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Aviation History
1954
1954 - 2256.PDF
• ..'LIGHT, 13 August 1954 213 •e two British single-seaters: (upper) Elliotts' new Olympia 4, flown ; Geoffrey Stephenson, (lower) the Slingsby Sky flown by Philip Wills into second place. Z&^^ jr "Flight" photographs cumulus clouds, and one thermal enabled the pilots to climb again from 2,700ft to 5,500ft above sea letel, From this height they flew round the Wash and reached King's Lynn. Every mile counted now, but, after a series of circles in which height was neither gained nor lost, they were forced to end the flight with a straight glide to the R.A.F. airfield at Marham, where they landed at 5.20/p.m. Philip Wills in his Sky contacted the wave rather later. He had flown in waves at Camphill three years before, but not in conditions of such heavy cloud. He emerged from the grey mass climbing only slowly and found himself in a cloud valley orientated cross-wind. The sky above was now quite clear, and the cloud layer, so close below, reflected the dazzling sun shine. Wills, ever prepared, put on dark glasses and reported by radio to his trailer crew a mile below. Having scarcely seen the sun for a week, they must have felt somewhat envious. The wave lift was now so weak that, try as he would, Wills could not get above the crest, which was now at 5,700ft. When he had climbed to his ceiling in front of one crest he turned downwind, passed through the cloud bank and, in a minute or so, emerged into the next valley. He was able to repeat the process in nine waves and finally sank through the cloud to emerge near Newark, 40 miles from Camphill. His trailer was being driven eastwards by Mrs. Wills and the radio com munication between them had been consistently strong. Both parties were gratified when Wills emerged/within sight of the trailer! Like the Jugoslavs, Wills was able to prolong the flight for another 20 miles by thermal lift and landed after 62 miles to gain the full 1,000 points for the longest single-seater flight of the day. Only these two sailplanes were able to make use of the wave lift; so many others were left soaring the limited space above Camphill that it was 5.30 p.m. before it was safe to launch the last competitor. By this time no waves were to be found. The very difficult conditions, so brilliantly used by two pilots but too difficult/ for most, meant that the luck of the draw was weighted against those who took off late in the day. The organizers, in devising the competition rules, had realized that this might happen, and the arrangement that each pilot need count only his four best performances was designed to eliminate this element of chance. Unfortunately the unprecedented bad weather had allowed only three days' contest flying so far, so that even poor performances might have to count in the final total. However, there were three more days in which the weather might improve. The positions after Friday's flying were: — Single-seaters:— Two-seaters:— 1. Rain and Komae (Jugoslavia), 1,556 points. 2. Nietlispach and Muller (Switzerland), 1,000. 3. L. and A. Welch (Great Britain), 742. 4. Smith and Kidder (U.S.A.), 667. Saturday, July 31st.—Both classes were offered "free distance" on this day. The clouds were heavy again and thermals were expected to be weak. The two-seaters were launched first but the single-seaters followed quickly. The thermal lift, although weak, turned out to be the best experienced during the Championship and some dozen pilots landed^within sight of the sea. Those who flew east reached the Lincolnshire coast near Sutton-on-Sea, 83 miles downwind. Some, more ambitious, hoped to round the Wash and reach Norfolk. Two of the two-seaters almost succeeded in doing this: the Jugoslav Kosava (Rain and Komac) again made the longest flight of the day, reaching King's Lynn, 95 miles away; and the American Schweizer 2-25 (Smith and Kidder) reached Boston (78 miles). No other two-seater exceeded 32 miles. Several of the single-seaters tried to make their way north of the Humber, and encountered better weather. Paul MacCready (U.S.A., Schweizer 1-23E) landed at Flamborough Head, 87 miles away, and received the day's 1,000 points in this class. Those who went straight downwind to the sea were able to cover 80-83 miles; they included Pierre (France) and Relander (Finland). Wills arrived at the sea with 4,000ft in hand, turned north and crossed the Humber. Here thermals ended and he landed near Spurn Head, 72 miles from Camphill. After Saturday's flying the top placings were: — Single-seaters:— 1. Pierre (France), 2,956 points. 2. Wills (Great Britain), 2,855. 3. Wietuchter (Germany), 2,817. 4. MacCready (U.S.A.), 2,664. 5. Relander (Finland), 2,254. (Since there had now been four competition days for this class the contest was officially "Championship." If further flying days were possible, markings and positions might change if a pilot scored more points than on his least successful day. The presence of Pierre and Wills at the top (they were second and first in 1952 in Spain) after four very difficult days was noteworthy. The German and American champions were close behind.) Two-seaters:— 1. Rain and Komac (Jugoslavia), 2,556 points. 2. Smith and Kidder (U.S.A.), 1,480. 3. Nietlispach and Miiller (Switzerland), 1,292. 4. L. and A. Welch (Great Britain), 1,065. (Another day's flying was reeded to complete the minimum of four, but the Jugoslav position seemed impregnable.) Winners in the two-seater class, Rain and Komac (Jugoslavia) receive their impressively large trophy from Mr. "Jack" Profumo. \
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