Volume 32 No 1 Feb-Mar 1981.pdf - Lakes Gliding Club

_______ ------------1/,I~_~....~==DE8=.~~~ .. TOM SMITH ~~~.,STRATFORD ON AVON GLIDING CLUB&~ MCH~Il's 1230hrs, Thursday, June 24. A ridgeof high pressure lies over the countryand the sky is dotted with small cumulusclouds. The plan is simple, to fly fromLong Marston to Husbands Bosworthfor Silver distance and remain airbornefor five hours· to complete my Silver C.There is an .ab-initio course this weeksodub members must wait for launches.Finally, at 1309, after three other durationattempts have been launched, it'smy hlfn for a bumpy aerotow to ISooftover Bickmarsh where I release. After afew turns in a rough 3kt thermal I noticethat the club T-21 is outclimbing me, so Igo and join him in an exhilarating Sktclimb ,to c10udbase at 420Oft. With onefinal look back at the .airfield I cu t theInvisible string and aim my K-6E towardspastures new.Cruisil)g at 60kt belween the bubbling4kt thermals, Stratford soon passesbeneath my pori wingtip and 15min laterI'm looking down on Wellesbourne airfield.Taking care 10 avoid BirminghamSRA and to keep below Daventry eTA,I head on towards the 300ft chimney atSoutham, and at 1345hrs I'm lookingright down it. W,ith my next two landmarks,Draycote water and Rogby,clearly in view I "press on" towardssome good-looking cumulus ahead.As I ~Iide under the sixth cloud itbeg.ins to dawn ·on me that something'svery wrong - not one of these clouds isworkiIilg and wherever I fly thNe's just asteady 4kt down. Then it clicks -thismust be the notof'ious sink-hole I'vebeen warned about, so once again I"press on", soon to have my confidencein c1'oud reading restNed by'U steady 4ktthermal over Rugby.Back at cloudbase over the Ml, I cansee the "barrel" of machine-gun lakepointing towards my goal-I've done it!I arrive at the Coventry GC's site after65min Hying at about 60km/h - now forthe remajning four hours. Is it really thatlong? That's more than my previouslongest flight and I'm sure the weather ,islooking weaker - time to get high andstay high.Still a lot to learnA sudden whoomph, then 2kt, 4kt andfinally 6kt all the way to cloudbase tellsme that I still have a lot tolearll aboutglidi,ng meteorology! Flying round localtriangles (rom Kettering to Market Harboroughto Rugby takes up anotherl¥ihrs -let's see, that leaves just 2Y