Sportability Gliding Day

Wednesday 22 May

The visit by Sportability on a chilly and breezy May afternoon reminded me of why I love sharing my passion for our sport so much.  Their singular aim is "to provide sport and challenging pursuits for people with paralysis".  In reality they provide much more than that.  Check out their website at  http://www.sportability.org.uk/ for further details about what they do.

Dan Marshall, Sprotability's West Midlands Area Organiser, with John, Linda, Geoff, Lizzie, Ann and Ann, all require some level of mechanical assistance to move about. Of course here at Shenington we're used to seeing people hopping in and out of gliders who use sticks, walkers and wheelchairs to get to and from the cockpit and it doesn't surprise us that they make excellent pilots.  That's why we've specially adapted our gliders for pilots who do not have full use of their legs.  What I most enjoyed was the determination of each of our visitors to have a go at the controls.  For the afternoon I was not flying passengers but flying with co-pilots, and that always makes my day.  They were also all rather good at it, and for parts of the flight I could sit back with my arms folded and enjoy the scenery.

John Smith ready for the task at hand

Linda Bryant is determined to fly herself and does so with style

Geoff Allen has been in a cockpit before and uses the hand rudder during our flight

Lizzie Cross and I find a thermal and we both giggle like girls

Ann Smith has the longest flight of the day as conditions improve

Ann Norman, a rope maker expresses dismay about the knots in our ropes ... must do better

Rachel Cross, Lizzie's daughter had a go at the end of the day after helping out all day with logging of flights and retrieving gliders.  I think she did open her eyes during the flight.

Gavin smiles throughout!

Paul's impromptu exped...

Sunday 26th May was my Duty Day - taking Anne and her sister to the Hay-on-Wye Literature festival. Books are close to my heart but, today, Talgarth was closer. I arrived unannounced at the club as the kit was being taken out. After introductions, I ingratiated myself by helping tow out the gliders and generally making myself useful or interfering depending on your point of view. The BMGC members could not have been more accommodating, insisting it would be no trouble to get me in the air.

The tuggie returned from the first tow with the news that it was already popping - "four up to four thousand above site".  After a familiarisation walk around the airfield, Don Gosden and I took a launch in a K13. Don called it a site check, so I flew the launch and all but a few minutes of the flght.

The flight itself was one of the most enjoyable I have had in a long while. The tuggie took us to two thousand and dropped us in 2 - 3 up so neatly all I had to do was turn the right way and not cock it up.  On the way up to four thousand, Don pointed out the various peaks, villages, lakes and valleys.  Most of these had Welsh names which, with my tin ear, bypassed my memory bank. My Babel Fish was back at home. At the top of the climb, we flew north along the valley to Hay-on-Wye. There was enough occasional lift to let me ignore that tiresome turning business.  We arrived near Hay for the loss of a couple of hundred feet and then turned east towards the mountains. I have done very little ridge flying so this was a new experience for me.

The main ridge was not working too well but there was sufficient lift to allow me to take us down a valley and back again. As we approached the mouth of the valley on the homeward leg, Don took over and showed me how it was really done, taking us into a few cwms, hugging the contours, below the crest, below the hikers and close enough to worry the lambs. I could smell the mint sauce. At times, it seemed as if we were only six feet from the hillside but in reality we were probably no closer than seven or eight feet. Control was handed back to me for the landing which, as I'm here to write this, was probably successful.

I rarely fly anywhere but Shenington. I'm a 'local soarer' (Tysoe, out and return, is my contribution to the BGA ladder). However, this flight was unlike anything I'd experienced in the UK. Several Shenington members already do fly at Talgarth but, if you haven't and you fancy something different, get yourself there. I was lucky to be there on a warm, sunny and thermic day but ridge lift is their thing. Search the internet for Talgarth gliding videos and you may get an idea of what I'm banging on about.

As Al Cook mentioned in his blog for the 25th May, "Tomorrow looks good - in Wales!". It was.

Regards,
Paul (Duffy)

Sunday 26th May

After yesterdays flight in Wales we were tempted to go back again but after close inspection of the weather we thought that mid country would offer the best conditions. Today's N/W winds can produce a 'Cheshire Gap' effect, where moist air funnels off the Irish sea down into the Midlands, suspecting this we decided to stay in the centre of the country, so we set Sherborne, in Dorset, then up to Grantham, via the Oxford M40 Services.
Some high cirrus top cover delayed our launch but once we noticed the K13 staying up in the blue launched at 11:30.
Conditions were blue over the site with just the hint of Cu forming.

