COMBAT AND COMPETITION.pdf - Lakes Gliding Club

COMBAT AND COMPETITION
We celebrated our partnership with an airborne visit to the
Cotswold Club which was holding an open weekend at Staverton.
Charles had an uneventful trip and I followed with the trailer. There
seemed to be a sort of EGA visitation in progress because Philip Wills
and Ann Douglas 3 were both there, together with Wally Kahn .
The weather was kind and our hosts had laid on a barbeque. It was
a pleasant evening under the stars and Wally, on that first encounter,
made a profound impression. Hardly surprising because he is a large
and flamboyant character, well over six foot and some fifteen stone in
fighting trim.
Wally and I sat over the dying embers of that barbecue and talked
into the small hours. Through his not entirely unbiased comments it
was possible to learn a little about the ruling caucus within the EGA.
Later, when I became a Council member, Wally seemed like a
permanent opposition - trying to keep the government on the rails. A
man who hates injustice, fights fearlessly for what he believes to be
right, and has occasionally been known to let his emotions run away
with him! A marvellous raconteur and a great friend.
Up late the following morning, in the heat and humidity of a
cloudless summer's day, conscious of self inflicted wounds and it was
my turn to try and fly home against the wind! Charles was unyielding:
"Its only 55 miles. You'll be back in no time at all. See you there
for tea."
There was no cumulus and the inversion at Staverton was less than
two thousand feet. A couple of sweaty hours later and I was barely
half way. Worse still, approaching Ledbury, the ground was rising up
to meet me. Shortly afterwards I found myself trapped over a little
valley, too low to go anywhere else, and with precious little
underneath except a few narrow orchards straggling across the sun
facing slopes. When all seemed lost I stumbled into a thermal, a narrow
erratic affair, barely sufficient to keep me airborne and clung on
grimly, winding round and round in the searing heat.
A bag of cherries helped to keep thirst at bay. I chewed them in
savage frustration spitting the stones out through the clear vision
panel. 'Water and fine sand only' it said in the Air Navigation Order.
But there was none to jettison!
Eventually, after more than an hour, one of the many miserable
trickles of rising air picked up sufficiently to lift me out of immediate
danger. From the top of that climb a solitary mass of cumulus was
visible through the haze. It was still working well when I eventually
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