KRONFELD ON GLIDING AND SOARING.pdf - Lakes Gliding Club

TEN YEARS OF COMPETITION & EXPERIENCE 61
year before, had come to the Rhon meeting this year, and
on August I4th an experienced war pilot, Wilhelm Leusch,
started in it.
This machine started differently from the others ;
it was hoisted on the shoulders of several men, who ran
with it against the wind. Silently the plane rose, and
began to climb towards the storm. The impression made
upon everyone present was indescribable ; hitherto they
had only seen gliding flights, but this was soaring. When
the machine had been little more than a minute in the air
and flown about a mile above its starting place, a cloud
compelled the pilot to turn away. The turn became
steeper and steeper until people realized that something
probably the steering had gone wrong. Suddenly a wing
broke off, and the plane crashed down, burying the pilot
beneath its wreckage.
Those were heavy hours and days, but soaring flight
could not now be checked, even by such sad accidents.
Before the end of another year exploits were to be performed
which would be famous all over the world. The
way had been wearisome and hard, but the ideal that was
behind the movement had become reality and deed.