Rowan, JB and I, unable to join the gang in Portmoak decided to enrole in Andy Davis' coaching week at Nympsfield to do some cross country soaring and hopefully improve our skills into the bargain.
At Sunday's briefing Andy put up a selection of tasks ranging from a silver distance to The Park to a diamond distance going up and down the best area a couple of times and to crown it off a task taking in St Catherine's Point Light House and the South Downs for a distance of 523km.
Well it obvious which one we were going to choose.
Rowan, flying with Trevor in his Nimbus 3DT launched off the front of the grid and JB and I followed about 1:30min later somewhat closer to the back. The run down to Lasham was relatively uneventful and by the time JB and I made it to Butser Hill on the western end of the southdowns, Rowan and Trevor were diving onto the ridge to start their run to Eastbourne.
Rowan said he had tears of joy from the sheer epicness of the ridge run. Trevor was really going for it and had the big Nimbus smoking along, right on the trees underneath most of the other ridge traffic.
JB and I were faced with the dilema of abandoning the light house and and just going for the ridge instead. We couldn't resist the pull of the island and were soon heading south again. JB had a cracking 4knot thermal right in the middle of the solent and laughed all the way to 6000', I on the other hand took a climb over Portsmouth to about 4500' and set off in pursuit. JB whizzed round the light house into another stonking thermal and back to 6000'. The wind was now Northerly at 18kts and pushing into it was evil. It was almost like a switch had been flicked and the clouds weren't working. I was really struggling to connect with anything and after what seemed like an eternity managed to get back up to 5500' and make the turn point. JB meanwhile had lost 3500' in the 20km going north across the island with out finding any lift before picking up a thermal over Ryde to make it possible to attempt the jump back to the mainland.
I wasn't so lucky and by now most of the island was in shadow of the spread out and I ended up landing at Sandown airfield were I was able the get the Parham tug to come and tow me to Lasham.
JB having made it back to home soil had another scratch away from low down over the white cliff just north of Portsmouth and pushed on north into a dead sky abandoning any thoughts of the Southdowns as it was getting too late. The iron thermal came out near Lasham and he was able to reconnect with the better conditions to the north west and was able to soar his way back to Nympsfield. Landing about half an hour after Trevor and Rowan who had completed the whole task in awesome style.
Matt
At Sunday's briefing Andy put up a selection of tasks ranging from a silver distance to The Park to a diamond distance going up and down the best area a couple of times and to crown it off a task taking in St Catherine's Point Light House and the South Downs for a distance of 523km.
Well it obvious which one we were going to choose.
Rowan, flying with Trevor in his Nimbus 3DT launched off the front of the grid and JB and I followed about 1:30min later somewhat closer to the back. The run down to Lasham was relatively uneventful and by the time JB and I made it to Butser Hill on the western end of the southdowns, Rowan and Trevor were diving onto the ridge to start their run to Eastbourne.
Rowan said he had tears of joy from the sheer epicness of the ridge run. Trevor was really going for it and had the big Nimbus smoking along, right on the trees underneath most of the other ridge traffic.
JB and I were faced with the dilema of abandoning the light house and and just going for the ridge instead. We couldn't resist the pull of the island and were soon heading south again. JB had a cracking 4knot thermal right in the middle of the solent and laughed all the way to 6000', I on the other hand took a climb over Portsmouth to about 4500' and set off in pursuit. JB whizzed round the light house into another stonking thermal and back to 6000'. The wind was now Northerly at 18kts and pushing into it was evil. It was almost like a switch had been flicked and the clouds weren't working. I was really struggling to connect with anything and after what seemed like an eternity managed to get back up to 5500' and make the turn point. JB meanwhile had lost 3500' in the 20km going north across the island with out finding any lift before picking up a thermal over Ryde to make it possible to attempt the jump back to the mainland.
JB going round St Catherine's Point
I wasn't so lucky and by now most of the island was in shadow of the spread out and I ended up landing at Sandown airfield were I was able the get the Parham tug to come and tow me to Lasham.
JB having made it back to home soil had another scratch away from low down over the white cliff just north of Portsmouth and pushed on north into a dead sky abandoning any thoughts of the Southdowns as it was getting too late. The iron thermal came out near Lasham and he was able to reconnect with the better conditions to the north west and was able to soar his way back to Nympsfield. Landing about half an hour after Trevor and Rowan who had completed the whole task in awesome style.
Matt
