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Aviation History
1963
1963 - 0329.PDF
FLIGHT International, 28 February 1963 Williamson reported that the sink was remarkably steady and uninterrupted, resulting in a glide of about 15:1. A glimpse of the ground from 800ft did nothing to aid the navigation, but with a DR position north of track he was steering south-southwest. At 4,000ft the aircraft broke cloud, still in heavy rain, and Williamson was fortunate to pick up a good landmark; two long, parallel lakes which he identified on the edge of one of his maps. This pinpointed the Skylark south of track and south-east of the second turn. Below the aircraft, the entire countryside appeared to be flooded. As he approached the turning point, other land marks confirmed Williamson's course, but from 300ft he was forced to land 1km short of the correct estancia. Not that the estancia where he did land was bad value—the owner's hospitality included instant whisky, followed by an English tea with buttered scones. This excellent flight by Williamson was to bring him into fourth open-class place on overall points. Meanwhile, the British team's mobile station, manned by Lome Welch and meteorologist Wally Wallington, was having a somewhat melancholy experience. The heavy rains had turned the dusty roads into slithering mudbaths in which the direction in which the Ford moved bore little relation to the movement of the steering wheel. At one stage, local help was enlisted to get the car moving: the local help revved the engine while the two crew-members pushed. The most spectacular result of this was that the genial met-man was suddenly covered com pletely, but completely, with thick, black mud. Sailplanes were returning on aerotow to Junin shortly before dusk, just as a refreshing thunderstorm hit the airfield itself. Several pilots were still unaccounted for, including Anthony Deane- Drummond and Dick Johnson. At it had proved impossible to complete the race, the day's flying was marked on the basis of distance along a set line, with Henry in first position in the open class with 193km and 1,000 points. After Williamson, Spanig of West Germany in the Zugvogel 3 was third, with Hossinger (Argentina, Zefir) fourth, and Nietlispach (Switzerland, Sky) fifth. In the standard class, Ka-6s made the best three distances: Sejstrup of Denmark with 193km, Hachler of Switzerland with 188km, and Ara of Spain with 187km. Fourth and fifth were Witanen (Finland, Vasama) and Brigliadori (Italy, Uribel). Consistency by the French pilot Francois Henry had now brought him to the top of the open class, where the leaders were jostling for position with Williamson placed fourth, just behind Makula. The close competition in the standard class continued, with Huth moving into first place. The leading positions were as follows:— Open Class 1. Henry 2. Spanig 3. Makula 4. Williamson 5. Hossinger Breguet 901 Zugvogel 3 Zefir Skylark 4 Zefir with Goodhart (Skylark 4) 11 th with 2611. Points France 3768 W. Germany 3370 Poland 3366 Britain 3281 Argentina 3186 Standard Class Huth ... Sejstrup Fritz ... Wodl Lacheny Ka-6 Ka-6 Standard Austria Standard Austria Edelweiss with Deane-Drummond (Olympia 463) 17th with 2378. W. Germany Denmark Austria Austria France 3414 3316 3189 3178 2862 No contest flying took place on Sunday, February 17. The official reason given was "bad meteorological conditions." During the first part of the day sailplanes continued to arrive back in good English-type soaring weather; Dick Johnson in the Sisu was located and retrieved; and we read in the official daily news bulletin that the previous day's selected task "was based upon a meteoro logical estimate which was basically optimistic and, considering the quality of pilots and sailplanes, a better result was expected." The noise of muttered no-comments in many tongues arose on the afternoon air, as the day's first thunderstorm broke over Junin and the rains came down as if in judgment. OSTIV delegates, after a day and a half of technical sessions, were on their way to enjoy a "short relax," this time at a local estancia. Unfortunately their bus was unable to negotiate the deep and slippery mud on the approach to the ranch and the trip proved abortive. The day drew to a close with rain that was every inch (and there were many) as solid and as liquid as that of Camp- hill 1954—previously regarded as the vintage year. There was no basic change in the weather situation on Monday, February 18, and a solid overcast hung over the dampened airfield of Laguna de Gomez (or LDG, as the official abbreviation had it) as the announcement that there would be no flying was made. The stories of Saturday's flying and the subsequent adventures con- The two Czech-built Blaniks—this is Laksic's (Chile)- only two-seaters in the contest -are the tinued to come in—together with at least one of the sailplanes. This was the SB-7 piloted by Rolf Kuntz, which arrived back shortly before noon on Monday after an eventful return journey which had begun on Sunday when the tug aircraft turned over on take-off from the waterlogged field where Kuntz had landed. A helicopter next took over for the aerotow but also crashed on take off, apparently because of trim difficulties. The sailplane and its pilot survived the accident, but the unfortunate towplane pilot, who had been aboard the helicopter, was injured. The crashed helicopter was seen from the air by Dick Johnson in the Sisu as he was being aerotowed to Pergamino from another damp field where he had landed the previous day. After electing not to take the Williamson route because of the navigational problems of blind flying, Johnson had sought good visual condit ions to the north, but had been forced to land some 24km north of track. He had walked to a nearby hacienda and managed to telephone through to Laguna de Gomez after a drive to the nearest telephone, but the message had disappeared in the mysteries of the organiza tion and nobody knew of his whereabouts until the next morning, Sunday, when he telephoned in again. In between telephone calls, he had spent the night in his more-or-less mosquito-tight cockpit. Among other pilots who had experienced helicopter tows after Saturday's flying were Bob Rowe of Australia (Skylark 3F) and Dick Schreder (HP-11) of the USA. Baeke of Belgium enlisted the help of a large group of local women and men to move both his Skylark 3 and the tug aircraft out of one waterlogged field, through another waterlogged field and on to a narrow road, from which they finally took off, steering an erratic course between the deep ditches on each side. Final Results Kenneth Owen's day-by-day story of the champion ships will be continued next week. Meanwhile, below are the final placings, received as we go to press. There was a dramatic incident on Saturday, when Breunissen's (Holland) Skylark 3 lost a wing-tip as it crossed the starting line at 1,600ft; the pilot escaped safely by parachute. Open Class 1. Makula 2. Popiel 3. Schreder 4. Johnson 5. Hossinger Williamson was placed eight Standard Class Huth Lacheny Horma Brigliadori Wodl... Zefir Zefir HP-II Sisu Zefir i Goodhart eleventh. Ka-6 C-30 Edelweiss Pik I6C Vasama Uribel Standard Austria Poland Poland USA USA Argentina W. Germany France Finland Italy Austria Deane-Drummond was placed fifteenth. The US pilot Dick Johnson, whose Sisu was eventually fourth in the open class
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