Updated report from Malcom Beard, Richard Bungay and now Nik Valiris on how to go about flying the TVHGC Sites Comp. The forecast’s changed for the worse, we can’t fly this weekend any more so you might as well have a read of this! :
TVHGC Sites Comp 2016 – The First 10 Days
Saturday 16th Jan
It’s been an interesting start to the year, at a time when we are normally still in paragliding hibernation. Many of those that can have been out flying have got straight back into the Sites Comp, including Malcolm Beard and Richard Bungay, with predictable results…Malcolm has even joined in on the paragliding comp as well as his hang gliding one!
So I asked them both to write a piece about how they do it. What is it that they see that makes it worth getting into the car and driving all that way to a hill that is in fog, with half a gale blowing, in the middle of winter, but suddenly turns into a nicely flyable day? What follows is a transcript of various Facebook posts that are likely to be hidden by newer posts, which would be a shame. Lots of excellent points and plenty to learn from the experts:
The comp is well under way already and guess who is winning the PG and HG comps... none other than last year's winners, Richard Bungay and Malcolm Beard! We'll hopefully hear from them how they do it, but a few things are quite clear. Yes, it certainly helps if you've got great skills and the sort of job that allows you to fly midweek, but it takes more than that. You'll never win the comp if you sit at your laptop watching the depressions moving towards the UK. It takes a bit of get-up-and-go, a willingness to take a punt and have a go, even if the weather forecast is 50:50 at best. Winter is a fabulous time to fly, as has been shown by recent photos. You've got to be in it to win it so come and join the fun!
Here's the link to the competition results and instructions: tvhgc.co.uk - Competitions
Here are Malcolm and Richard’s thoughts on the opening weeks of this year's comp (PS…and Nik’s!):
Friday 8th Jan
Malcolm Beard
The weekend forecast was not looking great, but Friday looked OK for hang gliding (HG) and borderline too strong for paragliding (PG). A front was due to pass through late morning, but the actual rain radar in the morning looked like it might miss the Pewsey Vale. It seemed worth a trip to Milk Hill if I could find a friend to overcome the no lone flying rule. After several calls I persuaded Phil H to come along and loaded the car with plenty of toys to keep occupied if the weather turned out bad. Surprisingly it was sunny and moderate winds when I arrived at 10am. A walk along the South face confirmed that the wind on launch, was actually marginally too light for soaring. As usual in a South / South West the wind funnelling up the gully to the car park and the cool temperature made it seem stronger if you didn't get out to check!
With a lot of south in the wind, the choice was rig and take off on the south face above the track, or carry round to the White Horse face. Needless to say I elected to carry the HG the minimum distance and luckily it picked up a bit by the time I was rigged. The south take-off adds an extra challenge to bagging waypoints, as you need to either fly into potential rotor in the main Milk bowl to get the start / finish points, or fly to Tan hill for the start gate there. Once that hurdle is overcome, there are three relatively easy waypoints to get, even if just soaring conditions. Given a bit of lift, you can actually reach waypoints on Rybury - but obviously need to exercise caution with regard to possible rotor low down...
As it turned out, the conditions were quite mellow and while not quite lifty enough to make the jump forward onto the White Horse face, they did allow the full length of the ridge from Milk to Tan and beyond to be explored. The rain mostly held off, but once it did finally pass through, it was worth the walk to MHWH to fly the PG too...
Not bad for early January
Malcolm mentions the "actual rain radar" in his piece. For those who haven't seen it, it's a timelapse animation of weather radar images that give a good warning of any rain coming our way. Unlike a forecast, this is 100% accurate as it has actually happened! Rainfall radar is one of the many very useful tools on http://www.netweather.tv/, as recommended by Barney Woodhead at Avon's January social. Apps available too as well as other websites like Rain Today.
Weather Forecasts, News & More - Netweather.tv
NETWEATHER.TV
Here's a few words from me on the TVHGC Site Comp to complement Malcolm Beard's comments above.
The Comp is designed to get pilots to explore more of the site and push themselves further along the ridges, out the front and over the back than they would normally. Once you have explored sites further you will find you feel more comfortable searching over a larger area for thermals so this will help your getting away XC.
At this time of year it can be quite flyable, even though far fewer pilots venture out. Remember currency is the key to better performance and enhanced flight safety. Granted, you won't be getting lots of height and good thermals but our sites can be explored and exploited in ridge lift even in this "heavy damp" air.
With the lack of sun, the amount of mixing low down in the atmosphere is a lot less. This means that what seems like a strong forecast will turn out to be a lot lighter in the bottom few hundred feet that we are limited to. It's always a gamble but even if it looks top end it is often worth going to the hill to see what the actuals are like. Waiting for someone to post on Telegram that it is on probably means you will miss the flyable windows!
Here is my flight from the 8th January. I screwed up and didn't have my instrument loaded with the turnpoints, note to self and others, be more prepared. I did however remember where some of the turnpoints were and as Chris has set them at the "obvious" features on the terrain, it is quite easy to guess where they should be.
