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Aviation History
1961
1961 - 1376.PDF
480 !FLIGHT, 21 Sepf.1961 Guest of honour at a Royal Aero Club dinner on September 12 was Maj H. A. Petre, seen here (left) with Miss Diana Barnato-Walker and Col C. F. H. Gough, chairman of the Club Sport and Business FOR THE FIFTH successive year the National Glider AerobaticContest is to be held at Dunstable, and will be organized by the British Gliding Association in conjunction with London GlidingClub. During the aerobatic contest a race around a 100km closed circuit will also be held. The contest begins at 11 a.m. onSunday, September 24. DIFFERENT ASPECTS OF GLIDING have been well covered in two recently published books, directed respectively towards the newcomer to the sport and the soaring pilot. One is a practical introduction to the basic ingredients of gliding, and the other a lucid account of the subtle science of meteorology. In Tackle Gliding This Way (Stanley Paul and Co, 178-202Great Portland Street, London Wl, 12s 6d), John Simpson has written a meaty, no-nonsense handbook which effectively conveyshis long experience as a gliding instructor—and shorter experience, with the boys of Leighton Park School, as a glider constructor.The book should be included, together with the weatherproof clothing and liver salts, in the baggage of all would-be pilotssetting off for their first holiday gliding course. Had it been available, it would certainly have been recommended by this reviewer's firstgliding instructor. His name was John Simpson. The Phoenix Aircraft stand at the recent Do-it-yourself Exhibition c Olympia. On show were W. G. Cooper's Luton Major fuselage an< Roy Goodwin's Luton Minor undercarriage No met-man is better known to the British gliding communit than C. E. (Wally) Wallington, who not only pioneered detailed, high-quality weather forecasting at national championships—inci-dentally making possible the striking advance in contest task-setting over the past five years—but also displayed his committed approachby learning to glide. Gliding meteorology is essentially a practical science, and Meteorology for Glider Pilots (John Murray, 50 Albe-marle Street, London Wl, 25s) shows that Wally Wallington is an articulate practitioner as well as a skilled one. "A sound appreciation of meteorology and of the forecastingservice does not, of course, automatically raise a pilot to top class in the soaring world," Mr Wallington states in his preface, "but itcan add considerable interest to his sport, it can forestall man> potential hazards, it can help him to perceive and use extra soaringopportunities and it can make him feel more at home in the air." One might add that, without such an appreciation, no pilot canreach top class in the soaring world. The broad meteorological scene is set, without specific referenceto gliding, in the first nine chapters of the book. Aspects relevant to soaring flight are amplified thereafter in chapters devoted to low-level airflow; sea breezes; the tephigram; convection; showers; thunder and lightning; thermal soaring prospects; lee waves; wavesoaring; the altimeter; more about fronts; and "weatherwise"— a most useful guide on getting the most out of the available weather-information services. An intelligent grasp of the main points in the chapter on thermal soaring prospects is a must for thermal-huntingpilots, and Mr Wallington's detailed description of the sea-breeze front lays the foundation for an extensive exploration of this narrow-belt lift phenomenon. K. T. O. Posed by Mark Lambert to show its 1961 colour scheme (still dominantly Cel/on's white, pale grey, dark blue and fluorescent orange) h "Flight's" 14-year-old Gemini 3A. This much-used and endearing vehicle will be replaced next year by a Beagle Airedale which, ir its turn, will be superseded by an M.2I8—the Beaglt company's specially tailored Gemini replacement
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