MIDLAND GLIDING CLUB
NEWSLETTER
Number 100 November 2002
From
the Flying Field................................................................................................................................................................. 1
Christmas Dinner 2002 and Annual Dinner 2003................................................................................................................... 1
Chairman’s Contribution........................................................................................................................................................... 2
CFI’s Bits..................................................................................................................................................................................... 3
Junior Championships 2002...................................................................................................................................................... 4
Inter-Club League Final 31st August - 1st
September 2002.................................................................................................... 7
Alison Rowson......................................................................................................................................................................... 10
Birthday Boy (aka Tigger)....................................................................................................................................................... 12
Solar Plexus............................................................................................................................................................................... 12
Ann Parry
Congratulations to Mike Witton on going solo, Paul Waller on completing his Bronze C, Andy Holmes on becoming a Basic Instructor, and Steve Male on becoming an Assistant Category Instructor. The excellent Indian summer gave way to storms and grey weather for the end of the course season. See page 2 for details of winter flying.
There are plans for winter lectures on Saturday evenings. Watch for news in the clubhouse and on the website.
Congratulations to Chris Harris and Nicky on their recent marriage.
Ann Parry
The Christmas Dinner will be at the club on Saturday 14th December in the evening. Contact Jo Beadman in the kitchen for details and to book your meal.
I have made a provisional booking at The Feathers Hotel in Ludlow for the annual dinner and trophy presentation. The date is Saturday 29th March 2003. If anyone has any inspired and achievable ideas as to a guest speaker, please let me know. Have you filled in your flights on the cross-country record at the club in order to be considered for trophies?
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Please send Newsletter contributions to: John and Ann Parry Holly Cottage Wentnor Bishops Castle Shropshire SY9 5EE Telephone..01588 650379 Fax.………01588 650596 Email……..John.Parry@Virgin.net |
Club Details: The Midland Gliding Club The Long Mynd Church Stretton Shropshire SY6 6TA Office Telephone......01588 650206 Office Fax.................01588 650532 Members Telephone..01588 650405 Email……………….office@longmynd.com |
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Club web
site: www.longmynd.com |
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Julian Fack
It was a great shock to us all that Alison Rowson passed away unexpectedly on Tuesday the 8th of October. She had been on duty at the club the Sunday just two days previously. There was a moving memorial service the following Wednesday at the lovely Stoke St. Milborough church followed by lunch at the village hall. The MGC’s many mourners helped to fill the service to overflowing. John Stuart read the poem High Flight. This was followed by Phil King’s excellent appreciation of Alison’s life, an extract of which is printed on page 10 of this newsletter. All our thoughts go out to Jeff, Sarah and Mike through this difficult time, and we hope that we will continue to see Jeff at the Mynd.
At the AGM in April there was a lengthy discussion about the K8, and it was obvious that although some contrary opinions were aired, a large majority were in favour of replacing our written-off K8 with another. We have been searching for a good one for some time, and after a number of false starts, we have finally bought a nice one from Germany. There are a number of matters to be attended to before it can be flown, such as changing to a tail wheel instead of a skid, and changing the instruments from metric to imperial, as well as cancelling the German registration and adding a BGA trigraph. We are also taking the opportunity to add an XK10 audio vario and averager, which is CFI Neal Clements’ particular request for the club fleet in general. The glider also came with a decent open trailer as part of the kit, and I hope it will be ready for action in a week or two.
Last winter’s success story was the re-skinning of ELE, which transformed her into a new glider lookalike. I was reminded of this recently when I met someone from Snitterfield who congratulated me on our new K21. When I explained that this was not the case he assured me that he had looked at it carefully during a visit to the Mynd, and it really was a new glider, so it must have been a visiting glider marked ELE he had seen!
With this in mind the committee have decided to have our other two K21s re-skinned in Poland this winter, so we should have a very tidy looking 2-seater fleet by next spring. Neal Clements is also undertaking a review to consider the future shape of the fleet and any changes that might be necessary.
