Download - Vintage Glider Club

VGC News 

No. 123 Spring 2008 

© 

Spalinger flies in Brazil 

International news 

Modelling report 

Mucha Standard air test 

Looking back at our 5th International Rally

http://www.vintagegliderclub.org 

Objectives of the 

Vintage Glider Club 

To promote the international 

preservation, restoration and flying of 

historical and vintage gliders; to 

collect, preserve and publish 

information about the above; to locate 

and preserve documents and artifacts 

connected with gliding; to co-operate 

and negotiate with government bodies 

and other interested organisations to 

ensure that members’ best interests are 

protected; and generally to do all such 

acts as may be conducive to the 

objectives of the Vintage Glider Club 

being met. 

© 

VGC News is published by: 

The Vintage Glider Club Ltd 

Wings, The Street 

Ewelme 

Oxon OX10 6HQ 

Tel: 01491 839245 

Editor 

Margaret Shrimpton 

Fairfields, Fosse Road 

Oakhill 

Somerset BA3 5HU 

Tel: 01749 841084 

e-mail: vgcnews@aol.com 

Front cover: Spalinger flying in Brazil, see 

page 6. photo Rafael Mayrink Goes 

Back cover: vintage assortment at Gliwice 

during the 32nd International Rally. photo 

Anthoni Witwicki 

Notice to all members 

The Rally Secretary is Graham Saw. 

Please forward details of any vintage 

glider rallies you may be planning to: 

e-mail: Graham@servotechnique.co.uk 

Tel 01628 776173 

Design: David Tarbutt. 

Printed by: Barwell Colour Print, Unit 34, 

Westfield Trading Estate, Midsomer 

Norton, Bath BA3 4BS 

Copy date for the next issue is 

1st June 2008 

Please submit material to 

Margaret Shrimpton — 

VGC News Editor 

Tel/Fax: 01749 841084. 

e-mail: vgcnews@aol.com 

Wanted 

Vertical Format Coloured Prints of vintage 

gliders if possible, in flight, for the future 

covers of VGC News. PLEASE send them 

to the VGC News Editor 

Margaret Shrimpton:- “Fairfields”, 

Fosse Road, Oakhill, Somerset BA 3 5HU. 

Photos will be returned. 

The views expressed, and the contents of all material, 

in this magazine are the opinion of the author and 

may not necessarily reflect those of the Vintage Glider 

Club Committee or the Vintage Glider Club 

membership. No responsibility is accepted by the 

Vintage Glider Club Committee or its Membership, 

for any safety related (or any other) technical advice, 

transmitted in the magazine or any document issued 

by, or on behalf of, the Vintage Glider Club. No 

responsibility is accepted by the Vintage Glider Club 

or its Membership, for any adverts placed in the 

magazine by individuals or commercial entities. 

Except as otherwise permitted under copyright, 

design and Patents act, 1998, this publication may 

only be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any 

form, or by any means, with the prior permission in 

writing of the publisher 

Advertising rates are £35 per 1/4 

page for commercial adverts 

and £25 per 1/4 page for others 

Officers of the Vintage Glider Club 

President: Chris Wills, Wings, The Street, 

Ewelme, Nr Wallingford, Oxon 0X10 6HQ, UK 

Vice Presidents: Willie Schwarzenbach, 

Rue de Charpentiers 5 CH-1110 Morges 

Switzerland e-mail: willibach@hispeed.ch 

Neelco Osinga, Prof C. Eykmanstraat 17 7415 

EK Deventer, Netherlands email: 

kranich@zonnet.nl 

Harald Kamper, Leyerstasse 161, 49076 

Osnabruck, Germany 

Graham Saw (details under Rally Secretary) 

*Vice Presidents also vote on the International Council. 

International Council 

Chairman: David Shrimpton, Fairfields, Fosse 

Road, Oakhill, Somerset BA3 5HU, UK. 

e-mail: chairmanvgc@aol.com 

Secretary: Nell Dijkstra, Melis Blecklaan 61, 

4634 VX Woensdrecht, Netherlands. 

e-mail: knvvlpda@xs4all.nl 

Australia 

Alan Patching, 22 Eyre Street, Balwyn, Vic. 

3103, Australia. e-mail calbpatc@netspace.net.au 

Belgium 

Firmin Henrard, Rue Porcheresse, B-5361 

Mohiville Hamois, Belgium. 

e-mail: henrard.f@belgacon.net 

Czech Republic - 

jzwest@hotmail.com, 

Denmark 

Niels Ebbe Gjoerup, Seglen 69, DK-8800 

Viborg, Denmark e-mail: negjoerup@mail.dk 

Finland 

Göran Bruun: e-mail: bruun.goran@gmail.com 

and Esko Heikkinen:e-mail: 

esko.heikkinen@pp4.inet.fi 

France 

Didier Fulchiron, 333 rue Louis Blanc, 

38420 Le Versoud, France. 

e-mail: vgcfrance@free.fr 

Germany 

Harald kamper 

ulf.ewert@osnanet.de 

Netherlands 

Neelco ossinga 

Kranich@zonnet.nl, 

Poland 

Zbigniew jesierski. 

jezierski@silesianet.pl, 

Slovakia 

Joseph Ott, Panska dolina 2, Nitra, Slovakia, 

SK94901. e-mail: jozef.ott@zoznam.sk 

Sweden, 

Rolf Algotson, Aneboda, 360 30 Lammult, 

Sweden e-mail r.s.algotson@swipnet.se 

Switzerland 

Werner Rüegg,, uf Rüti, CH-8498 Gibswil 

e-mail: w_rueegg@hotmail.com 

USA 

Jeff Byard, 13555 El Camino Real, Atascadero 

CA 93422 USA e-mail jbyard@thegrid.net 

Committee 

David Shrimpton - Chairman. 

e-mail: chairmanvgc@aol.com 

John Dredge - Treasurer. 

email john@dredgevgc.plus.com 

Bruce Stephenson - Secretary 

e-mail: Stephensons@talktalk.net 

Graham Saw - Rally Secretary. 

e-mail: Graham@servotechnique.co.uk 

Peter Underwood – BGA Technical Representative. 

e-mail: peter.underwood1@btinternet.com 

Jan Forster - Technical Officer. Peppelhoven 

27, 6225GX Maastricht, Netherlands. 

e-mail: jftandemtutor@hetnet.nl 

Nick Newton - Membership Secretary. 

41 Grange Grove, Islington, London N1 2NP 

United Kingdom 

e-mail: memsec@vintage gliderclub.org 

Austen Wood 

6 Buckwood Close, Hazel Grove, Stockport, 

Cheshire SK7 4NG 

e-mail: austenwood@onetel.com 

David Weekes – Sales 

David.weekes@booker-tate.co.uk 

Rick Fretwell 

co-opted member (Bannerdown G.C.) 

VGC Archivist - Laurie Woodage , 

28 Sollershott Hall, Letchworth Garden City, 

Herts, SG6 3PN 

e-mail L.P.Woodage@herts.ac.uk 

VGC Webmaster – Robin Wilgoss 

Robin .wilgoss@electronomical.co.uk 

2 VGC News No. 123 Spring 2008

© 

Contents 

VGC 

News 

No. 123 Spring 2008 

Chairmans report 3 

Diary dates 5 

Model reports 20 

Snippets 23 

Letters 29 

Classified ads 39 

Obituaries 45 

INTERNATIONAL NEWS 

Australia 7 

Austria 10 

Britain 11 

Czech Republic 11 

Denmark 12 

France 13 

Germany 14 

Netherlands 15 

New Zealand 15 

Poland 16 

Sweden 17 

Switzerland 17 

USA 19 

Classified adverts 39 

FEATURES 

CV of Hütter H28 HB-223 30 

Fifth International VGC Rally 32 

Datschi and Grunau Baby myths 36 

Much Standard airtest 40 

Salamander update 49 

Viking refections 50 

RALLY ROUNDUP 

Biberach, Southern Germany 28 

CLUB NEWS 

Chairmans address 

VGC goes Limited 

Welcome to our new members, and to all members of Vintage Glider Club Limited. Yes! 

–we have at last become a Company Limited by Guarantee. More details of this 

milestone achievement can be found in the ‘Club News’section of this issue of VGC News 

and thanks must go to your committee, who have worked long hours to achieve this. 

These days insurance is mandatory for gliders and pilots. However across Europe and 

world wide the VGC could find itself exposed or involved in disputes from which it will 

now be legally protected. 

The fact that our Club has enjoyed an excellent safety record over the past thirty or 

more years is acknowledged not only by the gliding community but also by our insurers 

who offer preferred rates to our UK members. The reason for this excellent track record at 

our rallies may be attributed to the Club having a strong core of members with technical 

competence, good airmanship and vast experience. Now we are incorporated into a 

limited liability company, every VGC member, whether on the committee or not, has 

protection from liability not only for the club's debts or for claims against the club for 

damages, but for claims arising from fatalities, injuries or damage to property. Limited 

liability company or not, under the law we still have a duty of care to members and 

guests, including those who seek our services and technical expertise. So we have to 

remain careful in future, particularly in these days of overt litigation. 

On a more positive note, this formalising of the Club will also be recognised should 

we wish to pursue sponsorships or funds available to organisations such as ourselves. In 

fact most sport funding organisations will only deal with legally recognised, 

incorporated entities such as we now are. 

Inevitably and like Christmas, EASAis upon us and most issues are becoming clear. 

However yet again, even though part of Europe, the UK may still have problems in 

certain European countries with both pilot licences and authorisation to fly our Annex II 

gliders in any country other than the UK. This is due to the anomaly that UK gliding 

operates under the auspices of the BGAand not the UK state authority (CAA). Our French 

members overcame these difficulties for us by arranging dispensation with their State 

authority, the DGAC, for the rally in 2006. Perhaps it will be up to the VGC to once 

again lead the way should difficulties arise in the future. Owners of wooden gliders not 

included in Annex II such as Slingsby Darts and Ka 6s for example, may now be pleased 

to know that their gliders will be free to cross European borders unhindered by EASA 

rules. 

Finally, the organisers in Wels are anticipating a good attendance at our International 

Rally this year and the number of UK entrants is looking greater than usual. Members 

registering for attendance may wish to note that flying cross country in Austria requires 

an ELT (emergency locator transmitter), particularly in the Alps. Those intending to soar 

locally will not be required to equip themselves with ELT’s but please contact the 

organisers if you have any queries regarding the Rally or restrictions. 

Finally, it is always pleasing to get unexpectedly good and exciting news and we have 

just received brief details of the restoration of a Horten flying wing in Argentina. 

Particular congratulations to Diego Roldan Knöllinger on this achievement. We look 

forward to the first flight of another Horten, the Horten IV being built in Germany. 

See you in Austria. 

David Shrimpton, Chairman 

ANNOUNCEMENT 

The Committee of the Club would like to take this opportunity to 

inform members that the Club has been restructured to a 

Company Limited by Guarantee (“CLG”). 

This follows considerable consultation with professional and 

legal advisors along with support from the British Gliding 

Association. 

As announced at the last AGM, this restructure is intended to 

best serve the interests of the members of the Club and our 

sport, by formalising the Clubʼs legal status and protecting 

membersʼ rights and interests through a CLG. 

The existing Rules of the Club have been reflected in a 

memorandum and articles of association required of a CLG and 

a proposed form of these documents will be available in due 

course on our web-site or on application to the Secretary. 

Each current member of the Club has automatically become a 

member of the CLG on renewal of their 2008 annual 

membership. No further action is required. 

All of the assets and liabilities of the Club have been 

transferred to the CLG. The incorporation of the VGC as a legal 

entity will have no functional change to the way we currently 

operate. 

On behalf of the VGC Committee. 

VGC News No. 123 Spring 2008 3

CLUB NEWS 

Notes from the 

Membership Secretary… 

There have been one or two problems 

with Membership matters specifically 

relating to membership renewals for the 

current year 2008. 

Firstly, due to an error when preparing 

the VGC News mailing list for the last 

(Winter 2007) copy of the VGC Magazine, 

incorrect individual membership numbers 

were shown on the address labels. If you 

noticed this – do not worry! Your 

membership number has not changed! Your 

correct number is the number that appears 

on your membership Card for 2008 that is 

included with this mailing! Note that this 

membership card is only valid once you 

have paid your subscription! 

Secondly, no membership renewal forms 

were included in the last mailing of the 

VGC News. A new (and hopefully clearer) 

membership form has now been produced, 

and is included with this copy of the VGC 

News. Please use this form when applying 

to renew your membership. 

Membership subscriptions for 2008 are 

now due, and remain unchanged from last 

year, and many members have already 

taken the initiative and renewed their 

membership up until the end of 2008. 

Thank you! If you have not yet renewed 

your membership, please do so as soon as 

possible. (Please note that if you are 

insured under the VGC RFI UK insurance 

scheme, you are only covered if your 

membership is up to date!) 

Note that it is only possible to renew 

your membership for one year at a time. 

Members in the UK who have been paying 

by Standing order, please ensure that your 

membership subscription remains up to 

date. When subscriptions change, it is up 

to you to update your Standing Order! 

PayPal is now the VGC’s preferred method 

of paying subscriptions, and most of the 

bugs that were experienced have now been 

sorted out! Full details on how to do this 

can be found on the VGC’s home page on 

the web. Paypal has the advantage that it 

is secure, and payments are made directly 

into the VGC’s bank account! 

Nick Newton 

Technical Officer News 

1) ANNEX-II 

Since EASA started their ANNEX-II index 

list, the committee has received many 

remarks, questions and concerns from the 

members because not all the Vintage Gliders are 

on the list. What did we, the committee do? We 

made a quick investigation by asking all the 

International Councils for their remarks. As a 

result we e-mailed the list with our collective 

remarks to the person in EASAwho is responsible 

for the ANNEX-II list. 

His answer was; “do not worry. The list is 

not yet complete. Most of the countries have 

not yet sent in their complete list “ 

We must remember that where gliders were 

designed before 1955 and the factory stopped 

manufacturing before or during 1975 are 

ANNEX-II gliders. If they are on the ANNEX-II 

list, they can fly in Europe. The ANNEX-II list 

Membership renewal 

In order to Join the VGC, or to Renew your annual membership subscription by Credit Card 

(ʻPayPalʼ) 

Go to The Vintage Glider Club Home Page (www.vintagegliderclub.org) and click on the 

words Renew Your Membership Now found on this page. 

This will direct you to a new page: 

VGC INFORMATION – BECOMING A MEMBER 

Enquiries & New Members 

Scroll down and click on: Join On-Line with PayPal 

This will take you to: 

ADVICE WITH PAYING BY PAYPAL page. 

Read the instructions on this page and then click on Select Membership and Pay 

This will take you to the Membership payment option page. 

Stage 1. Choose Membership Payment Option 

First select whether you are making an Application for new Membership or Renewal of 

existing Membership, & then select the Type of membership (UK and Europe or Rest of the 

World payment) being made. Place your selection (one only) into the MEMBERSHIP 

SHOPPING CART by clicking on the relevant < Add to Cart > box 

(only click on the Close page if you do not want to proceed any further: this will return you 

to the VGC Home Page) 

Once you have made the appropriate selection, click on < View Cart > and if satisfied with 

your order, click on < Proceed to Checkout > 

❑ If you have a PayPal account proceed by Logging in and giving your password etc. as 

requested. 

❑ If you do not have a PayPal account follow the instructions by clicking on the word 

< Continue > as illustrated below: 

Don't have a PayPal account? 

Use your credit card or bank account (where available). Proceed to checkout 

Now enter your credit card details as requested on the secure form. (Note: all Credit Card 

details will be encrypted, and are not retained once payment has been authorised) 

Stage 2. Enter your Personal Gliding details that you would like registered on the VGC 

membership list 

Once your payment has been accepted, please continue by following the instructions 

shown in red! 

We would now like you to enter your details on to our membership register so that we can 

send you your VGC News Magazine and your Welcome Pack 

You will then be directed to the following page 

VGC MEMBERSHIP 

< Thank you for Joining or Renewing your membership and thank you for your payment. 

Your transaction has been completed, and a receipt for your purchase has been emailed to 

you. 

Stage 2. Membership Register Details 

Please complete the form below. This information will be sent to the membership secretary 

and will be added to the VGC membership database. The address information will be used 

for posting your VGC News magazine. When your membership has been processed you 

will be able to access this information on-line and keep it up to date. This information will 

not be passed to any third party. > 

Please ensure that this form is completed otherwise your entry on the VGC Database will 

be incomplete! 

Thank you for paying by PayPal (the preferred method of Payment for the VGC) 

If you have been unable to pay by PayPal, or would rather pay by Cheque, 

click on: Download 2008 PDF Membership Form 

to obtain a paper copy of the Payment Form 

(Please note that PayPal is the preferred method of Payment for the VGC) 

After completion of the Form, send it by post with a cheque (made payable to the ʻVintage 

Glider Clubʼ) for the correct amount to: 

VGC Membership Secretary 

41, Grange Grove 

Islington 

London N1 – 2NP 

UK 


CLUB NEWS 

is not a static list, even over some years a 

National Authority can bring in a new type for 

the list, for example a restoration or replica. 

Each National Authority is responsible for 

their own list. So when you see that there are 

missing gliders on your National list, contact 

your relevant Aviation Authority. 

2) Fabric. 

Dioleen, a polyester fabric, is not on the market 

any more. There is an alternative Ciconite, but 

also Diatex (Diatex 1500 for the wings and the 

open parts of the fuselage. Diatex 1000 for the 

playwood scale on the fuselage). Information: 

www.diatex. com. 

3) Thinner adhesive. 

The vapour given off when using Thinner adhesive 

(for fabric) is very unhealthy. For the 

(Thinner) dope is so far as I know, no alternative. 

For the adhesive there is: Kautschuk. This 

is a water based rubber adhesive, no smell, nice 

to work with. There is only a small difference of 

working with. This is strongly recommended! 

Information: www.irsa.de. 

Neither firms give me any commission! 

Jan Forster 

Errata 

In the previous VGC News. No.122 page 50. 

“KRANICH 2B-2 Production at NITRA”. There 

seems to be a mathematical error concerning the 

incredible number of Kranich 2B-2s of which the 23 

year oldJiri Havelka ledthe production from 1943- 

1946. The total should be 853 and not 900. 

VGC Sales – plans for Relaunch 

The committee is pleased to announce that David Weekes has agreed to take over the VGC 

sales operation. David, who was elected to the committee last year, is now getting up to speed 

with the current stock situation, making contact with suppliers and generally trying to 

understand what items the members want within the range of goods offered for sale. He had 

hoped to have a sales list in place for this issue of VGC News but he tells me that he isnʼt quite 

ready yet and that when he is, which is “very soon”, he will put the details on the web site. We 

all wish David good luck in this demanding task and look forward to seeing some new fashions 

being sported at the launch point during 2008. 

ALSO FRANCIS HUMBLET says that our 

information concerning gliders built in Austria 

is not accurate. We will try to correct this in the 

next VGC News. 

Karl-Heinz Kellerman reminds us that “the 

report about the OSC is not in every part 

correct. Josef Kurz was for 20 long years the 

treasure head or our OSC and leader of our 

workshop. He never was the President of our 

Club. 

For 20 years I was the President, after 2002, 

Mr Georg Schwab did this job and since May 

2007 I was voted again. Please, would you be 

so kind and make sure that this important 

correction is showed into the next issue of the 

VGC-News. With friendly greetings from the 

Wasserkuppe. Karl-Heinz Kellermann” 

Concerning Nitra 2007 - CW 

We very much regret not including in the 

ENTRY LIST for our 35th International Rally 

the following two teams and entries. There 

was a MUCHA 100 from Bydgoszcz. It had 

seven pilots. We believe that they flew also a 

BLANIK and the Danish 2G. They may have 

left early so that there was no time for us to 

research their entry which did not appear on 

the Slovak entry list, so their names and the 

glider’s registration could not be discovered. 

We have heard that they enjoyed themselves 

and hope that they will come to us again . We 

believe that they might be going to restore a 

MUCHA STANDARD. The SECOND ENTRY 

that we omitted was the unique 15 metre wing 

span LEHRMEISTER DM-3152 which was 

not discovered on an entry list. We apologise 

also to this team and promise to try to do 

better in future. This means that according to 

our information there were 61 entries at our 

35th International Rally at Nitra. ❏ 

Diary Dates for 2008 

25th to 27th April 

SCHNEIDER GLIDER RALLY, 

incorporating the KOOKABURRA 

KONVENTION 

Wagga Wagga Gliding Club, Lockhart. Contact: 

patching@westnet.com.au 

3rd – 5th May 

Kirby Kite Rally, Haddenham 

Gayle Pearce, 

Gayle.Pearce@astrazeneca.com 01494 

872029 

14th -17th May 

Continental Slingsby Rally, Goch- 

Asperden Flugplatz, Germany 

Bob & Sylvia van Aalst, sedbergh- 

@hotmail.com; www.lsv-goch.de; 

www.geerttheunissen.nl/vliegen/edlg/edlg.html 

17th -23rd May 

National VGC Rally, Parham, W Sussex 

Andrew Jarvis. acjarvis1@aol.com; 

www.sgc1.org 

25th May – 1st June 

Grunau Baby Rally, Jesow, Poland 

Harald Kamper or Ulf Ewart. 

ulf.ewart@osnanet.de 

20th -28th June 

Camphill Rally, Camphill 

dlgc@glidingclub.org.uk; 01298 871270 

28th -29th June 

“Whispering Wardrobes” Rally 

Booker 

Graham Saw. graham@servotechnique.co.uk 

27th June-5th July 

Pavullo Meeting, Modena, Italy 

Vincenzo Pedrielli; 0039 0362 630293; 

vincenzopedrielli@fastwebnet.it 

17th -20th July 

2nd Spanish VGC Rally, Santo Tome del 

Puerto (Segovia), Spain 

Carlos Bravo & Encarnita Novillo. 

libelle@terra.es, www.clubloreto.com 

23rd -31st July 

VGC International Rendezvous, 

Gundelfingen (Bavaria) 

Wolfgang Schaeffler, 

wolfgang.schaeffler@arcor.de, Luftsportverein 

Gundelfingen e.V., Aesserer Auweg 3, D-89423 

Gundelfingen, +49 90 73 – 75 20, 

www.lsv-gundelfingen.de. 

30th July - 10th August 

36th VGC International Rally, 

Wels, Austria 

Flugplatzstrasse 1, Weisse Moewe, A-4600 

Wels, Austria 

9th - 10th of August 

The Luxembourg Gliding Club (Cercle 

Luxembourgeois de Vol a Voile - CLVV) 

50th anniversary at Useldange 

about 25 km North-West of Luxembourg City. 

Contact: John Roedseth, CLVV, Tel. 

00352691375591, email: roedseth@pt.lu or 

Alex. Krieger, President CLVV, Tel. 

00352691268135, email: kriegera@pt.lu. More 

detail in ʻLettersʼ in this issue. 

23rd - 31st August 2008 

Slingsby Rally at Sutton Bank. 

Last years rally attracted a record number of 

attendees and it was a great success. We hope 

to repeat that this year. All vintage gliders and 

members are welcome to join in, not just 

Slingsby types. Rally Co-ordinator is Phil 

Lazenby. Contact should be via The Yorkshire 

Gliding Club at Sutton Bank, tel: 01845 597237, 

email enquiry@ygc.co.uk, website 

www.ygc.co.uk. 

29th - 31st August 2008. 

12th Kleines Segelflugzeug- 

Oldtimertreffen in Brandenburg 

(Anreise und Fliegen bereits ab 25. August 

möglich). E-Mail: fd.lemke@gmx.de 

20th - 21st September 2008 

VGC meeting at Biberach, Southern 

Germany 

Organization and contact: Gere Tischler 

(mail:gere.margit@gmx.de) 


FEATURE 

Spalinger flying 

Graham Saw passed VGC News this 

letter and photos from Brazil – Ed 

Att. Mr Graham Saw, 

I 

’m not sure if you’re the right person 

to contact, but I’ll take my chances if 

you allow me. 

Here in Brazil, I work as a free lancer 

photographer, and in one of my 

magazines job I had the chance to 

capture what’s supposed to be the last 

Spalinger in activity at the moment. 

Here are some shots of the flight and 

the glide on the floor, before taking off. 

Anyways, it just came to my mind 

that the history of this beautiful glide 

could be shared with others. 

This is the last survivor Spalinger 

S-25 belongs to the Aeroclube de Bauru 

(private gliding club @ Bauru city), if 

I'm not wrong, they own more than 20 

planes, including the Spalinger. So any 

of the afiliates (with tech. habilities, of 

course) can use any of the planes, 

including the Spalinger. 

The Aeroclube de Bauru is the "best" 

club here (with good infra structure) in 

Brazil and when we talk about gliding, 

they run 7 days a week. (except when 

climate doesn't allow, of course). 

Thanks for your time, cheers from 

Brazil. Rafael Mayrink Goes. ❏ 



AUSTRALIA 

There has for many years been an Australian 

Gliding Museum. As acknowledgement 

for having founded the museum, 

Australian Gliding has now received 

100,000 Australian dollars for its further 

development. We congratulate Australian 

gliding for their success. Other countries 

with gliding museums are Germany, Austria, 

the USA, Sweden and Russia(?). 

Museums with gliders in them together 

with aeroplanes etc are found in Finland, 

Sweden, Scotland, France, Switzerland, 

Spain, Canada, Poland, the Czech Republic 

and Hungary, the Netherlands, 

Argentina, Chile and Denmark etc. etc. 

We regret that not very much in this direction 

has yet been achieved in England. We 

have for a long time said that our gliding 

museum is a decentralized flying one, but 

nevertheless many of our best vintage 

gliders have been sold abroad. 

