FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1961
1961 - 0741.PDF
League I leaders: from the left, Sgt John Williamson (Olympia 4I9X), George Burton (Skylark 3F), Philip Wills (Skylark 3F) and Mrs Anne burns (Skylark 3B), who were placed respectively first, second, third and sixth complete the triangle would be a slow and difficult task, "Someclear spells, but in general rather messy conditions." The headwind component on the first leg in fact brought over half of the com-petitors down before or near Welford. Just after 4 p.m. a sailplane was seen coming in on a nicely judgedfinal glide to Lasham. Having identified it initially as an Olympia 419, the small group of observers at the finishing line were notsurprised to realize as it approached that it was the familiar number 86. Once again Williamson was first home and, it transpired later,had made the best speed over the course. Alan Purnell (left) and David Kerridge of Surrey Gliding Club gained the leading place in League 2, flying a Skylark 3F f, Standard-class winner in League I was P. G. Burgess in his German Ka-6 machine It had been a long haul—"a real sweat" was the pilot's phrase—around the triangle. In the first-leg struggle to Welford, William- son had never exceeded 2,000ft, and over the Thruxton turningpoint he had been down to 400ft—"so they must have seen me." His time for the race was 3hr 39min, corresponding to an averagespeed of 19.2 m.p.h. Only three other pilots, all in Skylark 3F aircraft, arrived backacross the finishing line at Lasham. At 4.15 it was George Burton, who had taken 3hr for the first leg and 4hr 49min overall.At 5.28 it was Philip Wills, after an agonizing 5hr 4min, and at 5.34 it was Anne Burns, who had taken 4hr 25min for the trip butwho had been airborne for 2hr before crossing the starting line. Along the League 2 line to Bideford the maximum distanceflown was 67.1 miles by Fielden in his Skylark 3, followed by Green- way (Olympia 2B, 60.7 miles), Davey (Eagle, 59.7 miles), Dorman(Skylark 2, 55.2 miles), and Mackworth-Young (Eagle, 52.9 miles). Overall positions in both leagues were now :— League 1. 1. Williamson (Olympia 419X) 2. Burton (Skylark 3F)3. Wills (Skylark 3F) 4. Deane-Drummond (Olympia 419)5. Burns (Skylark 3B) The standard-class lead was retained by Burgess (Ka-6) with Hilditchand C. Wills (Skylark 2B) second and Coatesworth (Olympia 401X) third. Points5,980 5,2494,848 4,7174,508 League 2. 1. Kerridge and Purnell (Skylark 3F)2. Davey (Eagle) 3. Carr and Greenway (Olympia 2B)4. Bacon and Clarke (Olympia 2B) 5. Perrott and Fisher (Skylark 2C) Points4,600 4,0553,999 3,9593,844 The line through Bideford, not very much the worse for wearafter Saturday's League 2 flying, was on Sunday, May 21, presented to League 1 pilots for their attention. The 40 pilots in League 2had 40 agonizing appraisals to make, with pilot-selected goal as the day's task. In this they had to attempt to strike the most profitablebalance between caution and over-confidence:—the safe goal versus the do-or-die, blaze-of-glory attempt to leap into the lead. Winds were north-easterly, and moderate thermals were fore-cast. The weather map showed a large area of strato-cumulus, with some patches of cirrus, and visibility was estimated at 12 n.m.,decreasing to eight miles in haze streams. The Bideford line, when extended beyond the town of Bideforditself, was seen to cut the coast at Hartland Point, on the edge of Bideford Bay and 152.5 miles from Lasham. Although the met fore-cast was not brilliant, someone should perhaps have anticipated that the pundits would land exactly there. The Point was not loston pilots Kaye, Burton, Deane-Drummond, Piggott, Bentson, Stone and Stark, who descended on Hartland and each collected Polish visitors flying a Skylark 2 "hors concours" in the championships were Jerzy Adamek (left) and Roman Zabiello 1961 NATIONAL GLIDING CHAMPIONSHIPS: FINAL RESULTS League 1 1. J. Williamson 2. G. Burton 3. P. Wills 4. A. Deane-Drummond 5. D. Ince 6. Mrs A. Burns7 A. Stone 8. E. Stark 9 P. Burgess 10. P. Scott League 2 ' D. Kerridge and A. Purnell2 J Fielden and P. Berriman3 B. Davey 4 M. Bacon and E. Clarke 5 ' Chandler and K. Newholme '• v Carr and H. Greenway 7 K. Aldridge 8 R. Perrott and G. Fisher ' C. Mackworth-Young and E. Smith10 !•• Alexander and S. Neumann i Olympia 4I9X Skylark 3F Skylark 3F Olympia 419 Olympia 4I9X Skylark 3B Skylark 3F Skylark 3F Ka-6 Olympia 4I9X Skylark 3F Skylark 3Eagle Olympia 2B Olympia 2B Olympia 2B Olympia 2B Skylark 2C Eagle Skylark 3F 7,968 7,121 6,772 6.597 5,878 5,8 i 8 5.811 5,705 5,391 5,292 5,360 4,8094,795 4,533 4,476 4,327 4,055 3,848 3,627 3,572
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
