away.WWNESDAY, 17TH APRILThermals still going strong and weretaken advantage of by Andy Coulson in theSkylark who logged 2 hrs. 40 mills. in aflight to 5,000 ft. and Doug Collinson whowas airborne for I hr. in the Olympia.THURSDAY, 18TH APRILOne flight today could probably comeunder the heading of "Love's labour lost,"as SydBooth took the Kite I up to 4,000 ft.in the course of a 45 minute flight Silver Cheight was in the bag but-yes you'veguessed it~no barograph!FRIDAY, 19TH APRILThere were outstanding flights by AndyCoulson, lan Paul, Alan Pratt and DougCoUinson. Alall was launched at aboutmidday in the Blue Kite I and stayed up for2 hrs. 10 mins. During the flight he foundthe turn and slip indicator was not working50 he landed and after rectifying the faultwas launched. again,at 3.15. From an 800 ft.launch he gained height and later enteredcloud still gaining height. Icing Ie\'el was8,000 ft. and all the usual places iced upincluding the pitot head which put the

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A.S.l. ,out of action" but Alan told me thathe found it quite easy to fly by feel andsound only as apparently the lift was quitesmooth. The maximum height gained was11,400 fe but unfortWlately he hadn't abarograph 4lld so his gain of height of10,600 ft. cannot be confirmed for hisGold C.The other flights were by Ian. Paul, whotook the Kite Il to 5,600 ft. during aI hr.5Q' min. flight, Andy Coulson who waslaunched at 3.39 for what turned out to be athree hour flight during which he wanderedover the countryside and finally ended upo,er Woolsington airport before he returnedto Usworth. Doug Collinson alsogot into the duration stakes, by staying up inthe Olympia for I} hours.SATURDAY, 20TH APRIL -There were only two f1i~hts wOithy ofnote" one by Leo Cullinan and MalcolmSanderson in the T21 who reached 4,000 ft.and were airborne for 68 mins. and DougCollinson again in the Olympia who stayedup for I! hours. 'EASTER SUNDAYThis was the most miserable day we'vehad for quite a while and as there wasnothing but rain (in spite of the T.. V.weather man's prophecy) there was noflying at all.PERKINSILAC.T is only a few months since we threatenedClub News with talk of barographs andother wonders. This Was airy.fairy andlight-hearted and then we wouldn't haveknown a barograph from an isobar.Relentlessly our Club progresses. Th

wish them as much success as we enjoyedwith it at Balado.So far this year the weather has been farfrom kind, and much ofour flying has beendone in definitely non-soaring conditions.Out of twenty-six flying days in 1957, wehave soared on only seven. An outstandingday was 7th April, when after some punythennals earlier on, fine wave conditions setin during the afternoon. Jimmy Rae andCharlie Ross contacted from aero-towsshortly before three

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DOCKERS' AIRCRAFT MATERIALScan take it!Thunder in the air-that's what this impressive pileof 'cumulo-nimbus' means. Pilots, watch out forturbulent air currents and icing at height. The'plane, if it's 'Docker finished', will safely weatherthe storm.DOCKER BROTHERS' LADYWOOD' BIRMINGHAM 16Manufacturers of Surface Coatincs for Every PurposeOverseas Representation Tbrouchut lbl Worlf