VGC News/Newsletters - Lakes Gliding Club

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Willi Schwarzenbach writes: "My S.18 is still in good condition.I did some maintenance work during this winter on the GrLnau Baby,HB-120, and built it an open cockpit cover. This Grunau Baby isalso in airworthy condition. The gliding season has alreadystarted here but the ~ain, before and after Easter, kept us on thegrcund".ObituaryAugust Hug. The Swiss Aero Club has announced the death at Bernon 30.3.83, of this legendary Swiss Gliding pioneer and designer.He was 89 years old. He was designer of the famous Spyr sailplane:s.Willi Schwarzenbach writes: "We should certainly remember him ashe attended our International Rallies at Gruyeres and Thun, asPresident of the Swiss Gliding Veterans. August was one of thoseoutstanding and legendary pioneers of Swiss gliding. He becamevery popular when he built the Spyrs, which, at that time, weree~lal to the best German gliders. We are happy that at least threeSpyrs are still airworthy and that a Spyr 3 (that which made suchan impression at the 1937 World Gliding Contenst at the Wasserkuppe,when, flown by Hans San~jeier, it finished 4th ahead of HannaReitsch and Kurt Schmidtj,ltin Lucern~ As far as Willi is informed,the technical documents for these gliders will be kept by theAe.C.S. Archiv, which is also in this museum. Mr. Hug was for avery long time also the President of the Swiss Soaring Co~nitteeand he introduced competitions and championships'! ..AUSTRALIA* In the Verkehn-:;muc:eurYil, (7'rans;port I'lus;eufll~'Lucern.A successful Rally was held at Bridgewater, NSW, at Pipers Airfield,-the home of the Bathurst Soaring Club, on the weekend of the12-13 February. Gliders attending were: ES 49 Arrow, owned byBrian and Judi Pettigrew of Waralda; two Grunau 4s flown by RayAsh and Bob McDicken. Photographs reveal that this aircraft maybe more closely related to the Australian Kookaburra 2-seater thanto the Grunau. Babies from Silesia; a Ivlucha Standart ov-med by theIvlurray Nelmes syndicate, 2 Cherokees and Ray Ash! s K-7 (also ownedby Fred Brown, John Daniels and Brian Hemmings). The very goodcondition of all the aircraft taking part is also evident from thephotos in "Vintage Times". The light rain (most unusual) soon gaveway to good soaring conditions vli.th cloudbaS"e at 5,000 ft. Thelongest flight of the day was Bob McDicken's in his Grunau 4 .. Theevening was graced with a magnificent barbecue, a presentation ofimpressive prizes, and a film show by Ray Ash of the InternationalRally at Sutton Bank and of the Australian Vintage Rallies atBlanchtown, Bacchus Marsh and Benalla.Sunday brought a skyful of cumulus. Flights of up to l~ hourstook place only as, due to a threatening storm, it was thoughtprudent to return to the site. However, the storm only producedlight rain and cleared after 90 minutes. It was then thought tobe a little late to fly again.This had been the first Vintage Rally to have been held in NSW.The Bathurst club members had been able to maintain flyingoperations alongside those of the Vintage Rally. The club membersshowed tremendous interest in the Vintage Rally and a packedaudience watched the film show.. It is felt sure that a VintageRally would be enthusiastically received there again ..
DU.:;:-o':.Jlg the weekend of 5 - 6th February, good soaring conditionswere experienced in the hills North of Adelaide. This was oneweek before the fires broke out. Ralph Crompton, starting fromhis home base, Stonefield, managed a 220 km triangle, with turningpoints Morgan and Hal1ett, in his Skylark 40 As the Sundaypromised even better conditions, he declared a 500 km Out &Return. At noon, he was w5.ncbed to 1,200 ft. and contacted weakand broken lift.Conditions were at first poor and he was once down to 1,400 ft obut, over Eudunda, on the edge of the hills, things picked up andhe found 1000 - 1200 fpm lift to 9,500 ft. Pushing on, heactually flew through 1000 - 1200 fpm lift, as he had 9,000 ft. inhand. Soon afterwards he encountered more good lift and realisedthat the thermals vvere not only strong but close together 0 FromEudunda to Burra (60 kIDs) he did not make a turn and was fascinatedto watch the altimet:p~ climb a further 3,500 ft. to 12,500 ft.lGround temperature was C43° and freezing level \~'as at 14,000 ft.Some nice cu were forming ahead on tracko For the next 20 minuteshe was never below 10,000 ft. From this height he did a straightglide to the turning point, Quorn, took his photos and started back.The clouds began to overdevelop. He pushed up his speed asconditions began to look worse. On his radio he heard that somepilots over the Barossa valley were finding things difficult, dueto growing cirus cover. He decided to get as high as possible andstay there. With 14,000 ft. in hand, he felt reasonably safe butthis was not the case. With the overdevelopment almost complete,he got his strongest lift of the day with 1400 - 1600 fpm, takinghim back up to 13,000 ft. After this it was a long glide to thenext lift. With about 150 kIDs to go, he heard over the radio thatGawler had a 15-20 knot sea breeze from the Southo With still100 kms to go, he got his last thermal to 11,000 ft. NOI'l it wasjust a question of sitting back and hoping. Then he ran into thesea breeze, which provided a headwind of at least 20 knots. Afterflying a total of 460 kms, he had to land. Words cannot describehis disappointment but, looking at the other side of things, itwas the most pleasant flight he had had in the most fantasticconclitions he had ever encountered.During the past summer, the Zephyrus 2-seater had been flownaround three 300 km triangles by members of the Beaufort G1.-LdingClub. The Zephyrus was designed by Doug Lyon during 1950 but didnot fly until Dec. 1966l Several distance flights had been madeby Zephyrus in the past mostly of the 50 - 150 km range. The bestrecorded before this summer was 250 kms o This year it was takento the club's Christmas camp at Corowa where it made its first300 km triangles. The first was as a two-seater. The second wasduring February, when it was flown solo round a triangle of 305 kmsby Christ Thorpe for his Gold C distance and goal diamond.We have no idea what the Zephyrus looks like, but we have publishedthis accou.nt and the previous one concerning the Skylark 4, as bothare considered vintage gliders in Australia.FRANCEFollowing suggestions in our Newsletter and in "Bungee Cord" thatalthough the movement to save vintage gliders in France is nowwidespread, it is not united. Marc Bourdon has the following to
Page 1 and 2: \7GCNewsletterNo 47. Spring .983
Page 3: p~actising for the US National Co~t
Page 7 and 8: Transport to HungaryBus to BUdapest
Page 9 and 10: BRITISH ~\JEWSGood wishes for the n
Page 12 and 13: ICELANDAnn Welch has informed us of
Page 16 and 17: say: "It is true that there are man
Page 18 and 19: TypeRh~nadlerLuftkurortPoppenhausen
Page 20 and 21: Aero '83. Inter~ational Lake Consta
Page 23 and 24: Karl Vey,Otto Bellinger and Klaus H
Page 25 and 26: BOOKSComing Shortly:An autobiograph
Page 27 and 28: NEW IVIE1VffiERS 1982/83J. Wo Ansel
Page 29: FARKASHEGY in 1944. Vocsoks and Pil

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