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An Almost Diamond Flight

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A Gold distance is defined as a 300km flight either in a straight line, or around up to three declared turn points - I guess you can complete it without returning to your original start point. If you do, you can also claim the Diamond Goal flight, which can be done as a 300km flight on an "out and return" basis or around a closed triangular course. I had therefore figured that on the right day, and since I really always want to get back to where I started (because retrieves are time consuming and/or expensive) I would try to do both in one. With the birth of my first and only child having only occured around two weeks previous, managing to go gliding at all was something of an achievement - but after two weeks stuck indoors essentially on-call 24/7 whilst we all figured out what to do - a bit of a timeout was definitely needed.  Anyway, SkySight provided a good forecast and basically said "Go south and stay inland" - the usual 300km O/R from Sutton Bank is ...
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Post flight analysis - was it me, or was it the weather?

In my last post, I ended with how much I was looking forward to the Inter-club league this year, especially since I'd organised it and it was being hosted at my home airfield. Sadly, it lived up to it's nickname - the 'inter scrub league' and we managed collectively to amass zero kilometres - even despite a mass relocation to a different airfield when we thought local weather conditions might give us something (it didn't). I'm however pleased that the turnout from local clubs was great and showed that there is enthusiasm and willingness to cooperate to put on an event. We'll try again in August. The weather still hasn't settled fully, either that or I'm paying much closer attention to it than in previous years when my goals were first to fly, then to be able soar locally - where of course now all I want to do is go places. So far this year I've done a few short flights; a 100km at the end of March, and then a couple in the 130km range more re...
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First XC's of 2020 - in JULY!

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Well hasn't this year been fun, everyone? It's been a long time since I wrote anything - but that's because it's been a long time since there was anything to write. The weather in February was bad, even for February, and as we were looking forward to getting going again in March/April, along came a global pandemic! Thankfully we had the ability to get flying again as soon as regulations allowed in May, but the lockdown period had enjoyed a searing spring, and we returned to some less than stellar gliding conditions - not only that but we all needed to get some local flying done to get in practice after what was effectively a long winter break. June came and went with no chance to use what few good flying days there were due to annual maintenance on the glider which is normally done in March before serious flying begins and so July was the first opportunity to try and get something out of the year. The first day where me, my airworthy glider, and some good weather were a...
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