LATEST CRAZE

Southland Times, Issue 21428, 24 June 1931, Page 8

LATEST CRAZE

GLIDING AND SOARING YOUNG SOUTHLAND ENTHUSIASTS EXHILARATING SPORT That the sport of gliding is destined to play a very important part in aviation in the not distant future is shown in the widespread interest taken in the recent cross-Channell glides. A German, Kronfeldt, who was successful in a double Channel glide and won the Daily Mail’s £lOOO prize, has been in the field for some time now, and has been known to keep his glider in the air for 12 hours at a stretch. The sport is very popular in Germany and England, and now the craze has reached New Zealand. There are clubs in Wanganui and Christchurch and before long, who knows, there may be one estab lished in Southland. It certainly will not take long to form one if the enthusiasm of at least two young Southlanders becomes infectious. At present they are assembling and finishing off their home-made glider and hope very shortly to take the air. Their future movements are more or less secret for the time being, but due publicity will be given the announcement of the maiden flight of their machine. The sport of gliding is increasing by leaps' and bounds in manj’ countries, particularly as enthusiasts become more used to their delicate handling. The thought of many exciting hops down hillsides in primary training gliders and hoping to pilot the more delicate featherweight soaring ships that ride the wind for hours is increasing interest in this type of aircraft daily. Soaring is the nearest approach to bird flight man has yet achieved. Under ideal conditions, it means spiraling in the blue sky, high above valleys and woods —soaring without a sound, except the rustle of wind along the wings, mile after mile in hawklike flight. As an indication of their extreme lightness, it is interesting to note that a machine has been constructed and flown which weighs less per square foot of lifting surface than a seagull. Gliding is not as some may think a fair weather sport and this is instanced by the fact that the record flight recently made by Kronfeldt over Central Germany commenced with a nerve tingling race with a thunderstorm. Rain commenced as the pilot took off and soon the storm broke in all its fury. The ship was pushed higher and higher and seemed to sail on the tops of the clouds. Eventually, however, they ran out of the gale to the moisture of a hot summer day and landed after covering 102 miles. Flying Without a Motor. The first idea of flying without a motor seems absurd, but it isn't. The air is filled with invisible rising and descending currents. For instance, when a wind strikes the side of a hill it is deflected upward and forms a strong lifting current of air. As a general rule this up current reaches to a height twice that of the object which deflects it. When a light sail plane enters such an up draught, it is lifted faster than it descends. THrougLout its flight a soaring plane is always gliding downwards with relation to the air. it does not reach the ground because the pilot steers it from one rising current to another. The altitude lost between up draughts is regained in passing through them. In other words the moving air currents carry the plane upward faster than it glides down. The perfect streamlining and the light plywood construction of the soaring aircraft allow them to advance as much as 20ft. for every foot they go down. This drifting descent permits them to soar long distances without losing altitude and to pass slowly through rising air columns. That is why a glider pilot tries to slow up or skid in an up-current and fly straight ahead in a down current. Extremely strong up-draughts are uncommon except perhaps near cliff faces, but the rising air currents formed by hills and dunes facing the prevailing winds are sufficient for soaring flights. At Rossiten, Germany, where the longest motorless flights have been made and where a famous gliding school is located, a half moon. of sand dunes ranging in height from 150 ft. to 180 ft. extends to the Baltic Sea. The prevailing winds blow into this half moon, strike the steep sides of the dunes and turn upward to form the rising currents that hold aloft the sail planes. Here pilots cut figures of eight, swooping in long curves over the sea and shore for hours at a time,

Further inland at the Wasserkuppe, the flying is done from the mountain side where there is a rising current of air. These flyers engage in the most thrilling of all soaring feats, that is “cloud flying.” Under every cumulus cloud on a summer day there is a rising column of air, and by taking off from a hill and soaring under such a cloud the plane is carried aloft. Practical Use of Soaring. What practical use is soaring? As a thrilling sport its attractiveness is easily seen, but it is more than a sport. Soaring planes provide aerial laboratories for studying meteorological phenomena and for making full sized aerodynamic tests. The fund of information about the effect of clouds, hills and peculiarly shaped valleys upon air currents is increasing due to the work of the sail plane pilot. While anyone with a few minutes’ instruction can make a hop in a primary training glider, the handling of a soaring ship demands skill that only careful instruction will give. 3till to use the words of an American, “Let’s walk before we run,” and commence with the primary glider learning as much as possible of local air currents and physical conditions so that sail planing may be approached safely and confidently.