Sunday 3rd March 2013

With just time for a rasher of Western Zoyland’s finest Somerset Black Spot, encased between 2 of slices of Lidl’s brown doorstopper and a slurp of back coffee, the arrival of a visitor from North Hill gave cause for suspicion.  ‘Just a check flight..?’ enquired Wynn Davies.  ‘Why?’ thought I, before he was engulfed by tales of Welshness from Barry Green. 

With Nigel Williamson and Darren Wills on hand to provide the necessary winch and cables, at 1040 we took a launch.  Within 5 minutes we were at 3,500ft, the variometer having been kick-started like a 2-stroke motorbike and Wynn stunned by the breathtaking beauty of a sun drenched carpet of white cloud white cloud all round, with the exception of two thin streaks of earth that were visible running N-S across the site.    
And maintaining sight of the ground and positional awareness were to prove to be the watchwords for today.  Back down on the ground 37 minutes later the prospects did not look so good: ‘messy’ was how Roger Appleboom described it after a 7 minute fling in the K-8; the cloudbase extensive with just hints of light suggesting where any lift might be.  So to wait.

Great view along a wave bar. Wind is from the right. Lift will be along the left hand edge

 Henry Ford and his girlfriend Andria, turned up, also from North Hill  – ‘Just a check flight..?’ he enquires (are we on some sort of migratory route?)  As lunchtime approached so did Trevor Taylor, and a little later (he is now able to keep gentleman’s time) Allan Holland – so by now it was clear that this was meant to be some sort of wave day.  

5500 feet above the airfield and still climbing

And with Wynn Davies’s second ‘just a check flight’, whisking us to 4,500ft over Blackdown, so it proved.  The primary wave set itself up a leap of faith away to the east of the River Tavy, whilst a secondary band stretched across the airfield, and a smaller, but no less active, tertiary band in line with the church/road and base leg!   Climbing to 3,000ft plus proved easy to windward  of the clouds, which could be seen surging up and plunging with great ferocity; there were also sweet spots in the clear where 3-4kts took us to 5,500ft plus.

Mary Tavy is just visible under the cloud edge

Roger Appleboom hopefully achieved Silver height and Nigel Williamson one of his 2hr legs for Cross-country Endorsement.  Trevor Taylor disappeared for 2 hrs.  The wind must have veered with height, however, for two of the single-seaters found themselves further north than anticipated when descending through the wave slots: both landed out safely between Lydford and Bridestowe but the lesson is clear – keeping sight of the slot, and maintaining a thorough check of one’s geographical position is a vital part of the enjoyment of wave. So whilst the vario is tootling away like James Galway’s flute, keep a good lookout and clear view of your exit route, whilst testing your understanding of the ground features below.  

Preparing to derig the K8

Nigel has already sent his thanks to all concerned with his retrieve, to which a paean must be added to Allan Holland for the calm, knowledgeable and patient manner in which he led the move of the K-8 onto the K-13 trailer, in gathering darkness at the end of a long day.  And also to Colin Boyd for earlier having done the same with the Zugvogel, and finally to the two retrieve crews for their great teamwork – that’s gliding.

Martin Cropper