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Aviation History
1977
1977 - 2912.PDF
944 AMERICAN HOT-AIR VICTORY balloonist Charles Dollfus was injured by a heavy landing in the Cameron AX10-A500 Heineken balloon. The balloon had been inflated after the competitors had lifted off, the inten tion being to make a flight for the assembled press. In the time between laying the envelope out and inflation the wind had crept up to around lOkt, rather fast for flying this giant. As the launch field was surrounded by trees a false impression of the wind speed was given, so Heineken took off. Charles Dollfus, 85 years young, had been eager to fly in the monster so he hopped on board with the 20 other crew and passengers. All progressed well until the landing, which was hard and fast. Sadly, Monsieur Dollfus's airframe was not up to the loading experienced, and six ribs failed. Now in York Hospital, he is making a steady recovery and will be out in a few weeks. For the record, this was Monsieur Dollfus's 615th ascent in 66 years of ballooning. On Wednesday the weather stepped in once again and flying was delayed until the evening. A judge-declared goal was the task, during which a world launch record was established when 49 balloons took off in 16min. The wind on take-off had been a steady 12kt, admittedly at the top end of the scale for flying, but there were 50 experienced pilots flying and they should have been able to control a balloon in these conditions. Unfor tunately, after launch the balloons were exposed to 30kt winds- whipping over the Yorkshire Wolds. As ex pected this resulted in some accidents, mostly with power wires. Del Michaud from Canada just touched one set. Italian Piero Porati, who was follow ing him, succeeded in bringing the wires down and blacked out a few villages; he was unhurt. Werner Schweizer was not so lucky: he hit a support pole and his basket slid down the pole, which became entangled with the envelope. Schweizer cracked a rib in this accident and his balloon's flying wires had to be cut to free the envelope. Freddie Ishoo, after a few quiet tasks, came back to life by actually dropping a marker on the goal. Although it was one of his home made streamers, the scorers awarded him 155 points. He of course made an official protest but the score stood. Back at the competitive end of the scoring, Bruce Gomstock in a Cameron AX7-65 dropped his marker 3-6m from goal. Olivier Roux-Devillas came second with 10-8m. British re serve pilot Dave Bareford came third, scoring 15-7m. Kai Paamand was also knocked out of the competition on Wednesday night when his balloon went through a hedge at a great rate of knots and was shredded. Although the minimum number of FLIGHT International, I October 1977 tasks had been flown, it was decided that Wednesday morning had been a rest period, so a task would be flown on Thursday morning. This turned out to be a double task, a Hesitation Waltz followed by a Fly-on. The second part is a modified FiFo, the fly-in being dropped. After the excite ment of the previous night this task was fairly routine. Freddie Ishoo con tinued to ignore the markers and managed to score an amazing minus 2,725 points. This finally clinched for him the position which he so keenly sought—that of last place. The two parts of this task, difficult ones to score, were won respectively by Michel Bergounioux in a Chaize 2,000m3 (5m from goal) and Paul Woessner, who once again scored a zero. Friday morning's task was a judge- declared goal. Kaseva from Finland flew this task in a borrowed balloon and Porati dropped out. This was the task that really demonstrated the high degree of piloting skill needed for the competition. Dick Wirth summed it up: "You can drop your marker on the cross and still come fourth." Joe Starkbaum (Thunder AX6-56A) made a spectacular flight :"|»S MS im ;M.SS? IlPf - *-.%" 'vw&^. ::'.U*---' .;. •:&. •. across the goal at a height of 6in. Many officials were on hands and knees, looking to see if he touched the ground and thereby incurring a penalty, but he didn't. The show was stolen again by Freddie Ishoo. It must be explained that he normally flies with a monkey in the basket, but Britain's rabies regulations barred the anthropoid. A substitute toy monkey therefore flew with the Iranian. On Friday, after a perfect approach, Freddie leaned over the goal to drop his marker. Seconds later the monkey dropped on to the cross. A large cheer from the assembled gathering prompted Freddie to throw his hat overboard to join the monkey. He was penalised for dropping an un authorised marker. Dave Barker in a new Thunder AX6-56A won the task, scoring 2-3m, and Bruce Comstock came second with 3-5m. The scores of the first seven were all within 7m, and only half a metre separated some scores. - v A final task set for Friday evening was abandoned due to unsettled weather, so Paul Woessner became the new world champion. Apart from the flying skill, a few other interest ing points emerged from the champion ships. On all the tasks except one a 56,000ft3 parachute-rip balloon won. And four of the top six balloons were British made—taking this further, British balloons secured 17 of the top 30 places. This reflects the position British manufacturers are gaining in the world market. Some suggestions have been put forward as to why the British did not fare so well on their home ground. One is that most of the team changed at the last moment to sponsored bal loons with which they were un accustomed. Next time, balloon changes will have to be made much earlier in the championship year, to gain experience on type. Pilots must also learn how to use their dump valves more. The Americans, especi ally those in Ravens, were able to corkscrew and fly sideways by dump ing. Certainly these championships were an eye opener to Britain. Next venue Sweden? Sweden has already been suggested as the venue for the 1979 champion ships. Some of the leading Swedish pilots are against it, having seen the amount of organisation needed at Castle Howard. But Per Anderson, chairman of the Swedish Balloon Federation, told me that he was in favour of holding the event in Sweden and that he would import a team of British experts to assist with the organisation. If the next champion ship is run as well as this year's, it cannot fail to be very successful.
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