Narrative

BCC 2024 Round Two – Saturday 13 July 2024 – Long Mynd

Ladies and Gentlemen,

With my apologies for the delay (we like to do this in a week rather than two), I am pleased to confirm that all with all of the flights now in, we’ve been able to generate the scores from the second round of the season.

Once again let me express my sincere thanks to @aviateparagliding, @RoyDade, @DaveMcLeod and @Jamesthevet of The Long Mynd Soaring Club for offering to host a BCC round after a long break for very understandable reasons. The day was superbly set up and coordinated by Dave and James, who ensured that the visiting pilots who braved the (sadly) marginal forecast, many for whom enjoyed their first visit to the Long Mynd, were well looked after.

James Allcock, who supervised the day from the ground, has written up the round beautifully and his report has been submitted so Skywings, so I will keep this summary to the stats and scores only.

Despite the less-than-ideal conditions, 20 of the 35 pilots who took part posted scores and even more impressively five of those scores earned Pilot Development prizes for their endeavours, which goes to reinforce that participation is the first step to development

So, many congratulations to @mercutio999 and @lioubine for UK Personnel Best flights and @fritzfink for a First XC in the UK. Special congratulations go to @PatrykRos and @Seajayemm for their First Ever XCs, always a marvellous milestone which the BCC is very happy to be able to facilitate. This was even sweeter for Chris as he top scored for the round.

Note. If any pilot has inadvertently not claimed a PD prize, or claimed the wrong PD prize (that does happen), please let me know and I can make amendments as required.

And so on to the scores for the round. A solid team performance saw the 1,000 points go to SE Wales Red, led by @DennisTrussler. In second place with 899 points, aided by Chris’ First Ever XC were Wessex One. In third place, with 576 important points, were the Dunstable Dazzlers, with all but one of the other teams posting scores to aid their leaderboard tallies.

After two rounds, SE Wales sit atop the leaderboard with 1,609 points, with both Dunstable and Wessex in striking distance on 1,305 and 1,209 respectively. This sets us up nicely for tomorrow’s round at Talybont with both SE Wales and Wessex fielding strong teams.

The SportsTrackLive scene for the round can be found here:

SportsTrackLive | Paragliding - BCC 2024 Round Two – Sat 13 Jul 24 – Long Mynd | Matthew Tandy (created on 27/07/2024)  

Report by James Allcock (Long Mynd Soaring Club)

The Advance British Club Challenge July 13th, 2024 After a week of very changeable forecasts the hosts at The Long Mynd Soaring Club were a little uncertain whether to stick with the promised decent airmass in central Shropshire or to head to Llangollen where winds may be more suited for soaring but the air locally less thermic. Both sites had been NOTAMed and the North Wales Hang Gliding and Paragliding Club had promised that pilots would be welcome had we gone to Llangollen.

The call was made to stick with the promise of decent air and to trust that the 7-kilometer ridge would accommodate any North in the light North Westerly winds and that thermic air would pull winds onto the ridge and provide more options for a testing pilot challenge. The UK XC league rules allow for turnpoint distance flights where the start and landing points don’t necessarily have to coincide with the start and end of the 5-turnpoint distance claimed. Accordingly, pilots that could bash up and down to the extremities of the ridge had the potential to submit an XC flight of well over 20km. This wouldn’t be easy since winds were insufficient to rely on dynamic soaring conditions. Pilots needed to be really crafty, especially as what little wind there was, proved to be stubbornly well off the hill for much of the day. Many of the trusting BCC crew hadn’t visited Long Mynd previously and after a patient wait, while plenty of brave souls tested the air, the whole area suddenly turned on properly at around 3pm. Everyone launched safely, with plenty of respect for others and for the sailplanes that were launching for loop training all day in close proximity. Our PG pilots were soon threading the needle, following ridge-run rules to the letter, while hanging on to every bubble along the way. There were some dramatic low saves, including from local pilot Steve Meadowcroft, who reckoned he’d never recovered from so low on the ridge. There were some good distances bagged. Several in the high teens and at least one of more than 20km.

These were big numbers for some of the low airtimers among the group and the flying was certainly not straightforward. Unfortunately, the top-cover limited any classic downwind flights across the English countryside, but visitors had a taste of the beauty of the Shropshire Hills and could easily appreciate the potential on offer for better days. The Long Mynd Club were delighted to see that so many people were happy to come out and play despite the mediocre forecast and some negative telegram weather chat. They are keen to welcome everyone out next time when we all dream of blue skies, kind and fluffy clouds and endless open XC distance. Thanks to Advance for continuing to support this great UK initiative.