Over the site with 'nice clouds' in the distance. On the climb out the air felt good so it was with confidence that we set out on track. On blue days you look down for thermal clues so we routed via al the suposed 'hot spots', villages, towns, down wind of villages, down wind of towns, pig farms, quarrys, nothing! 1500' a nibble a turn, nothing, 1200' a nibble, a turn, nothing. A forming cloud - in the Brize zone, we have to turn away back into the blue! 800' a village scrappy un workable lift, Little Rissington 3km on our right is our bolt hole, at 600'  we start our final glide in to Little Ris. Game over? The clouds, you can see in  the picture above tantalisingly close! 400' crossing the village of little Rissington, we hit 4kts to 4000'! Brillant motivational (?) encouragement from Graham (!) stating that currently we are only doing 40kph! Game on! Conected with the clouds south of Cirencester now it was a fast run down to Sherborne.

  Condition up to Oxford were good with regular 5kt climbs. Pushing north from Oxford conditions blued out again but we managed to stay high. Task speed was well in to the 80kph range now so we were still looking for a 17:30 finish and a bank holiday BBQ with the kids. (good for brownie points)

 At last we were going faster than some of the sail boats on Rutland Water! GP was Happy! Turned Grantham at 5500', climbed to nearly 6000' near Melton Mobray on the way home. Had to break off our final thermal at Hus Bos in order to glide under the 4500' Daventry CTA. Final glide home under total blue conditions for a 17:30 arrival.

517km, 87kph, 5:55 airborne, 3080 ladder points. A grand day out!

Saturday 25th May

Another unsuccessful flight but one that will stick in the memory for many years! Wales once again lured by predicted cloud bases of 7 to 8000'. Initially planned an out and return to the Menai Strait. A turn point that we have been hoping to 'bag' since its introduction a couple of years ago, but because of the nice forecast we added a 2nd TP in mid Wales to extend the task out to 524Km. The only issue with chosing Menai is that it on the other side of Snowdonia.

Slowish progress up to the top of Wales due to the clouds not providing the types of climbs we expected, all rather scrappy with problems finding the solid cores which we felt were close by.  A 7kt climb north of Bidford indicated that the air was good but a low scrape away near Telford let us know that care was needed.

Approaching the Welsh mountains, the sky improved with solid looking clouds and what looked like an easy ride in to the turn point. But as we pushed in to the mountains the signs ahead said, sea air,  sea breeze, sea breeze front, scrappy climbs and a dis-organised sky

  Snowdon in the distance, our first TP on the other side, unfortunately the Sea air was lowering the cloud base and making it difficult to find a nice 'line' through the mountains.

 Note in the distance that the cloud is down on the hill tops, clearly Snowdon has its own weather effects caused today by the NW wind blowing off the sea on to the hills. Now in the mountains, over a 'moon scape', we needed a safe route out, pushing on past Snowdon through to Menai was not on due to the cloud base.

 We knocked chance of' 'bagging' Menai on then head 20km short and headed off south for our next TP Cray Reservoir, 120km south, just west of Brecon. Turning south, the sky still looked all over the place. We had to track well inland to stay ahead of the sea air, but as we ran down the side of the sea breeze front it was easy to maintain height, if fact, we didn't turn for about 40km, then only for a 6kt climb which took us back up to 5200' -  then on again for another 40km without turning, We left the front on track at 6400' !

 Only taking 6kts it was a great run down from the top of Wales through mid wales down to our 2nd TP. Cloud Bases now were 6400'. Reaching Cray Reservoir we connected with  the sea breeze front that had come up from the south coast of Wales! This took us up to 7000'!

 It was only a matter of getting the 140km home now. we glid out toward Hereford, the sky looked good, only 2000 below glide. Malvern, tracked south, down to 3000' needing a climb, we found nothing solid, oh not again! Sea air coming up the Severn Estuary? Climbs were not the strong ones we had been used to, Slow tip toe onto final glide at Tewksbury and home for 484Km and 5hrs 30.