The winter flying schedule is now running with by the same system as last year. Basically we stop running courses, but try to fly as often as possible. John Stuart will open the club on Wednesday and Thursday afternoons and all day Friday. Weekends will operate on the usual duty roster system. Paul Stanley will also be available to tug on most Mondays and Tuesdays, should the weather be favourable, so do not think that you can only fly weekends in the winter. We aim to open on any decent day, and there are quite a few nice wave and ridge days during the average winter season. For those requiring training the winter is a very good time, since things are generally quieter and you may be able to make progress even faster than during the busy season, and you will also have the advantage of remaining in practice ready for next spring.
We are currently assessing a project for Colin to build a second retrieve winch, which would make the launching operation even more bullet proof than it is currently, but it has not yet been fully costed. There have been a number of occasions in the last couple of years when a spare retrieve winch would have been a godsend, since retrieving the cable by Landrover probably cuts the launch rate by 75% when we are operating on either the north or the south run.
Expect to see some major improvements inside the clubhouse during the winter, and it is hoped to tarmac the hangar apron during this period, so a lot will be going on. Mike Whitton, who is responsible for buildings, will be busy when he returns from working in China very shortly. As I write this I hear that winds in excess of 100 mph are battering the clubhouse and water has found its way through the fabric of the building, so even more winter work than usual will probably be needed on the estate.
The office will be manned by Martin McCurdie from Friday to Monday inclusive, so do keep in touch by phone and fly whenever you can. As usual, do not hesitate to contact me if there is anything you would like to discuss, either email me at j.fack@virgin.net or try my mobile 07812 108588.
Neal Clements
I have emailed the requirement forms for your instructor renewal. Any instructor who hasn’t received one please contact me and I will send you one.
A change of CFI is a good time to look again at the club fleet. There are many viewpoints regarding this and I am anxious to canvas as many ‘users’ as I can. What do you want out of the fleet, not just in terms of the glider but also in terms of ground handling and instruments. Please send me your views at the email below or leave me a note in my pigeon hole. The K8 is being replaced as I write but in your opinion is the single seater fleet of K8, K23s and Discus useful for you?
In case you are not aware then the medical standards for glider pilots will be brought into line with the National Private Pilots Licence from March 2003. There is a complication regarding grandfather rights but I urge you to look at the BGA web site http://www.gliding.co.uk/ for the full details. In summary before you can fly solo you MUST have a certificate endorsed by a GP (and then there are age related renewals) or of course a CAA medical. At the moment it looks as if the club will have to maintain records for insurance purposes but this still has to be confirmed. Please can you all assist us by getting the details and the forms off the BGA site and preparing yourselves for compliance.
This is the time of year for the canopy and sun problem, the latter is fixed and we can’t change it but take it into account when flying late in the day especially on a westerly approach. The sun will be right in your eyes and making everything else invisible, this combined with a dirty canopy is a recipe for disaster. Please ensure the canopies are clean and if they are misting up and not clearing quickly on the launch then don’t fly. Trying to fly around with a misted canopy is a frightening experience.
We have recently had a case whereby Mynd aircraft have infringed controlled airspace. This is TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE. I am making the pilots involved re-sit the airlaw exams before they can fly from the Mynd again. The root cause of the incident was a failure to brief before the flight including up to date charts and flying away from the Mynd on QFE. I will write more about the subject at the beginning of the cross country season. However we are now entering, hopefully, the wave season and there is danger of infringement by height gain.
Can I take this opportunity to remind everyone again that QFE is a local convenience only, QNH and flight levels are what the maps are marked up in and are the settings you can expect other aircraft to be flying on. Please think before you fly, could I go away from the Mynd, could I go near an airway, have I got a map and have I recorded QFE and QNH? Once you are away from the Mynd or within the vicinity of an airway it is more appropriate to set QNH. Certain airspace on the map is marked in Flight Levels, for example FL45+ means that the airspace starts at 4500 feet on an altimeter with a pressure set to 1013 mb, you will need to adjust to that, for instance, for airways.
We changed the standard CBSIFTCBE to have the E on the front. This was because not enough time was being spent upon the eventualities before the flight. The BGA have reminded me that it is supposed to be a quick reminder not a briefing. I have agreed with them and the instructors that we will do both, therefore think about the eventualities, preferably before actually getting in the aircraft as you have a better view standing up and then at the end of your checks the final is a quick summary of what you have thought of.
