COMBAT AND COMPETITION.pdf - Lakes Gliding Club

COMBAT AND COMPETITION
restriction on maximum speed could be removed. We completed the C
of A flight tests and there was an opportunity for just one further
competitive outing before Bill Ivans took it over.
Whit weekend brought a wonderful spell of weather - and an
opportunity to pit the 402 against wider opposition, amongst them
Nick Goodhart, Tony D2 and Philip Wills, all flying Skylark Ills.
Saturday at Lasham dawned clear and bright. By the time we towed
off conditions were really booming - with strong narrow thermals -
and little wisps of condensation where each one hit the inversion. The
task, a 44 mile out and return to the RAF airfield at Andover, had
been grossly underset. For me at least it was one of those days when
everything came right. Over 4000 feet just before the start - followed
by a dive to Vne across the line - and straight into 1200 ft per minute.
From then on it was high and fast, thermals galore, dark glasses
showing up the gathering puffs in the sky ahead - hitting each one
right on the button - time and again winding straight into the core
with those superb ailerons. A perfectly placed thermal at the turning
point and a storming second leg merged straight into an 85 knot final
glide. Back in well under the hour, and fastest by quite a margin, that
task set the scene.
Sunday looked even better first thing in the morning, although
there was some strato cumulus hanging around as we rigged. The
organisers gave us a 200 km triangle. Turning points were at Dunstable
and an old airfield at Stanton Harcourt to the west of Oxford - and for
once we were invited to choose our own way to go round. Philip and
I opted for Stanton Harcourt first. Nick, Tony and John Willy decided
on the reverse and they were the unlucky ones.
The strato cumulus did them down. Nick and Tony were delayed
at Dunstable, scratching below it, for almost two hours. As for me,
luck was still on my side. I left later than Philip and wasted just half
an hour, circling carefully over the network of gravel workings and
dismembered runways that marked the first turning point - never in
any serious danger - until the sun finally broke through.
Approaching Oxford a gathering upcurrent, above the tree clad
slopes and well heeled residences of Boar's Hill, lifted the 402 back
into a winder's world once more - strong narrow thermals under a sky
studded with fair weather cumulus. On the way home, near Burnham
Beeches, I passed Philip who was stuck low down under an area of clag
and romped home to win again.
The front forecast for Whit Monday never materialised and it
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