Evening star., 1934-09-30

clouds, and then to climb into the
mountain up-currentS and trusting to
skill and chance to find ascending cur
rents which will carry them 3 miles
high. Shooting for such records Is
risky, because the strong up-currents
which continue on up into the cold,
thin upper air usually are found only
when the sky is very turbulent, as 1t
is before and during thunderstorms.
In fact, Americas soaring pilots
now assembled at Big Meadows are
preparing to undertake type of fly
ing hitherto strange to them in their
effort to restore American supremacy
in this colorful, exacting sport. They
are going out deliberately into the
most dangerous, violent weather the
mountains can brew in their frail,
motorless craft. They are going to
dare the raging fronts" OF thunder
storms, as the Germans are learning
to do, to gain the mighty, sustained
up-currents necessary to the new
records.
Storms to Aid Take-off.
On the tops of the mountains, above
rough, dangerous, forbidding country
which the airplane pilot avoids when
ever possible. they are going to wait
deliberately for the coming of great
thunderstorms, which power-plane pi-
lots also fly miles out of their way to
escape.
Then, as the black clouds boil and
heave and the first wild gusts OF the
storm sweep up the forested buttresSes
of the mountains, they will be launched
of into the dangers of mountains and
storm. Deliberately they will skirt
the front of the storm, seeking to keep
on the edges of the tremendously vio-
lent up-currents which distinguish the
true thunderstorm and at the same
time struggling to keep clear Of the
terribly destructive, twisting winds
only a few hundred feet behind the
front" In which their light craft al
most certainly would be torn to pieces.
These soaring planes are the most
delicate-appearing of all the air craft.
With a span of 81 feet from wing-tip
to wing-tip, they will weigh only a
little more than 800 pounds. So light
ly are they constructed that their
wings flex and play in the varying
currents This EghtneSS is essential
to their success. They are held up
only by the movements of air and
few pounds makes a vital difference
in performance.
Find Up Currents Strange.
The up currents in which Eaton and
,Ia[ oh 1icr
Thursday evening were something
strange to both of them. They were
found not before, but just behind
sharp rain squall which drove across
the mountains and was followed by
the first good flying wind in week.
Il never experienced currents like
them" Eaton said. There was blue
sky above, after the rain, and they
were not the normal storm up cur
rents Nor does it seem possible they
were the ordinary mountain currents.
At 10000 feet above sea level we still
were being carried up at a speed of
10 feet per second when impending
darkness brought us down"
AS Eaton and Berringer flew, in the
absolute silence of soaring flight. they
were able to talk back and forth from
glider to glider and those on the
mountain top below occasionally could
hear their voices, through more than
mile of the crisp mountain air.
Could Have Reached d. C.
"They could have flown into Wash
ington,' said Earl Southee, one Of
Americas few "pre-war" pilots, who
now is general manager Of the Soar
ing Society They had a westerly
wind of about so miles per hour and
their soarers have normal cruising
speed of better than 35 miles per
hour at the normal gliding angle.
From 10000 feet they could have just
coasted downhill into Washington, IS
miles away"
The other major record for which
the American pilot will strive is dura-
ton. The existing world record is
SO hours The American record, set
by young Army pilot in a soarer
above one of Hawaii's extinct volcanic
cones. is 81 hours.
Although the weather has been
against them during the past week,