Dave Thomson reports on the second round of the BPCup which took place in the Yorkshire Dales on 13 and 14 June.
Looking out of the tent on Saturday morning in Hardraw to a heavy sky and light rain, it didn’t look good, but the overnight front was clearing from the South, so after a couple of re-briefs we were off to Hawkswick with the sun and some quite large cumulus appearing on the way.
As we walked up there was a solid line of cu clearly building from something upwind (Malham maybe?) which was casting a large shadow on the valley, making the thermals a bit erratic. As so often happens, quite a few gliders climbed to base before the task briefing (a run along the ridge to Arncliffe and back then race to Richmond – about 50 km – was set ).
When the window did open the entire valley was in shade except for the south end of the ridge, and the few pilots who launched immediately got a stonking climb to base, just in time to race through the start cylinder and onto turnpoint 1. However, by the time we got back to take off for TP 2, it was at ridge height with very weak thermals and the wind running along the ridge. It was possible to slide off the ridge into the sunshine on the next ridge to the South, but launching was becoming trickier for those left at take off, and turnpoint 1 was almost impossible so the task was cancelled.
Plenty of pilots went free flying from Wether Fell in the afternoon, then a great buffet at The Green Dragon on Saturday night – and a better forecast for Sunday.
Up Wether Fell early on Sunday morning, although there were some doubts about the forecast windspeed. However, it was clearly flyable and a short race task to Leyburn was set to avoid the expected stronger wind in the afternoon. Another early start and, after searching around for 15 minutes or so, a huge thermal collected a gaggle of about 40 gliders and we were off.
About 500 ft below base there was a stable layer so some patience was required to gain the last bit of height ( – it was only about 11 oclock after all!) With goal vaguely in sight, quite few pilots raced off but the trail of gliders low down across the first valley indicated it was time to slow down.
The ‘get to goal’ pilots wafted along, turning in anything going up, and the gaggle got smaller as folk fell out the bottom. Marra took a line over the hills which seemed to be working, but after a technical hitch with the final glide computer he landed just short.
Tim Bridle got a great climb about 8 km out and raced in to goal with Chris Williams, and Richard Chaffe not far behind.
18 pilots in goal on an afternoon when Ian Miskin actually made the task goal and continued to the coast, a 100+ km flight.
Thanks to Pete Logan and all the team.
