|
Competitive
gliding is not gently floating around the sky with little in
the way of decision making. It is widely embracive of many
aspects of flying - pre-flight preparation, weather assessment
and knowledge, team work, accuracy of flying - and I could go
on. Perhaps one example here. A power pilot accepts the bottom
needle of his turn and bank as good enough. Not the
competitive glider pilot. In the single seater cockpit a piece
of wool about six inches long is fixed at its lower end to the
outside of the canopy. This "string" reacts far
quicker and more accurately to any slip or skid and the pilot
does not have to have "his head in the cockpit" to
see it.
Basically
there are two main types of contests (1) speed round a task -
up to 500km not being uncommon - probably three legs. (2) On a
bad day distance within a prescribed area where a number to
turning points are tasked and a pilot plans his route making
his own selection from the list. With the speed task the pilot
decides his own start time and is timed start to finish. Sixty
to eighty aircraft often compete and in my time - roughly late
sixties and early seventies there were two classes, standard
where all aircraft had
to be within listed performance specifications - the chief
being a wingspan of not exceeding 15 metres ; and an open
class where there were no restrictions on design.
Thus
the accent was on speed and simply staying up not really a
consideration though that would of course come in on bad days
and towards the end of the day. Ten seconds could win or lose
a day and this involving maybe four hours on actual contest
flying with maybe six hours in the air.
Gliders
would be aerotowed off at thirty second intervals and the gate
'opened' after all had been launched. From his information
given at briefing - weather etc.- his knowledge of the country
to be flown over and taking into consideration his opponents
the pilot would make his strategic and tactical decisions and
he would be prepared to remake his decisions right throughout
the flight. He would be in radio contact with his crew and of
course anyone listening could hear him and maybe thus gain
'intelligence'. The experienced pilots did little radio
talking and it became easy to recognise "important
pilots' by their voice only. If a certain area was proving
difficult the amount of chatter would increase. This could
indicate a difficult area etc. etc.
Few
power pilots know that in a GLIDE the weight does not affect
the glide distance if the correct speed for the aircraft
weight is flown. More weight- more speed but same distance .
As speed was the consideration water ballast was just coming
into use about 1970. A glider could carry maybe forty gallons
in wing tanks. This could be dumped all or in part if
conditions weakened and had to be dropped before landing. It
was not considered fair to dump water on a glider just below.
Of course weight affected the rate of climb in lift so use of
water ballast brought in some very interesting decisions.
A
course flown from say A to B was never a straight line. There
would be constant deviations as the pilot considered terrain,
weather, clouds, intelligence from other gliders, birds, smoke
etc. Making it easy to get a little lost.
The
competition pilot does not fly at a constant speed. At all
times he flies at the speed that will get him the highest
speed over the ground remembering that height lost in the
process must be regained. A basic cycle could be considered as
a climb plus a glide. The higher the rate of climb the faster
the optimum speed when flying straight except that as the in
between air has smaller vertical movements both up and down
the speed has to be altered to be 'optimum' all the time. But
it is often more complicated than that. He often bases his
in-between speeds on what he expects his rate of climb to be
in his NEXT thermal . Not much point in say a thousand foot a
minute climb and a matching fast inter-thermal speed if that
high speed has him in a paddock before he reaches his next
thermal. Thus some very interesting decisions have to be made
- all the time.
He
must consider the possibility of an 'out' landing though with
top pilots this is rare. He could again be circling in a
thermal with up to twenty other gliders all trying to out
climb each other - no not quite what that may seem - first
pilot in a thermal sets the direction of turn which all others
must follow. Final glides may be started on a
good day from fifty miles out with the drome not yet
visible.
I'll
now illustrate with two real pilots from my tine. One was a
current RAAF Mirage instructor and the second a current
International Airline pilot. Neither was good enough to win
the top place. At Internationals each country can field up to
four pilots and they do talk to each other in the air.
Similarly at Australian Nationals pilots from the same club
often converse for tactical reasons. The RAAF pilot happened
to overshoot a turning point through faulty navigation. There
was 'club talk' Came in a stranger voice as we all realised
what had happened - 'Just as well we have a Navy'. And the
Airline pilot who once arrived back about an hour later than
he should have admitting he had used a valley about 20 degrees
off course. Someone had a notice on the notice board that he
had a compass for sale. Someone else penned underneath the
notice -'Suit airline pilot'.
In
Australia
we flew our contests over open safe western country. Overseas
some countries are very mountainous etc. etc. Thus Australian
pilots tend to be more cautious than their overseas
counterparts. However, I found we were their equal in the
ability to stay up when the going was tough but we were
nowhere near as fast as them.
Most
countries used the technique where the crews stayed at the
aerodrome unless needed for a retrieve. The Americans in
Texas
took their crews round with them with trailers, moving them
along by radio. Some crew used racing drivers as tow car
drivers and used speeds on up to 120mph. We decided they
should know what they were doing but kept our car speeds to
about 70mph.The Germans went their own way and learned a quick
lesson on the first day, which, as it happened was a very hard
flying day. In spite of how the following articles read top
pilots are safe pilots. It is very very rare for a top
competition pilot to have an accident. Flying accidents occur
among pilots first trying competition and Nationals. At Marfa
in spite of the impression the articles may give there
were no accidents and the sum total of damage was minor
damage through out landings that was repaired in time to
compete the next day.