Issues 108/109 of Vintage Times 

Edited by David and Jenne Goldsmith 

Préci by Bruce Stephenson 

With the Rally season well under way 

as we bask in a mild, but wet northern 

winter, the Vintage Glider Fly-in took 

place at Barambah District Gliding Club 

at Wondai Airfield, held from 27th – 30th 

September 2007, and saw a small number 

of enthusiasts meet to enjoy 4 days of flying 

and relaxation. With the event beginning 

on the 27th September, some good 

flights were logged, with a K6cr of 

Bernard “Speedy” Gonsalves logging 

some 8 hrs and a flight of over 11000ft. 

The purpose of the Fly-Ins and the Annual 

Regatta is to promote Vintage Gliding in 

Queensland so it is intended to continue 

with these Events to encourage participation. 

Melbourne Cup Vintage Regatta 

The Third Melbourne Cup Vintage 

Regatta was held from 3rd to 6th 

November 2007, again at Raywood, 

home of the Bendigo Gliding Club. The 

Victorian Soaring Association were conducting 

their annual cross-country coaching 

course at the same time, and plenty 

of friendly regulars, coupled with catering 

arrangements to care for the combined 

events, assisted in keeping the ball 

rolling. The absolutely dismal weather 

forecast for the weekend possibly deterred 

many VGA members, and owners of at 

least two gliders with open trailers 

(Kookaburra and Hütter 17) and one in an 

enclosed trailer (Dart 17R) decided 

against making the trip. Those who were 

deterred by the forecast, knuckled down 

to preparing for the coming season and 

the Bordertown Rally. 

With 7 aircraft participated in the 

Regatta, it was good to see many 

friendly faces among the VGA arrive, 

including Keith and Edna Nolan with the 

Sapphire ultralight and the dog! Others 

were James Garay and his wife, Peter 

Champness flying in the coaching 

course, John King, George Vasiliadis and 

Lillian. Tom Bird, a long-time Instructor 

from Alice Springs Gliding Club was in 

the area and managed to extend his trip to 

spend Saturday at the regatta. Dennis and 

Marion Hipperson were warming up for 

the imminent first flight of their Ka6e. 

John Viney, and Craig Dilks who are 

members of the local club, with Craig 

flying the Super Arrow. Keith Willis, 

John Anselmi and Peter Champness flew 

in the coaching course. 

With far from ideal conditions, the 

rally produced 3 flyable days out of the 4 

days that the rally was held over. 

Some good flights were recorded on 

the Monday, with Dave Goldsmith (Ka6) 

and Craig Dilks (Super Arrow) launching 

early to achieve 153km and 163 km 

respectively. 

The next day dawned fine and clear, 

with light winds. Well-shaped cumulus 

developed early, and remained throughout 

the day with plenty of sunlight between. 

Jenne Goldsmith won the daily distance 

award with a flight of 260 kms. 

Final prizes were presented by Bendigo 

Gliding Club President Jack Lavery. 

During the rally, overall height was 

awarded to Peter Raphael, with longest 

duration and greatest distance going to 

Jenne Goldsmith. 

Jack Lavery awarded the award for the 

“Best Presented Vintage Sailplane” to 

Mal Bennett for Super Woodstock VH- 

GFJ. 

Bordertown 2008 

This years Vintage Gliders Australia 

2008 Annual Rally at Bordertown was 

again an outstanding success, and will 

long be remembered for 

another year of wonderful 

enjoyment of vintage 

gliding, fun, and 

good company! Even 

the wind and weather cooperated, 

with only one 

rest day. 25 vintage 

sailplanes showed up, 

Right: group shot at 

Bordertown 2008 

including some not seen before, and the 

local club hospitality was just superb. 

As in prior years, visitors turned up early 

and had good flying in hot weather. The 

Howse family Super Cub was again 

available for launching, Keith Nolan 

brought the familiar Sapphire untralight, 

and Phil and Dianne arrived by Piper 

Pacer. Aircraft not seen here before 

included Alan Bradley’s brand new Woodstock 

VH-GBR, David and Rosie 

Howse’s Kookaburra VH-GHH, Neil 

Hardiman and Bob Hickman’s ES60 

Boomerang VH-GQY, Ken Caldwell’s 

Cherokee 2 VH-GLU, Kim Van 

Wessem’s K7 VH-GNU, Scout Gliding 

Club Motorfalke VH-GUA owned by 

Colin Turner with co-pilot Lyn Gray, 

and MotorFalke VH-GPM owned by the 

Scout Gliding Club and flown by Syd 

Wright and co-pilot Fred Wolf. Sadly, 

Lyle Whitfield’s Boomerang VH-GTK 

was badly damaged in a ground accident 

en-route to the rally. 

Many good soaring days were enjoyed 

by all, some flights although were not 

without their mishaps however as Leigh 

Bunting was spotted on the first day 

almost stationary as he made his 

approach on the first day penetrating his 

GB into strong winds enabling Leigh to 

entertain everyone with a helicopter like 

descent over the field before joining a circuit 

and landing. At 2,500’ the wind was 

28 knots on the GPS so the Baby had a 

forward speed of only 1 or 2 knots. It 

looked entirely stationary from the 

ground, like a hungry raptor hovering 

there, searching out its dinner! 

Sunday 6th January, 2008 saw 

strengthening strong winds that were to 

deter most from removing their aircraft 

from the safety of hangar, trailer or tiedowns, 

however a few of the heavier craft 

did make it into the air. The day had been 

declared a “non-proficiency” day due to 

the wind but Emilis Prelgauskus in the 

Super Arrow GTJ and Eric Sherwin in 

the Ka6E GGV managed flights of 2 

hours 30 mins. and 2 hours 25 respectively. 

Their flights were “determined 

VGC News 123 Spring 2008 7


into wind battles”, Emilis making 

Mundulla a couple of times, Eric almost 

so. Emilis’ best climb was to 4,000’, 

Eric’s to 5,000’. 

The Ka4 was rigged in the sheltered lee 

of one of the hangars. Mal Bennett carried 

out his second aircraft repair since 

arriving early the previous afternoon, the 

first being a minor wood repair to the aft 

fuselage of the Goldsmith’s ESKa6 GDN 

(hangar rash discovered the Sunday 

before), the second a fabric repair to the 

top surface of the wing on the Ka4, the 

damage caused by tyre failure on the trip 

to Bordertown. 

With the winds abating on the Monday 

saw some 45 launches for the day. Conditions, 

however, did not prove easy with 

thermals narrow and difficult to work. 

Taking an aero tow certainly improved 

the chances of getting away, giving 

David and his little Super Cub plenty of 

work. 

The VGA owned Ka4 was kept moving 

(8 winch flights averaging 5 mins.) 

with Ross Birch in the back seat (he fits 

very well and has mastered the contortionist 

task of getting in!) to oversee as 

pilots acquainted themselves with this 

interesting machine. The league II proficiency 

task was won by JR (John Marshal) 

in the Olympia “Yellow Witch” 

with a flight of 58.5km, League I by Ian 

Patching in the Boomerang GTR with a 

flight of 90km. 

At the end of the day, when all had 

been packed away, tied down etc., one of 

the aircraft was still missing. Eric Sherwin 

(Ka6E) was phoned to find out 

where he was. “At 1700’ climbing 

slowly at Wirrega” came the reply. This 

was to lead to a protracted retrieval only 

some 5km north of Wirrega, which saw 

the retrieval car and trailer get bogged 

down. With an SOS call going out, 

assistance was soon on its way to first 

tow out the trailer then the car! By then 

it was dark and the decision was made to 

tie the glider and trailer down and return 

to de-rig in the morning. 

Tuesday saw a scratchy day develop 

with a gentle wind from the South and a 

solid inversion at 4,500 and broken thermals 

and unreliable, conditions. The 

League II winner was again won by the 

Yellow Witch with a flight of 75km, followed 

up by Alan Patching in the Golden 

Eagle (48km). League I was won by Eric 

Sherwin in his Ka6E (91km) followed 

by Ian Patching in the ES60 GTR 

(70km). 

Wednesday 9th the wind was light and 

variable but again an inversion limited 

thermal heights. League I winner Eric 

Sherwin (Ka6E, 97.6km) was rewarded 

with a climb to 6,000’ out to the east at 

Serviceton. 

Becoming a tad monotonous, League 

II was won again by..yep you guessed it 

JR Marshall with a super effort in the 

Yellow Witch – 85 km! - achieved by 

whizzing around a local triangle 5 times! 

Rosie Howse delighted all by going 

solo in the family Kookaburra GHH. 

This was Rosie’s first solo in wood, following 

up on her first gliding solo a few 

months ago in club plastic, so we all 

extend our congratulations to Rosie here 

at the International VGC! (Now that you 

have discovered “real” Gliding Rosie, can 

we expect to hear more about your journey 

into the wonders and joys of the 

“wooden world?). 

Thursday 10th of January saw the 

Super Cub grounded due to engine problems 

leaving winch the only launches. 

With the high temperatures and sapping 

heat on the ground and in the cockpit, 

struggling to get away, and without the 

ability to get cool with height, many 

decided that it wasn’t worth the effort and 

opted to make a non-flying day of it. The 

town pool looked pretty good! 

Leigh launched in his trusty Grunau 

Baby II, the open cockpit an advantage in 

the hot conditions. The mercury climbed 

as an audience on the ground watched 

from the shaded green lawn near the clubhouse. 

Leigh searched about and eventually 

turned into a thermal that could be 

seen from the ground. A few minutes 

later he reported, “Passing through 

8,500’, 12 knots, don’t need the vario – 

all I’ve got to do is follow the straw!” 

This promptly saw a scramble on the 

ground, as plans were hurriedly altered! 

The temperature eventually rose to a stifling 

44 degrees, and with thermals 

breaking the early inversion rose to 

almost 13,000! Ian Patching flew a stunning 

370 kilometres in 5hours 27mins. 

He described the flight as exhilarating, 

his track taking him to Horsham then 

north to Warracknabeal, Lake Hindmarsh 

and Rainbow to play under the cumulus 

that were there. Skies were blue SW of 

that line. 

Eric Sherwin flew a fast 184km in 

2hours 15mins. to win League I with 

Patch as runner up. Caleb White covered 

245km in his EP2 Super Goose in 3 

hours 51mins. 

Jenne Goldsmith (ESKa6) recorded a 

height gain of 11,891’ on the logger, 

enabling her to make a claim for gold 

height to complete her Gold “C” during 

a 260 km flight of 5 hours 20 mins. 

League II pilots JR (Olympia “Yellow 

Witch”) flew 93km in 1hour 46mins. & 

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Just a note to thank the VGC for the beautiful salver that was presented to me at 

the recent Rally in Australia. 

I am really chuffed at receiving the unexpected recognition. I'm sure David 

Goldsmith has/will pass on the news from our Rally. 

I have a 2000km trip with the Grunau planned for April to Camden near Sydney 

where the GB was built and flown in its early days. The GB and John Ashford's 

K2b were built by the same blokes. We want to get the three surviving builders 

together with two of their old aircraft for one last time. We would like to have Ray 

Ash's Dickson Primary there too, as the same men built that as well, but Ray's 

situation makes it a bit difficult to travel far. I don't expect I can fly the GB as the 

local club's Pawnee is just too fast and no winch is available. 

Cheers and thanks again, Leigh Bunting, South Australia. 

photo shows Leigh Bunting with VGC salver, and VGA president Alan Patching 

Leigh Bunting in the Grunau Baby II 

flew 135km in 3hrs 51mins. 

Friday saw many opt not to fly in the 

as they were simply too exhausted from 

the previous day to fly in the challenging 

conditions, and enjoyed a day of rest, 

recuperation and much talk instead. 

Saturday was the last day of the rally. 

The weather was pleasantly warm with 

the southerly stream continuing. Thermals 

were broken and soaring was not 

particularly easy. The highlight of the 

day was the Ka4, flown by Peter Raphael 

and Ross Birch who managed to get a 

thermal right over the gathered crowd 

(who naturally were producing plenty of 

hot air!) and proceeded to climb well for 

a flight of 46minutes. Dave Goldsmith 

and Leigh Bunting swapped gliders and 

shared a thermal, while Jenne then took 

the Ka6 up while most gliders were derigged. 

Completing the last flight of the 

rally, she was called down with some 

reluctance, and at 6 pm, was just in time 

to prepare for the Annual Presentation 

Dinner! 

Annual Presentation Dinner 

With the laying out of a splendid spit 

roast lamb, and roast pork, a fabulous 

feast was presented by the enthusiastic 

Bordertown Keith Gliding Club team in 

which all the members of the Vintage 

Gliding Australia were very grateful. At 

the beginning of the Rally, the fearless 

rally organiser, Ian Patching had declared 

that mention of his least favoured aircraft 

was off limits, and subject to a 50-cent 

fine if the word “BLANIK” was spoken. 

Spies were appointed and appeals were 

welcomed – fine doubled! This bit of fun 

netted $86 towards the Dinner bar bill, 

and with other contributions the occasion 

deteriorated into a wonderful 

evening! (Ian did an ABC Radio Interview, 

and managed to mention “Blanik” 

eight times!) Next year the word will be 

“thermal!” 

After the first course, the official part 

of the evening commenced, with the 

Annual Prizes and Trophies being 

awarded, in which saw Leigh Bunting 

receiving the International Vintage Glider 

Club’s Salver for the highly commended 

restoration of Grunau Baby 2 VH-GDN 

from VGA President Alan Patching. 

Jenne Goldsmith won the Geoff Gifford 

trophy for best handicap distance 

between Rallies when she flew her Ka6 

for 328 kilometres. Ian Patching is 

awarded the Renmark Trophy by Caleb 

White for the longest distance on handicap 

at the Rally with a flight of 373 

kilometres. Neil Hardiman and Bob 

Hickman won the Schneider Trophy for 

the best Schneider Glider present with 

the restoration of Boomerang VH-GQY. 

Winner of the best Single Seater was 

Ken Caldwell’s Cherokee 2, VH-GLU. 

David Howse won the Best Two Seater 

trophy for Kookaburra VH- GHH. Flying 

Director Caleb White presents Erik 

Sherwin with the League I trophy for top 

scoring in the daily tasks with consistent 

flying in his beautiful Ka6e, whilst JR 

Marshall won the League 2 Trophy for 

winning the daily tasks in the Olympia 

“Yellow Witch”. (Leigh Bunting made 

this superb new trophy in the shape of 

the Golden Eagle wing). The “Feathers” 

encouragement award was presented to 

Mark White by his proud son Caleb, 

whilst the “Concours d’Elegance” award 

was presented to Alan 

Bradley for his pristine modified Woodstock. 

And lastly, Ged Terry’s dedication has 

been recognised as Ged travels every year 

to Australia from England to attend the 

Bordertown Rally. Ged was presented 

with a bottle of Bundaberg Rum to take 

back to the UK, where Ged acts as an 

unofficial ambassador for Vintage Gliders 

Australia. 

Sunday morning dawned cool with 

some light misty drizzle, as plans were 

made to leave for the long journey home, 

and the good-byes. It wasn’t all about 

winning accolades, tasks and trophies, it 

was also the pleasures of sharing our 

passion for vintage gliders and flying 

with wonderful friends who understand, 

and feel the same way. It became very 

obvious that, really, no-one wanted the 

rally to come to an end! 

OTHER NEWS 

ES59 Arrow VH-GNF has reportedly 

been taken over by Ian Linke for repairs 

back to flying condition after the aircraft 

was damaged last year by a leaking roof 

of where the glider was being kept. 

Meanwhile the damaged Ka6e VH- 

GEA belonging to Ian Patching and Dennis 

Hipperson has had its wing-spar 

spliced by Mal Bennet, and the glider had 

its first rig in 16 years, so there was 

excitement all round. 

At the GFA Annual Convention in 

Melbourne, John Ashford kindly presented 

the world’s oldest operational 

fibreglass sailplane, the FS-24 Phonix, 

which was the star attraction at the GFA 

Seminar and Annual General Meeting in 

Melbourne on 8th September. Resplendent 

with a Vintage Gliders Australia 

sticker, the aircraft attracted admiring 

glances from modern and vintage pilots 

alike. 

During the GFA Annual Dinner, GFA 

Treasurer and VSA President Ian Grant 

celebrated the award of the FAI (Fédération 

Aéronautique Internationale) Lilienthal 

Medal to Alan Patching. With much 

encouragement from both family and 

Below: Ka6e VH-GEA had its first rig in 16 

years. 



friends, Alan decided to make the long 

trip to Europe to personally accept this 

prodigious award. Alan’s daughter Margaret 

decided to accompany him, they 

spent four very enjoyable nights in 

Athens looking at very ancient ruins 

before flying to the island of Rhodes for 

the 101st FAI General Conference which 

was held in the town of Ixia, which is 

about 5 km from the old town of Rhodos. 

The FAI Awards for 2006 were presented 

at the opening ceremony held in 

the grounds of the Rhodos Citadel 

attended by a gathering of over 150 people 

consisting of local dignitaries, FAI 

officials, Members of delegations from 

participating countries and of course 

those recipientsable to attend of which 

there were about 40 out of the 85 eligible. 

For each presentation the complete 

submission was read while a photo of 

the recipient was displayed along with a 

summary of their achievements on a 

large screen. The FAI President, Pierre 

Portman, then made the presentation, 

which consisted of both a medal and a 

framed certificate. We all here at the 

VGC congratulate Alan for this achievement, 

as draw your attention to the fact 

that it is one of the highest awards that 

is awarded by the FAI for serves to gliding. 

The Lilienthal Medal is dedicated to 

rewarding a particularly remarkable performance 

in gliding, or eminent services 

to the sport of gliding over a long period 

of time, and was created by the FAI in 

1938. Alan was nominated on the recommendation 

of the GFA who had 

emphasised his contribution to glider airworthiness 

and in particular his invaluable 

work into the fatigue of sailplanes. 

(For further details of Alan’s achievement 

see issue 121). 

(Alan also gratefully extends his 

thanks to the VSA and to the GFA, who 

on his return made a significant contribution 

to the cost of the trip). 

Museum News 

The Australian Museum was further 

boosted when Bruce Brockhoff, a well 

known Australian International Team 

pilot and three-time winner of the Australian 

National Championships 15 

metre class, supported the establishment 

of the “Australian Gliding Museum 

Bruce Brockhoff Annex” at Bacchus 

Marsh with a substantial donation of 

$100,000 to the understandably enthusiastic 

applause of the large crowd. Among 

those present were two recipients of the 

Australia Medal, a recipient of the FAI 

Lilienthal Medal, three National Gliding 

champions and one World Gliding champion 

- Brad Edwards and son Markus had 

flown from Armidale, NSW, to attend 

the ceremony. Bruce then took the especially 

inscribed stainless steel spade to 

turn the first sod for the new 18 by 20 

metre building. 

The AGM Bruce Brockhoff Annex is 

initially to be used as a storeroom and 

workshop, as well as an archive centre 

for memorabilia and gliding publications. 

At the present time much of the 

AGM’s collection is housed in members 

and friends sheds scattered around Victoria. 

It is hoped to build a team of volunteer 

restorers from the west side of Melbourne 

to complement the AGM Ferntree 

Gully Workshop team. The AGM is 

still working towards opening our display 

at Point Cook as part of the Duigan 

Heritage Centre. We here in the UK, 

look on in envy! 

AUSTRIA 

Greetings from our Austrian members, 

who no doubt are getting ready to welcome 

us all at Wels in August - Ed 

See the photos below and right 



BRITAIN 

The successful flights of the MINI- 

MOA,BGA 1639, during September, 

was a great moment at the London GC. Its 

last flight had been on the 23rd September 

1978. It was flown again on the 8th September 

2007, almost 29 years later. That 

was quite some C of A. inspection. Much 

of the impetus to get it finished was given 

by PETER UNDERWOOD. He has also 

been leading the restoration of an SG 38 at 

the Shuttleworth Trust. The SG.38 (Eon 

ETON)) is now finished and it is hoped to 

auto tow launch it. This is the first glider 

to be based 

at the Shuttleworth Trust, which has 

been, as with many other British Power 

Flying Museums, totally given to 

exhibiting and flying old aeroplanes. We 

congratulate Peter on penetrating the 

sacred realm of the ancient aeroplane, for 

the first time, with a glider!!!! 

On SUNDAY the 18th NOVEMBER, 

the wind blew up the hill at the London 

Gliding Club and a vintage glider fleet 

consisting of MINIMOA, MU 13D-3, 

OLYMPIA, PREFECT etc were able to 

soar along it up to a QFE of 1000 ft, 

which is now the Max Height Never 

Exceed over the LGC due to Luton Airport’s 

air space rules. As it took a long 

time to rig the MINIMOA, one can 

imagine the advantage of a hangar for 

vintage gliders. 

AT LASHAM, GLYN BRADNEY has 

been continuing the C of A of his 

OLYMPIA 403 in the Vintage Centre. 

He has found no less than 80 lbs of nuts 

stored by mice in its wing. The mice had 

apparently found it easy to gnaw through 

the soft wooden floor of its old trailer. 

He has since bought traps and a device 

which gives out a high frequency sound 

can not be heard by humans but is said 

to repel rodents! There has been a great 

slaughter of mice. Before, enormous 

quantities of nuts were found in the MG 

19A’s wing tip. The mouse problem has 

now so far been eliminated. 

Ian Strachan has just phoned through the fantastic news from Rome that our very own 

DEREK PIGGOTT has been awarded the FAI (IGC) Lilienthal Medal! 

What a wonderful honour - so very richly deserved. What a man!!! 

When I started my crusade last year to have DEREK PIGGOTT honoured by the 

wider aviation community, both home and abroad, I knew that when people knew more 

about the man, I would succeed. First I wrote pleading letters suggesting that he should 

be awarded the Royal Aero Club's Gold Medal. The Gold came to him. Then I 

suggested to Peter Hearne that the Royal Aeronautical Society might consider 

honouring him. Peter, a former President, a man of great influence in the world, 

persuaded the RAeSoc to award him an 'Honorary Companion of the Society'. 

Having achieved Britain's recognition of D.P.s achievements, I wanted the world 

gliding community to do likewise. First a plea to the BGA asking them to suggest to the 

Royal Aero Club that D.P. should be Britain's nominee for the Lilienthal. When that was 

accomplished ( I will find a way of publishing Dreek's C.V. which will blow your mind) 

and learning that the Poles and the Italians had also submitted their nominees I did tell 

friends abroad of my hopes. Thank you friends!. 

It worked. Hail to Derek. 

Finally, I am equally proud of Lasham! Seven Lashamites have been awarded this FAI 

(IGC)'s highest gliding award - 1954 Philip Wills, 1966 Anne Burns, 1973 Ann Welch, 

1984 Wally Wallington, 2005 Ian Strachan, 2006 Alan Patching and 2007 Derek Piggott. 

That's quite a record. 

Wally Kahn 

CZECH REPUBLIC 

by CW. 

From correspondence dated 28th Nov. 

2007 from Tomas, Josef and Zuzka 

Mezerovi. “Unfortunately, during the 

summer of 2007, it was not possible for 

many Czech pilots to take part in every 

meeting held by our VGC friends, due to 

their work and other duties. JIRI LENIK is 

in better condition today. He was released 

from hospital at the beginning of October. 

He is taking part in a rehabilitation programme 

at a Spa at this time, but is 

expected to return home for Christmas. 

The SG.38 “ERWIN” is broken but we 

think that it is still repairable. Its construction 

is very much able to absorb 

shocks during heavy landings. We expect 

that its overhaul will take place during the 

spring of 2008, after Jiri Lenik’s return 

into the life of the pilots and mechanics. 

The accident was not caused by a technical 

problem, but probably by the strong wind 

shear and turbulence, as revealed by the 

video film. Unfortunately, Jiri does not 

remember the time before or during the 

crash. 

EMIL SLIVA is feeling better from 

last summer’s health problems. During 

the autumn, he took part in a hill soaring 

meeting at Bezmiechova in Poland. 

This is one of the “sacred” gliding sites 

(being Poland’s pre 1940 famous gliding 

centre - CW). Take offs were achieved by 

simply rolling the sailplanes down the 

hill on their landing wheels. 

BORIS KOZUH, our Southern 

SLOVENIAN friend and member of the 

Czech National Vintage Gliding Club 

(the POTK), visited RANA this summer. 

He talked to us about some old gliders 

on Croatian and Slovenian airfields, 

but the owners of these gliders do not 

want to take out any kind of VGC membership. 

BORIS asked us to help to 

organise a Croatian/Slovenian meeting 

of historical gliders with Czech participation 

during the third or fourth week of 

June 2008. 

We think that this is a good idea. We 

have tried to help our friend Zbigniew 

Jezierski in Poland; our friends in the 

ex–DDR and our friends in Austria. We 

will send you information about the 

Czech/ Slovenian vintage glider meeting 

later.” 

CW adds - We know that in Croatia, a 

1956 built all metal METEOR supership 

was still airworthy. In Slovenia, an 

Eon OLYMPIA from 1947, as well as an 

OLYMPIA 419 from about 1956 were 

still airworthy and that there were plans 

to restore a Yugoslav built Kranich 2B-2 



which was seen stored on Lubliana airport 

some years ago. The JUGOSLAV 

register of 1949 reveals that 29 of them 

were airworthy in the country at that 

time. 

NEWS HAS JUST COME IN (Jan 

2008) of two decentralised Czech contests 

for vintage gliders held in 2006. In 

the CPS Contest, the best of three 

flights by a pilot on three different dates 

were entered. There were 32 entrants flying 

a COBRA, ORLIKS, S-25 s, M-28, 

OLYMPIA 419, and M-35. 

1st was Radim Hahn COBRA 303.4 km 

at 81.93 kph, 319.4 km at 65.27 kph and 

332.4 km at 93.06 kph. 

11th was Emil Sliva in an ORLIK 207.8 

km at 63.8 kph. 

18th was Picka Vlast flew an OLYMPIA 

419 204 km triangle at 45.03 kph. 

In the POTC’s (Czech Vintage Glider 

Club) Competition there were 47 

entries. Flying ORLIKS, PHOEBUS, L- 

SPATZ, DEMANT,,Z-25, M-35. KRA- 

JANEK, OLYMPIA 419. etc etc. Again, 

it was the three best flights from different 

locations on different days that 

counted. 

