TEST FLIGHT FOR GLIDER

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29138, 25 February 1960, Page 14

TEST FLIGHT FOR GLIDER

Canterbury Club’s New Sailplane The Canterbury Gliding Club’s new Slingsby Skylark II sailplane, which replaces the one wrecked when Its trailer was involved in a level crossing smash at Waddington on September 19 last, will be test flown at Wigram on Saturday morning by Mr F. Dunn. With the addition of the Skylark, the club now owns three gliders, a tow plane and a winch as well as four syndicate and privately-owned gliders. Since it moved its operations from Burnt Hill to Wigram, several new members have joined the club and the series of unfortunate setbacks experienced over the last few months have now been overcome. During the last few week-ends, quite a lot of training in winch launching has taken place. Last Saturday, Mr Warren Denton flying a syndicate Welhe glider flew to Southbridge and on Sunday he remained in the air for three hours.

Messrs S. H. Georgeson and W. Meaclem soared to 5000 ft in thermals. Mr A. Yates flew his first solo flight and Mr I. Sutherland obtained his C certificate and badge, by remaining above his release point for five minutes. Although 10 flights were made on Saturday and 30 on Sunday, the club hopes to do more flying than this as new members join. The high performance gliders, mainly single seaters are not at present being fully used and the club is stepping up its training programme to provide more qualified pilots to fly the machines.

A pupil is assigned to one of the club’s four experienced instructors and as far as possible does most of his training flights with the same instructor. It is hoped to continue training at Wigram throughout the winter.