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Aviation History
1951
1951 - 1641.PDF
236 FLIGHT CLUB and GLIDING NEWS AS in previous years, the Association of British Aero Clubs Jand• Centres has again chosen White Waltham as the venue for its annual Summer Convention. The date is September 2nd and the starting-time is 1430 hr. Following the usual practice, there is to be no display or flying demonstration, the purpose of the event being simply to provide a social occasion on which all flying club members and those interested in the private-flying movement may get together for informal chats on their mutual interests. The friendly "tea-party" atmosphere of the A.B.A.C. Con- vention usually attracts a large number of visitors, most of whom arrive by air, and the visiting aircraft park at White Waltham should provide a fairly representative collection of most types of British sporting aircraft of the past quarter of a century. There will be an arrival competition, for which the first prize, a table-model radio, will be awarded to the pilot of the aircraft landing nearest to a sealed time between 1400 and 1445 hr; additional prizes will also be presented in connection with this event. Afternoon tea will be available at 2s 6d per head and— something which has proved an attraction in previous years—an extension of bar hours is also being obtained. Should they be required, further details may be obtained from the A.B.A.C. at Londonderry House or from any flying club. A PLEASING absence of formality marked the "At Home" •**• organized by the Yorkshire Aeroplane Club at their Sherburn- in-Elmet base last Sunday. In delightful flying weather somei4 air- craft arrived from various clubs, bringing a total of 39 visitors, who, later in the afternoon, enjoyed the "reet good fare" provided by their hosts at afternoon tea. The colourful line-up of visiting aircraft was seen to include ten Austers, one Messenger, one Magister, our own Gemini and a Taylorcraft from York, whose pilot, Mr. E. F. Norris, was presented with a silver tankard for having landed nearest to a sealed time of arrival. We heartily agree with Yorkshire's chairman, who suggested that each Sunday in the year should see at least one club acting as host at gatherings of a similar nature. ONE of Britain's best-known gliding organizations, the SurreyGliding Club, has had to move its base from Redhill to a new home at Lasham airfield, near Alton, Hampshire. The club had been in residence at Redhill for more than four years, during which time it has been operating in conjunction with the Imperial College Gliding Club. The move was necessitated by the fact that the R.A.F.V.R. now wishes to make increasing use of Redhill. Most of the Surrey club's nine sailplanes will be aero-towed to Lasham, though one of the three machines owned privately by members celebrated the move in fine style last Saturday with a soaring flight of 3 hr. 45 min. to its new base; the pilot was Mr. Jack Karran. BEFORE AND AFTER: An American private owner, Mr. E. M. Smith, has completed what appears to be an outstanding conversion job on a home-made 1933 biplane (upper photograph). At a cost of $1,000, he fitted a \45-h.p. Warner engine, a BT-13 cockpit and a Cessna 140 landing gear; the result was the clean-looking machine seen in the lower photograph. The aircraft now cruises at 125 m.p.h., S.G.C. will be particularly sorry to have to lose the services of Mr. Lome Welch, who has worked as full-time C.I., ground engineer and secretary throughout the period of the club's stay at Redhill. He has now relinquished these posts but will, of course, retain his connection with the club. The new C.I. is Mr. Paul Blanchard, and Mr. Malcolm Laurie will act as secretary. Mrs. Ann Douglas, who originally founded the club in 1938, is to continue as its chairman. This week's gliding news, unhappily, must conclude on a serious note by recording the death of one of the best-known personalities in the British gliding movement. While flying a privately owned sailplane at Dunstable last Sunday, Mr. Jack Hanks, the 42-year- old resident instructor at the London Gliding Club, lost his life in a collision with an Olympia which was also flying over the club's site. Mr. Hanks had recorded about 400 hours of gliding since learning to fly with the club in 1947. The Olympia, flown by Mr. J. G. Murray and owned by the South Downs Gliding Club, landed safely, although it had lost almost four feet from one wing tip. RADLETT MODEL RALLY HELD at the Handley Page airfield at Radlett last Sunday bypermission of Sir Frederick Handley Page, the Festival of Britain All-Herts Model Aircraft Rally, organized by the St. Albans Model Aero Club, attracted a crowd of 10,000 and was favoured by fine though windy weather. Among the more unorthodox models which caught our eye was Mr. G. Cole's Ghoul III, a "flying wing" of experimental design powered by a 1 c.c. diesel engine. Another contestant with an eye to the future was Mr. Newton, of Kent, whose flying ambulance was unanimously adjudged the winner of "the most outstanding model" entered in the concours d'elegance. A special prize was awarded to him, as his model was unable to comply with the rules of this particular class, which stipulate that the winning machine This futuristic "flying ambulance" was seen at Radlett last Sunday. must make a flight of at least 30 sec duration. Representing a machine which could be used both in the air and on the road, Mr. Newton's model has a "telescopic tail unit," the single boom sliding into the roof of the cabin, whilst the wings can be dis- mantled. The interior is spacious, accommodating four stretchers, and the model generally shows an .exceptionally high standard of skill and patience on the part of the maker wh«j incidentally, is an ambulance driver. Among the jet contingent was Mr. J. Hall's control-line mode), which, powered by a "Dyna" pulse-jet of 4i lb thrust, can achieve 125 m.p.h. Another similar model was that built by J. Claydon and W. Dunn, which won first place in the world's model flying championships in Belgium a short time ago. Entries for the radio-controlled contest were, perhaps, a little disappointing, partly owing to the fact that these machines had to combat headwinds very often greater than their own speed. The control-line speed competitions, which are divided in*0 four classes, produced some excellent results. Mr. M. Billington established ,a new British record (subject to confirmation) 01 96.82 m.p.h. in Class 1 (engines of up to 2.5 ex.), whilst Mr. P. Wright retained his world's record in Class 2 (up to 5 c.c.) with a speed of 124.9 m.p.h. Class 3 was also won by Mr. M. Billington with a speed of 124.3 m.p.h. for a model driven by a 10 c.c. engine. In the concours d'elegance Mr. Henderson won in the class for gliders; the prize for the control-line model went to Mr. A. Briggs for his beautifully finished B.17 G. The prizes were presented by the Mayor of St. Albans.
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