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| Pack the oxygen dudes! |
Murky clouds and a forecast of relatively slack easterly winds greeted the Denbigh stalwarts as they awoke on Friday. But wait…what was this that Matt saw in the skies as we arrived at the club? With a cry of “Never mind the briefing (or other unprintable words to the same effect), get the gliders on the line cause there’s wave forming above the club”, there was a scramble worthy of any cold war fighter outfit. Our tuggie, Jonathan, was on the runway warming up his Ikarus as the last preflights were finished and Matt immediately launched to 2000 feet calling back with reports of 1-2 knots of lift. Pete Startup was next, followed by Tom as soon as the tug could cycle back around. Two of our new mates from Trent Valley GC then launched to be followed by JB and Malcolm Vest bringing the Eagle up to test the wave.
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| The Mighty Eagle climb through the wave gap |
Flarm alarms were soon going crazy with seven gliders climbing up to an amazing 3,500 feet and sharing a ten mile wave bar. Matt thoughtfully had fitted the shark with its usual porcupine of cameras, so he was able to get some great shots. Then after 2 ½ hours of smooth flight, the wave started breaking up and the valley looked like it was going to fill in with cloud. Calmly, the Magnificent Seven descended back to terra firma to call the week a success and start derigging for the home trips.
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| Tom in DG1 |
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| Pete in 230 |
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| Eagle Shark, Malcolm and JB in BBB and Matt in M5 |
On paper, this was not predicted to be a good week. Quite rightly, many of the attendees decided the forecast for the week just didn’t justify the five hour road trip. But as we were able to fly four days out of the six in both thermal and wave conditions, all who did come agreed that the week was a success and look forward to the next one. Tom
