After a rest day in the rain at Denbigh, put to good use by Matt editing his latest video 'Denbigh Dreaming' - due on a computer screen near you soon - we rigged, launched and dropped onto the ridge to try the set task of 140k, made up of 5 runs between the DRS (Denbigh ridge south) at the south end and DYS (Dyserth) at the north end of the ridge. Kevin mentioned that a pioneering ridge-runner from Nympsfield had achieved a speed of 132.7kph on a task using Prestatyn as his northerly turning point, in effect throwing down the gauntlet! As representatives of North Hill Soaring Section and naturally not wishing to let the side down we were obliged to rise to the challenge.
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| The ridge from launch height |
With speed now being the name of the game the long tips were left in the trailers and Matt filled up with water! Using the remote start at the south end of the ridge gave us a brief chance to explore the handling before selecting 'flaps to minus two and stick to the front'! It was my first outing in the Ventus in 15 metre mode and it was remarkably nimble. With the extra water on board, after the start Matt was gone like a 'robbers dog' and I was playing catch up for the rest of the task.
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| Testing the short wings |
We found that running north was much quicker due to the slight tail wind component however the north section was not working as well as on Monday due to suspected wave interference and we had to slow down, both in and out of the turn point to maintain sufficient height to allow the jump back to the main ridge.
We both felt that we were pushing as hard as we could, and a couple of times, I over did it and had to S turn to get back into the workable zone which cost me in terms of task speed. On the final run north, because of a short beat of reliable ridge at the Dyserth turn point and not having to conserve height, we could plan to arrive low at the finish making the last leg blistering!
The 'robbers dog' won the day with a task speed of 145.3 kph, while yours truly hobbled home with a mere 133.2kph. - I tell pupils not to grip the stick, but by the end of this task my hand was aching as we went in search of wave for a bit of a rest.
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| Heading west in the search for wave |
JB
