First competition experience - Pocklington Two Seater comp

I have just tasted my first competition flying experience; and where better to do so than in a competition specifically for two-seater gliders? This is an annual meet run by the Wolds Gliding Club at Pocklington, a mere 45km from Sutton Bank as the glider flies.

We didn't enter to win. Rather, our club entered our DG-1000 so that early cross country pilots or those who haven't competed can gain experience of the environment and how it all works - both on the ground and in the air.  In a slight role reversal, I took the back seat for my flight and the instructor sat up front. The plan was, he would fly most of the task, but whilst doing so explain what was going on.


The two-seater competition format is a little different to the usual. Rather than having a set task, there are options - there are upto 5 turn points and you can turn back after any one of them - so five tasks in total of increasing length which you can score against, depending on how far you want to push out (or how far you can get someone to bring your trailer!)

My primary task was to act as another pair of eyes in a busy sky.  There are two parts to this - in busy thermals, I helped to make sure that we were clear above and below for safety. There's also a tactical element. Without concern for minute-to-minute flying, I had more capacity to see when other gliders were entering or leaving thermals nearby so that we could arrange to follow, or switch to better lift, to keep in touch with the pack.

The secondary task I was assigned was as navigator.  Even though the instructor had his own PDA in the front running XCSoar, I was able to use mine more actively in the back (I used an iOS app called iGlide) which meant I could spend more time reading, adjusting, calling out important numbers and checking airspace when we got close to it. I also had a borrowed Oudie in the back but I didn't get on with it at all, much preferring the iPhone app.

On my day, we launched from near the back of the grid, and headed out to Burton-on-Stather (BUS) to collect the first turnpoint in good time. We climbed well to cross the Humber Estuary with no fear of getting wet, and positioned ourselves under a developing cloud-street at Scunthorpe to consider our next move.

The street was broadly across our direction of travel and with airspace considerations nearby, we couldn't travel along the energy line - which seemed to be sucking everything out of the local area and leaving a huge blue gap between Scunthorpe and Gainsborough Power Station (GA2) which was our second turn.

We climbed over Scunny and pushed out into the blue from around 4000' AGL, there was no hint of any lift and with 10km to go to the TP, we turned back. We climbed for another attempt and considered our options; we could travel a little further along the energy and try to go around the gap, but it was close to airspace, and after a while the gap showed signs of the occasional thermal cloud popping up. We pushed on again and headed to the developing cumulus which proved to be no good for a climb, a slightly better performance this time did allow us to reach the power station, the other side of the gap, and a climb. We were achieving 2 knots up when buzzards were spotted circling nearby, we joined them and increased our climb rate to 6 knots. They know what they're doing!

We considered pushing on, but not landing out was more of a concern to us than collecting a good score - we had already seen at least one glider in a field and we were short on crew with one man back at the airfield. Taking apart a DG-1000 with three people could prove stressful.

We had to cross the blue gap again, but the buzzards had helped us back to above 4000' and we knew we could make it back to the cloud street above Scunthorpe. A few more Cu were dotted around now but again offered only reduced sink. By the time we got back across however, the cloud street looked to have mostly dissipated and Scunthorpe was now in sunshine. We were able to get a good climb, cross the humber, and, from a much safer position, I took the controls.

We only needed one more good climb and thankfully, the area was buoyant. We achieved another 4 knots and climbed once again to around 4000' AGL.

With only around 20km to run back to Pocklington we completed our task in style, through good air, we pushed the speed up to 100kt were soon back, pulling back up over the airfield to trade speed for height and joining the circuit for runway 31.

All in all, whilst I didn't do much 'hands on' flying - I learned things about both cross country flying and competition flying that I don't think would have been possible otherwise and I'm sure it will prove valuable later.... maybe even at this competition next year, perhaps we'll bring a glider to race as well as one to teach....

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