I think you will find that this was an article WRITTEN by Bob Rodwell who
was a journalist as well as the Chairman of the Ulster Gilding Club. He was
not the pilot involved.

The "record" flight was, as I remember, not ratified as there was very good
grounds to think that the barograph trace was not consistent with the
claimed event. It was claimed to be a wave climb upwind of a thundercloud.
A phenomenon never before encountered to such heights .The pilot also landed
away from base and only one of the barographs showed a trace.

I remember when the event was reported that my partner, who was a dentist,
expressed doubts at the pilots claim that the cold was so intense that his
tooth fillings fell out There were several inconsistencies which caused a
very detailed investigation and the record claim was not accepted. As the
pilot concerned threatened legal action it could not be stated that the
claim was actually fraudulent.

No doubt some one who was involved in the BGA at the time knows more about
it? Ian Strachan maybe ?


Gary Boggs wrote in message
...
I've been looking through some old Soaring magazines and in the June, 1977
issue there's an article about a record flight by Bob Rodwell to 51,849
feet
on March 29th of that year. Can someone tell me why that isn't the
current
altitude record? Sounds like he's lucky to be alive after having his
controls mostly frozen for most of the descent. In the article it says
that
after finding his spoilers frozen shut, he put his Skylark 4 into a 38,000
foot spin that had an estimated 400 turns! Is Bob still around and is he
still soaring? He would be in his late 70's now.

--
Gary Boggs
3650 Airport Dr.
Hood River, Oregon, USA
97031-9613