FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1959
1959 - 1469.PDF
One of Elliotts' new Series 4 Olympios at Lasham was this company-entered Olympic 401 flown by Sgt. John Williamson of the k.A.F. GLIDING IN EARNEST Geoffrey Stephenson the New British Champion "FLIGHT" PHOTOGRAPHS UPSETTING all the experts' forecasts, Geoffrey Stephensonof the London Gliding Club flew his Skylark 3 into firstplace at the 1959 national gliding championships, which ended at Lasham on Monday last. Nicholas Goodhart (Skylark 3)was second and David Ince (Olympia 419x) third, while in League 2 the winners were the Skylark 3 team entry of Mrs.Rika Harwood, Brian Masters and Hugh Mettam. Good competi- tion weather was experienced on seven of the nine possible days.This instalment of our report of the championships begins with the results after the first day's flying on Sunday, May 10 and coversthe following four days' operations. After measuring the distance between Lasham and Portmoakvariously between 338 and 368 miles, the organizers finally settled for 359 with which to credit Nick Goodhart for his goalflight on the first day of the championships. This put him in the League 1 lead with 100 points, followed by Mrs. Burns (Skylark 3)with 77 and Philip Wills (Skylark 3) with 74. Fourth and fifth were David Ince (Olympia 419x), 248 miles and 67 pts; and KenFitzroy of the R.A.F. (Skylark 3b), 242 miles and 65 pts. In League 2, Ted Stark in a Skylark 2 entered by the Army GlidingAssociation won the day's 100 points for his 174-mile flight to Wakefield, with Brian Masters (Skylark 3b) second with 97 andA. O. Sutdiffe (Skylark 2) third with 96. The second flying day of the contest, Monday, May 11, beganwith many of the League 1 pilots and crews still on their way back from the previous day's long-distance flights. For them,accordingly, a rest day was declared, while League 2 pilots were set the task of a goal race to Edge Hill, Warwicks, 66 miles away. In weak soaring conditions none of the competitors was infact able to reach Edge Hill. The best flight was one of 52 miles to Burford, near Little Rissington, by R. Marshall in the South-down club's Olympia. Ian Paul in a Skylark 2 flew 50 miles to Tackley, Oxford, and Ray Stafford Allen (Olympia) made 47 milesto Kidlington. The leading League 2 placings after two days' flying were: 1, B. Masters and Mrs. R. Harwood (Skylark 3), 172;2, R. Stafford Allen (Olympia), 124; 3, D. F. Holding and R. Brett-Knowles (Skylark 2), 121; 4, E. Stark (Skylark 2), 114; 5,A. O. Sutcliffe and J. D. Jones (Skylark 2), 103. Two separate tasks were set for the respective leagues onTuesday, May 12. The League 1 pundits were to race out-and- return to Kidlington Airport, Oxford, a return distance of 92miles; while pilots in the second league would fly as far as they .could along a line through Trevose Head, Cornwall. This day pro-duced high temperatures and considerable thunderstorm activity. A round dozen of the Kidlington pilots completed the courseand were checked in over the finishing line at Lasham. Others, including Wills, Piggott and Tony Goodhart, experienced strongdownflow from a huge thunderstorm on their final glide towards Lasham and were forced to land just short. The race waswon by Tony Deane-Drummond (Olympia 419) at a speed of 34.8 m.p.h., followed by Sgt. Gough (Olympia 419x), GeoffreyStephenson (Skylark 3) and David Ince (Olympia 419x), with Nicholas Goodhart (Skylark 3) and Frank Irving (Skylark 3b)equal fifth. In League 2 distances between 50 and 60 miles were loggedby the day's top three pilots—G. A. Coatesworth of 2nd T.A.F. (Meise), with 100 pts, G. R. Whitfield of Cambridge University(Skylark 2), 83 pts, and E. T. Ware of the R.A.F. (Olympia), 78 pts—with landings in die Shaftesbury and Frome areas. At the end of the third contest day die leaders were: League 1: 1, N. Goodhart, 188 pts; 2, D. Ince, 160; 3, Mrs. A. Burns/D.Martlew, 155; 4, G. Stephenson and F. Irving/W. Tonkyn, 136. League 2: 1, Mrs. R. Harwood/B. Masters/H. Mettam, 196 pts; 2, G. A. Coatesworth, 151; 3, J. Croshaw, 143; 4, R. StaffordAllen, 124; 5, A. O. Sutdiffe/J. D. Jones, 122. The intention to make League 1 pilots work hard and League 2pilots think hard was expressed by Clerk of the Course Ann Welch on Wednesday, May 13, at the 9 a.m. briefing. This was trans-lated into the respective tasks of a goal race to the Long Mynd site of the Midlands Gliding Club, a distance of 122 miles; andpilot-selected goal for League 2. Winds would be light and variable, mainly from the east; there would be wide areas of haze;and the dry thermals which were forecast over the southern section of the route to the Mynd should be followed by cumulusdeveloping to the north-west. For those selecting their goals, meteorologist Jock Findlater suggested, the choice lay betweena north-westerly course to take advantage of the instability expected over the Welsh mountains, or down along the Cornishpeninsula (although the sea breeze effect was expected to move in here later in the day). Launches began soon after midday, and it became an interest-ing exercise to examine and speculate on die chosen goals. Exeter, Dunkeswell and Yeovil were each popular; David Kerridge(Olyrnpia) had declared the League 1 target of Long Mynd; A. O. Sutcliffe had selected Hawarden, Chester; while the tall andbearded Lt-Cdr. R. Brett-Knowles had his eye on the North Wales coast resort of Llandudno. As the landing reports began to come in we realised that theday was trickier than had been forecast. Not only were people falling short of their declared goals but the experts of League 1were dropping out along the way to Shropshire. It was later confirmed by the pilots that the forecast improvement in soaring Contest launch: one of the Tiger Moth tugs takes off with the Army Gliding Association's T.42 Eagle in tow
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
