Well one week on from our first trip s and the scottish horde found another forecast with winds too high in Scotland but really nice post cold frontal conditions in the north of England.
After picking up a demo harness from chris s (a light pod at only 3.5kg ava x-alps) I camped with chris c at a lovely wild camping spot in the Lakes (right beside the car this time). The moon was only half full but it was so bright that it kept me awake for several hours. We walked up from our camp site in the frosty morning light to some awesome views of the lakes and my 2.5 seconds under the local waterfall sufficed for a rather bracing morning wash.
Jules, Trias, Paolo and Scott came down from Aberdeen after staying in Biggar overnight and after meeting up at Shap there was the usual "oh shit we are late" dash down the motorway to Parlick again.
As we walked up at about 12 we could already see the first gaggle of about 6 gliders heading over the back but it was heartening to see steve e and marra were also late. When we got in the air there was an extended shadowy period and nobody was getting much height. The air was buoyant though and long glides out front to look for thermals were the order of the day. Gradually a sunnier period came along and i just managed to stop myself leaving with chris c in a reasonable thermal before the sun arrived and hence found myself in good position to join steve e and marra who were climbing well out front in the first of the sun.
Soon i was committed over the back but the lowest of the three but we all found individual bitty climbs coming from the heathery bowls for the first few k with steve e doing a lot of pimping above me and marra.
On the first proper glide I was confused to see steve e and marra heading s of downwind to an open valley well to the sunny side of what looked like a nice cloud over the high ground and kept to my own line for a bit but heavy sink persuaded me that they knew something i didn't and i scuttled sideways to where they were now maintaining in zeros in the valley which looked like a distinct improvement over my 3.5m/s down. In retrospect, base was still low that early in the day and it may have just been ground clearance they were going for.
Now well below the other two i was forced to run downwind over down going terrain towards a reservoir (same reservoir in pics from last week) and was relieved to pick out a nice core which boosted me up to the other two but not before they had spotted me and pimped again.
Even the strong cores were weakening and spreading out as they approached base and I've noticed before that I am rubbish at climbing in weak stuff. My temptation to bank it up in the surges you get in a wide core or a series of linked weak cores doesn't work so well and the energy conversion of steve's awesome 7.5 (?) aspect ratio comp wing and the wide flat circles he was flying were leaving me for dead in the top few hundred metres.
The next climb was straight forward over a huge felled area of forestry on a col at the end of the valley leading up from the reservoir and finally I was up level with steve. It was marra's turn to be low as we glided on towards Ingleton and again i was confused by the messing about (perhaps as steve e waited for marra) as if on my own I would have blasted straight on for the next cloud over the high ground.
Unfortunately I missed the next good climb that steve got - he got ahead after finding a lifty line along the back end of a cloud well below base while I was distracted by working a weak thermal and keeping an eye on marra below. That left me with a long glide over high ground in sink towards hawkswick (a popular dales takeoff) and i ended up diving over the back of it in wind that was now about trim speed or just above to try and catch marra climbing in the next lee/valley. However, that was a bit of an optimistic move considering the distance i was below him and the wind strength and I ended up pinned on the next ridge leading up to Great Whernside above the village of Kettleburn. After an uncomfortable 10 or 15 minutes trying to climb out in very rough air (big surges and 90 degree yaws at times) which was possibly a bit of mild downgoing wave from the ridge in front. Wind speed was more than trim speed during the gusts and soon I decided now or never and went with a rough one but was unable to get more than a few partially lifty turns in before the hillside climbed to meet my ineffective efforts and I landed going backwards up the gentle slope pockmarked with hundreds of 5m diameter craters which I decided might be old mine workings.
So, a bit relieved to be down safe but rather unsatisfied with the end result (50k). Well done trias (75k) and jules (70k) who got away a bit later from take off but ended up several valleys further n and to marra (80k) and steve e (114k) who threaded the danger area and the middlesborough and newcastle airspaces perfectly.
Overall the flight was frustrating as i had learned the week before the importance of being high as you approach the end of high ground and also frustrating as i felt i had followed the other guys rather than flown my own flight. On the other hand it was good to fly with two top pilots and reviewing the flight in SeeYou against steve e's tracklog i didn't do a whole lot wrong.
Retrieve was entertaining as dave s (a local dales pilot) picked me up and then responded to a desperate plea by ali g (for it was he) and turned round and drove me 10 miles back at Ali's car back at Hawkswick. I then drove his chip oil powered diesel to Sedgefield between Durham and Middlesborough and he returned the favour by taking me past his home in Hexham and on to Carlisle where i caught up with chris c and my own car again. Home by 10 so not too bad.
Julian's write up is here
Track log is here
