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Aviation History
1952
1952 - 1969.PDF
FLIGHT, 18 July 1952 75 WORLD GLIDING CHAMPIONSHIPS . . . Immediately the plain was reached the wind swept round to N.W. and Forbes was unable to progress against it: he reckons that it reached 60 kt. He was forced to land in this gale and, incautiously circling an airfield, was swept away and forced down in a field. Here he stayed in his cockpit, his air-speed indicator reading 30 kt, for half an hour until his trailer crew arrived to secure the sailplane. Lome Welch, who followed the same route as Forbes, did very well up to the mountains, reaching 15,500ft in cloud, but did not feel that he had enough height when he reached them to venture across the broken, "canyon" country. He landed after 120 miles in the still light wind and watched some twenty other gliders pass overhead. His crew was with him one hour after his landing. Kamil (Egypt), Nilsson (Sweden) and Hanna Reitsch (Germany) all landed close by. The pilots and crews were soaked by 2in of rain during the retrieve, and many pilots were not found until late at night; soaked and shivering, they had an uncomfortable time. This combination of high winds and rough landing country led to several glider casualties. In addition to Lasch (South Africa) and Foster (Great Britain), slight damage was done to Johnson's record-breaking RJ5 (U.S.A.), Ziegler's Mu 13 two-seater (Germany) and Fahrlander's Moswey (Switzerland). The first day's results were (provisionally) declared as : Single- seaters : 1, Pierre (France); 2, Gehriger (Switzerland); 3, Gildemyn (Belgium); 4, Forbes (Great Britain); 5, Cuadrado (Argentine). Two-seaters : 1, Beuby and Charles (U.S.A.). Pierre flew the vee-tailed Castel-Mauboussin, while both Forbes and Cuadrado were flv'ng the British Sky. Saturday, July 5th, 1952. Today was the second contest day, and the task set was a flight to any goal chosen by the pilot from an official list of air fields. The marking system gave most marks to the pilot choosing and reaching the farthest goal, but penalized him seriously for landing short of it, or even for overshooting. Pilots had to assess carefully the best direction to fly and their chances of reaching the various airfields in this direction. Here, the presence of the British meteorologist, Dr. R. S. Scorer, was of great assistance to the team. Wills, Forbes and Stephenson chose Zaragoza, 170 miles to the north-east, while Welch chose Vitoria, 185 miles to the north. The take-offs began about 1 p.m. in a sky with but a few puffs of cumulus. It was soon evident that thermals were not as strong as on the first day. Several gliders landed back on the airfield to claim a second aero-tow. As the afternoon wore on the cumulus died away and all the gliders left the field. The four British Skys got away at the first attempt and set off to cross the mountains which had produced the freak weather of the first contest day and had eliminated the unfortunate Frank Foster from the competition. This time conditions were better and Wills and Stephenson arrived close together at their goal, while Forbes landed only 15 miles short. Welch, on the other road, reached Burgos, about two-thirds of the way to his goal. These flights would have been the best of the day but for the little Frenchman, Pierre, who again made the best flight, this time to Leon, 180 miles to the north-west. Ordelman, in the Dutch Sky, also reached his goal at Albacete, 140 miles to the south-east, and it is remarkable that successful flights were made to three of the four quarters of the compass. Only the Americans, who chose to fly to the fourth quarter, i.e., to the south-west, came unstuck. The leading results for the day were :—Single-seaters : (1) Pierre (France) Castel-Mauboussin, 1,000 points; (2) Wills (G.B.) Sky, 943 points; (3) Stephenson (G.B.) Sky, 943 points; (4) Cuadrado (Argentine) Sky, 776 points; (5) Ordelman (Holland) Sky, 776 points; (6) Forbes (G.B.) Sky 637 points. And m the two-seater class Juez (Spain) Kranich, also reached his goal at Zaragoza and gained the full 1,000 points. The total points gained in the first two days were, then: Single- seaters: (1) Pierre, 2,000 points; (2) Wills, 1,616; (3) Cuadrado, The tailless Horten XV (Argentine). I>5995 (4) Ordelman, 1,525; (5) Forbes, 1,499; (6) Gildemyn, 1410; (7) Gehriger, 1403; (8) Ara, 1375. The results, so far, were a triumph for the British-designed- Slingsby Sky sailplane, with four of the first seven places. In the two-seater class Juez (Spain, Kranich) led with 1,700 points. Sunday, July 6th, 1952. This was again a rest day, and was spent accordingly. Monday, July qth, 1952. Today was the third contest day, and the task was a race to Torre Savinan, 77 miles to the north-east—once again along the familiar road. The marking system gave marks for speed based on the time taken from the release over the airfield at Madrid to the touch-down at the finish. Another proportion of the marks awarded was for the distance covered, but this award was so small that it was all-important to finish the course. The sky was cloudless all day and the poor visibility suggested that a stable layer of air low down might inhibit thermals. The launches started at 1345 hr and Forbes was last off according to the ballot. This was no disadvantage, since both landing and take-off were timed, and may have been an advantage in the race since the position of the gliders ahead may indicate the position of thermals along the route. Several competitors landed back without having found thermals to suit them, but all four British Skys got away well. Their WKXSmKKKmKmm The British colony of trailers. trailer crews were already on the other side of Madrid, so that they would be able to keep in radio touch all along the route. The Pye radio set in Mrs. Ann Douglas' Vanguard kept a listening watch on the conversations between the pilots and their ground crews. A discussion between Wills and Welch about which airfield ahead was Torre Savinan indicated that they were beginning their final dive to the finishing line and, later, Forbes and Stephenson indicated that they, too, had finished the course. It was soon known that 43 of the 51 starters had completed the course and their arrival must have been a wonderful spectacle. (The Spanish organizers made no arrangements for the public to visit the championships and, apart from a few specially invited guests, nobody came or appeared particularly interested in the gliding. Among the special visitors on this day the British contingent were very glad to welcome the British Ambassador, Sir John Balfour and Lady Balfour.) When the times for the 77 miles were posted up it was seen that three Skys flown by Wills (1 hr 25 min), Forbes and Ordelman (1 hr 30 min) were the fastest. Philip Wills' average speed of about 55 m.p.h. was very fast indeed, since the wind was but light, and it shows that he made full use of the good high-speed per formance of the Sky. The following are the officially promulgated results of the race: (Concluded on page 76) Gerard Pierre's Castel-Mauboussin sailplane.
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