Home

 

Tomorrow looks good ......in Wales!

Sunday 19th May

I'm pleased to report that the prior forecasts for Sunday were not correct, though it appears that many of you believed that it would be a dull grey day. Looked very promising in the morning so we beetled down to the gliding club and rigged H20, only fly in the ointment being that both batteries gave up the ghost as soon as plugged in! We got to the launch point just in time to see Alan & Trish launch in JYR - they disappeared off fairly quickly and weren't seen again for some hours having set a task to the west.

It was great to see Jaffa back on line - thanks to John R & Phil M. Here are a couple of shots snatched when Jaffa was (briefly) on the ground during a swopover! Eric, Dave P, Patrick, Jon L and Dave Griffiths all had good soaring flights, while Clive flew some visitors in the K21.

Tim Donovan was back in the air again, flying both in DVX and G-WAVY with Derrick, and looking very well after his recent operation. John Rogers flew his DG and John & I both had a long flight in H20, but that was it for the private gliders. The club gliders were kept quite busy, with most people getting a decent soaring flight. Alan & Trish came back late afternoon and reported conditions very difficult around Ludlow, we also had a visitor from Nympsfield who took at aerotow back home.

As you can see from the photos, visibility was a bit rubbish above 2,500ft and cloud base never seemed to get much above 3,000 locally. There were some great climbs early on - couldn't tell you about later as I had full electrical failure with a borrowed battery so had to rely on the 'Mark 1 backside' in absence of a vario!! Don't think my centring was very good, but managed to stay up, which was an interesting excercise in itself, though I don't think it would have been as much fun away from the airfield! The sky overdeveloped mid afternoon and was more difficult to work, but later on the sky opened up again and the thermals improved.
 

 Some local sightseeing....

Dave P. wonders where all the gliders went.....

 
Thanks to the duty crew, duty tuggie Dave G, the many winch drivers, and our cheerful instructors Phil & Gavin who supervised the day. After an early evening drink we retired to the pub for dinner. 

If you're in two minds as to the weekend forecast, I urge you to make the decision on the day and not to give up on the weather too soon. You may be pleasantly surprised.

Gavin's Report for the Week

An extended weekend gets the week off to a fantastic and although the wind and the weather finally halts flying on Thursday the forecast looks better further ahead.  It is a week returning old hands and of coincidences.

Monday 6 May

Bank Holiday Monday has a Festive feel to it and the weather plays along magnificently.  It's also clearly a day for couples.  Paul and Helen Juggins get the day started with Aerotows while Emily and Adam Highmore-Talbot share a day course and Russell and Dee take the K21 for a spin.  Bob King brings his family for a splendid picnic and it just so happens (purely coincidentally) that the Highmore-Talbots know Bob's Daughter Ellie.  Ellie has flown before and flies again.  Bob shows off in front of his family and goes soaring for an hour and a half to complete the second soaring flight for his cross-country endorsement. (For goodness sake do your bronze exams now Bob.)  Both Adam and Emily make spectacular progress through the day.  Dave Le Maistre and Paul Duffy alternate taking the Green HUSsey for a series of excursions and Brian Hucker, Dave Price and Terry Turner take turns in various club gliders.  Lucy flies her little red devil twice.  The first flight lasts 21 minutes and the second one three hours and five minutes.  Now if she had not bothered to land between these two flights she would have been up for a total of four hours and fifty six minutes, which was coincidentally exactly as long as Harry Abraham was up in one single flight.  I will not repeat Harry's words when he discovered he was four minutes short of a five hour flight (we may have younger readers) but the length of his flight is remarkable, irrespective, considering that he only launched at 13h54 and eked every last second out of the day to land only three minutes and 50 seconds short at 18h48. (No photo of Harry is included in case readers can lip read.)

