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Aviation History
1938
1938 - 2016.PDF
•r b FLIGHT. JULY 14, 1938. The upper part of cumulus and cumulo-nimbus storm clouds in pro cess of "growing." Clouds of this 1ype usually have a characteristic flat base. pHILIP WILLS, the author of this article, is a sailplane pilot of outstanding ability. Unless his achievements have been bettered dur ing this week's National Gliding Contests by the time these words appear, he holds both the British distance record at 206 miles and the British height record of over 10,000 ft. Telling the story of his altitude flight in " The Times " last month, Mr. Wills gave a vivid description of sailplane cloud-flying:— ". . . Entering a big cloud in a sailplane is a very different experience from doing the same thing in an aeroplane, for in the powered craft the general noise and vibra tion overshadow the subtler flavours of flight. I had the feeling that we had been silently absorbed by a large and immensely powerful octopus. The rush of air over the wings and body of the machine took on a different key and became smoother and quieter. One felt as though entrapped in an envelope of sticky power. The hue of the surrounding vapour, a bluish black, was octopus-like too. This, of course, was due to the great thickness of the cloud at this point, for I subsequently discovered it was more than a mile high. It is only the shal lower clouds or the fringes of the big ones which assume the friendly hues of white or light grey. . ." In this special article for " Flight " he discusses some of the finer points of this rather grimly fascinating pastime. SAILPLANE CLOUD-FLYINC I... "Flight" photograph. Niceties of a Specialised Sport : Differences in Technique which the Power Pilot Must Learn BLIND flying in sailplanes is a branch of the sport which has hitherto been little practised in England. This is partly, no doubt, because many people find difficulty in classifying it as a sport. To approach a large and boiling storm cloud embodying countless thousand horse-power of suck, to attach yourself deliberately to this invisible hook, to be tossed violently up and down (but chiefly up) in a thick fog, and to be ejected, possibly alive but certainly bilious, near the top, is not •most people's idea of fun. Of course, there are compensations. The grandeur of the scenery when you emerge is one. Schools of thought on the subject may be divided into two classes: (1) Don't do it. (2) Don't be silly, it's easy. We needn't worry about Class 1 ; they will all in due course be run over by motor buses—an end which everyone's aunts regard as fitting, dignified, and, therefore, hardly to be deplored. Class 2, however, should be encouraged, but not to break their necks. Indeed, one may say that everybody starts off in this class, but a large percentage suddenly retrogress into Class I after a little experience. Blind flying in sailplanes is not easy, as some fifteen or more of the best German pilots who have parachuted out of clouds could testify. In the first place, then, why is it more difficult than blind flying in aeroplanes? The answer is, first, that aeroplanes usually blind-fly in stable cloud, i.e., low mist, fog or stratus, and these offer quite smooth flying. The sailplane pilot blind-flies only in unstable clouds, i.e., cumulus or cumulo-nimbus, for it is owing to their instability that he gets there. Further, in these conditions he generally has to perform numerous more-or-less tight circles at speeds of from 5 to 15 m.p.h. above the stall, a By PHILIP WILLS
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