Once a year, around the end of July, Sid's Task Week takes place at Nympsfield in Gloucestershire. Run by Sid Smith, the club's meteorologist, the week consists of a friendly cross-country competition. It is open to both club members and pilots from other clubs although being limited to twenty entrants the week gets booked up very rapidly.
I entered with my LS8 in 18m wing-span mode. The scoring system uses a handicapping system to be as fair as possible: the glider types ranging from an Astir to an 18mVentus. There were two classes roughly split between those who have yet to do a 300km and those who already have.
The weather was not great: flyable but hardly inspiring for cross-country flights. Tasks were set on five of the days: fairly short distances ranging from 130-150km. With the exception of the first day, all tasks were reasonably achievable even in the weak conditions that prevailed.
The great thing about task weeks is that you attempt cross-country flights when you probably wouldn't even have bothered to rig. This, coupled with learning from the experts afterwards, makes them invaluable for progressing one's own flying abilities. There is something very special about setting off on task with a dozen or so other gliders and seeing how they seem to find the better lines to fly.
As for the results, some would say that the weak conditions favoured the larger wing-spans (the two 18m gliders leading the results on the beginning of the last day) but we'll gloss over that. Suffice to say it was a nail-biting final day with all to play for. In the end Sid scrubbed his intended task (NYM-YATe-ROSsonwye-NYM) as the weather was clearly not good (heavy stratus at 2000'). This meant that any flights would be scored as if undeclared. A number of us launched anyway as we were in the launch queue and attempted the scrubbed task, using the ridge down to the M4 to stay airborne. After achieving 10km in about 1 hour the weather improved allowing me to not only complete the scrubbed task but also fly up to the Malvern Hills to add some more distance. Others tried to do the task a second time only quicker.
Just prior to the prize-giving the friendly rivalry heated up and there were a few pilots doing some 'points-optimisation' of their last flights on the club computer. By adding extra turn-points, extra distance and hence extra points could be gained (speed was never an issue and the flights were being scored as undeclared anyway). Eventually, after a slight clerical error was corrected, the overall winner was determined to be the Ventus by a small margin.
I cannot recommend these task weeks enough. They're very friendly, cheap, no retrieve crew are needed (fellow competitors will come and get you) and, above all, they're great fun.
David Jesty
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