As you can see from my tracklog, my memory and guessing was not up to scratch, and although I tagged 2 waypoints, I just missed another 2.
So get yourselves prepared, go to Chris Williams talk on loading and using your GPS, get the waypoints in your instrument, look where they are on a map and go and explore the full potential of our sites.
Happy Flying and stay safe!
Nik Valiris
The forecast looked a bit iffy but potentially flyable in the afternoon for Paragliders but I was concerned about a trough line (area of lower air pressure) which can result in some rain or weather. There was a strong wind gradient earlier in the day so I left it until later in the afternoon.
Although there are short days in the winter I decided to make the long trip to Milk Hill White Horse from Marlow. As I was driving down the M4 I thought I had made a bad plan when the rain started new Newbury and the sky got darker and darker. I arrived at Golden Ball car park and it was still drizzly rain and make the walk over to Milk Hill. As I got to the top of the hill I could clearly see the conditions and the end of the front which turned out to be a full blown warm front.
I walked over to Milk and met up with Richard Bungay and Malcolm just as the sun came out and the conditions improved. The windy condition earlier dropped and the strong upper winds looked like they had dropped too. It looked like a short flying window so we all promptly prepped.
I dusted off the Kobo from last year with the TVHGC waypoints and made a plan to go for the TV17 which was a turn point down by the gorse bushes the other side of the horse and an easy one to start with. Bagging that one with ease we played around with the remaining soarable conditions before it dropped off and no longer flyable at sunset. What a lovely afternoon and evening sky.
The comp gives us a great opportunity to focus on getting out and keeping current and remembering all the key things to flying and getting ready for spring XC flying.
Wed 13th Jan
Malcolm Beard
Again the forecast was overly pessimistic. - I expected to be flying the hang glider in the forecast wind strength, but ended up flying my low end PG all day instead. It briefly got a bit strong for my tastes, but having packed the PG away, it dropped again and went more southerly, so it made sense to carry round to the White Horse face and keep flying until dusk!
Richard Bungay
On the 13th January, I was again out and met Malcolm Beard on the Hill. This time we were flying the whole Southerly face between Milk and Tan which you can do when it's due South. I thought about pushing a bit further into the Tan bowl to tag TV08 but decided it would be too rotorary in there so turned short.
Nik Valiris
It was forecast to be a strong blown out day. I arrived early in the day at Milk Hill as it was forecast to get much stronger and back to the south so I felt I should maximize the day.
After an early 6.30am breakfast I headed out I turned up at 9.30 to find the car park full… There were lots of hopeful pilots doing the same….great to see the same faces and some I hadn’t met in months.
The turbine at Reading wasn’t moving so I knew the conditions were going to be a bit stable first thing.
The conditions remained very stable due to the cold frosty air until mid day mainly as there wasn’t much vertical mixing of the air under a cloudy sky. I knew it was stronger aloft but it just takes time.
Slowly pilots started flying and I watched a few and it looked pretty smooth. Flying seemed to indicate this too. We flew for a hour or so on the main bowl Milk Hill then I could feel the wind turn to the south and get a little more turbulent in the bowl. I decided to push out onto the southerly face of Milk towards Tan and I could see Malcolm heading that way.
I got the Kobo turned on and checked the position of the Tan waypoint TV09 and decided to give that a go and trying to bag TV14, TV13 whilst I was at it. I hadn’t flow down to that point so seemed like a good plan with the competition in mind. I could see Malcolm fly down and bomb out on return so I got as high as I could on Milk bowl before leaving and then headed on down. I managed to just grab the turnpoint then headed back and got a lovely patch of lifty air on return. Scratching back into the bowl for a rather turbulent low down soar to get back up to complete the task. I missed TV14 on the way back so ho hum but I got to the Tan turn point and managed a little flight I hadn’t done before….very satisfying!
Now high enough I did it again in an attempt to get the turnpoint out at the barn but just not lifty enough to get high enough from Tan spur and make that glide into wind and back. So I decided to go back to the bowl and then push out to the White Horse spur and try to get up from there and bag the turnpoints.
I was a little optimistic I felt but almost achieved this but the air was quite sinky as I approach the spur and landed on it. I quick ground hand up and I flew the White Horse for a few hours but the air was getting quite weak then choppy then strong and changing direction.
These are all signs of more wind shear mixing around with the stronger upper air, so I made a last dash to grab the turnpoint at the metal hut near the White Horse landing field and back (TV12). Unfortunately in my haste I forgot to fly past launch from the spur end to start the task…. Ho hum! I’s just another one to add back in..
In conclusion it’s amazing fun this TVHGC competition and gets you out on these wintery days, back into shape and increases my currency and fitness. It’s great for improve skills and more importantly having lots of fun with friends whilst doing it……. I really thank Chris Williams for setting this up for another year! Get out and get flying in the winter and don’t wait until the spring and summer when its too busy and too turbulent.
Chris Williams
I hope you found that useful. If you’re new to the comp put 3 Feb into your diary for a ground-based session on how the comp works, GPS programming and even a run through the Winter Quiz answers.
Any questions, fire away!
Chris comps@tvhgc.co.uk
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