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Aviation History
1958
1958 - 0876.PDF
892 "Nick Goodhart was seen to be balanced in an unenviable posi- tion on a pedestal on the far side of the airfield . . . with the aspect ratio of his Skylark 3 sadly re- duced by the omis- sion of the outer wings." "Flight" photograph World Gliding Championships... Czechoslovak Spartak took off on the first tow at 11.30, for therewas little delay before the stream of sailplanes across the starting line began. The day bubbled up nicely, in fact, and there was soon littledoubt that most of the pilots would complete the triangle— indeed, a harder task would have been acceptable. • At 1.45 p.m.the returning stream began, headed as on the previous day by Mestan in his blue Demant. As some of the pilots were makingsteady progress with their late lunches, and initial estimates of relative speeds were attempted, Nick Goodhart was seen to bebalanced in an unenviable position on a pedestal on the far side of the airfield. With the aspect ratio of his Skylark 3 sadlyreduced by the omission of the outer wings, he was making "a typical cross-country flight"—at about 6ft above the ground—for the benefit of the official Polish film unit which was recording all aspects of the championships for posterity. Assistance wasbeing given by technical assistants who supported the tail, and moved it up and down, and by others who pulled ropes attachedto each end of the centre-section. It was duly noted by the technically-minded that, while the German HKS sailplanes usedwing-warping in place of aileron control, the incredible English used little men with ropes. Turning from cinefrivolity to the day's serious business, welearned that, in the open class, Haase in the HKS.3 had again notched up 1,000 points for the fastest flight of the day, havingaveraged 83.4 km/hr. The strong thermal conditions had made it appear to be a Meteor-type day, and indeed, Komac andSaradic had flown the two all-metal Jugoslav beauties into second and fourth places, but Britain was beginning to rise to the top,too, for Deane-Drummond in the sturdy Olympia 419 had gained third place with 76.6 km/hr. In the standard class Witek was again top, but his compatriotWojnar had been pushed into third place by Zvonimir Rain of Jugoslavia flying an Ilindenka—perhaps the only standard-classmachine to be fitted with an ashtray. Persson of Sweden (Zugvogel) and Philip Wills were placed fourth and fifth, withSilesmo (Zugvogel) and Tony Goodhart (Olympia 415) of the same two respective countries $isth and seventh. After two days'flying the leading positions were: — Opan Class: (1) Haase, West Germany, 2,000 points: (2) Gorzelak, Poland, 1,781; (3) Makuia. Poland, 1,772; (4) Mestan, Czechoslovakia. 1,755; (5) Deane- Drummond, Gt. Britain. 1,746. N. Goodhart was 13th with 1,529. Standard Class: (1) Witek, Poland. 2,000 points; (2) Wojnar, Poland, 1,935; (3) Persson. Sweden, 1,890; (4) Huth, West German/, 1,643; (5) Rain, Jugoslavia 1,489. A. Goodhart was eighth with 1,157 and Wills tenth with 1,079. Wednesday, the third contest day, provided a contrast to theprevious day's flying, with an ambitious task in marginal weather. It was to be a goal race to Warsaw, a distance of 315 km. Thisannouncement really did raise the decibels in the briefing room. A trough of low pressure was approaching, said the met. man, andas the day progressed the weather would deteriorate, with the possibility of thunderstorms in the evening. It was expected thatit might be quite difficult for pilots to get away from Leszno, but conditions along the route should improve. Promptly at 11 a.m. launching began, and it became clear thatnot only was it difficult to get away, it was no easy job simply to remain airborne. Several aircraft were forced to land back, andmany postponed their first launches. By noon Deane-Drummond and Nick Goodhart were on theway, while many others were struggling hard over Leszno town. Both high and medium cloud was coming in; it was hazy, and Deane - Drummond's Olympia 419 stood high in the open- class scoring until bad luck in last Sun- day's race dropped it to ninth place. FLIGHT thunderstorms were clearly heading our way. During the earlyafternoon we learned that many of the gliders had come down near Gostyn, less than 50 km away. The two British open-classpilots were in touch with their retrieving crews by radio and, in fact, were in visual contact also, for the going was so slow for the419 and the Skylark that the cars had no difficulty in keeping up with them. Base-crew members at the main control point for the Britishteam on the airfield, where the radio in Ann Welch's team-captain car was connected to