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Aviation History
1938
1938 - 0806.PDF
b FLIGHT. MARCH 24, 1938. A Grunau Babysailplane climb- ing steeply withthe aid of the London Club'swinch. The wind is too farnorth for slope- soaring, but theclouds are evidence ofplenty of' thermal lift. plest and the most fool-proof method, but, of course, soar- ing is not possible from a bungy-launch without a hill and a wind blowing up it. Which brings up the now classic story: "You say he landed 40 miles away? " "Yes." " And he was launched by a catapult? " " Yes." " Gosh, what a catapult! " What sort of machines are available for club members? Well, types are now getting fairly well standardised throughout the major clubs. The starting point is always some form of the contri- vance known as a " primary "—a structure that has points in common with a five-barred gate. It is heavy, crude, most unresponsive to its controls, and very strong. To an ab initio pilot it is the perfect form of introduction to solo flying (dual instruction has never yet been a complete suc- cess in ab initio gliding training). To the power pilot -t is a rather frightening introduction to the very strange feeling of catapult launches, motorless flying and tail-up landings (three-pointers are barred because our under- carriages don't stick out on stalks). The skid is quite unsprung, and thus every unskilful landing is its own corporal punishment. Proficiency in primaries is soon gained—and power pilots would be sur- prised to. learn how much proficiency can be gained in the handling of these winged towel-rails. Then the first flights from the hill-top (at Dunstable) or by gentle winch-launch (as at Sutton Bank, etc.) are made in similar machines, and later in an improved form fitted with a nacelle. At this stage the pilot takes his C licence by remaining above the height at which he started for at least five minutes. He will have got his A and B already—the A for a straight glide of 30 seconds, the B for two flights of 45 seconds and one of a minute, with an S-turn included, all to end with a normal landing. The True Sailplane From the moment he gets his C the pilot advances by fairly rapid stages to the true sailplane—via such second- ary training machines as the Kirby Kadet and the Falcon. Most clubs run to the Grunau Baby as their standard sailplane. This is a very pleasant machine of 43ft. span, easy to fly, without vices, and with a reasonably good per- formance. Some clubs have the Kirby Kite—a development of the Grunau, with 4ft. more span, a gull wing, an oval fuselage and a definitely better performance. Beyond this point ideas vary. The London Club has just imported from Germany a JRhonbussard—a 50ft. cantilever machine of pretty high performance, but, naturally, not quite so simple to put down in a small field as a Grunau. Other clubs believe that the more advanced sailplanes are more than they can cope with, and should be reserved for private ownership. And what is available to the private owner? At the moment, beyond the machines already named, very few high-performance English machines, but a good selection of German ones—the Rhonadler, the Condor, the Minimoa, the Rhonsperber. There is, or soon will be, one of each in this country. Slingsby, of Kirbymoorside, is just about ready with a new high-performance machine—something of a cross between his Kirby Kite and the King Kite, which was flown at the International Meeting at the Was- serkuppe last year. Apart from these types now in production, there are, of course, a number of second-hand machines which some- times come on the market. At the moment, for instance, Wills is offering the famous Hjordis—holder of the British distance record, and easily the highest performance machine yet designed and made in this country, but not quite so simple to fly as some of them. And there are a number of British Scuds and Wrens and Cambridges— medium rather than full high-performance machines— which occasionally change hands. Syndicate Ownership Generally speaking, machines are owned by syndicates rather than individuals (again, like a number of racing yachts). For the ownership of a machine also involves the ownership of a trailer and a car fitted with a tow bar- and, most important of all, a friend 01 a wife to drive out periodically to the East Coast to retrieve the cross-country machine. Let us here pay resounding tribute to the all- time high of gliding wives—Mrs. Wills, who put in 700 miles of trailer towing during the ten days of the last British competitions Well, that is a bare outline of the organisation of gliding in this country Do not forget that gliding is nothing but a sport—a magnificent sport, the finest sport yet invented. Therefore, it has all the disadvantages of a sport. At times it calls for hard physical labour. At times for a certain amount of hanging about (though no more than in the typical light 'plane club). At times for the disappoint- ment of a 30-mile drive only to see a fellow-member crack up the machine you were going to fly. But it has so many advantages that these little troubles only scare off the half-hearted and leave the clubs founded on the most secure of all bases—sheer enthusiasm. Either you enjoy spending a day talking incomprehensible shop for the sake of an hour's unimaginable fun flying in unearthly silence in the, most intimate contact with the air—or you don't We can give you all kinds of mechani- cal equipment to lessen the waiting about and the hard work—winches, towing cars, aeroplanes with hooks on them, drums full of steel cables and so on. But in the end we glide for one reason only—because we enjoy glid- ing, and particularly the tantalising uncertainties of gliding, the rewards of which are out of all proportion to its diffi- culties. • • # There are some forty gliding clubs in the British Isles, and a list of addresses will be found in the guide ' Where you may Learn to Fly," elsewhere in this issue.
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