Viewing page 6 of 15

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

-5- 

and at higher altitudes greater velocities were encountered but during the last hour of the flights there was hardly enough breeze to keep them aloft. Wallace Franklin was aloft during a part of this final period and the three ships fought gallantly to stay in the air with clearance enough for Stickler to return to the take-off points. Time after time, it seemed that they would fail and both land in the fields below, disqualified. the less experienced Stickler made every effort to properly utilize the flying qualities of his large-wing Franklin utility, the same ship flown by Backus in the 1930 contest and succeeded admirably. The veteran Hastings also fought it out to the end, but with the advantage under F.A.I. rules of being permitted to land on the airport. This gave him an obvious advantage of several minutes and has caused wide-spread criticism of the F.A.I. airplane tow duration rule when compared with the shock-cord rule. Stickler's landing made his flight much more difficult to end in a manner permitting qualification but no blame can acrue [[accrue]] to Hasting for desiring to exercise his rights under the rules. First place in duration was awarded to Hasting for his effort and second to Stickler with the honors almost evenly divided as the hot arguments afterwards bore witness. Certainly the battle aroused more interest than any other event during the contest. The question of whether one or the other or oither [[either]] is entitled to a new official American duration record has been referred to the Contest Committee of the N. A. A. Both pilots surpassed the former record of O'Meara by a sufficient margin to establish a new record. Stickler landed before Hastings and claims the record that by so doing he established a new record and that Hastings landed slightly later did not beat him by the required five minutes. This delicate question will be settled and announced by the Contest Committee of the N. A. A. after careful study of the entire question.

Separate categories for duration for airplane tow and shock-cord will probably be requested for the F.A.I. as a result of this contest. The alternative would be an adjustment of the duration rule for airplane towing. The problem centers of course in the physical impossibility of a glider actually landing back at its "take-off" off in airplane towing; the "take-off" point in this case being the point of release from the plane, as indicated by a barograph in the plane and the glider.

Hastings received $200 and Stickler $75 from the Wright Aeronautical Corp. for providing these wonderful flights and interesting discussion.

Third place in duration went to Franklin K. Iszard of Elmira, in a Franklin utility, with a flight of 6 hours and 3 minutes. Iszard did some splendid flying in the contest and will in all probability be an important figure in 1932.

Total Results in Event #1. (Duration)

Qualified flights only: 

Albert Hastings  7 hrs. 30 min.
Bud Stickler     7 hrs. 28 min. 5 sec.
Bud Iszard       6 hrs. 3 min.
A.B. Schultz     5 hrs. 5 min.
Warren Eaton     4 hrs. 50 min.
W.H. Bowlus      4 hrs. 25 min.
Robert Eaton     3 hrs. 57 min.