The
standard of flying required for success at Nationals and above
is high in the extreme and the pilots that reach that level
are, I again stress, very very safe pilots. But they can and
do fly to very close limits. I found competition flying in
gliders considerably more demanding that my wartime flying but
there was one very important exception. In a glider contest no
one was going to shoot at you.
Day
1 Met Conditions weak Cloudbase
3000 Hell! Task - Free distance within prescribed area ( Area
roughly with Amberley as centre - Tenterfield, Chinchilla
Proston, Tiaro. Hell! again.) No gate. We all headed
off from our first thermal.
Most pilots headed west towards Van Horn to decide
there which first turning appoint to pick.
The run to Van Horn was reasonable and at least this
stretch was landable. Most of us then went on to Ardoin in
preference to a low run over rugged mountains to the west.
The
road from Ardoin skirts the rugged plateau of the
Sierra
Daiblo
Mountains
to the west, then winds through a valley before an open
stretch to Ardoin. To
the east of track is flat unlandable country, and very
isolated. I had
intended edging east over this but was attracted by a number
of gliders marking thermals on track.
I found they were in no sink and I was then too low to
alter my plan.
I
got lower, and I called up Jan whom I could see below to have
a place ready. There
were a dozen or so trailers spread along the valley.
Reply - 'You might be able to land towards the
trailer,' in a tone that told me it would be better if I did
not. I scratched away from three low points and finally
cleared the valley when I could call 'Kangaroo 3 Roll Ardoin'
Near
Ardoin I could hardly believe my ears.
Number 1 A. J. Smith, World Champion, was frantically
calling his crew. From
the ground. He
rushed the 100 miles back to Marfa for a hopeless second try.
He had lost the championship on the first day.
At
Ardoin I decide to head back in the direction of base for a
second turning point. This
time I eased over the desolate country and found the going
better, but 3000 was far from comfortable and I could not
afford to miss a thermal.
One pilot headed further east.
An Englishman on his radio 'I am down to 500 in no sink
and there is just nowhere to land.' Then there was silence.
Half an hour later I heard the same pilot - 'I am now
back near the saltpan. I
have just had the fright of my life.'
At
Van Horn conditions weakened as the day drew on.
I met up with Bob Martin and we pair flew for a while
along a mountain ridge. Lift
was barely 2 fpm. I
finally landed on the road having covered 190 miles and felt I
had flown a good flight. That
night before we left the drome 260 was the best flight up.
A fantastic distance Bob and I thought. Next day we
found the Poles had all flown over 300.To borrow from Kipling
- We learned about gliding from that'
One
pilot had to walk 28 miles after landing.
Two German pilots were not found until an air search
the next day. There were a
few cases of very minor damage all repaired for the next day's
flying.
Obviously,
World Comps was very serious flying - not for the faint
hearted.
Day2
Towards the end of the original write-up - I watched
the tantalising sight of a cloud develop into a storm-line
just ahead with dust being carried up in a line on track just
too far for me to reach. Slowly
I climbed; and at last I could reach it.
I went up to 6000 feet, flying straight, fast, along
its edge.
The
gap to the next cloud was wide and the air in between was
dead. I reached
its edge with the altimeter reading 450 feet, and entered
gentle turbulence.
Five minutes 1ater with a very marginal landing area
below I was still at 450 feet.
As the cloud above me developed into a storm the
turbulence increase and I climbed to I200 feet.
Then I lost the lift and was back at 600 feet.
It became more turbulent now but again it was lift.
Obviously it was a narrow band but I dare not fly
straight and risk losing it altogether.
Then came rain and my landing area below turned to a
sea of water. Turbulence grew.
I had 80 mph on the clock on one side and I stalled
violently three times on the opposite side of the turn.
But I was climbing.
At 2000 ft it eased and up I went to 6000.
I had to fly through the storm through a lighter gap
through the rain at a place where cloudbase was a little
higher. I had the
merest glimpse of a horizon and there was lightning on each
side. The crew on
the road got shocks off the car radio.
When I got clear I had enough for final glide.
I could call 'Kangaroo 3 Go Home.' On landing my
altimeter read 100 feet. In the
World Contest at Marfa
Texas
in 1970 cloud flying was not permitted and we did not carry
blind flying instrumentation.
A
Note on the Aircraft I flew - The Libelle.
The
Libelle was a German manufactured fibreglass glider. Wingspan
15 metres. Speed limiting divebrakes. Sealed gap between wing
and ailerons. The climb and descent meter in the glider is
called a variometer and is extremely sensitive. It is said it
will respond to someone walking up a flight of stairs. It is
compensated against ‘stick
thermals' that is it responds only to actual vertical air
movement components. Oxygen can be carried - also radio. Blind
flying instruments can be fitted (some countries allow cloud
flying in gliders) Retractable undercarriage. That describes
the Standard Class model. There is an Open Class model which
has in addition a tail chute for landing and wing contour
altering flaps - not drag flaps. The dive brakes are much more
efficient than drag flaps. The pilot can thus alter the wing
shape to suit his speed. The cockpit is a neat fit but the
pilot can carry survival gear, a toilet bottle and of course a
parachute which is compulsory in competition.
The
Libelle
Yes,
beautiful!!!
|
