H5 Matt:
"Still confident from the day before I decided to press on towards the Butser turn point, as the hills got smaller I hit a patch of sink and got stuck at 500’ on a small ridge 3km from the turn point, towards the turn point power lines obscured the path and the route back didn’t look any better, the outlook was grim. Going through my mind was some advice I had been told previously when flying with Trevor Stuart; “sometimes you just need to park up and wait, perseverance will pay off, something will change, either the conditions or how you’re flying, then you’ll get away.” I had a nice field picked so decided to hang around and maintained height for 15 minutes.
I then saw M5 Matt smoking round the corner and down towards the turnpoint, he was 150’ above me and had the clearance to get around, I decided to wait and see how high he was on the return leg and if he’d show me the way out, as he came back around the corner from the turnpoint he was still 150’ higher. Now going through my head was some advice I’d had from Mark Courtney; “Whatever you do don’t follow Matt Wright, he’ll end up getting you into trouble!” There I was a lot lower and sat in a much lower performance glider, I had a few seconds to decide what to do. I picked another field on route and off I went, chasing down the Shark!
Thankfully being lower was of benefit and I had great lift back round the corner to the more substantial ridge, gratefully if anything I gained height on Matt. After being so low for such a long time thrashing up and down at 600’ faster than some of the plastic ships was a great relief! It was a fabulous day out with good company! The feeling of seeing your friends all racing along the ridge and being in amongst it all was fantastic."
BBB JP and Nick
Nick arrived the morning after, just as the Eagle was ready to grid – in the nick of time really as the 3 tug Parham set up and short 1000’ tows meant launches were fast and furious. The plastic boys with their barrels of ballast were soon darting off in all directions but the Eagle decided to be more serene and tested the local “home ridge” thoroughly whilst the master mariner and his pilot sized up the gaps to the nearby ridges. Caution and the desire not to have an early field meant we headed west and jumped on to the next ridge with the aid of thermal. The following few hours were tremendous fun as the less than stellar Eagle performance combined with tantric ridge lift allowed a steady rewarding progression towards Butser. Model glider flyers were duly waved down to as the archetypal vintage glider floated by. The final run into Butser was a an amazing act of faith in the hills with a failure to actually go round the TP only caused by the fact that it was a hundred feet higher than us! Traveling back east over the A3 and noticing that the power cables were now a hurdle caused some excitement and a necessary shift out from the hill. Interestingly only half way up a less than high hill is a challenge for the lower performance glider as successive trees required little hops… Perseverance paid off and the aero modellers were now able to wave down to the yellow bomber as it flew under their models!
The afternoon’s succession of white cruise missiles dashing past highlighted the advances in glider technology but with beer in hand in the pub that evening the smiles were just as broad from the vintage team as the ASW/Schemp jockies. Parham truly is a unique place in the UK and for NH pilots almost a day trip.
After spending the night in the SGC club room, at least it was warm, we were up early to get ready as a steady stream of locals and visitors were already pouring through the gates eager for an epic ridge day. I decided that I would try adding 2 barrels of water to M5 in the quest for extra speed out on task a token gesture to the other speed fiends who were going ballistic with full tanks. The task of five beats between Butser Hill and Lewes would amount to 341km if completed and this was by no means a certainty as rain was forecast in the east later. Champing at the bit to get going we were then treated to an almost hour long visitors briefing after the club general briefing during which we could see the local pundits were getting airborne!
Fortunately launch rate was something to behold! 3 tugs quickly reduced the grid by whipping us up to 1000' and lobbed us onto the home ridge. It wasn't long before I was trying to climb up to cloud base at Butser to take advantage of the 1000m height loss rule of the BGA Ladder. This delay would prove costly later.
The ridge was working well although the timing of thermal interference gave rise or sometimes sink to interesting heights on the hill and I didn't have to stop until a particularly sinky crossing of the Amberly gap on the 4th leg required a couple of beats of Bignor bowl to restore a sensible height. On the run into Butser I got the chance to wave at H5 and BBB before setting off on the final leg to Lewes. About 8km from Lewes I could see rain approaching the turn-point and was contemplating chucking in the task but Trevor who had started about half an hour behind me, came whizzing past heading for the finish. I had to follow! What could possibly go wrong!
5 minutes later we were in fields at the bottom of the ridge but we had completed the task! Trevor at an astonishing 146 kph and I managed a personal best of 118kph, next time I'll go for the full 120kgs of water ballast. Thanks to H5 Matt for the speedy retrieve before we were all down the pub for refreshment, tall tales and mega cheesy grins.
