KRONFELD ON GLIDING AND SOARING.pdf - Lakes Gliding Club

126 KRONFELD ON GLIDING & SOARING
furrows in his face taper down to a chin like the body of a
glider. These are the traces left by his self-denial and
tenacity of purpose ! Everything about him proclaims
the hard common-sense which joins with his innate modesty
to prevent the inspiration slumbering in his heart from
finding outward expression. In short, this carpenter of
Poppenhausen is a character like the one so finely drawn by
Max Eyth in his novel The Tailor of Ulm, the man born
a hundred years before his time, from whose tragic fate
Schleicher will certainly be spared. For the tailor of
Ulm made for himself a pair of wings which were to be
moved by his arms ; thus equipped, he leaped from the
steep bank of the Danube, and, falling, met his death.
Now Alex Schleicher makes a second steep turn, and we
fly before the wind at a speed of from thirty to forty miles
an hour, high above the mountain group of the Wasserkuppe.
For the first time I realize the tremendous height
to which we have risen. At the same height, but at
irregular intervals successful soarers come flying towards
us, and Schleicher flies in and out of their midst at top
speed in masterly fashion. First we meet the Viennese
Kronfeld, and henceforth I am lost in a mere fantastic
dream. Silently, like a phantom ship in the night, he
glides past close to us. He claps his hands at us because
we have climbed so high and now I too am moved to break
the holy silence with a loud " Bravo ! " Then I ask him
if he is not hungry after nearly five hours flying ; he understands
every word, and his face breaks into a smile while
his teeth gleam like two rows of pearls in the sunshine
as he lifts his hand to show me some slabs of chocolate and
a sandwich his provision for his record flight.
Alex told me that when the air was crowded to-day,
for example, two hundred flights have been made it was
necessary to be very careful when exchanging greetings
with Kronfeld, because, hailing from Vienna, he had
transferred his Austrian rules of the road to the air, so that
he passed the other aircraft on the left instead of the right
and always made his turns in unexpected directions.
In the meantime Nehring, nicknamed " Bubi," the everlasting
boy, in his loudly checked knicker suit, is drawing