GLIDING

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXII, Issue 273, 2 November 1932, Page 5

GLIDING

ACTIVITIES IN HASTINGS AN UNFAVOURABLE WEEK-END. SOME “FREAK” FLIGHTS OF INTEREST. (By “ituman Bullet.”) The wind on Sunday being of such high velocity as to render it unsafe for gliding it was decided to abandon activities for the day, after only one flight had been made. This flight proved very difficult, and for anyone other than an experienced pilot, trouble would have been encountered. With tyres fitted to the rear wheels of the car “Rexina,” a vast difference was apparent in horsepower, speed and appearance. With a view to giving some idea of the programme of the annual camp to be held at the club’s flying field during the Christmas holidays, the following should create interest among the citizens of Hastings. The opening will be on Boxing Day, and activities will continue until the following Monday inclusive. During this period, other clubs, from various parts of New Zealand, will take part in competitions in the nature of duration flying, spot landing, bombing contests, rigging contests, and balloon bursting, in a manner never yet attempted in New Zealand. Swimming will be indulged in in the mornings and everything has been done to ensure a good time for everybody. In camps of this nature, which are held practically all the year round in Germany, great public interest is taken in the sport of gliding even by school boys in an attempt to gain their “wings” as early as possible, and the same'public interest is rapidly showing itself in this part of the world.

A Stupid Practice, The stupid practice of attempting to stunt with gliders cannot be too highly condemned. Owing to the light weight of this 'plane sufficient speed is not attainable to carry out stunting in any form safely. Although stunting has been accomplished by special and dangerous methods, this form of flying does not in any way appeal to a true gliding enthusiast, whose real aim is to soar hours on end. It might be of interest to mention several out-of-the-way achievements throughout the world. Several months ago, in America, one eccentric gliding enthusiast decided that his glider was not complete without sails, so wasted a lot of time and money rigging a mast and a full set of sails to his glider. The last the writer heard of this experiment was that the pilot was flying around wondering how he was going to hoist his sails, while in the air.

Another intrepid flyer had his machine rigged with auto-giro vanes, which he claimed added to the rate of climb and stability of his plane. Pilots in some soaring planes, which make cross-country flights of 100 miles or more, instal in their planes wireless receivers to keep in touch with headquarters and to wile away the time.

Another enthusiast, hankering after something different, fastened half a dozen ordinary sky rockets to his machine, tied it to a balloon, and ascended to between 2000 and 3000 feet, cut loose, and then lit the rockets with a lighted cigar, so giving the plane considerable propulsion. Gliders, built solely of rubber tubes, blown up like tyres, have not been a success, as conventional controls have not been adaptable to this type of machine. Some attempts have been made to fit light engines to gliders, but this has also proved a failure, as a machine so converted is neither a glider nor a useful power-plane. A commercial use suggested for gliders is to tow four or five, so forming a train, the pilots of which can release and land at requisite destinations without disturbing the rest of the train in flight, and so saving much time on a journey. Gliders have also been fitted with pontoons and towed behind a motorlaunch. With this method, students can receive much longer flights as the stretch of watei is usually unlimited, there are no fences or other obstacles in the path of the towing-machine. It is on record that a glider was towed by a large launch, and then finished the flight hy landing on the deck of the launch. It is hoped that these few instances will provoke interest among readers as to the capabilities of gliding and more will be written on this subject at a later date.