THRILLS OF GLIDING.

Taranaki Daily News, 23 December 1922, Page 9

THRILLS OF GLIDING.

- THE TESTS IN ENGLAND. AIRMEN UP IN A STORM. v GERMAN MACHINE WRECKED. Many thrills marked the. third day of the gliding contest at Itford Hill, near Lewes, Sussex, for the £lOOO prize offered by the London Daily Mail. Mr. E. C. Gordon England, a pioneer glider, went over the edge of Firle Beacon in the teeth of the stiffest wind yet experienced. It was shortly after nine, and very cold, with rain threatening. He went up like a rocket on the top of the air current and sideways. For a minute it was thought he was well set for a big flight, but he was soon in difficulties.

For half a minute he struggled against the wind. Then he “pancaked” down, alighting a quarter of a mile from his starting point and on the very edge of a big slope. When the spectators reached him Air. England, cool as ever, was sitting in the ’plane working hard at his control lever to prevent the wind taking charge and hurling him down the cliff.

“I landed backwards,” he said. “I never did such a thing in my life before. This is a great game. Up there my speed indicator showed 45 miles an hour, and at that I was standing still. I landed with the speed indicator still showing 40 miles an hour, and was actually moving backwards as I did so.” Very wisely Air. England decided that the wind was too high for the sport and drew his machine under the shelter of gorse bushes. An hour later was seen another remarkable feat of cool piloting. Mr. Jeyes, who brought a Klemperer machine from Germany for the test, decided to make a trial flight off Beddington Hill, nearer Itford. This ended in a spectacular crash, happily without injury to the tall pilot of the ’plane. Air. Jeyes took off p’ith a mighty dive and jump into the big gap east of the ’hill. The air current caught him and sent him soaring above the hill-top level. Hit by a gust, he went down again, only to be thrown up once more. Bucking like a broncho in a AA T ild AA T est show, the Klemperer fought the wind. Mr. Jeyes all the time could be seen sitting well above the cream-colored ’plane riding the storm.

By this time it was clear that landing was the only possible course for the Klemperer. Ahead of Air. Jeyes was a spur. Hp went for the slope of the spur. The ’plane bumped badly on the steep slope turning sideways to the wind and shattering the support of the right wing.

Like paper torn in the breeze, the wing was caught and blown 100 yards from the ’plane. The whole of the fabric in which Air. Jeyes had been riding the gale war; reversed, burying the pilot, in a tangled mass of canvas and fuselage. Everyone raced down the slope. Air. Jeves crawled out smiling.

“I was thrown clean out.” he said, “and the fuselage on top of me. Hurt? Not a scratch. The whole thing only weighed 160 lb. and most of the weight was carried on the tail and wings.”

Boy Scouts helped to carry the wreck ed ’plane two miles to the hangars.