Inter-Services Championships
Competitions this year have been unlucky weather-wise, and the pilots entered in the Joint Services Championships this year were hopeful of a good week. Unfortunately, the weather gods had other ideas. The event was based, as always, at the Joint Service Centre in Crickhowell. Apart from the Service guys and girls entered, we also invited four guest pilots: Johnny Carr, Malcolm Beard, Steve Gale and Jamie Cannon.
Day 1
Gave us light south-easterly conditions and we set off for the Blorenge under a blue sky with just a few cumulus in evidence. At the top of the hill the sky had overdeveloped and there seemed little prospect in the short term. Meet director John Aldridge set a limited task with goal at Brecon. After an hour or so the sky started to clear in the Crickhowell valley and eventually there was sun on the ground in Abergavenny and on the Blorenge.
Jamie Cannon was first off and seemed destined for a early bath, but 200ft above Castle Meadows he started a slow recovery which eventually got him back up to take-off height. He eventually landed just outside Crickhowell. Shaun Kimberley and Johnny Carr were soon after him, later followed by Steve Penfold, Martin Colclough, Steve Blackler and Pete Jones. Despite the sun on the ground and the buoyant air, no one managed to make significant progress. Shaun made 9.7km on track - not enough to activate the task.
Day two
Was forecast to be good later in the day, with the sky opening up and 4-knot thermals. We set off for Merthyr with high hopes. On take-off there was a steady and soarable breeze and, although the sky was overcast with a low cloudbase, the forecast held the promise of good conditions. John set goal at Highnam, Gloucester, some 76km away. The sky never really cleared as predicted, the thermals were late in arriving and cloudbase only rose to 1,600ft above the ridges. The field struggled to make progress, with only a few pilots getting beyond the 5km minimum distance. Malcolm Beard was first away and made it to the Sugar Loaf landing field. He was closely followed by Shaun, Johnny and Steve Penfold who made around 10km from take-off. Task winner Rob Dowdell was the last to leave the hill, late in the day, and made it out of the valleys, landing 27km down track at Usk.
Day three
Saw us back at Merthyr in the hope of a quick task before a front arrived. The wind was far too light to allow soaring, and too far off to the south in any case. The rain arrived as scheduled and prompted everyone to pack up their gliders, apart from Steve Blackler who was prompted to take off!
Shaun had given a brief on each task, but ignored his own advice each time. On the first day he advised us to take a certain route to goal, then went a different way and, strangely enough, made the longest distance. The following day he advised us to avoid landing in the valleys, but later that afternoon was seen picking an emergency line between a church steeple and some tall trees when landing in Ebbw Vale!
The remaining days were never going to allow a task to be set, and we called an early halt and made the prizegiving. The Joint Services Champion was Rob Dowdell, with Shaun Kimberley in second place and Steve Penfold in third. The best guest pilot was Malcolm Beard.
Report by Stephen Penfold
