Re: amusing in so many ways..:-)

[tango4]

'I'll be using no engine, just perfect aerodynamics and my skills'

With a glide ratio of 1:3.8 his definition of 'perfect aerodynamics' leaves
something to be desired I think.

Ian


"Mark Stevens" > wrote in
message ...
> http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3106147.stm
>
>
>

[Bruce Hoult]

In article >,
(Mark James Boyd) wrote:

> I wonder if this is the first glider flight across the
> channel?

No. Somewhere around here I have an ancient book on gliding in which
the author relates a a flight in which he climbed in cloud near the
English coast, crossed the channel, and ended up near (and here Bruce
displays his lack of both memory and knowledge of European geography)
Brussels or Antwerp or something.

I'll try to find it and get the details.

-- Bruce

[Mark James Boyd]

I wonder if this is the first glider flight across the
channel? If so, shouldn't we cheer? Didn't balloonists
cheer the meteoric rise of the guy in the lawn chair
with the weather ballons in LA?

Personally I cheer the pilots with smaller brains and
bigger...er, courages. Not necessarily being one myself,
(although there has been much discussion and controversy
on this point), I'm glad there are low-tech pilots
out there setting records the cheap, old fashioned way.

Okay, now how about a transatlantic or transpacific glider flight?
Wouldn't THAT be something. Mr. Fossett, are you reading this?

[John H. Campbell]

Sounds cool. A new sport I didn't know was brewing. This follows the
exposure in the movie "Tomb Raider: the cradle of life" released last week,
in which the two stars glide across a harbor after base-jumping from a high
rise. Beating a world record in the process, so they claimed.

>I wonder if this is the first glider flight across the
>channel? If so, shouldn't we cheer

The first such, I believe, was by Robert Kronfeld in the "Wien" ca 1929, in
which he made the crossing (both ways, I think) after being aerotowed as
high as necessary over the departure shore (a feat in itself given how rare
aerotowing was at the time). Not nearly so high as this guy, as the
"Vienna" with its 18 or 19m wingspan and decent streamlining despite struts
had a glide ratio pushing 30. His stunt was sponsored by the Daily Mail
newspaper.

[Christopher J. Wilson]

>It's also been crossed by hang gliders and paraglider,
>so I am bemused as to why this counts for anything....not
>sure if it has been done in a PW5 though?

What do you want Chris, miracles?! :-)

Shows how well researched Sky news' stories are doesnt
it?

Chris

[Stephen Cook]

Looking at dropzone.com, they don't seem to be impressed with this guy's
antics either.

[Tony Verhulst]

Mark Stevens wrote:
> http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3106147.stm

"I want to be known as the God of the Skies, he told the Telegraph".
That IS amusing.

Tony V. "6N"

[W.J. \(Bill\) Dean \(U.K.\).]

Michael Russell of Holt, Norfolk has written to the "Daily Telegraph" on
July 30th as follows (relevant paragraph copied):

"On April 22, 1939, Geoffrey Stephenson was strapped into a Slingsby Gull 1
at Dunstable at 2.55pm, took a winch launch to about 300ft and soared all
the way to Dover. He then climbed in cloud to 6,000ft to glide across
those "21 wet miles" and land safely at Le Wast, about 10 miles east of
Boulogne. The dear old Gull could probably achieve a glide angle of about
1:20, so Stephenson had to work at it."

W.J. (Bill) Dean (U.K.).
Remove "ic" to reply.

>
> "W.J. (Bill) Dean (U.K.)." > wrote in message
...
>
> No, there have been many cross channel flights which were true soaring
> flights rather than a glide from a high launch.
>
> The first glider channel crossing was done in the 1930s from, I think,
> Dunstable (North of London).
>
> I retrieved my gliding partner John Bally from France 18 years ago, he
> launched from Sutton Bank in Yorkshire in our ASW20L.
>
> W.J. (Bill) Dean (U.K.).
>

[Bob Kuykendall]

Earlier, "tango4" wrote:

> With a glide ratio of 1:3.8 his definition of 'perfect aerodynamics' leaves
> something to be desired I think.

Better watch out. This guy might be the future of World Class soaring...

Bob K.

[Mark Stevens]

that was one of the things that tickled me most..;-)
and being austrian as well...

At 14:36 31 July 2003, Tony Verhulst wrote:
>Mark Stevens wrote:
>> http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3106147.stm
>
>'I want to be known as the God of the Skies, he told
>the Telegraph'.
>That IS amusing.
>
>Tony V. '6N'
>
>