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Aviation History
1963
1963 - 0328.PDF
amtwmwm we* 312 .;*•-.. ;r , -., •; FLIGHT International, 28 February 1963 Highly placed in the open-class points list on Friday, February 15, were (from the top) Makula's Zefir, Ulbing's Standard Austria and Popiel in his Zefir. The Zefirs were to do even better UNDER THE WEATHER... The daily results in any gliding contest depend on a variable mixture of aircraft performance, pilot skill and luck. When the specified task is a short one—taking up, say, 1J hours' flying out of a possible five-hour period—the element of luck is increased. This was demonstrated at Junin on Friday, February 15, when the organizers set a modest 100km triangular race in conditions which would have been good enough for a course of 200 or 300km. The turning points which split the specified race into three roughly equal legs were at Los Toldos airfield and a road crossing on Route 188, 10km north-west of Bayauca. Take-offs began at 12.15, with start-line control in business from 12.30. Selection of starting time was clearly critical for such a short task, although it seemed likely that most pilots would have time for two attempts. Several lost no time in crossing the start line promptly, and at 2.30 the first sailplane to complete the triangle, Henry's Breguet 901, arrived back at Laguna de Gomez airfield and passed over the finishing line. From that time on, a steady stream of returning sailplanes came in at the end of their final glides, most with ample height to spare. Typically well-judged were the approaches of Williamson and Goodhart, skimming in at 3 p.m. with no height wasted to land and be launched again within the space of 3min. Just after 4 p.m. Henry in the Breguet 901 was back again, and 4min later was in the air once more for his third time around the triangle. Healthy- looking cumulus was visible from the airfield, and pilots were regularly reporting thermal strengths of 3 metres per sec. After the day's results were known, an analysis of speeds around the triangle in relation to time of starting made an interesting exercise. A distinct peak in performance was evident, correspond ing to a starting time of approximately 2.20 p.m. At the top of this peak were Makula and Popiel, who began their first circuit at this time and completed it in lhr 09min 24sec and lhr lOmin 09sec Zefir Standard Austria Breguet 901 Zefir HP-II Poland Austria France Poland USA nd Goodhart eighth (2286). Standard Austria Ka-6 Standard Austria Vasama Ka-6 Austria W. Germany Austria Finland Denmark Points 2877 2794 2768 2761 2490 2853 2824 2800 2392 2316 respectively, Makula's time corresponding to a speed of 94.75km/hr. Makula's reason for waiting until this time before starting was that he had decided to go when cloudbase reached 1,300m. For the British pilots, this period of best soaring weather had straddled the latter part of their first circuit and the first part of their second circuit. The resulting best times for Goodhart, Williamson and Deane-Drummond were lhr 28min 44sec, lhr 29min 33sec and lhr 32min 55sec respectively, all of which were obtained on the pilots' first time round. Goodhart and Deane-Drummond in fact failed to complete the triangle a second time. The standard class leaders, Wodl and Fritz of Austria and Hufh of West Germany, again did well, with Wodl setting up the best time in his class—lhr 12min 12sec, corresponding to a speed of 91.08km/hr. Huth was second, Fritz third, Horma of Finland fourth and Brigliadori of Italy fifth. Deane-Drummond was 19th in the day's placings. The overall points totals were now:— Open Class 1. Makula 2. Ulbing 3. Henry 4. Popiel 5. Schreder with Williamson seventh (2' Standard Class 1. Wodl 2. Huth 3. Fritz 4. Horma 5. Seistrup with Deane-Drummond ninth (2052). Those pilots who succeeded in breaking their own national 100km triangle speed records were thrown into the swimming pool at the airfield that night. This was one way of cooling off after what had been the hottest day of the championships. As if to make up for the previous day, the task set on Saturday, February 16, was over-ambitious. In a 5-min briefing delayed until noon, a 300km triangular race was announced, with turning points at Pergamino and at San Alberto estancia, some 10km west of Santa Isobel. Tracks and distances for the three legs were 21°, 89km; 274°, 104km; and 142°, 116km. The meteorological cross-section at briefing showed, among other things, a big cu-nim going off the top of the board at about The British team: left to right, John Williamson, Anthony Deane-Drum mond and Nick Good hart. Williamson's good showing in the race on February lb brought him into fourth place in the open class on that day 3 p.m. This in essence was the key to the weather for the next two days—widespread thunderstorm activity associated with a front east of Junin, producing violent results in the air and on the ground. Few pilots got further than the first turning point. The day's two best flights were by Henry (Breguet 901), who reached the second turning point, and Williamson (Skylark 4) who landed just short of it. The British pilot later gave the following outline of his flight. Soon after starting it became evident that the second turning point would be cut off by a huge cu-nim cell. After one or two scares, including an 800ft scrape over the town of Rojas, William son reached the first turn at 950m, and decided to convert all his height into a search for cu-nims to the north-west of the turn ing point, instead of going due west along the line to an almost certain landing. This approach worked. After changing clouds a few times the British pilot entered a moderately turbulent one which took him to 20,000ft. From this height Williamson reckoned he could make the second turn, 108km away. The next 40min were spent in cloud, in rain, flying as steadily as possible westwards. Times of climbs and glides were passed by radio to the British team's base at the airfield, where David Cretney kept Williamson informed of his probable position by dead reckoning.
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