Monday 2 July 2012

Sunday XC

Despite the weather, Booker managed to go XC yesterday. After a full, blustery, showery, standard summer day the sky cleared and the club gridded. 968 (MiniGat), 768 (SuperWill), HA (Ryan O'Collett). J1M, KV (Baker Steve) and 969 (Geoff Lyons) lined up on the grid.

Will set MEM o/r into the 20kt SW'ly and Mike C, Will, and I set off into a promising sky. Mike Gatfield would have joined us but fell down.Will chose the sun near Benson whilst Mike C and I chose the black line going towards NEW. Looking at the traces the black line worked OK but we had no decent thermals to climb in. With the strong wind that meant going backwards whenever we tried to climb! Will on the other hand had some decent climbs but with his usually boldness sped towards the turn and the ground for a couple of long grovels near MEM.

Bored and frustrated with the lack of climbs I also went into the turn but ended up scratching off the ridge SW of MEM (there is one if you get low enough). Mike, on the other hand, invoked his girly side and stayed really high around the turn and then bimbled home. If you doubt my story, a quick look at the trace will show that he climbed onto a 27:1 glide in a 50:1 glider with a 21kt tail wind!

After my climb I had a fabulous run home starting 400ft below glide with a good line and ending up 1500ft over by the ridge. All home, dead slow, honours went to Will (who else?), beers in the Grouse.

Jim

2 comments:

Brian said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Brian said...

Great write up Jim. Just goes to show with skill, tenacity and optimism there is still flying to be had!

I've got a cunning idea to slow Will down.

Let's put him in a 'rubbish' glider, say something with no penetration into 20Kn headwinds, and an absolute best glide angle of 30:1... and then see how quick he flies!

....oh wait a minute...