VGC News/Newsletters - Lakes Gliding Club

Fred Slingsby in his first glider, the Falcon I. This became the Slingsby 7)pe 1 in 1931 when he became a full time glider
builder. It was a copy of the Lippisch-designed RRG Falke which Slingsby built on Maggersuppe's suggestion. 1t was a very
good glider but it took three limes as long 10 build as a Grunau Baby. Pholo V G Rhodes.
Master of Semphill (President of the Royal Aeronautical
Society) Captain Latimer Needham and probably Toby
AshweIl Cook and atl the great names in gliding of that far off
time, met on the Wasserkuppe. The result was that the British
delegation returned to England all starry eyed and determined
to "build a Wasserkuppe amid England's green and pleasant
land". and almost never came down ,to earth again. Dudley
Hiscox had been to the Wasserkuppe before the formation of
the London Gliding Club at its present site and the Germans
had told him that the clubhouse should be at the bot,tom of the
hill, rather than at the top like theirs because it was less hard
work to get down to the clubhouse in the evening, rather than
to have to struggle back upwards, when they were tired.
It has to be said that of the over 100 British gliding clubs that
had been formed during the initial outburst of enthusiasm in
1930 most failed through lack of experience. Power pilots had
bad reputations, as one would arrive asking whether Ile m~ght
fly that thing, all dressed up in leather coat, flying helmet and
blitches. The club members would say" at last, someone has
come to show us how it is done", someone who may well have
been at the Front dUling the war. The next moment, this hero
would be stepping out of the wreckage which had been the
club's only glider. Only at the London Gliding Club at Dunstab;le
was there enough ability and experience to lead to
progress. It also had more than one glider and it attracted the
power pilot Mungo Buxton. On the 21 st February 1931 two
pilots soared for just over 5 minutes in the cold winter air.
Their names were Graham Humby and D.e. Smith. These
were the first two pilots in Britain to gain their C certificates.
At last, after weeks of frustration and hardship, there was
progress. Other Clubs to keep going were the Southdown al1d
the Dorset Clubs and in the North were the Newcastle, Barrow
in FUl'ness and the Derbyshire and Lancashire Clubs. There
was also a group that later amalgamated to become the Yorkshire
Gliding Club. Only one University, the Imperial College
in Lond.on, had started gliding. In Northern Ireland, the Ulster
Club started operations. When one thinks that almost .all these
Clubs are still going today, tears come to the eyes.
In 1931, there was the Great Channel Race with the Daily
Mail .offering a £ 1,000 prize. The flights had to be made both
ways after aerotowed launches in each country. No lift was
ever experienced during these flights but Kronfeld won the
prize after finally crossing the Channel by moonlight to land
back in France.
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