GLIDING Edited by Alan E. Slater. M.A., F.R.Met.S. Published by th~ SAILFLYING PRESS LTD. Directors: Philip Wills, CB.E., Ann Douglas, Jacqucs Cocheme. A.F.C OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THE BRITISH GLIDING ASSOCIATION CONTENTS TITLE AUTHOR PAGE Here and There 118 B.A.F.O. Annual Gliding Contest 119 National Gliding Contests 1950 120 Half-Way to Edinburgh Donald Bro,,"" 124 Camphil1 to Happisburgh Lt. Comm. Ton)' GoO{UJarJ 126 To and From lngoldmells Donaid Brown 128 Bradwell Edge to Boston and nearly back Philip A. Wills 130 Ret rieves-Various K. E. Machin 132 Slingsby IS-metre Sailplane 133 From Wave to Wave across Country R. Derek Roper 134 Lessons of the 1950 Contests 136 International Contest at Orebro 137 Exploiting the Cunim for Speed and Height Fit. Lt. A. W. Bedford 138 Kronfeld Memorial Trophies 143 Courses for Dartmouth Cadets 144 Correspondence 144 Performance Measurements of a Soaring Bird Augu.tI Raspet 145 OSTIV meeting J950 151 Club ews 152 Cover Photograph.-8ailplanes of eleven nations gathered at Orebro in Sweden for the International Contest in July. Single copies of "Gliding" price 2/Sd. (post free) may be obtained on application to The Secretary, J3ritish Gliding Association, Londonderry House. Park Lane, W.I., to whom all subscriptions should be addressed. Annual subscription 10/8 (post free) should be sent to the same address. Bulk orders (12 or more copies) should be sent direct to the publishers, The Sailflying Press Ltd., 38, Great Titehfield Street, London, W.I. The BGA Comes of Age On 4th December, 1950, the British Gliding Association will be 21 years old. It was on that date in 1929 that the historic "Gliding Lunch" was held at which the Association was formed. Many people who are gliding today have little or no idea how the gliding moverru:nt started in this country, or even how soaring flight came to be established at all as a possible and worth-while accomplishment. Its existence is taken for granted. From the few seconds' hovering by Otto Lilienthal in )895 to the 91 minutes achieved by Orville Wright in 1911, most ofthe very few soaring flights made by man were done in order to learn the art of balancing in the air, in preparation for power flying. Then, during the period from 1919 to 1922, when treaty restrictions prohibited the building or importing of aeroplanes in Germany, soaring flight began a course of development in that country which has led to its present world-wide status as a fascinating scientific sport. Wolfgang Klemperer beat the 1911 record with a flight of IS minutes in 1921, Arthur Martens first soared for one hour and F. H. Hentzen for 3 hours in 1922, Max Kegel climbed into a thunderstorm in 1926, and in 1928 Robert Kronfeld came on the ~ne to liberate soaring flight final1y from its confinement to the windward slopes of hills. The yc:;ar 1929 was, with the possible eXGeption of 1922, ,the most notable in soar41g history, mainly owing to Kronfeld. On 14th April he set up an altitude record of4,183 feet, on 15th May he made the first flight ofover lOO km., and on 30th July he raised the record to 8,494 feet and soared 93 miles from the Wasserkuppe to Bayreuth. The fame of these and Qther flights spread far beyond Germany, and on 6th November, 1922, The Aeroplane published a special "Gliding Number" to publicise the new knowledge. Among the flood ofletters which it brought to its Editor, there was one from Mr. D. C. COlver, an ex-pilot ofthe first world war, suggesting a luncheon party at which all those interested could meeL The party was held on 4th December at the Comedy Restaurant in Panton Street, and 56 people turned up, including Mr. C. G. Grey, then Editor, and Mr. Thurstan James, present Editor, of The Aeroplane. Mr. Culver, from the chair, started by suggesting the formation of a gliding club, whi\:h would start op.:rations by buying a Zogling Primary from Germany; but by the time the meeting broke up at 4 p.m., its ambitions had run to electing a provisional committee for a "British Glidi:lg Association," with him as chairman and the late Mr. Howard­ Flanders as secretary. The new Association started with a flourish and a great number of gliding clubs were formed, but many ofthem soon collapsed, often by crashing their only machine. This was followed by a few years in the doldrums, when the movement was with difficulty kept alive, but it picked up again ill 1933, when a substantial amount of soaring began to be done. A Government subsidy was offered in 1934 on condition that certain differences ofopinion