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Aviation History
1969
1969 - 1036.PDF
H^W Open Class at Lasham By A. E. SLATER PART TWO LAST WEEK'S ACCOUNT of this meeting took us nearly half way through, but included only one contest day; there "were three more to come. Wednesday, May 21, dawned with an overcast sky, but as a neighbouring cold front would, according to the met. man, "completely lose its structure," an improvement was expected later. The task was a 203km triangle. By 1600hr the weather looked promising enough for launching to start, but the first few in the air were seen to be doing so badly that the contest had to be officially cancelled. Nevertheless, everyone was encouraged to have an unofficial go and 14 succeeded in getting round. The reason for cancellation was that, if there are only two or three hours of thermal activity left and it takes 45rnin to launch, everybody, the first competitors launched have a grossly unfair advantage over the last. Thursday, May 22, the sixth day of a ten-day competition in which the weather had only allowed one contest day so far, turned out promising, with cumulus clouds in a light easterly breeze. It was obviously a day for speed round a triangle—but how big a triangle? Although the winner on Tuesday's cat's-cradle had exceeded 500km he could choose his course, and a set course of SjDOkm might not be so easy. But the principal objection to a 500km or even a 400km triangle, in the opinion of Ann Welch, the chief task-setter, was the size and shape of England, because the stable air of the sea breeze was expected to penetrate a considerable distance inland during the afternoon. So she Set a 318km triangle via Bath Racecourse and Stratford-upon-Avon theatre, and the pilots retreated inland before the sea. air's advance, though, on the final approach to Lasham they would have to penetrate it; and, indeed, quite a strong wind from the south had set in by mid-afternoon. The day was notable for two new UK records. John Cardiff, in his sleek new German ASW-12, went round in just under 4|h.r, averaging 71.4km/hr and beating Nicholas Goodhart's record of 66.3km/hr set up in, 1959. But, soon after Cardiff had landed, Goodhart came in with a time of 4hr 25min, giving an average of 71.9km/hr. Now in order to claim a new record you have to exceed the existing record speed by at least 2km/hr; but, if a record is broken, twice on the same day, does only the best one count? Nobody knew, and the British Gliding Association will have to sort it out when they are back home at the office. The other record was the first of its kind. Recently the BGA set up British records for "motoirised gliders" of the same kind as gliding records, with the proviso that not more than five litres of fuel may be carried, including the amount needed for launching. Lorne Welch became the first to set up one of these records, using a K-14 obtained by the BGA (from the famous Schleicher factory at the foot of the Wasserkuppe in Germany) for trying out the motorised instruction of glider pupils. As there was no record to beat, Welch took his time so as to use as little fuel as possible. He used the engine for only two or three short spells, where lift was scarce; then, shortly Before the end, he motored up to a good height so as to cross the finishing line in style at the end of a long, fast glide like the others. He had taken about 6ihr, Of which all but 40min was in motorless flight. He might have gone much faster if he had been allowed to enter cloud, where the best lift was. Again, as with the first contest, the day was remarkable for the small number of pilots coming down along the route. Apart from 13 who fell short of Lasham on the last leg late in the day, there were only an early landing at Bath, one not far off at Stroud, and one at Pewsey, from which the pilot got back for another start. Soaring conditions along the track varied with time: Devizes, for instance, held up A. J. Hogg in an Olympia 419 for lihr and was found "sticky" by several others; yet some
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