Let Your Spirit Fly

Saturday 25th July 2015

5.30am. Equipment checked the night before, car packed. British Open Series, Round 3 in Mid Wales, here I come. Looking at the diary for the next month, it would come as no surprise that flying is a rather important part of my life. First this 5 day comp, then a couple of days later, heading off to Spain for a couple of weeks to train with Team GB and compete in the British Nationals, an international competition that attracts some of the best pilots in the world. How lucky am I  that I now work for a great company that understands flying, being the world's leading manufacturer and operator of indoor skydiving tunnels. 

After I hit the road at 6am I received a call from my oldest and dearest friend. His father had passed away in the night after losing the battle with cancer. He was one of those characters that formed a part of my childhood memories - a humble and kind man, and a rock to his family who all adored him. I am told to fly with the spirit of his dear Dad.

Back on the road and I was never going to make the comp briefing. so I arranged with the organisers to meet at the site of the day. The wind was already blowing strong in the valleys, but the Long Mynd in Shropshire was the place to go. "The Mynd" is a very popular flying site, with excellent potential for long flights across the UK, and the countryside in the area is stunning. As I arrived at 10.30am, the hill was already covered with rigged gliders. Right, no time to waste. Time to step in to action. By 11am, I was rigged and ready. Next thing, what to do with the car? Normally I would have travelled up from briefing in the retrieve car. Oh well, it would have to stay up the hill until I could get back later to pick it up. At least now I had a few minutes to catch up with friends - it's the old "band of brothers" thing again - it's a tight-knit community, but definitely not exclusive. Everyone goes out of their way to make new pilots and their families as welcome as possible. The BHGC works hard at bringing new pilots in to the competitive side of the sport with various initiatives to support  and nurture those participating for the first time.

The Task Board

At 12pm, the task briefing was called. As pilots fumbled with various electronic gadgetry to enter a newly created  waypoint, a 158km race to Aylesbury via a turn point at Banbury was called. A big task for the UK, and just short of the magic 100 miles, but London airspace effectively limits flights, unless you want to meet a 747 head on... A full site briefing was held. The Long Mynd Gliding Club operates just behind the the hang gliding take off and with up to thirty  pilots in the air alongside winch operations and sail planes on the ridge, we would all have to follow set procedures to stay safe.

Looking up to the north end of The Mynd

Not one to hang about on the hill, I was one of the first off as the "Launch Window Open" klaxon was sounded. Quickly settling in to being in the air again, I watched as a stream of pilots took to the air. I had turned right (North) up the ridge, whereas some of the other pilots including Gordon Rigg, turned left to the south end, potentially to make it easier to get over the back away from the gliding operations. I struggled for some time to get high, being teased by strong cores that then broke up. I could hear Luke Nicol and Gordon on the radio flying together, and leaving the hill at the first Start Gate at 1.15pm. So I headed to the South side and guess what? I got the climb and got away!  I've got to get my starts sorted...

I think that's Ludlow!

Drifting over the back I was now at least half an hour behind the lead gaggle but there were still several pilots around me. Making cloud base for the first of many times, and with various "lessons learned" from previous flights here, I knew that heading for Clee Hill would probably end in a quick landing, so I chose a route to the south, heading for the upwind edge of the clouds and over sunny ground.  I was soon hunting for lift over Ludlow, keeping an eye on the gliders to the north of the town. If they started climbing I intended to race over and join them. Instead and after searching over the town, I  found a nice climb. As my lift accelerated several gliders came to join me including Darren Brown and Wayne Thompson. My "Push-To-Talk" switch on the radio was broken, but I could hear them discussing that I was turning left, and they were turning right, so I repositioned myself in the thermal and started turning right. Nice and safe for everyone. Don't want any more "proximity calls" do we????

With dark cloud bases lining up downwind, it was tempting to head straight for them, but the shadowing on the ground was widespread. What if I didn't "connect" with the cloud? What next? With so much shadow killing off any land warming, I did not want to be low over it. Stick to the plan: head for the upwind side of a cloud with upwind ground also in sunshine,visualising where the column of warm air would be connecting ground and cloud. It might not be on track, but a better chance of staying in the air. Beep........ Beep......Beep.. Beep Beep Beep.....! Got it. 

The journey to the first turn point was relatively slow. Continually working "off track" options, but importantly still in the air. To the North of Worcester, Wayne and I joined up again and he caught a belter of a thermal. I was climbing well but left him to enjoy his roller coaster ride. Cloud base and time for a glide.Continuing down towards the turn point I started get low again. Come on. 2000 foot above the ground. 1500'... 1200'... Something start working. Please. Thinking of my childhood friends Dad, I was urging the day to deliver. I felt an overwhelming sense of sadness as I started sizing up landing options.

Getting low with "the street" starting to develop to goal.

Come on, Ben. Don't give up.

With renewed focus, I started working hard. Very hard. 

Beep...... Something was bubbling. 

Beep...... Beep...... Slow up and start searching. 

COME ON.

Beep. Beep. Beep. 

YES

After exploring the area, often pushing back up wind while slowly descending, I found it.

Who knows what happened in those minutes, but I did not feel alone. Strange thing, the power of thought and spirituality.

