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KRONFELD ON GLIDING AND SOARING.pdf - Lakes Gliding Club

KRONFELD ON GLIDING AND SOARING.pdf - Lakes Gliding Club

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150 <strong>KR<strong>ON</strong>FELD</strong> <strong>ON</strong> <strong>GLIDING</strong> & <strong>SOARING</strong><br />

" How did you feel ? " I ask afterwards, and the man who<br />

two minutes before had been crouching in the machine,<br />

hardly venturing to touch the controls, replies : " I started<br />

nicely ; then came a gust from the right; I moved the rudder,<br />

noticed that I pushed it too far, adjusted it, pulled the stick<br />

a bit and steered sideways. Then I got ready to land/'<br />

It is extremely difficult to convince him that he has done<br />

none of these things, though he may have imagined himself<br />

doing them.<br />

" Have you ever dreamed that you are being pursued ? "<br />

I ask him. " You want to run, but you can't. You believe<br />

that you are exerting all your powers, but in reality you are<br />

doing nothing at all. That's what you and most beginners<br />

are like the first time you're in the machine."<br />

The next pupil pushes the stick a bit too hard when he<br />

starts, and the machine comes down with a bump after a<br />

flight of less than twenty feet. " First I saw everything<br />

blue around me," says the man, " then it all changed to<br />

green, and finally the machine crashed." He at least is<br />

honest.<br />

The most difficult pupil is the one that starts by doing<br />

everything wrong. The machine rears, but instead of<br />

pushing the stick forward, he pulls it. The machine<br />

continues to rear ; he pulls it further until it is almost<br />

standing on its tail. It hangs in the air for a fraction of a<br />

second, and then drops earthward like a ripe plum. No<br />

great damage is done as the fall is merely a matter of some<br />

twelve feet or so, because we always start our beginners on<br />

level ground, so that the worst that may happen is a broken<br />

wire or two, while man and machine are certain to escape<br />

serious injury.<br />

" What did I do wrong ? " asks the unlucky fellow. " I<br />

meant to push the stick over." He may be one of those<br />

persons who cannot grasp the simple action of the control<br />

lever, and to such a one you must try to explain matters in<br />

some other way. " Imagine that you are in a kayak or some<br />

kind of light boat," you tell him. " A high wave surges<br />

up before you ; what do you do to balance your boat ? "<br />

" I bend forward." " And on the same principle you<br />

bend sideways if the boat lists. If you can't learn it any

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