Thursday 22 May 2014

The Man That Never Flies Anywhere And The 100 Mile Club


Sunday 18th May 2014

I have been flying since the early eighties. That's nearly twenty years chasing clouds (taking in to account time out from the sport). Initially I didn't get involved with competition flying, but that didn't mean that the flying was any less adventurous or challenging. 15000' cloud bases and very long flights in South Africa, being the first to make a 75km task to goal in Hungary during a free flying practice week of "The League", exploring little known flying sites abroad, squeezing in to small landing fields on my Solar WIngs Scandal. I know I can fly, and sometimes pretty well. 



So the start of my season this year has been what you might call a wee bit frustrating. Low XC scores, unorthodox landings and failed take offs, a near miss with a Paraglider. It had felt as though nothing was going right. And if beating myself up about it wasn't enough, there were rumblings that "Ben never flies anywhere...". Who needs enemies, and all that. The nice surprise this year though was winning the Royal Aero Club "Prince of Wales Cup" (awarded to Team GB for winning Bronze Medal at the 2013 World Championships) and receiving the award from HRH Duke of York at the very swanky RAF Club in Piccadilly.

Even though I had been sceptical about the forecast for last weekend, it had surprisingly been improving during the preceding days, much to the delight of Tim King who had been watching the forecast with great expectations of a good day. Saturday had delivered mediocre flying conditions for a days towing , but the start of Sunday was bright and breezy, the wind blowing strongly from the SSE. Well, at least the PGs would be grounded to give the HGs more room to find a climb (or so we thought). A few phone calls later and Tim had persuaded me to go to the best site for the day ("don't worry about the logistics") and agreed to meet at the Mere "Rifle Range" in South Wiltshire, just off the A303, while Rich Hunt and Andy Hollidge, driving down from Cambridgeshire, opted to go for my local site Milk Hill. Launching from Mere would buy Tim and I a further 30km, and we did try and persuade them to join us...

RASP Forecast showing good lift for Southern England

I was out the house by 8.15 for the hour long 70km drive to Mere. One of the first to arrive I walked to the front and immediately got that "butterfly" feeling of anticipation and excitement. The wind was spot on the hill and blowing 15-20mph. If the thermic activity kicked off and we could get away from the hill, then some serious distance could be covered.  Soon more HG pilots arrived, and a good number of PG pilots. I rigged behind a mound in the field to protect the glider and by 11am was ready to fly, apart from deciding and declaring my route for the purposes of maximising scores in the UKNXCL. After a brief conversation with Tim as he rigged his rigid, and having asked Tim if I could get a lift back with him, I decided to follow his declared flight plan of 160km to a goal near Dudley on the West side of Birmingham, navigating past several airspace restrictions. I downloaded the coordinates to my main GPS and texted the declaration to Phil Chettleburgh (our Scorer) and returned to my glider for final preparation: Glider rigged - check. Main GPS  - check. Back up SeeYou IGC flight recorder - check. KOBO rolling airspace map (also a second back up flight recorder)  - check. Radio - check. Right, good to go.


At around 12pm I launched in to a lovely fresh breeze with the signs of nice cumulus starting to form. Very quickly I stumbled in to a good climb which took me immediately to over 2000'. As I drifted quickly over the back, Grant gave me the heads up over the radio that more cloud was forming up wind so, wanting to wait for Tim to launch, I pushed forward of the ridge again, something which almost cost me the day. For the next hour I was part of a gaggle of rigid and flex wing hang gliders and paragliders thrashing about at ridge height, trying to core lumpy gnarly thermals. One rigid went to the bottom while a couple of other hang gliders landed as soon as they could. A yellow canopy paraglider pilot flew in company with me as we got thrown about on the West side of the ridge. Having to focus hard on keeping the gliders pointed where we wanted to, I could not believe my eyes when a light blue and white canopy below us started doing acrobatic manoeuvres right in front of take off while we were all struggling to safely stay in the air. This selfish act basically took away 50% off the usable flying space, making the East side of the bowl even more crowded as we all opted to stay away from the dangerous antics.

