VGC News/Newsletters - Lakes Gliding Club

Lissant Beardmore had also made the flight in a Professor
but he had not been officially observed. The Cloudcraft
Phantom was a3so prepared for the event and was kept at
readiness by the Dover cliffs but some very ill.disciplined soldiers
broke it badly while just playing with it. These, together
with the aerotowing of a BAC-7 flown by Group Captain
Mote, with Barbara Carlland as. passenger. from Maidstone
to Reading, were the ,nrst aerotows of gliders in Britain.
During 1931 the Lyons Tea Meetings were held at Woofa
Bank etc. with hundreds of spectators attending. On the 21 st
May 193'1 at Dunstable, Maneyml's World Duration Record
of 3 hours 211 millutes which was set in 1922 was at last
exceeded ,in Britai'll (although it had been substal1tia!\'ly
increased to 8 hours 42 minutes by Ferdinand SdlUlz flying
his FS3 "Broomstick" ov,er the East Pmssian sand dunes): this
was done by Henry Petre an aeroplane pilot, Slaying up for 3
hours 28 minutes in a London CI\Jb glider. By 1933, Dunstable
was beginning to Inean "gliding". Probably OlOre flying
was done there than at all dIe other Clubs put together. Its
private owners went on expeditions all over the country cheerfully
towing their trailers with cars that boiled on every hill.
With their Wrens and Scuds they launched off mountains,
landed on rough moorland and returned to Dunstable with
ludicrously funny stories to tell. By April that year 43 Club
pilots had obtained their C certificates. This shows what can
happen when the right people get together.
Eric Collins with his RhOnadler in 1934/5.
Among the growing number of pilots who had started their
flying at Dunstable was a young man of small stature who
became so fascinated by gliding that he bought himself a
cottage nearby. His name was Eric Collins. There are not
many born pilots but Coliins was one of them and although he
did not have the advantage of gaining experience through
power flying, he soon knew more about soaring than any other
pilot in the land. In the spring of 1933 he was flying passengers
in the two-seater and, with them, regularly connecting
with lift under cumulus clouds. To help him, he fitted and
learnt to interpret a primitive variometer. Then he taught
hlmself to fly I,}limd in clouds. During June 1933 the BOA held
its Second National Meetiflg on Huish Hill, a south-facing
slope near Pewsey in W,iltshire. A few days after tile camp
started Collins several times found lift in the BAC-7 twoseater
and was extending his normal two-minute Cit'CHit time
to 5 or 6 minutes. On the 3rd July under a clear blue sky he
climbed to 950 ft and decided to leave the site, with his w,ife
as passenger. He found just one other up-current before having
to land in a field 6 miles away. This was the first cross-country
flown by a British pilot in Britain. It had also been flown in a
British designed and built sailplane. (Kronfeld had flown other
cross-countries earlier across Britain in his Wien)
Back at Duns/able, Coliins soared 22 miles on the 3rd
August reaching 2,300 ft on the way. This was the second, but
not the last, time that he had held the British distance record.
llhe pilot with whom he was going to share the honours had
obtained his A celitificate at Dunstable in April of that year.
He was a young aeroplane pilot called PhUip Wills. Not a
natural pilot like CoBins, Wills possessed an ambitious determination
that drove him on until he reached the top. Suoh a
force was just what was needed at the time, for Wills's flights
and particularly his written accounts of them, did a great deal
to remove the outdated image of gliding and to show it as a
new and marvellous sport. March 8th 1934 dawned with a
freshness to the air and a clear blue sky. Soon, with the
warmth of the sun, small cumu'li would start. The light w,ind
on the hin would assist the gliders to reach t'hem. Collins
arrived early and got the Kassel Herkules ready for passenger
flying. With his wife as passenger again, he soon diSCOvered
,that ,the hiJl was working and that there was promise of
thermal life everywhere. He landed to give another passenger
experience in the promising conditions and for his third f1i'ght
he took with bim a German guest, a Herr Exner, who may well
have not been aware of the great adventur~ which was about
to befaU him. While aU this was going on, another LGC
member Sebert Humphries, hJd got airJbornein t,he Crested
Wren and joined Collins in the bill lift. During the afternoon a
great cloud street was seen developing over the Aylesbury
Plain and it was drifting towards the Dunstable slope.
Humphl'ies flew forward from the slope into its l,if! and was
steadily gaining height with Coliins following him. When
several miles upwind of the slll,pe and probably further from
the site and higher than he had ever been in his life,
Humphries had to decide what to do .. If he continued circling
he wouild soon be in cloud. If he turned down wind he wou'ld,
with a ground speed of about 60 mph, be .quickly swept past
the site. TI e little Wren was seen to hurtle over the site at a
great speed and tremendous height and soon vanished over the
country which lay beyond. During this excitement. Philip
Wills arrived and quickly rigged the Club's Professor. He
became airborne from a bungee launch just when the clouds
were becoming rather large with S