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| Spectacular Autumn Colours |
I doubt you will believe me when I tell you that the forecast for northerly winds on Monday had held steady for about 5 days, but hold it did and unaccustomed to this kind of long range possibility it was still a fairly last minute flurry of emails and Whatsapp messages which precipitated a record number of NHL pilots going off to enjoy the wonder of the Southdowns. In all 6 gliders made the trip to Parham, 230, 711, HOG, JB and M5 joined SM who had arrived the day before for some extra fun at Parham. H5Matt joined in too but he had wangled himself a seat in Dan's Arcus and not content with just soaring the Southdowns they were going to do it launching from Nympsfield and motoring back afterwards just because they could.
The steady forecast also meant that a great many other visitors also turned up and were raring to go and so by the time the first launches got under-way just after 9am the next local in the queue was number 12.
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| Golden swath of leaves on the ground behind the trees (Ron Johns) |
The wind was a blustery 350-010/25 kts with generous helpings of thermal gusts which made the ride almost uncomfortable at times and which produced some very strong sink, usually when you least wanted it. The NHL gang set a 344km task of 5 beats of the ridge between Lewes and Butser Hill which meant covering an extra 68km getting to the start and getting back from the finish to bring the actual distance flown to more than 410km. Not bad for November!
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| Getting low after a particularly nasty bit of sink |
Nearly all of us completed the task at varying speeds ranging from a more pedestrian 90kph to a slightly faster 112 kph but were all much slower than the pointy boys, chock full to the brim with ballast, hugging the tree-line and clocking in with speeds in the high 140's. Neither my nerves, teeth or gel coat could have coped with that abuse and anyway our more leisurely pace gave us more of a chance to soak in views of the magnificent late Autumn colours. Phil and Ron in 711 were so lost in the spectacle that they also lost track of how many laps they had done and ended up landing on the last leg unaware of their error.
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| John Pursey in LAK12 HOG on the home ridge |
By sunset we were all back, derigged, paid up and grinning from ear to ear before we discovered that our post-flight, pre-drive home meal would be thwarted by the locked door of the pub and so rather than hang around for an hour waiting for it to open it was time to hit the road.
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| Smoking the ridge near Lewes |
