Lasham Compette

Being a British resident, we had the wonderful opportunity to take part in a truly Royal Wedding on Friday 29 April as the date was declared to be a holiday.  I’m sure that all glider pilots were hoping for some excellent soaring conditions, but it wasn’t to be and I, like many others, sat with friends at the Gliding Club watching the television instead of flying and witnessing Prince William and Catherine Middleton’s fabulous wedding.

Never mind, the weather can only get better thought I, as we set off with the glider trailer to tow to Lasham – it was the ‘Compette’, a two day competition that Liz Sparrow was running over Saturday 30 April and Sunday 1 May, and I’d been asked to go along and support her as a member of the British Team. 

Steve and I rigged the Mosquito early on Saturday morning and went to briefing.  The weather was uncertain with potentially blue thermals and a brisk Easterly wind.  After much consideration, a short task, theoretically within gliding distance of Lasham, round Bentley and  Popham, was set with the intention of going around the task twice. 

There was a hint of thermals at about 13:00 and launching started.  Many pilots pulled off the grid, as it was not particularly soarable and extremely windy.  I launched and managed to stay airborne gaining 200 feet per minute and pushing upwind.  After much effort, I decided to finally go for the turn upwind which I rounded before rapidly literally flying downwind in the wind of 24 knots back towards Lasham and onto Popham.  Past the airfield, I struggled to stay airborne and decided to return to Lasham just as I hit a decent thermal, so decided to head downwind towards Popham again.  But it became apparent that with the strength of the wind, I wasn’t going to make the turn and get back home, so I decided to wimp out and return to Lasham just 2 miles short of the turn.  I just made it back onto the airfield with a straight glide in.

Sunday turned out to be even windier than Saturday with a 28 knot ENE wind and it was decided it was best not to fly!  So with no flying the day was spent discussing competition tactics, how to avoid penalties, weather forecasting, Area Assigned Tasks and all sorts of other gliding topics.