Category: Expeditions

Well we are all back from our Eden expedition and I can honestly say a great time was had by all.

Only 4 days of flying but Chris got to 11,000 ft in the IS28 and Colin to 7,000ft in the LS3 both in Helm wave. The rest of us enjoyed many XC flights over and around Penrith, Ullswater, Haweswater Reservoir and Warcop Range.

Unfortunately we did not have any westerly winds otherwise we would have experienced ridge flying as well! That said when we did run the ridge after gaining height in the valley we found that the into wind gullies were kicking off some stonking thermals which enabled us to get some good climbs.

With good thermals in blue conditions regularly taking us to over 5,000ft we all had a great time and add to that good local pubs and accomodation can’t wait to return next year.

If you want to see some of our traces drop me an email and I will send them to you.

Phil

Saturday was the first day of flying as Friday was too blustery. Too windy to fly until 4.30 when we rigged Pete Whiteheads IS 28b and launched Pete and Chris B into the wave bar over the field. 3 hrs later we decided to leave them to it and went off to the pub for our meal when a phone call from Chris came through saying they had landed out and needed a retrieve! Seems after getting to 11,000 ft they found the rotor over the airfield and decided to land about 3 miles away, luckily they were only 1/2 mile from our pub so all was good. Glider was left in field overnight for retrieve this morning.
At least Chris is maintaining his 100% land out record!,

After our little trip to Eden didn’t quite go to plan we thought we would finish the week off with a day trip to Parham.

A 1000ft aerotow was all that was needed to get us onto the ridge which was working quite well, and so we set off to see how far we could go.

Rod flew his Swales for a couple of hours of so but seemed to prefer to stay low to scare the rabbits (just like at Eden last year!)

All in all not a bad day, great fun on the ridge and i’m still current on aerotow!

Maybe we should organise a return trip with a club two seater?