The ropes we use for launching are wonderful, well done to the winch team, however there have been occasions when they are coiled up by the glider. Please don’t do this as it can lead to knots in the rope and this reduces the life considerably and will lead to more launch failures. Always try to keep knots out of any tow ropes.
There have been accidents at other clubs caused by loose dogs on the airfield. To avoid this happening I have agreed with the committee that dogs are only allowed on the airfield during flying operations if they are tethered or in a car/caravan. If you see a loose dog then please take steps to get the owner to tether it or take it offsite.
My email address is:
n.clements@talis.com
Ian MacArthur
I went solo in 1996 just after my 16th birthday. After that I stayed at solo standard for ages, adding on hours but just not really progressing further than local soaring. In 1997, Simon took Andy and me to the juniors and showed us what fun racing gliders was. We both vowed to do it ourselves the next year. I didn’t, but I crewed for Andy and vowed to get my Silver by the next year and do it then - I didn’t. That was 1998, and I lost a bit of enthusiasm for gliding.
Things changed in the summer of 2000, when I decided to live at the Mynd in-between university semesters. Funding myself by working at a local pub, I did loads of gliding but finished the summer still without my Bronze. Why? I can’t remember, but I was getting really hooked on flying by then.
In 2001, I managed another summer at the Mynd, this time getting my Bronze, then going to the inter-services with Simon and Clive. That September I flew to Nympsfield for my first cross country, getting my Silver badge.
In the winter I didn’t manage much gliding at all as I was working really hard on my finals at uni. What kept me going was chatting with Andy on the phone all the time to figure out how he, John and I could have a top performance glider to fly all summer and one each for the junior nationals.
I finished my degree in June and went straight to the Mynd. Andy and I were in the Discus syndicate and John had the use of Simon’s LS4.
On the 19th, it looked stonking, so I flew a 300 km to Newport-Pagnell and back, missing the sector by a couple of wingspans, and missing out on my Diamond goal. “Doh!” I flew another 300 km triangle, but the GPS went down and although I could navigate without it, I couldn’t judge my final glide whatsoever (unlike Johnny boy) and ended up in a field in Wistanstow at the south east end of the Mynd. Double “Doh!”
Through the summer I did quite a few smaller cross countries learning how to make the Discus go as best it could, aided by my trusty companion Johnny boy in the LS4. We had some amazing flights together; the best was a wave climb to 11,500 feet in formation, and then descending down to an hour’s formation ridge running.
Then came Task Week, and on my one day of flying it was a bit of a booming sky and so I tanked up the wings with water and flew as fast as I could, using my one rule of “don’t turn unless you are going up really fast”. I did make a few bad decisions, but the rule paid off and I won my first race and was well chuffed. I tried not to show my glee at beating Andy, but I finally cracked and he got really annoyed at my childish remarks, especially as he had a Discus with silly winglets.
This year 49 competitors under 25 years old gathered at the Soaring Centre in Leicestershire.
John was flying IV, Simon’s LS4.
Andy was flying 19, the BGA Discus (with stinky winglets).
Sarah had made it and was in EVV, the Mynd K23.
I was in 493, the Mynd Discus (with no stinky winglets).
On the first day, all 49 of us were launched into a good looking sky which then turned bad. I scratched about low and landed back. Most people had been wiser and used their height for a circuit and were stood watching me being a bit stupid. The day was scrubbed but it had settled my nerves, ready for the next day.
So, my second race and lots more gliders to play with. The day was superb with 3-5 knot climbs being typical. I remember having one of about 7 or 8 knots net average which attracted about 20 gliders in, it felt pretty good looking down on all those people. The cumulus that day were really shallow (apparently most of the country had gone blue) but the streeting was magnificent. I was quickly learning how to watch gliders around me and see where the most energy was to go the fastest. Overtaking an LS8 felt pretty good (although it didn’t take him long to get back in front). Another interesting time was around the last turn point where a lot of us found ourselves flying at 90 knots down a cloud street and having a load of open class gliders flying the other way, head on to us. I didn’t realise until I had the closest miss ever with what looked like a Nimbus 4 (I definitely could read Nimbus on the side). Closing speed was probably about 200 knots and I just made it under his left wing. It looked like he didn’t even flinch. (Do they put airbags in big gliders?)
