It was drizzling out of a low cloud base, and there was a howling
southerly
bringing damp cold air to North Hill when the course assembled. The
drizzle
turned into steady rain as the morning progressed. Instructors Martin
and Stu
kicked off with a thorough briefing and then entertained the troops with
a
series of high quality talks on such diverse subjects as instruments,
winch
launches and air space. During the latter, one particularly keen course
member asked whom he should call if he accidentally entered the airway!!
A prize
is on offer for the first correct answer. Neither Martin nor Stu could
provide
one! Much hopeful peering at the grey sky and the continuing horizontal
rain led
to the conclusion that the most comfortable place at North Hill remained
the
interior of the club house, especially as by now it was lunch time. More
hopeful, or rather hopeless, peering followed. So it was back to more
theory,
this time with a multi media demo of aero tows and the Club’s Flarm
presentation. The simulations with which this ended produced a few
worried
frowns, but Martin reassured his listeners with a resounding finishing
line:
DON’T PANIC!! By now, it was abundantly clear that the gliders would
have to
remain in the hangar for the rest of the day. All departed, promising
each other
that tomorrow would be a good flying day. - WWF
News from Competition Enterprise
Day 3. The task essentially
meant flying to a point north or south of SUT and then flying the
opposite direction to another point and repeating a few times. There was
a warm front coming through around 3/4 o'clock so launching started
earlyish.
I believe the
forecast wind was for a WSW so I had decided to go north first a few k
and then head across wind to east Anglia where the weather was forecast
to be amazing. After turning 5k north of SUT it became very evident that
the wind was a lot stronger than I had anticipated and pushing south
was incredibly hard so I gave up with my plan and dashed down wind
towards Middlesbrough until I ran out of land but I turned the sea which
gave me an extra 50 bonus points.
 |
| ran out of land.... (Liam) |
The run home into wind
at this point looked reasonable and the climbs were good but with every
direction possible into land facing a very strong wind the sky the push
was impossible with an average ground speed of 5kph I decided not to
risk landing out on the moors and so stopped pushing to find a nice
field...
 |
| Nice field.. flat sky (Liam) |
A very memorable
flight with some amazing scenery made better by the fact an Arcus
turboed overhead of me, and the fact that my retrieve crews car keys
were in my pocket.... Liam