within the movement as to the constitution ofthe B.G.A. were resolved, and as a result this constitutiOn was altered in 1935 to something resembling its present form. Since then, apart from a war-time adolescent period of suspended animation, the B.GA. has been run by gliding people for gliding people; it therefore enters adulthood travelling along the right road. But the part played by the present Chairman in setting it on that road sixteen years ago is probably unknown to more than one or two people still active in gliding, so relentlessly does the personnel ofthe movemen~change with the years. Even the Editor of this journal, though a founder member of the London Gliding Club in February, 1930, did not quite make that Gliding Lunch twenty-one years ago. -117- Here and There American Contest New British Altitude Records The 17th National Soaring Contest, held Flight Lieutenant A. W. Bedford, of the at Grand Prairie, Texas, was won by Dick Empire Test Pilots' School at Farnborough, Johnson with his new RJ-5 sailplane. He climbed 19,118 ft. and reached 21,338 ft. exceeded both the national goal and above sea level in an Olympia on August distance records with a 337-mile goal flight 24th. He thereby broke four official across Texas. Coverdale, lvan an.d Reeves records, the British and the U.K. local were placed 2nd, 3rd and 4th, all flying records for both gain of altitude and Schweizer 1-23 sailplanes. absolute altitude. An account of his flight Jon Carsey. of Texas, has been elected appears in this issue of GUDfNG. President ofthe Soaring Society ·of America, The pilot made his first sailplane flight and Eugart Yerian has lx:en appointed in May, 1949, and since then has put in Editor of "Soaring," the official organ. 54 hours 25 mins. in sailplanes, much of it Paul Schweizer continues as Secretary. The while practising for an aerobatic display Society's official address is: Box 71, Elmira, at the R.A.F. Show. This record flight gave N.Y. him his "Gold C" (the distance was 193 miles), with a diamond added to it for his Towed to 7,000 metres climb of over 5,CXXJ metres. His only . The present international distance record previous cross<ountry soaring flights were of 749.2 kilometres (465.5 miles) was set 31 miles en 27th July this year, with 3,600 up by Olga Klepikova in Russia in 1939. feet climb, and 101 miles from Farnborough At the recent international contest.s, the to Merrifield on 29th July, when he was in story was being told of how this recorg was the air 5 hours 45 mins. and thus completed done. Miss Klepikova, it is said, was towed his "Silver c." up to 7,CXXJ metres (23,CXXJ ft.) about an FIt. Lt. Bedford joined the R.A.F. in hour and a half before thermals were due to 1940, obtained his wings in August, 1941, begin, and glided some 150 kms. down wind and has since done 2,635 hours power while sinking gradually to cumulus level. flying, including 267 hours of instrument The remaining 600 km. of soaring flight flying. were, ofcourse, a considerab!e achievement, and Miss KJepikova observed the stipu­ lation that the net loss of height between launch and landing must be less than I per CORRECTIONS cent of the total distance. In the last issue (No. 2), in the Table of The Gliding Commission of the F.A.I., Contents, "International Contents" should meeting at Orebro in Sweden in July last, read "Interl1.ational Contests." On page 73, proposed that in future the full distance "Viking Seaplane" should read "Viking should only count if the net loss of height Sailplane." between launch and landing does not exceed In the two centre pages (tinted), there J,CXXJ metres_ If it does, then each metre of should be an addition to the list of entries height loss in excess of 1,000 will result in a for the National Contests: No. 31, entered forfeit of 25 metres of distance flown. by Flying Training Command, R.A.F.; type Sedbergh; pilots: F./O. 1. Ladley, Gliding in Pakistan S./L. R. H. H. Pelling, F./Lt. J. H. Press­ The Karachi Air Scouts gave a gliding land, L./A.C. E. McCullock. demonstration before Air Vice-Marshal In the article "Cross-Channel Meteor­ R. L R. Atcherly, C.-in-C., Royal Pakistan ology," p. 102, second column, the last line Air Force and some headmasters of the but one should read: "remember this local schools who visited the Air Scouts Sc.uth-westerly wind aloft." The point is Camp on 7th July. Air Scouts' Annual that pilots trying to cross the Channel from Camps for the various centres in Pakistan France, in thundery weather with a south­ have been organised by the R.P.A.F.