A 30+ km final glide into Hus Bos and a fast finish with about 10 others finished the day in top style, and when Dad came over he looked well pleased. Apparently I had done quite well. The preliminary results had me at around 15th at 106 kph. I couldn’t stop feeling really happy, 300 km in under 3 hours! Until later having a beer with a few guys and one of them said “I put west coordinates instead of east in my GPS and nearly missed the turn point.” I instantly knew that I had done the same but not looked to make sure I was over the correct ground feature. Doh! Doh! Doh! Doh!
It turned out I had missed the turn point by about 1.5 km and was scored distance to that point; 46th or something position.
John and Andy did just under 100 kph scoring well coming 26th and 27th. Sarah stayed airborne for the whole day in the K23 but she didn’t get back, completing most of the task and coming 43rd. I was worried she might hurt me so that she could have her Discus back.
I learnt about 100 lessons in gliding that day.
Much the same as day 1, except there was less streeting. Trust in my glide angle was critical if I was to keep pushing on to the stronger climbs and I did this round the first turn point, a glide of about 25 km under grey gloom. Spotting a glider circling in the distant sunshine gave me the boost to keep going to the 4 or 5 knots.
I made a couple of really silly decisions, the main one was choosing to glide across the blue to better(?) looking clouds instead of following the energy slightly off track. Never again. It cost me about 10 minutes and possibly about 10 or more places that day. The final glide was getting interestingly marginal, or that’s what I thought until a Discus flew right over me, waved a bit (we were mates) and then dived down away from me. I watched him hopping over a few fields before the finish line behind another guy, both dumping water. I was tempted, but kept my cool and flew at the trees that were near the end of the airfield at 90 knots, gently pulled up over them to keep under the 3 gliders in circuit, crossing the finish line and popping the wheel down to land straight in. I came 22nd that day at around 90 kph.
Johnny boy did the same as me but unfortunately using his finger out of the DV panel as a glide computer. He ended up about 100 feet off glide, didn’t like the look of the boundary trees and landed in a small field about 100 m from the finish line. Everyone from the Mynd, including me, was watching the finishers when John appeared.
“We didn’t see you finish John?”
“I haven’t, can you help me retrieve myself from next door.” The way he said it made it pure comedy. He got penalised for his lack of finish and came 37th. Meanwhile, Andy had a shocker and came 41st, Sarah coming 46th.
I was learning fast by this point, getting starts and gaggle thermalling off to a tee. About 50 new lessons learnt today.
We all launched into a soarable sky, the start line opened and it went grey. I normally wouldn’t have even bothered launching into this. Everyone scratched into the first turn point, where the sky opened up and it started cycling again. I came up with an amazing tactic of getting incredibly low, having to scratch away from just above circuit height with a couple of others and watching lots of gliders race off into the nice weather. Having got back on track and passing the 2nd turn it was two really long glides back into the murk. It was here that the difference between a Discus and an LS8 became apparent; I was about 700 feet higher than Anna Wells at the start of a glide and below her at the end. I think she must have kept some water on or had a luckier mascot than me. Anyhow, I got to about 20 km from home underneath a gaggle of about 15 gliders which were scratching onto glide (I could see Johnny up there and was fuming) and hanging on in half a knot. I ended up landing 10 km from home, next to the huge (800 foot) aerials at Rugby, not wanting to final glide into a field like some other people were doing.
John came 13th (nice one), I came 29th. Andy had another bad run landing pretty early on, he came 42nd. Sarah came 44th, pressing on in the K23, but just not having the glide angle to get to the good weather and landing back home.
This was a day of really good glides through clear blue skies to underneath towering cumulus. I had put double the amount of water on board that I had been using, but not put enough in the tail. This meant that although on the glides it felt like I was going almost level at 90 knots, I just couldn’t thermal it nicely. It felt like a bus, and although I wasn’t getting out-climbed, it just felt horrible.
