As I wiped the dew off the wings of the glider today, it seemed much brighter and warmer than the previous days. We gridded the glider, now at the Western end of the airfield because there was an Easterly drift. I was number one in the B Class. I don’t particularly like going first as it is often a rush for one reason or another, and today proved to be no different…
At briefing it was announced that it could either be blue, or if the dew point and temperature went one or two degrees the other way, it could be over developed; very helpful. The task setter had set a 3 hour Area Assigned Task with the zone points being Harting, Whitchurch, Salisbury and Bulllington. I sat and studied the map and made a guess at an attempted 70kph for the day, but with a relatively low cloud base predicted, I wasn’t too sure, so I was looking to complete a possible 210kms in the 3 hours.
I launched first off the grid at 11:50 and found it relatively soarable with 2 – 3 knots under a 3000-3500ft cloud base. It seemed an age before the start line opened, and when it did, as I headed to the start area, I found myself in nothing but sinking air. I wasn’t alone, all the Juniors were also in the same dead air. I suddenly became concerned that if I didn’t get going soon, that I would be stuck at Lasham and everyone else would be on their way, but there was no way I could leave on task from 2000ft. So much grovelling ensued in 0.5kts of lift and slowly as the sunshine began to peep through the 8/8ths cloud cover, the thermals began to increase and eventually I was able to start at 13:17. A discussion I had later with G Dale suggested that this strange air was either the remnants of the old warm front or possibly air streaming in from the Thames estuary. I had noticed that one climb I had before the start took me to cloud base as I left it to head North, I noticed that the next line of clouds had a step in the base and were lower than I was. At the time I thought it strange, but did not put two and two together.
I had decided to head towards Parham in the first area, and stopped just short of there before turning towards Whitchuch. I used to live there, but there was no time for sight-seeing as the weather deteriorated the further North I went. I found a 3kt thermal, rounded Whitchurch and progressed on towards Salisbury. I had decided to take a few more kilometres the other side of Salisbury, if possible, but the weather was really closing in with 7 – 8/8ths cloud. But as I reached Salisbury, there appeared to be a run of darker bases that I thought I could fly further into the zone with and then back out again. This was to be my second mistake because the run back to Bullington was much harder than I’d expected and I was fast running out of time. Other gliders were joining me from the West and we all grovelled around in an attempt to get a thermal that was useful. We eventually found workable lift between us and slowly I climbed sufficiently to be able to glide around Bullington Cross and head back home.
I finished at 17:02 (5 hours 6 minutes) after taking off, 3 hours and 42 minutes on tasks (40 minutes too long!). I had completed 214km at 59kph…rather slow. But it’s good to keep doing these AATs. Note to self…must write times to finish on the map and adhere to them.
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