KRONFELD ON GLIDING AND SOARING.pdf - Lakes Gliding Club

n6 KRONFELD ON GLIDING & SOARING
explore the coast and investigate its possibilities. We
found that the steep coast extending outwards in a huge
convex bulge towards the ocean seemed more likely to be
practicable for us than the inland slopes. To begin with,
starting conditions were far better there, but we realized
that it must depend entirely upon the prevailing winds
whether we undertook our first flights from Corn Hill
or the neighbourhood of Highland Lights, a signalling
station on the ocean side.
We had thought that we could make our preparations
in all secrecy, but here we were greatly mistaken. All
events in America are exposed to a much greater publicity
than is the case in Europe, and our manager, Frank Blunk,
had already drawn attention in a newspaper to the arrival
of three German soarers on Cape Cod. Unfortunately
for us, he thus saddled us with the pack of reporters and
film photographers who are always at the service of an
omnipotent press on such occasions. In the days before
our first flight we were regularly besieged ; as a matter
of course, this army soon made itself as much at home in
our two cottages as we were ourselves in a manner that was
as amazing as it was naive. But among these pressmen
there were some splendid fellows who showed the most
complete understanding of our difficult position and did
much service to us by their reports.
For us the period of waiting was a great trial. We wanted
to fly ; everyone wanted to see us flying and urged us to
action with all the emphasis of a press that meant so much
to us as far as popular success was concerned. We received
weather reports and carried on our investigations day by day.
The blacksmith of Provincetown made us a starting
apparatus and rings for the launching cable, while with
mingled hopes and fears we awaited the coming of a fair
wind, of which we could not make use until we received
news from New York.
On July i yth we drew the " Darmstadt " (which had
previously been exhibited at the Detroit Air Olympics)
out of its shed and put it together. One after the other
we were compelled to climb in and pose ; then an entirely
unknown lady got in and hardly was her picture taken than