Yorkshire Gliding Club Task Week 2018

I missed out on last years Task Week by becoming Bronze/Cross Country qualified about three days after it had finished, so I was looking forward to competing in this years 'friendly' competition. I had the week booked off work, I had a glider booked for the full week, and the weather looked as though it might have been a little better than it had last year too.

Having sat in on a couple of last years briefings for the tasks, there were often 'smaller' versions for pilots competing with a bronze badge. I joked that I hadn't actually had my paperwork back yet confirming full silver, but no, I would have to compete on an equal footing to everyone else - maybe not even that, since several of them were using self-sustaining gliders, and had the option of an engine if they got into trouble.

Task week has a basic scoring system that involves taking distance and speed points from a valid flight uploaded to OLC; and then adding a series of bonuses for other achievements such as visiting BGA turnpoints or whatever the taskmaster comes up with!

Sunday - Day 1

An advancing weather front brought with it some extensive cloud, albeit with gaps, and a fairly brisk westerly in the order of around 15 knots.

A task was set that involved ridge soaring; pilots could head to a selection of turning points on the hill - Boltby Resovoir about 5km away, Tontine about 20km, Carlton Moor at about 25-30km and Guisborough SW (Roseberry Topping) about 30-35km. 

I winch launched onto the ridge and flew along the first bowl, losing height and down to about 300ft on the way back - I didn't put my wheel up, contemplating a dirty dive onto runway 20 had the lift not suddenly picked up right in a spot where I hadn't expected it. I stuck with it, making the assumption that this was 'down wave' surpressing the ridge and that the 'up' part may not be too far away.

A satellite picture from that day confirms the presence of good wave.

And so it turned out, once I had recovered sufficient height to be comfortable, I pushed out into the vale, found a thermal up to the cloudbase at around 1,700' and skimmed the bottom of it out towards Bagby. 

I pulled up at the edge of the cloud and contacted the good part (going up!) wave on the first attempt; from there, I was rewarded with a steady climb to 8,000'. I had thought a Gold Height claim possible, but the climb seemed to 'top out' and I would need to go closer to the source; crossing to the next bar didn't seem problematic from this height, and I would be able to start getting turn-point bonusses, so off I went.

Thirsk was the first and easiest TP to visit, and then Boroughbridge. I added Knaresborough, Tockwith and Wetherby before thinking that I should head for home on an easy 30km glide from 6,000'. 

Passing Boroughbridge on the way back is when it all went to worms. Faced with a wall of cloud between me and home, I didn't want to break VFR (especially with a low cloud base). I pushed the speed up to around 90 knots, picked the last gap in the direction I needed and airbraked down about 1,000' to get underneath the cloudbase. I knew it could have been a bad decision at the time, but I didn't have anything else to consider.

I stretched the glide for as long as possible and found myself just 3km from home. I had perhaps 200' above our hilltop site but decided not to venture further, given that the ground starts becoming more undulating and tree covered and there was no visual evidence of gliders soaring the local ridge - so I assumed it not to be working.

Eventually, I landed out in a field just 3km from home.

What could I have done better? Task wise, I probably could (and should) have climbed back up in the Wave near Tockwith and used it to head north. My trace reveals lift that could have potentially given me turnpoints at Harrogate North, Pateley SE and Pateley Bridge. If not those, then Ripon and Masham would have served both to improve my score but also provide a directly downwind run back home - and maybe the clouds and gaps would have looked different from a different approach angle. 

From where I was - two better options would have been available than using the airbrake 20km from home. The one probably favoured by most would have been a blast through the cloud gap at 120+ knots, the performance of the wings at that speed would have been similar to using the brakes, but with the added advantage of being able to turn the excess speed back into kilometers under the cloud deck rather than just wasting the energy. The second alternative would have been cloud flying and continuing the glide in; perfectly possible using GPS to stay over the low ground, but still riskier - especially without being instrument rated, so something to save for only the times when it's absolutely needed.

Still; an enjoyable flight, good points score, safe landout with a friendly landowner all made for a good start to the competition in 3rd place.

Here's my trace on OLC; as well as those of the other competitors - interesting to note that our claims, which ranged up to 184km were the only OLC claims in the country that day. So a great advert for flying at Yorkshire Gliding Club on the days when others might opt to remain grounded.

Monday & Tuesday - Scrub Days

The advancing weather front seemingly stopped for a rest across the country and right over the top of us. It left us with low cloud, and light winds in which there was no evidence of wave. Club flying in two-seaters continued, but hopes of cross country tasks were quickly dashed and task week was on pause.

The two seater competition operating out of Pocklington sent its task towards Thirsk on Tuesday, and a small group of about five or six gliders made it up to Sutton Bank in what proved to be a soarable hour. One landed at our airfield, three landed in surrounding fields, and we decided that that would have been our fate if we had launched, so we were content to stay on the ground.

Wednesday - Day 4

The sat-pic for wednesday shows a weather front stationed across the north of the country; and still no evidence of wave, unless you happened to be in Wales or maybe Scotland. 

A ridge task was set; the same one as Sunday - if we could get wave, do so and use it, otherwise run the ridge for OLC distances and bonuses.

There was scant evidence of wave - seemingly there but quite unreliable and not up to much, and so we dropped onto the ridge which too, was unconvincing. 

