KRONFELD ON GLIDING AND SOARING.pdf - Lakes Gliding Club

RECORDS 67
and their records. Although duration flying was very
necessary in the early days in order to accumulate soaring
experience, persistence in such flights after their purpose
has been served is the surest way to bring a promising
beginning to a standstill. Duration flight only trains
pilots with staying power and neglects the sensitive ones.
It does not lead to that progress in the technical and
scientific directions upon which all future development
must be based. Many flyers recognized this fact, but they
were uncertain as to the direction in which progress was
to be expected and looked for it along the lines of the
previous year's developments.
Prizes were offered for distance flights of more than
twelve miles, during which a height of over one thousand
one hundred and fifty feet should be attained. Soaring
with the aid of a small engine, which had fallen into the
background during the last meeting, was again brought
forward, but the general interest was so concentrated upon
soaring proper that few competitors were found to enter
for this prize.
On the other hand there once more appeared a whole host
of new machines of notable and interesting construction.
In addition to various experiments with planes provided
with wings that could be turned or curved, the constructive
type which promised most for the future was the " Konsul,"
sent by the Darmstadt Group. It had pinions with a span
of sixty-six feet, which were attached to a slender cockpit
of ply-wood. This was certainly a daring experiment
at the time, but later it fully proved its value.
In spite of its ninety-seven entries, the Meeting of 1923
fell far below the level of the previous year. No one
succeeded in reaching prize standard. The extremely
unfavourable weather must be blamed chiefly for this
result. The best achievements were an eleven-mile
distance flight by the " Konsul " and a flight in which
Hackmack attained a height of a thousand feet. This
flight of Hackmack's was made in a heavy storm, and was
chiefly valuable for its demonstration that soaring was
possible in all kinds of weather, provided that the machines
were sufficiently strongly built.