BP Cup Borders round, campsite ground-handling competition
The British Paragliding Cup kicked off on May bank holiday weekend with good prospects given the long range forecast for the coming months and the good flyable spring conditions. This, along with the enthusiasm of the organisers and the exceptional support from both new and regular sponsors, meant high expectations for 2010. Simon Ford and Mal Grace report from the first two rounds, in the Scottish Borders and the Yorkshire Dales.
The BP Cup could not survive without its organisers, volunteers who work extremeley hard during the off-season to prepare the rounds. They cope amazingly well with the stress and responsibility, and with great enthusiasm at each and every round, and we would like to thank them for their efforts.
The cup could also not survive or offer such great incentives and prizes without its sponsors, and again we would like to acknowledge their support throughout the year.
New sponsors for 2010: Ozone, Green dragons/UP, Digifly UK (sponsoring the overall winner).
The many sponsors who have supported, and who continue to support, the cup: XC Mag (sponsoring best newcomer – each round & overall), Gradient gliders, Snowdon gliders, Red Dragon Paragliding, UK Airsports, V12 outdoor, Xpose Media, Sfizio.
Once again the BP Cup will be sponsoring the overall winners with an entry fee to next year’s British Championship.
ROUND 1: Borders BP Cup / Scottish open 28 – 31 May
The First round of the BPCup in the Scottish borders was based, as last year, at the stunning location of the Tibbie Shiels Inn alongside St Mary’s Loch.
Earlier in the month the Times listed the Inn as one of the top 50 locations to eat in the countryside. The accolade may well be deserved, though you can be reasonably confident the reviewer never experienced the campsite portaloos.
Rain on the way at the Scottish Borders round of the British Paragliding Cup.
Day 1. Friday saw us at Broughton Heights under what promised to be a buoyant sky. A race to goal to around Galashiels was set and no sooner was the window opened than the wind moved more northerly, forcing several pilots down in the bowl left of takeoff. A gaggle got away but soon we could see showers upwind and the conditions changed to the wrong side of marginal. Meet Director Gareth Aston wisely decided to can the day, especially as pilots where struggling to land. That evening we were entertained by Tommy’s band and later Cris Miles on vocals and guitar.
Day 2. Saturday was forecast to be wet and windy, but in fact it started off lovely, with rain North and South but not around the Borders. After a rebrief we headed to Cacra Bank in the Ettrick Valley where local heros Tommy and gang eased the walk up by carrying the gliders in their ATV’s. The weather didn’t play ball and some avoided the long walk down by flying in the rain. Later back at the campsite Adam Bednall towed a rope across the loch for pub landlord Alistair to winch Marra (MArtin Sandwith) on his kiteboard back across the water.
Sunday it poured down from early on and the day was canned.
Day 3. The patience of those who stayed was rewarded on Bank Holiday Monday when we woke up to a beautiful day with clear skies and excellent visibility. We headed up to Megget, a long walk but a site well suited to the range of directions forecast for the day. An elapsed time task was set to the Tinto Hotel via the Devil’s Beef Tub and Abington. Leaving early was the best decision as the clouds spread out and everything went into shadow for miles around. Thermals were still to be had before everything shut down.
Ed Cleasby and Mark Riches made the best distances on a difficult day, but Ed missed the turnpoint at the Devil’s Beef Tub. Any opportunity for anyone else still at takeoff to do better was stopped when Martin Sandwith suffered a collapse near take-off, which dropped him hard on his back. This incident forced Gareth to close the window and ask pilots in the vicinity to land to let the helicopter in. The helicopter arrived and the paramedics decided on account of Marra’s obesity, they’d need a much larger helicopter to winch him off the hill. By the time the requested Sea King arrived and took him to hospital the wind had completely switched, making take-off impossible.
Fortunately at the hospital an X-ray revealed he had only suffered bruising and he was back at the pub in a few hours
The new scoring system had some glitches which prevented the task being scored on the day, complicated by the window having to be closed due to Marra’s incident, a new scenario for the software, which Ulric [Jessop] is working on.
However, even without the scores the task was won by Mark Riches on an Aspen2.
ROUND 2: Yorkshire Dales 25 – 27 June.
This year we returned to the Dalesbridge centre Nr Austwick, within easy reach of many of the Dales’ best flying sites, and with the prospect of a decent forecast for the weekend entry and attendance was up on the borders round.
Day 1. Friday the forecast for the day was for light (5-8mph) winds WSW going WNW throughout the day, decent cumulus but weak thermal activity. With this prospect we all trouped off to meet on wether fell near Hawes
In the twenty minutes whilst the task was being set pilots had a decent fly around in better conditions than expected.
Task was set at 11:15am with a 35km race to goal in Marsham, keeping everyone over the higher ground. The window opened at 11:30 with a race start time of 12:00. Pilots were in the air as soon as the window opened. Most spent the time high, flying around the valley waiting for the race start, but with 5 minutes to go the thermal activity stopped and the wind dropped. With just minutes to go before the race start all the pilots had top-landed.
Over the next couple of hours most pilots made several hot and sweaty attempts to get away, but were only getting a couple of hundred feet above the hill.
With the window close time fast approaching, the task was changed to an elapsed time and the window extended to 16:00 hours. Again, pilots tried and tried but only a few hundred feet above the hill was possible. Marra made a courageous, or maybe desperate, attempt over the back/side of the hill and managed a grand distance of 5.35km, just barely past minimum distance.
At 4pm the window closed and everyone packed up to go back to the campsite. A few stayed on for half an hour and the wind picked up. Thermals were still weak, but the half dozen or so that stayed had possibly the best flying of the day for about 40minutes.
Day 2. Briefing at 9am told of SE winds that were stronger than on the Friday, and more thermal activity. Reports from local pilot Ed Cleasby, who had gone to Semer water take off early to check conditions, were that the wind was much too strong and off the hill slightly. We rebriefed at 11am and again at 1pm as the weather reports were changing by the hour. Ed had returned by this time but it was still too strong on take off and no one was attempting to launch. At the 1pm briefing it was decided that the day was canned but the organisers expected it to become flyable in the evening and they would continue to monitor it and let pilots know. So it was a day of walking, sight seeing and girly bike rides
At 5pm the sea breeze reached us and the wind switched 180 degrees but was still too strong.
Day 3. Sunday, forecast was for winds to increase again throughout the day, so the previous night the task committee had decided that an early task was needed and probably from Hawkswick, briefing at 9am and everyone on the way to the site within 10 minutes.
On arrival at the site at 10am, locals told us it was already blowing 20mph and gusting to near 30mph on launch. One pilot had taken off a few minutes before we all arrived and was defiantly doing the rocker’s dance in the air. 30 minutes later the wind had increased to 32mph in the gusts and was getting stronger so the task was cancelled for the day.
The next round takes place at the Long Mynd, based at the Inn on the Green Wentnor, from 9 – 12 July.