Longleat House and Safari Park
Shortly afterwards Tim started to climb slowly from the hill, drifting low over the back but hanging on to the thermal he had cored. I missed the boat, and caught glances of him getting further away as I battled to stay up. His dulcet tones came over the radio: "Hurry up Ben. You can bring the sandwiches..." For a further hour I fought to find a climb out and was eventually rewarded with a solid 3 up which I knew I was going to take over the back. I was very relieved to be leaving the turbulent mess of the Mere bowl behind. I decided to stay as long as I could with this first climb. With the wind blowing at times over 30kmh the drift underneath my forming cloud would quickly take me away from the hill. As I reached cloudbase for the first of many times, I began to relax, taking in the beautiful sight of Longleat House and Safari Park (and yes, I flew over it high as I didn't fancy being lion dinner), and the views to the East of the Westbury White Horse and the Bratton Camp ridge.

Drifting on the edge of a cloud
waiting for things to develop
A glide in to the blue
A big blue hole appeared downwind towards Melksham and Trowbridge so I patiently drifted with my cloud until it started dissipating. As I took the glide out in to the blue, unable to reach an excellent looking sky much further downwind, a few whisps of cloud started forming East of my glide so I diverted towards them. Bingo. Back up to 4000'. And that was the pattern of the first 40km of the flight. Glide, climb, drift, glide climb, drift... With the Bath Gap approaching the Mini Kobo e-Reader runniung XCSoar really came in to its own. The clarity with which you can read the map, your projected glide direction and glide angle is fantastic. Always gliding to the NE I was on a perfect course to clear the East tip of the Gap and make it to the M4 and a turnpoint at Sutton that was set to help guide us through airspace. Strangely the Kobo kept dropping its GPS fix. probably due to my dodgy soldering but a quick reboot mid-flight seemed to do the trick.

North of the M4 and it was a great to fly over my old stomping ground of South Gloucestershire, even flying over the old family home near Minchinhampton, where the open common land created an inviting landing field to go for Sunday tea with Mum and Dad, and an easy retrieve back home. But, with the thought of Tim racing on ahead, and superb cloud streets forming both over the Severn Vale and the Cotswold Hills, there was only one thing to do: Push on. And fast.


The first cloud street of the day over the Cotswolds

Suddenly my GPS stopped recording my track. First the Kobo and then this? I thought that carrying three flight recorders, and a back up mobile using the Tracker app to send location updates via text and Livetrack24, would be enough to log the flight. But now I was getting concerned. 

Finding lift low over Cheltenham
(Race Course in the background) 
"Fly the sky!" is a saying often quoted by Nev Almond, one of the UKs most experienced XC hounds. Well Sunday was a classic example of that. With Gloucester and Cheltenham now firmly in my sights I was choosing my route to get round Gloucester Airport based on the sky. I decided to glide to the East of the airspace, aiming to go over the middle of Cheltenham which had a nice looking cloud over it. As I pushed on through heavy sink, I approached Cheltenham lower than I wanted to be,and began scouting out various large playing fields in the centre of town. Luckily my right wing started lifting, indicating that over to the right there could be lift. Now sizing up Cheltenham Race Course as a possible "bomb out" landing zone I turned right over the town and was rewarded with a 2 up climb which took me back to base at the start of a cloud street directly on track.

 With no airspace to worry about and about 70kms to go, I pulled on speed, and headed straight down the street. At times I was covering the ground at 120kmh. With an improving sky, it was at this moment that I realised that maybe, just maybe, I was going to make goal. I was getting tired after four and a half hours in the air, but a quick calculation reassured me that at this speed I could be in goal easily within the hour. Virtually following the M5 past Tewkesbury, Worcester and the Malverns, Birmingham became visible to the North East. I was getting close to goal. I began to look at my "Glide Ratio to Goal". 30;1, 25:1, 23:1, 20:1 - it was coming down very quickly. I wanted 15:1 or less to think about a final glide in with a possible top up if necessary. 30kms to go and it was going to be one more climb and glide to get in. It was all happening very quickly.

Climbing East of Kidderminster 15kms out I decided to go for goal. Ahead I could see the town of Stourbridge and my final destination of Wombourne beyond. I  knew from the angle at which I was approaching, that goal was in the bag. And then I looked up. Clouds were still well formed. I had a quick glance at the Kobo to appraise the onward journey...Voices in my head were telling my to carry on. 