 Ellie Walks

 While Emily Rides

Tuesday 7 May

As Mary pointed out (see below) the weather gods continued to smile on us.  If Richard Allen starred on the day with a 70 minute cross-country endorsement flight there were plenty of stellar performers in the supporting cast.  Suzie Sykes-Waller endures launch-failure practice with patience and determination while Gail does what she always does (disappears for ages), as does Jane, Eric and Russell.  Mary and I go cross country soaring (well, Mary does the soaring and I go along to keep her company, pointing out the old salt road and iron age hill forts) and Clive eventually prises the K6 from Eric's eager grasp to have a late afternoon bimble about.  Paul Barnes and Gail Jackson fly off for a while and Lech has a go.  The day ends with Shaun Badby (first flight in years and years) and myself finding terrific late afternoon lift and going on a little tour of the neighbourhood.  Shaun's smile at the end of the day would need a hammer and chisel to remove.  Welcome back to a life with your head in the clouds mate!

and Suzi Saunters

As Shaun Smiles


Wednesday 8 May

The theme of the week set, Returnees and Coincidences, the day had a certain inevitability about it so the deteriorating weather doesn't deter us.  First up was Howard Atherton, on a day course, who learned to fly 30 years ago, and then flew occasionally in California (aerotow only out in the desert).  After a 10 year lay-off he makes good progress.  Anya phones me from the office to say she has two people who have walked in off the street who were wondering if they could do a trial lesson. Answer: Of Course!  Now, these two gentlemen, Brian Layt-Williams and Robin Smitten are two glider pilots who have not flown for 4 and 29 years respectively, so on the airfield on the same day we coincidentally have forty three years of collective hiatus from flying and everyone returning on the same day.  It further transpires that Howard is a Cinematographer (having worked on a number of Hollywood blockbusters) and Robin (coincidentally) is the Projectionist at the cinema and theatre in Chipping Norton and has shown those movies regularly over the years.  Lech also returns (well, ok, from yesterday) and in addition to flying a few times provides invaluable help at the launch point.  Everybody makes good progress.  At the end of the day Robin and I are astonished to find lift and we go soaring under a line of cloud that just seems to go on for ever.  We thermal away and fly in smooth and increasing lift along the front of a line of cloud. We spin back into circuit to give Lech the last flight of the day.  The lesson?  Never underestimate the ability of a poor weather day to deliver a longer flight.

and returnees Howard, Robin and Brian reminisce.

Thursday 9 May

Today it is windy and rainy.  We do the paperwork on a few silver badge claims.  Remember when you want to make a badge flight to make sure that an Official Observer sees the logger go into the glider and leave and arrive back with you in place.  Remember to ask for advice before you launch on what is needed to get your badge claim recognised.  More information and the badge claim forms are available here http://www.gliding.co.uk/bgainfo/onlineforms.htm on the BGA website.

Friday 10 May

I'm off.  Bruno's BACK

NB.  Still written by a HUMAN. See if you can spot the deliberate mistake/omission/exception.  Answers on beer mats please.

Answer, yep!   It worked.  

Just want to thank Gavin for his amazing stamina and inspiration last few weeks as course instructor....and wasn't he lucky with the weather?   And thanks to Paul Barnes for changing the rear tyre on the K13.

While I was there yesterday, the last of the good weather on Tuesday, 7 May,  Richard Allen flew the K13 solo for 70 minutes, well done.   Gavin and I took an aerotow, and after an hour of looking at local historical and geographical features on a Kineton/Banbury/Hook Norton cross country, had to descend with airbrakes....could have stayed longer!  

Well, I've filled out all the forms and transcribed the wriggly writing, does that mean that I too can participate in Shenners Flying Reports?  

Sunday 5th May

Saturday dawned showery and gusty much to the disgust of those of us at work all week, forced to look out of our windows at a great sky (admittedly in my case in the middle of the Birmingham TMA!). I understand that the conditions improved late afternoon, but only Rowan went soaring thanks to an aerotow from Gary B. Rowan reported good climbs and high cloudbase so definitely worth the launch....

Sunday's forecast wasn't so good, but it seems the forecasts shouldn't be relied on as the threatened rain never materialised, and the grey cloud cover slowly melted away and became nicely thermic. Phil Marks was in charge again and doing a brisk trade in DVX, flying with club members and a number of trial lessons. There were also private gliders launched and off soaring - long flights were had by Charles & Lucy (not at the same time!) in DNW,  John & Tess (ditto) in H20, Robin in G2, Russell in JYR, Rowan in C2, and Paul M in his new toy HJZ....Cloud base wasn't as high as it looked, but it gradually worked its way up from 3000ft to c3900ft before turning blue (though still thermic) around 6pm. Paul Duffy, Norman and Dave lm put DVX through her paces when Phil was done, while Jackie helped out on the ground. Kevin performed another act of magic and managed to get the bus doors working again which is a special bonus when Eric (td) is about.....Thanks Kev.

