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Aviation History
1953
1953 - 1048.PDF
202 FLIGHT, 14 August 1953 THE GLIDING CHAMPIONSHIPS Final Stages of the National Contests at Great Hucklow IN this report, Alan Yates (himself a contestant) describes the progress of the competitors in the final five days of the nine-day championship meeting at Camphill Farm, Great Hucklow, Derbyshire. In our "stop-press" announcement of the results last week, incidentally, the placing of the London Gliding Club as second in the Team Class was omitted —not through any fault of our contributor; final results are on p. 204. OF the first four days of the Championships only the first could be described as having offered good gliding weather. On that Sunday, July 26th, sufficient sunshine reached the ground to produce the kind of cumulus cloud that glider pilots like. Even so, the tendency of the clouds to flatten and spread across the sky, cutting off the sunshine, was already manifest. Many competitors nevertheless covered over seventy miles. The next three days (the Monday, Tues day and Wednesday) were spoilt by this tendency to over development of the clouds. In the middle hours of each day the cloud-cover made thermals very rare. The pilots, for tunately able to use the westerly wind and the soaring slope to stay airborne, had the choice of flying away in very poor conditions or waiting for a sunny patch which might never come. Some were able to climb high enough to fly blind in the larger clouds and two reached over 15,000ft above sea level. The longest flights on these days were 70, 73 and 36 miles, but the majority of pilots were forced down after a dozen miles or so. Thursday, July 30th.—The day began in a now-familiar manner with clouds building up rapidly by 9 a.m. and threatening to cut off all sunshine during the middle hours; nevertheless, the met. forecaster thought that conditions would be better than those of recent days. The task was a flight to a goal chosen by the com petitor, so that the 20 kt wind forecast of 300 deg-310 deg tempted many to declare goals as far away as Cambridge and Manston. Previous experience had shown that early escape from the hills would be necessary if long distances were to be flown. Several competitors struggled off under overcast skies before lunch but were soon down—Wills after 16 miles, Stephenson after 17 miles. Many of these pilots were hastily retrieved by their ground crews and launched again to join other hill-soaring pilots who had scarcely missed them. By two o'clock the cloudy weather made the distant tasks remote chances and several pilots landed to declare new and Geoffrey Stephenson, the Individual winner, is winched off in his Sky. This photograph admirably expresses the spacious feeling of the Great Hucklow site. It was taken as competitors sought height for the race to Boston, the task set on July 28th. nearer goals and took off again. At three o'clock, however, the sunshine won, and for an hour conditions were good enough for most pilots to get away. By this time many had been airborne for four hours, flying in very trying conditions. Imagine twenty- odd aircraft flying at random between 0 and 2,000 feet above an area the size of an average aerodrome, all seeking the same small thermals and all rushing to join any pilot who appeared to be climbing. Many pilots were already exhausted when the better conditions arrived. Nevertheless, 37 cross-country flights were made, the longest by Godfrey Lee of the London Gliding Club, flying the Club's Olympia. Lee—who as assistant chief designer at Handley Page's is often preoccupied with fast aircraft—covered the 105 miles to his goal at Marham, Norfolk, in 7 hr 50 min. To sit in a tiny cockpit for the duration of a normal Atlantic air crossing, while working hard at the controls and constantly reading instruments and maps, is a great feat of endurance. Over the site, which is 1,300ft above sea level, Lee soared from 10.36 a.m. until just after 3 p.m., when he was able to reach cloud-base for the first time. He flew back upwind to test another cloud and, finding lift under this one too, set off towards his goal. Fifteen miles out, Lee was down to the level of his start and saw several other gliders in a similar plight. The clouds looked better to the north of the track and near Worksop the Olympia reached cloud-base at 4,700ft a.s.l., but was beaten into cloud by a rival, the R.A.F. Gull IV from Cosford. Believing that one sail plane per cloud is a sound rule, he left this as his highest point of the day and, in a series of weak thermals, reached Spalding and die Wash. Around King's Lynn no thermals appeared and during the remaining long, downwind glide calculations were made to decide if Marham could be reached. It was with relief that the great Marham runway appeared directly ahead and, arriving with 1,500ft in hand, Lee was welcomed with a green signal, food and drink. The excellence of this flight is emphasized by the failure of Stephenson and Wills to exceed 17 miles. The daily prize for the highest average speed from take-off to landing at a declared goal went to A. H. Warminger (Olympia), of Norwich, who reached Newton at 27.2 m.p.h. As a result of five day's flying the leaders in the Individual Class were still Stephenson, Smith and Deane-Drummond; in the Team Class they were the Empire Test Pilots' School, Yates and Nixon, and the 2nd T.A.F. R.A.F. team. Friday, July 31st, was declared a rest day. The wind made hill-soaring impossible and it was thought that convection would be weak. Few compettors flew, although a member of the local club showed the pundits how to do it by covering 77 miles on thermals on his first cross-country flight. Saturday, August 1st. — For the last three days of the Championship Bank Holiday crowds were expected at Great
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