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Aviation History
1956
1956 - 0941.PDF
13 July 1956 87 "Flight" photographs At the morning briefing (aboye) the day's task is announced. Right, American pilots Kemp Trager, Gene Miller, Bill /vans and Paul MacCready, seen with the Olympia /V flown by Ivans. equal legs in the directions south-west, south-east and north. Thewinds were westerly. The first take-off was at noon, the order of launching beingthe reverse of the current placings. Cirrus had spread across to the south, and there were now a few small cumulus clouds nearthe field. It was by means of dry thermals in the blue sky, however, that most pilots gained height after release and beforecrossing the starting line. In the first popular dry thermal there were seen to be 16 machines, but this was followed by anotherto the north-east of St. Yan in which no fewer than 26 circling sailplanes could be counted. Later, as landing reports came in, it became obvious thatconditions were not easy along the first leg of the triangle. Many gliders had come down at La Palisse itself, and many more had notmanaged to complete even this first leg. A suggestion was that the area flown over was not one of great contrast, the instabilitycomprising many small thermals and few large ones. During the afternoon many trailers hastened in through thegates and past the control tower to the launching area, and quick jobs of rigging were accomplished prier to second attempts at thetriangle. The first aircraft to complete the course was the German HKS-3 flown by Wietuchter, which dived down and across theline at 4.23. The first, and only, two-seater to finish was no. 72, the Argentine Condor 4 flown by Sadoux and Bazet, which camein some 1 hr 20 min later. Just before six o'clock an extremely well-judged long and low approach proved to be that ofMacCready's Breguet:, while Ara's Spanish Sky arrived simul- taneously with more height to spare. Few were surprised to learn that the so-consistent MacCreadyhad logged the fastest time for the triangle (2 hr 39 min 23 sec), giving an average speed of 44 km/hr and pushing up his lead onpoints still further. The day's marginal conditions had resulted in only seven other single-seaters completing the course, thesebeing (in order of speed) Arbajter, Wietuchter, Ara Gorzelak, Ortner, Feddersen and Juez. As only one two-seater hadflown the complete triangle, the contest in this class was marked as for distance along a fixed direction. After today's flying the top placings were: (single-seaters) MacCready,3,052; Gorzelak, 2,411; Juez, 2,409; Saradic, 2,381; Ivans, 2,174; Bar, 2,171; (two-seaters) Trager-Miller, 2,098; Nowotarski-Sandauer, 2,009;Goodhart-Foster, 1,853; Rousselet-Trubert, 1,836. Friday, July 6 (Fifth contest day). A free-distance task and afternoon take-offs were the basic ingredients of today's flying.The morning layer of stratocumulus had been dispersed under the sun's heat by midday, and the first take-off was at 2 p.m. The winds were westerly and it seemed logical that most pilotswould begin their flights with an easterly leg from St. Yan, in which direction moderate thermals up to about 4,000ft wereexpected. The critical decision could then be whether to fly north- east or south-south-east after this start. The choice appeared tobe between better tailwinds and weaker thermals in the north- easterly direction, and better thermals with more difficult countryfor landing to the south. By five o'clock ten machines had landed, their pins stringingdown to the south-east from St. Yan to Lyon. Outward-bound retrieving crews could derive some pleasure, however, from thefact that, even if distances were short, their pilots had chosen the regions of Beaujolais and Macon for their landings. Over the nextfew hours, the numbered pins spread out to fill an area to the north- east of this line. MacCready was reported down at 134 km, andWills at 118 km. It was obviously not a good long-distance day. By ten o'clock, however had come surprising news. Touten-hoofd of the Netherlands had landed his Skylark 3, only 45 min earlier, at Mondragon, north of Avignon, after a south-south-easterly flight of 240 km—the day's best performance. Stephenson was runner-up with 162 km to Geneva (crossing the Jura moun-tains), while Goodhart and Foster had flown over a small piece of Switzerland and Lake Geneva to land on the French shore, soheading the two-seater list with 180 km. Only 21 years of age, Toutenhoofd had beaten his more experi-enced competitors by flying east, and then south down the Rhone valley. With no previous experience of hill lift or wave soaring,he had used both (to 1,500 m and 2,800 m respectively) in the later stages of his flight. It was an impressive performance by thelanky young Dutchman, who holds his country's only "Gold C" badge with two diamonds.MacCready retained his position at the top of the single-seater class after Friday's contest, with a total of 3,382 pts. He was followed byJuez (2,709), Saradic (2,699) and Gorzelak (2,670) with Wills in 12th place and Stcphenson 16th. The British T.42 was once again leadingin the two-seater class with 2,501 pts, followed by Yugoslavia (2,333), Poland (2,154) and U.S.A. (2,116).In next week's issue this report from St. Yan will be concluded. This final part will include a description of the second week's flyingand a summing-up of the championships. 1956 WORLD GLIDING CHAMPIONSHIPS ENTRY LIST Contest No. Single- seaters1 2 3 •45 6 7 9 11 12 13 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 34 Pilot Ivans Cuadrado Arbaiter Da Rosa Ara Wills Oda Lacheny Toutenhoofd D'Otreppe Thomsen Kumpost Wietuchter .. Hei nonen Kalmar Uygum Dubs Georgeson .. Harrer Gora Brame Sitctsmo Bar * Persson CartignyGorzelak .. Mezo .. MacCready .. - Country U.S.A. Argentine Yugoslavia Brazil Spain Great Britain Japan France Netherlands Belgium Denmark Czechoslovakia Germany Finland Hungary TurkeySwitzerland New Zealand Austria Poland Canada Sweden Israel Sweden Belgium Poland Hungary U.S.A. Sailplane Olympia IV Skylark 3 Orao 2c Bars* Neiva 1Breguet 901s SkySkylark 3 Breguet 901 s Breguet 901s Skylark 3 Air 102 Olympia VSM.40 Demant HKS.3 Air 102Z.OS Air 102 WLM.2Air 102 Mg.23 Jaskolka Z Geier II Breguet 901J Air 102 Weihe Jaskolka Jaskolka Z z.oeBreguet 901s ContestNo. 35 3637 38 40 4142 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 Two-sea ten 61 6263 64 6566 67 6970 71 7273 74 Pilot Pierre Nietlispach .Subasi Munch Jalkanen ResthKoch Ames Feddersen . Juez ... Hollan Ferrari Stephenson . Reitsch Ortner Saradic ... Goodhart and Foster Brigliadori and FanoliRousselet and Trubert Trager and Miller Nowotarski and SandauerRain and Stepanovic Haase and Heinzel Nunez and VicenteYaykin and Argun Sebesta and Jansk ... Sadoux and Bazet ...Tanaefelt and Rautio ' Ostermayer and Angerer Country France SwitzerlandTurkey Brazil Finland AustriaNetherlands Canada Denmark Spain Czechoslovakia Italy Great Britain Germany Argentine Yugoslavia Great Britain ItalyFrance U.S.A. PolandYugoslavia Germany SpainTurkey Czechoslovakia ArgentineFinland Austria Sailplane Breguet 901s ElfjMWeihe Baros Neiva 1 Pik.3 Mg.23Skyiark 3 Breguet 901s Olympia SkyVSM.40 Demant Eolo 3V.1 Skylark 3 Zugvogel Skylark 3 Meteor Slingsby T.42 CanguroBreguet 904 Schweizer 2-25 Bocian Z Kosava HKS.1 Kranich 3Ka.2b L.13 Condor 4Bergfalke 2 Mg.19c
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