Greetings, I apologise for sending a 77kb file to the list; I've no intention of making a habit of this, but some might find this interesting after other recent contributions on the topic and following Cathy's excellent wing camera photos last weekend. The attached photo is a scanned section of a grab shot I took at Waikerie during the 1974 World Comps. The aircraft is a 22 metre Kestrel 604, one of two flown at that event. The pilot is Bert Zegels of Belgium who is demonstrating here some considerable initiative in circuit joining technique circuit just after he had crossed the finish line. It's hard to calculate just how much the tips have risen above the wing root area which can be seen as the white flare just behind Bert's shoulder. As I recall, the 604 was a larger aircraft in all respects than the more common garden variety seen in a few isolated spots here in Australia in the 17 metre and 19 metre variations, so scaling in terms of the Kestrels we see today may be deceptive. The original picture was taken with a Pentax SV using a 300mm Tamron lens and Kodak Tri-X film. I was still some distance from the action at the time, and the final photo used only a small part of the actual negative area- hence the grain and dust specks. Sorry it's only in monochrome; high speed colour emulsions weren't quite state of the art in those times. In these days when it is quite common for us at Balaklava to see the ASH25 on winch launch, generous wing flexing has become somewhat un-remarkable. However in the Summer of 1974 when the largest aircraft many of us had seen up to that time was Martin Simon's Kestrel 17 (and we thought that huge), the appearance at Wakerie of 22 metre aircraft, and their operation under circumstances seen in the picture left us in absolute amazement and awe. It was probably the most significant event in the history of gliding in Australia, and those of us privileged to be there will never forget it. Regards, Terry (Chief Film Developer 1974 WGC)
