COMBAT AND COMPETITION.pdf - Lakes Gliding Club

CHAPTER TEN CHARIOTS OF FIRE
wing, which interested me most. Scheidhauer confirmed the RAE
report that the performance had been much improved but there had
been some problems with longitudinal stability and control. Horten's
military aircraft commitments had prevented any further work on this
project before the end of the war.
Came the first contest task - free distance - and Frank, in common
with the majority, chose to go north. Towards the end of the day, as
conditions deteriorated, the combination of our radios and high
performance tow cars was so effective that most of the British crews
were well up with their pilots. And thus we were part of the tragedy
which ended all his hopes.
It happened in the hills near Calatayud, on the road to Zaragoza.
As we rolled along underneath him the temperature dropped sharply,
the clouds grew dark and threatening, and the wind veered through
180 in ugly strengthening gusts and flurries of rain.
Suddenly Frank came up on the radio calling urgently for
information. In one of those dreadful misunderstandings Jack
responded:
"Blowing down the hill" - and Frank interpreted it as - "Landing
down the hill."
By the time we saw what he was up to, downwind and downhill,
it was far too late. He didn't stand a chance. Thrown against a
telegraph pole, his Sky was almost a write off, and he was out of the
running.
For me at least the awful anticlimax of that event was saved by the
fact that Philip Wills needed crew reinforcements. So Ann Douglas as
team manager, in a decision for which I shall always be grateful, asked
me to help him.
It wasn't that simple. How do you come in, as an outsider, to assist
a husband and wife team who have been a contest winning
combination for years? How, with an enigmatic personality like Philip,
do you play yourself in as a replacement for two close friends who
have fallen by the wayside? It seemed to me then, and I still believe it
was the right approach, to do everything possible to help, where help
was needed, and otherwise to keep firmly in the background.
It became a deliberate routine. First of all to ensure that I bore the
brunt of the rigging and heavy lifting. Then, while we were chasing
Philip with the empty trailer, to adopt a more passive role. Leaving the
driving and radio to Kitty unless she asked for help. Forcing myself
not to interfere, keeping an eye on the navigation and fuel state, for
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