Gliding 1950 - Lakes Gliding Club

ck towards the site and without any
d culty got down to about 1,000 ft. above
t moors. Another small thermal took
m to 2,700 ft. A.S.L, and from there I was
e to fly in a straight line, maintaining
h ight through thermals, diving between,
a d reaching the end of the Camphill ridge
E1,300 ft. A.S.L. The hill lift was not as
d as when I had left, and I had doubts
. to whether I should be able to get height
ough to get into the landing field; but,
)Yith 200 ft. to spare, I turned in, made a
-landing and rushed off to declare anOther
goal.
Wally Kahn, my partner, soon arrived
and helped to get the machine back to the
\ launching point. I asked him for a turning
point and he gave me IrrgoldmeUs which I
declared as my goal for an out and return.
At 1 o'clock I was launched for the second
time that day, with little hope in my heart
of ever reaching Ingoldmells, let alone
returning. By now the trough had arrived
and there was 7/8 cover above the site.
Beating back and forth with a few other
dispirited late starters, I w,as, at 25 minutes
past one, introduced to sci:ntific gliding.
Looking out of my window I saw what
every glider driver dreams of-a sheet of
paper lifted from the streets and hurled
skyward. I was looking around for other
conventional convectionaJ signs-vultures
circling, smoke rising vertically, clouds
above, cornfields below, or the green ball
rising-when, to my consternation, the
greater part of a packet of Jeyes Hygienic
toilet paper was hurled from the window of
a nearby Olympia. Realising the variometer
must soon become out ofdate, I abandoned
its viscissitudes and became hypnotised by
these sheets ofpaper goinghitherand thither.
Their behaviour was alarming. A sheet
that one moment would be rising decorously
the next moment would be falling to earth
rapidly. However, by following the more
intelligent sheets in eompany with David
[nce and the originator of this cunning
device, I reached a height of2,700 ft. A.S.L.
and decided it was now or never. The
weather being bad, map-reading was
reduced to tearing downwind on a compass
bearing, trying to catch up the clear sky and
hoping that would coincide with the
crossing of the Trent about 40 miles to the
east. It did, and at 2.20 I was able to
identify Tuxford 3.5 miles from the site.
The soaring was normal and Thad covered
35 miles in 45 minutes from leaving the site.
From Tuxford, due to IngoldmeJls being
on another map, I went a little to the south,
reaching Coningsby at 3.0 o'clock, From
there I couJd see the white front of Butlin's
Holiday Camp, which I proceeded to and
reached at 4.05. Now came the problem of
recognition. I came lower to take photographs
and make notes of the disposition
ofaircraft on the ground, when suddenly the
Mu-13 appeared 200 ft. below me. Then,
at ten past four, a blue Dragon Rapide came
up from Ingoldmells aerodrome, showed me
to the more opulent campers seated therein,
and descended again. This, in lieu of a
firework display, I took as adequate
recognition.
I started circling underneath a cloud
drifting out to the sea from which I finally
emerged at 5,900 ft. out at sea from
Skegness. I was now on my way back. Lift
was still plentiful but not in sufficient
strength to make headway against the wind.
I slowly descended, delaying my descent
as I passed through thermals, until at
),500 ft. I -once again fell back towards
cloud base'at a reasonable rate. From there,
with two more thermals, I succeeded in
maintaining my pOsition above the ground
and decided there was little point in waiting,
and descended again, this time without arty
luck and landed q miles east of Wragby,
having returned along a straight line
between Ingoldmells and Camphill a
distance of 26 miles in I hr. 20 min. The
totaJ distance was 111 miles.
The point about the flight which is rather
interesting is the fact that I made better
speed while in the bad conditions immediately
after leaving the site than when I
reached the clear sky. This presumably
comes under the heading of "necessity
being the mother of invention," for once I
reached the normal good soaring condi'ions
I became, quite unwittingly, more lazy.
It seems to me that half the battle in
going faster is a sincere belief in your own
ability to go faster. It is only supreme
confidence that will cut out the dithering in
making the decision whether or not to enter
or leave a thermaL For this reason I feel
that an analysis ofa flight can be helpful in
convincing oneself that one can go faster.
and it seems to me that it is the best
conditions which are not used to the full,
while from necessity not so good conditions
are more usefully employed.
-129-