| Flight details: | There was a good Southern turnout at the Lakes Charity Classic. The B Comp had the best of it on the Friday, while we in the A comp hiked 2,400 feet up Robinson, a fell just above the campsite. We had a long wait under the overcast in a light easterly, before it turned south-east and became almost soarable; but still the nearest sunny patches were several miles away to the north.
Chris Scammell on his Carrera took off and flew straight over the lake; to our surprise, he started going up on the other side, despite no apparent reason for either ridge or thermic lift. I and many others followed; halfway over I foolishly disregarded the evidence of my eyes as a glider to my right started circling upwards over the lake. I found scraps on the other side, and soon gave up to land at the north end of the lake. The man in the very welcome ice cream van told me that I'd failed to catch the airstream. Only one pilot made the first turnpoint. The lake thermal was short-lived.
Saturday dawned sunny, and we were glad of a much smaller walk up Buttermere Moss. Phil had no walk up at all, cleverly soaring up from the car park.
An 18k task to Grasmere was set as, with the Buttermere Bash coming up in the evening, long retrieves were to be avoided. It was soarable but good cycles were few. I left in the very big second gaggle, but never got terribly high, having to live off scraps along the way. A bit of soaring and a couple of lee-siders got me 8k, where I rather tamely gave up after considering a westerly slope covered with trees and rocks. As I packed up, Rob Houston flew straight to it, soared up and climbed away. Persevere!
Three others had landed near me, and we found ourselves near a bus stop with only five minutes of the two-hour wait between buses to go, so we were soon back at the campsite for a swim in the lake.
Congratulations to Rob for the longest Southern flight of the comp, I think; to Nick Jones for a nice out-and-return in the B comp; and to Richard |