The fact that I couldn’t thermal nicely with other gliders was perhaps a good thing on that day as it made me leave a thermal early to go on to the next climb and centre in it myself, and after a while I found I was getting away from a lot of gliders. This, combined with a late(ish) start meant I was doing alright.
My downfall was my lack of ability to mentally calculate final glides. They had put a control turn point in about 10 km west of Hus Bos so that we all came in from a nice direction to do the best looking finishes. Unfortunately this additional 10 km played havoc with the GPS - L-nav glide thinker do da, and I was taking my last climb when Andy shot above me about 500 feet higher. I thought I had better get climbing quickly when 10 gliders shot about one thousand feet below me on their final glides! I wasn’t going to take this so I flew at 130 knots round the last turn and all the way home to get round in around 2 hours. It was quite fun really but had wasted time.
When the scores came out, it was 18th 19th 20th for John, me and Andy. Unfortunately, Andy had thought he was at work and climbed into airspace, penalising him to 36th.
Best day of gliding ever!
I started late, and shot down to Bicester, catching up the main gaggle. I was amazed at joining some thermals where people were accepting 2 knots, when it was absolutely booming and there were 5-6 knot whoppers to be found.
After turning Bicester, I took a good climb and set off up a cloud street that was almost dead on track. I was cruising with Mark in his ASW20 when up snuck Johnny boy in the LS4. Mark said he couldn’t cope with us unflapped boys staying with him so he pushed down and away. John and I were comfortable with each other flying in close formation as we had practised it all summer and we zoomed up the streets between 70 and 90 knots taking only 3 turns all the way to Grafham - ?? miles and we were higher than when we started! We were watching two Duos at the start of the leg that were just in front, about 600 feet higher, and using them as markers, by the end of the leg we had overtaken them and were higher… It was just too cool.
I lost John on the way home, but I remember that there were about 20 of us on final glide, and frantic calls were made to Hus Bos to get everyone on standby for the impending mass finish. It turned out not to be too bad, I managed a close formation finish with a Ventus which they put on the news (it was too good), and consequently a partial ground loop when I was trying to avoid everyone on my ground run (luckily they did not put that on the news).
I had gone really fast that day and was mega happy. I was placed 9th at over 100 kph.
Johnny boy came 22nd and Andy got back on form coming 24th. Sarah had gone down to Bicester the long way as she couldn’t cross the blue gap, I heard on the radio someone say “Wow!, she’s really pushing that K23” as she was in a thermal with the leaders who were already on the second leg. They must have thought she had a rocket engine in it.
The weather had looked really promising but as we all started it got really showery. I dropped out, landing at Edgehill with Sarah and 19 others. Andy did really well coming 15th scratching about, John did well but his loggers failed losing him points. Dad flew with Dave in the Duo and got really far round the task but landed out. Only 2 guys made it round.
Overall it was a really good competition, the weather was the best factor, and the organisation behind it all was just superb.
Loads of folks went down from the Mynd to give their support and we had a cool “Mynd camp” with two caravans and lots of tents. The atmosphere was really friendly with everyone helping each other out. Mike Witton seemed to be constantly filling water barrels up! You could walk into Alison and Jeff’s awning and there would always be a cup of tea and a biscuit waiting for you. Nigel and Sue went posh into the members’ static caravans, but they did let us all in to watch the TV on occasion.
Dad was the best crew, and although he only had to retrieve me once, he made up for it by cooking breakfast nearly every morning. He also brought the van down so we had somewhere warm to stay. Cheers Dad!
Hopefully next year there will be even more young people from the Mynd competing, or even getting into a competing two seater. Andy said last year “let’s put the Mynd juniors on the map” and I think we have. I am definitely going again and hopefully doing another comp as well.
This summer I have flown about 130 hours and well over 2000 km, nearly all in the Discus.
At the moment I am planning a trip to Australia with Clive and John to go gliding early next year, it’s going to be amazing. 1000 kms all round?
Dave d’Arcy
This year’s final was held at Sutton Bank, and for the second time in three years MGC were attending. There wasn’t a Rockpolishers league in 2001 due to foot and mouth. Your club attendees were Julian Fack (Pundit day 1), Chris Alldis (Pundit day 2), ) Paul Shuttleworth (Intermediate) and me (Novice).
