At last! We have sunshine!!! However is it accompanied by a rather strong Westerly wind too….
The tanoy at 08:00 requested that we rig and grid before briefing which was to be at 11:00. We rigged the Cirrus, taking extra care in the strong wind and placed it on number 3 for the Blue Class Regionals on the grid. Because the wind was so strong, it was lifting up the wing and slamming it on the ground again so I slipped a trestle beneath one wing to keep it stationary.
You can tell it was windy by the Lenticulars in the sky.
At the briefing, for the Regionals Blue class, they set a 244km task - Start Lasham West, Midhurst West, Calne, Didcot, Lasham West, Lasham (LA5-MIW-CLN-DID-LA5-LAS).
Now because Steve and I are sharing the competition, we only swap round when one of us has actually had a competition day. The last day that Steve flew was not a competition day, so it was his turn again. I don’t mind at all because I’ll be flying in the Pre-Worlds competition in Issoudun, France in July and then in the Club Class National at Gransden Lodge in August on my own, so I’m perfectly happy to let Steve fly once more.
So on the grid, the Director started to launch, starting with the 15m Nationals, then stream-launched through the B Class Regionals, A Class Regionals and finally the Open Class Nationals.
Once the start line opened, Steve started at 13:03 and I retreated back to the caravan to start drying out and packing up the tent and wing covers. I then decided to wash both cars and then settled down to study the Farnborough CTA and Olympics Airspace. After I’d been doing this for about an hour, it was now 17:00 and to my knowledge, there still had not been any finishers. A short while later, Steve phoned to say he’d landed out at Wroughton Airfield near Swindon after rounding two turning points.
I hitched up the glider trailer, informed Control where Steve had landed and set off. The retrieve was easy with no problems and we returned to site in time for the BBQ and music.
After some deliberation by the organisers with the scores due to number of wayward pilots who had wandered into airspace that they should not have, penalty points were allocated and then adjusted (not to Steve I hasten to add). There were 6 finishers and Steve finished in 7th place with the furthest distance for the day.
On Sunday 10 June, the organisers scrubbed the day due to yet more rain.
So we completed the 2012 Lasham Regionals with one competition day and just Steve having the opportunity to fly. It is many years since that happened; in my case it was at Booker in the 1980s when I finally flew on the last day, again due to bad weather.
Next competition is Shenington Regionals near Banbury at the end of June. Here’s hoping to a better season during the summer months!
No comments:
Post a Comment