Final approach in to Wombourne

Luckily my brain switched in to common sense mode. One of the reasons to fly the same plan as Tim was to make sure I could get a lift back (in time for shooting a commercial in Wales on Monday).  As I made the goal radius, I sized up a large open landing field on the south edge of town, near to the main road and a cricket match. Burning off the extra height, it was apparent that the wind was still very strong, but I made a perfect touchdown in the middle of the field away from any rotor inducing obstacles.

100 MILES!

I quickly unclipped and phoned Tim to ask him if he was in goal:
"Of course. And I am having a BBQ and a beer. Where are you?"
"In goal" Silence. "No! Really?"
"Yep, I've just landed at Wombourne by the cricket club".
"Well done. We better come and find you..."

When I went to check my back up track, my heart sank. The IGC recorder on the iPhone had not recorded the track. Trying not to panic, I checked the Tracker App on the back up Android phone. S**t. No data sent. This could not be happening. There was only one last chance; my newly built Mini-KOBO/GPS unit running XCSoar is meant to record tracks, but as it was the first time that I had used the instrument on a scoring flight, I had never checked the files. The only way to check is to plug the unit in to a computer, which led to an agonising 36 hour delay before I could find out if my 100 mile "declared goal" flight could be verified.


Dave the farmer
While de-rigging the local farmer and owner of the field kindly came over to check that I was OK. When he asked where I had flown from, thinking that it would have been somewhere local, he was very surprised to hear that I had flown up from South Wiltshire. Because I had concerns over my track log we exchanged contact details in case I needed a landing witness. 



Babs Raymond
(C) Hampshire Chronicle
As I finished packing up the glider, Tim and his BBQ host Dave arrived and took me back to the paddock near to where Tim had landed and where the BBQ was in full swing and the beer flowing. What a great way to celebrate the flight thanks to some generous Black Country hospitality! Perhaps we should set this as a BOS goal field? At around 8pm Tim's partner Babs arrived after driving the 100 miles AND having cycled 50 miles to the hill to pick the truck up... well, it was planned as training for the 400 mile  "Help For Heroes - Big Battlefield Bike Ride" charity cycle ride, but nonetheless respect is due.

Tim with the Dudley BBQ Crew,

Back home at midnight. Where's the cable for the Kobo? In the car. Where's the car? At launch. I set my alarm for 4am to give me time to cycle the 70kms to the hill, drive back, shower, download the track, and drive off to work. Unsurprisingly when the alarm did go off I quickly reconsidered the decision and went back to sleep!

Needless to say that I managed to meet my colleagues en route to Wales to shoot a test commercial for AT&T, our location conveniently being at the top of Pen Y Fan, the highest peak in South Wales. Again arriving home at midnight, I grabbed some sleep before jumping on the bike and cycling to the hill (I think the urgency to find out the outcome of the track saga helped me average 19.6mph over the two hour ride!) As soon as I had driven home and was through the door the Kobo was plugged in and with some "live" email support from Miles Hockcliffe (the Mini Kobo/GPS/XCSOar guru) I managed to download the tracks and immediately dispatched them to Phil for ratification.

My track in purple, Tim's track in red

Later that evening I received a brief Skype message "All good. Check UKNXCL". And there it was. Clear as day. 197.5 points.  And who was it that said I don't fly anywhere? Well, stick that in your pipe and smoke it!

197.5 points (158.13km x 1.25 multiplier)

Thanks again to Babs for the retrieve, to Phil the scorer for working on the tracks and to the Dudley Crew for their amazing hospitality.


And of course, the flight would not have been possible without my trusty steed, my Wills Wing T2C 144, and the support of Cloud 9 Hang Gliding and Paragliding 



Lets hope things keep improving...

Saturday 10 May 2014

Wednesday 7th May 2014 - British Open Series, Round 1, SE Wales. Off to a flying start?

Friday 2nd May. Glider checked and serviced with new wires. Instruments checked. Car packed. Room booked in shared cottage (thanks to Major Jenny "Ma'am" Buck for organising). Off to Wales I went for the much anticipated Round 1 of the British Hang Gliding Open Series (BOS) 2014. The first of three 5 day competitions held at different locations throughout the UK


Arriving late in the evening I stopped by The Vine Inn in Llangatock, just on the outskirts of Crickhowell. Jill and Andrew always make us feel very welcome, have the fire going, serve up excellent food, have some nice ales on tap, and put up with us "playing" their selection of hunting horns! Perfect. I was looking forward to seeing my flying friends, most of whom I don't see for months over the Winter. Funny old way of life! 
After an evening catching up with old mates, I finally left the pub a bit later than intended and made my way up to Tim and Babs caravan where I slept in the hammock (the cottage's heating had broken down so was not available until the Saturday). 