First was Emil Sliva from Hronov club in 

an ORLIK, 298 km at 62kph, 221 km at 

83.7 kph and 247 km at 52,8 kph. 

4th was Milan Svoboda in a PHOEBUS; 

318 km at 48.7 kph, 320 km at 50.1kph 

and 322 km at 47.9 kph. Milan 

Svobodaʼs home base is Plnn/Letkov. 

5th was Petr Hanacek in his L-SPATZ 

from Jesenik.322 km at 60 kph, 272 km 

at 58.8 kph and 173 km 36.54.kph 

We congratulate our member Petr 

Hanacek for his fine flights. 

We regret that through lack of space 

we could not include all the competitors’ 

achievements. 

DENMARK 

Their 2G 2 sweater Open Primary had 

three flights from 1,000 ft (300 metre) 

winch launches) to well over 1000 m 

(over 4,000 ft) in thermals over Nitra. We 

do not know whether it had ever been 

flown to such great heights before. Unfortunately, 

while going home, it was 

involved in a car accident in Bratislava, 

which caused some damage to it and its 

trailer. The tow car was destroyed but fortunately 

the car driver was not badly 

hurt. We believe that the 2G and trailer 

are by now, repaired. There is another 2G 

and three more were built in Denmark. 

The 1943 Mraz built KRANICH 2B-2, 

formerly D-0031, was severely damaged 

three years ago while landing down wind 

during an Air Day, in Germany. It is 

being worked on every Tuesday by a 

team of elderly glider pilots, led by 

Hannes Ling. During the accident, its 

fuselage was broken in half and its nose 

had gone. Now, all the broken bulkheads 

are renewed and its fuselage is together. 

It still needs its nose renewing and some 

metal fittings straightened or repaired. 

Other parts damaged were its fin and tail 

plane. Perhaps in 1 ½ years it will be 

repaired and airworthy again. In Denmark, 

there are two Swedish KRANICH 

2 B-1 s, but they are in bad condition. 

The team has completed an SG.38, 

which has been presented to a very grateful 

museum. A second SG.38 is to be 

restored to airworthy condition for their 

club’s members to fly. 

The HUETTER H.17A, OY-CJX, has 

at last been declared airworthy by the 

Danish Air Office. It has been flown 

among others, by GERHARD 

MALESCHKA, who was so overcome 

with enthusiasm after flying it, that he 

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repairing a Ka 6. This is now finished 

and so we hope that they will get back 

on to the MU 13D-2. This machine had 

been bought new by Lithuanians and it 

won there the first Baltic Sea Championships 

in 1939. It was then captured by 

the Russians, and then, by the Germans, 

who returned it to Germany as a “Russian 

Booty Aircraft”. It then was flown by 

the Wehrmacht Luft (WL) which broke it 

probably twice. It was repaired and then 

taken to Denmark. The British Army 

came in 1945 and removed 67 gliders 

from Denmark, all of which were in German 

markings. Among them were three 

Mu 13s, but they did not find WL-X1- 

217 (pre June 1943 WL registered) LY- 

KEVA, which was securely hidden. 

Its last wing will need its double “T” 

main spar rebuilding outboard of about 

two metres, because of now ‘not good’ 

WL repairs. A member of the Danish 

Vintage Gliding Club can remember seeing 

German pilots in it doing endless 

loops during the war, with its wings 

flexing a lot. They can also remember 

seeing the OLYMPIA MEISE BGA 449 

(LF+VO post June 1943 WL registered) 

flying over Denmark during war time by 

the German military. It was one of four 

Meises found by the British Army in 

Denmark. It is now stored dry in Plymouth. 

So far as we know, it is the last 

of the 650 MEISES built by Schmetz at 

Herzogenrath near Achen, during the war. 

THE DANISH VINTAGE GLIDER 

PILOTS ARE AN INSPIRATON FOR 

US ALL as also are the ALL VINTAGE 

GLIDER PILOTS! CW 

Addendum to DANISH NEWS By the 

beginning of February 2008, the two 

halves of the KRANICH 2B-2, were 

joined up. Also a new nose had been 

built on to it. The fuselage still was 

lying upside down in its jig, awaiting 

installation of its landing skid. It still 

needed installation of its stern post and 

of course its plywood skin. It represents 

a fantastic achievement. When finished, 

it will be the last airworthy of the over 

1,500 Mraz Kranich 2B-2s built during 

the war. Another does exist un-airworthy 

in the hands of Mario Sells in Germany. 

The repair of the Mraz KRANICH 2B-2 

so quickly, represents a great achieve- 


ment on the part of the veteran Danish 

vintage glider pilots. We have heard that 

a second 2G TWO SEATER PRIMA- 

RYGLIDER is being restored. 

FRANCE 

by CW 

Some news of a few gliders. 7 FAU- 

VETTES (Breguet 905) have found 

themselves in England. All of them were 

modified. One, (No.30), built in 1960 and 

registered F-CCJA, has been sold in 1960 

to Jorgen Doppelbauer of Gunzenhausen 

in Germany. No.43 was recently sold to 

APPARAT at La Montage Noire. This 

still leaves FIVE OF THEM on the other 

side of the channel! 

Laurent Postmark and Jean-Baptist 

Claudine have restored a WA 21 

JAVELOT. It was No 17 and was built in 

1959. It was first at La Montage Noire 

and then at Saint Auban, It was found to 

be in basically sound condition and its 

restoration went very quickly. Since 

then, it has flown very often and they 

Above: a Wassmer Javelot 

have found the machine to be very agreeable 

and easy to fly. Laurent has only 50 

hours of flight time but he has flown his 

five hours in it. Jean-Baptist has flown a 

300 kms out & return from St Creping, 

on the 19th of May 07, at an average 

speed of 61 kph. On the 18th of May, he 

climbed to 4,000 m. in wave. They have 

found a trailer for it and intend to bring 

it to Dedale’s Rallies. 

THE APARATCHIKS at La Montage 

Noire have built a good, simple apparatus 

for lifting their N.2000 MEISE) on 

to its wheels. It makes the operation 

“Child’s Play” and Gerard Saint-Denis 

has shown great interest in it for lifting 

his heavy MILAN (WEIHE) on to its 

wheels. 

THE REBIRTH OF THE CASTEL 

C.3010 F-CREJ. Marc Waibel has been 

working for more than a year to restore 

this unique C.3010 at St Saurian de 

Chadbourn in the Medoc. This is a 

hybrid glider consisting of the fuselage 

of a C.301 which was built by the 

SNCAC at Billancourt in 1946 and 

cleared to fly by SALS during the same 

year, registered F-CAKJ and was given 

to the Aero Club of Orleans on the 3rd 

May 1949. During the époque of 1962, 

its registration had become F-CREJ. 

There is the suggestion that during it’s 

general revision of 9th December 1966, 

that it had the C.310 wings by then as it 

was referred to as a C.3010. The wings 

seemed then new in very good order with 

new aileron cables. 

It seems that only about five C.301S 

had their wings changed to become 

C.3010s, in the same fashion as 

SLINGSBY CADETS becoming 

SLINGSBY TUTORS, after the war. 

Marc has been working very hard on his 

project and decided to work on it rather 

than come to the VGC International Rallies 

in 2007. It is ready for finishing but 

he has decided that, as it still needs a 

trailer, he would spend more time flying 

gliders in 2008. The history of the type 

is as follows: 

24 of the first Castel C.30 s were built 

in 1936. In 1941, after the rebirth of 

French gliding, the German controlled 

armistice commission ordered 314 to be 

built to equip the clubs and centres without 

testing as this had already happened 

before the war. This type was decided on 

rather than the new very promising 

EMOUCHET. 

Only part or the order could be fulfilled 

as, on the 8th December, 1942, the allies 

invaded North Africa and, on the next day 

the Germans invaded the South of France 

to defend the Mediterranean coast. On the 

5th December 1942, all civilian flying 

was banned in France. However, in 

1942, there was an order for CASTEL 

C.31s. These were C.301s with higher 

aspect ratio, and therefore more high performance 

wings. These would have been 

eminently suitable for Silver C flying, 

and in fact, a C.310P, as the C.31s were 

called after the war, made a goal flight of 

300 km in 1959. As the new wings on 

the C.31 made it be considered a new 

design, it had to be test flown. Therefore, 

by the end of 1942, only one of them had 

been delivered to the clubs and this one 

was quickly broken. In 1943, this broken 

C.31 was taken together with other 

French gliders, which included 14 AVIA 

40Ps, to Germany, for flying by the 

Wehrmacht Luft. The C.31 order was 

completed after the war, when it became 

known in the French Clubs as the CAS- 

TEL C.310P. At that time, the 

EMOUCHET was mass produced for the 

first time, after it first had flown at Pont 


Saint Vincent, having been built there, 

in 1938. 

MARC WEIBEL has in his workshop 

LA LOUISETTE (named after Louis 

Breguet’s son), the 1949 prototype of the 

BREGUET 900, of which about five 

were built in 1950, with flaps. La 

LOUISETTE does not have flaps. This 

prototype has not flown for very many 

years but we hope that it will be restored 

to fly one day. 

La MUSEE DE L’AIR REGIONAL at 

ANGERS (the G.P.P.A.) from its periodical 

of Summer 2007 No. 93. Concerning 

the rebuild of the AVIA 152A. F- 

AZVI. The woodwork of this aircraft was 

finished except for the bases of the 

struts. It was awaiting inspection by an 

“Expert” before its fabric covering. We 

hope that by the time that this is in 

print, this historic aircraft will have been 

test flown. It was found by the museum 

as a wreck in the back of a gliding club’s 

hangar and it has been completely 

rebuilt. This is the last survivor of a 

derivative of the AVIA 15 of the early 

1950s, which became the backbone of 

the French gliding training system 

before 1945. The AVIA 152a was first 

flown in 1942 after a refinement of its 

predecessor the AVIA 151, and was built 

in large quantities in France and Algeria 

during and after the war. This one has a 

nacelle. Because of its large size, and 

refinement, it will have a very real slope 

and thermal soaring capability, and 

should give the Hols der Teufel some 

competition. 

FRANCOIS BLONDEAU is now the 

PRESIDENT of the MUSEE 

REGIONAL DE L’AIR. Our good friend 

CHRISTIAN RAVEL, after many years 

as President, is now Honorary President 

of the Museum. They were obliged to 

stop their Moraine 505 “STORCH” flying 

because of “grilled” valve heads, after 

a meeting at Bangles de l’ Oren. However, 

a new engine has been installed 

thanks to the kindness of Daniel 

Renault, who has taken the matter in 

hand. The old engine is being overhauled. 

This STORCH was with us during 

our Rendezvous Rally at Angers in 

2006.The restoration of the WA-22 was 

nearly finished. The team was then 

preparing the plastic parts, such as nose 

and fairings. It will be better than new 

when finished. 

THE MUSEUM has many new items 

including large models of an N.1300 

(Grunau Baby 2b) and an AVIA 41P. 

ANGERS also experienced bad weather 

in 2007. However an Indian Summer 

allowed flying in their BREGUET 904 



and FAUVEL AV.22. 

During January 2008, we learnt that 

the AVIA 152A primary glider at the 

Regional Air Museum at ANGERS was 

having its second or third inspection by 

the Bureau Veritas, before being allowed 

to be fabric covered. In 1942, this was 

the final development of the 1932 AVIA 

15 training glider. It is very magnificent 

and is relatively quite large when compared 

with other primary gliders, excluding 

perhaps the Hols der Teufel. It is 

hoped the AVIA 152A will be cleared for 

aero towing, at least by the 340 hp 

STORCH. 

GERMANY 

There was a GERMAN NATIONAL 

VGC MEETING during the evening 

of SATURDAY 20th October in the village 

of DIETERSHAUSEN near the 

Wasserkuppe. This village is famous for 

us because the HORTEN 33 was once 

found stored here. Its storage barn has now 

been knocked down and a restaurant has 

taken its place. GERMAN VICE PRESI- 

DENT OF THE INTERNATIONAL 

VGC, HARALD KAEMPER ran the 

meeting in his own way. At the beginning 

of the meal, there was a standing minute’s 

silence (with tears in the eyes) for Herr 

REICHMEIER, PAUL SERRIES (our 

previous German VGC Vice President) and 

for the young and beautiful DIETMUT 

SCHULZ, who had tragically met her end 

with her passenger at the Waechtersberg in 

a KRANICH 3 accident. She was a pilot 

full of promise. Sepl KURZ, former 

leader of the OSC Wasserkuppe, and 

JOCHEN KRUSE were both in hospitals 

for critical operations. The VGC wishes 

them quick recoveries. We should remember 

that both of Jochen’s two seater 

sailplanes, a CONDOR 4 and a 

KRANICH 2b-2 which he had kindly lent 

to young pilots, who had severely broken 

them, have been, or are being, repaired. 

His CONDOR 4 was repaired in Japan 

and is currently waiting to get airborne 

with a Japanese owner in Australia, and 

his KRANICH 2b-2 (Mraz built) is currently 

being energetically repaired by a 

team of Danish VGC members. HAR- 

ALD KAEMPER reported that his 

RIEHER 3 had its Perspex canopy drawn 

over its mould on Wednesday the 24th of 

October 07. The REIHER will then have 

to be finished and a trailer will have to be 

built for it. BERND EWALD said that 

there were problems with his HORTEN 

4a’s centre section, which was recently 

finished by members of the Hamburg 

Lufthansa workshop, who had been 

working on it without pay! This means 

that both aircraft will not be ready until 

mid 2009 but it is hoped to present them 

for the first time to an astounded world 

during that year’s planned International 

VGC Rally at Achmer Osnabrueck. 

It has recently been agreed with the 

Poles that 2008’s GRUNAU BABY 

RALLY should take place for a whole 

week during Whitsun at JEZOW (formerly 

GRUNAU), the sacred home of 

the Grunau Babies. It is hoped that a 

week long Grunau Baby Rally might 

attract Grunau Baby owners from other 

lands to attend. It is known that during 

the early 1960s, ANDY GOUGH of the 

RAF, was ordered to bring to Britain the 

last remains of the RAF’s 1945 Glider 

Fleet from Germany for sale to British 

civilians. This fleet consisted of a JS 

WEIHE, three KRANICH 2B-2s, two 

GOEVIER 2s, the RHEINLAND and 

many GRUNAU BABY 2s and 3s. The 

GRUNAU BABY 2Bs were mostly built 

during the war and therefore they are 

probably among the oldest GRUNAU 

BABIES in the world. It has already been 

announced that all launches at next year’s 

Grunau Baby Rally will be by bungee. 

GRUNAU (JEZOW) is an outstandingly 

beautiful gliding site with many 

soaring slopes facing most wind directions. 

It was also the largest 

Reichssegelflugschule (State Gliding 

School ), the building of which are still 

there. The Edmund Schneider factory, 

where at least 3,000 Grunau Babies were 

built, is also still working on gliders in 

the village of JEZOW SUDESKI, 

(Grunau), below the site. 

LATE NEWS (Dec.07) from the GER- 

MAN GLIDING MUSEUM WITH 

MODEL FLIGHT on the Wasserkuppe. 

The Museum’s very considerable fleet of 

static displayed gliders has now been 

joined by the HUETTER H,17A D-1012 

of 1933 and the 1926 LIPPISCH 

ROCKET PROPELLED ENTE 

(CANARD). These represent the final 

restoration work of the team led by the 

Museum’s workshop restoration team 

PETER DISTLER, DAG PETERS, and 

OTTO BECKER, which was led by 

JOSEF KURZ. PETER DISTLER is 

now to lead a new restoration team for 

the Museum’s glider exhibits. Their New 

Project is the HKS 1-V.2 of 1954 which 

has been stored for many years in less 

than perfect conditions in a shed on the 

Wasserkuppe. Its wings are in passable 

condition. Its fuselage has some glue 

failure caused by damp in its nose area. 

It’s butterfly (V-) tail plane only consists 

of fragments. This is a 19 m span German 

sailplane. HKS stands for Haase, its 

pilot, Kens, it’s designer and Schmetz, 

it’s builder. It did not have great success 

in contests, but its smaller version, the 

HKS –3, which is on display in the German 

Museum in Munich, did win the 

1958 World Championships at Leszno, 

Poland, flown by E.G.Haase. 

In the Wasserkuppe Museum’s drawing 

archives, SIEGFRIED LORENZ has put 

over 4,000 historical sailplane building 

plans onto disc. Copies of limited numbers 

of them could be sold to those who 

wish to have them. A RAPE SEED OIL 

fired heater has been bought to heat the 

museum. The OLDTIMER GLIDING 

CLUB (OSC) on the Wasserkuppe has 

been occupied during the winter giving 

their KA 2B a basic overhaul. 

A GERMAN SAILPLANE AERO 

(exhibition) at Sansei was held to celebrate 

the 66th German Gliding Day 

(Segelfliegertag) in a whole hangar on 

the airfield. Vintage gliders were 

uniquely represented by a superbly 

restored SG 38, D-7038. It was even 

clear varnished. Among the awards given 

was a Paul Tisandier Diploma to the 

famous sailplane designer GERHARD 

WAIBEL. During November 2007, a 

Rumanian member of the Alkaflieg 

Munich crashed the MU 17 owned by the 

Alkaflieg. This is being repaired. So 

both the surviving MU 17s, which were 

built in 1956, are at Rainer Karch’s 

address in Munich. The other one is his 

and needs restoration. The three prototypes 

and the 10 which were built by the 

FFG Prague (Flugtechnischefertigungs 

Gemeinschaft Prag) during the war, came 


to their ends in the hands of the occupying 

forces. The two MU 17s at Rainer 

Karch’s address are all we have to remind 

us of the Alkaflieg Munich’s very good 

Olympic sailplane of 1939. HARRY 

CHAPPLE, who is now working in the 

Netherlands, has taken his original MU 

13D-3 from WEISSENBERG in Germany 

to the Netherlands. Weissenberg, 

near the HESSELBERG, (a very famous 

historical Bavarian gliding site), has 

been, and still is a home for MU 13 Ds, 

as the one from Francois Ragot, which 

was previously in La Ferte Alais’s glider 

fleet, is being rebuilt there. We have 

heard that as of February 2008, Hermann 

BEIKER in Hamburg had almost finished 

the two wings of his originally 

Spanish AISA built WEIHE. Its fuselage 

is well on the way to being repaired. 

Dare we expect that soon a WEIHE in 

the ancient colours of gliders in Spain 

will appear in North Germany ? Its total 

reconstruction will represent a very great 

achievement by Hermann Beiker. 

NETHERLANDS 

by CW 

Having hitherto not had a benevolent 

state gliding organization, the Dutch 

now seem to have a good one! Because of 

this, there has been an expansion of their 

vintage gliding movement and some really 

old vintage gliders appearing on the scene. 

There has always been an ESG (Einheits 

School Glider) GRUNAU 9, and several 

GRUNAU BABIES but now there is a 

SLINGSBY SKY airworthy, while 

another is being repaired at Deelen. (This 

is the SKY in which Phillip Wills won 

the1952 World Championships at Cuatro 

Vientos, Madrid). 

A new MINIMOA is being finished at 

JEZOW in Poland. This aircraft has 

largely been built by Bob Persyn in the 

Netherlands from drawings that the VGC 

sent him. However, it was agreed that it 

would be worked on at Jezow by the 

firm’s workers during moments when 

they were not busy with other restorations. 

This did not happen, so little 

progress has been made. The firm’s 

workers have now been asked to work on 

it full time. It is believed that the firm 

was too busy restoring Grunau Babies, 

so many of which were built there during 

the old days. 

Further to this, the unique GRUNAU 

8 is being at last worked on. This we 

believe stems from 1929?, and it will be 

the oldest Vintage Glider flying anywhere 

in the world. Its tandem two seated 

fuselage is not in too bad a condition but 

its wings will need renewing. This aircraft 

is owned by Hein Schwing, who 

had given it to an organisation to be 

stored and to be made airworthy. Now 

Dutch VGC members are working on it. 

While it seems to have been dry and 

stored well, not much progress was made 

to getting it airworthy, until now. To 

have this one at 6,000 ft will be a 

tremendous sight. 

The 1939 V.20 as illustrated with a 3 

view drawing on page 37 of VGC News 

No. 122. This is expected to be finished 

and airworthy in the foreseeable future. 

The Dutch VGC seems to have 

admirable enthusiasm, thanks to a sympathetic 

State administration (Rijksluchtvaartdienst), 

very good internal 

organisation and the super Airdrome Aircraft 

museum at Lelystat. It shows what 

can be done. If only other state gliding 

administrations could have followed the 

Rijksluchtvaartdienst’s example, we 

might not be confronted with the potentially 

disastrous situation as we are now. 

Small is good. Big is bad when it comes 

to organisations. 

Jan Foerster told us during mid February 

that he had just finished fabric covering 

the very historic 1939 Dutch V-20 

sailplane which we described on pages 36 

and 37 of VGC News No. 121, summer 

2007. It is expected to fly this year. (See 

article in this issue from Neelco Osinga 

– Ed) 

Slingsby’s over Salland 

from Eric Munk 

News from Lemelerveld, Netherlands, 

where a small group of private owners 

joined forces under the name ‘Slingsbys 

over Salland’ some years ago. Their 

goal? To keep vintage Slingsbys flying – 

and work on some others glider too 

while they’re at it… 

The 9th of June saw the first postrestoration 

flight of Slingsby T.38 

Grasshopper TX.1 BGA.3488. Erwin 

Janssen took a car tow to 150 feet and 

declared the restoration a great success 

after landing. The airplane has since been 

flown on a number of occasions at vintage 

glider meetings. Restored to its 

original RAF colour scheme (WZ795), 

the aircraft is fully original and comes 

with all equipment (tripod, wing boards, 

manuals, all documentation, etc.). A custom-built 

trailer is due to be completed 

at the end of this winter. 

During the seven year restoration 

(some other jobs got in the way), 

BGA.3488 was extensively rebuilt, 

including a new front diagonal for the A- 


frame, a new spar for an aileron, replacement 

of all flying wires and the complete 

rebuild of one wing due to glue joint 

problems in the ribs. The remainder of 

the airplane was fully overhauled, recovered 

and repainted under the guidance of 

BGA-inspector Jan Förster. He oversaw 

Above: Erwin Janssen flying the 

Grasshopper on one of the vintage glider 

meetings. 

the work done by local technicians Erwin 

Janssen, Evert Kuiper, Ed Eeltink, Henk 

Stubbe and Eric Munk. 

The Grasshopper joins a ‘fleet’ of two 

other Slingsby’s. Prefect PH-196 has 

been at Salland since 1974, while Sky 

BGA.1053 has been flying here since 

2005 after restoration by Slingsby’s over 

Salland. 

Just as a PS: the ‘members’ of Slingsbys 

over Salland also have (shares in) a 

K.8b (D-5191), Ka.4 (PH-279), Ka.6E 

(PH-365), Ka.2b (PH-919), Ka.6Cr (PH- 

279), K.7 (PH-264) and Ka.6BrPe (PH- 

874). All of these are airworthy, though 

the Ka.6BrPe and Ka.4 have not flown 

for about two seasons. There are some 

people insisting the group should be 

called Schleicher’s over Salland. This is, 

of course, nothing but a foul rumor… 

NEW ZEALAND 

The WEIHE AND SKYLARK 3, 

which were recently imported by Ian 

Dunkley, are not so dormant as reported in 

previous VGC News. The SWEDISH 

BUILT 1943 JS WEIHE is in his workshop 

at TAKAO BAY on Banks Peninsula 

near Christchurch and requires very little 

work to make it airworthy. The SKY- 

LARK 3 will be flying during this summer’s 

Vintage Kiwi Rallies in NZ. Both 

types, but not these actual aircraft, took a 

very important part in NZ’s gliding history 

during the 1950 s, being flown on 

National records and 300 km flights by 

S.H. Georgeson. The actual Dick Georgeson 

JS Weihe’s fuselage is on display at 

the Ashburton Museum. It now has stub 



Above: Ian Dunkley's Skylark 3f, ex Essex Gliding Club, made it's first New Zealand Rally 

appearance at Taupo in January. It had it's first NZ flight, a winch launch, on a muddy winter 

day last year in the hands of Marc Morley, at Drury, after he completed repairs started by Ian 

in the UK. It's second flight, an aerotow this time, on a very hot summers day being reported 

in the local press. The Taupo Rally, the best yet, will be reported in the next issue. 

International Vintage Glider Rally at 

WELS in Austria next July. 

News has come from JEZOW via Ian 

Dunkley who was there last September. 

Although there was no progress on his 

FAUVEL AV 22, there has been some on 

the Dutch MINIMOA and the Belgian 

SPALINGER S.15K, and on their 

SALAMANDRA. We believe that the 

JEZOW firm is concentrating mainly on 

building SP-5 fibre glass high performance 

two seaters, for which they have 

received some orders from the USA. It 

was agreed that the AV 22 would be finished 

by next summer’s International 

Rally at Wells and that its main fuselage 

wing fittings would have to be replaced 

due to their being corroded in the humid 

conditions of Camp Hill. 

LESZEK DANKOWSKI was leading 

the vintage glider restoration while 

HENRY MYNARSKI was away at an 

aeronautical exhibition. Much will 

depend on the weather during the winter. 

JAN SLODOWSKIi had told us that 

the Storks (the Bocians) have already left 

wings built on to it because there was no 

room for 18 m span wings in the 

museum. Its registration was ZK-GAE 

but was formerly the machine of 

P.A.Wills in Britain registered BGA 433 

and G-ALKG during the late 40s and 

early 50s. It had been rescued from the 

Wasserkuppe, from the Americans, who 

said that they were about to burn all the 

gliders. 

It is also rumoured that an Mg 19 

winged STEINADLER will be going to 

NZ as well as a FAUVEL AV 22. The 

Mg19A will be the first gull-winged 

sailplane ever seen in New Zealand. 

