Soaring July/August 1957 Nationals excerpt

Found this the other day when I was looking for some info concerning the Horton IV flying wing results in a National contest. The good old days?

"Coder told of working a thermal so low he could see through a second story window of a farm house. He also said he saw Bikle disappear out of sight for 15 minutes below the crest of a 200' ridge before picking up and continuing on once again."

On Friday, February 14, 2014 4:04:30 PM UTC-8, Mike C wrote:
Found this the other day when I was looking for some info concerning the Horton IV flying wing results in a National contest. The good old days?



"Coder told of working a thermal so low he could see through a second story window of a farm house. He also said he saw Bikle disappear out of sight for 15 minutes below the crest of a 200' ridge before picking up and continuing on once again."

One only has to look at the sailplane carnage shown in "The Sunship Game" to know that we've come a long ways in terms of risk management. The game then was to stretch the glide as far as possible even if that meant not knowing what the upcoming terrain was. Crazy stuff with the retrieve cars scurrying around to be directly under the pilot. It was fun though ;-)

Craig
7Q