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Aviation History
1937
1937 - 1508.PDF
568 FLIGHT. JUNE IO, 1937. ^JL-JLJL LfVv w JLJL \~JL t~- (-sK^JJ* Jt^lBC'-C«*<< Good Support for the Second Rally to be Held in the North for Foreign Pilots : Aerobatics Extraordinary : German Pilot Wins Handicap Race (Illustrated with Flight photographs) QUITE obviously there is something specially attrac tive about the word "international," despite its sometimes gloomy applications. At the sound of the word dozens of English pilots who are normally indifferent to the attractions of the flying meeting travel considerable distances and do their best to see that the visitors are well looked after. Which is as it should be, since the British private owner would find it difficult to repay the still outstanding debt of Continental hospitality. Probably the majority of people—and certainly the organis ing committee—were surprised at the number of the foreign acceptances for the York International Rally. Though many guests failed to turn up there were still a full score of pilots, with their parties, from abroad. Perhaps they saw in this York affair a chance of flying over a little more of England than they normally do when visiting, for instance, the popu lar Lympne annual. Whatever the reason, they came—and that is the main point. After such an unexpected influx the event should become a regular one, and the organisers will have this year's experiences to help them when planning a possible 1938 International. They themselves would be the first to admit that the arrangements, excellent as they were in theory, were not quite perfect in practice. Unless individual hosts are definitely assigned the job of looking after certain parties, morning, noon and night, visitors are almost bound to be left occasionally in the cold —and if these individuals are sensitive they may feel that an icy social blast has been deliberately turned on. As it was, for reasons which were largely linguistic and cer tainly, accidental, the social side tended towards "clique-ism" with everybody attending to the German contingent and few looking after the French and Belgian parties. Only vigorous R'ork by a group of imaginative people, led by Mr. Malone, Part of the scene at Sutton Bank while the visitors were being shown the how and why of this gliding business. the official interpreter, saved certain Gallic souls from a self- imposed immolation on Saturday night. Probably these anchorites were, as they explained, tired, but no harm was done by dragging them all out to join in the festivities, and they eventually returned in what are usually known as the "best of spirits." For some good reason York did not enjoy the sort of weather experienced in the Midlands and South on any of the three days of the meeting. There was no rain, but the sky was heavily overcast and visibility at times was far from good. Probably the Pennines and the manufacturing districts of Yorkshire and Lancashire must take the blame. When flying north on Friday afternoon in the Villiers Maya-engined Whitney Straight with the designer of the engine, we saw only a few incipient thunderstorms between London and Selby, but beyond that point the sky became leaden and visibility was of the mile-to-two-mile order; on Sunday York was left in much the same sort of weather, but south of the Humber the sky was almost cloudless and it was possible to see for twenty miles or more. Incidentally, with an almost neutral wind, the Heston-York run was done in 1 hr. 20 min., at an average of 131 m.p.h.; at 6,000 ft. and 2,400 r.p.m. (a little higher than normal, for the engine is still being driven hard for the eventual good of its successors in other sizes), the cor rected air-speed during the return trip worked out at more than 130 m.p.h. However, nobody got seriously off their course in a part of the country which must have been strange to the majority of the visitors, though the bad weather further north caused tragic Service losses, and the necessary search for the machines meant that No. 26 (A.C.) Squadron could not come over for the display on Saturday afternoon. While the party really began at the supper-dance on Friday evening, the visitors were officially welcomed at the follow-
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