POLAND. 

For a long time we have had no news 

from Poland. Now at last we have 

received some news from ZBIGNIEW 

JEZIERSKI concerning vintage gliders at 

Gliwice. The various broken components 

of a T.21b which arrived from Camp hill 

on a lorry have been gradually repaired and 

the fuselage now has a new nose. Work 

has continued to repair a wing. 

Work on the Gliwice new SALA- 

MANDRA has continued. It only now 

needs details to finish it. It is very likely 

to be ready to take part in next year’s 

Right: Mietek Smagacki with the replica 

SALAMANDRA which he is helping 

construct in SZD Jezow. See seperate 

article 


(during September) and this is a sure 

sign that there will be a cold winter in 

Poland. We have heard the very sad news 

that PIOTR PYCHALSKI has had a fatal 

accident while air testing a sailplane. We 

do not know whether this was his 

ZEFIR 2A but we hope that it was not ? 

See VGC News No 111 of Spring 2004. 

Page 28 “My Polish Pearl”. Our sympathies 

go out to his relations and friends. 

SWEDEN 

by CW 

Thanks to a more sympathetic State 

Gliding Administration for vintage 

gliders, there has been growth in our 

movement in this country. Now with 

Swedish CofA, are CH 2B-1, T.21b, 

GRUNAU BABY 2B, SG.38 etc. This is 

very different to the Swedish Gliding 

Administration of the early 1960 when 

all wooden gliders were banned from flying. 

This led to no less than 50 WEI- 

HES, KRANICH 2B-1s, OLYMPIA 

GRUNAU BABIES, and SG.38s being 

burnt, although a few were sold to 

Britain and the USA, where they are still 

being flown. Others found their way to 

Swedish Museums. 

There is moreover, a Swedish Glider 

Museum on the National centre of Aldeburgh 

which has a slope and a rebuilt 

wooden bungee launching ramp. So the 

future looks good for vintage gliders in 

Sweden. 

The KRANICH 2, formerly BGA 964, 

is still doing well in the air, being flown 

by the veteran glider pilots and has been 

displayed on the ground at several exhibitions. 

It is always flown in Sweden 

with its wheels attached, as it is less 

heavy to lift by old pilots. 

The KRANICH 2B-1 (One of 35 built 

in Sweden during 1943/44) has spent the 

winter derigged in its trailer in a building. 

During gliding seasons, it is kept 

on display rigged in the Alleberg 

Swedish Gliding Museum, but it is 

taken out during the season and flown 

with instructors by members of the 

Swedish Veterans’ Gliding Group. This 

aircraft was formerly BGA 964 in 

Britain, but it has now been restored to 

its old Swedish civilian registration SE- 

STF. It had been the training 2 seater for 

the Stockholm Gliding Club. 

It had, at first, the Swedish Airforce 

(Flygvapnet) registration Fv8226. It had 

been in England where it had had a 

charmed life since 1960. Owing to the 

great expense of taxing a 4-wheeled vehicle 

on Swedish roads, its trailer under 

carriage has now only two wheels, we 

hope, of great size. CW had organised for 

STF a new trailer with 4 wheels for more 

security on the roads of Britain. STF had 

become internationally famous, having 

been flown by CW in Sweden, Germany, 

Netherlands, Hungary, Poland, France, 

Czech Republic, and Elmira in the USA. 

Its new owners, the Veteran Vintage 

Glider Club of Sweden, thinks that it is 

so precious that they do not wish to 

bring STF to any more Rallies outside 

Sweden, because of the dangers on the 

ships and Autobahns. So anyone wishing 

to see an original KRANICH 2 B-1 

must go to Alleberg in Sweden. 

The Swedish group has already invited 

the Norwegians and the Danes to come 

and fly it. The latter have been invited to 

make them more enthusiastic about flying 

their Mraz built KRANICH 2B-2, 

which was severely damaged during a 

down wind landing at an air day in Germany. 

Not that the Danes need to be 

made any more enthusiastic, after their 

great progress with the repair in Denmark. 

There are also two Swedish built 

KRANICH 2B-1s in Denmark,which are 

in very bad condition (un-airworthy). We 

are glad that the Swedish Veteran Group 

is looking after their KRANICH 2B-1, 

SE-STF so well. 

SWITZERLAND 

from Daniel Steffan and 

Willi Shwarzenbach 

The Swiss built DFS Olympia Meise’s 

The DFS Meise, designed by Hans 

Jacobs in 1938 and selected in 1939 as 

the Olympia class sailplane to be flown 

by every nation’s competitors at the 

Olympic Games. Unfortunately the 1940 

DFS Olympia Meise HB-384 ready for the 

ʻfirstʼ flight on the airfield Grenchen on 

30th June 2007 Thomas Fessler 


Olympia Games in Helsinki never were 

held due to outbreak of war. Despite of 

this, Meise’s were built in Germany, 

Sweden, Hungary, Yugoslavia, France, 

Britain, Australia and also in Switzerland. 

In 1942 the subsidized “Segelflugzeugbau-Genossenschaft 

Zürich” was created. 

The workers were mostly unemployed 

persons. The project was to produce gliders 

and as a priority Olympia Meise’s for 

the Swiss pilots participating at international 

competitions. The line production 

of 10 units started immediately. The 

price for one Meise was quoted for 2200 

SFR and on this basis many (mostly 

unsecured) orders and order-intentions 

were booked and the production of further 

10 Meise’s was already planned. 

However it took three years (1942 - 

1945) instead the expected 6 months to 

finish 11 Meise’s (HB-381 to HB-391). 

The main reasons were the often absent 

workers (military service), missing 

knowledge, delayed deliveries of material, 

insufficient heating and the lack of 

money. The price for the Swiss built 

Meise raised to 4’000 SFR (about £232 

in 1947). Most of the gliding clubs lost 

interest and cancelled their order, finally 

the last 4 Meise’s were not sold before 

1948. 

The history shows that some of theses 

Swiss-Meise’s crashed, that four of them 

were cancelled from the Swiss glider register 

due to particular reasons, but happily 

some survived! These are the HB- 

381, HB-384 and HB-491 of which, as 

far as we know only the HB-384 is airworthy 

at the moment. 

This Olympia Meise HB-384 was purchased 

by the Grenchen GC and did her 

maiden flight on the 31st December 

1945. It was sold 1959 to Andreas Furrer 

in Eastern Switzerland. From there the 



Left: this photo of the serial production of the Swiss Meiseʼs was published in the AeroRevue 

No. 4/1944. Vlasak, Aero-Revue No. 4/1944 

Above: the Olympia Meise HB-381during the Swiss federal flight examination in April 1945 

archiver Kurt Stapfer 

Meise moved 1967 to the Pilatus GC at 

Beromünster and was later owned by 

Doris Heinzer. She, and also Fridolin 

Vogel flew it at many of the earlier 

VGC-Meetings. Then, around 1990 the 

DFS Olympia Meise HB-384 fell asleep 

until 2003, when Thomas Fessler 

brought the glider back to Grenchen and 

restored it from 2004 to 2007 

The first take off (after a grounding of 

15 years) took place at the airfield 

Grenchen on the 30th June 2007. After 

this test-flight Thomas was delighted, 

everything seemed fine, but he reported 

that when leaving the controls, his 

Meise went not straight but had the tendency 

to move into moderate turn - - then 

a long retired gliding pilot assisting the 

landing replied with a smile: “forget 

about - she had this behaviour already 62 

years ago!” 

Other restorations in sight 

Thomas Fessler plans to do more restorations 

in the near future: 

One project will be the Spyr 4 HB-336 

which he took over from Urs Villiger. 

Urs started the restoration in the seventies 

but did not succeed entirely. The HB- 

336, designed 1941 by August Hug, was 

flown at the 2nd VGC-Rally at the 

Wasserkuppe 1974 by Alfred Gulz 

Another project will be a primary 

which Thomas Fessler could buy from 

the museum of history at Grenchen. The 

remains of this glider had been stored in 

the boiler-room of the museum. 

First, due to the mark on the rudder, 

Thomas believed he became the owner of 

the Karpf-Zögling HB-473. However 

there was something wrong, as the Karpf 

-Zöglings used to have a partly covered 

steel-tube fuselage and on the wooden 

fuselage from the museum Thomas 

found the much smaller number 429. 

This number leads straight to another 

type of primary, the AeCS-Zögling 

(AeCS = Aero Club Schweiz). 

Above: The DFS Olympia Meise HB-381 in 

the air. T. Heimgartner, Aero-Revue No. 6/1945 

Below: Mr. Müller from the Swiss federal air 

administration during the fight examination 

of the Meise prototype. archives Daniel 

Steffen 

Right: the cover of the Aero-Revue No. 

6/1945 with the simple head line: MOTH 

AND MEISE. T. Heimgartner 

Right: Thomas Fessler in action at the 

Swiss National Vintage Glider Rally at 

Grenchen in June 2007. Daniel Steffen 


Above: the Karpf-Zögling (Swiss primary) 

HB-473 has a partly covered steel-tube 

fuselage. Below: the AeCS-Zögling 

(primary) HB-429 with a wooden fuselage. Is 

the number on the rudder correct? Swiss 

federal archives / Thomas Fessler 

Right: AeCS-Zögling HB-429 of Thomas 

Fessler in the museum of history at 

Grenchen in 2003. Thomas Fessler 

Thomas, still in doubt went to the 

Swiss Federal Archives at Bern and asked 

for a look into the documents of the 

deleted Swiss gliders (including primaries). 

This is easier said than done! The 

complicated organisation system of the 

archives demands a lot of patience from 

their visitors and is extremely time-consuming. 

Thomas finally had the papers in hands 

and was even allowed do take photographs. 

He found out from the “register” 

that “his” primary HB-429 was given to 

Austria in 1950 and therefore had been 

deleted from the list. This is what the 

administration says - but who believes? 

USA 

from Bob Gaines dated 6. 12. 07. 

Bob is working on his PETREL, the 

second of the three Petrels that were 

built. He is trying to restore it in to the 

natural plywood and varnished finish that 

it had in 1939. So far the work is proceeding 

well but it is taking time. His 

RHOENBUSSARD, that was found by 

Johan Kruse in an Argentinean Café, is 

stored under dust covers, awaiting the finishing 

of the Petrel. It was one of several 

Rhoenbussards in Argentina. 

The US Vintage Gliding Club’s Magazine 

BUNGEE CORD has had a complete 

make-over and will have coloured 

pages. In the latest edition, there appears 

a “NEW ” looking RHOENBUSSARD. 

This was an old RHOENBUSSARD 

which has had every part built new. It 

originally came from Max Mueller at 

Muenster, Telgte. As it had short span 

ailerons in the Siebert style, the LBA 

could not consider it for a German C of 

A as it had no ‘Kennblatt’ with the short 

span ailerons. Thus, it was sold to Ted 

Hull at Dunstable who eventually 

changed the ailerons back to original 

style. Ted sold it on and finally, as no 

one would buy it, it was sold to a buyer 

in the USA. The “new” Rhoenbussard is 

to be on display at the 2008 SSA Convention. 

Construction should be finished 

for a first flight which is planned for the 

summer of 2008. Its builder, Mike Redman, 

found its construction complicated. 

The fuselage of the old Rhoenbussard is 

behind it in the photographs and seems 

to be still almost complete. Perhaps a 

second Rhoenbussard might appear as 

well? Mike Redman’s woodwork is 

absolutely first class. He had previously 

worked for RARE Aircraft in Minnesota 

with his father and two brothers. The 

firm restored antique aircraft. 

The ‘new look’ Vol 33 No 4, Winter 

2007 “BUNGEE CORD” magazine is 

superb with glossy pages and first class 

coloured photographs. This is the quarterly 

journal of the Vintage Soaring 

Association of America (the VSA). It 

mentions that there is currently a continuing 

project to translate Hans Jacobs 

famous Werkstattpraxis (Workshop Practice 

for Gliders and Sailplanes) into English, 

and is a combined American/Australian 

project. Work on the 

book is in its last stages with only the 

final proof reading, and inclusion of photos 

to be done. Bob Gaines and John 

Ashford are currently trying to source a 

publisher, and anyone with suggestions 

in this area, they would be keen to hear 

from. (All contacts can be made through 

the VSA itself at www.vintage 

sailplane.org). 

The Slingsby GULL 1, which was 

built in America, has been sent out to 

BUD BROWN by the National Soaring 

Museum in Lawrenceville, Illinois to be 

refurbished. Bud does nice work. It 

should be finished by the late summer of 


2008. Most of the vintage Glider activity 

in the USA now appears to be centred 

on Lawrenceville and Tehapachi, California, 

although there is emerging activity 

in Wichita, Kansas (Neil Pfeifer) and 

Dansville, New York, not far from 

Elmira. In Lovettsville, on the Jan Scott 

Air Park, the collection is down to 

MOSWEY 3, the PRATT READ and 

BERGFALKE 2/55. Later aircraft are 

Ka-8, SF-27, Ka 14, an RF 5 motorglider, 

a 1-26 (not Linn’s…she sold hers 

last year) a Ka-7, a MISTRAL C and 

Jan’s Rotax FALKE. 

The HORTEN 3f and HORTEN V1 are 

now hanging in the UDVAR HAGY 

CENTRE (on DULLES AIRPORT). The 

two sweater HORTEN 3H centre section 

was never repaired, only preserved. The 

German restoration of the first two is very 

good but they can only be admired from a 

distance. As for the HORTEN 1X jet 

fighter (3rd prototype), as far as Jan Scott 

knows, it is pretty low down on the priority 

list of aircraft awaiting restoration. 

The HORTENS 3F and 3H were both 

located by Philip Wills in June 1945 in a 

wood in the French Zone. He had the 

Americans bring them in on their trailers, 

by the American 9th Disarmament Division 

at Nellingen near Stuttgart. They had 

been located on their trailers in a wood in 

the French Zone. The French had allowed 

their retrieval; they seemed both as new. 

With them was another unidentified 20m 

span Horten, which was not skinned. 

Philip Wills thought that he had organized 

them to be delivered to Farnborough but 

this did not happen as communications 

were then so bad between England and 

Germany. The HORTENS 3f and 3h, 

together with a HORTEN 2 and a 

HORTEN V1 were all taken to the USA 

where as far as we know they were delivered 

to the Northrop firm, which had its 

own flying wing programme. We believe 

that they were never flown in the USA 

but were allowed to deteriorate, alas. They 

were returned to Germany to Holge 

Steinle at the GERMAN TECHNICAL 

MUSEUM in BERLIN for restoration 

which took many years. New wings for 

the HORTEN 3f were quickly built. As 

this happened, we believe that the above 

museum may now have sets of new drawing 

plans for these aircraft. The HORTEN 

2 (ex-D-10-125) was restored and is now 

exhibited in the new German Technical 

Museum in Berlin. 

THE NEXT IVSM (International Vintage 

Soaring Meet) is now to take place 

from June 27th until July 4th July, 

2009, at Harris Hill, one year earlier than 

was originally planned. ❏ 


MODELLING REPORT 

RÉTROPLANE 2007 

This is first report in what is hoped will be a regular column by the well known 

leading British Modeller, Chris Williams. Chris has kindly consented to keeping VGC 

readers up to date through his reports of the increasingly popular Scale Glider 

World and some of the events that take place all over the UK and Europe on a 

yearly basis. Anyone wishing to contact Chris for further information, or to contribute 

towards their groups activities for VGC News, may do so by email:- 

chriswilliams4@compuserve.com 

In the days of yore, say fifteen years 

ago, if you were a dedicated builder of 

model vintage scale gliders, it was all 

too easy to assume that you were operating 

in an isolated enclave, cut off from 

the main body of model builders With 

the coming of the Internet it was gradually 

borne upon us that there was a 

worldwide community of like-minded 

enthusiasts out there, all now able to 

communicate with words and pictures 

over this new medium. An added bonus 

was that pre-planned or off-the-cuff 

events could be organised quickly and 

effectively, and it was to one of these 

that a trio of us set off to France back in 

July 2007. 

The Rétroplane event is a relatively 

young one, having been in existence for 

only a handful of years, and takes place 

in different parts of France annually to 

equalise the distance that the participants 

have to travel. This is a slope-based affair 

with this unique and important qualification: 

the scale sailplanes entered must be 

of the vintage persuasion, the rather 

loose definition of which was that they 

should be mostly constructed of wood! 

Having registered via the Rétroplane 

website we set off on the long journey to 

the High Vosges to Kruth, near the 

Swiss border. (It should be pointed out 

here that this was during the wettest 

summer in living memory and crossed 

finger joints were under severe strain.) 

Sure enough, during our three day stay 

Top:This LO100 sets the scene on the 

hillside at Schweisel 

Above: Brit modeller (and ex BEA Captain) 

Dave Stokes’ Jaskolka 

it rained persistently for two of those 

days and it was a miracle indeed that on 

the Saturday as we foregathered at the 

Schweisel (pop: nil; altitude 3,400 feet) 

the wind blew true on the hillside and the 

rain clouds maintained a sullen absence. 

It was reckoned afterwards that there were 

some 100+ vintage gliders, some on the 

hill; many remaining in their cars, for 

one day was simply not enough to fly 

the whole lot. 

As you might expect, French glider 

history was well represented, with no 



Left: Armand Giraud’s Planeur Magnard 

suffers an unfortunate launch 

Above: As vintage as you can get Otto 

Lillienthal 

Right: Plenty of Fauvel’s were on offer! 

Author’s near 3rd scale Minimoa, based on the Von Arx version in the Wasserkuppe museum 

less than three Fauvel flying wings in 

attendance, all of which flew very well. 

Event main organiser Vincent Besançon 

had brought along his exquisite Frankfort 

Cinema, the fuselage of which is 

constructed from silver-soldered steel 

tube. The pilot’s arms and legs are connected 

to the rudder and elevator servos 

for that extra in-flight realism. There 

were many flyers from across both the 

Swiss and German borders, and from the 

latter, Ewe Gewalt, once known for his 

range of glass ship kits, was flying his 

lovely Sperber Junior to great effect. The 

fairly strong wind proved an obstacle to 

the very early gliders; you don’t get 

much more vintage than something connected 

to the name Lillienthal, but Otto 

claimed a headache and stayed earthbound 

on this occasion, whilst the challenging 

Planeur Magnard might have been 

advised to do the same as the wind trickily 

forced itself under the foreplane and 

Erwan Plu’s enormous Waco troop carrier 

Has anyone seen Pegasus bridge 



ruined its owner’s entire day. 

Perhaps the most stirring sight of the 

day was that of local Rétroplane organiser 

Jean Claude Haller’s beautiful Wien. 

This unpainted-but-varnished wooden 

beauty flew close to the edge of the slope 

in a convincingly smooth fashion, with 

a graceful chandelle at the end of each 

pass. This really sets the scene for the 

day’s flying: with a cold wind blowing 

there wasn’t much chance of catching 

anything in the way of thermal activity, 

so it was mainly a question of flying as 

close to the hill as courage would allow 

in order to best display beautifully crafted 

scale sailplanes in their natural environment. 

Above: Uwe Gewalt’s 

beautiful Sperber Junior 

Left: Unusual subject rocket-powered 

Opel Rak by Fred Marie 

Below: Jean Claude Haller’s gorgeous 

3rd scale Wien 

Below right: Laurent Beldame displays 

his 13.5 scale Habicht, based on Doret’s 

early version 

The Retroplane prime mover Vincent Besan 

displays his exquisite Frankfort Cinema 

Next year the event moves to the 

Cannes area, a bit too far even for these 

hardy Brit souls, but in 2009 the whole 

shebang is to be held in Ireland, and our 

names are already up on the website for 

that one! 

Now, I mentioned the Internet at the 

beginning, now here’s even more proof 

of its usefulness: 

You can view a brief video of the affair 

on YouTube here: http://www.youtube. 

com/watch?v=Z6Z5pfg216U 

If you have some time to spare whilst 

at your PC, a look at Vincent’s website 

is well worth the effort: as well as the 

full-size stuff, there are build logs and 

videos detailing his exquisite workmanship. 

http://www.retroplane.net 

Finally, you can join the Brit contingent 

at their own dedicated website here: 

http://www.scalesoaring.co.uk ❏ 


A Ka 4 in the elderly home 

The members of the Dutch Vereniging 

Historische Zweefvliegtuigen, VHZ, 

(Vintage Glider Club) try to bring our 

old gliders in an airworthy state and to let 

them fly. But unfortunately! In our country 

nobody is interest in an old Ka 4. The 

Rhönlerche, PH-242 serial number 160, 

is a part of the Aviodrome collection. 

This collection of twelve gliders was 

donated by Raymond van Loosbroek. 

Herewith he saved a very precious collection 

that included two winches and 

trailers. You may say that Raymond 

donated two complete glider clubs. In the 

last number of the "Spandraad", the official 

magazine of the VHZ I asked the 

members to adopt this Ka 4 or a Skylark 

II or Skylark III, all nice gliders. I got no 

response. So, what to do with these 

magnificent gliders? They are in stock in 

an old farmhouse, but this is not the 

ideal situation: think about damp, dust, 

rotting and rusting. 

My profession is inspector of health 

care. When I visited a brand new elderly 

home, the director told me that the so 

called atrium was great enough for 

exposing a glider on the roof. Immediately 

my thoughts went to the Ka 4. 

After a short period of counselling the 

architect, the fire-brigade, Raymond and 

Arno van der Holst, the director of the 

Aviodrome museum, everybody was 

enthusiast. Raymond helped to get the 

Ka 4 out of the farmhouse and we 

SNIPPETS 

brought it to my home to bring the glider 

in an exposition state. 

On January the 17th the glider was 

hoisted on the roof and hanging about 

ten meters high on the right place, the 

glider was attached with three strong 

cables to the balustrades. This complicated 

way of hanging is necessary 

because of a future construction to clean 

the roof and the windows and to check 

the safety in case of fire. The hoisting 

specialist made breath taking acrobatics 

to connect the cables on the special 

bracket on the Ka 4, laying on the ten 

meters high scaffolding and the glider. 

The Ka 4 has nearly 30.000 launches 

in the logbook and 2.600 hours. The 

place for this old glider in the elderly 

home is well deserved. 

Raymond, thank you very much for 

your help in this unusual operation. 

Neelco 

Above: Ka 4 suspended in the atrium of an old peoples home in Holland. Photo: Harm Wassink 

Below: this small hole at the nose of Kranich was used for winch rope parachute 

Enigma 1, 

VGC News No.122 

Karel Mann from Czech airfield Rana 

(VGC Randezvous 2007) is answering 

the first question “Enigma“ of Neelco 

Osinga (49 page VGC News 122): 

Karel Mann has flown gliders since 

1951-1952 at airfield Melnik, northly of 

Prague. He performed couple of his first 

winch flights with instructor at Kranich 

behind the front releaser. In this case the 

glider performed launch smoothly not so 

quickly and the pilot students didnt have 

feelings that their feet are higher than 

their head. 

During this winch launches behind the 

front releaser, this small hole at the nose 

of Kranich was used for winch rope parachute. 

The purpose was that this launch 

angle of attack was lower than normal 

winch launch and in this case the rope 

parachute can cover the view forward 

from canopy. So for better safety, this 

parachute was given to this nose hole 

during winch launch. 

We don‘t know that this speciality was 

used at Czechoslovakia only or if it originated 

from Germany. Best regards all 

VGC friends. Josef Mezera. POTK 

Dear Josef, 

Thank you very much for this answer 

you gave me. Do you want to thank also 

Karel Mann from me? In Rana you 

already helped me in the research for 

Kranichs, as everybody was very kind 

for me. I think that the enigma has been 

solved. The Fallschirmhuelse was not 

only in Czechoslovakia but also in Germany 

as it was an official NSFK part. 


SNIPPETS 

But I never heard of winch launches on 

the nose hook. This must be a dangerous 

way of launching because of the non 

safety hook. In a certain angle the cable 

is very difficultly to release or even cannot 

be released. 

Do you have a photograph of a glider, 

I prefer Kranichs, being launched on the 

way you described with a parachute in 

the Fallschirmhuelse? Generally speaking, 

do you have more photographs of 

Czech Kranichs? 

I hope to see you this year in Wells. (I 

remember the rendez-vous in Rana as one 

of the best organised rallies. Exept for 

drinking poison (I have been helped perfectly 

by the Czech female doctor and her 

husband) I only have good memories of 

Rana. I have been several times in the 

Czech Republic and hope to visit more 

times your wonderfull country and the 

friendly inhabitants. Yours, Neelco 

Neelco also sends us some further communications 

he’s had on this subject - 

Ed: 

Dear Editor 

Herewith a translation of the answer 

from Werner Tschorn from Cologn, Germany 

and an e-mail from Alexander Hurrle. 

I got the picture of the nose of the 

Grunau Baby from Klaus Hein in Angers 

in 2006. He asked also Peter Selinger 

and more officials from the Wasserkuppe 

Museum. Combined with the answer of 

Werner Tschorn we have a good idea of 

the Fallschirmhuelse now. I hope to get 

a picture of a Fallschirmhuelse with a 

parachute, put in the hole or of a parachute, 

attached on a winch cable. Neelco. 

Hallo Neelco, 

I can give a tribute to the explanation of 

the word Fallschirmhuelse, in the 

Kranich, but especially in the Grunau 

Babies. In the years from circa 1943 such 

Fallschirmhuelsen have been built in the 

gliders that could make winchlaunches. 

A small parachute was put into these 

Fallschirmhuelsen to get a smoother 

The two photographs showing the winch 

parachute hole were taken in the National 

Air and Space Museum in Washington 

falling of the cable after releasing it. 

This parachute was attached on the 

winchcable. In these days there was no 

rope between the steel winch cable with 

parachute and the end of the cable, 

attached on the hook in the glider. Even 

there was no center of gravityhook for 

winch launches. It was not invented yet. 

For the first time I saw a winch launch 

on a center of gravity hook in the 

autumn 1944 at Hirsberg (Jelenia Gora). 