the high aerial erected by radio engineerJohn Williamson, were able to keep in touch with the two pilots up to a range of about 100 km (this range was improved later bymodification of the aerial), after which we had just to sit and wait. When the results did come in we knew it had been a good day.Although no pilot had been able to reach the goal, Deane- Drummond had landed only 20 miles short—the day's bestdistance. The Olympia 419 had squeezed the utmost out of the unco-operative air to outfly its more expensive rivals, and its pilot—who at one stage of the flight had been circling as low as 300ft above the ground—had been within sight of the city of Warsawwhen forced to land near Blonye. Other British pilots had also done well, Nick Goodhart achiev-ing 239 km to a point north of Lowicz and, in the standard class, Tony Goodhart making 211 km to Bielawy. In their respectiveclasses these flights were placed fifth and seventh. Kumpost and Mestan of Czechoslovakia and Kuntz of WestGermany were second, third and fourth behind Deane-Drum- mond in the open class (as nobody reached Warsaw the day'sresults were measured simply as distance along a set line), with the two Jugoslav Meteor pilots Saradic and Komac level sixthbehind Nick Goodhart. The standard-class leaders were Tandefelt of Finland (Ka.6), 251 km; Persson (Sweden); and Horma(Finland). Deane-Drummond's 1,000 points for the day had made hima close runner-up to Haase on total marks in the open class, while Tony Goodhart was now lying sixth in the standard class. Theexact markings were as follows: — Opan Class: (1) Haase, 2,778; (2) Deane-Drummond, 2,746; (3) Mestan. 2,663 (4) Kumpost. 2,568: (5) Laur, West Germany, 2.513; (6) Saradic. 2,441; (7) N. Goodhart, 2,377. Standard Class: (1) Witek, 2,916; (2) Persson. 2.886: (3) Huth, West Germany. 2,515; (4) Tandefelt, >i,374; (5) Wojnar, 2,062; (6) A. Goodhart, 1,958.Most crews were out on retrieves when a king-size thunder- storm hit Leszno that evening. Canvas awnings, display panelsand the roof of the Motoimport kiosk were blown away from their moorings, and a group of team-members were surprised tosee large wooden letters hurtling through the air in front of them,, leaving irregular gaps in the spelling (in Polish) of vn WORLD GLIDING CHAMPIONSHIPS on the administration block roof. Thetents in which we were living staggered somewhat under the force of the gale, but the interiors stayed dry—unlike the Pressoffice, where the buckets arranged to intercept the water pouring in through the ceiling were themselves tending to float away. Thursday was declared a rest day. The pilots therefore restedand took no action as superb long-distance conditions developed. A sprightly PZL. 102 Kos (blackbird) two-seater, powered bya 65 h.p. WN.l flat-four engine, purred in and attracted much interest.At 10.30 that morning the seventh OSTIV congress was offi- cially opened, the ceremony taking place in the People's Hall ofCulture in the town of Leszno. M. Agesilas of the French SFASA spoke on the development of gliding and its importancefor aviation and science, and films were shown of the Sierra Wave project and of the 1956 world gliding championships atSt. Yan. The OSTIV technical sessions, held in a lecture room at the airfield, were inaugurated that afternoon, when L. A. deLange, president of the organization, introduced Mr. Beverley Shenstone of B.E.A., who spoke on the present state of sailplanedesign. Medium and high-level cloud ahead of an approaching warmfront caused flying to be cancelled on the following day, Friday, and typically English rain and low cloud had the same effect onSaturday. Visiting aircraft on Friday included a Czech Meta- Sokol four-seater and a specimen of the worthy Zlin 226 Trener.On Saturday, a special OSTIV committee examined the various standard-class machines as a preliminary to the award of theOSTIV prize for the type judged to be the best combination of cheapness, simplicity and efficiency. Philip Wills' Skylark 2 wasthe first to appear on the apron in front of the hangar and to be rigged, examined, and de-rigged. A rival attraction was theshowing of the award-winning Polish film Kanal. On Sunday flying was resumed with a goal-race to OstrowWielkopolski, 95 km to the east. Juhani Horma, the Finnish pilot flying a PIK.3c in the standard class, surprised his open-class brethren by beating them all; in the process he achieved 87.5 km/hr, the day's best speed. Haase again topped the openclass, but Deane-Drummond failed to reach the goal by a matter of 10 km, thereby slipping to ninth place in the overall scoring. Stop Press: Bad weather last Monday cancelled flying.
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