There were a few bouts of motorgliding during the latter part of the day, and Jan & Ian popped in to say hello after flying out east for the weekend. They reported fantastic conditions in East Anglia...

All in all another enjoyable day at the airfield, and proof that the forecast shouldn't be believed over the view out of the window! See you all next weekend.....

Gavin's Report for the Week

Long soaring flights, personal accomplishments and considerable distances every day of the week, including people who are doing their first solo long soaring flights.  Where were you?

Monday 29 April

This morning we arrived at the 8 Acre to a finely manicured lawn. I had to do a double take because for a moment I thought I had arrived at  a golf course.  Apparently Clive and Carol Smith had taken the mower for a whirl over the weekend (you old romantics you!). Now while I know that strictly speaking this is not a flying activity (and yes, I know that this is a flying report) it was indicative of the start of what would turn out to be a brilliant flying week.  The smoothest of landings assured, we got under way with Kevin Mayor taking his first few launches in a glider.  Al Cook and Graham Paul disappeared into the distance, and Alan Langlands wandered off to go fly the Cotswold Edge.  Ian Atherton Rigged and flew his ASW 20 and and Clive and Robin Jackson did time before Robin and I bimbled about on a late afternoon sight seeing excursion along a ridge that wasn't quite working but triggered enough thermals for longer flights.

Tuesday 30 April

Would we see out April with only two non-flying days? YES!  Would we see a 750km flight from Shenington?  Very very nearly (See Al Cooks excellent report and photographs below). Only a matter of time now.  Phil Atkinson and Dave Smith go far too, and Alan Langlands disappears for hours for a "relatively" local flight on the day ("going on holiday tomorrow").  Eric Lown takes Cosy Pyjamas (No, not pipe and slippers) away for a cloud dance.  Suzi Sykes-Waller's skills improve in leaps and bounds.  Mary goes for a fabulous 45 minute flight and I take my sandwiches along for the ride.  Sadly it's still thermic and I have to wait until we land to have a cuppa.  Andrew Waller arrives later in the day and after an aerotow and three winch launches is flying the whole flight without me on the controls at all.  (If everybody continues to make this kind of progress I may have to consider early retirement.)  Lucy ends the day with aplomb aboard her Darn Nifty Wings.

Wednesday 1 May

Will May start where April ended?  YES!  Boy are we on a roll.  A blue day on which Al and Graham do more of the same and Phil Atkinson and Russell Dyer do even more than that.  Gail and Robin Jackson master the blue proving definitively that you don't need scattered cumulus to get out of bed and Eric does the President's Triangle with his logger turned off (see blow by blow account below).  The President's Triangle is an annual task set by our Club President Phil Brennan.  This year it is a 100km triangle that sees us visiting Northampton and Bicester.  As far as I know Eric's is the first successful attempt of the year but I would encourage early Cross-Country pilots to try it on good soaring days.  It's not called a Cross-Country Endorsement for nothing guys.  There will always be someone to advise before you set off, and also to retrieve if you experience the thrill of a landout.

Unusual birds continue to visit. This time a De Havilland DH87 Hornet Moth

Thursday 2 May

Russell Dyer and Maureen Tuffin get the day underway with a 40 minute flight in glorious sunshine while Paul and Al head off to Pocklington.  I think that Graham Paul has flown more miles this year so far than any other glider pilot in the country, proving that Shenington is the real UK soaring centre.  Bob King and I practice thermal centring for an hour or so and then Bob adds well over two hours to his personal best soaring time with a flight of nearly three hours, thereby completing a significant milestone towards his Cross-Country Endorsement.  Dave Smith flies for a few hours and then takes a couple of friends up at the end of the day (one at a time of course).  Harry Abraham and I go soaring in the K21 and have to resort to aerobatics to come back down (smiley face wink - or whatever it is that kids nowadays use to show delight).  Harry then grabs a logger and goes very high on his own.  When he lands his enormous smile tells me that he has his Silver Height Gain in the bag.

Bob climbing.  Is that a smile I see?

