A Tale of Two Flights

 Wednesday 21st Milk Hill

Forecast was for showers and was spot on but they seemed to miss us for most of the day,  Plenty of short hops for the pgs before a gagle slowly grinded its way downwind having take on off on the Wbite horse ridge, whilst everyone one in the milk bowl (myself included) watched from the ground.

Eventually the wind picked up and got too much for the PGS which meant it was time for me to fly. Bowl was definitely soarable and with 300' to play with I jump over the spur to the whitehorse ridge,  Here I slowly make my way to 800' in improving lift until it statrts to rain.

Given that my objective for today was to check ut the latest set of changes to the harnes i decided to take the cautous option of a quick top landing whilst theres a good breeze and before the next heavier shower arrives.  Probably the right one as Ive just carried to the field access when the shower hits.  Once its gone through I decide to do another change to the backplate slider line as i'm having to tip toe the boot to keep in prone.   Once derigged and loaded the sky looks prefect but the wind has dropped and the pgs in the bowl are only 50 to 100' tops.  Infuriatingly the sky looked even better at 5pm in Andover with cloud streets from horizon to horizon.

Thursday 22nd Westbury

So forecast slightly better with only scattered showers after 1pm and increasing wind going more westerly later.  The good news is the showers didnt show but neither did the wind until late afternoon.  Nev and a gaggle of pgs managed a climbout and disappeared upwind but even Nev admitted it was touch and go for awhile.  

Fourtunately the wind did pick up but the air was still active and the 4 remaining hang gliders flew,  I seemed to find the best of a core that everyone was marking and proceeded to follow it back until the inevitable range boundary got in the way,  Still 3300 ASL and plenty clouds to the north.  After a while of floating around joined Alan in a climb over the quarry to the west where we then went a couple of clouds further west close to chapmanslade at cloudbase of 4700'.  Alan went of to inspect Trowbridge whilst i played with whatever wisps were still around. Nev had already landed after his trip to Bath and back. Alan beat me into the top landing whilst I stooged around getting low enough to land.

The lesson from this one is that now I can get my head down I can no longer read my instruments whilst on glide,  Time to dig out the instrument pod.  Its also possible that my somewhat diminished form is a bit too small for a harness built for my prior self.

 

Dales BOS Task 2 Tuesday 13th

It's Dodd fell again and this time it's too windy until 4pm when the deferred window opens for another race to anywhere. This time the goal is 40km.

For me a very frustrating 2 hours with broken lift which always seemed to fall apart as soon as you went over the top of the hill.

Tim King flies a blinder, leaving the hill at 300 feet and ridge soaring for the first 20km before thermalling to Kendal to win the day.

The Tuesday night meal and party was a huge blast, not only did we celebrate Trevor Birkbecks 80th birthday but we also got to see old friends in the form Derek Evans and Bob Bailey both of whom I first met at the tender age of 16.

Wednesday is blown out so it's prize giving time. 

Class 5 results. 1st Nick, 2nd Myself and 3rd Nigel photo courtesy of Katy Tracey.

Bos1 Task1 Dodds fell 60k to anywhere

Back to Dodds fell today after a not so brief carry up to the very top of Semer water yesterday.  Despite a task being set nobody managed to get far enough to activate the task before the predicted CuNimb over Hawes puts an abrupt end to the day.

Semerwater Take off Sunday courtesy of Katy Tracey

So Monday on Dodd fell and the wind turned out to be slightly stronger than predicted but the thermals did start and the first couple of gaggles leave Dodd en route to somewhere near the coast.

Dodd fell Takeoff Monday courtesy of Katy Tracey

Having stooged around getting slightly higher I finally hook up with a gaggle on the south end of the ridge over the high ground.  Approaching 4000' asl we are definitely leaving with this lift.  

The next cloud downwind isn't working but when we fly over the next ridge there is lift around although it soon dwindles. However the lower gliders in the valley have a good climb below us so we head back into wind to pick up their climb. 

A couple leave on glide over the high ground to the right of the valley but I get a line of lift to the south side where Nigel Bray and my self start climbing again.

Spotting the early leavers climbing on the far side of the next valley we head on and rejoin the gaggle.  There's lift under some broken cloud inland of the convergence to our South and then it's a long glide to some active cloud just short of the exit cylinder.  The lift here is good so we play around for a while on the 1000ft/min air getting to 7000' before we remember it's supposed to be a race so we set off for the cylinders edge to complete the task with 5000ft more altitude than we need.

Then there is a very amusing radio conversation with Grant about where hes setting up to land with the four pilots in our group totally bemused about why we can't see him anywhere.  We give up and all four land in the same field whilst someone else flies over very high to land on the west coast beyond the hills to our North West.  

It's only after we land that the realisation that Grant was the other side of the previous estuary and hence on an entirely different peninsula to us.