A Libelle of Weber made a winch launch 

with a very steep angle we never had seen 

before and reached an enormous height. 

Werner Tschorn 

Dear Neelco, 

I read your question about the 

Fallschirmhuelse in the latest VGC 

News. The two photographs here were 

taken in the National Air and Space 

Museum in Washington. Because I had 

no idea of the sense of the hole in the 

fuselage I asked Peter Selinger. Unfortunately 

I only remember that a parachute 

for the winch cable had to be put in this 

hole. Alexander Hurrle 

More on the 

KITTELBERGER 

by CW. 

In our VGC News No.117, Spring 

2006, we published photographs of a 

sailplane in service in France for some 

years after 1945, which the French 

named ”MINGO”. French glider pilots 

did not know its origin except that it 

came from Germany after the war. We 

had no information about the Kittelberger 

firm except that Hans Jacobs informed 

P.A.Wills and the CIOS team in July 

1945 that the parts for 100 WEIHES 

would be there. The CIOS team never 

got to the Kittelberger firm, as it was 

near Bregenz in the French zone. Some 

information on this firm has come in via 

Tony Morris, Francis Humblet and 

Richard Cawsey. Peter Gerhardt has also 

sent the following information, dated 

28th April 2006. 

WALTER KITTELBERGER (1901- 

1980) and KARL KITTELBERGER 

(1907-1985) were Austrian brothers who 

designed and built the following aircraft, 

WKM1 1929, a 2-seat UL, 28 hp. It 

was demolished after two flights. 

WKS 2, a glider design was not built. 

WKS 2-seat low wing cabin light plane. 

WKS3 1936 sailplane. A few were 

built by the Flugzeugbau W. 

Kittelberger GmbH in Bregenz. (CW 

believes that “MINGO” was a 


development of one of these). 

IWKS4, 1947, sailplane was built but it 

never went into production. 

WKM4, a 3-4 seat light aeroplane was 

developed from the WKM2. 

WKM5, a cabin aircraft, with a nose 

undercarriage, pusher engine and a low 

wing. 

During the war, they had to build parts 

for Luftwaffe aircraft. In 1945, all the 

firm’s assets were destroyed by the allies, 

but in 1946, a new factory was erected in 

Bregenz, named WEKAVIA and later 

renamed Walter Kittelberger & Guener 

Flugzeugbau GmbH. 

Apart from their own designs, they 

lived from constructing GRUNAU 

BABY 111, KRANICH 2, HUETTER 

H.17 and DFS WEIHE. CW had believed 

that only one GRUNAU BABY 3 (108- 

66) was built during the war and that this 

was built by Schleichers. It was quite 

unlike the post war built GRUNAU 

BABY 3 but may have resembled more 

the ES 49. No production figures or even 

a summary for these has been discovered. 

The question is - was WOLFGANG 

HUETTER involved with designing it as 

it is quite different from the 1936 WKS 

3 gliders as Wolfgang Huetter may have 

been there in 1947. In 1945, some of the 

personnel of Huetter Gmbh as well as 

Hubert Clompe and his wife (Hubert was 

Schempp Hirth’s Rumanian test pilot), 

arrived at Kittelberger’s firm at Bregenz 

on the Swiss frontier (Hans Jacobs visited 

there also). The French occupation 

force at first threw them into prison as it 

was thought that they were part of the 

German Resistance. Hubert Clompe’s 

wife persuaded the French commander to 

let them out. Wolfgang Huetter was then 

kidnapped by the French for two years 

interrogation in France. However, he was 

released in 1947 and could well have 

returned to Bregenz. We wonder if he had 

had a hand in designing the WA-4 as it 

was quite different to the WK-3 

sailplanes and looks as if it could have 

had Huetter influence. 

Aviation activities in Germany were 

forbidden by the Allies until 1951 and so 

SNIPPETS 

very probable that some of these 

sailplanes would have come from Kittelberger’s 

firm, or at least from the Bregenz 

area. Some of these sailplanes are 

still with us now. They were:- 

KRANICH 2B-1 HB-475, then NSFK 

registered LX-WJ, first registered in 

Switzerland in 1945. It was first sold to 

Groupe de Vol a Voile at Lausanne. This 

has now been restored beautifully by the 

Roth brothers and Fipps Rothenbuhler, 

who are still flying it. 

KRANICH 2B HB- 476 Swiss 

registered in 1945. It was old to the 

Segelfliegergruppe Sollothurn at 

Grenchen. 

KRANICH 2B-2, HB- 477. Swiss 

registered 1945.Sportflieger Schule, 

Bern. This was the machine of the great 

Hans Nietlispach Distance records. (353 

and 410 km. The last 250 km was in 

slope lift only in cloud, snow, ice and 

rain, to land amidst the sunlit meadows 

of Montelimar in the south of France. 

KRANICH 2B HB- 478, Swiss 

registered in 1945 Segelfluggruppe 

Photos of 

Kittelburger 

WKS-4 

the designing, building and flying of the 

WKS 4 was illegal. It was flight tested 

by French and Swiss test pilots who 

gave a very favourable report on it. Wolfgang 

Huetter at first tried unsuccessfully 

to build the first H.30 in Switzerland. 

During the early 1950s, he spent some 

time in Argentina, no doubt with the 

Horten and Focke Wulf teams. 

“PIRAT” GEHRIGER’S involvement. 

During that time Pirat, with permission 

from the French authorities, managed to 

remove German sailplanes and to take 

them in great secrecy on dark nights into 

Switzerland for sale. From a Swiss 1956 

GLIDER REGISTER, we can get some 

idea of what these sailplanes were. It is 

Schafhausen. 

KRANICH 2B HB-479. Registered in 

Switzerland in1946. Sold to 

Segelfluggruppe Schafhausen. 

KRANICH 2B HB- 481, Swiss 

registered in 1945. First sold to 

W. Maierhofer and E. Coendet. 

KRANICH 2B.HB-482 Swiss registered 

in 1945. 

DFS WEIHE. HB- 484, Swiss 

registered in 1945. Sold to the 

Segelfluggruppe Oberaargau. 

KRANICH 2B.HB-549. Registered in 

Switzerland in 1948. Sold to the 

Segelfluggruppe Zurich. 

DFS WEIHE HB-558,Registered in 

Switzerland in 1953. Sold to the 

Segelfluggruppe Zurich. 

As two of the above aircraft were registered 

after 1945, we wonder whether 

Pirat Gehriger brought these two into 

Switzerland also? There were also nine 

MEISES but these might have been 

built in Switzerland. One was registered 

in 1943. The others registered between 

1945 and 1949. 

There were two other DFS Weihes. 


SNIPPETS 

HB-554 built in Switzerland by Bernhard 

Mueller and registered in 1953, and HB- 

558 which was Swiss registered also in 

1953. Peter Ocker now owns the former 

WEIHE HB-554. 

Pirat and others undoubtedly felt that 

unless the German gliders were brought 

to Switzerland in 1945, they would be 

destroyed in Germany by the Allies 

according to the Morgenthau Plan. However, 

it is highly possible that many 

Weihe parts from Kittelberger, as well as 

complete Weihes, were brought to 

France for the construction of the 32 

MILANS by 1952 (half of these were 

complete WEIHES.) 

(CW regrets if any of the above information 

is wrong but he hopes that it doesn’t cause 

offence! Any corrections or further 

information will be gratefully received) 

Sticky stuff 

Concerning KLEMMLEIM (Klemmglue) 

from Page 50 of our last 

VGC News No122. We said that we did 

not know what this glue was and that 

perhaps it was made by the firm Klemm? 

Ingvar Hyllander (Sweden) writes, “I 

knew that I had read something about 

this glue many years ago. When I 

Petrel Pilgrimage 

by Colin Simpson 

First printed in the Magazine of the Lasham Gliding Society – October 2007 

Slingsby’s only ever made 3 T13 Petrel sailplanes. They 

were made in the late thirties. One was written off on 15th 

July 1939 at Camphill during the championships. 2 are still 

flying! 

Amongst the many gliders my father owned, one of his 

favourites was the Petrel. He purchased one from Slingsby’s in 

July 1941. I have made it a personal pilgrimage to find out 

which of the remaining two was his! My father was a keen photographer 

and never threw anything away, so I was delighted to 

come across a wealth of information when clearing his house 

earlier this year when he had to move to a home. Amongst the 

documents and photographs was the original sales invoice dated 

8th July 1941 for: 

1 only “Petrel” Sailplane in trailer with instruments £300 0s 0d 

Carriage 

£8 1s 5d 

(I also have the receipt as proof of purchase!) 

Carriage covered the cost of 5 day transport by train from 

Yorkshire to Dorset where my father was teaching. Due to the 

war it was not until the following year that his first flight took 

place. The comment in his logbook was simply “Absolutely 

Delightful”. Not being an outwardly emotional man, this must 

have meant that it had been very special!! 

With the help of friends at Lasham, in particular Ian Smith 

and Ray Whittaker, I was able to put pieces of the jigsaw 

together in determining the history of the two remaining Petrels 

to try to determine which was his. 

One Petrel, beautifully restored, is 

owned by Graham Saw at Booker and the 

other by Bob Gaines in Georgia USA. 

I met Graham at the end of September at 

Lasham during the Caley weekend. Graham 

was intrigued by the documentation 

and photos. The bad news was that we were 

able to confirm that Graham’s Petrel was 

not the one owned by my father. The good 

news was that he let me take a flight in it! 

It was probably one of the most emotional 

flights I have taken, being 2 days 

after my father passed away, peacefully at 

the age of 92. At least I was able to share 

the feeling and delight that he too experienced 65 years earlier. 

Since then, I am indebted to Graham for putting me in touch 

with Bob Gaines in the US. Bob tells me that the first entry in 

his Petrel’s log book is a 13 minute flight by a certain John 

Simpson at Caxton Gibbet on 5th May 1946. This also appears 

in my father’s log book! All the subsequent flights recorded tallied 

exactly. I had finally solved the mystery! 

I am now in regular contact with Bob who is currently completely 

restoring the Petrel to its original varnished wood and 

clear dope finish. I am delighted that some of the photographs 

I have provided have already helped Bob in this task. 

Now, I must check the return fair from Gatwick to Atlanta so 

that I can witness the first flight next year!! (I suppose I’ll have 

to stump up for Paul Haliday (a member of LGC and VGC – 

Ed) to come as well to ensure we get a suitable photographic 

record for those in the future to refer to in another 65 years 

time!!). 

Photos: The first shows Colinʼs fatherʼs 

Petrel rigged in front of Clayesmore School, 

in Iwerne Minster, Dorset in 1941, picture 

taken by him. 

The second, was taken by Paul Haliday on 

29th September 2007 


SNIPPETS 

searched in my technical library, I found 

it in my book “Bau von Gleit und 

Segelflugzeugen” by Hans Jacobs. (Construction 

of Gliders and Sailplanes). This 

book was printed in 1940. There it states 

that the glue was developed by Professor 

Klemm, so you are right in your presumption. 

The Kaurite glue was mixed 

with “KUNSTHARZ” (artificial resin) to 

give it elastic qualitiy”. Direct translation 

by CW. This is the known Kaurite 

glue. Klemmleim has been developed by 

Dr.Klemm. This consists of normal 

Kaurite with a meagre additive. This very 

much improves the elastic quality of the 

glue. This consists of the additive hardened 

artificial resin in powder form. It is 

called “Klemm Powder”. The preparation 

is exactly the same as that for normal 

Kaurite glue and the same RED cold 

hardener is used to set it”. CW thanks 

Ingvar very much for this information. 

CW 

CW also writes that some Kaurite glued 

skinned wings are still amazingly accurate 

(as are Casein glued wings), on 

Swedish and German war time built 

sailplanes. Whereas Aerolite glued 

Slingsby and Elliot wing skinned 

sailplanes sometimes reveal a “starved 

horse” effect. However, one can not complain 

about the accurate wing plywood 

surfaces of T.21b s etc. and the accuracy 

of CERTUS glued wing surfaces of old 

French sailplanes. CW asks whether 

CERTUS is an ancestor of AERODUX 

glue? That some Slingsby and Elliott 

plywood wing surfaces are good and others 

are not, makes CW wonder whether 

these firms also discovered an additive to 

make AEROLITE 300 glues more flexible? 

Frits Ruth writes that powdered bakelite 

was added to Kaurite glue in order to 

make it more flexible when set, so that 

there should be less distortion of plywood 

(better accuracy of profile) on 

wings etc. 

Progress 

in restoring the V-20 

by Neelco Osinga 

New glue 

Last week I visited the workshop of the 

Twentse Zweefvliegclub. Also Jan 

Forster was invited. He demonstrated a 

new way of covering the wings and fuselage, 

the Kautschuk glue method. 

Kautschuk glue is made by IRSA. 

Caoutchouc is the French word for non 

vulcanised rubber. The glue seems to be 

like the famous white cold glue for 

Above: hard at work on the V-20 

wood, e.g. Ceta Bever in the Netherlands. 

After drying, the glue becomes 

transparent and feels like rubber. It is a 

non poison stuff and nearly without 

smell. 

Jan Forster as a teacher 

Jan Forster is not only a good technician 

and member of our VGC committee but 

also a good teacher. 

He demonstrated the way to bring the 

glue like paint onto the torsion box of 

the wings and onto the ribs. The glue 

should not be dry when the fabric, in this 

case a new type of synthetic fabric of 

Diatex, is laid on the wing. On the torsion 

box, only a narrow track of glue has 

to be applied. To prevent drying, the glue 

is painted in sections of about maximum 

50 centimetres. After laying down, the 

glue has to be rubbed in the fabric. The 

fabric must be laid under some slight 

tension so that there are no folds. After 

completely drying the, the fabric can be 

brought on tension in the normal way; 

flat-iron and with dope and afterwards, 

eventually painted. Jan said that this 

method of covering the glider results in 

about half the weight of covering with 

old fashioned cotton fabric. After one day 

of hard work both wings had been covered. 

The V-20 gets its final look 

After covering the whole glider with the 

new fabric, inclusive of the fuselage, the 

glider will be painted in the original 

colours. The canopy is nearly ready 

according to the original photographs. 

The owner, Tonny Wensing, is collecting 

original pre-war instruments. I expect 

that Hans Bekker, the responsible technician, 

can finish the titanic works this 

year. But I know that both Tonny and 

Hans prefer safety and good quality, 

rather than hurry. 

The local television station in 

Enschede is making a documentary of the 

restoration works, a good promotion for 

gliding. 

Fantastic 

book for 

technicians 

For the members 

who want to learn 

the new method 

of covering the 

glider with the 

K a u t s c h u k 

method I warmly 

recommend 

the new book 

for technicians: "Houten 

zweefvliegtuigen & techniek", by Jan 

Forster, ISBN / EAN 978-90-9022122- 

9, issued by the VGC and the Vereniging 

Historische Zweefvliegtuigen (Dutch 

VGC). Price: €20.=. It is in the Dutch 

language. For those technicians who do 

not speak Dutch: an Englishman told me 

that he could understand about 90 % of 

the written text. The book has an appendix: 

a dictionary of Dutch, English and 

German technical words. 

I give an example of the quality of the 

book. Nobody could tell me the mechanism 

of shrinking of the fabric by doping, 

so that it will be tight, even not the 

well known technical books. The book 

of Jan gives a good explanation! 


SNIPPETS 

I hope that the book will be translated 

in English. The quality and unique character 

deserves a world wide distribution 

in the future. And very important: it is 

the standard hand book for restoring our 

traditional gliders. Neelco 

STOP PRESS 

Horten 1B flies again. 

We have heard from Diego Roldan 

Knöllinger in Argentina that his 

Horten Ho 1B flew on the 8th February 

2008 after a major restoration. He has 

sent us some still pictures but for those 

of you with access to the Internet can see 

RALLY ROUNDUP 

some video of his restoration and the 

first flight via the following links to 

‘You-Tube’. Diego has promised us an 

article on this major achievement for a 

future issue of VGC news. 

Congratulations Diego! 

http://es.youtube.com/watch?v=QXdTM 

swP19Y 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCh5E8qLkI 

http://es.youtube.com/results?search_que 

ry=horten+primer&search_type 

http://es.youtube.com/watch?v=AJso4R 

ho3ek 

http://es.youtube.com/watch?v=L3TLE 

BW--jc 

http://es.youtube.com/watch?v=UVnwP 

EnSLuM&feature=related 

http://es.youtube.com/watch?v=-ah_Oa- 

Dd1w&feature=related ❏ 

VGC News from the south 

(of Germany) 

Numerous vintage and old-timer 

enthusiasts followed the call of the 

“VGC southern branch” at the weekend 

of 22nd and 23rd September. 

The catchment area has widened and 

reaches from Faßberg in the north to 

Ravensburg in the south and from 

Munich in the east to Mannheim in the 

west. Some participants came Friday, 

most arrived Saturday at Biberach. 

With joint forces 11 aircraft like 

Grunau Baby IIb, Grunau-Baby III, 

Olympia-Meise, Slingsby T31, 

Bergfalke II/Mü13, A-Spatz, L-Spatz 55, 

Ka6e were rigged. At the same time, 

members of the Luftsportverein Biberach 

e.V. Abteilung Segelflug posted the 

launch point, winch and the tug. 

Meanwhile, weather had developed legendarily 

and both days we had blue sky, 

temperatures up to 25°C and even some 

thermals developing during the afternoon. 

In these conditions, we could make a lot 

of lovely flights over Biberach. 

Saturday, we made 36 launches (27 

winch and 9 aero tows). The total flying 

time was 10:30h, the longest flight 

1:25h. 

We flew until 6pm, then stowed some 

gliders away into the hangar and derigged 

the others and tucked them into their 

closed trailers. 

Sadly, Diemut Schulz could not be 

with us anymore. She died 4 weeks earlier 

in a tragic accident, at 26.08. at the 

Wächtersberg airfield in a crash. Diemut 

left a big gap in our circle and we miss 

her badly. 

As in the previous years, apart from 2 

campers all participants slept in a hotel 

nearby. In the evening we met again for 

dinner and a slide show of the VGC 

Rally in Nitra (many thanks to Alexander 

Hurrle for the beautiful pictures, 

mostly air-to-air photographs from the 

T31) and some rare colour pictures up to 

1945 from Peter Ocker which he has collected 

for his book about Hans Jacobs. 

After breakfast and check-out we met 

again on the airfield on Sunday morning. 

Again, we rigged the gliders or took 

them out of the hangar. We made 34 

launches (31 winch launches and 3 aero 

tows). Our flying time totalled 12:21h; 

the longest flight was a respectable 

1:47h! 

Despite the mourning of their daughter, 

Diemut’s parents came as they had 

done in the previous years. The warm 

welcome in our little circle gave them 

support in their grave situation. 

The 4th VGC season’s closing at Biberach 

was ended in a fantastic mood and 

all participants parted with the desire to 

continue the tradition. 

Fixed date for the next VGC meeting at 

Biberach: 20th and 21st September 2008 

Many thanks to the “Luftsportverein 

Biberach e.V. Abteilung Segelflug” who 

made this flying weekend possible by 

providing their infrastructure, winch 

drivers and the tug pilot and welcomed us 

at their airfield. We will be welcome 

again next year. 

Organization and contact: 

Gere Tischler 

(mail: gere.margit@gmx.de) ❏ 


LETTERS 

Invitation from Luxembourg 

Dear Mr. Shrimpton, 

The Luxembourg Gliding Club (Cercle 

Luxembourgeois de Vol a Voile - CLVV) 

is celebrating its 50th anniversary this 

year. We have decided to have our main 

celebration on the week-end 9th/10th of 

August. In addition to the more formal 

celebrations, the week-end is foreseen to 

be an attractive event for the general public 

with presentation of gliding and other 

attractions. As part of this, we would 

like to have vintage gliders to participate 

to help create a nostalgic flair. (We intend 

also to invite vintage cars, motorcycles 

etc.). Our event will take place at our 

glider field in Useldange, about 25km 

North-West of Luxembourg City. Our 

airfield is 1000m long x about 60m. We 

have normally only winch launching, 

but will for the event and the following 

week, provide aero-towing. The following 

week, will have gliding operations 

every day. 

If there are VGC members who can 

come to us with their gliders for the 

week-end and if they like to stay on for 

the following week, we shall be happy 

to help with accommodation. We have 

some available hangar space for the most 

fragile gliders, if this is required. 

For family members, Luxembourg 

provides a lot of attractions and opportunities 

for outdoor activities. 

Please let me know if this is of interest. 

You may either contact myself or 

our club President, Alex Krieger. 

Yours truly, 

John Roedseth,CLVV, 

Tel. 00352691375591, 

email: roedseth@pt.lu 

Alex. Krieger, President CLVV, 

Tel. 00352691268135, 

email: kriegera@pt.lu 

Minima club in Slovenia 

Dear all, 

My name is Domen Grauf, I am from 

Slovenia, a member of Minima historical 

aircraft club as well. www.aeroklubminima.si. 

Minima historical aircraft club was 

founded in the summer of 2005. The 

direct goal was the formal recognition of 

our interest in preserving and recreating 

aviation and technical history. The club 

or society proved to be the most suitable 

formal form of our association ie. 

restoration, preservation and operation of 

historical aircraft. 

Minima historical aircraft club aims to 

serve as a focal point for four main activities: 

● preserving historical aircraft 

Prize winning Grunau Baby 

Hello Editor, 

As members of the VGC my friend Rob van Geffen and myself found a 

picture of our Grunau in the latest winter edition of the VGC News 

magazine. We saw on page 4 &5 we are awarded by the 

'Frank Reeks Trophy'. We like to thank you and the 

VGC staff for this appreciation!! 

Rob and I went to Nitra where we made 

the first flight after the restoration. 

Our technical inspector, 

Patrik Govers, was also in 

Nitra as were a few 

members of our 

glider club. 

The fantastic weather gave us time to discover the glider. 

Going up to 1800 meter for the first time in an open glider was fantastic! It was a nice 

surprise to find ourselves in the magazine. 

Kind regards; Steven Van Loven & Rob Van Geffen 

● replicating historical aircraft types 

● preserving the classical seat-of-thepants 

flying techniques 

● providing a meeting point for retired 

pilot and aviation enthusiasts 

From the very begining we aim for the 

holistic approach to the preservation of 

aviation history. We realize that we are 

living in a critical era when knowledge, 

accumulated by generations before is lost 

on everyday basis. Our main goal is 

therefore to retain this knowledge 

through restoration of historical aircraft. 

It is not as much a project about aircraft 

as it is about skills. Our effort is a continuous 

one and not just a single project 

or two. 

In the past in our county, we had many 

of Kranich II gliders with Slovenian 

name ®ERJAV made in Letov Ljubljana 

as well. But unfortunately only one of 

them kept in bad condition specially 

wings. We would like to restore it but we 

have no plans or scheme. I am 

to turn round of you to help me 

with information's, where can I 

get more details of Kranich II, 

Thank you in advance and 

best regards, Domen Grauf, 

Minima historical aircraft 

club 

News from India 

Thorsten Fridlizius tells us 

in a letter to Chris Wills 

that the Indian People at 

Pune will probably start a 

Gliding Museum in India. 

Thorsten writes: “(I have 

sent the Segelflygsport 

to them. They have 

probably also got the 

I 

n India,gliding and all related 

activities were (and remain) managed 

by the Directorate 

General of Civil 

Aviation (DGCA) in 

Delhi. During the 

most active period in 

the sixties and 

seventies,production 

of Indian Gliders was 

controlled by the 

Government through 

the Technical Centre 

of the DGCA. The 

Centre was led by the 

Directors General,S. 

Ramamrithram and K. 

B. Ganeshan,who 

were both glider 

designers. They also 

organized 

considerable glider 

manufacturing in 

other places such as 

Nasik,Kanpur, 

Calcutta and 

elsewhere. 

To begin with,the 

Centre produced four 

well-known types; 

Grunau Baby,Ka-6 

(Rhönsegler),Ka-7 

(Rhönadler) and 

Olympia. The Grunau 

Baby was modified 

and was named the 

ITG-3. According to 

records from 1962 it 

was manufactured in 

some numbers by 

Aeronautical Services 

Ltd at 31 Chittaranjan 

Avenue,Calcutta 12. 

Currently two ITG- 

3; VT-GAJ and VT- 

GA? As well as one 

Ka-6 VT-??? and one 

Slingsby T-21B 

Sedbergh VT-??? are 

stored at the 

Government Gliding 

Centre,Hadapsar, 

Pune. 

Soaring in India 

increased in 

popularity in those 

years. Gliders were in 

FEATURE 

VGC Pune-pages by e-mail.) And more 

is to come. 16 pages in the Swedish Aviation 

Yearbook. And hopefully some 

Blanik pictures in the Sailplane and Gliding. 

Martin Simons wrote: ”And it does 

seem you have prodded the Indian gliding 

people into action!” 

This is probably something for VGC 

News. Also a copy to Ian Dunkley who 

said their T.21 and Ka-6 easily could be 

airworthy (need some work however). He 

visited them in 2002 and they still 

remembered him. They also have plans 

to fresh up their hostel. (I will miss their 

lizards - they went indoors because the 

doors didn’t fit the frames any more!) 

Also; what about some fundraising (A 

few Euros will give them a lot of 

Rupies) to show our interest in their/our 

gliding history? Will also suggest them 

to start some sort of “Gliding Friendship 

Association”; “Indian Gliding Friends”? 

Imagine; A rainy and cold day you can 

easily leave Europe by charter to 

Mumbai or Doa 

and after some 

hours in the 

Airbus enjoy 

the sunshine 

and do some 

gliding in Pune. 

(and be happy 

with a little 

money!) Pune is 

Indian Gliders in wood and fabric 

by Thorsten Fridlizius 

RG-1 Rohini-I 

TS-4 Ashvini-II 

35 Rohini-I were manufactured 

by Aeronautical Services Ltd. 

