To Aston Down and a 300km Diamond Goal

DGS club Members Mike Gadd ( Open Cirrus) and Roger Green (ASW20) took a week off work and went gliding at the Cotswolds Gliding Club, Aston Down. Here's is the story.

Roger launches in the ASW20

Mike lands in the Open Cirrus

Wednesday 3rd June by Roger Green

Throughout the spring, Mike Gadd and myself had been conspiring to go to Aston Down for some flying. With favourable forecasts from the BBC, RASP and even David Mason, of Lasham forecast fame, confirming good soaring conditions.we decided we just had to go!

We met at Brentor at 08.30 hitched up our glider trailers and departed for A.D. I had to call into Exeter services lorry park,in order to pick up my partner in crime Alan Carter( SF27). I arrived at AD at about 1300 hrs with Mike arriving shortly afterwards. It was obviously an excellent soaring day.

Empty glider trailers on the rigging area and a pile of abandoned tow out gear at the launch bus, along with an excellent sky always a dead give away! I took my launch at 1500 and climbed away straight off the wire in a good solid 4 knot climb.I soared locally, waiting for Mike Gadd to launch in his Open Cirrus. Mike soon had a good climb and was established.We flew over Stroud and along the Cotswold edge to Birdlip, then north of the A417 Cirencester RD to Chedworth (disused WW2 airfield.) We were in radio contact for the flight most of which was approx. 15 to 20 kms out from Aston Down (AD).

Climbing at 6 knots

After two and a half hours of brilliant soaring to 4,000ft QFE, in thermals up to 6 knots,I returned to land at AD.The launch bus had been put away and Mike Gadd had just landed. We had apres fly beers with Don Puttock and a couple of his course members.The news on the street was, Andy Smith (ASW28) had declared and completed a 500k flight from A.D. that day! If only we had travelled up on Tuesday evening we could have tried for our 300k flights.

A great looking sky

Thursday 4th June -Mike Gadd

Today I spent 3 hours boating about an area of about 50KM between Stroud, Cirencester, Gloucester, and Cheltenham. I had a task planned, but I did not feel confident with the conditions –justified really as some other more experienced pilots than me who attempted tasks had some trouble. There were 4 flights entered on the ladder this day, notably Philip Walker (295 abandoned 400km flight), Tom Gooch (240 land out), Mike Weston (123 who often treats 300’s as a short stroll). It was a strange day with lower cumulus, and a very nice looking higher level Cu’s separated by an inversion layer that we could not reach. I used the day to practice my non-preferred thermal direction and to fly at a much higher trim speed on glides.

Gloucester

Aston Down

Friday 5th June - Mike Gadd

No flying today, rain in the morning and a better afternoon, by which time we had lost motivation for the day.

Saturday 6th June - Mike Gadd

A soarable day, but with a fresh to strong wind putting keeping most gliders in their trailers. I decided not fly, to polish the wings and prep myself for my 300km task planned for the following day. Early night!

Sunday 7 June - Mike Gadd

After a few days of watching the forecast with the hope of a 300km task for Sunday, Roger Green and I started the day at 06:30. Glider covers removed (as they were already rigged), DI’d and towed to launch point at 08:30 to be online for an early cable after the task briefing offered to XC pilots by Andy Smith (one of Cotswolds gliding’s top pilots flying a ASW28) at 09:00.

Even at 08:30 Roger and I were 9th and 10th on the single-seater grid (see image), but since AD often launch the single seaters first in the morning on a good day to get rid of them before the training flights, we were in with a good chance of getting in the air by 11 which was our plan for a 5-6 hour flight. Briefing confirmed a good forecast with RASP offering it’s random prediction of good thermals and a high cloudbase for most of the South UK, with the odd hole to avoid (such as Lasham).

The grid at 08:30. I was the 9th glider in the queue with Roger 10th

Based on what we saw, we planned our own task in the light tailwind to track South in morning when thermals were light to turn at Sherborne in Dorset (84km) then to head North into the headwind when conditions were stronger up to Stratford North West (145km); then turn south again to head back over the Cotswolds late pm when conditions may be light to make use of the trees over the Cotswolds or the ridge of the Cotswold edge.

