Sailplane & Gliding 1966 - Lakes Gliding Club

FIRST GOLD FOR WALES
By IAN SHATTOCK
HE Midland G.C. Easter Rally pro­
the first opportunity to get a
Tvided
Gold C height. but it was not to be. A
climb from minus four hundred feet
(above Mynd) to ten-five seemed to be
good enough, but I didn't count on the
ink freezing, the clock stopping and lack
of base line preventing my Gold.
It was, thcrefore, with an anxious eye
on the shortening summer that on 17th
July 1 rang the Met. at Rhoose to find
out what was in store. The very prevelant
northerly airflow was again f"recast
with diminishing st:rength throughout the
jay, with a possibility of sea breeze
"stopping" the flow near OUT position
eight miles north of the sea. The term
the met. used was a Iikelihoud of a
"heat sink" forming over the vale of
Glamorgan with cu. to 8.000 ft. and
occasional ones to 14,000 ft., doudbase
around 4,000.
At the site everyone seemed pr·coccupied
with the routine of getting flying
started, amid cries for tow-rope,
lifting, petrol and the numerous chores.
including the repair to the 21 where a
sheep had contemptuously kicked a hole.
As soon as I had assured the rest of the
Skylark syndicate that they weren't at
all keen to fly-we bate flying in very
low wind conditions on our site--I set
about rigging, barograph smoking, mapfolding
and other "pundit type" tasks.
Amid jeers from all but the most optimistic,
I donned warm clothing, gloves,
and fitted a cellular plastic seat cushion
for insulation. A small cushion between
the 'chute and me, and I was ready. The
launch was a magnificent 700 ft. but out
over the valley at 500 ft. I hit a two-knot
thermal which took me to 3,000 It. The
plan was to fly north to clear our airways
and then west along Green One
South Edge. This would place me in a
~lear airspace with the north wind driv­
Ing me away from airways-over the
Bristol Channel. Therma'\s were fair with
occasional 4 kts. to cloudbase while the
wind at 4,000 ft. a.s.l. was ab~ut 15 kts.,
Which made it hard going to keep high
and northerly.
At Hirwaun Edge, &00 ft. sheer facing
north, there were big cu. forming, and it
was just west of the~e that] first entered
cloud. The first climb was very go.od
with up to six knots at times. ] used the
idea of centring on maximum noise and
it seemed to work, but at 7,000 ft. ] was
only getting 2-4 knots. Eventually, with
a few rather high-speed turns, I lost the
lift and flew Qn compass to N.W. Again
] entered cloud and again I reached
7,000 ft. At this point I had the impression
that the altimeter had stopped. On
reflection, however. I was used to seeing
it go up in large jerks, but as ] was
getting lift of only 2-4 knots, one hardly
expects IlI-rge movements. I had been in
the air about three hours and I was yet
to top 8,000 ft. Still, I had all day-or
did ]7 The sky seemed generally filling
up with cloud and didn't seem to be
Gold C height type at all. Just as well
to edge towards the site area-no point
in a long retrieve.
With the site in view about 8 miles to
THE
British Aviation
Insurance
COMPANY UMlnD
•
The o/tlest tJIlII.
large.t o/lic. specialising in
Civil Aviation
•
HEAD OFFICE
3·4 11 ME STREET.
LONDON. E.C.3
r.l.pho.., Mauion H""•• O~~~
387