Seventy years ago: July / August 1949
O
n April 9, Ted Pfeiffer and “the gang gathered as usual at Wurtsboro [NY ] Airport for a
weekend of soaring. There, sitting above us, was the object of many nights of hangar soar-
ing: The Standing Wave.” Pfeiffer “played the ridge” for an hour in his LK and “noticed a roll
cloud forming. I flew in front of [it], and sure enough the air became smooth as glass. I rose to
7,300 feet. For the first time, I found myself sailing above the clouds. The incredible smoothness of the wave lift must be
experienced to be fully appreciated. It has a property that cancels all feeling of motion.” Note: If you’ve never flown wave, put
it on your bucket list. Near the top.
Australians planned to add a Ford V8 powered “‘suction’ plant” to keep the laminar flow attached to their “revolutionary
‘tadpole’ wing.” Air drawn through “a series of suction slots” and then blasted out the rear will empower the Down Under
glider pilot to go farter! Crikey! A ripper wind-wind system! Good onya, mates!SOarING mEmOrIES
REMEMBERING THE PAST By JACk WyMAN
Exploring the Archives
l In 1936, Don Stevens looped a glider 96 times in a row. His record stood for 13 years until Maurice Lindsay crushed it. How many “vertical 360s” did Lindsay
Loop? And starting from how high? See July-Aug 1949, p. 15.
l What soaring outfit advertised a position “in our fast-growing sport? [Looking for someone] not afraid of dull, flunky-type chores. Starting salary will be modest
to a fault, but long-term prospects are genuinely promising. Mimeographed (Google it) job description [available].” Aug 1969, p. 29.
l See hilarious captions on photos of the U.S. Army Air Corps at a somewhat dubious “Glider Invitational,” a competition supposedly held on Lawrence-Maxim
Airfield in North Carolina during the “Summer of ’42.” Wait! Wasn’t that a movie? Aug 1994, pp. 36, 37.T
he Trimble dealer offered “the best hands-free navigator for glider pilots, the Flightmate
Pro SE, including yoke mount.” Yoke mount? Possibly on the yoke of a Bowlus Senior
Albatross, but it soared 60 years earlier. A magnificent 1934 Senior Albatross, built by Hawley
Bowlus (Hall of Fame #1 1954) and Richard du Pont (HoF #2 1954) for Warren Eaton (HoF
#3 1954), now hangs high at Udvar-Hazy, assuredly sans Flightmate Pro. For details on this
sailplane, and its connections to these pilots, see https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/
bowlus-1-s-2100-senior-albatross-falcon; select Long Description. For mini-bios of these
charter members of the U.S. HoF, see https://www.soaringmuseum.org/hall-of-fame.php; sort
by “Year.”
Reader Jim Mara objected strongly to a CFI-G who had advocated pulling the release
knob just before the T/O roll began on a student’s very first lesson. (This to teach that just because everything is ready, a
pilot doesn’t have to fly!) Mara wrote that if he’d been that student, he might’ve “punched [this instructor] in the snoot.”
#DamnRight!Twenty-five years ago: August 1994
Fifty years ago: August 1969
I
n 1969, Neil Armstrong was the most famous person on both the Moon and its planet. Yet
vanishingly few knew then, or now, that he was an accomplished glider pilot. By 1965 he’d
earned his Silver and Gold badges in 1-26s. He scored two Diamonds likewise, lacking only the
Distance. But at SCSA’s 1967 banquet, he described the end of his 1966 Gemini 8 flight. “The
L/D of the Gemini is 0.015 [1/1,500 that of a 1-26!]. I was descending at 50,000 fpm over the
Himalayas [and figured landing short in] Red China would be a particularly poor choice. For-
tunately, we reached the water. [So, having just glided 182,000+ miles,] I finally had Diamond
Distance, I thought.” Here’s your second chance to appreciate this surprisingly eloquent man:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJzOIh2eHqQ. This can be your Own Small Step.The United States Parachute Association proudly proclaimed that its activity “is now a sport!”down! is all about but this so-called “sport”), upside! U.S.P.A.’s membership was growing (certainly an Really? Seriously?