flight, while Nick, although he had got his "C" in 1938 at Sutton Bank, had done little gliding since and had never done a crosscountry. The choice of sailplanes lay between a Mu-13a and a Kranich. As the only towing vehicle that could be produced was Tony Goodhart's Ford 8, the choice necessarily fell on the Mu-13 and evcn then there were two hills that, after initial failure, had to. be negotiated in reverse. The Mu soon showed that it had a remarkably low sinking speed, and as somebody was heard, rather unkindly, to remark after the first two days' hill soaring, "The Mu is like scum, it always floats on top." In the hope ofspeeding up retrieving, the Mu had been fitted with "walkie-talkie" radio (the fitting consisted of hanging the set round the pilot's neck). This worked well while soaring the ridges, but the range was insufficient to enable it to be used effectively on cross-country and it was later discarded. Rather to everybody's surprise, and certainly to the Naval team's, the Mu showed itself capable of very reasonable cross-country flights and was finally placed 2nd in the competitions, winning the du Garde Peach trophy and three of the daily prizes. Which all goes to show that you don't have to have been gliding for years and years in order to put up quite a reasonable showing when competing against the real "Pundits"! F Scottish <strong>Gliding</strong> Umon ULL development of our soaring site at Bishopshill has again been retarded by difficulties ofaccess, but Balado Airfield has been most active. In the first eight months of <strong>1950</strong>, over 3,000 launches were made and 28 "A" and seven "B" certificates gained. Bishopshill produced eight "Cs" in this period. When the Eon Baby was crashed and written off in November, 1949, we were faced with a considerable problem. The <strong>Club</strong> machines at this stage were I Dagling, 2 S.G.38's, 2 Cadets and I Tutor-all training types. As a fair percentage of the value of the Baby had been recovered, the committee had a relatively free choice in the matter of a replacement, provided Kemsley Flying Trust assistance could be obtained. <strong>Club</strong> pilots had !:reen almost entirely trained by the solo method and the general standard of flying was considered to be not so high as was desired. While it was realised that a high, performance machine was neoessary, it was feared that a repetition of the Eon Baby incident may occur. The decision was therefore made to order a Slingsby T-ZlB two seater. This meant holding over lhe hopes and aspirations of a considerable number of the <strong>Club</strong> members for another year, but all have co-operated to make maximum use of the existing aircraft, despite their limited performance. Much use has been made of auto-towing on the runways at Balado, using 0.098 inch diameter solid wire. Tile cost of this wire, which is J 10 tons per square 'inch tensile strength, is 10s. per 1,000 feet, and the life approximately 250 launches. However, petrol consumption on our towing vehicle IS high, and this partly offsets the advantages of this method of launching. No flights worthy of special note have been made, mainly because of the absence of a suitable machine. Despite fine displays of s'tanding waves on week-days, the weekends produced nothing better than a few ripples, barely sufficient to support a glider. Th,eir presence, however, makes the winter season at Balado as interesting as the summer, especially as the waves :an be reached by winch or auto-tow launch in all wind directions from S. through W. to N.E. Five seven-day Holiday <strong>Gliding</strong> Courses for ab initios were held during July and August and these have been most successful. It is intended to make these a regular feature of the <strong>Club</strong>'s programme. On the maintenance. side, we have employed a full-time ground engineer since January, thus solving many problems. With the progressive reduction of aircraft maintenance facilities in Scotland since the end ofthe war, we would have been faced with a most difficult transport situation in the event of damage to gLiders. G.H. Short's <strong>Gliding</strong> <strong>Club</strong> This <strong>Club</strong> was officially opened on 1st June by Mr. E. D. A. Herbert, director of Sh,ort Bros. and HlU'land Ltd., who referred to the good work done by the original Short's <strong>Gliding</strong> Group at Rochester, which resulted in the' prodwction of the Nimbus, the world's first high-performance low- -158-
A.R.B. and A.l.D. /ns~clio" approval. A.R.D. D(si.qn Appro,·al. I F. G. MILES LIMITED AIRCRAFT DESIGNERS Consultants on all aviation matters Glider - towing installations Redhill Aerodrome, Surrey Tele: Nutfield Ridge 2200 I R VIN BEEN SUPPLIED TO Redhill Flying <strong>Club</strong>; Flyin Cardiff Aeroplane <strong>Club</strong>. IRVINf~ CHUTES ICKNIELD WAY lETCHWORTH HERTS
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