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Interclub League
Rockpolishers 2010
Aston Down - 24/25 July
Saturday Team
- Pundit - Andy Davis
- Intermediate - Kevin Tarrant
- Novice - Stuart Lees
With the Mynd leading overall, we had a strong team going to Aston Down.
The weather didn't look too promising at first, and Sid's forecast wasn't optimistic
Kevin T and Andy D trailed over and rigged. Stuart arrived in style, launching from Nymps and soaring across.
Kevin & Stuart's gliders were parked at the front of the grid & we set off for briefing
Aston Down's gamesmanship meant that the water was turned off so visiting pilots were deprived of the chance of a cuppa on arrival
(Or maybe all their water was being diverted into the wings of a JS1)
The organisers weren't much more optimistic than Sid about the weather but small tasks were set
- Pundit - Ast - Hey - Did - Ast
- Intermediate - Ast - Hey - Did - Ast (Same as Pundit)
- Novice - O/R CHN
As captain, and the only crew, I informed the pilots that only one of them was allowed to land out - they could decide amongst themselves which,
but I would prefer it not to be a heavy 18m.
The weather was unlikely to get much better so we decided to get Stuart & Kevin in the air as soon as possible after briefing
There were a few good looking clouds just upwind of Aston Down, so Stuart launched, set off downwind towards the first clouds down track.
If these hadn't worked he would probably have been out of gliding range so was pretty much committed.
Kevin also launched and climbed under the local clouds before also setting off
Andy launched with his normal reservoir-full of water and lurked around locally quite low for quite a while before climbing away
With Aston Down being fairly short-handed I helped the rest of the grid & club pilots launch before heading back to the clubhouse for a cup of tea
Now that the visiting pilots had gone AD turned the water back on, so the loos and kettle would work (But hopefully not be confused with one another)
Chatting with Paul Gentil (Aston Down captain & organiser) we happened to look out of the window and see a Standard Cirrus sneak in & land.
Since Stuart had set off early, and almost immediately flown out of gliding range we were faced with the seemingly unlikely situation that someone had got round the task
Abandoning my half finished cup of tea I crossed over to Stuart, helped him tow the glider back to park up at the clubhouse, and went to tell Paul the bad news.
Stuart had got round, this isn't meant to happen in Rockpolishers, and the task was obviously underset.
There was a steady stream of phonecalls from outlandings, various pilots landed back without starting or returned without completing tasks, but no news from Kevin T or Andy
Eventually my phone rang, Kevin was in a field SW of Oxford.
I hitched up the trailer and set off to retrieve Kevin, leaving Stuart to wait for Andy.
Andy, unaware that he now had crew, kept to plan A and got back, there were no other finishers from the Rockpolishers grid.
Results
Pundit - 1st Nympsfield, 2nd Mynd
Inter - 1st Mynd, 2nd Aston Down, 3rd Nympsfield -- Talgarth had originally been second but incurred an airspace penalty
Novice - 1st Nympsfield, 2nd Aston Down, Mynd - No score, Usk - Negative score after airspace!
Sunday Team
- Pundit - Andy Davis
- Intermediate - Fred Ballard
- Novice - Stuart Lees
After Saturday's efforts this would have been a good point to stop
However the weather looked better and slightly larger tasks were set...
- Pundit - Ast - San - Bul - Did - Ast
- Inter - Ast - San - Bul - WNW - Ast
- Novice - Ast - San - Did - San - Ast
Andy reckoned that the day would get better & better, I reckoned that we couldn't rely on Aston Down's launch rate,
so we compromised and had Stuart & Fred in the middle of the grid
Fred lined up just behind James Fisher, the Mynd's Intermediate, with the plan to chase him and beat him on handicap
This plan almost worked except for the chasing him bit! Both landed at Kemble on the way back but Fred's handicap advantage
was just negated by his slight airspace penalty, giving James the nod by about 5 points.
Stuart launched, climbed away and set off. Various others launched & landed back from what seemed to be a perfectly soarable sky.
With the prospect of a better day the JS1 had an entire reservoir in each wing, launched, climbed slowly and set off down track
A relaxing time was had by the three crew (One per glider!) with Pami & I helping run Aston Down's trial lesson operations at the bus and
Kevin T (now crewing for Fred) local soaring.
After a couple of hours, Kevin landed and we had the first radio call, Andy was 10k out, then 5k then appeared over the boundary streaming
water in a "proper" finish
Pami & I helped Andy & Kevin de-rig then waited for news of the others.
At about 4 O'Clock Fred rang in from Kemble, so Kevin hitched up the trailer and set off.
With the sky looking less & less soarable we were just waiting for Stuart's phone call
It never came! Stuart had almost got back landing about a mile short in short crop. He uses his phone as PDA and logger and after Saturday's
efforts the batteries didn't have enough juice to make a phonecall after landing. Being so close to AD Stuart walked back taking longer to walk
from glider to airfield, then round peri-track than he had taken to fly the task.
