GLIDING GOSSIP AND NEWS

GLIDING GOSSIP AND N ‘WS

DURING the past few weeks the British Gliding Association have been busily at work arranging plans for their future activities. Amongst these will be that of charting the air and finding suitable routes for the soaring sail plane to follow. This work will entail extensive experimental flights over areas which will be chosen as likely spots from which to operate. When sufficient material has been accumulated the Association, it is understood, will issue charts to affiliated clubs. It is also announced that the issuing of certificates of airworthiness, licenses to pilots and instructors and the approval of gliding grounds will be done by the B.G.A. in a similar way to that in Germany by the Rhon-Rossitten-Gesellschaft and in the U.S.A. by the National Gliding Association Inc. rull regulations will be announced at the inaugural meeting on the 27th of this month. The issuing of air worthiness certificates, is perhaps, the most important work, for there are indications that a large majority of gliders and sail planes which will be used in the country will be of amateur construction and in order to avoid the possibility of accidents due to faulty workmanship, material or design, some fixed standard in regard to them is clearly indicated. TO MARK the tenth anniversary of the glider movement in Germany an International congress is to be held this month at Darmstadt by the Research Institute of the Rhoen-Rossitten-Gesellshaft. A big attendance is anticipated not only from people associated with the movement in Germany but from other European cormtries and a number of well known sailplane pilots and aircraft designers have intimated that they will be

present to discuss various aspects of the art. Such matters as the organisation of gliding schools and the findings of constructors in their various experiments with motorless machines will be dealt with, and it is expected that much valuable information and data will be available as a result of this important fixture.

A READER of MOTOR SPORT has written protesting against the exhibition, some time ago, of a news reel film depicting a fatal accident to an American glider pilot while being towed by an aeroplane. “Apart from the ghoulishness of it,” he writes, “the showing of this film must be detrimental to gliding, a pastime which is obviously going to be very popular in this country.” With which remarks we are in full agreement.

The Americans at times show a marked partiality for foolhardy and useless stunts in the air and since gliding has been taken up in the U.S.A. the movement has been marred by some half dozen bad crashes. All these were due to attempts being made at towing either by aircraft or motorcars and through using machines obviously unsuitable for such experiments.

LAST MONTH mention was made of the three types:of craft which are used by the majority of the sailplane clubs in Germany. These are the ” Zogling ” elementary machine, the ” Pruffing,” advanced training glider and the Kegel III sailplane. An illustration of the latter appears overleaf, The wing spread of the Kegel III is about 53ft. and the wing is made up in three sections and is of the full cantilever type. It has a cruising speed of about 22 m.p.h. and when flown with the nose down a speed of about 35 m.p.h. is attainable.

A machine of this type, we understand, will be seen shortly in England when it will be probably piloted by the well known German sailplane expert Herr Hirth. FOLLOWING the lead set by the London Gliding Club, others which will be affiliated to the B.G.A. are now in

process of formation. These include clubs at Cardiff, Evesham, Gloucester, Halton, Kent, Harrogate, Manchester and Newcastle and a Dirt Track Riders’ gliding club will shortly come into being. ONE of the first privately constructed gliders of the Zogling type to be completed in this country is that made by a group of enthusiasts at Chatham. Designed by Mr. C. H. Lowe Wylde it was built in six weeks and is now undergoing tests

THE London Gliding Club held a general meeting on the 20th of last month when the Chairman and the Committee explained to members how far their work had proceeded to date.

Two machines are now ready for use and it is anti cipated that the Club will start active gliding in a very short time. The one difficulty with which the Committee has been faced is the finding of a suitable site. During the course of their extensive search in districts south of London, a number of places were inspected, but in every case, the owners of the land were unwilling to grant per mission to the Club to use it as a venue. As a result, it seems probable that the L.G.C. will have to ga to the North of London in the TringDunstable area where little difficulty, either in finding a site or in getting permission to use it, is anticipated. The Committee has been encouraged in pursuing their search in the northern

district by the fact that no less an authority than Dr. Georgii has stated that the area around the Beacon at Ivinghoe would be admirable in every respect as a gliding ground and he has expressed the view that it is even superior to the Wasserkuppe in Germany where the well-known gliding school operates.