Guest post by Mark Dalton
Thursday 3rd July was widely reported to be the ‘day of the year’. And it was. Sort of. But perhaps not quite as good as we had hoped – the height of convection a mere 6,500 ft and not, as confidently predicted by Skysight, the 8,300 ft we had been promised. However, we didn’t know that as we excitedly declared a 754 km back and forth across middle England. Probably a good thing we didn’t – 754 kms is a long way in anyone’s book, especially when it takes nearly 9 hours! The longest flight, time wise, I have ever done.
So, to the flight itself. We had a cunning plan to start immediately after release from the tug, the theory being that we would be high enough and close enough to the line to make it worthwhile. Of course, as is often the case, we pulled off in heavy sink and far lower than we had promised ourselves. We crossed the start line somewhere between 2000 and 2500 feet and struggled to stay at that height until Bedford, when we managed a 3 knotter to the dizzying height of 3,500 ft. After that it became easier with thermals developing to a blistering 4 kts average so that the run to Hay East was fairly straightforward. Using the theory that you should always approach an upwind turnpoint as low as you dare, we did just that and turned at around 1900 ft. Not uncomfortably low, but still (actually we didn’t do it on purpose- we just couldn’t find any usable lift).
We pushed on eastwards, slowly drifting downwind. At 1200 ft, things were becoming a little more serious. Our normally jovial conversation had become monosyllabic, we had to put away our shortbread biscuits, apples, half eaten sandwiches and other paraphernalia and concentrate on the job in hand, so that it was with some relief that we finally hooked into a half knotter over the tiny village of Staunton on Wye, which kept us afloat.
A further climb over the delightfully named Stretton Sugwas, took us to nearly 5,000 ft and we were back in the game, egging each other on to ‘go faster’ ! Our average XC speed at that point was 85kph, with an ETA back home of 1840, which didn’t seem to bad, particularly since the sky ahead looked promising and our XC speed likely to increase. After that, things took a turn for the better with regular 6kt climbs to just under 6,000 ft all the way to Bury St Edmunds, where again we turned and made our way upwind, this time turning at Broadway, just west of Chipping Campden in the beautiful cotswolds.
Soon after the turnpoint, we met up with Graham Drury in his ASW27B and having been warned by Wendy Head, in her ASG29, that things were ‘a bit flat after Towcester’ we decided to stick together on the principle that (as a gliding mate of mine once said) ‘two gliders flying together hardly ever land out. Three gliders flying together never do’. Try as we might, we couldn’t find a third glider going our way! In the end, we both took a nice climb to 5,800 ft over Milton Keynes and flew home together in quiet (smug) satisfaction, to cross the line at an XC speed of 88kph. Happy days.
– Mark
