Tuesday 30th April

Tuesday was forecast to be good over a large area. So Graham and I set our 1st 750km of the season. The west of the country looked best so we decided on Carren Cennen Castle (CCC), north of Swansea, then up to Sheffield South (SSO), back again into Wales to Senny Bridge (SEN), west of Brecon and home for 755Km. We didn't make it. Here is the story...

After the usual rush to get away early we launched at 09:55 the sky was already looking great.

Timing is important on the big flights so it was vital that we completed the first 180km to the  the fist turn by midday, this would allow us to attack the 230km into wind leg during the best part of the day. The start from EDG went well with good well spaced Cu and cloud bases around 3500 QNH.

 Crossing the black mountains was interesting due to the high ground and lowish early cloud bases, but once over the other side the climbs remained regular.

 Notice the early cloud streets lining up with the wind, this was to very helpful on our way north. Running down the side of the Brecon Beacons was excellent with superb visibility and a nice looking sky.

We made the 1st turn right on schedule at midday, now for the slog north into a 10kt headwind, our only concern now was the cloud base was still around 3500 QNH, still confident as the streeting would help. Flying through mid Wales was great but you could'nt help but notice that all the fields are tiny and all filled with sheep! Millions of them, - why oh why me thinks is Lamb so expensive? Also a must see must see the Danger Area in the centre of Wales, spectacular block arrangement of trees representing armies on a field of battle?  Still only getting to 3500', which in this area can sometimes be only 2000' agl we needed every climb to work. Field selection is equally important in a turbo as it is in a pure glider! Progressing north was going well we calculated that we needed to turn Sheffield by 3:00pm in order to have enough day left to complete the task. We expected the day to shut off around 18:30pm.

Which one would you choose? green ones have sheep in!
Passing into England  again, south of the Mynd, the fields got bigger and the cloud bases started to rise. both still confident. Passing Telford conditions improving with nice solid cu ahead giving 5kt climbs to 4500, passing Stoke on Trent, still better - to 5000

Approaching the derbyshire dales, over the hill lies Sheffield. All was progressing well but all was soon to change. Sheffield was under a large layer of spreadout. We did manage to get in and out of the turnpoint on schedule, turning SSO at 15:05 but had to deviate over Chesterfield and take some scrappy slow climbs to get away from the area. Both had doubts now, as we had lost vital time... Once back into the sunshine however, the 5kt climbs returned but it was now 15:45, confidence flooded back....as each cloud was producing good climbs. The run back in to Wales was fantastic but clearly time was against us. We calculated that we had about 2 1/2 hours of day left but  still had 340km to go. Still pressing on into a great looking sky with regular solid climbs and a cloud base that in mid Wales again was  6000' QNH. No thought of sheep now! 

 with excellent vis the track out of the last turn point SEN looked brilliant with good Cu and in a rare enthusiastic outburst from Graham "this could be on!"...we were flying, turning SEN at 18:20 and only 140km to go to EDG and a a nice sky over towards Hereford it was on. All we needed was now was to complete the last 90 km to Malvern get there at around 4000' and we could glide home, simples! The day was shutting down however, and the final climb at Mavern wasn't where we were, nothing at Pershore also, search and search but nothing that would get us on to final glide.,  800 below glide now with a nice safe airfield below, us we called it a day and used our 'portable thermal' I believe that we missed it by about half an hour those few minutes lost at SSO would have made the difference. Landing back at EDG at 19:30 for 9 hours 35 minutes airborne and a well earned beer!

 Gliding is really a sport full of 'ups and downs'! The nice thing is that we will  have to do it all again soon.