SPORT OF GLIDING.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20668, 13 September 1930, Page 8 (Supplement)

SPORT OF GLIDING.

PROGRESS IN GERMANY.

Aviation experts aro prophesying a great advanco in tho science and sport of gliding—tho new outdoor recreation which in certain European countries, notably Germany, has been developed to a striking degree of proficiency and success. Tho crazo for motorless flying, which first manifested itself in England about 10 years ago, did not at that tiino bring this form of popular flying to any measure of practical performance, although many flights were mado in which glider pilots remained in tho air for varying but encouraging periods and, further, carried out, meanwhile, research into tho effect of tho different types of air current upon tho bearing surfaces of engineless aircraft. Now a new impetus has beon given to gliding as an outdoor activity by tho offering of several prizes for tho best demonstrations of motorless flying made within stipulated periods and under observed conditions. Mass Production.

The rapid strides mado by this modern outdoor sport on the Continent aro indicative of tho marked suitability of motorless gliding as an activity for tho ordinary man or tho amateur air enthusiast of but moderate means. Gliders can bo built for as little as £lO, and can even bo purchased for not more than double or three times that figure. In Germany gliders have already reached the mass production stage, and for about tho equivalent of £ls an amateur glider can become possessed of a craft in which ho can roam at will in tho air up to about 2000 ft., rising and falling on the windtrends and covering considerable distances in total mileage. Tho hold that this sport has secured in Germany is shown by the fact that there are over 200 gliding clubs, having members numbering more than a-quarter of a million in all.

Grading Glider Pilots. During last year something like 30,000 flights were made in Germany -with scarcely an accident, and the record for a glider flight is held by a German, one Dinort, who remained in the upper air over the shores of tho Baltic Sea and through heavy and trying weather conditions for 15 hours. So well established has the sport become in that country that glider pilots are already graded according to proficiency, and three classes of licence-certificates are awarded—for a ten-minute flight, a one-minute flight with a simple turn, and a flight of half-a-minuto respectively.