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It was in the late 1950s that Charles
Fauvel brought his little tail-less glider to Lasham to try to popularise
the design in the UK.
The BGA No. 1 test group was based at Lasham and it was largely their
responsibility to test and approve new types coming into the country.
The group consisted of Lorne Welsh, Frank Irving and Hugh Kendall, all
very experienced in both gliding and test flying matters. At that time
I was a hanger-on and not a member of the test group, being Chief Instructor
and present on the airfield every day and, of course, I was keen to get
a go in this interesting little machine.
As the wing is one piece and permanently built on to the short fuselage,
the trailer held the glider with one wing up over the car and the fuselage
and other wingtip on the short trailer. There was, I remember, some doubt
about the legality of the set up because the length of the glider mounted
across the trailer was more than the normal legal width allowed at that
time, so that it constituted a "wide" load. This was after folding the
rudders at right angles and removing the nose cone to reduce the width
to the minimum.
I seem to remember that Lorne and Frank flew first and there was very
little to criticise about the handling apart from the landing characteristics.
It seemed to be quite easy to bounce on the landing and this appeared
to be because of the shape of the landing skid. Later models changed this
from a curve to a flat and eventually to a nose and main wheel spaced
well apart.
Fairly sharply tapered outer wing portions
The wing plan of the Fauvel is a parallel chord centre-section with fairly
sharply tapered outer wing portions. The twin fins and rudders are mounted
at each end of the centre-section with a release hook just below each
leading edge at the same point. The launching was by aerotow using a special
bridle with a vee of rope and rings at each end.
It all looked delightfully simple to build and very lightweight and a
possible machine for homebuilders.
I well remember that it was a poor day with very little hope of any
usable lift, but this was not important as the object was not to soar,
but just to fly and evaluate it.
With such experienced pilots, it was very unexpected to see several
bouncy landings. All went well until one of the pilots happened to balloon
up a few feet during the hold off on landing. We were all rather surprised
when the correction for this went badly wrong and resulted in a heavy
landing and damage to the skid and, if I remember rightly, a frame under
the seat. We were all ra |
