Shenington Regionals Sunday 24 & Monday 25 June 2012

Sunday 24 June 2012

Sunday’s weather was declared unsuitable for flying by the Met Man and the day was duly scrubbed.  Other forecasts I had seen all indicated that it would brighten up in the afternoon, and sure enough it did and it was glorious….But once a day has been scrubbed that’s it, there’s no going back.  I’m certain there were several pilots cursing under their breath, but I did speak to one pilot who flew who said that he anyway, was unable to stay airborne without using his engine.  So maybe the Met Man was forgiven after all.

Monday 25 June 2012

It was my turn to fly and we duly placed the Cirrus on the grid as requested by the Director of the competition.

At briefing, the Met Man described a lot of top cover with the possibility of a 3500ft cumulus cloud base and potentially 3 knot thermals.  He stressed that the weather would cut off very early in the day at around 15:00 – 16:00, so it would be important to get started early.

The Task Setter set an Assigned Area Task from Shenington to Tewkesbury, Silverstone and home, with a 20km radius circle around Tewkesbury and a 70km ‘wedge’ at Silverstone.  The time set to complete the task was 2.5 hours.  The idea behind this was that the task would be ‘even’ for the large spread in handicap of the gliders…I was not too sure, because the weather was not all that good, I felt that it would be advantageous to the ‘big ships'.

Maps marked, instruments programmed and I was ready on the grid, but the ‘Snifter’ was not reporting back particularly good thermals at all.  I therefore made the decision with Steve to pull out of the 6^th row of the grid and go to the back.  This would hopefully allow more time for the better weather to develop.

I launched behind a powerful Cub tug at midday and released at 2000ft.  It was hard.  The cloud base was 2200ft and thermals very weak.  However, I managed to stay airborne and eventually the cloud base rose to 2800ft and I decided to make a start at 12:55.  I could see other gliders, all be it big ships ahead of me and I took the best route beneath the darker areas of cumulus.  I was getting 1.5 – 2kt thermals and the working band was 2500 – 2000.  I tip-toed my way to the West, over the ridge and out towards Evesham.  I suddenly got my best climb of the day – a 4 knot thermal and took it to 3500ft before heading further West, before finally turning back inside the first sector to head Eastwards just South West of Evesham, in the hope I could pick up the same thermal on the way back; no chance, it had gone.

I continued in straight lines getting lower and lower, only finding small climbs and found myself back at Shenington.  I could have easily landed there, but decided to carry on to the East to try and get into the second zone.  But it didn’t look good ahead at all as it was completely overcast and therefore little heat on the ground.  I flew over Banbury and found a small climb and continued East of Banbury.   I could see a hopeful line of some lift, but it was in the direction of Hinton in the Hedges which was a prohibited zone for the competition.  I pushed on, but realised that there was nothing ahead and that I’d have to turn back to try and get some lift.  I picked out a couple of fields, one of which was next to a road, but had cattle in it, but it still looked the most promising.  The fields at the moment are fully cropped and the only hope is a cut silage field, and with all the wet and windy weather recently, there’s not many of those.  Additionally in this area, there is a huge amount of ridge and furrow fields which are unlandable.

I turned to fly over a small village and was able to find small amounts of lift.  But no matter how hard I tried, it became obvious I was going to have to land out.  I finally chose a field that looked like silage, but with a slightly rougher texture.  On the approach, I’d have to overfly the pylons, descend, fly the approach over a road and roundout slightly uphill.  I touched down, opened the airbrakes fully and rolled to a stop.

The field turned out to be a set-aside field, I think it was last year’s oilseed rape which had grown a huge amount of thistles and when I spoke to the farmer he said that he’d cut the field recently and sprayed it with weedkiller.

I called Steve and he set on his way to retrieve me with the Land Rover and trailer.

As I waited, a large wedge of blue sky arrived, the temperature rose and beautiful cumulus clouds developed…..if only I could have stayed up long enough for that patch to arrive.

There was a very pretty poppy field next to where I landed, from which you can also see the development of the cumulus cloud.  So the Met Man was wrong in his prediction of the day ending early, it did in fact continue well into the evening.

On perusing the day’s results later, it was as I expected; the conditions were better for the big ships and those gliders with flaps able to glide larger distances.  The highest placed ‘small wings’ came in 12^th place and I finished in 16^th place.