Practice Day Monday 27th April

Limited time. Limited weather. With only a couple of short flights under my belt and the first round of the British Open Series looming, I had been champing at the bit to get out and "do some miles". The forecast during the previous week had been showing some promise that Monday 27th and Tuesday 28th April would be the best flyable days of the week so I shifted my contract work around to free up the time and started making plans. 
The night before the wind forecast had changed significantly, indicating that it was going to be a light, variable wind day, with only the south coast showing some signs of a consistent north westerly. So, it was either going to be a hill launch from the Dyke or a tow somewhere mid-country. Unfortunately my local tow group couldn't come out to play but after a quick phone call to Andy Hollidge, I had a slot booked with Flylight Aviation at Sywell Aerodrome in Northamptonshire for a 2000' tow. 

Monday morning. An early start helped along by a glorious sunrise. After a pleasant drive up from Wiltshire I met Andy near the aerodrome for a coffee, decided where our goal field would be (just out of Sywell ATZ), left my car there, transferred my kit to Andy's truck, then made our way to the airfield.

Andy Keate rigging by the tower

I do like flying from active airfields - there must be something about mixing with the other aircraft that makes it exciting. With Andy Keate from the local club supervising our visit, we were soon rigging near the tower and our hosts Flylight Aviation. Helicopters, prop planes, microlights... it was all going on. Ollie Chitty was there, looking somewhat bleary eyed after his great 180km flight to South Wales from near Luton the previous day - the long retrieve meant he had only just got back and had gone straight to work. 

After a quick test flight Tom the tug pilot was ready to get us in the air. I had declared a 100km triangle starting from just outside Sywell ATZ to the South West, with turnpoints at Stowe School to the South near Silverstone, and then Bedford to the East before returning to the start point. Andy declared a more ambitious triangle of about 150km, with turnpoints extended from mine. The sky at 11.30am was starting to look good. Time to go.

I was first on the tow, and had an amazingly "mellow" climb out behind Tom who was flying at just the right speed, and predictably taking us in a left hand circuit to some great looking clouds near the start point. As we cruised at 2000' I got out of shape in some turbulence so immediately pinged off the line, expecting to be able to locate the lift associated with it. After a quick unsuccessful search pattern I headed off to the clouds but met bad sink - looking back at the airfield it was make or break time - do I glide on to the clouds or head back within gliding distance of the airfield? If I needed a relight then it had to be the airfield. Now at only 500' above the ground things were not looking too good. But as I passed over some houses and trees, the air started bubbling. Right, time to start gently searching again. Bingo! I found the start of the thermal that would eventually, after some considerable time working broken lift, get me up to cloud base. Phew.

Just within striking distance of the airfield

High at last :-)

Right, time to start the task. With a straight glide over the first turn point (conveniently a large roundabout on the edge of an industrial estate, I headed to the South of Northampton to some fine looking clouds. I made sure my track took me over green areas of the town in case I bombed, and found a good climb over what looked like a large commercial  building plot that had been cooking in the sunlight. Up I go, with a couple of buzzards joining in as it turned in to a stonking 900' a minute climb. As I called it on the radio, I could see Andy already headed over towards me. Coming in over the top of me, he climbed very quickly and then sped off again. 

So that's where the Chinook is...

Before reaching cloud base I headed off to turnpoint two, partly to keep flying with Andy, but also to push on faster while we had good lift and a rising cloud base. Silverstone race circuit was now clearly visible. As I approached I could suddenly hear the "thud, thud, thud" of a Chinook helicopter, but couldn't for the life of me see it. I put a call out to Andy to keep his eyes peeled. Getting louder, I still couldn't see it, so I put in some tight 360 turns to make the glider as visible as possible just in case they hadn't seen me. Luckily, the noise passed away, as did any imminent danger.

Fantastic sky with Silverstone below

Approaching Stowe School near TP 1

Past Silverstone and I intended to glide straight for the turn point, then find a climb. But, with a strong headwind and a sky starting to get just a little bit too over active, I found myself getting low 1km from the turn point and eyeing up Stowe School cricket field as a landing site. Taking a weak climb over a ploughed field I managed to work my way back up slowly, but at the price of drifting further away from the turnpoint. With the sky definitely deteriorating I made a glide for the TP, clipped the proximity circle,  and immediately returned to the weak thermal I had left, gauging where the drift would have taken it. Luckily with the help of my GPS I was back in the lift and drifting towards my second turnpoint near Bedford.

Looking around, nearly the entire ground was now in shadow. The cloud base also seemed to be lowering - not something I expected to happen at around 2.30pm. Cautiously tiptoeing around broken lift, and doing short glides in-between climbs, I kept myself in the game, passing to the north of Milton Keynes at around 3000'. As rain started to fall, I glided off towards Newport Pagnell, hoping that the buildings would have retained some heat and would be now kicking off lift. I headed for a housing estate, with a nearby park for landing, but sank all the way there, reaching the area with about 500'.

Searching low over Newport Pagnell

After a quick search I was down to 300' but the air was starting to bubble. Quickly assessing the situation, I was prepared to try and work it, but the landing options downwind were not good. Game over after 66km. Rain stopped play. With a quick base leg over the trees I landed  my Wills Wing glider with ease close to the gated entrance. Half the battle of cross country flying is having the confidence in your flying and your wing that you can land out. The predictable handling of my Wills Wing T2C makes it very easy. Just love it.


As I unclipped and started sorting my instruments and harness out, a couple of dog walkers came by and passed the time of day. Very pleasant. That is until another dog-walker came through the gate and with his dog on the lead, allowed it to go up to my glider, cock its leg, and p**s all over the wing tip. Some people. 

Now quickly de-rigging the glider my phone pinged through a couple of messages. Andy was down and had tried to call. I soon found out he had landed further south of my first turn point, was  relatively near an airfield and was going to walk there to try and cadge an "air taxi" back to Sywell. I decided to get packed up and try and hitch a lift back up to my car some 25 miles away. Its worked before, especially with my "Glider Pilot Needs A Lift Please" sign.

Buzz Lightyear does in style...

...while I take the poor man's retrieve!

But oh no. Having walked through town to what I thought was the correct main road, I ended up on a dual carriageway without any stopping places. 3 miles later, and I turned off back towards Newport Pagnell. One and a half hours of walking with my harness and I was back where I started. Andy texted me a picture. Flash bugger. He had got a lift in a light aircraft back to Sywell and would come and pick me up. Just about to give up with hitching a lift, an ex airline pilot who had seen my grovelling sign, stopped and gave ne a lift to Olney, half way back to Sywell, where Andy met me en route to pick up his glider. 

As it was now late in the evening we stopped for a curry in Buckingham before heading back up to my car near Sywell. Reluctantly declining Andy's kind offer of a bed for the night, I opted to drive back home as the next day promised a good day from Frocester in Gloucestershire.....