The Waterbury Democrat. [volume] (Waterbury, Conn.) 1917-1946, 1943-07-09
FIRST TRANSATLANTIC GLIDER FLIGHT
Skeptcs Offered 5to1 Against SuccessAnd Got No Takers
Crew Even Welcomed Sight Of lcebergs On Stormy Crossing;
Ships Unanswered Constantly To Avoid Slack In Tow Line
BY SQUADRON LEADER
RICHARD G. SEYS
"rst&o- Zoe NEA carv,ico

London, July 9 One of the
things that gave us the greatest
satisfaction about our glider cross
ing of the Atlantic is that the crit
les have been COMPOUNDED. Few
people had much faith in glider
flying. These were SO few, indeed,
that bets of 5-to-1 were being offer
ed against successful flight-bets
which none of us took.
We were doing routine job
that had been we'll planned and
which went according to plan.
But that doesn't mean that we
had no troubles.
When we took off from Mon
treal in bright sunshine, we were
carrying such heavy load I
thought the tow plane never
would get off at all. But Bill
Longhurst, tug captain, dragged
her off the ground just as his
plane came to the end of the run
way.
The early part of the climb
was agonizingly slow. AS we passed
over the base at about 1000 feet.
we could see people still standing on
the tarmac expecting us to come
back and land any minute. From
1000 to 5000 feet, it was slow but
smooth going. Then, after three
hours of flying, clouds began to pile
up in front. We climbed for an
hour. At 1900 it was obvious we'd
have to climb to $4,000 to get over
the top. But for several reasons, we
were unable to do this at the time,
so after a short radio conference
with the tow plane pilot it was de-
cided to. take advantage of gap in
the clouds and try to get under
meath or through.
The turbulence was shocking. The
glider was thrown about all over
the sky. The tug made some pretty
dirty lurches, too. I had taken over
the controls in anticipation of this
bad weather before we began to go
down through the clouds, and for
the next three hours we took a ter
rifle beating.
We passed through three belts
of thunderstorms, with snow and
ice SO thick at times I lost sight
of the toWplane and had only so
to 100 feet of tow rope before me
by which to judge it's position rel
ative to the tug. If I allowed the
glider to get too low, the tow
plane would have been pulled into a
climb steep enough to stall it. Had
this happened, 1 would have had no
alternative but to cut loose and
make a forced landing, because a
dive resulting from a stall by a tug
probably would have pulled the
wings off the glider through exceed
ing its designed maximum speed.
We got through, however, and
made the first stage-to an east
coast field with smooth land
ing only about 20 minutes late.
I might say we we're dead tired,
and after sleeping for five hours
my shoulders and legs seemed to
be a mass of aches from fighting
the rough weather we'd gone
through.
An Atlantic glider crossing never
has been done before and although
we had made many experiments,
the sensations were new to me. To
be candid, 1 was more than some
what frightened at the prospect of
the tremendous haul before us. This
was soon banished by the thrill of
getting away according to plan.
The takeoff again was smooth
but slow. We had an hour and
a half of rough weather flying
under clouds before we were able