We were supported by Dominic Haughton (team captain), John and Ann Parry, and Walter Baumann.
Most of us arrived safely Friday night and had supper out at a nearby restaurant to start up the team spirit.
The next day was as forecast nice and bright with fantastic visibility and a fair NW wind of 10 - 12 knots. I managed to rig and push clear of the gliders left out, mostly visiting for the Slingsby rally that had been on all week, then had a breakfast to rival those found at the Mynd! Briefing was at 10:00 where quite a large group had massed for the 6 attending clubs. These were Yorkshire, London, Norfolk, Oxford, Bath & Wiltshire, and MGC. After a thorough briefing by CFI David Hayes on field layout and operation, the met man (Oh no it can’t be? It is! It’s the angry man who wanted us to move our tent at 23:00 last night) then gave us his news. An approaching high with steady winds of 10 knots NW at sea level, 15 knots NW at 5 thousand feet, 20 knots NW at 10 thousand feet and 25 knots NW at 15 thousand feet. Humm, I think it might wave! Oh, and he publicly thanked the young men for moving their tent!
The task set for all classes was therefore an assigned area one. After much debate by the pilots and managers, we established it was still going to be an assigned area task. This type of task was new to me, and as it happens to many other competitors, which lightened my heart a little. Afterwards I decided I needed a team briefing. Paul obliged, and after 15 - 20 minutes the words “in theory” came out. “What do you mean, in theory?” I asked. “Well I’ve never actually flown an assigned area task, but it’s quite simple,” said Paul. Have to say my nerves weren’t that steadied! How could they get away with springing this stuff on a novice? And then the reassuring words came from John, “And now you know why we didn’t set one in Task Week!” But in essence, it is quite simple. All you need to do is enter both assigned areas and land back at the club after a set duration, having accomplished as many kms as possible. The two assigned areas were a circle centred on Leyburn with 22 km radius and a 70 km sector going south and south-east starting at Wetherby south. A triangle of 142 km with max 300 km and min 82 km. Humm!
Novices were gridded first then intermediates and pundits. Apparently I would have missed my launch slot if it wasn’t decided by the tug pilots that enough was enough! You see NW winds cause bad turbulence over the airfield that can endanger the combination, so the winch was rolled out. By the way, my lateness was due to meticulous preparation, honest! That said, I still managed to mark my map up (actually Martin Moss’s) with incorrect scaled distances! This feat I repeated on Sunday too but spotted at the last minute, otherwise I’d be trying to final glide 16 nm with one and a half thousand feet, more on this later. To test the ridge and show it could be done, the CFI took a K21 up. 10 - 15 minutes later he came over to brief me, saying that you could soar the ridge quite comfortably to 500 feet or so, and that there were plenty of gusts to get away from. My 600 foot launch was the highest I saw for a good 10 minutes before I got my first gust, a 10 knot elevator to heaven! Although not cloud base exactly, it allowed me to venture away from the ridge and connect the wave assisted thermals together that did eventually lead to cloud base, about 4k QFE. Time to start I thought, so dived down to the start height of 3k and through the start line. It hadn’t occurred to me that I could climb out the top of the start sector, but hopefully that’s something else I’ve learnt. Although I tried to get into the wave proper, I found the gaps filled quickly and weren’t producing the reassuring solidness of wave lift, so I pushed out to the first area along a bit of a cloud street then straight glid till I was nearing Masham and in the first assigned area where I worked a gentle climb and then found the wave assisted ones again to get back to cloud base about 4500 feet here (QNH). I pushed as far into the area as I felt I could, while trying to preserve my glide to the second sector, and hoping all the time the dark mass of cloud down track would improve. Unfortunately for me it didn’t but there were still some good climbs to be had, which brought me to within striking distance of the second sector that surprised me a little! It was now decision time, ‘How do I best play this assigned area task thingy?’ The good weather (sunshine) seemed counties away, and to return to Sutton Bank meant flying back through the crud air I’d just been in. I know ‘I’ll just keep going as far as I can.’ Shuttleworth did say that would probably be how the good pilots play it. Plus Walter would sulk if I didn’t give him something to do. So I duly pushed on in the still air and landed out south of Pontefract and called in the retrieve.
