KRONFELD ON GLIDING AND SOARING.pdf - Lakes Gliding Club

THE LEAN YEARS
UT other results were obtained which proved far
more important than mere records. In the first
place it was demonstrated that gliding and soaring
were practicable over various types of country.
The German flyers came together for a meeting in
Vienna, where Martens flew six miles, remaining in
the air for three quarters of an hour, while the tailless
plane belonging to the Berlin group made itself conspicuous
by many pretty flights. The Vienna meeting was also
noteworthy for the appearance of a new " ace," in the
person of " Espe," as his comrades nicknamed young
Gottlob Espenlaub. He was one of the early pioneers of
the Rhon, where he had even spent the winters of 1921 and
1922. A shopkeeper in the district told me later that
" Espe " had come to him one autumn and bought a
sack of oatmeal, which, with a little dripping, was his sole
supply of food for the winter. But he brought to Vienna
two planes he had built with his own hands. He could not
fly ! So he had to look on while a strange pilot smashed
one of them to pieces.
" I couldn't do it worse myself," said Espenlaub, and
started off in the other machine one morning before anyone
was awake, although he had not the least notion of what to
do in the air. This first flight of his life was made from a
hill a thousand feet high, and he flew nearly two miles
a most unique feat, for his maiden flight won a distance prize.
From that time on " Espe " made his own crashes, and
played a great role in the history of German soaring flight.
He is a living example to flyers of what it is possible to
accomplish alone and unaided. He is the son of a shepherd,
and began his associations with the Wasserkuppe by
fetching water for the landlord of the " Baude " (The Hut)
as we call our first shelter there. Thus he earned many a
plate of hot soup.
7o