Friday 3 May

Lech Zakrzewski explores the early sky in a K13 and then we fly the K21 in preparation for a conversion to the Astir.  Robin Jackson and Jon Carleton take turns in G2 with both recording commendable soaring flights, John Le Coyte is away for hours and Gail Jackson and Paul Barnes politely return the K13 after an hour on high.  Tracey Turril has her first flight in a glider and we go inspect the Edge Hill Battle Fields (in which Tracy has an interest as a member of a historical reenactment society) from above.  Mike Miles and I explore lines of lift in the K21 flying from Shenington to Shipston without turning and gaining a thousand feet in height along the way.  Colin Hales (another significant contributor to the Shenington Success Story) puts in overtime to ensure that Lech has the Astir at the end of the day and he finally finally converts to glass.  Dave Gould agrees to "hanger land" DVX and lands an hour and a half later just as I was about to go check on his night rating.  Just reward for flawless tugging duties throughout recent weeks.

Mike rejoins the Miles High Club

Lech finally gets the better of the Astir


A week of stellar achievements, near stratospheric winch launches and spectacular skies. Remind me why you said you couldn't make it?

NB. This report is written by a HUMAN.  Mistakes are inevitable.  Let me know if I've made any and we can laugh about it together.

Eric's Day - May 1st

Today, 1^st of May, was blue, very blue,   But the forecast thermal activity was very positive. I was hoping, perhaps some time this year, to attempt a 300 k flight.  Today, being blue seemed to have too many constraints for that, and I thought I might try a little bimble around the back yard and assess my ability in dealing with blue thermals, if there were to be any! Accordingly I launched at 1200 and was swept up to 4000 ft by a single stonking updraught. I was surprised and pleased. Before launching I had somewhat optimistically put ‘President’s Triangle’ in the Cross Country Book, just to justify my launch on such a day!

Now at 4000 ft, I was facing a personal challenge. I had attempted on a number of occasions to fly this same task in company with my son, based in Hong Kong, on Condor, the Gliding Simulator software, where we can fly together [and where we find we can also chat together using SKYPE] and had only once previously got past TP1 which is NS [Northampton South]. So off upwind I plunged, knowing that I had an awful lot of potential at that height for getting things wrong, vis-à-vis finding and dealing with thermals, and still not getting me into too much trouble getting back to the airfield. And I did just that, for the next hour, gradually coming to the conclusion that the day was such that I was not going to be out of luck. NS was upwind at this point so, in a way, I had it easy because when I met a thermal the chances were that I was going to meet its companion, if it was lined up in the energy street, and so it turned out. Turning NS I had height in hand. Now for a run to BIC [Bicester] which had some tail wind in it. 

Much good it did me.  By the time I got to Silverstone, I was down to 1800.  

It was at this point when I mentally reviewed my past landouts, and went through my checklist [pity I hadn’t done it before I took off] and I realised that I had no money [there may have been coins but I couldn’t get into my trouser side pockets] and no phone. Silverstone as a landout has a certain mystique.  One hears stories. There was nothing happening on the race circuit. But I tried to imagine meeting a uniformed attendant and saying, ‘sorry about this, is there a phone box and can I borrow a florin’.

I had been spoiled, up to this point, with up to 8 knots of lift at times. But need and fear drove me in to a ‘whatever comes along will do ‘mode.  So I did.  And they did.  Mother Nature smiled on me. It’s difficult to convey the feelings of achievement on seeing that the next goal, which I had fondled imagined would be on the horizon, was in fact that splodge of green under the nose. I went round Bicester at 3000 again.

Now, pretty well dead into wind back to EDG.Very tempted by Upper Heyford.It’s been a big friend in the past. But I think I might have outgrown it.  Certainly on a day like this.  …………………………. But another saving thermal!!  How can EDG be so difficult to see from that direction? Only the position of Banbury and the good old GPS kept me safe.

If all the foregoing aren’t enough to warn you about the dangers of ignoring your training and briefings, hear this.  I cannot prove I did it.  I set up the GPS and logger in the cockpit on rigging, ran the test, and then, not wanting to be faced with a readout of nothing happening, because the AVGAS tanker pulled into the airfield as I sat at the launch point and prevented launching, I switched OFF the logger. You’ve guessed the rest. No logger.

If I need to prove my claim I am going to have to recover the trace from the Garmin GPS!  Oh, dear.

Eric (ntd) 

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.