A GLIDER CLUB.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 50, Issue 71, 4 January 1930, Page 5

A GLIDER CLUB.

MOTORLESS AEROPLANES. NEW SPORT IN SYDNEY. SYDNEY, December 26. The joys of gliding and of riding on the wings of the wind in motorless aeroplanes—a sport now very popular abroad, and especially in Germany and America—will be appreciated in Sydney before very long, for the Sydney University Glider Club, the pioneer body of its kind in Australia, hopes to have two or three machines ready for flying' about March or April next. Glider clubs and schools are common in Germany and America, where thousands of youngsters as well as others! have taken up the sport. Little German frauleins are even skimming about the air in gliders of home-made design. The present idea is that each University Club glider in Sydney shall be owned and controlled by a group of half a dozen or a dozen members. They will find the money, from £2O to £2o. for the material for each machine, and will design and construct the themselves, under the aegis of an air-'" worthiness committee, including technical men associated with ordinary aircraft, and several of Sydney's leading pilots. This committee will supervise generally the design and construction - of the gliders. Later, enthusiasts outside the University will he allowed to . link up with the club. The number of lion-technical members, however, will be strictly limited. The idea is that each group must contain at least JO per cent, of members able to repair their own machines. The gliders will be part of the equipment of students at week-end and other holiday camps. Tt is the simple glider, as distinct from what- is known as the sail aeroplane, and the type of motorless machine used by beginners, that will probably be introduced in Sydney for a start. ' The glider can he given a kick-off simply by dragging or pushing it down a hillside. The sail aeroplane is shot into the air on the catapult principle, and bv means of an elastic rope.