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Aviation History
1938
1938 - 2071.PDF
JULY 21, 1938. FLIGHT. 59 PRIVATE FLYING Motorless AFTER last week's affair at Dunstable I don't really ^ need an excuse for writ ing about gliding in general and soaring in particu lar. But since I may justifiably be shot down by the gliding ex perts for my ignorance and by the earnest power-aeroplane go- placers for letting the side down f chaps), I make this my excuse —though I have another per fectly good one in that, what with aerodrome owners' confer ences and other things, the only flying in the private category (whatever that may mean) I have done. during the week ended July 18 (vide almost any Club news paragraph) has been in a two-seater sailplane. Very little, indeed, and not for the first time, but enough to pro vide one or two new angles on the subject. Anyway, at the present (if temporary) rate of decline in private ownership and club flying, and at the present (if temporary) rate of increase in military preparations, this "private flying" may in due course, indeed, consist very largely of motorless wanderings more or less in free balloon style, i.e., the wind is blowing from the south-west, there fore we must visit Uncle Ned ; if the wind was blowing from the east we should be forced to see some other relative. There is, in fact, a certain amount of similarity between the grand old sport of free ballooning and the modern one of down-wind flying in sailplanes. The difference is that the sailplane pilot may fly across wind, or even up-wind, while the intrepid balloonist just ate his sand wiches and hoped for the best—peering over the edge of the basket from time to time to make sure that the blessed thing was not drifting over open sea. And to point out this similarity is not being insulting, either; I've often wanted to go ballooning myself, though perhaps yachting provides a better comparison. For the present, however, there are power aeroplanes still available, and the growing military air fleets of the world have not yet used up all the available fuel supply. Many of the sailplane pilots fly power aeroplanes when they want to—some of them are even professional pilots—so what exactly is the attraction of this motorless business? For the Sake of It FO start with, we must divide pilots into two schools— *• those who fly just because they like it, and those who fly because they want to get somewhere. The second group do not come into the problem at all; its members will con tinue, sensibly, to make use of an efficient petrol engine. So shall I. But there are times when one wishes merely to gambol gently about the sky and to appreciate the feel ing of the air beneath and around you. Believe me, in a sailplane the air can be felt—every lump in the mattress— and if you want the sensation of sheer speed, then I know of none quite as pleasant as that of whistling downwind along a hillside with one's wing tip practically taking off the spectators' hats. Then there is that positively kingly realisation that height is actually being gained without pedalling. Ad mittedly, it is necessary to stay around in the same place m order to gain this height, but I've already explained that, for the moment, we are flying for the sake of flying and not to get to Hogsnorton or Little Rumbling for a think before closing time. Topics of the Day 1 Flight ' photograph. • 1 All of which concerns mere hill-soaring. With the use of a little imagination it is not difficult to see the even greater attraction of more serious soaring; of spending an hour or more in gaining two thousand feet and of making use of some of this hard-earned height in pushing on ten miles or so and feeling for another thermal. Maybe it is even enjoyable to sit in the middle of a big black cloud and be sucked up to the top. Maybe. Comparisons I N a sailplane, practically for the first time in your life, you feel the air, and that seems to me to be one of the more important things. I was very, very kindly allowed to do an approach myself (with much verbal assistance and some slight fear of under- or over-shootment) when I was in a two-seater at Dunstable last week. There is certainly very little air to be felt on the control surfaces, and I should imagine that one soon becomes accustomed to the idea of holding off bank in a turn to the extent of full opposite aileron. In any case, this particular two-seater, I was told, is not at all typical, and the average modern sail plane has controls which aTe quite reasonably sensitive. The point is that it is possible to make even the two-seater do exactly what one wants it to do, and it sideslips with magnificent elan. Who cares about sensitivity? It's only the way in which one is brought up. A friend of mine who was recently taken up in a sail plane after a good deal of power aeroplane experience says that he felt really safe in a flying machine for the first time in his life. That, I think, is exaggerating. But a sailplane certainly lands slowly, and does not carry a charge of liquid dynamite on its travels. As a confirmed power pilot, the feeling of security was slightly dulled for me by reason of the fact that no reserve urge was available in case of under-shootment, though I had no doubt about my pilot's ability to turn quickly and to put the machine down in any other field if necessary. If this passenger enthusiast had flown power machines he would, too, have found winch-launching a very un natural procedure and been suitably horrified at the idea of pulling the stick right into the pit of one's stomach just as soon as the machine is properly air-borne—and of hold ing it there. But the initial acceleration is a special joy at present denied to all but sailplane pilots, a few cata pulted Service pilots and the pilots of the D.L.H. Atlantic machines. INDICATOR.
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