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tors through the radio in his ship and the public address system on the ground.

Usually a good pilot is also a good local weather observer but when it comes to the cross-country flights such as characterize the Soaring Contests then the meteorologists experts are need. It is through their help that records of duration and distance are possible, some of the more notable flights from Harris Hill in the past month having been made on information from up-state weather stations.

The United States Weather Bureau, in meeting the requirements of commercial aviation, has developed the world's best system of keeping in touch with the weather. Hourly reports from key places along all the airways, 6-hourly reports from strategic off-airways points, together with quantitative information about the air aloft enables the Weather Bureau's experts to analyze conditions and predict their changes with uncanny accuracy.

For the first time in the ten years that Elmira had sponsored the National Soaring Contests, in 1939 an air-way forecaster was assigned to them by the Weather Bureau. B. L. Wiggin, Chief Forecaster at LaGuardia Field, arrived early, observed late, and lectured continuously on the desirability of taking advantage of Mother Nature's generous moods. Then he did again in 1940 and in 1941 and Harris Hill will be glad to welcome him again if he is assigned this year.

At the Tenth Annual Contest he encouraged the first American flights within cumulus clouds,a procedure which has made the new records possible and which has opened up yet another chapter even more thrilling than any that have gone before, one that challenges ship designers, instrument designers, and the pilots themselves, if the most is to be made of this newly realized and greatest source of sailplane energy.

Only ships stressed to meet very strong vertical currents, ships with instruments which permit of blind flying. piloted by men who know the art of blind flying, these and no others receive the blessing of the meteorologist when it comes to flying  into incipient cumulo-nimbus clouds-proper name for a thunder cloud. All others are cautioned to keep away, for within such clouds are rising air currents of a velocity as high as fifty miles per hour. Quite often turbulence is also encouraged although for the most part it is only in the full grown thundercloud where the vertical velocities exceed fifty miles per hour that the turbulence is severe.

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Necessary companion to a successful Soaring Meet is a good and convenient airport. Harris Hill is fortunate to have such adjunct in the form of the Chemung County Airport, located in the valley almost directly 
below the soaring site, For its size, this is one of the best airports in the country and its runways are able to handle all but the very largest types of planes. It is presently serves by Empire Airlines and PCA and American Airlines is soon to commence service at this port. Here the visitor will find room to hangar his plane, have it gassed and serviced, and inn general find it convenient to fly to the National Soaring Contest. The field has also served in the past as a landing spot for sailplanes unable to make it back to the Hill when air currents have failed. While the Hill itself is able to land smaller power craft, except for the tow planes of officials which must necessarily come in there, power planes are not encouraged to land there and the excellent appointments and nearness of the Chemung County Airport make crowding of the Hill by power craft completely unnecessary. 

Soaring at Elmira started with the casual observation of the terrain by an internationally famous soaring enthusiast, Dr Klemperer, who believed that South Mountain was a practical site for for slope soaring, He arranged for Jack O'Meara to come to Elmira and try it out and in 1930, he proved the wisdom of Dr. Klempererr's observation. As a result of the Klemperer-O'Meara collaboration, the National Glider Association decided to hold the first National Soaring Contest in Chemung County and South Mountain, with the now abandoned Caton Avenue Airport, was chosen as the base of operations. This condition continued during the National COntest of 1931 and it was not until 1934 when Warren Eaton, Earl Southee, "Bud" Iszard and others combined to obtain leases on the land for a new launching site - what is now known as "Harris Hill". A grant from the Chemung County Board of Supervisors made possible the opening of a road to the site and the clearing of the land. From this point on, the story of "Harris Hill" has been one of continued cooperation, progress, and improvement as, year after year, the National Soaring Contests have returned to Elmira. 

In a brief span of sixteen years, with time out for war, soaring in Elmira has developed from the sport of a few enthusiasts to an increasingly scientific avocation of more and more people. The facilities of Harris Hill have contributed much to the development of soaring, not only in the vicinity of Elmira, but in the whole United States.