COMBAT AND COMPETITION.pdf - Lakes Gliding Club

CHAPTER FOURTEEN OLD WAR HORSES
own against its K-6E competitors in these conditions. And, with that
thought, I stepped up the pressure, pulling hard into the cores,
working each thermal for all it was worth, accompanied by the
constant 'tin canning' of metal skins.
On the second leg, running up to Bedford, the conditions were
absolutely superb. Cloud base had risen to over 6000 ft. Cambridge,
visible almost 30 miles away marked the track ahead, and the first
stubble fires of the day were beginning to stain the air. I could see a
field just starting to burn, some miles further on. Ideal for a quick top
up, but there was a balloon in the way. The more I climbed, the more
it rose ahead obstructing my path. In the end it forced me to go round
it and stay legal - but I was too late for that Bedfordshire farmer's
thermal.
The day was so good that it didn't matter at all - a heady mixture
of consistently strong natural thermals and some absolute corkers
blowing up from the burning fields below.
A long fast final glide - the rolling chalk downs and the towns
along Icknield Way triggering a mighty series of upcurrents - Baldock,
Letchworth, and Hitchin passed in rapid succession. Then the sprawl
of Luton and Dunstable in the afternoon sun - the altimeter unwinding
- and the finish line ahead. BG 135 was about to win her first race"
and the best reward of all was to realise the pleasure which that would
bring to her designers and above all to Pat Moore.
A barn door day, no doubt about it, yet there had been others far
worse in an earlier contest. Including a very marginal one working our
way across the Somerset levels, from Compton Abbas almost to
Dunkeswell, rarely higher than 1200 feet and she had given me a
remarkably easy ride.
So hail and farewell to a competitive little glider. Deserving better
than a limited production run of just eight aircraft before the jigs and
tools were sold on. But the fibreglass revolution and the endless quest
for performance put paid to that.
The Kestrel 19 when it finally arrived could hardly have been in
greater contrast to Pat Moore's little sailplane. Over 10 points better on
the glide, with a host of modern features - retractable undercarriage,
flaps, water ballast and tail parachute - it certainly offered value for
money. A typical slippery high inertia glider, with relatively
ineffective airbrakes, and interconnected flaps and ailerons which
restricted the rate of roll when you selected the landing position. The
tail parachute provided a marvellous short field capability. But it was
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