Friday saw the departure of 202 to return home leaving the MiniNimbus, Eagle and Duo almost sole use of the Denbigh skies. Chris Gills forecast was for thermals followed by an early spread out and cut off. John Allan in KP rose to the challenge and had the best flight of the day! John wrote:
“With a reasonable forecast for a cross country, I declared a task of Denbigh, Oswestry, Denbigh, Llangollen, Lewelli Parc 145Km. Wind was Southerly 15Kn. Aerotowing to 3000ft, I scratched around to find a good thermal then set off. Initially conditions in the valley towards Ruthin and onto the southern part of the ridge were fairly good and I picked up a nice cloud street that kept pushing me up to the 4500ft airspace ceiling. It was the first time I’d been past Corwen and over the Llantisilio Mountain range, which seemed a bit daunting so clearing the airspace to the west meant I could climb to cloudbase of 4600ft and stay there for a while as I made my way to Oswestry. The sky around Oswestry was easy to read with nice Cumulus which made for good progress back North over Llangollen and over Horseshoe pass. Back in the Denbigh valley I was met with a very overdeveloped sky. Having turned Denbigh at only 2000ft, it wasn’t looking very good, and I heard two other gliders landing. I had 500ft to spare for detour to the ridge before I’d have to turn back and land. I figured the deep south facing ‘cross’ ridges that break up the main Denbigh North/South Ridge may just work. Yes, 4200ft again!. Working my way back along towards Llangollen, I had Llantisilio as a fall back landout option for the way back – No sheep visible!!. Thermal of the day was just over Horseshoe pass on a lovely sunny south facing slope. At the top of this climb I had enough height to turn Llangollen and make it all the way home again, but I tend not to trust a final glide that’s only giving me 200ft spare on the computer, so once back through Horseshoe Pass I carefully followed lines of lift along the southern ridge, picking up height where I could to complete the task. Not fast, but I’d done a cross country task in mountainous country away from the main valley.
Flight: https://bgaladder.net/FlightDetails/129254”
The Duo and Eagle stayed relatively local by comparison and were able to enjoy a couple of hours each before being grounded by cutoff in the valley.
Saturday was forecast to be very blustery with showers and with Chris G absent as he dealt with the very sad loss of his dog “Big Joe”, we were left to fend for ourselves. The Nimbus and Duo were readied but the wind was very gusty from the SW and rain looked to be building. John A took a tow but very wisely opted to cut it short when the full extent of the incoming weather could be seen. He did a great job landing as the conditions got even sportier and in consultation with the tuggie who had just landed we opted to pull stumps and make safe the gliders and wait for Sunday!
Sunday brought a great ridge forecast but with the prospect of showers. John A opted to get domestic credits and packed up leaving us really only able to operate the Duo for want of bodies ( we had lost Phil to a side trip to Birmingham). JB did a couple of sorties with first me then Alan Rappaport. Classic Denbigh with ridge and thermal interspersed with showers which needed dodging. An epic street to us out to Conwy and near sight of a snowy Snowdonia and several runs down the ridge. Alan got similar but with a shower to the north use more of the southern end. Over 5 hrs and a tired JB!
Over supper we studied the forecasts for the coming week and came to the sad conclusion that heading north was not really going to be worth while – disappointing but there is always the autumn trip.
We stayed for the Monday because RASP gave 5 Stars for a while though that rapidly ended early afternoon. With Chris G back to run a wing, we were able to get both the Duo and Eagle flying. With no one as rear gunner the Eagle fairly leapt of the ground. A really interesting day with a great cloudscape developing with streets, convergences, hail and snow!
The sudden cut off on RASP was probably the showers forecast but in the lightweight Eagle I found lift all around the snow and rain and enjoyed a very great display of nature from the 5,000’ I could maintain. JB and I later had a great discussion about the way the air was clearly colliding and going up! With a dour forecast for Tuesday and Wednesday it was convoy time and back to NH on Tuesday. Only 5 months to wait before we go back….
