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Aviation History
1958
1958 - 0810.PDF
826FLIGHT, 27 June1958 Left, trailers and cars about to cross the German/Czech border on Sunday, June 8 (iron curtain in lifted position). Right, Tony Deane-Drummond and wife Evie with their Olympia 419. In right background are Nick Good hart's Skylark 3 and the tail of W ills's Skylark 2. World Gliding: Championships "Flight" Story and Pictures by KENNETH OWEN* Leszno Airfield, near Poznan. Sunday, June 15.E ACH time it happens, yet each time it comes as a many-coloured and graceful surprise—the bright elegance of a world-championship assembly of sailplanes. Today atLeszno, where the seventh World Gliding Championships were formally opened by the Prime Minister of Poland, Mr. JozefCyrankiewicz, was no exception. Adding further colour to those of the gliders lying on the tough, green grass of the airfield werethe flags of the 22 nations whose teams have journeyed here to fly and to compete. For the British team, the journey had begun at BuckinghamPalace on Thursday, June 5, when (as we recorded last week) the Duke of Edinburgh had entertained pilots and crews to tea andhad wished them well in the contests. The next day the five cars and four glider-trailers crossed from Dover to Dunkirk, and weredriven through France, Belgium and the Netherlands to Miinchen- Gladbach in West Germany, where the first night stop was made.Having resisted firmly the temptation to divert to the Brussels World Fair when the unique atomium appeared on the horizon,the team arrived at Miinchen-Gladbach just after midnight. Saturday's driving brought us as far as Niirnberg by earlyevening. The cars were not keeping together in convoy: each was making its own speed, but was keeping in radio contact with theothers. So far the trip had been straightforward, each night-stop beingmade according to plan. From Niirnberg, however, Sunday's journey was rather more uncertain, as we did not know where wewould spend that night. This followed the last-minute change of route which had included Czechoslovakia in place of East Germanybecause of frontier difficulties. The first barrier to be crossed that day was the reputedly ironone between Germany and Czechoslovakia. This was accom- plished for the expenditure of two hours of our time at the border,where the Customs man seemed particularly interested in the carefully packed Deviscogitator in Team Car No. 1. I hope toreveal operational details of this piece of secret equipment in sub- sequent reports from Leszno. From the border, team captain Mrs. Ann Welch drove ahead toPrague in order to arrange through the British Embassy there our accommodation for the night—this complication being caused byour transit visas. By the time we arrived in Prague, all was arranged and we were speedily directed on to Hradek Kralove, some 60miles on—but not before we had been more than surprised by a loud-and-clear flood of Czech speech over the inter-car radio,interrupting traffic directions between the two Goodhart cars at a particularly busy street-junction. At Hradek Kralove the cars and trailers were effectively engulfedby the local populace as soon as we pulled up outside the hotel— the first of many indications of the intense interest and curiositywhich we seemed to cause throughout Czechoslovakia and Poland during our journey. The next day we made an early start, nego-tiated the Czech/Polish border, and arrived at Leszno at about 5 p.m. It was the first day of the practice week, and all the flags * Kenneth Owen of "Flight" editorial staff is a member of the British team, for whom he is acting as Press and publicity officer. were not yet up to greet us—the flagpoles and some of the build- ings were still being painted, in fact—but the weather was goed and we had arrived. Five flying days remained before the opening of the champion-ships, and never have five days been better employed. On Tues- day morning the weather was not good and the team was able tosort itself and its equipment out after the journey. As the crews rigged and adjusted their gliders—the massive world two-seaterchampionship trophy had made the trip, appropriately enough, in the cockpit of Nick Goodhart's Skylark 3—the various specialistsgot on with their own jobs. John Williamson was sitting in the back of Philip Wills's car testing and tuning his radio equipment;Harry Midwood was organizing the aircraft spares in the stores tent which had just been erected; and Wally Wallington cameover from the met. office after a while to talk weather with the pilots. Over the loudspeakers came the most fantastic selection ofgramophone records, ranging from the excellent Polish national choir to the rock 'n' roll type of Western musical culture. TheBritish team's gliding in Poland began after lunch at five minutes past two, when Nick Goodhart was hitched up to one of the Junak2 tugs and smartly launched. Aerotows in Poland, we immediately discovered, are not thesame as aerotows in England. Instead of the 200ft length of tow- rope to which the British pilots were accustomed, these Junakscarried 20-metre ropes—equivalent to only one wingspan. Their rate of climb after take-off, however, was exceptional: this, com-bined with the short tow, led Philip Wills to comment that even- ing that he had been able to look over the tug pilot's shouldersdown into his cockpit and to read his (the tug pilot's) instruments —almost. The following day, Wednesday, June 11, an out-and-return raceof about 80 miles to Sroda was set as a practice task. The British pilots did not complete this task, but their landings away fromLeszno gave useful practice for the retrieving crews—and for the organization at the Leszno end, which seemed not very welladjusted to the requirements of many foreign-speaking crews who were giving, or wishing to receive, information by telephone. It was the Thursday, Friday and Saturday, however, that madethe practice week something really out of the ordinary. The respective tasks were triangular races of 100, 200 and 300 kilo-metres, and the soaring conditions were superb. The four British pilots all completed the triangle on Thursday, Deane-Drummondwith a time of 1 hr 40 min; but the day|s fastest time of 1 hr 14 min was set up by Komac of Yugoslavia in one of the incomparableMeteor 57s. Some idea of Friday's conditions can be gauged from the factthat no fewer than twelve national records were broken around the 200 km triangle. Among them was the British record, whichTony Deane-Drummond (the existing holder) pushed up by a useful margin. Komac in the Meteor almost gained first placeagain but, although breaking the Yugoslav national record for the triangle, was beaten by 15 seconds by Haase of Germany in theHKS. 3, whose time was 2 hr 36 min. On Saturday, John Williamson, reserve pilot to the Britishteam, flew the Olympia 415 in place of Tony Goodhart (who was not feeling well) over the 300 km triangle. Once again it wasKomac in the sleek Meteor who flashed over the finishing line first, followed shortly by Deane-Drummond in the Olympia 419and one of the Czech Demants. Nick Goodhart in his Skylark 3 did well to beat Deane-Drummond's time by three minutes. PhilipWills in the Skylark 2 completed the first two legs of the triangle and then continued south-east in an attempt to complete a 500 kmflight. News of his landing, made some 15 km short of his goal, was
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