The prototype was first flown 

in May 1961. It was an all 

wood, open cockpit, 

side-by-side two-seat 

training glider, similar to the 

Slingsby T-21. Many 

components were the same as 

the Ashvini-II, including tail 

surfaces, wing ribs and 

airbrakes. The twin spar wing 

was supported by single struts. 

In 1979 it was featured on an 

Indian postage stamp. 

56 of the Ashvini II were 

manufactured by Aeronautical 

Services Ltd. in Calcutta. 

The prototype was first 

flown in September 1958. 

It was a tandem two seat 

training glider, a l wood, of 

medium performance. It had 

twin spar, cantilever, high set 

wings, DFS-type airbrakes and 

monowheel undercarriage. 

great demand and the Technical Centre 

produced five interesting "All-Indian" 

designs. Some of these are tabulated 

below. They are almost forgotten today. 

The surviving record of de-registered 

gliders gives an indication of this. Much 

more remains to be discovered,written 

and documented. 

TS-4 Ashvini -II specificat ions 

Span: 58.07 ft / 17.70 m 

Length: 28.51 ft / 8.69 m 

Wing area: 210.0 sq ft / 19.51 sq m 

Empty weight: 675 lb / 306 kg 

Max weight: 1,102 lb / 500 kg 

Best glide ratio: 23 

Min sink: 2.7 ft/sec at 36 mph - 

0.82 m/sec at 67 km/h 

RG-1 Rohini-I specificat ions 

Span: 54 ft 4 in / 16.58 m 

Length: 26 ft 9.5 in / 8.24 m 

Wing area: 223.5 sq ft / 20.76 sq m 

Empty weight: 611 lb / 277 kg 

Max weight: 1,089 lb / 494 kg 

Best glide ratio: 21 

Min sink: 2.79 ft/sec at 38 mph - 

0.85 m/sec at 70/km/h 

halfway between 

Europe and Australia. 

Not to be 

forgotten.” 

Thorsten Fridlizius, 

Sweden and Sri 

Lanka ❏ 

38 VGC News No. 121 Summer 2007 


FEATURE 

Left: HB-223 at Kesteholz Ausschitt 

Curriculum Vitae of the 

Glider H28 HB-223 

By Lilly A. Grundbacher at Grandfontaine 

HB-223 was manufactured by Mr. 

F.Ruprecht in Rheineck, a community 

in the St. Gallen Rhine Valley, 

Switzerland. The final examination took 

place by the AeCS in Rheineck 3 October 

1937. 

In 1957 to 1959 Eugen Aeberli and 

Egon Polla took it along to visit various 

gliding camps, e.g. During Easter, 20 

April 1957 they went to Magadino in the 

south of Switzerland. Who doesn't know 

the well-known pictures? The complete 

Hütter H28 fixed onto the roof of the car. 

(see photo below). 

In 13 July 1937 they travelled to 

Samedan, with a K2 on a trailer behind 

their car, with a trailer coupling welded 

to the bumper. (see photo below right) 

On the 4th September 1958 they visited 

Mollis and on 31 August 1959 to an 

airfield in a town named Bad Ragaz (= 

Bath Ragaz). 

It was in the summer of 1957 when 

Egon was towed by Sepp Widmer and in 

a gust of wind hit the canopy with his 

head, thus jettisoning it. Sepp observed 

the canopy falling, Egon released the tow 

rope and Sepp steered the tug in a steep 

spiral to keep the canopy in sight. He 

managed to describe the landing site, a 

meadow, exactly. The canopy was found, 

damaged but with all instruments still 

attached. Egon subsequently modified the 

glider: The canopy height was increased 

by 4 cm and the instruments installed in 

front of the hood. 

In 1957 to 1959 Egon logged altogether 

25h 22 min on the HB-223, until he 

had to stop flying for vocational reasons. 

According to entries in its log book 

HB-223 was used afterwards until 22 

October 1965 by private and club pilots 

at Spreitenbach airfield. 

Later Eugen allowed some of his 

apprentices to fly the HB-223 at Birrfeld 

airfield, e.g. Röbi Jetzer in 1965. After a 

cross-country flight Röbi landed in an 

orchard, thereby damaging the aircraft 

nose. Ruedi Sägesser had to repair the 

nose immediately. He did not have time 

to form the plywood parts perfectly. 

Since that time the nose is no longer as 

beautiful as before. 

Some time later the glider was sold to 

Lausanne. HB-223 was deleted from the 

Swiss Aircraft Registry 21 October 1970. 

Re-registration took place on 26 April 

1972 with the “Old Timer Club Zurich” 

as owner. The club had only two members, 

namely Eugen Aeberli and Benno 

Luethi. They went to fetch the Hütter 

H28 in Lausanne where it was stored in 

a barn. 

Eugen had flown the HB-223 often, 

e.g. at the VGC Meeting of Old Timer 

Gliders 1975 at Gruyères. A notable event 

took place at the beginning of June 1974 

on the Wasserkuppe, where Eugen logged 

ten hours in six flights on the H28, 

which proved to be a great attraction. 

After the last flights in 1975, the aircraft 

had logged 213 flights and 229 flying 

hours. The last official inspection for 

its condition took place on 13 November 

1976. In 1986 the HB-223 was decommissioned. 

Eugen sold the HB-223 in 1986 to 

Max Daetwyler, an industrialist based in 

the Oberaargau, an area in Switzerland. 

Max Daetwyler and Wolfgang Hütter had 

known each other since after the war, 

when Max had gone to Germany to tow 

gliders – motor flying was off limits to 

Germans for a few years after the war. 

The contact between the two was 

renewed in connection with preparations 

for the serial production of the MD3-160 

Swiss Trainer, an airplane being developed 

by Daetwyler. As Max Daetwyler 

valued the experience of Wolfgang Hütter 

as an airplane constructing engineer, he 

had hired him as a consultant. 

The H 28 was the first aircraft Wolfgang 

Hütter had constructed independently, 

and thus it became of particular 

importance emotionally to Max 


FEATURE 

The Family of Hütter H28 Gliders 

Wolfgang Hütter, 1936, Salzburg Austria 

Up to this date there are only six Hütter H28 known to have been ready to fly at least once, namely: 

HB-223, H28-2: 

Manufacturer: by F. Ruprecht in Rheineck CH 

First flight October.1937, current owner Lilly-A. 

Grundbacher, 2007 not ready to fly, based in 

Thunstetten CH. 

HB-321, H28-2: 

Manufactured.in Rheineck CH, 

First Flight 1937, 2007 not ready to fly, based 

in a hangar in Zimbabwe. 

D-15-944, H28-3: 

Nothing left but some photographs 

from the year 1939. 

OK-..., H28-2: 

Made in Czechoslovakia, destroyed 1939 

when the Modova flooded. 

OY-DOX, H28-2: 

Manufacturer: Carl Johansen 1943 in 

Denmark, was approved for a Maximum 

speed (Vne) of 250 kph; participated in the 

World Cup 1951, 2007 not ready to fly, based 

in the USA. 

D-8223, H-28II “Kurier” (“messenger”) 

Manufacturer: Werner Kaluza, Warburg 

D from 1996 to 2002; First flight in 11 October 

2003. Limited German approval ( German 

approval “In beschränkter Sonderklasse 

gemäss Paragraf 3, Absatz 1 im LuftGertv“, 

see data sheet Nr.424/SP, Issue 1 of 26 

Nov.2004) airworthy in 2007. 

GB-HJM, H28-2: 

Manufactured in England in the year 2002, 

authorization was denied. Not airworthy in 

2007. 

Daetwyler. Max had planned to establish 

an airplane museum, for which the Hütter 

28 would be a suitable attraction. 

(After the death of Max Daetwyler in 

2005 this long-term project is now in 

the hands of his son Peter). 1993 Max 

brought the HB-223 to the 

Friedrichshafen Aero Exhibition. Before 

that Ruedi Sägesser had been asked to do 

some emergency repairs, especially 

replacing parts of the wing fabric. The 

HB-223 made it for the exhibition, painted 

with clear paint only. 

In April 2001 Max Daetwyler gave the 

HB-223 to Lilly A. Grundbacher. It was 

essential to Max that the Hütter 28 would 

be restored to flying condition, something 

Lilly had planned to do in the workshop 

of Ruedi Sägesser. Ruedi however sold 

his workshop in April 2004 and died less 

than a year after. Peter Daetwyler regretted 

that his old father had given away the glider 

lightly. Subsequently Peter and Lilly 

agreed that the glider would fall back to 

the Daetwyler family once she would no 

longer be holding a gliding licence. In 

2004 Lilly has bought a carpenter’s workshop 

in Grandfontaine, which is in the 

process of conversion to be suitable for 

aircraft restorations. Meanwhile the H 28 

is mothballed and stays with Peter. 

Examinations done by Werner Kaluza 

showed that in some places the glue is 

no longer firm. It is feared that the 

restoration will be more labour-consuming 

than originally assumed. However, 

Lilly is confident to master this problem 

as well; planning to start the restoration 

of the H 28 in 2009. ❏ 

Technical data of Hütter H28 HB-223: 

Type: Hütter H28-2 

Manufacturer: 

F. Ruprecht in Rheineck CH 

Year: 1936/37 

Number of seats: 1 

Cockpit: 

Wingspan: 

Length: 

closed 

12.0 m 

4.80 m 

Height: 

1.05 m 

Area of wing including part of fuselage 

generating lift: 

8.5 m2 

Arrangement of the wings: mid-wing aeroplane 

Construction: 

wood 

Empty Weight: 

105 kg 

Maximum take-off weight: 

195 kg 

Glide ratio: 1:2 


FEATURE 

The Fifth International 

by Karl Heinz Kellerman and OSC Aktuell 

This of course was the great event of 

the season. It was held from 9th to 

16th July at the Telgte Airfield of Muenster, 

in northern Germany. A grand total of 

34 sailplanes were lined up but over two 

hundred people took part in those festivities, 

in one way or another. The first day, 

which was given over to the welcoming 

ceremonies, was blessed by fine weather. 

Speeches were delivered in the presence of 

the Mayor of Muenster, his counterpart 

from Telgte, a representative from the German 

Aero Club, and the Rally’s Guest of 

Honour, the well-known glider designer 

Hans Jacob. He was given a model of the 

1943 Swedish-build Kranich entered at the 

Rally and built by our member Tony 

Roberts. He was greatly pleased with this 

present. In one of the speeches, it was said 

that “no other glider designer had designed 

gliders which had made so many pilots 

happy for so long”. In passing, we can 

recall that Hans Jacobs is the designer of 

the following machines: Rhoenadler 

(1932), Rhoenbussard (1934), Rhoensberger 

(1935), Kranich (1935), Sperber 

Junior, Sperber Senior, Seeadler, Habicht 

(all in 1936!), Reiher (1937), Weihe 

(1938) and Olympia Me4s(1939). A 

remarkable accomplishment, by any standards. 

Another glider designer present at 

the Rally was Hans Sander. 

As readers may remember, he revived 

the design activities of the Academic 

Flying Group of the University of 

Aachen in 1952. Four years later, he produced 

the FVA 10B “Rheinland”. Another 

participant was a small German who 

said that he had made 15000 aerotowed 

starts in a Kranich as an instructor. 

Gliding began the next-day, Sunday 

10th July. The weather was good with a 

light northerly wind and a cloud base of 

4500ft. Several good flights were made. 

Chris Wills, among others, stayed up for 

over two hours with Hans Folgmann as 

a passenger in his Kranich. It was already 

becoming apparent that there were few 

landing fields in the area and that the 

crops of wheat and maize were not yet 

harvested. 

On the following day, participants 

were invited on a sightseeing tour of 

Top: Werner Von Arx’s 1936 Minimoa in 

front of the impressive gathering of vintage 

gliders 

Right: briefing assembly 

Below: three Minimoas ready for a 

formation aerotow 


FEATURE 

Vintage Glider Rally 

Muenster and were greeted by the Mayor 

in the Friedensaal, the historic hall in the 

Rathaus where a peace treaty marking the 

end of the Hundred Year War was signed. 

All were impressed at the way Muenster, 

a town which had been severely hit by 

the war, had been reconstructed and 

restored in its old style. 

The aerial task for the day appeared to 

be quite challenging. It consisted in completing 

a programmed flight with eight 

turning points and in counting the number 

of tennis courts visible at each of 

these points. Needless to say, it was later 

revealed that the Rally organiser was a 

keen tennis player. Thanks to very 

favourable weather conditions, this 

daunting task was accomplished by no 

less than ten participants. Ted Hull finished 

first in his Kite 1 followed by 

Willi Schwarzenbach (S18), Wemer 

Tschorn (Weihe) and Jan Venaeer (Slingsby 

Prefect) The French C800 2-seater 

was able to make a near miraculous landing 

on a small strip of short maize. 

That evening, the Blackpool and Fylde 

Gliding Club Syndicate offered a celebration 

on their camping site with plenty of 

beer and Schnapps for the British, French 

and German merrymakers. The Syndicate 

Gliders and pilots attending the Rally 

Pilot Country Glider Registration Year 

Frei, Jost CH Weihe 50 HB-530 1938 

Egger, Peter CH Spalinger S 18 HB-510 1944 

Fliss, Georg, CH Spyr Va HB-509 1955 

Heinzer, Doris CH DFS Meise HB-384 1945 

Notter, René CH Moswey IV HB-522 1950 

Roth, Werner und Renz, H.U. CH Spalinger S 19 HB-225 1937 

Schwarzenbach, Willi CH Spalinger S 18 II HB-411 1943 

Singenberger, Guido CH Moswey III HB-774 1944 

Von Arx, Werner CH Minimoa HB-282 1936 

Frei Günter D Olympia Meise D-7504 1960 

Gross, Eric D Grunau Baby IIb D-5149 1953 

Karch, Rainer D Mü 17 D-1717 1961 

Kroll, Christian D Cumulus 3f D-6059 1953 

Müller, Max D Minimoa D-1163 1938 

Rey, Horst-Dieter D Grunau Baby IIb D-1128 1941 

Sander, Hans D Standard Libelle D-0082 1968 

Scheurer, Hermann D Grunau Baby IIb D-7087 1943 

Schmitt, Waldemar D Olympia Meise D-4732 1956 

Tschorn, Werner D Weihe 50 D-7080 1958 

Walter, Ernst D Mü 13 D Merlin D-6293 1936 

Zöller, Adolf D Libelle L10 D-8564 1955 

Nuville, Francois F SG 38 F-WRRK 

Fulchiron, Didier F Caudron C 800 F-CAZY 

Coxon, John GB Minimoa BGA 1897 1937 

Fisher, Toby GB Olympia Meise BGA 2080 1962 

Hull, Ted GB Slingsby Kite 1 BGA 394 1939 

Jones, David GB FVA Rheinland BGA 1711 1939 

Morgan, Peter GB EON Baby BGA 629 1948 

Morgan, Rodi GB Slingsby Kite II BGA 521 1947 

Russell, Francis GB JS Weihe BGA 448 1943 

Wills, Chris GB DFS Kranich II BGA 1092 1943 

Goossens, J. M. NL Slingsby Prefect PH-193 1951 

Siemens, L. NL Sedbergh T 21 B PH-200 1951 

Vermeer, J. NL Slingsby Prefect PH-192 1951 


FEATURE 

were celebrating their presence at Muenster 

with the Eon Baby they had finished 

repairing, test flown, and for which they 

had obtained a C of A during the three 

days before their departure for Germany. 

The goal for Tuesday was a 60km 

flight to the great gliding centre of Oerlinghausen. 

However, no-one attempted 

this virtually downwind flight because of 

weak thermals, poor landing fields and 

the proximity of the large Gutersloh controlled 

airspace which would have had to 

be circumnavigated. However, four 

British gliders were trailed to Oerlinghauson 

and flown there. Everybody drove 

Above: Minimoa shows that there were few 

landing fields in the area and that the crops 

of wheat and maize were not yet harvested 

Right, top to bottom: Francois Nuville ready 

to fly his SG 38 

Cumulus 3f of Christian Kroll 

Rodi Morgan in his Slingsby Kite II 

1945 DFS Meise entered by Doris Heinzer 

there and were welcomed by Fred Weinholz, 

representative of the German Aero 

Club and gliding champion of North 

Rhine - Westphalia. The sheer enormity 

of Oerlinghausen impressed the whole 

party. For example, there were no fewer 

than 27 Ka 13 2-seaters! Some participants 

then visited the workshops of the 

Oerlinghausen Technical School for 

training glider repairers and teaching in 

the uses of wood, glassfibre and steel 

tube. Visitors were impressed by the 

quality of repairs carried out on a large 

glassfibre sail-plane and a line-up of 

Swiss Elfe S4s which were being built 

with some German modifications. 

Because of late starting weather, the 

Preis der Nationen planned for Wednesday 

was converted to an exact 30 minute 

duration flight followed by a spot landing. 

A point was taken off for every 

minute and every metre off target. Winners 

were the German team number one 

which consisted of Wernor Tschorn 

(Weihe), Rainer Karch (Mu17) and Peter 

Egger (Meise). They were followed by 

their compatriots of the second team 

(Rainer Willeke and Ernst Walter). Silver 

was awarded to Jan Vermeer and Francois 

Nuville. Rodi Morgan received a Bronze 

medal. Although Len Redding and John 

Light did very well, they were not in the 

same team so that there wore no British 

team medals. On landing his Kite 2, 

Rodi Morgan pitched forward and then 

suddenly back onto the tail skid. The rear 

fuselage skin was torn, but it could be 

quickly repaired. This proved to be the 

only mishap of the Rally. 

This full day ended with a glorious 


evening at Paul Serries’ Tennis Club 

with beer and Schnapps aplenty and a 

whole pig that had roasted for nine 

hours. Some disagreement emerged 

among the judges as to how many tennis 

courts there were on the previous day's 

event, but a consensus was reached after 

lengthy deliberations. 

No tasks could be set for Thursday 

14th July because of poor weather, but 

many individual flights were made all the 

same. Mr.Neeico Osinga, Chief of the 

Gliding Commission of the Dutch Aero 

Club, paid a visit to the Rally and had 

flights in Chris Wills' Kranich. A festive 

"British Evening" took place that night 

in a brightly decorated hangar. Frances 

Furlong and Billy Caldwell, to whom all 

thanks are due for the success of that 

evening, had brought ample supplies of 

cider and British cheese from home. As 

part of the celebrations, Frances was 

dressed up as a British servant wench of 

a hundred years ago and Len Rodding was 

garbed like a British peasant of the distant 

past. Not to be outdone foodwise, 

the Dutch crossed the border to come 

back with Dutch cheese. The French produced 

bottles of wine. It was their 

national day. This hadn't been forgotten. 

Their flag was hung among the British 

flags and all joined in a thunderous "Marseillaise", 

the French national anthem. 

Dr. Slater gave a performance with his 

penny whistle. He was rapturously 

applauded and asked for an encore. Chris 

Wills conducted the singing of "A Pilot 

bold was he" by the British, with his 

trumpet. The Germans sang their gliding 

songs and the Swiss gave a beautiful 

was offered coffee by the British Commanding 

Officer. Jan Vermeer in his Prefect 

was just short and landed in a field 

next to the base. 

Top: Ted Hull 

Above: Hans Jacob holds a model Kranich 

Below: Georg Fliss and his 1955 Spyr 

Below Right: Chris Wills 

FEATURE 

delayed as a result. The nostalgic speeches 

that were said as the flags fluttered 

against the cloudy sky, the fine prizes 

that were awarded to everyone provided a 

fitting end to a marvellous week of gliding 

and conviviality. Wemer von Arx, a 

Swiss entrant with a Minimoa, received 

the first prize. John Coxon was awarded 

the Concours d' Elegance Prize, for his 

sleek Minimoa. Paul Serries, the organiser, 

was given the best-deserved prize of 

all for his magnificent efforts. The tow 

pilots were not forgotten! and rightly so, 

because they had flown their Piper Cubs 

unfailingly to the places with the best 

lift and at the correct speed. More than 

one participant agreed that they had never 

been towed by such fine and helpful 

pilots. 

This Rally was exceptional in several 

respects. There were several machines 

unseen before at International Vintage 

meetings such as the original short fuselaged 

MU15D, two Slingsby Prefects, a 

Cumulus, the Caudron C.800, the 

SG.58 and a Moswey 4. For the first 

time, participants joined in from France 

and Holland, a fact which reflects a growing 

interest in Vintage gliders and in the 

preservation of a glorious past. 

Above all, this Rally will be remembered 

for the fantastic hospitality given 

by its Muenster organisers. The British 

entrants, with their weak pounds sterling, 

appreciated this more then ever. 

Free accommodation and meals were 

offered either in the homes of members 

of the local flying club, or in caravans 

especially laid on for the occasion. Aerotows 

to 500metres were an incredibly 

account of themselves with lovely songs 

under the leadership of Will Schwarzenbach. 

This unforgettable evening went 

on into the early hours of the morning. 

The task set for the next day was a 

50km flight east to a British helicopter 

base. Only two people made it: Wolfgang 

Tschorn was there in 25 minutes in 

his father's Weihe, and Rainer Willeke 

also reached the base in a Minimoa. He 

On Saturday 16th July, competitors 

were called to a duration flight that had to 

end by 5pm for the Prize Giving. The 

weather was good. Winds were lightwesterly, 

cloudbase lifted to 1700m 

above the site during the afternoon and 

lift varied from 5 to 4 m/sec. 

Naturally, many gliders were still in 

the air when the time came for distributing 

the prizes. The ceremony was a little 

cheap - 10 Marks. This lavish hospitality 

was probably sponsored by our German 

friends from the Muenster Oldtimer 

Gliding Club and perhaps from the town 

as well. The kindness, efficiency and 

generosity of the Hosts of this Fifth 

International Vintage Glider Rally will 

never be forgotten. ❏ 

Photos by Karl Heinz Kellerman 

and Heiko Schneider 


FEATURE 

True, untrue or a probability 

by Thorsten Fridlizius 

Few things are so surrounded with 

myths as the creation of the Grunau 

Baby. Why? The GB was produced in 

greater numbers than any other sailplane 

in the world. (This probably remains true 

even now.) Thousands of pupils and 

experienced pilots have enjoyed flights 

in the Grunau Baby. In spite of the 

cramped upright position in the cockpit 

there are many Baby-flights in the record 

books. Even endurance records were 

established in this relatively inexpensive 

little sailplane. 

The Grunau Baby 1 appeared during a 

transition period. Earlier sailplanes (as 

distinct from primary gliders) were 

designed to special order. One of a type 

would be built, rarely more. A series 

from the same factory would have close 

family resemblances but probably no two 

were every exactly alike. Edmund Schneider’s 

Grunau Baby was the first mass-produced 

sailplane. Schneider established a 

production line and was anxious to market 

the new type in quantity. 

been amputated as a result of a motorcycle 

accident. He and Schempp returned to 

Germany. From the 1st of April 1931 

and for the next two years, Hirth was 

instructor and manager of the Gliding 

School at Grunau. In the slope below the 

hilltop gliding site, Edmund Schneider 

was manufacturing his gliders. The 

Grunau Baby was already in service 

before Hirth arrived in town. 

Gliding was at that time an enormously 

popular sport in Germany. Wolf Hirth 

was a well known person in the general 

media as well as among glider pilots. 

A romantic view taken in the 1930s which is part of a 

postcard composed of eight small photographs. 

Datschi at the southern Wülzburg Ridge, between 

Nürnberg and Augsburg. Observe the struts which had 

an areofoil cross section. Thomas Häcker collection 

Above: Franz Medicus in the Datschi, at 

Wasserkuppe(?). Franz Medicus was later at 

Egon Scheibe. In 1960 he ferried a 

MotorSpatz to Ålleburg – the Swedish 

Gliding Centre and Museum 

Edmund and Wolf were old friends so 

Edmund asked Wolf to help him promote 

the Baby. In sales brochures and in advertisements, 

Schneider mentioned this in a 

slightly ambiguous fashion “die (the 

Babies) unter Mitwerkung von Wolf 

Hirth vom Flugzeugbau Schneider herausgebracht 

wurden” If Wolf Hirth had, 

Myth One: 

Wolf Hirth was the co-designer of the 

Baby. The prototype Grunau Baby 1 was 

designed and produced when Hirth was in 

the USA. In 1931, the year when the 

Grunau Baby 1 was built and flown, he 

was busy with the Haller Hirth Sailplane 

Company together with Gus Haller. 

Martin Schempp was their instructor. 

Wolf was denied American citizenship 

because of his artificial leg. His leg had 


FEATURE 

Above: ‘Alexander der Kleine’. Same age 

as Grunau Baby 1. Span 14.00. Mass 

empty as Grunau Baby 1 and Datschi. 

Design A Thoenes, 

Rossitten. Six built, 

Ozite (16.00 m span!) 

included. Archives 

Jürgen Doppelbauer 

Above: the workshop was a former 

warehouse or stable. In the roof one single 

light bulb. Late working evenings kind 

neighbours arrived with the speciality of 

Augsburg – Zwetschgendatschi (plumcake) 

for the young 

people. 

Archives 

Jürgen 

Doppelbauer 


FEATURE 

in fact, been the designer, they would 

probably have given much more prominence 

to him. Wolf only gave Edmund 

permission to use his name but he was 

by no means co-designer of the Baby 

and never claimed to be so. 

Myth Two. 

In Sweden it is being said that the 

famous Swedish designer (of the Bücker 

Jungmann, Jungmeister, Saab Safir and 

others) AJ Andersson had given information 

about his Datschi glider to someone 

in Germany when he left that country for 

Sweden. This information was, according 

to these unreliable sources, used to 

influence the design of the Baby. 

It is a fact that the Datschi came before 

the Baby. AJ Andersson, one year before 

Edmund had his stroke of genius, had 

designed a very similar type of small 

sailplane. Furthermore; at the gliding 

competitions at Hesselberg in 1930 

“erregte die nue Maschine des Augsburger 

Verein für Luftfahrt, die Datschi, 

besonderes Interesse” Thus AJ showed 

the German competitors (including some 

from Grunau) that it was possible to 

design an inexpensive small sailplane, 

wingspan just 13.1 metres, with good 

performance. AJ Andersson was 

employed by BFW (Bayerische Flugzeug 

Werke) as a stress man and he was also 

member of the Augsburger Verein für 

Luftfahrt. The society wanted their own 

glider but the price had to be very low. 