From that moment on the flight completely changed. Slowly but surely I started climbing again, and was soon heading  back up to cloud base and easily made the turn-point. I met up with Steve Penfold on his Airborne glider for one of the last climbs of the day. Having had to continually assess where the next climb was going to come form, the sky magically paved a way all the way to goal, some 40km away. 

Clouds paving the way to goal

A glorious cloud street set up as far as the eye could see. As I pulled on speed I raced along, flying faster than I have ever flown before, ducking in and out of the cloud street. I thought Steve was coming with me but I think the speed with which I took off caught him by surprise! Even flying with the bar to my knees I was still going up. 

Gliding along the edge of the clouds

Covering the ground at 120+kph it would not take me long to get there.  4,500'... 4,700'... With airspace at 5500' I was concerned about being sucked in to it, and getting disqualified, so I zig-zagged alongside the cloud to find what little sink there was. Unbelievable. 

And  there was goal. Not difficult to spot from 4,000! I flew over the wind turbine in the middle of the 1km finish radius and could see a field slightly beyond with hang gliders. But how to get down? I was still climbing so headed back up course, with Tim King on his rigid flying nearby. And then the realisation that I had been flying for 5 hours hit me. Having suffered "random cramp" (an inexplicable and  unpredictable severe cramp in my left leg that is the only side effect of my back op) several times in the flight, and feeling exhausted, I just wanted to land. I eventually found some sink and started spiralling down. 

Thumbs up for goal!

The landing field and the street clearly visible

Touch down!

Touch down. I had made it. I was greeted and congratulated by Team GB and fellow Wills Wing pilot Phippsy from Cloud 9 who took the obligatory goal picture. Neville Almond , flying his first competition task for many years, was already packed and ready to go having stormed the course on his ATOS glider. 

158kms later, one happy pilot!

.After all the big flying I have done over the years at home and abroad this was my first "BOS" goal. I am still a relative newcomer to competitions with this being only my third full season, and up against pilots with more than twenty years of competition experience. Other Team GB pilots were of course also "in". Carl, Gordon, Dave...it was good to be in a goal field with such company.  Now I just need to be there first...

Preliminary results here.

Track logs in from Livetrack24 here.

Wet and Windy

Sunday 12th July 2015

A new full time job and normally in single Dad mode at the weekends, flying is pretty much restricted now to competitions, or the occasional bit of dual flying with the boys.
But today Sunday, a day off. Predicatbly the forecast was looking pretty grim.

Not to be deterred and keen to maximise the opportunity I scoured the forecasts, looking for a window to get airborne. 15-25mph SW, RASP indicating lift between 0 and 400fpm, and a cloud-base between 1000 and 4000', plus rain. Hmm. Not too much to get excited about. One glimmer of hope: there seemed to be a spell of "better" weather between 12 and 2pm.... All I wanted was a clear window to take off and embark on a short XC. Decision made. Milk Mountain, here I come.

The view from Milk. Not too bad...

Not unexpectedly I was the only one at the hill bar a walkers car parked at the top. The wind was blowing a steady 15mph up the slope and not too gusty - good Milk conditions. I rigged at the lower take off but by the time I was sorting the instruments out, the wind had picked up in strength and gustiness. Looking south west towards Westbury, the sky seemed brighter, with an acceptable cloud base. To the West, there were signs of rain which would easily pass the area by. All ready to go, I sat it out for a while, waiting for the conditions to settle back again. After twenty minutes, and having asked a passing walker to watch me off, I clipped in, and with a couple of steps was up and away from the hill.

Lumpy. Very lumpy. Thankfully there was plenty of punchy lift in amongst the turbulent air, and I quickly gained 400'. Thinking that it might be safer to push forward on to the White Horse face with more open landing areas, I pulled on speed and glided cross wind to the ridge but was not rewarded with better air. 

After a while exploring the ridge, and contemplating a run down to Martinsell, but I was not convinced there was enough South in the wind to enable a ridge run. I retreated back to the bowl and immediately climbed again. Up and down. Up and down. It was a bit of a roller coaster. The trees on the hill were thrashing about, so I pushed forward to the White Horse again. Nope, no better, so I retreated once more to the bowl.  It was becoming apparent that I was having to fly very fast to keep my position over the ground and occasionally was being sunk out to ridge height. With rain now directly approaching,  I was becoming uncomfortable with the flying conditions so decided it was time to land. Unfortunately I was running out of safe landing options. No to the potential rotor in the bottom landing, no to the designated top landing with upwind trees, and not enough height to push on to the south ridge again and the large open fields. So I opted to make an "emergency" landing in the larger "in crop" top landing field, aiming for the mowed path by the fence, and in sight of a group of walkers on the Ridgeway. A quick downwind leg and I was fighting to keep the glider straight as pulled in speed to clear the fence at the back of the field. Pulling hard on the left upright I just managed to touch down before I got turned out of wind. I had missed my spot by about 5 feet. I could not rerig fast enough to beat the onslaught of rain. And boy did it rain. A proper downpour. Good job I wasn't still flying.

Oh well, it might not have been an epic flying day, but just for a short, sweet, amount of time I had escaped  in to the world of free flight... It does your soul the world of good!