AERIAL SPORTS

AERIAL SPORTS
▪ 1994

      The realization of an 11-year-old girl's transcontinental flying dream and two more frustrating setbacks in the round-the-world hopes of a balloonist marked the year 1993 for better and worse in aerial sports. Victoria Van Meter of Meadville, Pa., became the youngest pilot ever to fly across the United States east to west and the youngest female ever to fly across the continent when she piloted a single-engine Cessna 172 from Augusta, Maine, to San Diego, Calif. Her flight, lasting from September 20 to 23 with four refueling stops, took her more than 4,640 km (1 km = 0.62 mi) through good but occasionally turbulent weather. "I got sick a little," she said. She was accompanied by her flight instructor, Bob Baumgartner, but did all the flying and navigating herself. The east-west crossing is the most difficult because it is against prevailing head winds.

      Larry Newman, who had crossed both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans by balloon, had plans for a 35,200-km round-the-world helium balloon flight in 1993, starting at Reno, Nev., but was frustrated by failed launch attempts in January and again in November. The "Earthwinds Hilton" was a two-balloon craft consisting of a helium-filled top balloon and a compressed-air-filled bottom balloon, which acted as ballast; the hourglass-shaped craft had a height of 90 m (300 ft). On January 12 it was blown 16 km backward off course to the California-Nevada border, brushed the top of a mountain, and crash-landed in a snow-filled valley. On November 6 two members of Newman's inspection crew were preparing another launch from Reno when anchor bolts broke and the craft began ascending prematurely, compelling the two men to rip open the craft's enormous helium balloon to prevent a takeoff.

      At the 11th world hot-air-balloon championships at Larochette, Luxembourg, August 12-22, U.S. competitors swept the first four places: Alan Blount, 15,414 points; Owen Keown, 15,188 points; Joe Heartsill, 14,812 points; and David Levin, 14,622 points.

      William Bussey of the U.S. set a Class AX-8 hot-air-balloon world distance record of 1,215.9 km and a world duration record of 29 hr 14 sec with a flight in a Colt 105A from Amarillo, Texas, to Milbank, S.D., on January 25. On January 13, Jetta Schantz of the U.S. achieved a women's AX-7 world distance record of 468.9 km, flying her Raven S55A from Tulsa, Okla., to Gillett, Ariz.

      Despite rain on opening day and threatening skies thereafter, the 23rd world gliding championships were held June 13-26 at Borlange, Sweden. In the standard-class competition, Andrew Davis of the U.K. was first with 7,285 points, followed by Eric Borgmann of The Netherlands with 7,059 and Poland's Tomasz Rubaj with 7,002. Gilbert Gerbaud and Eric Napoleon of France tied for first in the 15-m class contest with 8,220 points. Just behind in third was Wolfgang Janowitsch of Austria with 8,216 points. Janusz Centka of Poland won the open-class event with 9,897 points, beating out Sweden's Goran Ax with 9,525 and the U.K.'s Brian Spreckley with 9,391.

      A free distance (using up to three turning points) world record for single-place gliders of 1,353 km was set by Raymond Linskey of New Zealand on January 12, flying a Nimbus 2B from Omarama Airfield to Alesandra Airfield in his country. On May 6, Hans Werner Grosse of Germany, flying with his wife, Karin, set world records for multiplace motorglider distance and distance-to-a-goal with a 1,078-km flight from Lübeck, Germany, to Rennes, France, in a Schleicher Ash 25 E.

      Ingrid Koehler of Germany, in a Ventus CM, set women's distance and distance-to-a-goal single-place motorglider world records on June 14 with a 540-km flight from Tonopah, Nev., to Burley, Idaho. Austria's Karl Rabeder, in a DG-400, set single-seater motorglider straight-line distance and distance-to-a-goal world records with a 1,040-km flight from Omarama, N.Z., to Araroa Airfield, N.Z., on January 25.

      From January 4 to 7 at Hendrik Verwoerd Dam, in South Africa, Germany's Klaus Holighaus flew a Nimbus 4M to set a world single-place motorglider triangular course distance record of 1,400 km. A world paragliding record for distance over a triangular course was achieved on May 17 at Mautstelle Loserstrasse, Austria, by that country's Christian Heinrich in a Nova Sphinx. He flew 90 km.

      At the increasingly popular Oshkosh (Wis.) Experimental Aircraft Association show, held July 29-August 4, Jon Sharp set a new 3-km straight-line world speed record of 446.8 km/h (277.7 mph) in his "Nemesis" International Formula 1 air racer. More than 800,000 persons and 12,000 aircraft were present at the show.

      In parachuting, the 10th world formation sky diving championships were held October 23-31 at Eloy, Ariz. In the eight-way competition, the U.S. was first with 169 points, France second with 168, and Russia third with 133. In the four-way contest, France won first with 190 points, the U.S. second with 182, and Denmark third with 169.

      (MICHAEL D. KILIAN)

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Universalium. 2010.

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