Gliding 1950 - Lakes Gliding Club

To and from Ingoldmells
by Donald Brown
ITH the lessons of Tuesday, 25th July,
W in my mind I managed to get up for
breakfast, took the trouble to look seriously
at a map and have a look at the synoptic
chart. Thus prepared, I listened to the met.
man. The conditions seemed much the
same as Tuesday with the exception that the
trough was a little better defined and would
be represented by a line of active cumulus.
The wind at the site was westerly and would
remain so all day, with a possible slight
backing in the afternoon.
I once again decided to go along the line
of the trough to the north, which, with the
more favourable wind and better forecast
convection, seemed a good proposition. r
knew the way and, having covered 90 miles
in adverse conditions, considered Brunton,
to the north of Newcastle, a possible goal.
Having declared Brunton, I took off at
10.40. With the passing of time came the
passing of aircraft, and by 11.10 there were
more than enough aircraft on the ridge for
the thermals that were reluctantly drifting
over; so I decided to go to a smaller ridge
to the north at the entrance to the
Ladybower Reservoir and wait there for my
I
private lift. I arrived just in time to catch
it and was soon on my way to Sheffield. "
Whilst I was beating up and down the
ridge I had noticed 'to the westward a loog
bank ofcumulus which I had assumed to be
orographic cloud over the high ground to
the west, but as I approached Sheffield the
cloud, which now stretched N.N.E.-S.S.W.,
came very much nearer and started to
collapse. It was obviously the trough, and
the clouds were flattening rapidly. To the
north it was as black as the proverbial sin,
and immed,iately above, patches of high
cover were already obscuring the sun.
Deciding that if I were to make a serious
attempt at the competitions it would be
useless to go ahead, and merely get points
for diStance, I waited for my opportunity
to get back to the site and declare a more
feasible goal to the east. Unfortunately it
appeared that I had already waited too
long and was' slowly descending. Using
what lift I could to maintain height or sink
sloWly, I was just about deciding to give up
and land when the high cover cleared and I
was able to pick up a thermal which took
me to 3,800 ft. Without more ado I headed
o
("tt'
SCALE OF MILES
This map illustrates both Mr. Brown's article and that by Mr. Wills which follows it.
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