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Aviation History
1958
1958 - 0792.PDF
808FLIGHT The five Vanguard estate cars loaned by Standards, and the four glider trailers, seen at Lasham prior to the team's departure. PROSPECTS FOR LESZNO Pilots and team captain in good humour at Lasham during the Whitsun weekend. From the left are Cdr. Anthony Goodhart, Lt-Cal. Deane- Drummond, Mrs. Welch, Cdr. Nicholas Goodhart and Mr. Philip Wills. Olympia 419 sailplane by Elliotts of New bury. Ironcheater shirts and sailcloth sunslacks by Austin Reed. Photographs by "Flight." Above, Slingsby Skylark 2, standard class entry (Philip Wills). Mow, Elliotts Olympia 415, pilot A. Goodhart (standard class). The British Team TWO Naval officers, an Army officer and the chairman of aCity company are Britain's pilots for this year's WorldGliding Championships. Captained by Mrs. Ann Welch, the team is completed by 12 crew-members, of whom eight areretrieving crew and four are base-crew specialists. For Mrs. Welch this is her fifth experience as captain of theBritish team. The only postwar world contest at which she has not captained the U.K. entry was in 1954—the year of Camphill andthe rain—when she was flying with her husband Lome in the two-seater class. Writing in the current issue of the British Gliding Associationmagazine Sailplane and Gliding, Mrs. Welch comments on the high level of pilot skill demanded in world contests. "The sort offlying needed to get anywhere near the top is of such a standard that, within the limit of present-day technique, it must be virtuallyfaultless. The physical and mental strain on the pilot in his efforts to achieve this near-perfection is very great, pressed as he is bycompetitors many of whom are highly subsidized and who have bsen in serious training." In the open class this year the British pilots are Cdr. NicholasGoodhart, R.N., inventor of the mirror-sight carrier-landing aid, holder of the only British Gold C with three diamonds, winner(with Frank Foster) of the two-seater class at the 1956 world championships, and at present on the staff of the Department ofNaval Air Warfare at Admiralty; and Lt-Col. Anthony Deane- Drummond, British national gliding champion, recipient of theRoyal Aero Club Silver Medal for a notable series of gliding records in 1957, and commanding officer of a Special Air Serviceregiment based in Malaya. In the new standard class, limited to 15-metre sailplanes ofcomparatively simple construction, the pilots will be Philip Wills and Cdr. Anthony Goodhart, R.N. Best-known of all glider pilotsto the aviation fraternity—and the general public—of this country, Philip Wills need have done no more than write On Being a Birdto be satisfied with his contribution to gliding and to literature. He has done more, of course. Chairman of the British GlidingAssociation, world champion 1952, runner-up 1954, recipient of Gold Medal and Britannia Trophy of the Royal Aero Club—andmember of the British team at each of the World Gliding Cham- pionships since the first in 1937 at the Wasserkuppe—Wills isnow recognized as the doyen of British bird-men. Tony Goodhart, elder brother of Nicholas and at present on the staff of AlliedNaval Forces Central Europe at Fontainebleau, is holder of the world record for speed around a 300 km triangle. Among the many contributors of money and equipment whohave made possible the British team's entry this year are the Society of British Aircraft Constructors, who donated £1,000;and the Standard Motor Company, who are lending five Vanguard estate cars to the team. Of the aircraft, the two Olympia 4s andthe Skylark 2 are owned by the manufacturers, Elliotts of Newbury and Slingsby Sailplanes respectively; while Nicholas Goodhart isflying his own Skylark 3. PILOTS AND CREWS Twm Captain: Mrs. Ann W«lch f. Cdr. Nicholas Goodhart, R.N. (Slingsby Skylark 3, open class, contest number 13). Crew: Lome Welch, Bryan Jefferson, Kenneth Owen (Pre»» and publicity officer). 2. Lt-Col. Anthony D«ona-Drummond (Elliotts Olympia -419, open claw, contest number 12). Crew; Mrs. Deane-Drummond, Mai. John Archer, C. E. Wellington (meteorologist). 3. Philip Will* (SSingsby Skylark 1, standard class, contest number 56). Crew: R. C. Stafford Allen, Mrs. Wills, H. U. Mid wood (aircraft engineer). 4. Cdr. Anthony Goodhart, R.N. (Elliotts Olympia 415, standard class, contest number 55). Crew: F. G. Irving, P. H. Swift, Sgt. John Williamson (radio engineer and reserve pilot). '
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