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Aviation History
1956
1956 - 0974.PDF
120 FLIGHT WORLD GLIDING British Pilots Win in Two-seater Class at St. Yan By KENNETH OWEN and ALAN YATES THE second week's flying in the world gliding champion-ships at St. Yan produced no serious challenge to thefirst-week leaders in either of the two categories. The quiet American, Paul MacCready, continued with his own consistent blend of science and accurate flying to push firmly ahead at the top of the single-seater list, ignoring the fact (which, it seemed to others, ought to have mattered) that he had hardly flown a glider since Camphill two years ago, and that he was now flying a borrowed machine with which he was not familiar. The most notable victory, however, was that of the British pilots Goodhart and Foster in the Slingsby T.42 two-seater, who during the second week strengthened their hard-gained lead, ably backed up by the loyal and efficient crewing of Lome Welch and Peter Flower. Their victory was notable because they were flying not a high-performance competition sailplane, but a simple and sturdy Yorkshire product—"whittled out of a piece of wood" by Mr. F. N. Slingsby and intended for -training use. Against them were ranged some of the most sophisticated pieces of precision soaring machinery ever built at Government expense. The final top placings in the championships, which concluded on Friday last, July 13, were as follows: Single-seaters:— 1. MacCready (U.S.A.), Breguet 901s. 4,891 points. 2. Juez (Spain), Slingsby Sky. 3,806 points.3. Gorzelak (Poland), Jaskolka Z. 3,576 points. Two-seaters:—1. Goodhart and Foster (Great Britain), Slingsby T.42. 3,828 points.2. Rain and Stepanovic (Yugoslavia), Kosava. 3,187 points. 3. Sadoux and Bazet (Argentina), Condor 4. 2,748 points.Last week's report from St. Yan contained an account of the flying up to Friday, July 6. At the end of the first week, afterfive contest days, MacCready was leading the single-seater class with 3,382 pts followed by Juez (2,709), Saradic of Yugoslavia(2,699) and Gorzelak (2,670). The two-seaters were headed by the British T.42 (2,501 pts), with the Yugoslav Kosava in secondplace (2,333) and the Polish Bocian Z third (2,154). On the Friday morning the sixth congress of OSTIV (Organ-isation Scientific et Technique Internationale du Vol a Voile) was officially opened in St. Yan village. Among the speakers at theopening ceremony were Dr. Walter Georgii, honorary president, and Mr. L. A. de Lange, president. Saturday, July 7. The Dutch pilot Toutenhoofd, who hadflown furthest the previous day, had not returned to St. Yan by Below, Paul MacCready, world cham- pion. Crewing for his ion was Dr. Paul MacCready, Sr. Right, the Polish Jaskolka Z flown by Gora, whose colleague Gorzelak came third. "Flight" photographs this morning and, although the organizers had originally plannedto set a task for the day, they decided against this after discussion with the Dutch and other team captains. A rest day was accord-ingly declared- Sunday, July 8. There was again no cloud in the sky early inthe day and the temperature soon rose into the eighties. A layer of high cirrus cloud then approached from the south and bythe time launching began at 1.30 p.m., the power of the sun was already weakened by the cloud cover. The task set was a race to Beaune, 100 km to the north-east.It seemed that pilots launched early might keep in the bright sunshine and soon reach their goal. It transpired, however, thatthe air was very stable and that thermals did not penetrate above 2,000ft. Several groups of ten or more gliders were seen circlingendlessly but not climbing appreciably. Many landed back on the airfield for another aircraft tow. Others, including Philip Wills,flew off towards the goal hoping to find better conditions, but few exceeded 15 km before landing. Eventually it was clear that noone would reach the goal and, in fact, since only one glider exceeded 50 km, it was declared a "no contest" day. Nearly 150aero-tows had been made without avail. Monday, July 9. Again blue skies—but the meteorologistsforecast that the great cumulus clouds, seen in the distance yesterday, might come nearer today. The task was given as arace to Moulins and back—about 120 km in all. The take-offs began at 12.30, and all 56 sailplanes were in the air 35 minuteslater. It was at once obvious that the thermals were better thanthose of yesterday. Several swarms of 12-15 sailplanes circled to gain height before flying across the starting line to be timed atthe beginning of the race. Even as they climbed, large cumulus clouds were to be seen coming up from the south and in thedirection of Moulins (west-northwest) an enormous "cauliflower top" could be seen. It seemed probable that pilots, having beenrecognized at the turning point, would climb high in this cloud and return in a fast glide within an hour or so. Conditions were, in fact, more difficult than they seemed. Mostpilots reached the turning point but no one succeeded in regain- ing St. Yan. The clouds seen from St. Yan had crossed the returntrack before the gliders had returned very far. The rain and hail from them had stopped thermal activity so that pilots couldonly glide back as far as possible in dead air, or deviate far to the north in trying to gain enough height to reach St. Yan.Several pilots landed well off track, and the marking system (which gave all its points for distance since nobody had completedthe race) penalized those who did so. The best performance of the day was by the British SlingsbyT.42 two-seater flown by Nick Goodhart and Frank Foster. They were launched among the later gliders and met the large clouds V
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