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Aviation History
1962
1962 - 1435.PDF
231 FLIGHT trmtional, 16 August 1962 f. * -& A scene early in the contest ot Budoors, looking down the line of competing aircraft to the terminal buildings. In the foreground, Nick Pocock with the Stampe. Right, "mirror" formation flying—port of the Russian sequence in the aerobatic and flying display that closed the meeting. The aircraft are Yak ISP single-seaters World Aerobatics HIGHLIGHTS OF THE BUDAPEST CONTEST IT was a rather attenuated British team that left eventually for the second World Aerobatic Contest at Budapest. Following defections for various reasons, only Nick Pocock and his mechanic, Bernard Desmond, in the Tiger Club's newly-acquired Stampe, set out on Saturday, July 14, via a conveniently-sited club outing at Le Treport. The first practice day was July 18, and at this time, prior to the belated arrival of the team captain (detained in London by work), Nick Pocock was doubling up as his own manager; he recorded: "Stacks of meetings, for team captains, pilots, etc—had to keep changing hats. Interpreters functioning, but on first occasion very difficult to tune on to." The 20th was the occasion of the first compulsory set of man oeuvres, and as the wind kept increasing steadily through the morn ing an early place in the draw was an obvious advantage. In the afternoon Nick had a practice session for the free group. The system of allocation of practice times and areas was a good one. There were three areas available: Budaors aerodrome itself, a gliding site north of the aerodrome, and a large field west of the gliding site. For each site there was a board-mounted map, posses sion of which entitled the holder to use that area at a specified time, rather on the principle of working trains on single-line railways. On the 21st the second compulsory group, the semi-finals, was flown without undue difficulty, though one or two contestants on each day had become confused over the actual direction of the inverted turns. The first fifteen competitors got through their free manoeuvres the next day before the wind came up above limits and stopped play for the rest. There were precise limits laid down as to all acceptable weather minima and maxima and when they were reached the contest halted. There was no question of a judges' decision on the spot. Another example of the scrupulous attention to detail in the accuracy of the contest was in the installation in every aircraft of sealed barographs to record any error of height. The 23rd was too windy for the rest of the free group, which was flown off on the 24th. On this day the second half of the British team (non-flying) set off in a Comanche from Gatwick. The "two hours a side" that we were supposed to have turned out to be one- and-a-half hours to a dry tank, so that what with the wind being on the nose as usual, the Luxembourg - Vienna leg turned out to be Luxembourg - Linz - Vienna. A night stop was made in Vienna, both members of the crew feeling unwilling to tackle the final penetration into Curtain airspace in the dark. On the morning of the 25th we ran down the last fifty minutes' flying into Budapest and landed at Ferihegy; the Comanche was parked among the Il-14s, Il-18s and Tu-104s and we were taken over by an efficient young man from air traffic, whose excellent command of English made our path very considerably smoother. When, at a later stage, the Comanche began to act up on us still further, Tad Laslo proved himself a tower of strength. Permission was readily granted us to fly across to the aerodrome west of Budapest where the contest was being held. Budaors lies in a hollow of the chalky hills west of Buda. It is a grass field with alarge and fairly elaborate set of control and reception buildings. The only signs of the contest were the lines of national Jags that fronted the tarmac apron, the short lines of tents for competitors and the even shorter and insignificant row of ten aircraft that were the mounts of the finalists. Of more importance to Sheila Scott, who had flown the Com anche out from England, and the team manager, who had sup posedly navigated, was the fact that when the undercarriage of the aircraft was lowered, the green light failed signally—in every sense of that word—to come on; when the gear was retracted, the yellow light showed similar reticence; so a hasty return to Ferihegy was made. After some slightly off moments, in the middle of a long approach to an emergency landing on the grass, the green light suddenly came on (whatever was sticking or failing to lock having vibrated home) and we had no further trouble. It was at this late stage, when the finals were under way, that the complete British team, or as much of one as private enthusiasm could make it, first came completely together. Any notion in the manager's mind that he would have to assist Pocock to find his way about (or indeed to manage anything), was obviously doomed to early extinction; Nick was managing very nicely on his own. He knew everybody and it was abundantly obvious from their convers ation that he was himself a well-known and extremely popular figure. The two groups of compulsory figures accounted for two- thirds of the manoeuvres. Although they occupied so much of the time involved, the differences in marking applied to the three parts meant that the free group manoeuvres could be very highly pointed if the competitor made efficient use of the time at his dis posal. The compulsory manoeuvres were in two "handed" sets; that is, both were identical, but the manoeuvres were carried out to right or left. The first group, for instance, commenced with a slow roll to the right, left-hand stall turn and Immelmann to the right; the second with a left-hand roll, right stall turn, left Immelmann. One complete group, Group 1 in this case, was: Slow roll, hori zontally to the right (20 marks); stall turn to the left (25); half roll off loop (Immelmann) to right (20); two turns of left-hand spin (25); climbing half-roll to the right followed by a pull-out (20); left-hand vertical roll, followed by a tight-radius outside half-loop, into which the aircraft was more or less pulled direct from the finishing pos ition of the vertical roll (35); complete outside loop (30); three- quarters of a normal loop (15), which was left at 45° from top dead centre; from this inverted position, inverted left-hand stall turn (35); tight, inverted, 360° right-hand turn (25). In addition to the maximum 250 points for each set, there were up to 100 points for efficient use of the display arena. Further, the total points gained for each figure set were multiplied by three before the bonus was added for efficient positioning. Total possible for both groups was 1,700. All the manoeuvres in the compulsory groups were within the capabilities of our Stampe, although it did not take kindly to stall turns to the left, normal or inverted. Stall turns to the right,however, were much better—better in fact than with the Zlin—the aircraft, as Nick put it, "turning about the imaginary pin through the e.g." Owing to the tendency of the engine to stop during the spin and the necessity of trying to catch it with the throttle, he inad vertently gave it a burst that increased the rate of spin and caused him to complete an extra turn, losing a fair number of points. The system of marking the free group was so comprehensive that it is impossible to cover it in detail. One hundred and eighty man oeuvres figured in the list of points, each either left or right handed.
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