KRONFELD ON GLIDING AND SOARING.pdf - Lakes Gliding Club

322 KRONFELD ON GLIDING & SOARING
returning, however, he lost too much height to permit of
a landing on the Wasserkuppe itself.
This year the pilots participating in the performance
competition were set a difficult task. The weather conditions
were not nearly as favourable as in the preceding
year. Rising currents under clouds were active only for
a few hours at a time and did not suffice for long flights.
Moreover, the long squall fronts were not plainly marked.
The achievement of long distance was only gained by
fighting every inch of the way. Under these conditions
the younger pilots naturally found it hard to follow my
example and cover the necessary ground for reaching the
mountains of the Thiiringer Wald or the hilly regions
beyond. Whereas I repeated my last year's performance
of twice exceeding the ninety-three miles (one hundred and
fifty kilometres) limit, the next best performances of the
younger generation represented by Mayer, Hurttig, Groenhoff
and others were restricted to about one-third of the
actual distance covered by myself.
Attempts have been made to give all kinds of explanations
for this difference in the results. In some quarters it has
been stated that my machine was very much better, in
others, that I had a " pathological flair " for soaring. I
am myself well aware of the fact that both opinions are far
removed from the truth. Admittedly, my " Wien " is
a high efficiency machine and has the advantage of behaving
splendidly in rough weather as well as in a gentle breeze.
Nevertheless, in every contest for which I entered this
glider, there were several other machines of nearly equal
performance, in some respects, in fact, even superior.
The success of my efforts is not due to any particular
flair but simply to systematic work in laying out my plans
in conjunction with using my common sense when in the air.
This was proved, for instance, when I flew along the
course taken by Nehring in his " Darmstadt " in 1927,
and under similar conditions I covered thirty-two miles
(51.5 kilometres), coming down at exactly the same
spot where at the time Nehring had effected his
landing.
On August 13th several line squalls passed over the