VGC News/Newsletters - Lakes Gliding Club

e felativel,y heavier than a hang-glider, although the Petrel is
one of our faster clinlbing gliders. Clearly we should ibe able
to outrun Hang.gliders in the horizontal plane.
The Spatz of Vernon Jennings flew for I hour 41 mins.
The Scud 3 belonging to Ted hull flew for I hour 36 mins.
The Pr,efect of Chris Hughes flew for 2 hours 58 mins.
The Kite I of Tony Maufe flew for I hour 58 mins.
The Kite I of Bob Boyd flew for I hour 50 mins.
The Ka-2b of the Harmers flew for 5 hours 09 mins.
There may have been other good flights of lesser durations
but it had clearly been a very good day for the VGC. There
had been no clouds as forecast.
On MONDAY 26th May 1997, we clearly had very different
weather to that of the preceeding day. Monday's Prize
went to the Harmers for their 5 hours 09 mins flight.
Sky ofMark Wakem, landing with a Ka2 alld Hiilter waiting.
Maggie Harboor.
There was a strong West wind which would be on the
slope. llhe sbort winch launch run was used which would give
only 4 to 500 ft launch heights straight ,in to the hill lift. There
would be a likelihood of waves. No one should get behind the
back wall white crabbing in to land. The flights of Monday
were often dramatic in the extreme. They were:
Eagle with Derek Philips and passenger 2 hours 42 mins.
Harbinger witb Bob Sharman and
passenger
Kite I Tony Maufe
Gull 3 Keith Emslie
S·ky Mark Wakem.
T.21 b Mike Powell and passenger
Scud 3 Ted Hull
Scud 3 Laurie Woodage
Ka-2b MalcOln Wilton-lones &
Colin Anson
Skylark 3 loon Strzebrakowski
Kranich 2b-1 Chris Wills &
Paul Underwood.
I hour 54 mins.
I hour 12 mins.
I hour 51 mins.
3 hours 16 mins.
37 mins.
2 hours W mins.
I hour 09 mins.
I hour 30 mins.
3 hours 56 mins.
2 hours 49 mins.
We regi'et that some flights of less than one hour may have
been omitted and there may be other mistakes.
At first, the wave had actually connected with the hill lift
and so launches were made straight into hill lift and wave. It
was then tha't the greatest heights of up to 7,000 ft above site
were achieved, notably by Chris Hughes in his Prefect. Neil
Scully and David Ormerod reached 6,500 ft in their T.3l. This
was truly a brave effort.
The slightly ,later launches found the wave out of sequence
with the slope lino One of those who found these later conditions
was C.Wills with Paul Underwood in the Kranich.
Firstly, there was weak hill lift and then getting into the wave
lift was hard work. The best height reached was 4,200 ft
above site. It was clear that weather conditions were changing
for the worse rapidly. However, we heard that a fibre glass
sailplane had reached 13,000 ft over Sheffield. What now was
happening was that the waves started to fail and clouds began
to fill all gaps below the gliders, so that some dramatic
descents had to be made through cloud or through the last
holes in the cloud below. One of those to be caught out by this
was C.Wills in the Kranich who had to make a lucky landing
in a field on the top of a small hill by a quarry. With 'help from
an A-A man, he was able to organize a retrieve by 5 cars as it
was not yet clear how the Kranich would ever be got out of
the field. He wishes to thank all his retrievers who toiled on in
spite of worsening weather and darkness. Chris remembers
Lome Wekh briefing him many years ago... "It does not
matter if you land at Timbucktll as long as you pick a good
field. It will still be quicker to retrieve you from Timbucktu,
than it would be if we should have to repair the glider after a
bad field landing". During this prQ\;edur,e, two of the retrieving
team were accosted by a policeman, with drawn truncheon,
on suspicion of "loitering with intent" especially when
they told him that they were looking for a glider. It seems that
during the previous weekend, £12,000 of equipment had been
stolen from the quarry and he thought that they had come
back for the rest of it!' However, the trailer was got to the
glider by the efforts of lan Dunkleyand the derig and retrieve
went off without problems. Chris would like to thank his 2nd
pilot Paul Underwood for staying with, and guarding the aircraft
for hours before the retrieving team came.
TUESDAY 27th MAY 1997.
Someone said that if there were no more good weather
days, the weather on the preceding days had made the rally a
success..
There was a cold NE wind. There were many circuits by
the H.17a and the Ka-2b, which was occasionally kept up
under cumuli. There were three soaring flights by Robin
Wilgoss in the Ka-2b, who had his first ever winch launch.
Robin won the day's prize and Maltin Simons received a prize
for just getting in to the H.17!
WEDNESDAY 28th MAY 1997.
The wind had gone more to the East but was not so strong
as it had been on the previous day. The best flights were:­
Chris Hughes, PREFECT, 3 hours 07 mins.
Keith Emsley, GULL 3, I hour 26 mins.
Derek Philips and Bushell, EAGLE, 1 hour 06 mins.
Malcom Wilton-lones, KRA1ANEK, 2 hours 02 mins.
Mark Wakem, SKY, I hour 45 mins.
Tony Maufe, KITE I, I hour 15 mins.
Peter Chamberlain, L-SPATZ, 45 mins.
David Shrimpton, SWALLOW, I hour 01 mins.
Bob Boyd, KITE 1,43 mins.
Ian DunkJey, PETREL, 41 mins.
On this day Peter Warren arrived with his Kite 2 "Percy".
BGA 689.
Also the Krajanek arrived and was back at Camphill where
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