Interclub League Round 2 Bannerdown Day 1 –Trevor Taylor

Hi this is Trevor who flies a Jantar 1 G-DDFL from Brentor home of Dartmoor Gliding Society (posh name,we’re not posh). With a little perssure (you know who you are) I entered the Inter Club League Pundit class at Bannerdown  Keevil airfield ex-RAF.

Left Brentor 3.30 pm 31May arrived Keevil 7.20pm after an uneventful trip. For those who don’t know the trailer and car are 50 ft. long (towed like a dream)

Made very welcome after a few beers (cider actually) and lots of glider talk kipped down in dining room on blow up mattress  (better than the car as originally planned).

DAY 1 Woke up to what appeared to be a howling gale from the North, as the man said, (Steve Tape task setter) its a 25 Knot wind sock and its horizontal !!!*****. Breakfast of bacon butties ( to honour our CFI of course).
 

Jantar1 G-DDFL on the way to to launch point.

Briefing 9.30. Postponed to 10.00.  CFI gave us airfield brief, Com director gave us a chat .The main runway is 6,000 feet long WOW. Tasks set Pundit KEE-AVE-WDC-WES-KEE 220.2km In longhand Keevil to Avebury to Worcester Racecourse to Westbury to Keevil.

The task - day 1

Re convene 11.00. Meet at bus at 12.00. The task is ON. (must be mad). Start when you like. Winch launch (Skylaunch) only. Wind still blowing 20 knots.from the north. General feeling amongst pilots "We will be lucky to get to 1st turn point".

Task setter and Director later told us after we all stayed aloft bar 1 that if we don’t set a task the sky will be BOOMING at 3.00 pm, the pilots can only land out.

Problem with Glider Guider only got it last week never used it. LX4000 not working no gps signal.  Found someone to set task in glider guider,only it was on “See You”, because I hadn't subscribed it kept asking me to do so every 90 seconds, it took up to 30 seconds, to change page. Must have cancelled page 150 times during the 4 hour flight.

Winch launches were the order of the day

Launched at approx. 13.00 . 1300 feet launch a little slow just used +1flap. Climbed to cloud base at 3300 feet. Set off for AVE across wind. Lots of white horses carved in limestone. Made it to AVE only 20 km. What a struggle.

Next leg WDC racecourse. Only 90 km.directly into 20 knot. headwind I'll be lucky!!! Head off upwind. It is streeting a bit but they appear to be misaligned with track. There are a few gaps which seem to be reasonably easy to cross. Spoke too soon. Near Wooton Bassett have to back track towards Lyneham.

Struggled to get away now inside Lyneham ATZ (its inactive this weekend) lots of tarmac here. Last time I was here was 40 years ago flying out to Canada in a VC10.

Back up to cloud base, making my way upwind slowly having to cross streets ,wind seems to have more West in it. Pass Kemble lots of airliners parked all around perimeter HS146's I think,with an unmoving Virgin airlines 747 smack bang in the middle of the intersection bad parking or what?

Back to reality, Glider Guider goes ping airspace infringement!!  it informs me I’m 364ft above airspace. Pass Aston Down see Nympsfield off to my left (Hello Dave). Keep at it. Pass Gloucester. :Looking a bit grim ahead Divert left where it looks better. Keep going left towards Great Malvern, see sharp edged ridge not quite into wind. Glider Guider wind direction shows wind change hardly any wind on ridge cloud cover now 8/8 , 900ft above ridge,pick field downwind of ridge. What’s this? 1 knot up (rats its very broken) keep at it gradually climbing (oh for the LX. It shows continual increases or decreases in ht. in ft. i.e +6ft or even less), field still in range, now 2 knots.broken gradually changing to steady. Hooray. It eventually went to 6 knots. Back at cloud base. Racecourse in sight, Round turn point.

DOWNWIND at last.Its taken 3hrs of hard slog. Only 110 km. to go but its 4 pm and 8/8 cloud cover!!! Will I make it? It looks a bit iffy. Set off 102.8 km to WES. clouds still working must keep high.Storming downwind not too bad starting to brighten up ahead. Crossing streets. Wind got a bit of west in it have to keep crossing streets.

Conditions starting to die hit a few bits of heavy sink ,will I make KEE never mind WES??? To be honest I didn’t think would get this far. Getting low. Lyneham again, pick up a 1 knot thermal just south of Lyneham,  keep at it (at least I’m being blown in the right direction), gradually works to 2 knots. taking forever to get to cloud base.

In range of WES and KEE I don't believe it (where have I heard that before) I’m going to make it. Charge off at 70 knots round WES increase speed to 80 knots. cross finish line at 100 knots 600 feet.pull up circuit and land. Easy peasy.

The return trip only took 50 minutes. say no more.

The Jantar on final approach

Gave SD card to Steve to download and guess what? It is BLANK all that for nothing!!! Really cheesed off.

The other pilots told other pilots pointed me in the direction of a computer whizz kid who looked about 10 who recovered the trace in a couple of minutes. No barograph heights.  According to the trace I did the whole flight at 195 feet. and my glide angle was 1/10000

The trace  was accepted. Result.

Trevor Taylor