New Gliding Endurance Flight

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29363, 16 November 1960, Page 12

New Gliding Endurance Flight

Two members of the Canterbury Gliding Club made outstanding endurance glider flights in the Mid-Canterbury area on Monday.

They are Messrs S. H. Georgeson, of Christchurch, who has represented New Zealand in gliding championships overseas, and Mr Gerald Westenra, of Dunsandel.

Mr Georgeson stayed in the air for 9hr Imin and improved by half an hour the previous best performance in New Zealand. His flight may be recognised as a national, record.

The previous best endurance flight was by Mr W. Denton, another member of the Canterbury Gliding Club, who stayed in the air for eight hours and ahalf in an endurance flight in a Weihe sailplane about five years ago.

Mr Georgeson said that Monday’s performances gave further proof that Canterbury had some of the finest conditions for gliding in the world. Mr Georgeson used oxygen for most of the flight during which he reached a height of about 25,000 ft. He previously reached about 32,500 ft in an Eagle sailplane over the Lake Coleridge area. For most of his flight on Monday he followed a triangular course —Dunsandel, Mount Peel and Rakaia gorge. “When you have been flying up and down those long white clouds for a few hours you get pretty lonely,” said Mr Georgeson, who was in constant radio-

telephone communication with the control tower at Harewood. "I gave him my position at regular intervals and I think he got pretty sick of me at times,” he said.

Mr Georgeson set out after an air tow launching from the property of Mr L. Hopkins, at Dunsandel. with the intention of performing a distance flight. But when he had been airborne for a considerable time he recognised that if he stayed up a bit longer he might qualify for a New Zealand record.

He said he could have stayed up for longer although the air lift conditions could have deteriorated after sundown. He landed about 5 p.m.

During most of the flight Mr Georgeson was accompanied by another glider pilot, Mr Gerald Westenra, a former Royal New Zealand Air Force pilot who has recently become a gliding enthusiast and who has made outstanding progress. Mr Westenra, who was flying a syndicate-owned Slingsby Eagle sailplane, stayed in the air for seven and a-half hours and reached a maximum height of about 21.000 ft.

Both Messrs Georgeson and Westenra were hindered by icing-up of their perspex cockpit canopies. Mr Westenra has. by his flight, qualified for the gain of height leg of the GdD— C gliding award. Mr Georgeson’s. time was taken from the time when he cast off from the towing plane about 1700 ft.

“It was tremendous fun encountering another sail-plane after soaring in the clouds on your own for long periods. We had a lot of fun and finding each other when both following the same air conditions was one of the most enjoyable aspects of the whole flight.” Mr Georgeson said. Mr Georgeson said he found conditions were at first very unfavourable and it took some laborious flying to gain a height of about 5000 ft. There- he found the lift he needed to continue the flight. From that point he gained height rapidly to about 20,000 ft. He then flew to the Mount Peel area. During a sudden wind change from northwest to South-west he lost about 8000 ft in a dramaticly fast sixminute descent, but another change and a north-west lift took him to 25.000 ft.

Mr Georgeson put up a New Zealand endurance best performance nine years ago when he stayed in the air for six hours and a-half.

Mr Georgeson was flying the Skylark 111 F machine which was test flown from Wigram last week. It is a more recent model than the Skylark 111 B which won the world gliding championship in Germany this year. Ift Georgeson imported the Skylark 111 F with the intention of bettering a number of New Zealand records for endurance, gain of height and distance glider flying.