It was warm in the tent when we awoke early this morning, and it looked and felt like it was going to be a blue day. The organisers set a 263km polygon from Lasham to Hungerford, Stoney Stratford (near Milton Keynes), Andover and back to Lasham.
The weather looked promising because although we were warned it could be blue, small cumulus clouds were popping as we sat on the grid. The launch started at 11:30 and my class, Class B were on the front of the grid again.
I climbed slowly to 3000’ and decided to start once the line opened. I made a start at 12:35, but as I flew further North towards Basingstoke, the clouds somehow just didn’t look right and I decided to go back to the start and I re-started at 12:51. Pretty much as I left the site and headed towards Hungerford, I began to struggle. The thermals were very broken and I had great difficulty in centring; this plus the strong North Easterly wind, meant that I was scrabbling around at 2000’ most of the time. I pushed further North, but could not even make the ridge towards Kingsclere, finding myself being pushed further Westwards that I wanted to be.
I had put my boots on in the morning, even though it was warm, because I sometimes get really severe pains in my little toe on my left foot for some reason, and having had a long flight yesterday, I didn’t want this to affect me. But it didn’t help, the pain had already started and what’s more, it was now beginning in my right foot too. I was ready to throw it all in and land out just as I reached the ridge South East of Hungerford and I finally picked up a thermal that the ridge kicked off and climbed to 3000’. I could now push out to Hungerford, but still the wind wasn’t letting me get there. I found another climb over the South side of Hungerford and drifted through the control zone. I called Steve on the radio stating that I was having problems and that I was ready to land out, but he persuaded me otherwise.
I was cross with myself for being so negative and really pushed the glider hard Northwards. The clouds looked more formed and I began to get some better climbs. I pushed on towards the turning point, deciding that I could turn the turning point at Stoney Stratford low as I would then finally be able to fly downwind. I soon regretted turning low as I hit heavy sink going in and then back out form the turning point and I was down to 1800’ trying to find lift once more. This was a bad place to be in as I didn’t want to struggle to find lift drifting towards Hinton in the Hedges and Weston on the Green Parachute zones. I turned further Southwards towards Bicester and got a climb but I could see ahead towards Didcot that it was completely blue. I drifted over the top of the Brize zone and pushed out over Abingdon where I took one last climb to 4000’. I considered where best to go next and decided on Rivar Hill where I could land if there were no more thermals, or I could soar the ridge in the hope that it kicks off a thermal. I spent some time soaring the ridge at 1000’ until I was lucky enough to catch a really good 3kt thermal which took me up to 4000’. I headed towards Andover and drifted through the turning point in a small thermal. There were a couple for other gliders thermalling to the South and I went and joined them. I worked the thermal until it developed and it topped out at 3000’ then headed towards Lasham.
It was really hard now, it was past 18:00 and the thermals were pretty much non-existent. I still managed to hang onto a couple of small thermals and kept pushing on towards Popham Airfield. I had already chosen a field to land in, but I managed to find another weak thermal and head towards Lasham. But I could see that I wasn’t going to make it – I was 200’ under glide and couldn’t see a way to gain it. There was a glider on the ground at Popham and a Lasham tug waiting to aerotow it out. I opted to land at Popham; the time was 18:45. I took an aerotow retrieve back to Lasham landing at 19:45…on the original task I had been airborne for over 7 hours. I came 5th for the day.
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