I've been told that when it comes to gliding expeditions, to be considered worthwhile, hours spent driving in the car must be offset by hours flying and preferably at a ratio greater than 1:1. Well on that criteria this was going to be a tall ask. 4 and a half hours of driving on Wednesday evening had to be made up for starters. At least the forecast was looking promising for Thursday.
I was playing catch up with the rest of the NHL contingent who had arrived the day before and joined about 5 gliders from the Kent gliding Club who were at Denbigh for the week. 230 Pete, DG1 Tom and H5Matt were all in good spirits after a great days flying, the first 2 at Denbigh and Matt who popped in at the Mynd with the juniors for the day. 611 Phil was less enthused as he had spent the day trying to get to the bottom of why his ailerons felt to be stiffer than he remembered and didn't actually get to fly. The ridge had been working well, so much so that Pete had, apart from the usual wandering around looking for wave, completed the 140km ridge task, twice! JB also keen on a last minute adventure was on his way and due to arrive in the wee hours of Thursday morning.
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| A busy launch point |
The ridge was patchy despite the strong 25kt south westerly wind and exploring south past Moel Famau there was some incredible sink on a bit of the hill that should have been going like gangbusters, obvious indications of wave interference. As can often be the case in the vale of Clywd there was a thick band of rain over the high ground 10km to the west but it didn't appear to be getting any closer and just lurked there like a monster in the shadows waiting to spoil your fun. There were however more and more patches of rain that broke through, swept across the valley and over the ridge drastically reduced visibility and gave more urgency to the thoughts of going back to land. After about an hours flying with half the grid still waiting to launch there was more rain than clear air which precipitated a mass decision to land, a tricky situation at Denbigh because of the narrow runway and true to form a glider decided to stop in the middle of the runway forcing H5 Matt, coming in behind him, to land on the grass.
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| Rain out west and to the north |
Within 20 minutes of landing the rain had passed through so Pete, who had been getting rather stressed about being blocked in earlier on and was now at the front of the launch queue, took a launch. I seized the chance of the second cable because the rest of the grid were all faffing in the club house and was soon back on the ridge looking at yet more rain to the west and resigning myself to another short flight.
There was light to the north however, which soon turned to actual sun on the ground and Pete and I headed that way, skimming under the 2000' cloud base of a very dark street into clear air and steady lift along the side of another cloud bank. I even dared to think we had found our way into the wave but no sooner had that thought crossed my mind, the lift was gone and the jumbled mass of cloud didn't give any understandable clues as to where it might be hiding. JB, H5Matt and Phil all had held fire on their second launches because of the gloom to the west and were now airborne along with Tom all responding to our new found optimism. JB had found a strong patch of lift a few km southeast of the field and was nearly at 3000' but in a hole that was filling in and he had to drop back down again. This hole came and went and when it opened again I managed to time it right and get above the cloud layer before it filled in again. I wasn't concerned about getting trapped because it was still clear a few km to the north which provided an easy escape route. The steady reduction in the cloud amounts to the north also seemed to enhance the indicators of where the lift might be and soon all of the NHL gang were climbing above the cloud and into the otherworldly cloudscape of beautiful smooth wave.
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| Flying saucers and wave ripples |
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| Lenticulars at 12000' and over cast to the south |
230 Pete ended up topping out at 16849' the highest of the NHL gang and narrowly missed achieving his diamond climb badge on only his second flight carrying oxygen. There just wasn't enough time left in the day. I met up with him on the way down to get a bit of footage and as I flew along side him, with the great 230 bathed in the golden glow of the setting sun I swear I saw a glint from his cheesy grin!
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| Time to head for home, who cares how long the drive is! |