Saturday 3rd May
Bleary eyed and with frozen legs, I woke to blue skies and morning sunshine...

The Blorenge
Summoned to briefing by the blast of the air horn, and after a remote weather forecast from our resident weather guru Rebekah Sherwin (a professional weather forecaster and partner to one of our pilots - how lucky are we?!), Nick Pain, our new Meet Director, quickly dispatched us off to The Blorenge, a 1700' mountain over looking Abergavenny. WIth light SE winds and reasonable thermic activity forecast, a high launch point was needed to give pilots time in the air to find some lift. A few 4x4 trips later and the entire field of 40+ pilots were busy rigging on the SE face, in amongst a handful of solo and dual PG pilots. In the light winds, the shallow take off slope provided some entertainment as we watched PG pilots either just making it over the lip of the hill or piling in before it. May be it was a sign of things to come...


(C) Claudia Keller
Air horn blast. Briefing. A 105km "Out and Return" race to goal was called. With crowded rigging and launch area pilots were trying to find the best place to launch in the variable conditions. The wind on the hill was indicating SE, the clouds NE, and occasionally the wind switching around on the hill - it was going to be critical to get the take off right.

After a fair bit of waiting around, and pilots shuffling from one TO area to another, Justin Needham launched in to what can best be described as "scratchy" conditions. Often disappearing down the inhospitable south side of the hill but clawing his way back up. An inspiring effort.


(C) Claudia Keller
As more and more pilots launched and started maintaining height, I prepared to launch from the NE spur - the switching winds were making decisions quite difficult, however with Wack Juan Owt and Carl Wallbank launching just in front of me, I was good to go. As a rigid dropped in to my launch spot, I was left with a shorter run and a second "lip" to clear.  Gliders above and below were starting to climb. Now was the time to launch. With a slight breeze blowing up the hill and with a good take off, I would soon be climbing with them. 

After committing to a take off, apparently the wind switched and was blowing across, not up, the hill. With the shorter run, and the lip to clear, I was doomed. Before any "incident" there is always a nano-second when you know it is going wrong. Its that crucial awareness and the action you take which will dictate whether you walk away or end up injured. Luckily I let go of the glider before impact. Damage? Two broken uprights. Injuries: A bit of a sore shoulder but mainly badly bruised pride and confidence. Thanks Lorenzo for calmly organising the clear up process. The thing about a flying accident is that it is normally 100% pilot error. No-one to blame but myself, and that hurts. 

As I de-rigged the glider and listened on the radio I could hear the excellent progress that some of the pilots were making - Gordon Rigg, Jusitn Needham, Grant Crossingham, Dave Matthews, Tony Stephens, Wack Juan... the usual suspects were storming the course. Oh well, nothing like really rubbing your nose in the s**t just to make you feel better!

Driving back down the hill we had to assist Sue Brooks who had spiked the tyre of their 4x4 Skoda on a nasty sharp rock.  To be fair, I thought it was brave bringing a car, rather than a truck, up the track. Oh well, I could do some good today by helping lift the front of the car to get the jack underneath, change the wheel, and then drive the car to a safe spot.
Phippsy mends my T2C
Back at the camp site I stripped off the broken uprights from the glider, ready to put on the new parts supplied by Cloud 9. With their help the glider was soon back in one piece and ready to fly. Phippsy from Cloud 9 Hang Gliding and Paragliding is a superb dealer - I bought my excellent Wills Wing T2C from him in the previous year because the support he offers to customers and pilots competing at the BOS and the Nationals (held abroad) is second to none. In fact, up until recently he has been the ONLY dealer to support the flying community in this way, and even sponsors the competitions by providing day prizes to task winners and for exceptional performances. 

A bad day for me, but a good day for many others.  With Brit Champion Tim King returning after injury and getting to goal, Luke Nichol, flying his new ATOS VR won the Class 5 task, giving more senior members of Team GB (flying at the Class 5 World Championships in June), a run for their money.