We arrived back in time for evening buffet and quiz, where I found 173 and PZ! These two had been stuck on Sutton Bank for much of my flight waiting for it to switch on again. Maybe I’d done it wrong? However, Julian had done very well indeed by getting around and back in approx. 3:01hrs, Paul had also done well by getting to Rufforth and then aerotowing home. It was looking good for team Mynd. I had got third doing 111 km, but beaten by the Norfolk novice doing 110 km on handicap by 5 points in an Astir, Paul was also third, and Julian second behind Ed Johnson for Dunstable, giving MGC overall joint second with London behind Oxford (Weston on the Green.) We also had a good showing at the quiz night. We entered 4 or 5 two man teams with the addition of John and Lorraine Hall where Paul and Karen won! I think Shuttleworth bought a round of drinks with their winnings but I can’t be sure!
Day 2 looked another promising day, again it was another moderately early rig (had to drag my crew to it), where we found Chris Alldis having driven up that morning after a day’s abseiling with daughter Becky on her birthday day out at Abersoch! Briefing revealed a novice task of about 100 km, a quadrilateral of Northallerton - Ripon - Rufforth - Sutton Bank. Intermediate and pundit were doing Masham-Doncaster north - Sutton Bank (about 180 km) and this time both were launched before novice. The (nicer) weatherman said it would be a blue day with the possibility of sea air south of York.
It was a long wait on the grid before the Competition Director decided it was time to go, and with 3 tugs we were all soon in the air. It happened that I was at about start height when the pundit gate was opened and so could join a number of gliders pushing off, as I don’t like starting on my own, it’s far too much hard work! Gingerly, I moved out towards the first TP having never flown a blue X-C day before, and observed a glider fly straight out to Northallerton from Sutton Bank arrive very low and then disappear. I learnt later that it was the Dunstable novice notching up a few km less than Saturday’s effort! After a low spot myself, while on the way to Ripon I met up with the ASW24 of Oxford who’d caned us all the day before doing 198 km in his 3 hours having set off 2 hours earlier in better conditions. So, I thought if I could keep with him I might just win on handicap! Well it was a plan. We traded blows of blows thermal to thermal, but I found it a little un-nerving when he joined my thermal and then proceeded to circle a different core! Afterwards I heard Chris mention “You know some of those thermals were the funny 2 core type.” So think I should let him off.
Approaching the 3rd TP I found Julian in 173 thermaling so joined him with a big grin on my face and fingers crossed he was doing my task hors concours. Things were now looking rosy, the 24 was below me and 173 in front with just 16 nm to go, I might just do it! However, gliding always turns up a few tricks for me (hey that’s why I do it!) and after turning Rufforth I had lost sight of Julian and then had a near collision incident with the 24. I don’t think either were to blame, but why he should be back tracking and flying straight at me I don’t know. Initially I was going to join his thermal, but he straightened up after half a turn so I diverted slightly back to track. Five seconds later he was still there filling my canopy, so that was it, I was out of there turning and diving away. Assessing my situation I thought it better to return to Rufforth to establish myself again, and who should I meet there but Z19 and Dominic! After seeing a lot of his underside close up he headed away on track so let him go as I wasn’t good enough to benefit from flying off of track so set off on track (Andy Holmes should understand this at least!). Then came my cardinal sin, that cost me dear. I was 10.8 nm out, said the GPS, so figured I needed about 2000 feet plus field height (1000 feet) to final glide in. No! You also need circuit height! Well I figure this is the mistake I made, although Dominic who was near by reckons I was on glide, anyhow, I’d had a long hard hot day and with 1.5 nm and 700 feet on the clock with weak energy, the White Horse was looming. I didn’t like it, so turned away and tried for a thermal. Five minutes later I was no higher but a little closer, so asked permission for a down wind landing and set off then realised I hadn’t waited for a reply! Not the way it should be done but I’d finished and team and crew seemed most pleased for me although I felt a little differently about it, but hey I got back, be happy!
