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Aviation History
1955
1955 - 1082.PDF
194 FLIGHT Elegance and achieve- ment: the champion's Sky. "FLIGHT "PHOTOGRAPHS; SKETCHES BYGORDON HORNER NATIONAL GLIDING BY OWEN -h: A Tug-pilofs View of the Championships: Wills Excels at Lasham THE rear cockpit of a Tiger Moth glider-tug, if not the mostcomfortable viewpoint for observing a gliding meeting, isindeed an illuminating one. And this was my viewpoint for the 1955 National Gliding Championships, which ended atLasham on Monday last. Good soaring weather and skilful flying, backed by sound organization, had produced an outstand-ing contest. Winner of the individual class was gliding veteran Philip Wills,with 492 points. Tony Deane-Drummond in the Skylark III (440 pts) was second, and David Ince (430 pts) third. Team-class winner was the Empire Test Pilots School (Sky flown by Bisgood and Blake, 438 pts), followed by the R.A.F.G.S.A.Moonrakers Club (Gull IV flown by Fitzroy and Wells, 334 pts). The T-21B section was headed by the Home Command GlidingInstructors School (Jones and Williams, 361 pts). Full results and a description of the closing days of the com-petitions will be given next week; this article gives an account of the flying up to Thursday, July 28th. With Saturday, July 23rd, a practice day, and no contest flyingpossible due to weather on the Sunday, the first competition day was Monday, July 25th. At the morning briefing, the day's taskwas declared by Ann Welch, clerk of the course, to be distance along a line passing through Exeter; flying to begin at 1 p.m.,when the general low cloud cover was expected to have cleared. Answering one pilot's question concerning the B.B.C. forecast of thunder that day, met-man C. E. Wallington thought this wasunlikely and, in any case, "B.B.C. thunder is really second-class thunder." It was not until 2 p.m. that the sun broke through the lowcloud layer at Lasham, fairly large cumulus patches appearing. Foster and Ince in the prototype Skylark II and the Olympia IVrespectively were soon away but, with thermals difficult to find at this stage, Ince was among those who were forced to land aftergoing less than 10 miles. Subsequently (on his third attempt) he flew 87 miles to Lyme Regis, third best performance of the day. Conditions were good during mid-afternoon and continued intothe early evening, many competitors getting away successfully at a surprisingly late hour. When the landing reports had all beenreceived, it was seen that Philip Wills (Sky) had produced his own exceptional yet expected form, with the day's longest flight toExeter Airport, a distance of 109 miles. He had taken 3 hr 13 min for the flight, which gained him 100 points. Second with 83 ptsfor a 94-mile flight to Seaton, Devon, was Peter Bisgood in the E.T.P.S. Sky. In the T-21B section, John Allan (R.A.F./A.T.C. No. 89Gliding School) flew 69 miles but, as no other Sedbergh attained the required minimum distance, "no contest" was declared forthis class. Had Allan's aircraft been marked in the "Open" section, he would have been placed seventh. In this year's contests the Individual class and the Team class Lasham, 1955, and launching is by aero-tow.
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