I opted to stay local and do a few runs out to Boltby Resovoir and back. A couple of others made it out towards, or reachine Tonine - getting low in the process but managing to get back and scoring points.

I ruined my speed points score by hanging about too long expecting something better to happen, it didn't.

What would I have done better? Recognised the conditions weren't going to change, smashed the resovoir four times (the maximum amount you score for) and then landed thus notching up speed points. I don't think a 15m glider had any business being anywhere other than the local ridge when even the 18m ones were finding trouble further afield.

Here's my trace on OLC, and those of the other competitors for the day. Fewer Km's covered than Sunday for all, but once again - Sutton Bank flying and able to notch up points when no other club in the UK added a trace.

Thursday - Day 5

Another day of stiff westerlies and potential ridge soaring. You take what you can get! This time, there was improved wave prospects as the satellite pic appears to show.

Once again, the 'ridge, or get anywhere you can in wave' task was used - being a sensible choice for conditions and so off we went again. In fact, the wave was present - but this time much trickier to get into and exploit and so some pilots went straight for the ridge task. 

I opted to take a points hit for staying on aerotow to 3000' to contact wave; which I did - but it was a strange gap. It worked, but above - no blue sky, just grey, and then pushing out would allow a climb up the side of it, and then another grey 'lid' above - like the wave clouds were piling up on top of each other.

I managed a 2,500' wave climb straight off tow (at the same climb rate as behind the tug, so I had to briefly explain that I had not just taken a 5,400' aerotow!!) which allowed me to add some Km's by pushing out a little to the North and to the South. I descended back onto the ridge once the wave collapsed, and turned once at Boltby.

Thursday included my least favourite landing ever as approaching rain caused many of us to want to go in; unfortunately I got the back end of a shower on my base leg and finals - so a speedy approach with seriously limited visibility made things quite interesting indeed. I'm glad I had the speed on, because when I'd landed and stopped - water in my statics/energy system meant that the ASI was still reading 30 knots and shouting 'STALL' at me until I eventually turned the vario off.

Here is my claim for Thursday, and everyone else's.

Friday - Day 6

The ridge day of ridge days - with a steady wind of 20-25kts, our home ridge was working really well and the unstable air was generating seriously strong thermals as it also sent a steady stream of rain showers through the area, giving us something to dodge as an added dimension. The climbs to be had up the sides of the showers were excellent, leading people to push themselves further afield than on previous days.

Once I got going on the ridge; I went out and soared the 'forward' ridge for bonus points, before working my way out to the Tontine. A fast downwind run back and a top up, before finding a great cloud street to head out to Thirsk for another bonus - I arrived in straight flight 500' higher than when I set off! 

I topped up again, tagged Boltby on my way back out before trying another cloud street towards Northallerton, but was rained on just 5km from the turnpoint and had to turn back.

I tagged Tontine again and at 4,200' decided to dash out to Carlton Moor - coming back to TON from there directly into a 25kt wind was interesting but the lift was good and the west facing hills continued to work their magic. A couple more runs out to Boltby and then I decided to quit whilst I was ahead (and dry). 

Could I have gone to Guisborough SW? Doubtless I could have got there, and the ridges would have kept me up - but getting back might have been an entirely different story and so I'm happy with my decision making and points haul for the day.

Here's my claim, and those of my competitors. 

Saturday - Day 7

We'd known by Friday that the competition would close with potentially the best day of the week. Northwesterlies are good news for the atmospheric conditions, but bad news for trying to take off from Sutton Bank - so we hoped that the wind wouldn't get too strong and our collective wishes were answered - there would be launching, starting nice and early - after much frantic drawing of lines on maps and getting gear together, we were in the air as soon as possible.

A proper cross country task. Complete as many of 'set' triangles as you like; ranging from 40km to 300km with OLC points for speed and distance as well as bonuses for completed triangles.

Big, flat bottomed cumulus dotted the sky and not a sign of any top cover to kill things off. This was going to be great..... Some of us opted to declare the 300km FAI triangle and try to finish the week with a flight worthy of a diamond; it looked like the conditions would be in favour of such a flight and with the season coming to an end (if it hasn't already), it would be the last chance until next year to do something really good.

We had many long flights that day, but for me, a most disappointing experience. 

I was one of the first in the air, and contacted good lift not too long off tow. An easy run down towards Pocklington, on track for Wragby some 115km away and things were going great - but I hit a bad patch of sky, and couldn't seem to do anything but descend slowly, and the lower one got that day, the harder it got.

As I became lower and lower, I was drawn closer and closer into Pocklington since I would at least be able to land at an airfield and avoid a long retrieve, at 600' I gave it up, and sneaked down onto the far end of their runway in between launches of their two seater competition. To make things feel a little better - there were a few others stricken by the local area so maybe it wasn't all down to a lack of talent.

One aerotow retrieve later (that could prove expensive) - upon reaching Sutton Bank, I relit for a smaller task and immediately fell out of the sky and with gliding (it won't last!).

On the ground, I was greeted by our weekend office manager who went on to brighten my day by telling me that the chap who I was crewing for (and who was crewing for me) had managed to land out some 90 miles away. It was a long evening.

Here are the daily scores; those with the least Km's all seem to have headed down towards Pocklington whilst others seem to have avoided the area or passed through when conditions had cycled.