He started to design the Datschi in 1929. 

AJ used standard plywood panels, minimised 

the frontal area, using a diamond 

cross-section (See VGC News 117 

Spring 2006). He also borrowed other 

ideas. This was usual among designers. 

Datschi was fitted with an all moving 

elevator very similar to the elevator of 

the Alexander Lippisch RRG Professor, 

16,1 meter, which served as a model for 

many gliders of that time. 

Thus the Datschi might have inspired 

Edmund Schneider to design a small 

inexpensive sailplane for home-building 

and for all the new gliding clubs springing 

up like mushrooms in those days. 

Edmund had recognised a “Bedarfslücke”, 

a market for a little inexpensive 

glider. 

The Wing of Datschi & Baby 

Both Datschi and Baby have elliptical 

outer parts of the wings. This does not 

mean that Edmund copied this design 

from Andersson. They both took ideas 

from the “Darmstadt school” (Academic 

Flying Group of the Darmstadt Technical 

Datschi with ‘Darmstadt 

wing’ but all-flying tailplane 

contrary to the Grunau 

Baby 1. Both small gliders. 

Datschi from 1931 at 13.1m 

and the Grunau baby from 

1931 at 12.87m. The 

common wingspan at that 

was 16.00m. 

University, the Akaflieg Darmstadt). 

They were not the only ones using elliptical 

outer wings. The Schloss Mainberg 

for instance, from 1929 flew with the 

same wing shape. AJ chose the Göttingen 

549 profile which Lippisch had for 

the Professor. Edmund, however, used 

Right: advertising 1929 for ´Schloss 

Mainberg’ (13th century) owned by the 

inventor and industrial tycoon Ernst Sachs. 

Observe the ‘Darmstadt wing’. 

Archives Knut Uller 


the slightly thicker and more strongly 

cambered Göttingen 535, which was the 

most popular profile of that time. 

Edmund did not spend much time on the 

tail. He simply modified the fixed 

tailplane and elevator design of his existing 

Schlesierland of 1929. 

The Fuselage 

of Datschi & Baby 

The Grunau Baby fuselage had a hexagonal 

cross-section, the same as Lippisch 

had used for the Professor and the Falke, 

which Edmund built under licence. The 

Grunau Baby was recognisably from the 

Left: unusual pic of Wolf Hirth from 

Stellenbosch University. Collection Heinie 

von Michaelis 

Heinrich 'Heinie' von Michaelis and Wolf 

Hirth were friends and probably sent this 

pic from Germany. The SA Minimoa and the 

SA Goevier was mainly a result of Heinies 

negotiations, interest and energy. The 

Goevier was for instance partially paid by 

money from Sir Geoffry Sopwith (Camel!) – 

“Thanks Heinie!” 

same family as the Schlesierland and the 

line continued with the ESG 31 Stanavo 

and the later Commodore. AJ was a little 

more unconventional. He selected a diamond 

cross-section. 

The performance 

of the two gliders 

The Datschi might have been a little 

superior to the Baby. It had a smaller 

frontal surface, less wet surface area and 

a better wing profile. The structure 

weight of Baby 1 was 100 kg (Baby 2B, 

160 kg) AJ, the stress man, had estimated 

a structure weight of 110 kg and a load 

factor of 7.2. When actually completed 

the weight was 90 kg which allowed the 

load factor to be increased to 9. In spite 

of its lower weight the Datschi was, 

from the beginning, strong and could be 

used for aerobatics. 

A possibility 

It is true that Datschi came before the 

Baby and it is possible that the Datschi 

FEATURE 

inspired Edmund Schneider to design a 

small inexpensive glider with a good performance, 

cheaper than his existing 16 

meter sailplanes and far cheaper than the 

high performance aircraft of that time 

like the Wien and the Fafnir. When AJ 

Andersson designed the small glider for 

the Augsburger Verein für Luftfahrt he 

did not realize that the market was waiting 

for an inexpensive glider of Datschisize; 

an intermediate training glider or 

“eine Übungssegelflugzeuge”. He was 

probably not at all interested in the commercial 

aspects and possibilities. 

Edmund Schneider was possibly stimulated 

after getting information about the 

Datschi to make a break from his existing 

16 m sailplanes and so designed the 

Baby. He had the experience, he had a 

workshop and he was a good businessman. 

Soon the Grunau Baby became 

known world wide. 

AJ Andersson left gliding and became 

world-famous, designing beautiful 

planes for Bücker. His only gliderdesign, 

the Datschi, was intended for his 

friends. The Datschi was a “loner” in the 

world of gliders. What happened in the 

head of Edmund Schneider the winter 

1930 will we never know – we can only 

guess! 

Many thanks to Martin Simons for the 

drawing and for editing. ❏ 

CLASSIFIED ADVERTS 

Small advertisements are free to members and 

are charged at the joining rate for non 

members. Send your adverts to The Vintage 

Gliding Club, address on inside front cover. 

FOR SALE 

1937 built RHOENBUSSARD BGA 

337 with a C of Aand a modern metal 

trailer. To be sold to a good owner in 

Britain if possible, Sensible offers to 

C.Wills. Tel:-01491 839245. 

SPALINGER S.21h. 1937. without 

fabric. Offers to C.Wills as above. This 

is tandem seated wooden classic Swiss 

gull- winged two seater. 

I feel the time has come to let some other 

enthusiast take over my SKY and OLY 

machines, Both need work to bring them 

to flight standard but as I do not want 

anything for them it could be an 

economical way for someone to get 

airborne. So SKY BGA 686 -"Kinder 

Scout 2"+Trailer rebuilt 3 years ago 

with replacement chassis etc. One wing 

needs some minor re-skinning and 

covering. OLYMPIA 1 BGA 513 

"Jacobs Ladder" + ancient Trailer. 

Needs a new perspex canopy [old one too 

crazed] and a complete overhaul as it has 

not flown for years. Both F.O,C. to good 

homes. Pete Teagle. Telephone 01663 

763614. E-mail: 

ninateagle@ntlworld.com 

Slingsby T38 Grasshopper TX1 

WZ816 BGA 3979/HJJ Construction 

No 797. Wings - Rebuilt by Peter 

Kingsford in 1994, ceconite covered then 

stored dry. Ailerons - both complete, one 

covered the other not. Airframe - 

Complete apart from main skid and 

harness. Unrestored but in good 

condition. Some component parts 

restored and boxed. Tail Surfaces - 

Complete, uncovered but in good 

condition. Rudder - Restored and covered. 

Spares - Few spares inc spare rear 

fusulage section. Currently hangared at 

Redhill, has always been stored inside 

and dry. This glider could be restored to 

fly without a huge amount of work. I’m 

selling due to the purchase of a powered 

aircraft. If you need any further 

information please let me know. Many 

thanks Jonathan Wilkins, Hillcrest, 

Lenacre street, Eastwell, Ashford, Kent 

TN26 1JD.Tel; 07889 338620 or 01233 

632921 eve, E-mail; 

ajonthan@fly76.orangehome.co.uk 

'Kronfeld on Gliding and Soaring' - 

this wonderful book, signed by 

Kronfeld's son and grandson both of 

whom are Gold C pilots, complete with 

all photographs etc is for sale - £120 

postage paid to anywhere. 

Apply w.kahn@btinternet.com 

WANTED 

Original Cobb Slater Variometer. I am 

very keen to acquire an original pre-war 

Cobb Slater vario for a restoration 

project. The pre-war vario had pith balls 

in tapered tubes, (as opposed to the much 

more common post war parallel bore 

model). If you have one you are willing 

to sell (or could provide any clues to the 

whereabouts of one) I would be grateful if 

you could let me know. 

Colin Simpson. 07710 013096 or e-mail 

colin.simpson@yellgroup.com ❏ 


FEATURE 

Airtest No 6 

P.Z.L. Mucha Standard 

“A Pictorial View” 

By Bruce Stephenson. 

In last of our series, we re-discover the Mucha Standard through the pen of 

“Air Pictorial“ magazine. Although these are merely copies, it is felt that since 

that these reports never appeared in “Sailplane and Gliding“, they will hopefully 

make interesting reading, as it is assumed that most VGC readers will not have 

seen them before. The reader is reminded that at the time of writing, these were 

“new” types to British skies, and whilst “Air Pictorial” did, and still does enjoy a 

broad aviation spectrum, it is primarily concerned with the development of the 

aeroplane. 

It is also worth reminding that, in some cases, many design layouts were being 

used on small aircraft for the very first time, features that we take for granted 

today. It has been decided to publish these reports in their entirety, and in 

sequence of publication by date, as some reports refer to the qualities of past 

gliders tested by “Air Pictorial”; it also serves to remind us of relative costs and 

technologies of the day. 

The P.Z.L. MUCHA STANDARD, 

Type No. SZD-22, is a Polish 

designed and built sailplane conforming to 

the 15-metre standard class regulations, 

and therefore in the same category as the 

Schleicher Ka6 and the Breguet Fauvette. 

[Both of which were tested by Air Pictorial 

and reproduced in VGC News issues 

120 and 121] 

The Mucha made its first international 

appearance in the world gliding championships 

at Leszno in Poland in 1958, 

where it won its class. Although two 

were again entered in the 1960 championships 

in Germany, the Poles had by 

then introduced two higher performance 

competition types, the Zefir in the open 

class, and the Foka in the standard class, 

whilst the Mucha had gone into largescale 

production, to become the standard 

soaring equipment for club use in Poland. 

The Mucha is now available for 

export, and in England sales are handled 

by Norco Engineering Ltd., Burgess 

Hill, Sussex. It’s price complete with 

instruments and as described in this 

report, import duty paid, and landed at 

Harwich is £1,151. 

The Mucha is of normal plywood and 

fabric construction, similar to that of 

most sailplanes. The mainplane is in 

two parts; port and starboard, each built 

up on a massive spar, which carries the 

ribs. Upper and lower surfaces forward of 

the spar are ply covered, thus forming a 

solid D-section to carry torsion loads. 

This plywood covering also extends 

about 6in. aft of the spar on the inner 

half of each wing and over 2ft. of the 

span next to the inboard end of each 

aileron it extends right to the trailing 

edge on both upper and lower surfaces. 

The remainder of the wing is fabric covered. 

[“B” model had an all ply wing] 

Each 10ft. 6in. (3m) span narrowchord 

aileron is carried on three hinges 

supported by a false spar and is operated 

by a combination of rods, levers, and 

cables, and as a result operation is 

noticeably free of friction. Together with 

the differential action, aerodynamic balance 

and small slot between aileron and 

wing, this contributes to the excellent 

aileron control, which is a feature of the 

Mucha. 

DFS-type airbrakes are fitted, and open 

out from the upper and lower surface of 

each wing. 

Each wing is attached to the fuselage 

by two heavy pins, which fix the main 

spar ends, and the short diagonal drag 

spar aft of it, to short transverse spars 

running through the fuselage. When 

these pins are in position, the wing is to 

all intents and purposes a single structure 

from tip to tip. 

Aileron and airbrake controls are connected 

up with quick-release pins, and the 

whole operation of rigging or de-rigging 

and stowing in a trailer can be done in 5- 

6 minutes. 

Specifications 

Span 

49 ft. 1½ in. (15m) 

Length 

22 ft. 11 ½ in. (6.7m) 

Height 

5 ft. 10 ¾ in. (1.5m) 

Wing area 137.24 sq. ft. (48.1 sq.m.) 

Wing Loading 5.12 lb./sq.ft. (2.32kg/sq.m.) 

Weights 

Empty (with oxygen apparatus, but without 

water ballast) 

498.2 lb. (226kg) 

Pilot and parachute 220.5 lb. (100kg) 

Max. Permissible a-u-w 718.7 lb. (326kg) 


FEATURE 


FEATURE 

The fuselage is a conventional plywood 

monocoque. The landing wheel is 

positioned further aft of the c.g. than 

usual, which makes for ease of handling 

on the ground, but necessitates some care 

in take-off and landing to ensure that the 

nose remains clear of the ground. The 

short skid extends from the nose to the 

fuselage to a point only 4½ ft. (1.4m) 

aft. The landing wheel is fitted with a 

brake, which is applied by the last movement 

of the airbrake lever after extending 

the airbrakes. 

The tail unit is conventional, and a 

pilot operated trimming tab is fitted on 

the port elevator. A feature of the 

tailplane is that, when rigging, the elevator 

and tail-trim controls mate automatically. 

The Cockpit 

The cockpit is covered by a plastic 

canopy no less than 4 ½ ft. (1.4m) long. 

It is so shaped that the pilot sees through 

the transparency at a fairly oblique angle, 

and obtains a particularly good view in 

all directions at all times. Like all 

sailplanes, the Mucha is streets ahead of 

most civil aircraft in this respect, and 

one wishes that all powered-aircraft 

designers, for this reason if none other, 

could be compelled to take a gliding 

course. 

Flying controls are conventional and 

stick and rudder pedals well positioned 

for pilot comfort. The rudder pedals can 

be adjusted for reach, in the air, over a 

range of 3½in. (8.9cm). The pilot’s seat 

is very comfortable with a deck-chair 

type back, the top of this is suspended 

from a steel bar across the fuselage that 

can be put in any one four positions, 

giving a fore and aft range of 6½in. 

(16.5cm). The seat is designed for a 

Above left: cockpit fitted with factory 

addition of oxygen panel and controls 

Above: BGA5176’s cockpit restored to near 

original 

back-type parachute, and the adjustments 

of seat and rudder permit pilots almost 

any shape to be comfortably accommodated. 

The airbrake lever is on the port side of 

the cockpit in the customary position for 

the throttle lever. Brakes are locked in the 

closed position by the lever springing 

into a gate at the forward end of its quadrant. 

A shorter lever alongside operates 

the tail-trim, and the cable release knob 

is immediately below these two levers. 

The instrument panel is 30in. (76cm) 

from the pilot’s eyes when he is normally 

seated, and in front of it a small tray 

folds down, which is convenient for 

maps. The cockpit is 19in. (48cm) wide 

at sitting level, which is a snug, but 

comfortable fit for all but the most-pear 

shaped. There is a well-placed clear 

vision panel to port, and a ventilator on 

the starboard side of the canopy, which 

can be rotated to extract, or to blow in 

air. The canopy itself hinges upward 

from its after end, rather like that of a 

Lighting [fighter]. It cannot be opened in 

the air, but can be jettisoned. 

Handling 

All launches were aero-tow. The cablelaunch 

hook has no over-ride release 

[back-release], and in consequence the 

Mucha has not yet been cleared for winch 

or auto-tow launching. On tow it was 

immediately noticeable, despite considerable 

turbulence low down, that the 

Mucha makes it very easy to maintain 

position accurately on the tug; good 

view, and good controls contribute to 

this. 

A point to watch on the launch is that 

full “up” elevator is necessary during the 

initial ground run to keep the nose skid 


FEATURE 

Above: Mucha in original colour scheme as delivered to Lausanne in 1959 

Below: BGA5176 with canopy open 

off the ground, and to balance the Mucha 

to run on its single wheel. Time to 

1,000 metres (3,280ft.) AGL behind the 

Auster “Tugmaster” with only pilot in 

the tug was 7½ minutes. 

The Mucha has exceptionally pleasant 

and well-harmonized controls. The general 

feel is similar to, but better than an 

Olympia, and the ailerons, in particular, 

are among the best so far encountered in 

any sailplane. There is, nevertheless, 

sufficient aileron drag to call for rudder 

when rolling rapidly into, or out of 

turns. 

The Mucha is unstable laterally, and if 

left to its own devices in a turn, the turn 

will steepen, and gradually turn into a 

dive. As, however, the airbrakes may be 

opened at any speed up to the maximum 

permitted for the aircraft, and when 

opened, will restrain the Mucha to within 

this limit, the aircraft can take care of 

itself under most conditions. 

The Mucha can be trimmed to fly 

level, hands off at any speed within the 

normal operating range; if disturbed, it 

will oscillate fore and aft. For example, 

after trimming to fly hands off at 

80km./hr (43 knots) a disturbance produced 

an oscillation in which the speed 

varied between 76 (41kts) and 84 km./hr. 

(45kts), but which slowly dampened out; 

the lower the speed at which the aircraft 

is trimmed to fly, the longer the dampening 

out takes. Opening the airbrakes 

stopped the oscillation at once, and the 

Mucha settled quickly each time into a 

steady glide close to the speed at which it 

was originally trimmed, although of 

course steeper. Rate of descent in still 

air, with airbrakes fully opened at 80 

km./hr. (43 knots) was about 4.5 

metres/sec. (14.7 ft./sec.), representing a 

glide angle near a one-in-four, which is a 

satisfactory steep approach for landing in 

fields over obstacles. 

Directionally the Mucha is stable and 

the rudder, though never heavy, is powerful 

and effective down to all speeds, 

including below the stall. 

Stalling the Mucha is interesting, and 

special attention was paid to it. The first 

indication of the approaching stall 

occurred at 54km./hr. I.A.S. (29.1 knots) 

in the form of a faint rumble, which 

could be both heard and felt, and appeared 

to come from somewhere down by the 

tail. This cause is possibly the initial 

breakdown of airflow over the centre-section, 

so that there is a small amount of 

turbulence over the tail unit; the effect is 

much less than the usual pre-stall buffet. 

At 52km./hr. (28 knots), the aircraft 

begins to feel as though it were balanced 

on a knife-edge, and it is difficult to hold 

it level with ailerons alone; at 

50/51km./hr. (27Knots) I.A.S. the aircraft 

cannot be held level, and one or 

other wing drops at this point: a spin 

will develop unless prevented. 

In level flight, with airbrakes closed, 

the point of stall could be reached before 

the stick was fully back. Further rearward 

movement of the stick at this point 

accentuated the wing drop; but at no time 

was a spin inevitable, and the Mucha 

responded immediately to the appropriate 

recovery action. Little height need be 

lost, and in fact a series of three full 

stalls and recoveries, together with turns 

between each to look around the sky, 

resulted in a total loss of height of only 

150 metres (490 ft.). 

With airbrakes open, the stalling characteristics 

are not noticeably different. 

The sequence starts at 2km./hr. higher 

speed, and a slightly greater rearward 

pressure and movement is needed on the 

control column to bring the aircraft to 

the stall, but that is all. 

As this pilot with parachute weighs 

220lb, (98kg) the Mucha was flying 

close to its maximum all-up weight of 

718 lb. (326kg) for these tests, and the 

c.g. would be near its forward position. 

Nothing was found in the stalling 

characteristics of the Mucha in this test 

which could be beyond the competence 

of a properly trained pilot, for it must be 

assumed that such pilots have been adequately 

trained in spin recovery. If this is 

so, the Mucha can be considered an 

excellent club and training aircraft, for it 

will encourage pilots to fly with understanding 

and skill, and it will provide 

valuable experience, which is beyond the 

capacity of the completely foolproof aircraft. 

It is very likely with this idea in 

mind that the Mucha has been adopted by 

Polish clubs. 

In the circuit the Mucha is particularly 

easy to handle. The powerful airbrakes 


FEATURE 

are very light to operate, and as they permit 

the pilot to vary the gliding angle as 

desired between 1-in-27.8 and 1-in-4, the 

approach path can be regulated with 

absolute accuracy, and touch-down 

should be possible each time on a selected 

spot. 

An approach speed of 80km./hr. (43 

knots) was found satisfactory in still air, 

increasing to 95km./hr. (51 knots) during 

the last 150ft. (46m) if there is a 

strong wind producing turbulence, or a 

wind gradient near the ground. 

During the approach the excellent view 

from the pilot’s seat was particularly 

pleasant. One effect, however, is that 

during turns coming in, the attitude of 

the aircraft can appear to be much more 

nose down than it really is; that is the 

only initial impression which soon passes, 

but it is worth noting since pilots 

unaccustomed to the fine view, should 

watch their speeds on approach until they 

are no longer in danger of being deceived 

about the attitude of the aircraft. 

The actual touchdown is simple, and is 

best made more tail down than is customary 

on other sailplanes. The Mucha 

will then touch initially on its wheel, 

and within a few yards on to the forward 

skid as well, and pull up in a short space. 

The position of the landing wheel well 

aft of the c.g. confers similar advantages 

to the tricycle undercarriage in reducing 

the angle of attack immediately after 

touchdown, thus eliminating any tendency 

to balloon. 

Summary 

The Mucha created a most favorable 

impression in every respect. Its handling 

is delightful, and it has qualities as a 

trainer which it’s pilot likes. It is strongly, 

but simply built and is capable, 

according to the Polish specification, of 

all normal aerobatics, including loops, 

rolls, spins, and flick rolls; it is permitted 

to stress the aircraft in these maneuvers 

up to 6g the right way up, and 3g 

inverted. 

Finally, all this is accompanied by a 

degree of pilot comfort and quality that 

few other aircraft can better, at any price 

and certainly none at the £1,151 for 

which the Mucha is offered in the U.K. 

Air Pictorial’s thanks are due to the 

agents, Norco Engineering, who arranged 

this test, and to the members of the Polish 

Airforce Association Gliding Club, 

Top: a Mucha at the 32nd International VGC 

Rally at Gliwice 

Above: BGA5176 landing 

based at Lasham, who are owners of the 

actual aircraft flown. 

With kind permission of “Air Pictorial” 

November 1962. ❏ 

Hereʼs what the Manual for the SZD-22B has to say on the production history of the type 

The SZD-22B “MUCHA-STANDARD” performance sailplane is the last stage in the 

evolution of the “MUCHA” sailplane, the big-series versions of which - IS-2 “MUCHA-ter” 

and SZD-12 “MUCHA-100” - have allowed Polish pilots many spectacular record flights and 

diamonds, including flights of over 500km, and even of over 600 km. Spectacular success 

has also been gained by the prototype of the SZD-22, on which the pilot Adam Witek won 

the world championship in the “STANDARD” class during the 1958World Championship 

Flights in Leszno. 

The main outstanding features of the SZD-22B sailplanes are the following: good 

performance, correct and agreeable piloting properties, great strength allowing aerobatics, 

easy servicing, very careful cockpit finish, and accessible price. These qualities were the 

deciding factor for the decision of taking this type of sailplane into serial production. In 1959 

an experimental series of 15 sailplanes, designated as SZD-22A, was built in the 

“Szybowcowy Zakład Doświadczalny” (Experimental Sailplane Centre) - mainly for export. 

Since 1960 the sailplane, after some changes improving its operation properties, is built 

serially, under the designation SZD-22B, in the “Zakłady Sprzętu Lotnictwa Sportowego”, 

(Sports Flying Equipment works). 

The initial design of the SZD-22 “MUCHA-STANDARD” sailplane was headed by W. 

Nowakowski, M.Eng. R. Grzywacz headed the team responsible for bringing the type into 

production. The prototype was first flew in Bielsko on February the 10th, 1958, and the 

flying and the factory tests were carried out by A. Zientek. 

CERTIFICATE REGARDING CHECKING OP “OSTIV” REQUIREMENTS 

It is herewith certified that the type SZD-22B “Mucha-Standard” sailplane, Makers No 497, 

flown by the pilot Adam Zientek at a weight in flight of 330 kg, underwent on march the 3rd, 

1960, the following tests: 

1/ During vertical diving flight over a stretch of over 1000m with extended air brakes a 

checked indicated air speed /IAS/ of 240 km/h was achieved, corresponding to a calibrated 

air speed /CAS/ of 239 km/h. 

2/ During diving with maximum speed permissible for flight with retracted air brakes, 

amounting to 250 km/h of calibrated air speed /CAS/, the air brakes were fully extended 

within a time not exceeding 2 sec, and operated efficiently. 

3/ During diving flight with extended air brakes, at a speed of 230 km/h, the brakes could be 

retracted correctly within a time not exceeding 2 sec 


OBITUARIES 

JOHN SIMPSON 

1915-2007. 

His death was reported this year and one 

more of Britain’s links with pre-war 

gliding has gone forever. He was also the 

last living link with the old Cambridge 

University Gliding Club and became its 

first Silver C pilot and the first pilot to fly 

in wave in the UK, both in 1937. He 

came up to Emanuel College in October 

1934, which he did with modest distinction 

taking a second in Part 1 of the Tripos 

in 1935, and a 3rd in Part 11 in 1937. 

But this was a common route for school 

teaching, where other activities counted 

for so much and John was soon heavily 

involved in the Gliding Club, which was 

founded in the February of his first year. 

After a few ground slides and low hops at 

Dunstable, he flew with the CUGC at 

Caxton Gibbet in the Michaelmas Term of 

1935, and progressed to his “A” Certificate 

on the 3rd December. Next May found 

him as one of a party launching from near 

Haslingfield in the forlorn home that Barrington 

Hill might be soarable. In his second 

undergraduate year, John joined the 

club’s committee and, by his third year he 

had joined the club’s flying committee as 

an instructor. He stayed on at Emanuel 

after his BA Degree as a Student Teacher 

Exhibitioner, preparing to become a 

School Master. After which he started his 

chosen career at a school in Dorset. During 

these three years with the club, John 

made many memorable flights both from 

Cambridge and during National Competitions; 

one from Camp hill on 2nd completing 

his Silver C (International Number 

562. ). A week later, at a Camp on the 

Long Mynd, John made a truly historic 

discovery,… wave. On 8th September. 