I had my cable at 10:50 with a launch to 1400ft and straight into lift to climb to 4,000ft QNH. Behind me on the grid Roger took the next cable and soon joined me, so once we were both at cloudbase we headed off straight away towards Lyneham which was a short dogleg we had to put in to avoid Bristol CTA (the alternative was to fly under the CTA which we didn’t fancy that early in the day). Conditions were good, and so soon we were crossing the M4, around Keevil gliding club, and Westbury white horse, and then heading on over Longleat, north of ‘The Park’ gliding club and down to our first turnpoint at Sherborne. All OK so far, and good fun to be flying with Roger, always within sight of each other marking lift where we needed it.

Heading South over the M4

Nearing the first turnpoint at Sherborne

Once turned we then re-traced our path back up over Westbury again, Keevil, the M4 and up over the Cotswolds heading north in a light northerly headwind. By this time the sky was busy, there were sailplanes and paragliders everywhere, and at one point I had three paragliders flying towards me, Roger to my left and at least another 4 sailplanes in view. No problem though, everyone seemed to be keeping well clear of each other. Roger got separated over the Cotswolds soon after crossing the M4, he took a more easterly track than me and ended up in poorer conditions, but he soon corrected that and caught me up just North of Cirencester.

Heading north towards the Kemble ATZ

Cloudbase now was over 5000ft QNH, and thermals were often peaking at 8kts so the challenge if we were to get on with the task was to not stop and climb (which we both often failed to do – hence our slow task speed). North of Cirencester the sky was not looking so good, very blue ahead and to the east, so my tactic here was to get as high as possible and cross the blue gap towards better looking clouds. This part of the flight from Cirencester to Stratford seemed to take ages, not surprising as I was stopping to climb with anything over 2kts just to stay high with my confidence suffering in the conditions I saw ahead. However, I did manage to reach the turnpoint easily.

The second turnpoint - Stratford NW

My GPS then pinged my glide to AST as 64km and 1,200ft below the glide slope I needed to get back. So one more thermal then really, and after topping up again this time to the even higher cloudbase of 6,000ft QNH, the GPS then told me I was 500ft over the glide into AST, so with my safety of 750ft programmed in I knew that I should make it back. Even with that confident tactical info, I decided on a more cautious route over the trees of the Cotswolds and larger towns in the hope that if I did get low again through sinking air, I would likely find late lift there.

Final Glide over the Cotswold Edge

So I made a very pleasant and slow 60km glide over the beautiful Cotswold edge, and the city’s of Evesham, Cheltenham, Gloucester, and finally Stroud to arrive back at AST at 1,250ft over AST – perfect. I made sure I crossed the finish line, and then slowly prepped the glider for landing, entering circuit to land about 20 mins after Roger. I had spent 6 ½ hours in the air and my 303km task took a little over6 hours to complete, but Roger and I had both achieved the Gold distance and Diamond goal we wanted, so although we were slow, we made it back.

Final leg over Cheltenham

It was an absolute pleasure to fly with Roger, we’ve spent much time together in the air over the years on hang gliders (in the UK, France and Spain), and so to both fly our 300km Gold together was the icing on the cake really.

Flying with Roger in 268 - ASW20

Our flight times and later analysis of the flight trace certainly showed that we both need to speed up. The tactic with a hang glider is to stay high for as long as possible and mostly drift downwind – with a sailplane it’s much different, something I need to learn. I flew a MC +2 for most of the flight, so was happy with my cruising speed, but I also stayed in the top 1/3 of the available height band, never wanting to get low and stopping to turn whenever I hit good lift. This survival tactic is fine if you’re looking to stay high for as long as possible but not good of you want to complete a task before you run out of day. This is my next challenge to learn to fly faster and have the confidence to get lower before I climb. Much time is wasted going round in circles when I didn’t need to.

However, I’m really, really happy to fly the 300km and I’m looking forward to doing it again, this time faster!

Thanks go to everyone at Cotswold Gliding for their hospitality and help, always a great place to go and fly. And thanks to Robin Davenport who offered to retrieve me.
I’ll be heading up there again before the end of the summer and Roger plans to keep his ASW20 up there until the Autumn, so if anyone fancies a trip up there, let me or Roger know and perhaps we might join you.

Mike Gadd & Roger Green