Return To Kitty Hawk - A Personal Experience
(continued from page 7)

The final 25 miles were very interesting. A high overcast and no obvious thermal markers. So now that I had caught them up taking advantage of thermals marked by George Moffat/ Mike Bird and Doug Jacobs seemed to me to make perfect sense. The final glide ( of the whole RTKH event as it turned out ) was to say the least, very interesting. There had been no one with LOCAL KNOWLEDGE to share the fact that the airport we were all final gliding to was hidden behind a range of hills and out of view. Only as our altitude was getting desperately little did a small portion of runway finally show in a gap between the hills . Some pilots I know had to fly through that gap as the hills were too high for them to make it over the top. My strategy to start late worked and for the second day in a row I members John or Dick.

At Kitty Hawk the grand finale of the event was the ceremonial arrival of the sailplanes. Each glider was towed aloft and flew in over the inland water way to Kill Devil field, to that very "hallowed" ground where the Wright brothers had made their first powered flights 100 years ago . This area used to be beach at that time, but is now grassed over ( with small prickly pears growing everywhere) and has never been landed on by an aircraft in recent memory. Due to some very persuasive talk by the organizers including Ray Galloway, an agreement was reached to allow the RTKH sailplane fleet to land on that area. This was no doubt the highlight of the trip for most, especially as the opportunity to repeat a landing there may never occur again. The camaraderie among participants was superb with pilots and crews from at least eight different countries around the world. Well done to the organizers and the SSA for organizing this historic event. It will be very well remembered by every one of the 45 participants for as long as they live.

- Ron Clarke, ZA

The start at Crystalaire.

En route to Las Cruces.

Local advice from Dick Johnson in Dallas.

The pilot's briefing in Indianapolis.

Flying over Kitty Hawk.

The arrival in Kitty Hawk - July 4.