Volume 28 No 2 Apr-May 1977.pdf - Lakes Gliding Club

ALASTAIR WILES writes about his Silver C distance attempt which might well behelpful to otherpilots planning their first cross-countries.HOW COULD .YOU FAIL?"You've only to go with the wind and stay up for an hour or two.I gained my Bronze badge about three weeks earlier and wasbursHng to prove I was a "natural" at this cfoss-countrylark. Imade copious notes at the CFI's cross-country briefing, and readthem so many times that 'I just about knew them by heart. ] evenprimed two potential retrieve crew members to ,be ready at shortnotice and all the paraphernalia that 1 would need was carefullystowed in the boot of the car. Now all I wanted was a bit ofdecent thermal activity and the wind in a friendly direction,preferably south-easterly so that I could foUow ttle M I fromDunstable to a sympathetic place like Husbands Bosworth.Day broke that June day, as a possible. It did not look allthat good though, and so I went to work as usual, resolving tokeep an eye 011 developments up above. Things seemed toimprove and by about 11.30 I was getting quite excited.A real pundit's opinionBy strange coincidence, a real pundit had just joined the firm.I asked what he thought about the chances of a Silver distanceflight. He looked carefully out of the window; "Not the sort ofday I would take-off for soaring. But you might do it if you'relucky." That was good enough for me!I phoned my wife to tell her to expect me home the followingmorning, bolted my lunch, and tore off to the gliding club. Thethen deputy CFI was in charge. Did he think I could have a bashat Silver distance? "Well" he said, "Your main problem is whichway to go. You've either got to head north-west or east, and bothdirections are a bit crosswind."I resolved to keep to the right of Cambridge. Maybe I wouldland at Duxford, or if things looked good I would go on a bit andland at Newmarket Heath. Taking special care not to hurry theDI of the K-8, I stowed all my gear away, lashing the deriggirigtools in the fuselage behind my head with specially strongadhesive tape. I even remembered to leave the ignition keys in thecar's ashtray so that my crew could find it.Eventually] was oul on the field, with the club barographsealed, signed and switched on. Everything looked all set to go,the thermals were still popping, but it was now 3pm. Perhaps aquick word with the deputy CFI to make sure it was still OK."Well," he said. "you really should have got here at 9 o'clockthis morning and taken your time over the preparations. Makesure you make 3000ft before you set off. Good luck".There was too much work to do on tow lo worry about the taskahead. Then it struck me thal the pilot was doing rather a steepturn. When was he going to pUnOU! of it? He never did. ]n factthe genius had found me a thermal and was leading me round init at 850ft!It was a nice thermal. Feur knots lift and right over the club.What was it the eFI had said? You've only got to go with thewind and stay up for an hour or 'two to clear Silver distanceeasily. How could people fail? It was so easy.I lost the first thermal at 2500ft. I dom't kliow how. I searchedf0r it for some minutes, losing height at 3 or 4kts all the while,and that was when the first forebodings set in. But why should 1worry? The sky was littered with cumulus clouds. I set offtowards a likely looking cloud and found another 4kts lift. Thistime 1I took it to cloudbase at around 3000ft or perhaps a littleover, and by now I had drifted a mile or two downwind of theclub. The moment of decision had arrived!I had tQ decide whether to turn my back on the club or flunkout of it. Wouldn't it be easy to do an hour or two of local soaring?No retrieve problems. No late night.With my heart thumping loud enough to be heard back on theground. I pointed the nose towards the north-east and realisedthat] had committed myself. Within seconds I would be out ofgliding range ofthe club, and would only be able to get back byfinding and w0fking Hft. It's a funny sensation, the first time youexperience it. A mixture of fear, anxiety, elation, and a dozenother emoti'ons culminating in the realisation that this is what it'sall about. This is what you have been working towards for thelast 114launches. Above all, it felt good.Things went well for a bit. There was the M I. There was theLuton to Bedford railway line. Keep north of Luton on a north·easterly heading to clear the Luton SRZ before heading moreeasterly. I was actually enjoying it. I looked around at thescenery, and down at the ground, playing at choosing fields toland ill. What were the three important points? Slope, surface,wind. And look out for telegraph poles, cows, and courtingcouples. This was terrific!That doesn't look rightNow then, I remember thinking to myself, let's make sure]know where I am, and tha,t I]'m still on course for Henlow.Barton-in-the-Clay should be somewhere oeiow us, and that conglomerationof road junctions a.t Shefford should be dead ahead.That doesn't loolc right I I looked back over my shoulder and theMI was still in view, just. Couldn't be far off course. Haveanother look at the map. That's funny, I can't seem to relate anyfeatures on the ground with those on the map.I told myself not to panic. After all, someone had said that ifyou were not sure of your exact location, make progress. in thedirection you reckon you want to go, and try to pick it up on themap later. But was il the CFI or afellow peasant who said this?And if I did Rot know where I was, I might be pretty near lhecontrolled zone complex.Whi'lst I studied. alternately the map and the ground. I waslosing height. Another decis,jon had to be made. Was I to go on,hoping lO miss the prohibited zones, or turn back towards theclub until I could pick up a feature 1 recognised? I realised thatthe first option was just not o.n. Cloudbase was a little over3000fl. I dared not enter cloud 'because my chances of navigationwere then nil, and anyway] might still be in Amber 2 airway.Unless, I could get significant'ly higher than 3000ft I riskedviolating the contro led zone complex. There was really nochoice.70