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Aviation History
1953
1953 - 1004.PDF
i58 FLIGHT THE GLIDING CHAMPIONSHIPS Mixed Weather for the National Contests at Great Hucklow Geoffrey Stephenson and his wife survey the slope. He scored high marks from the outset. AS has already been recorded, the National Gliding Championships L. began at the site of the Derbyshire and Lancashire Gliding Club at Great Hucklow, Derbyshire, on Sunday, July 26th. The contest ended on Monday last. This is the eighth Championship meeting at Great Hucklow; contests were held here in 1949, 1950 and 1951, but there was none last year, owing to the fact that the World Championships were held in Madrid. Philip Wills' victory in Spain, and the choice of Great Hucklow as the site for the 1954 World Cham pionships, have lent extra interest to this year's meeting. The entries in the Individual Class numbered nine (two Skys, three Olympias, one each of Skylark, Kite II, Petrel and Weihe), while the Team Class entries numbered 25 (one Sky, twelve Olympias, eight Sedbergh two-seaters and one each of Kite Ha, Gull IV, Prefect and Weihe). Individual and Class gliders had to be flown each day by the one pilot and, to reduce pilot fatigue, efficient team work by the retrieving crew was essential. The trailers and towing vehicles were usually driven away toward the goal before the glider pilot left, so that there should be minimum delay between the landing and beginning the retrieve. Telephone messages from pilot and crew to the control room brought pilot and retrievers into contact. No hangar space was available for competing gliders and most were de-rigged and put into trailers each night; but several of the Sedberghs were picketed down each night to save the labour of de-rigging. The pilots and crews lived in caravans or tents nearby, or in local hotels, while the large numbers of winch drivers and ground organizers were billeted in the club premises at Camphill Farm. At the briefing meeting each morning one of three tasks was set by the organizers and a meteorological forecast was given to help the pilots to plan their flights. Launching began after briefing and gliders were despatched in a sequence drawn by lot and published in advance. If the wind was from a southerly or westerly quarter, and above about 15 m.p.h., a glider could hill- soar over Bradwell Edge after a winch launch. Four winch wires were in use and as many as 25 gliders were flying over the ridge on occasions, but pilots hoped to be able to escape from the crowd in a convenient thermal and to climb to the pleasant solitude of the clouds as soon as possible. The Sailplanes. The Slingsby Skylark aroused considerable interest. In flight the narrow-chord wings made it conspicuous and the assembly of the three-piece wing (instead of the usual two) was watched with interest. The high take-off speed, due to a wing loading of 5.5 lb/sq ft, and the lack of a wheel, made ground handling and launching awkward; but in flight the per formance was obviously first-class. The Kite II, modified by Frank Irving, showed three dive brakes on each wing—valuable approach-controls in an area where stone walls abound. Three of the R.A.F. gliders were equipped with radio for con tact between pilot and trailer crew, and the Cambridge Univer sity Olympia was similarly provided with Pye equipment. The total-energy, venturi-type variometers were seen on most gliders, while some R.A.F. Sedberghs were fitted with a new contacting variometer which caused green or red lights to flash at a rate proportional to the rate of climb or sink. Sunday, July 26th.—At the pilots' briefing meeting in the morning, the clerk of the course, Basil Meads, introduced the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Civil Aviation, Mr. John Profumo, M.P. Claiming that he had never before made a speech so early in the morning, Mr. Profumo commended Philip Wills' great achievement in Spain last year as a forerunner to the achievements of the new Elizabethan age. He said that he had a special and extra interest in gliding because it afforded opportunities for initiative, enterprise and courage without which no community could flourish. He then declared the Champion ship meeting open. C. E. Wallington, the Meteorological Office forecaster on duty for the week, then presented the weather picture. A fresh W.S.W. wind with good cumulus clouds should enable pilots to reach the coast and most pilots declared their goals accordingly. Four winches were soon launching gliders at a rate of nearly 20 an hour, and the wind direction enabled them to soar over Brad- well Edge. Periodically, as a sunny patch brought thermals, groups of sailplanes were seen climbing steadily to cloudbase; but the wind soon swept the circling gliders downwind and their pilots quickly had to decide whether to return to the hill or to "burn their boats" and begin their journey. When the telephone messages arrived from the competitors who had landed it was found that 15 of the 32 who got away had reached their goals. Maximum points were scored by Peter Bisgood of the Empire Test Pilots' School (Sky) and Lt. Col. A. J. Deane-Drummond (Skylark) who both reached Whitby, 94 miles away. Other goals which had been reached included Speeton, near Flamborough Head, and Donna Nook, a disused airfield on the Lincolnshire coast. Altogether 1,847 miles of track were covered by 32 pilots in one hundred hours' flying. Cloudbase was as high as 5,500ft above sea level, so that little cloud-flying proved necessary. Several pilots reached the coast very quickly; with the aid of die fresh wind, Philip Wills had a ground speed of over 50 m.p.h. Several of the clouds built up to thundercloud-size late in the day, so that many of the retrievers came back to Great Hucklow amid showers. Slight damage was incurred by two gliders on landing and R. C. Pick's Petrel was lucky to escape damage when, in its trailer, it was bowled over in a collision with a Rotherham trolley-bus. The day ended with Deane-Drummond in the lead in the Individual class (a good start to competition flying in the new Slingsby Skylark) and with the E.T.P.S. Sky at the head of the Team list. Monday, July 27th.—The organizers had again set as a task the flight to a goal of the pilot's choosing. The wind was westerly and nearly 30 kt but clouds covered much of the sky. Several pilots managed to get away from the site before a lunch-time rainstorm which forced down every slope-soaring glider. When the rain stopped the sky was thick with massive cumulo nimbus. One of the first gliders to be launched was the open- (Left) Lt. Col. A. J. Deane-Drummond in the new Slingsby Skylark; by the end of the first day's flying he was leading in the Individual class. (Right) World Champion Philip Wills in his Sky; he was lying third after five days.
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