"Still confident from the day before I decided to press on towards the Butser turn point, as the hills got smaller I hit a patch of sink and got stuck at 500’ on a small ridge 3km from the turn point, towards the turn point power lines obscured the path and the route back didn’t look any better, the outlook was grim. Going through my mind was some advice I had been told previously when flying with Trevor Stuart; “sometimes you just need to park up and wait, perseverance will pay off, something will change, either the conditions or how you’re flying, then you’ll get away.” I had a nice field picked so decided to hang around and maintained height for 15 minutes.
I then saw M5 Matt smoking round the corner and down towards the turnpoint, he was 150’ above me and had the clearance to get around, I decided to wait and see how high he was on the return leg and if he’d show me the way out, as he came back around the corner from the turnpoint he was still 150’ higher. Now going through my head was some advice I’d had from Mark Courtney; “Whatever you do don’t follow Matt Wright, he’ll end up getting you into trouble!” There I was a lot lower and sat in a much lower performance glider, I had a few seconds to decide what to do. I picked another field on route and off I went, chasing down the Shark!
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| H5 negotiating the iffy bit before Butser |
BBB JP and Nick
Last minute dot com was the order of the week with H5 Matt’s puppy like enthusiasm by WhatsApp taking its toll on JP’s resolve to deal with work rather than “mitch off” resulting in an early evening (Tue) departure with no plan other than to go ridgin’. A call to Nick Jones enroute to NHL meant it was Eagle BBB rather than the Lak on the back of the car an hour later!
Nick arrived the morning after, just as the Eagle was ready to grid – in the nick of time really as the 3 tug Parham set up and short 1000’ tows meant launches were fast and furious. The plastic boys with their barrels of ballast were soon darting off in all directions but the Eagle decided to be more serene and tested the local “home ridge” thoroughly whilst the master mariner and his pilot sized up the gaps to the nearby ridges. Caution and the desire not to have an early field meant we headed west and jumped on to the next ridge with the aid of thermal. The following few hours were tremendous fun as the less than stellar Eagle performance combined with tantric ridge lift allowed a steady rewarding progression towards Butser. Model glider flyers were duly waved down to as the archetypal vintage glider floated by. The final run into Butser was a an amazing act of faith in the hills with a failure to actually go round the TP only caused by the fact that it was a hundred feet higher than us! Traveling back east over the A3 and noticing that the power cables were now a hurdle caused some excitement and a necessary shift out from the hill. Interestingly only half way up a less than high hill is a challenge for the lower performance glider as successive trees required little hops… Perseverance paid off and the aero modellers were now able to wave down to the yellow bomber as it flew under their models!
The afternoon’s succession of white cruise missiles dashing past highlighted the advances in glider technology but with beer in hand in the pub that evening the smiles were just as broad from the vintage team as the ASW/Schemp jockies. Parham truly is a unique place in the UK and for NH pilots almost a day trip.
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| Majestic BBB (Guy Westgate) |
M5 Matt
On monday evening, North of the Haggis curtain, the Portmoak contingent had been pouring over the plethora of available forecasts desperate to find even the faintest excuse to stay in Scotland, but however desperate the search, none could be found. On Tuesday morning Tom, Pete, Ruth and Matt decided to head home, well sort of. We were all in the loop, having seen the forecasts for wind in the south east and had been bombarded with texts from H5 Matt and even an email from Nympsfield ridge maestro Trevor Stuart both of whom were Parham bound. Pete's usual happy-go-lucky optimism had been worn thin by our run of rubbish weather and he was going home to Devon or bust. This was fortunate for Ruth because Pete came to her rescue at a Birmingham services where she had been abandoned by Matt as he wanted to veer off towards Sussex.
After spending the night in the SGC club room, at least it was warm, we were up early to get ready as a steady stream of locals and visitors were already pouring through the gates eager for an epic ridge day. I decided that I would try adding 2 barrels of water to M5 in the quest for extra speed out on task a token gesture to the other speed fiends who were going ballistic with full tanks. The task of five beats between Butser Hill and Lewes would amount to 341km if completed and this was by no means a certainty as rain was forecast in the east later. Champing at the bit to get going we were then treated to an almost hour long visitors briefing after the club general briefing during which we could see the local pundits were getting airborne!
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| Around the Corner at Seaford College |
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| Passing BBB near Butser (is that rain in the distance?) |
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| Trevor over-taking me on Devil's Dyke |