Well, tomorrow is another day...




Sunday 4th May 2014

After the usual critical self analysis of yesterdays events and a good nights sleep I was keen to get back in the saddle, rid myself of any gremlins, and get on with some decent flying. Nant Y Moel was declared as the site for the day - a SW facing hill rarely used for hang gliders because of the inhospitable terrain "over the back". A  race to goal via one turn point was declared.

(C) Claudia Keller
Kathleen Rigg launched early as a non-competitor to get some clear airspace, with Cyril Stewart taking off just as the launch window opened. Both pilots started climbing slowly but with warnings of not going on task until at least 1000' above take off and in a climb, everyone watched with interest as Cyril drifted over the back. Would he go? No. Obviously not confident that the lift would continue he glided back to the front arriving very low. And that was not the only entertainment Cyril was going to provide for the day...

(C) Claudia Keller
With the steady breeze slightly off the hill, the ridge was ridge soarable which tempted a stream of pilots off the hill. A couple of unfortunate pilots coudln't stay up and headed for the bottom landing area, a sports field a good glide away that was just upwind of a cemetery and housing estate.  Justin "I can climb on a gnats fart" Needham was one of them - he got a lift back up and subsequently relaunched...

As I queued up behind Lorenzo Labrador and Richard Hunt someone shouted "He's landed on a house!" With radio messages flying around to try and ascertain whether the pilot was injured, pilots who had landed rushed down the road to the cemetery. The pilot was Cyril. His landing remarkable. The picture tells the story. Never before have we seen a glider landed successfullly in such a tight space. Either incredibly skilled or ridiculously lucky, Cyril had used up all our "nine lives" in one go.

Cyril "Lucky" Stewart
(C) Richard Wellbourne

In company with Grant Crossingham
With some high cloud cutting out the heat from the sun, it became obvious that the day was going to be challenging. I moved forward to launch and immediately caught a weak climb to clear take off and give me scope to explore the ridge, looking for areas of better lift. Luke Nichol was the first to make it away from the ridge while the bottom landing field claimed a few more victims. One pilot decided turning left would mix things up a bit, but after shouts from others the message got through


The view looking South East across launch

Frequently climbing but getting drilled on glides forward, it was frustrating getting high but not maintaining the climb to get over the back. Looking back downwind at the valleys beyond, I could understand the warnings of clearing the first valley. Landing options did not fill me with great confidence of taking the plunge, and after yesterdays events, I wanted to ensure a good outcome for today's flying.

After about an hour of flying both Phippsy and I were climbing well within a few hundred metres of each other. The views from 3000' towards the coast were fantastic. As we climbed I noticed Phippsy's climb accelerate but not wanting to get drilled on a glide I stuck with my climb. Unfortunately the lift died as Phippsy continued upwards, leaving me behind while he turned down wind and went. I darted over to where he had been but had missed my last opportunity to leave the hill.

A 3000' view to the South West with bottom landing in the valley below
Gliding forward with Darren
The next hour was spent trying to get away but with weakening climbs and time getting on, I was going to have to make a decision about calling it a day. Darren Brown was flying near to me and we took a couple of last climbs before I headed out in to the valley towards the bottom landing field. Darren managed to scratch back up for a top landing, while I set up my approach away from the cemetery over a more open piece of ground. With a glide cross wind along the base leg I turned into wind around the rugby posts and landed. Gremlins gone, but a bit disappointed not to have left the hill.

The early land by time had been set to allow all the pilots to attend the usual BOS meal, held at every round of the competition. This year, it was going to be a very special evening. In memory of Pete Coad, a truly inspirational HG Meethead who died suddenly at the end of last year, this years meal was a Memorial Dinner. As a mark of respect for his positive attitude on life we all wore Hawaiian shirts, Pete's trade mark item of clothing.
Angela Coad, Pete's wife, had come to join us for the entire competition, camping in the "van" they had bought to enjoy travelling. At the meal, Angie was presented with the BHPA's "Presidents Trophy", posthumously awarded to Pete for his outstanding contribution to hang gliding. He is sorely missed.



