After another week of dire weather in the southwest, the call went out for an Ad Hoc day on Bank Holiday May day.
Thanks to Peter Smith and James Flory for coming forward to run the day. RASP promised a reasonable day and that is what we got. The hangar was unpacked by 9am. Low cloud initially gave an opportunity for some land ahead cable breaks and time for lots of private glider rigging. The cloud base stubbornly refused to rise much above 2500ft at North Hill all day and a brisk NW wind kept the Red flag up all day with some interesting approaches experienced at times.
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| Sky looks better than it was (Connor Williams) |
Twelve private gliders flew. 230, SM, G29, W7 all attempted a Club 100 but the thermals were not playing fair and were difficult to read. FAJ repeatedly attempted to reach Tiverton only to keep being blown back to Willand in the next climb. G29 got some help from the iron thermal to get back from Tiverton. 230, SM, W7 found Tiverton difficult but then went off to Chard and Crewkerne. Many stayed local due to the conditions.
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| James Smart getting ready for a Silver distance attempt (Stewart Henshall) |
877James Smart went off downwind in search of Silver Distance and landed in a nice private strip near Buckland Newton just north east of the Jolly Giant.
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| Retrieve crew photo (Connor Williams) |
It clearly wasn't an Eagle day early on with JP and Stirling just getting 3 circuits, but then the 4th takeoff delivered with 2hrs44, and fortunately Stewart and Su still available to help with derigging the Eagle. HMS Stewart Henshall attempted to get to Dulverton and nearly came unstuck in the extreme sink, but got back.
Despite not wanting to be a training and check flight day, well done to Kevin Fairburn who got his Red card signed and Simon Jordy converted to the Junior, while several others had currency checks amongst the tricky soaring flights.
Around 2pm the sky had it’s own ideas and a lot of gliders ended up back at the field but as so often happens by 3pm all was good again with flying eventually finishing at 6pm, (and an hour of soaring still available). 52 flights. Not bad after all the recent weather. - John Borland
Cross countries
NH2 - TIV - CRK - NH2
230 " The speed says it all. Difficult day even though the sky looked amazing at times. Low cloudbase and incredably broken thermals which were hard to centre and climb in, the 14kt wind not helping. Thought I'd have a go at a second lap as conditions had improved later but after putting myself in the weeds twice in quick succession the will to live had gone............" Pete Startup
W7 " Sky looked better than it was. A few low points but a visit to Lyme Regis made it interesting." Wyn Davies
HMS " Tried to get to Dulverton. Nearly stopped in Bampton. Sink everywhere.. !" Stewart Henshall
877 Silver Distance or not Silver Distance - the Jury is still out on the claim....50k attempt to Cerne Abbas
"I decided that it was worth attempting 50k to complete my silver badge with a run downwind to Cerne Abbas which is just over 50k from NHL. I pushed north around Dunkeswell to get on a straight run. The further I went, the weaker the thermals became, and after Crewkerne I just pushed for the distance. In the end I crossed the 50k point above my launch height.
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| Cerne Abbas Giant (James Smart) |
At this point I ran out of thermals and talent but I knew that the airfield of Hermitage was just to the north along with some good fields. At which point I saw a windsock and a nice 400m grass strip. The decision was made and a nice easy landing out was achieved albeit with a crosswind. It was in a private farm strip at Buckland Newton about 3k east to Hermitage. Throughout the flight I had noticed that the Oudie was not charging. It turned out that the power to both the Oudie and the Flarm (my official logger) was disconnected. Ah well, I will just have to do it again. Huge thanks to Chris Woodward and Connor Williams who came to pick me up." James Smart
