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Aviation History
1969
1969 - 1037.PDF
,;•;:•..-.• : . "Flight" photographs Above, Lasham line-up through a telephoto lens, below, B. F/tchett's Cirrus, fifth in the overall placings. Behind is No. 68, M. bird's Dart I7R, while No. 44 is A. H. Warminger's Phoebus 17 passed it at a good height without trouble. Andover was another sticky area for some, but Goodhart saw that it was so before getting caught, and passed to the south. The last leg of the triangle did not bother him, as he made four climbs to 7,000ft while travelling along it. John Cardiff, the other record-breaker, entered cloud only once; but, as someone said, with, such a fantastic gliding angle he didn't need to get extra height in cloud. The only serious damage to a glider happened on this day, when Ray Foot was unable to cross the last belt of trees before Lasham, turned to descend between two of the trees and hit a wire strung between them. His Skylark was badly damaged; but his radio was not, and he quickly reassured anxious watchers that he was not damaged either. There was complete alto-stratus cover on Friday, May 23, and the Saturday again brought an overcast sky, though with a promise of improvement later. But the promise was unful filled, as can be seen from the times of four briefings: 0930hr, postponed to noon, then to 1400, then to 1500, when a small triangle via Hampstead Norris and Frensham Ponds was set, launching to begin at 1615. But Andy Gough, on tow, lost sight of the ground at 1,400ft, so that was that Until Sunday, May 25, John Cardiff and Nicholas Goodhart had been in close competition for the overall lead. The finishing order on the first contest day, May 20, had been Cardiff. Fitehett, Goodhart, Williamson, Scott, Greaves, Dela- 944-945 FLIGHT International, 5 June -/?*» field and Burton in the first eight places. After the second day, these overall positions were in the order Goodhart, Cardiff, Burton, Fitchett, Williamson, Scott, Greaves and Carrow (equal seventh), followed by Delafield and Anne Burns. Now, on the third contest day, Goodhart and Cardiff were down to fourth and fifth places. The task was again cat's-cradle, with the same turning-points strung out along a belt leading into Shropshire, namely: Lasham, Faringdon, Tewkesbury, Wheatley (Oxford), Stratford- upon-Avon, Bridgnorth and Long Mynd. This time nobody touched Long Mynd and nobody finished at Lasham. Far fewer point-to-points were achieved than the previous time, and the winner, George Burton, made a total of 184.5km as against the 537km of the previous cat's-cradle winner. The total number of ways of joining up the possible pairs in a seven-point cat's-cradle is 21", or enough to support any but the heaviest cat in comfort. The best weather was to the north-east but, Ann Welch thought, not good enough to confine everyone to a fixed course; moreover, a cat's-cradle in that direction would involve too many airways, so the north-westerly cradle was repeated. What with cloud base at noon being 1,600ft, reported rising at five feet a minute, and a lot of medium cloud being brought over by a southerly wind from an occlusion over Northern France, there did not seem much hope; but the need for another contest day to make the affair a champion ship was desperate, and launches began just before 1300hr. But it was still a bit early, and many came down again for another launch. Nobody reached the other end of the cradle, but George Burton was not far off at Bridgnorth, and Ralph Jones (Cirrus) with 11km less, leaped up into seventh place overall. Clouds built up along the route, and in one of them Nick Goodhart climbed to 8,400ft and John Delafield to 8,600ft. Those who kept well west did best, but the others were landing all along the route and the region around the Faringdon turning-point was particularly bad. In scores for the day, Burton was followed in order by Jones, Paddick, Goodhart, Fitchett, Greaves, Delafield and Tanner. In overall points also, Burton was leading with 2,673, followed by Goodhart, 2,645; Fitchett, 2,527; Cardiff, 2,483; and Greaves, 2,270. Monday, May 26, the final day, was, by good luck, again satisfactory after a rainy night. To get everyone back for prizegiving, a short 150km triangular race was set, via Didcot station and a modern "white horse" cut in the Downs near Pewsey. With a strong WSW wind the second leg was decidedly difficult. But the lift was strong and went up very high; Goodhart reached 11,500ft. However, down-currents along the second leg were also strong; a )0kt "down" was reported. There were pretty good durations, too: John Williamson stayed up from 1030hr until 1930hr. George Burton won the day again and became Open Class Champion; after him in the day's points came Greaves, Goodhart, Scott, Cardiff, Brownlow, Day and Kahn. Mr Merton Maydler, who lives locally, presented the trophies at 2005hr, the computer having had just time to work out the scores of the leading ten since the last landing of the last competitor to stay airborne. Here they are, with some of those the computer had also dealt with by next morning: — Place (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) m (10) (ID (12) (13) (14) (15) (16) (17) (18) (19) (20) Competitor G. E. Burton H. C. N. Goodhart . . C. M. Greaves J. Cardiff B. Fitchett .. .. J. Delafield .. R. Jones P. M. Scott G. R. Paddick A. H. Warminger J. S. Williamson .. S. J. Redman D. H. G. Ince F. A. Plumb A. W. Gough D. D. Carrow D. S. Innes .. '.. L. E. N. Tanner N. A. Wilkinson W. A. H. Kahn .. Sailplane SHK .. .•: SHK .. SHK ASW 12 Cirrus .. Phoebus 17 Cirrus .. BS-t Dart 17R Phoebus 17 Diamant 18 SHK .. .. Ka-6E Dart 17R SHK Dart 17R SHK .. Ka-6E .. Ka-6E .. Dart 17R Points .. 3,641 .. 3,567 .. 3,217 .. 3,029 ... 2,912 .. 2,500 .. 2,479 .. 2,442 .. 2,343 .. 2,303 .. 2,179 .. 2,111 ... 2,052 .. 2,049 .. 1,969 .. 1,935 .. 1,910 .. 1,867 .. 1,858 .. 1.774
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