Chris and Paul finished a little later and by the looks of them they’d also had a hard day out there. It was now down to the loggers. Who had won what? We didn’t have to wait long as a presentation time was set for 19:30hrs. The ICL organiser (Mike Jefferyes) announced the winners and the usual how you did its, then read out the scores for the contending clubs in a thrilling manner. In ICL there are only as many points awarded as there are teams competing. They are awarded based on the combined 1000 point day totals, so points can be quite tight, and in the event of a tie the 1000 day points come back into play. So, from day 1 Dunstable and the Mynd both had 13 and Weston on the Green had 15 points. But what had day 2 done for the positions? Well, Dunstable and the Mynd were still level again with 13 points and Weston had dropped a point to give them 14. How close was that? To be quite frank, I think most of team Mynd were too tired to take in the news, it took Ann to gee us all up to realise how well the team had done. Those that could spare the time then went out for a celebratory meal to finish off the weekend.
No achievement goes by without its “thank you(s)”, to this year’s team captain - Dominic, for all his behind the scenes effort, to those who gave their time for training lectures, etc. to all those who helped crew and support, and to the pilots for competing so well. I wish I had time to tell all the stories during the weekend, but will just mention that the 24 flew Sunday’s task with its wheel down the whole time, no matter how many radio calls, then preceded to put it up for landing. Fortunately, his team were able to alert him in time!
Phil King
I’m going to start by quoting a piece from the gliding club newsletter written last year by Alison herself.
It’s called What does the Mynd mean to me?
“It means a lifetime of friends and companionship, who are there at times like I’ve just had, while I was ill, and they came from everywhere. I had many, many, visitors. Thank you all very much.
It means friendship when the club is buzzing with activity at weekends, during the courses, or at times like Task Week, which is fun!
It also means solitude, when perhaps the cloud is down on the hill, or it’s covered in snow, and there are very few people about, just the skylarks, the lapwings, the swallows, and the curlews, which I learnt to recognise when I was very young. Or fine evenings, when almost everyone else has gone home, or early in the morning with the sounds from the valley - or silence - just the smell of the Mynd, which is unmistakable.”
I think this piece tells us a lot about Alison. She valued people and loved to be active. Yet there was also a quiet, private, solitary side to her that was not so apparent.
She was born in Sutton Coldfield, the youngest of three sisters. Her father Robin went to the Long Mynd to glide as often as he could, and from an early age Alison spent weekends at the gliding club with the rest of her family. Even at the age of nine she was helping on the flying field. Meanwhile, at home she took part in activities more typical of a young girl; she joined Sylvia in the Junior Red Cross, and went to ballet classes. Later she learnt to play the cello and became leader of the cello section of the Sutton Coldfield Youth Orchestra.
At school she was already showing signs of the interest that was to dominate her life; she was told off for gazing out of the window at clouds and drawing gliders.
In those days children couldn’t join the club and learn to fly until they were 16, but Alison found plenty to do on the ground such as driving the retrieve winch, pushing gliders, and attaching the launch cable. When she was 13, Robin landed at Cosford airfield after a cross-country flight and she, with Rosemary and Diana, made up the retrieve crew. At Cosford there was no minimum age for flying, so Alison was able to have her first flight in an open cockpit T21. She found it rather scary, but from then on there was no going back, and at the age of 16 she joined the club at the Mynd and went solo within the year.
In 1970 the family had moved to Timperley in Cheshire. Alison hated her new school and decided to leave as soon as she could. With typical determination and practicality she walked down the Timperley High Street and asked for a job at each bank in turn. The second one, Barclays, gave her a job and she worked there until she married Roy.
Alison had met Roy on the Mynd. At that time there was a small team of club members who drove the winch at weekends. Roy ran the team, and he tells me that Alison was one of the best winch drivers the club ever had. That was not surprising because as a child she had sat beside Robin in the winch cab for hours, observing how to do it.
Her flying made steady progress and on one memorable day she and Roy each flew in separate gliders for 5 hours to obtain their Silver duration badges. Alison was flying her favourite glider, the green K8, and a picture of this hangs today in Church Farm.
Around this time Alison trained and work