KRONFELD ON GLIDING AND SOARING.pdf - Lakes Gliding Club

MY SOARING FLIGHTS IN ENGLAND 365
conditions for all competitors. Therein lay the sporting
character of this competition. Beardmore's flight is an
event by itself, although the personal effort of this pilot,
no longer in his first youth, was certainly great.
After the Daily Mail flight I accepted an invitation to
England. At Hanworth Park, where a large gliding meeting
took place on June a8th, I was able to demonstrate my
" Wien " and " Austria " before ten thousand spectators,
in between the exemplary demonstrations of the English
glider pilots. On this day I also managed a flight of an
hour's duration over London Air Park in the up-currents
under some small cumulus heat clouds. Flt.-Lt. Max
Findlay came up in a " Martlet" to fetch me down in time
to receive the Daily Mail cheque from the hands of His
Grace, The Duke of Sutherland. In the succeeding days
there were my two cross-country flights from London
Air Park to Chatham and back. After a meeting at Blackpool,
organized by National Flying Services and where,
also, I was able to show my " Wien " in towed flight, I
returned to the Rhon.
For the Rhon Competition of 1931 particular attention
had been directed towards encouraging talented newcomers,
who were spurred to special efforts by difficult tasks. The
practice competition provided prizes for the greatest total
flying time, for the greatest aggregate altitude, and for
distance flights. A minimum of twelve miles distance was
stipulated. A new feature was provided by premiums for
constructors, i.e., for young pilots who had built their own
machines and had attained therewith a minimum altitude
of three hundred feet.
In the main competition the requirements had been
keyed up very high, having regard to the rapidity of progress.
The competition again turned on the greatest distance flown,
the minimum requirement being sixty miles. To the
initiated it was obvious that the prize for the flight to the
Oechsenberg near Vacha and back to the Wasserkuppe,
could only be won with the aid of exceptionally favourable
conditions. That again being particularly difficult during
the competitions, because such conditions are usually
reserved by the skilled pilots for their maximum distance