Monday 6th May - Blown Out
A day for Parachute Repacking (courtesy of Greg Emms), Competition Flying Talk (Gordon Rigg and Cloud 9 Hang Gliding), "How To Use Tracker" (Richard Hunt), a BHGC Panel meeting, and making up Mini Kobo/GPS/XCSoar units (Miles Hockcliffe). 


Tuesday 7th May
A day for Methyr Tydfil. A brisk SW wind was forecast with low cloud base and freshening winds. With a diminished number of pilots, the flying circus headed off to the site, notorious for its dumped waste and car break-ins, but famous for delivering some excellent flying. I had previously done a personal best from Merthyr and looking at the sky, was getting excited that today could also turn out well. A straight race to goal was set with a single early start gate to encourage pilots to get "on course" sooner rather than later due to the forecast of worsening conditions. 


Check out the angle of the rigid...!
Rigged and ready to go, the sky was soon filled with a mixture of Class 1 flexwings andClass 5 rigid wings. The conditions were decidedly "bumpy", causing some extreme flynig attitudes, especially for the rigids. Luke Nichol reported later that he had nearly been tipped over (inverted)


Playing catchup with gliders above



With only few patches of sunlight, it was not ideal to think about leaving the hill - again, staying high during the first part of the flight was very important to get out away from the valleys to the flat lands. As a better cycle came through, the whole ridge seemed to start working. Gordon in the lead gaggle gave a heads up that he was close to going. Starting to close in on the gaggle, but lower than I would have ideally liked, 


Gordon made the call that he was off. I stayed with the gaggle as we drifted away and out
of touch with the Merthyr ridge. No going back now. The sky soon became a melĂ©e of gliders mincing around in very weak lift just 2km over the back of the hill. Before long, the entire gaggle (probably 15 pilots) were scattered over the Welsh hills within spitting distance of each other having made huge distances of between 2 and 9 kms! All the while, Justin Needham dropped on to the Fochriw ridge which I had tried to reach while being dropped out of the failed climb. As I derigged I watched him tirelessly and patiently work the ridge until he was rewarded with a climb that took him to cloud base. 80kms later he was in goal at Tewkesbury with Johnny Carr, the only two flexis to make it, with Stewart Reid making it in on his shiny new rigid. Bravo.


Greg leaving the big boys behind!
(C) Greg Emms
And that was to be the last flight of the competition. Having delayed calling the comp off due to weather, we were greeted on Wednesday with blustery showers. With a shortened award ceremony, mention was still made of task winners and pilots making notable performances, including Greg Emms who flew a PB of 40km in the Club Class.



Full results can be seen here.

So, the first round of the BOS completed. And what a good competition it was with the usual highs and lows of flying (excuse the pun). I certainly have to get my mojo back if I am to have any chance of securing a reasonable result by the end of the season, but with only the best six scores counting to the cumulative result, and only one decent goal flight closing down the points gap, there is hope! Nick Pain must be commended for his main class task setting, eeking out good tasks from somewhat mediocre conditions. And as always its the camaraderie of the flying community that really makes the whole thing special. 

Round 2 in Mid Wales? Bring it on.... !



Wednesday 7 May 2014

The highs and lows of a "View Junky"

Friday 18th April 2014

Harting, South Downs, Sussex, England.

The South Downs has been the location for many a high scoring UKNXCL flight, including Johnny Carrs record breaking Out and Return 108km flight in May 2012 (the UKNXCL is the UKs league for hang gliding cross country flights). Pilots from the South are regularly ribbed by their Northern counterparts who see it as an extended "ridge lift" flight, rather than a thermic one. OK then boys and girls, come down 'sarf and try it....! I had never flown the Downs and was keen to see what all the fuss about. 


Map of Southern England - South Downs in green, with Harting to the left

Wind off to the NE at Harting
With a good NNE RASP forecast I made plans to meet up at Harting with Tim King and Nev Almond to try and kick start my season for the UKNXCL After an early start and a 90 minute drive I arrived on the hill at 9.00am - there was a Paraglider flying but with the wind picking up and off to the East he was soon back down and packing up, leaving the ridge to the growing number of arriving HG pilots.

By 11am there were a lot of hang glider pilots either rigged and ready to go (eg Nev Almond, Murray Brown and myslef) or arriving to fly (Tim and Charlie King amongst them). With Nev setting an out and return flight on his rigid to Lewes and back (about 120km in total) I decided to do the same - well a challenge is a challenge! 

