RIDING THE CLOUDS.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 257, 30 October 1929, Page 14

RIDING THE CLOUDS.

NEW SPORT OF GLIDING.

AVIATION WITHOUT ENGINES

A THRILLING PASTIME,

Last year the new sport of outboard motor-boat racing was introduced to Melbourne. This year gliding, or aviation without engines, is being fostered, writes George H. Johnston in the "Argus." Geelong has established the first Glider Club. Imagine an afternoon's gliding. You mount into your machine and spin off the ground. Circling and swinging up into the air as silently as a hawk, you dive here through a lowlying cloudbank and swoop down there and across a roadway. No noise, no vibration, and, above all, no danger of the engine failing. There is only one reason for the absence of this danger.

There is no engine.

At a little spot called Lovely Banks, a large, bald hill about six miles from Geeling, the Geelong Gliding Club is developing this wonderful sport. It is a pastime that should have a great future. Gliders must take off against the wind, so that Lovely Banks is almost ideally situated. The prevailing southerlies blow six miles from the sea, over undulating, sloping plains to the hill from which the gliders start, and a long cruise can be made nearly to the shorefront. Pioneers of Gliding. The pioneer of gliding was Otto Lilienthal, of Berlin, who in 1894 made a short glide of about 000 feet in Germany. Nothing more was done until about six years later, when the Wright brothers made a few short flights in the United States without any thought of advancing gliding as a sport, but only as an experiment for testing their aeroplanes. Gliding seems then to have lapsed until about 10 years ago, when it was revived, solely as a sport, in Germany. From about 1900 to 1920 the only gliding flight of any note was made by Orville Wright in 1911. It was a short cruise' of nearly 10 minutes. Now Germany has taken it up in all seriousness, and thousands of German schoolboys, from the age of 13 years, are learning the art of gliding at special instructional schools. More than 200 clubs are in operation, showing the tremendous advancement of the last two or three years.

The flight of gliders is mainly based | on air currents, in much 'the same way, as these are used by birds in flight. Some years ago a noted Continental airman was cruising over Europe in a balloon. Par below him he noticed a large flock of storks, a little to one side, and flying steadily. As he watched, suddenly the birds, without so much as a flap of their wings, rose up vertically for many hundreds of feet. While he was puzzling over this marvel, the aeronaut's balloon glided over the point at which the storks had risen, and immediately it rose straight up, as the birds had done. This phenomenon was caused by vertical air currents, which are the main factors in the propulsion of motorless 'planes, as gliders are sometimes callcd. How to go Up. Most gliders are of very simple construction. They usually weight about 2001b to 3001b, without the pilot. The wings, which in most cases are long and narrow, have a surface spread of more than 20 square yards. Although the machine is comparatively light, the problem is to get it into the air without mechanical power. There are many ways of going up —as the aviator remarked when he took a candle into the cellar to find a leak in the gas. The best is tho use of rubber starting-ropes. Ah elastic rope is used which shoots the glider into the air in somewhat the same j fashion as if it was propelled from a shanghai, two groups of men supplying the pulling power. At Geelong the initial propulsion is given by a towrope attached to a motor car.

Once the glider is in the air the objective is to' keep it there as long as possible. The pilot must study the currents and peculiarities of the atmosphere, as a Channel swimmer must study the tides and currents of the ocean. He must work the glider's wings to meet tho gusts of air in the same fashion as a bird does. Then he flies his 'plane by coasting from the top of one air current to the bottom of the next. The knack of finding the currents soon comes with a little practice. A light 'plane with such a large wing isurface easily floats upwards on the currents, carrying the pilot with it. There is no doubt that a pilot in a glider learns more of the mysteries of air currents and atmospheric phenomena than do most qualified aeroplane pilots. It is not very hard to find the required currents after a while. Flying over beaches is very helpful owing to the reliable sea breezes. If a glider becomes becalmed above the sea the result is a ducking for the pilot. Thus gliding and seabathing may be combined. Remarkably Long Flights. A good 'plane will fly between seven and eight miles in ordinary weather. The record until a month or so ago was 44 miles.' This record was broken early in August by Robert Krorifeld, of Vienna, who flew 105 miles. The first" passenger flight lasted for about ten minutes; now the world's record is nearly 9J hours. The pilot can talk to the passengers as easily as if he were in a room, for there is a complete absence of noise. On long flights the glider would have to ascend a height of more than 2000 ft and descend gradually.- I think the record altitude was achieved by a German glider when ho reached 2550 ft directly over the spot from which he took off. The pupil type of 'plane, of which the one in use at Lovely Banks is a good example, is simply made. It has a place for the pupil in front. This is for safety. Should ■ the glider crash, the pupil is held well away from any framework which may splinter and so injure him. The glider is controlled on similar lines to those of the elementary controls of an aeroplane. Ther ( e are ailerons, elevators, and-the rudder, ivhich is worked by two feet. . Gliding has been introduced as a pastime, and every sportsman will wish the best of luck to the Geelong Club. It seems to be a rational sport, full of thrills and enjoyment. Expert gliders will always prove good air pilots. The Royal Australian Air Force and the organisers of commercial aviation in Australia may have every reason to foster a sport which can mean so much to the •future- ail* services of the Commonwealth. I

It is said that lightning may be recognised at a distance of 200 miles when clouds among which it plays are at a high altitude, but that thunder can seldom be heard at a greater distance than 10 miles.