Alex's Cross Country Experiences

and Silver distant flight

Back in February I applied for a scholarship from the Air League.  I wasn't really expecting to get it due to being near the upper end of the age limit for applying, but in June I received a letter to say I'd been awarded a scholarship to complete at Cambridge Gliding Centre.  The scholarship was a sum of money to spend learning cross country flying which I booked for the week before the NVGC task week.  I fortunately picked  a week with reasonable weather and ended up flying on 3 days.  The first target was to complete the motor glider part of the cross country endorsement.  This flight went well and my navigation was successful after I decided to ignore the compass!  Simulated field landings also seemed to go OK, so first target complete.  Later on in the week I had an hour flight in a K21 trying to improve my thermalling skills and on Friday I was back in the K21 to fly a dual cross country flight.  This was the second main thing I wanted to achieve in the week.  The flight lasted 4 hours and covered 200km between Gransden, Crowland, Bedford, Upwood and back to Gransden.  During the flight we looked at centring in thermals more quickly, locating lift in relation to clouds, routing through the best lift and cloud streets and flying the right speeds.  These were all areas I knew something about but hadn't really put into practise previously.  The week had an added bonus when on Tuesday I happened to be in the right place at the right time as a Nimbus 3D was about to be launched. The pilot, who I'd never met before, asked if I wanted to go along in the spare back seat... I didn't have to think hard for an answer.  We flew for 2.5 hours between Milton Keynes, Grafham and Cambridge. I mostly sat and enjoyed the view but got to fly for 10 minutes or so.  I flew over my house too and took great pleasure at flying over work and chuckling at my poor colleagues working below.  Eventually we got a bit low and had to use the sustainer engine to get back.  Those engines aren't designed for comfort it has to be said, it was loud and rattly, but it did the job!  Anyway that was a good day.

The next week at NVGC task week my first solo flight since the course was a particularly unimpressive attempt at 5 hours.  Despite this I felt I was flying more positively with less aimless wandering around and hugging the airfield.  On Saturday I turned up expecting a pleasant but nothing special flying day, however the chairman seemed to think I should have different plans.  I unconvincingly announced a 50km flight at briefing and after some helpful discussion and encouragement from the instructors decided to make my destination Hus Bos.  After the launch I found some lift at 700 feet, just as I was on the point of joining the circuit.  I climbed to 4000 feet and then tried a few more thermals in the local area, none of which seemed quite as good as the first.  It took a while to leave and a couple of times I got the other side of  Sawtry and came back after thinking the sky ahead looked a bit blue.  Eventually I found a decent thermal to 4700 feet and the sky ahead looked better. Also, having already had one failed silver leg attempt in the week I decided I just had to go for it. From then on the flight was largely uneventful if not exactly world record speed. I made sure I didn't get low, found Lyveden without a problem and noticed Hus Bos from a fair distance due to Sten Gun lake.  My landing at Hus Bos was one of my better ones this year and I didn't get caught out by the 500ft height difference!  I then hung around Hus Bos and got to enjoy watching the gliders dropping water ballast and doing competition finishes after the regionals there.  I'd just like to say thanks to those who helped me out before I left and also thanks to Paul and Andy who retrieved me. Next stop 5 hours!

Alex Clarke

Well done Alex ( Webmaster)

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