By 11.30am  Nev had already launched and darted right to the tree covered bowl that faces more in to a NE wind. I took off and having grabbed a few extra feet above Take Off glided immediately over the trees to the bowl to be rewarded immediately with a good climb. Murray Brown was soon launched and coming in underneath. As we climbed sailplanes were soon screaming in along the ridge.and before long we were able to reach cloudbase at about 3500'

As the flight progressed the sky continued to improve with well formed Cumulus clouds marking the way. Not dropping much below 2500' for most of the flight it was clear that this was not an extended ridge run. A gaggle of five sailplanes circling tightly down course enticed me to go on a fast glide to find their thermal and hopefully climb with them. 



Reaching the gaggle about level with the bottom glider in the thermal column, I made a wide circle around them before slotting in to the climb in a predictable manor. Being on a flex wing, you can react very quickly to "surges" in the lift, and within a few seconds of joining the gaggle I hit a strong surge. Cranking it up sharply (ie turning with a lot of bank) I managed to core a punchy little core that allowed me to gain a hundred feet on the sailplane.

As I glided on the views towards the coast were simply beautiful. I have heard free flyers referred to as "View Junkies". Thinking about it, that is a pretty fair description. Every time I fly I am rewarded with a perspective of the World that not many people get to see. I feel very privileged to be a part of this woefully under subscribed sport, and it seems such a shame that there isn't a waiting list of people wanting to learn to fly. 

View towards South Coast and Chichester

As I flew on towards Arundel my luck began to change. My instrument pod decided suddenly to slip from its mounting. Quickly grabbing the unit I then had to hold it manually but realising that I could not fly for another two hours like that I had to try and sort the problem out. However any attempt I made to lock off the mount failed and n the process of "fiddling" with my gear I had managed to lose about 2000'. With my thoughts now more on making sure I didnt drop the instruments, I glided towards a tree lined bowl and was only rewarded with scrappy bits of lift which we now drifting in a southerly direction. Nice. So having battled upwind, the slight downwind part of the flight would  now become another even stronger head wind. Great.

Looking East there was a huge blue hole over a flatter stretch of land. I decided to change my plan and fly West back to Take Off at Harting to complete a shorter undeclared Out and Return (60km total). Gliding forward I headed for the ridge hoping to pick up a strong climb. It was obvious that the local wind speed had increased significantly and with the basement button of the elevator pushed, I was heading down to land sooner than I anticipated. Appraising the landing options I thought it better to get over to the West side of the River Arun and headed for an upslope field towards the top of a hill which, if I managed to steal a few hundred feet, I could glide over and hopefully soar. There were also a group of houses next to the field and what looked suspiciously like a pub.... 

The George and Dragon, Houghton

However there were also a couple of problems, one of which I appraised, the second not. Firstly the field had a steep drop off,(covered with trees) to the river below which could present a dangerous undershoot situation, but with the height I was approaching I could not see it as a problem The second problem, which I didn't consider, was that the wind had picked up and there could be rotor or curl over effect over the landing field. You can see where this is going... As I glided over the river and approached the field I was beginning to think I would have to burn of a hundred feet or so to get in. But no sooner had I thought it, then I hit the most severe of sink. Pulling on speed I was dropping down below the field and heading straight for the trees. With a river below me, I could not turn back. Accelerating even more towards the least high trees, I left it to the last second to convert the speed to height, practically skimming the trees as I popped out over the top putting me within spitting distance of the field that had now thankfully come back in to view. Unfortunately the last push out of the bar to clear the obstacle had stalled the wing. With my right wing now dropping and turning me back towards the drop off, I managed to muscle the glider straight and "landed" unceremoniously one metre short of the field with my arrival softened by some very prickly bushes in between the trees. 

With a quick check over both myself and the glider seemed to have escaped pretty much unscathed apart from a few scratches and a bent upright. Luckily two local lads had watched my arrival with interest and come over to help. Within a few minutes the glider was folded and carried over n to the field where I could eventually breath a sigh of relief. 

The one bit I had got right was that there was indeed a pub across the road. As I waited with pint in hand a text came through from Babs Retrieve - Charlie King had just landed after completing her first UK XC flight. Now, that's definitely worth a celebratory drink...


 Charlie King high over the South Downs