British Paragliding Cup, Long Mynd

Simon Ford gives us the low-down on the third BPCup, at Long Mynd (17 – 20 July)

This was the third round in this year’s BPCup events and so far we’d had a task every round. The Mynd round is always a favourite and this year was no exception with over 80 entrants.

Due to some scoring problems in the Dales we’d re-scored the task and although it didn’t change the overall placings much, it made everything tighter at the top end of the table.  Going in to the Mynd event Tim Bridle held overall lead on his Skywalk Poison II with Richard Chaffe and Martin Sandwith close behind on the Niviuk Peak and Boomerang Sport respectively.

During the week the forecast for the Friday had been heavy rain all day and so it proved to be. Meet Director Calvo canned the day straight off –  even though he probably spent the rest of the day
suffering from no re-brief syndrome – an illness unique to meet directors – or is it just Calvo?

Saturday we had the obligatory re-briefs with the pilots eventually ending up on the Mynd, but it wasn’t to be. Some of us went to Church Stretton to ensure there weren’t any cream tea places we’d missed on previous Mynd visits. In the evening the Inn on the Green put on a fantastic buffet spread.

With a forecast of strong winds and embedded CuNimbs it didn’t look good for the Sunday either and after a couple of re-briefs Calvo wisely canned the day.  Judith (‘Ruth’) Mole invited everyone to a BBQ that evening and the weather played ball. Many pilots went along to enjoy the social occasion with such entertainment highlights as the Thomson, Miles and Leavesley trio, and Wendy Griffiths giving a great performance of Blondie’s Heart of Glass.  (Note for younger readers  – Blondie was a band popular in the late 70’s).

Monday looked like it might be possible to get a task in early so it was a 9.30 briefing on the hill.  It wasn’t flyable but Calvo set a task with an unspecified start time so that if it did get get good we were ready to go. While the rest of us waited for conditions to improve, such minor inconveniences as strong winds and occasional light rain weren’t going to stop Steve Nash on his 17 m2 Ibex from
adding to his airtime.

Then it got good. There was a noticeable drop in wind strength, and after a few wind dummies showed there was plenty of lift about, Calvo activated the Race to Goal task – 44 km to an 8 km radius goal around Halfpenny Green via a turnpoint at Much Wenlock.

There was a 45 minute gap between window open and race start, and in a similar situation to the Dales it was during this gap that the best lift was to be found. Many pilots got to the 4 km base during this time but because the wind was still quite strong had to head back to the ridge and lose all their height.

When the race started and a large gaggle did get away it didn’t prove to be as lifty downwind as it had been on the hill, and after topping out just the other side of Church Stretton it became a glide to the ground, with 25 pilots decking it within a 3 km range around the 20 km mark.

Visiting ex-pat and former South Wales pilot Dave Gibbs proved to have learned something in his years abroad and managed to sneak an extra 3 km on everyone else on his Mantra 3, giving him top place in the Open.

Tony Spirling, Dave Thomson and John Stevenson took the top three cup places, but with a low scoring task and less than 70 points between
the top twenty places it didn’t change the overall top 3. With 6 potential task days left it still a very open comp. Blorenge Party, here we come!