Sunday 2nd (with extracts from BGA Ladder)
"After yesterday's epic wave day, not many seemed inspired to fly in the benign conditions today. However, when the thermals started it became quite good for a couple of hours with steady climbs to between 3 and 4 thousand feet. A convenient sea breeze convergence set up for a while which could be run out as far as Abergele, otherwise it was just nice local area soaring". - 230
Monday 3rd
DEN Bodelwyddan - Snowdon - LLE
The forecast was for South Westerly wave when the weather cleared at around lunch time and it was spot on! The tow was pretty choppy but the Eurofox made light work of it and dropped us in the wave southwest of Denbigh town. When the Eagle and DD3 launched the wave had shifted and weakened lower down and they had to use all their skill and experience to climb up.
Great views (JB)
Flying into a 45kt head-wind can make for slow progress, especially in an Eagle! But using the wave bars as stepping stones DD3 and JB headed west to the Conway valley where they were rewarded with a 6 kt climb to about 16,000ft.
Sightseeing in DD3 (Nick Jones)
With all that height and Snowdon snuggling out of sight under the clouds 12,000 ft below it would have been rude not to nip around it so having turned Snowdon Phil and Nick in DD3 went on a little sight seeing tour via Blaenau Ffestiniog and Balla lake on the way home for some extra k’s and JB went home to thaw out! JB
Bodelwyddan - Snowdon - Blaenau FFestiniog - Bala - Denbigh
"Another epic flight from Denbigh. late start and slow initial climb but we contacted the stronger wave (thanks Chris) we went for a pleasant scenic tour of North Wales keeping lower ( 13,034ft) than previously to avoid frostbite". DD3
Wednesday 5th
"Two shower affected laps of the Denbigh ridge task, neither of them quick. Should have re-started after the last shower went through like everybody else!" 230
"After a very wet morning the clearance finally came through in the afternoon- still interspersed with some monster showers - so we took to the air. Played in a bit of wave while a massive rain shower went through then went for a romp on the ridge. Great fun! Thanks Chris and all the Lleweni pilots for a great evening". JB
Thursday 6th
Forecast as a wave day early in the week, come the day itself the look out of the caravan window didn’t look so exciting! Chris Gill was off early in the Arcus to RAF Valley for some bonding with his neighbours but his reports on the sky didn’t impress.
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| View from the front seat (John Pursey) |
Nevertheless activity at the launch point started the moment a route to some hill soaring was obvious. Lasham’s Duo was first away and slowly worked itself into some wave precipitating a rush to push out. Talking of precipitating, the sky looked ripe for it and with a few gliders in a shrinking gap over Denbigh, by the time BBB went off, a dash to the ridge was followed by a good washing in a line of showers.
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| Altocumulus lenticularis (John Pursey) |
The ridge was rough with obvious rotor influences and the Eagle required two hands to keep right way up at times! Classic Denbigh wave though with roll rotor clouds down near Ruthin and with care pushing on and out allowed contact with the smooth stuff. With shower delays and sheer numbers on the grid, the Northhill team took a while to all be airborne but they all connected with the wave. Depending exactly where you got in the climbs were modest at best unless you slipped forward a bar. Performance does count on these days and Pete 230 and Phil / Nick DD3 were eventually at FL170 whilst the Eagle stayed closer to home and managed to scrape close to 11,000ft before a rapid descent to derig and hit the road home.
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| Wave gap (John Pursey) |
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| John Pursey and Alan Rappaport in Eagle BBB (John Pursey) |
For me, 6 days and flying on 4 of them was a great result, roll on next year ! - John Pursey
LLE - Conwy Bridge - Conwy South - Denbigh
"Another fine day at Lleweni, once the showers passed through. Steady height gain to 18,000ft. With best climb near Abergele. Pushing forward we were probably too late for the main show at Conway valley so, after a bit of searching about, returned home to a fine Lleweni approach and landing using all of the runway in either direction" - DD3
"Totally undeserved points total. 'Completing' the ridge task was a complete fluke! I was sort of attempting it, giving up and then by just messing round in low level wave after the height gain, managed to complete it! The ridge was so rough low down and bedecked with showers at the South end, a conventional ridge run would not have been possible and I'd given up on it. No one was more surprised than me when I ran the trace in SeeYou and it said task completed! It wasn't planned that way! Nice up in the wave though, best bar at Abergele to 19,650', Conwy disappointed - another great day at Denbigh. And more Diamonds for those that needed them - well done. Lively approach." - 230