1937, he was bungeed off in the CUGC’s 

Kirby KITE 1 to make the very first wave 

flight in the UK, rising to 8,500 ft, Also 

catching the wave was Captain R.S. Rattray 

in his CAMBIDGE 2 reaching 

7,900ft. John’s account does not relate 

who was launched off first. It should be 

related that John and John Furlong discovered 

some very strange lift flying a 

FALCON 3 at Dunstable in the lee of the 

hill in a SE Wind shortly before this. This 

must also have been wave. In the meantime, 

John continued his flying from 

Caxton and participated in the CUGC’s 

first expedition to Dorset. Here he gained 

his Silver C Height in a 20 mile out & 

return flight upwind from the Purbeck 

Hills. Back at Dunstable in July, he did 

his 5 hour Silver C duration flight on the 

hill in stormy conditions, which he 

described as “horrible”. During the next 

month, a CUGC team was at Camp Hill 

for the 1937 National Contest, in which 

he completed his Silver C (No. 18 on the 

British List, No. 578 on the International 

List), with a 78 mile flight to the East 

Coast near Flamborough Head. 1937 

ended in a new chapter in John’s gliding 

career; passenger carrying in a Falcon 3 

flying at Dunstable. 1938 saw him making 

expeditions to other clubs with the 

CUGC and the unsuccessful attempt to 

soar the Western edge of the slope which 

is today’s Bristol Club Site at Nymphsfield. 

Back at Dunstable, he bought the 

KITE 1, which he had obtained from 

Keith Lingford. During 1938, he competed 

in that year’s National Contest at 

Dunstable in that KITE 1. It was his 3rd 

National Contest. At the end of July he 

was at Sutton Bank sampling the latest 

Slingsby Sailplanes. i.e. the GULL 1 

“the best machine he had ever flown”, a 

KING KITE “Quite pleasant” and Philip 

Wills’s MINIMOA “rather like the FAL- 

John Simpson and John Hassle in Min 

CON 3”. He spent most of August 

instructing at Dunstable but, at the end 

of the Month he spent two days at Bern 

flying a GRUNAU BABY and a SPYR 

3. Altogether, in 1938 John flew from 

21 different sites, on 12 different types of 

glider and this increased his total flying 

time to 130 hours. New Year’s day in 

1939 saw him flying his KITE 1 for an 

hour over Dunstable and, in mid January, 

he became assistant Mathematics master 

at Clayesmore School in Dorset. He lost 

no time in introducing his school pupils 

to gliding and soon took delivery of the 

new one and only VIKING 2 side by side 

two seater. On the 7th of April 1940, 

although gliding had then become illegal 

for civilians, there was a gliding meeting 

at Wilmington in Sussex, which is 

rumoured to have been organized by Ann 

Welch under the shadow of one of the 

new and secret Chain home defence RDF 

(Radar) stations on Beachy Head. A 


OBITUARIES 

winch was brought out of storage from 

Redhill, by Brian Powell, who also flew 

Ann’s GRUNAU BABY in the event. 

Brian, who was present at our last year’s 

VGC National Event at Perham, 

retrieved with Ann Welch, Geoffrey 

Stephenson and his Blue GULL 1 from 

France in 1939. Also taking part at 

Wilmington were Philip Wills in his 

MINIMOA, Other ex. CUGC participants 

were Keith Turner in his RHOEN- 

BUSSARD and Ralph Slazenger. John 

flew not only his KITE 1 there but also 

had his first flight in the VIKING 2. His 

log book describes it as “wild flying to 

order”! He flew on seven separate days, 

including an hour’s soaring on the ridge 

above the Long Man of Wilmington two 

weeks later. Shortly afterwards, the 

VIKING 2 was requisitioned by the RAF 

(with MINIMOA, & VIKING 1s etc) for 

the Radar Trials at Worth Matravers, near 

Swanage, where it was flown by P.A. 

Wills and others. It is worth mentioning 

that those tests did not start in earnest 

before 22nd June, or they might have 

been confused with a flight in a KITE 

(Briggs’s) at Win Green on the 19th. It 

must now be mentioned that his 

VIKING 2 BGA 426, received its first 

BGA CofA in January It was broken up 

in flight by the military (by the young 

Wilkinson,who was killed over Arnhem, 

in 1944), on the 12/10/1940. Its two 

pilots escaped by parachute. It was a sad 

end for Britain’s first high performance 

two Seater, which was very promising. 

It was a tragedy for Roy SCOTT, its 

designer and builder. 

It was at about this time that John was 

preparing, perhaps inadequately, his Tribunal 

for assessment as a Conscientious 

Objector to military service. A man of 

strongly held principles, he was determined 

to make a stand, despite being 

advised that his occupation would probably 

exempt him from conscription. His 

first Tribunal rejected his arguments,but 

an appeal later in the year was successful, 

with the curious proviso that school 

teaching was not an option. He chose to 

serve in the Friends’ Ambulance Unit, 

Whilst waiting for a course in a training 

course with the F.A.U., he continued to 

teach at Clayesmore, but 

the call of the air still 

remained strong, and in 

August 1942 he felt able 

to assist in the training of 

Air Cadets during the 

school holidays. In the mean time, he 

had taken delivery of a PETREL BGA 

418 that had been flown during the 1939 

British National Contest at Camp Hill 

one flight is 

annotated “Cirquit”. 

Two Passengers”! 

John Simpson meets the Duke of Edinburgh at Lasham comps in the early ’60’s 

by Willy Watt, in which he enjoyed a 

first flight at Welburn during an ATC 

Camp. Most of the flying there was in a 

FALCON 111 two seater, although one 

flight is annotated “Cirquit”. Two Passengers”! 

Clearly some of the cadets were 

smaller than others. In September, he 

continued to teach, flying at Yeovil with 

a first hop in a Dagling (Zoegling) for 

the Director of the ATC. The provision 

of gliders at Yeovil was not as generous 

as at Welburn, comprising of 

DAGLINGS and a TOTTENHOE, but 

his beloved PETREL did however come 

too, in which he gave two demonstration 

flights at HMS Heron at Yeovilton. The 

New Year found him at Plymouth with 

two demonstrations in a DAGLING 

before finally signing off from the ATC 

with a flight in a VIKING 1 at Yeovil, 

shortly before he was called forward for 

training as a medical orderly, driving 

instructor and motor mechanic with the 

F.A.U. His experience with the F.A.U. 

is wonderfully described in his book 

“Letters from China. Quaker Relief Work 

in Bandit Country 1944-46”; for the 

most part a compendium of letters to his 

future wife Jean. They provide a fascinating 

insight, not only to his time with 

the F.A.U. but also to his 

character and approach to 

life. Of course, you can 

not keep a good man on 

the ground. and the book 

includes a photograph of 

him in a RHOENSPERBER after a 

“delayed descent from Dragon Mountain” 

near Chungking on the 9th of July 1945. 

It should be mentioned that China had 

been involved in a bloody war with 

Japan for many years but they were very 

glad to have had John with them at their 

Gliding Centre. 

After the war, in 1946, John had a 

short, and not very productive spell as 

CFI of the CUGC. But was reunited 

with his PETREL which he flew again at 

Rearsby during the Easter Meeting in 

April, which was Britain’s officially 

legal post war gliding meeting or contest. 

Back at Caxton with the CUGC in 

May, there seems to have been some sort 

of celebration and reunion. John’s Log 

Book on consecutive days describes 

flights in Stephenson’s BLUE GULL 

and Philip Wills’s WEIHE. Later in the 

summer, he was seen at the Long Mynd 

selling his PETREL to Espin Hardwick. 

At that time he made acquaintance with 

what was to become the workhorse of 

his two seat training career, the T. 21b. 

This was at Dunstable, before dashing 

off for a week in Switzerland, flying at 

Bern and Samedan. 1947 brought big 

changes to John’s gliding, the priorities 

being his marriage to Jean with him 

teaching to earn a living in post-war 

Britain. This is reflected in his Log Book 

but he did obtain on the new KITE 2s 

which he flew on two non-soaring days 

at the BGA’s National Contest in 1947 at 

Bramcote during June. He managed a few 

days at the Mynd, flying the PETREL 

and a couple of OLYMPIAS. September 

1947, and gliding became a low priority 

with only a few flights at Bristol, Redhill 

and Dunstable for the next two 

years. 1947 saw his move to Leighton 

Park School near Reading. It was not 


until 1950 that his pilgrimage to the 

Long Mynd was restored first at Easter 

and later in August. There he had another 

opportunity to fly the PETREL. By 

now, John had decided to settle down 

with the London Club at Dunstable, formalizing 

his position as an instructor 

with checks in the T.21 with Geoffrey 

Stephenson and Dan Smith. For the next 

few years, this was the focus of his gliding 

with occasional solo flying mainly 

in OLYMPIAS, with the odd GULL 4, 

SKY and PREFECT flights and regular 

trips to the Long Mynd, usually in the 

summer holidays. Lasham received a few 

visits later in 1951. Easter 1952, saw the 

first of regular instructional Camps at 

Dunstable for boys from Leighton Park 

School, with over 100 flights during a 

ten-day period. John returned to the competition 

scene in July 1955 with a team 

entry flying an OLYMPIA from Dunstable 

at Lasham, where he recorded his first 

cross country out-landing since the 1938 

National Contest at Dunstable. Later in 

the contest, he achieved his first real 

closed circuit task, taking over 5 hours 

to accomplish a 100 km triangle. Two 

years later, he made his last appearance in 

a National Competition, flying another 

Olympia at Lasham. 1956 saw another 

change; the Leighton Park school Easter 

Camp moved to Lasham, which 

remained the main base for the rest of his 

gliding, although he continued to fly and 

instruct from Dunstable from time to 

time, with regular summer visits to the 

Mynd, and helping out with course 

instruction at Firle in 1956, 57 and 58. 

During the 1950s, he did become 

involved flying the 1939 designed high 

performance two seated GULL 2. During 

the war, it did service with Air Cadet 

Units (under John Furlong) and finally 

became civilianised with a BGA C of A 

number 664 in April 1951. It revealed its 

high performance when Brenig James 

flew it on a National 100 km speed 

record. It was finally demolished at 

Lasham in 1957. Over he next 8 years, 

John accumulated another 3,000 launches, 

a very large majority of them 

instructing, mostly in T.21 s, including 

“MIN” which was built from a kit of 

parts by his pupils at Leighton Park. A 

project described in his book “Tackle 

Gliding this Way” published in 1961. 

They built the fuselage, fin, rudder and 

tail plane and fabric covered them. The 

wings arrived from Slingsbys without 

fabric, but they knew how to fabric cover 

these. “MIN” was unfortunately blown 

over but it was replaced by a T.49 “CAP- 

STAN” in 1963. This was named 

“MOOMIN”. In 1962 he reacquired a 

taste for cross country soaring as he participated 

in the Lasham Easter Rally, finishing 

the Rally with over 100 hours of 

solo flying and 10 cross countries, 

including a (100 miles?) flight to 

Dunkeswell in a SKYLARK 2. Early in 

1964, illness struck, which was to preclude 

him from any further solo or 

instructional flying. He was very 

depressed at the time, but he soon threw 

himself into a determined programme to 

explore the sea breeze front which reaches 

Lasham on average several times each 

year. Some of the research was done with 

simulations in the school’s labs, using 

tanks with water of different density. At 

other times it would be done by flying 

instrumented two-seat gliders and motor 

gliders in to real situations, supported by 

a network of ground stations strategically 

placed at schools between Lasham and 

the South coast. John himself flew on 

many of these flights, some of which 

were even coordinated with special radar 

observations from the Marconi Research 

station at Chelmsford. 

John received the Churchill Award for 

this work in May 1967: a photograph of 

the presentation at the Lasham Nationals 

is in the 1967 issue of S & G. John left 

Leighton Park School in 1970, moving 

first just across the road to the Department 

of Meteorology in Reading University 

where he continued work on the Sea 

Breeze with professor James Milford. In 

1976, he joined the Department of 

Applied Mathematics and Theoretical 

Physics at Cambridge, where he expanded 

his work on Sea Breezes to include 

gravity currents in general, being awarded 

his PhD in October 1981 on the basis 

of his published work. Over the next few 

years, he made many contacts with 

researches at home and abroad ; publishing 

first in 1987 Gravity currents in the 

environment and the laboratory, which 

includes many references to gliding. It 

was followed in 1994 with his comprehensive 

survey. Sea Breeze and Local 

Winds. A good deal of the latter is concerned 

with conditions in the United 

Kingdom, particularly to those of interest 

to glider pilots, but it is also interesting 

to see how widespread these 

effects are. The book is now even more 

accessible having been reissued in a soft 

cover in 2007. Although John’s active 

gliding career was so abruptly curtailed 

by illness over forty years ago, there will 

be many glider pilots still around who 

benefited directly from his patient 

instruction including at least one world 

champion. There will be others still to 

OBITUARIES 

come who will gain from reading his 

books. We can all draw inspiration from 

reading his books. More generally, we 

can all draw inspiration, and remember 

with gratitude, the efforts of his generation 

in laving the foundations for the 

freedoms we enjoy today. 

See the article on the the Viking 

Jean-Paul Robin 

Jean-Paul left us last December after a 

three months spell in hospital; I first 

met him in Vinon when he was working 

at the Glider Regional Workshop and then 

at various Vintage rallies. 

He will mostly be remembered for the 

superb restoration of the red Castel 25S 

in the early nineties and I believe he 

won, at the time, a best restoration prize 

for his effort. 

He came to see me two years ago to 

see if he could fly his Pou du Ciel from 

Aspres. He joined our club and started 

Above: Jean-Paul Robin (on the left) 

flying in the Falke and Bijave. Then, of 

course, the fate of the Castel was discussed 

and it was decided to restore it for 

the 2007 season. 

In France, the Castel 25S is the mythical 

glider flown in the film La Grande 

Vadrouille with DeFunes, Bourvil and 

Terry Thomas as the RAF pilot. At the 

end of the film, two C25S are used to fly 

from occupied France to the free zone 

with three people in each! The film is 


OBITUARIES 

Below: Jean-Paul Robin closes the canopy 

of a Castel 25S, the 

mythical glider flown in 

the film La Grande 

Vadrouille 

still in France a most popular feature 

with over 18 millions entries and countless 

television appearances. 

Based on this, we use the restored 

machine as our main publicity stunt last 

season with the press and local television 

chain and as a result, a lot of people just 

came to the airfield to see “Le planeur de 

la Grande Vadrouille” 

Jean-Paul last flew in September when 

we hosted a vintage week-end for the vintage 

members of Lyon Corbas. He was 

taken ill to hospital the following week 

and asked for a permission to come to the 

airfield to de-rig the Castel in November 

A party from the club was present at his 

funeral. 

Francis Humblet 

PIERO MORELLI 

We are sad to note that PIERO 

MORELLI, passed away on January 

2nd 2008 at the age of 83. The aviation 

and the soaring world will never forget 

him and his brother Alberto who also 

passed away 3 years ago. 

Vincenzo Pedrielli 

Roger Crouch 

remembers Dick Stratton 

RICHARD BRIAN (DICK) STRAT- 

TON. (1923-2007), who was for many 

years the BGA’ s Chief Technical Officer, 

started his remarkable aviation career as 

an RAF Flight engineer on flying boats, 

later becoming involved with the flight 

testing of the Saunders Roe Princess flying 

boat, the SR 53 rockets aircraft and P 

531 helicopter. He followed this up by 

becoming Chief engineer for CSE Aviation 

at Oxford Airport Kiddlington, 

and later still an aviation consultant. 

A Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical 

Society, he was also a Royal Aero Club 

Silver Medallist , awarded for his services 

to aviation. His long association with 

gliding began when he joined the 

ATC Gliding School at 

Christchurch in the early1950s, 

where he quickly became an 

instructor– an activity he continued 

well in to his seventies. After 

a short spell in the Isle of Wight 

gliding club, he began his long 

association with the RAFGSA 

joining their club at Andover. 

After the founding of the 

RAFGSA at Bicester. Dick quickly 

became one of its stalwarts, 

tug pilot, instructor, converter of 

the Chipmunk tugs to modern 

engines, and general gliding guru. 

The list is endless. Living next to the 

airfield as he did, seldom a day went past 

when he was not there, supporting and 

helping especially the young in their 

gliding and flying. He must have sent 

dozens of people solo over the years. 

Dick, who during his time as BGA 

CTO set up a glider,motor glider and tug 

maintenance system that we could be 

proud of ,had little time for petty officialdom. 

He was an engineer of the “if it ain’t 

broke, don’t fix it” brigade and the stories 

of his practical approach to engineering 

and flying are legendary. “I shall 

never forget the huge compass error on 

a Bicester RF-4 with the aid of a portable 

MiG Welding kit” says one person. Or, 

on another occasion, when discussing 

another modification to a glider , Dick 

said “use stiff nuts”. Not happy with that 

“ replied the engineer, “Dear boy” said 

Dick, “entire American aircraft are held 

together with stiff nuts. Why in God’s 

name do you want to start a rabbit warren?!” 

“OR again” “Rubbish, just get on 

with it and don’t muck about”, -this last 

bit of the sentence was always with his 

characteristic twitch of his shoulders. 

His last project was to oversee the 

rebuild of the Ulster GC’s Super Cub. A 

very fitting memorial to his engineering 

skills. 

It’s also thanks to him that many a 

PFA aircraft is flying in the UK and very 

often on MOGAS- the use of which he 

trailed in order to make it legal. There 

was not a Gliding Club in the UK that 

he did not visit, even after he gave up as 

CTO, always offering advise and encouragement 

wherever he went. It was largely 

due to his encouragement that clubs 

exchanged their often dangerous and inefficient 

winches and cables for modern and 

safer ones. 

On a personal al note, Dick gave me 

my first flight in a glider at glider at the 

age of nine, and the instructor on my abintitio 

course, a general gliding mentor 

and friend. I was immensely privileged to 

re-solo him after he regained his medical 

on his 80th birthday in the same type of 

glider as my first solo in a T.21. Just 

days before his death the showed me with 

glee evidence of his latest victory over 

the (Gatwick) “Kremlin” (his name for 

the C.A.A.) - a refund of the fee they had 

demanded for his engineering licence 

renewal. 

As a person, Dick was- to quote from 

one of his many admirers- “often blunt, 

and only rarely wrong – but he was also 

quietly thoughtful and , behind his gruff 

façade , a kind and gentle soul”. One 

Right: Dick Stratton 

Below: Saunders Roe 

Princess flying boat on 

which Dick was a flight 

engineer 

could fill a book about this remarkable 

man – suffice to say, Gliding, the Wind 

Rushers GC, and British Aviation will 

be the poorer for his passing. Dick, we 

will miss you. 

Roger Crouch. Reprinted from the 

December 2007- January 2008 

SAILPLANE & GLIDING. 

CW adds, Dick always came forward to 

greet him when he arrived at Bicester. He 

was often seen doing the most menial 

tasks such has retrieving winch cables 

and gliders and driving the winch etc, 

even during bad weather, or just being a 

very good club member of the old 

school. We need more like him to resist 

the “stuff and nonsense” (his phrase) of 

the various “Kremlins” in Europe and 

beyond. I was very honoured to have had 

him for a very warm friend for so many 

years. ❏ 


FEATURE 

Salamander Update 

from Janek Szladowski – Manchester, UK 

The attached photos show Mietek 

Smagacki with the replica SALA- 

MANDRA which he is helping construct 

in SZD Jezow. 

Mietek has long since retired but 

loves to pop in to the workshop now 

and then. He is one of the old guard 

craftsmen / constructors who cut their 

professional teeth on production lines in 

Jezow in 1960 – ties mainly constructing 

SZD Bocian. Not many of them are 

now left. 

Leszek Jankowski, from SZD Jezow, 

tells me that not much progress has 

been made with the Salamandra since I 

made this picture nearly two years ago. 

The full production capacity at Jezow 

now centres on deliveries of PW-6 orders 

from as far apart as Australia and USA. 

The present younger workforce specialise 

in glass-fibre construction and are 

unwilling to learn the old “wood and 

fabric” techniques. 

The undertaking of the restoration 

work on older gliders requires therefore 

patience and reliance on only a few 

craftsmen who can be diverted to this 

demanding work. There is therefore a 

short queue of gliders awaiting restoration 

work including the Dutch Minimoa, 

AV22 and, of course Salamandra, 

which await completion. ❏ 


FEATURE 

Viking reflections 

From the SAILPLANE, October 1939. By P.A.Wills. 

SUNDAY, August the 27th 1939: The 

last weekend of Peace.And yet some 

people at Dunstable managed to get their 

minds off Hitler very satisfactorily. For 

this was the day chosen by the Viking 

two seater to leave the egg. In appearance 

this machine is extremely like the single 

seater (Viking 1); in performance, however, 

there is one striking difference. 

After various cautious efforts to get her 

1,100 lbs off the ground we did a hefty 

ground loop with a winch-bungee 

launch. The controls seemed to function 

very well, so next we took her to the top 

of the hill. The wind was exactly along 

the hill from the S.S.W. We did various 

descents with growing confidence, and 

after tea, we found that the wind had gone 

round on to the hill. With a reassuring 

self confidence, the designer and manufacturer 

(Roy Scott) strapped himself 

into the seat beside me and we were 

launched. The wind was light and oblique 

and two GRUNAUS disporting themselves 

in the lift, varying from 100 to 

300 ft, made manoeuvring so large and 

novel a craft a full time job, which gave 

rather less time for analysis of her handling. 

Nevertheless this did give one a 

chance to estimate her relative performance 

against them. 

Flying speed seems to be 40-42 mph; 

the stall around 37 mph. These figures 

are the same as for the MINIMOA, and 

surprisingly higher than for the VIKING 

1. Personally, providing adequate spoilers 

make landing easy, I consider these 

speeds about right for a high-performance 

machine built for cross country 

work. The sinking speed was hard to 

judge on a flight lasting a quarter of an 

hour in such restricted conditions; however 

there seems to be no doubt that it is 

better than a GRUNAU. If we assume 

therefore that it is around 2 ½ ft per second 

at 49 mph, we get a gliding angle of 

1 in 24. This is an exceptionally good 

figure and one which offers first class 

cross country possibilities. The best 

gliding angle is likely to be at a rather 

higher speed than that of the normal flying 

speed. The controls seemed good, 

light, but firm in action. The machine 

was slightly nose heavy, though I understand 

that the C of G came out right so 

I expect that this nose heaviness can be 

cured by slightly less incidence on the 

tail plane. The spoilers were adequate; in 

fact I found a spot landing after this first 

flight required no excessive effort or 

skill. The landing wheel is, of course 

essential on so large a machine, both for 

handling on the ground and for take off. 

On this flight, the wheel brake was not 

functioning; this no doubt has since been 

rectified. The ingenuity of the VIKING 

fittings is now well known and the task 

of rigging and derigging this machine is 

wonderfully quick and simple in spite of 

her size and weight. 

If only Hitler had given us another 

week, the British height and distance 

records (for two-seaters CW) were in her 

pocket. This crime is yet another to be 

added to the long list to the long list now 

under consideration. 

Editorial Note. The VIKING 2 was 

fully described with General Arrangement 

drawings, in the SAILPLANE for 

February 1939 on Page 25. 

The wing span is 61ft (18,6m.). Wing 

Area is 235sq. ft. ( 21.83sq. m.). Empty 

Weight is 510 lbs. ( 231.34 kgs). Flying 

Weight is :- 412.77 kgs. 910 lbs. Wing 

Loading is :- 18.55 kg/ sq. m. (3.80 

lbs/sq. ft). Seating is side by side, and 

overcrowding is avoided by making 

room for the off side arms of the occupants 

in the wing roots (GOEVIER fashion?) 

Special features are that all working 

joints in the control system are fitted 

with ball races, both sets of rudder pedals 

adjust separately without disconnecting 

the control wires, and earth can be 

scooped up in the detachable nose to balance 

the machine when flown as a single 

seater. 

Even before the test flights, three 

machines of the type had been provisionally 

ordered, though the orders have 

had to be provisionally cancelled, as 

unfortunately under present conditions 

none of these prospective customers is in 

a position to do much flying. 

CW adds…. this was Britain’s first 

designed and flown high performance 2 

seater. It received its first BGA CofA in 

January 1940. After being bought by the 

late John Simpson to fly his schoolboys, 

it was requisitioned by the military 

on the instigation of Wing Cdr. Mungo 

Buxton to take part in the early Radar 

Trials on the South Coast at Worth 

Matravers, together with Minimoa, two 

VIKING 1s and some KITE 1s in 

June/July 1940. From its first test 

flights on the 27th August 1939, it lasted 

only until the 12th October 1940, 

when it was broken up through aileron 

flutter by the young Wilkinson, a prewar 

glider pilot, at Mobberley. Both 

pilots escaped by parachute. This has 

been often written that these were the 

first parachute descents from a glider… 

but this is not true. This was a sad end 

for Britain’s first high performance 2 

seater sailplane. The young Wilkinson 

was sadly killed over Arnhem in 1944. 

It was particularly sad for Roy Scott 

who had designed and built it. He is 

believed to be still alive and well at his 

South Coast address. 

Britain’s second high performance 2 

seater was the Slingsby GULL 2. It survived 

the war in an ATC (Air Cadets) 

Left: Viking II at Clayesmore School 


FEATURE 

Unit being guarded by John Furlong, an 

ATC instructor. It received its first BGA 

CofA No. 664 in April 1951 for civilian 

use. It soon revealed a very good performance 

being flown by Brenig James 

on a 100 km speed dash. It also took part 

in National Contests. It was severely 

broken during a severe Ground Loop at 

Lasham prior to its CofA expiry date in 

April 1959. It first flew in April 1940 

but was first designed in the Autumn of 

1938 but construction was delayed due to 

the commencement of the war. 

CW. 

Above: Viking designer Roy Scott 

Right: Viking I C/n. 114 BGA416 

FATES OF THE FOUR VIKING 1s 

C/n. 111. Sold to Argentina pre war by Philip Cooper. 

C/n. 112 BGA 415.Impressed.Struck off Charge 1942. 

C/n. 114. BGA 416. G-ALRD. Sold to Holland airworthy in 2004. 

C/n.119 BGA 425, Impressed for war service in The A.T.C. 

and was sent to the S.W. Area Gliding School. 

Withdrawn from use in 1942

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