The best of the other novices had landed at Sandhill farm, but had missed Sandhill as a turnpoint on the way out, so was scored as flying 35km.
Results
Pundit - 1st Nympsfield, 2nd Mynd (even after Airspace)
Inter - 1st Talgarth, 2nd Mynd, 3rd Nympsfield
Novice - 1st Nympsfield, 2nd Mynd
So, a much better weekend. We needed to have a good weekend, and the Mynd to have a bad one, to regain the overall lead in Rockpolishers
The first bit happened, the second didn't, Usk & Talgarth didn't take enough points away from the Mynd.
It looks like after six comp days (out of 8) the Mynd will win the league by a couple of Rockpolishers points
(About the margin I lost by flying Day 2 as Pundit at our round!)
Many, many thanks to all who have flown, crewed and helped out in so many ways this year and in previous ones.
I'm going to stand down as Rockpolishers captain after 5 years
I hope who ever takes it on has as much fun as I've had.
It's only Rockpolishers - winning isn't everything - but it's much more fun if you do!
Kevin Neave
Long Mynd - 3/4 July
Team
- Pundit - Ed Wright
- Intermediate - Jon Baldock
- Novice - Kai Wheeler
Commitments at home and to the 15m Nationals meant that it was a real struggle putting together a team for this round of Rockpolishers. Many thanks therefore to Ed Wright, Jon Baldock for stepping forwards as Pundit & Intermediate at the last minute. Kai Wheeler, after a sucessful XC week with Andy Davis, had volunteered as Novice a few weeks before. Simon Robinson and Iona (Kai's girlfriend) made up the full complement of pilots & crew heading up to the Mynd on Friday evening. The weather forecast on Friday evening looked good, especially the further East you went - unfortunately we were heading North & West.
Saturday dawned bright, but breezy, with hang-gliders and paragliders sitting on the Mynd's ridge. At briefing tasks were set - 300k for Pundit, 200 for Inter & 100ish for Novice. Although locally soarable on the ridge thermals were weak and broken and the sky quickly overdeveloped.
After lunch, with no-one having launched, and running out of time to complete tasks, we re-briefed 150k for Pundit, 120 Inter, 80 Novice
The Rockpolishers grid started to launch, most people were able to stay up with the occasional thermal taking people up to cloudbase of about 3k above the Mynd.
Kai & Jon both made starts, glid about 10k or so down track to find unsoarable conditions where the wave was suppressing the thermals. Both made the same decision - to come back to the soarable conditions at the Mynd to get high again and re-start. Back at the Mynd conditions has cycled again, the thermals locally had stopped working and both Kai and Jon landed back.
Ed had been at the back of the Grid, made a start at about the time that the others were landing back, but found similar conditions about 10k out on track returning to the Mynd and landing back as the others had done.
Kai eventually got a relight at almost 5:00PM but it was then too late to set off again
Other competitors, having started earlier, having better performance, or willing to fly at higher level of risk, had struggled across the gap and continued on task. One Novice and three Intermediates got round with all the others landing out or landing back at the Mynd
Results
Pundit - 1st the Mynd, 2nd Shobdon, Nympsfield 4th
Inter - 1st Usk, 2nd Talgarth, Nympsfield 5th
Novice - 1st Usk, 2nd Mynd, Nympsfield 4th
So not a good weekend, for Nympsfield. A good weekend for the Mynd. But it could have been worse, the points were split fairly evenly between the Mynd, Usk & Shobdon. The Mynd now have a lead of 4 points going into the final round at Aston Down. Nympsfield had a lead of 4 points going to the Mynd, so we just need a good weekend, with the Mynd having a bad one, to recover the situation. Here's hoping for good weather at A/D to give us the chance!
Nympsfield - 12/13 June
Comp Director Tim MacFad
Saturday Team
- Pundit - Russ Francis
- Intermediate - Pete Bagnall
- Novice - Steve Leslie
With the fine forecast from earlier in the week Tim had asked that if possible people rig & grid before briefing at 10:00
The actual weather that turned up first thing Saturday seemed to make this hopelessly optimistic,
but gave the visitors from the far flung corners of the Rockpolishers empire a chance to turn up, rig, grid and compete on a level playing field
Albeit a playing field seriously chewed by badgers
Sid was still confident that the weather would improve so tasks were set:
- Pundit - N - GTW - SIL - LCL - N -- 267km
- Intermediate - N - GRM - ETT - N -- 160km
- Novice - N - BRO - N -- 92km
Nympsfield team captain was tied up flying a 1-day course, so left Tim to organise everything.
Which probably ran more smoothly as a result
Initially the sky was pretty solid overcast but started to break up, and 2-seaters started soaring just before lunch
Just before Tim's nerve failed, resulting in falling back one task, the first competitors launched.
Tim could no longer fall back so just kept his fingers crossed that Sid's prediction of an improvement would hold out
One good sign was that Sid himself took one of the early launches.
Fortunately no one seemed to be landing back, we had two tugs to launch the Rockpolishers and club grids, and the less
than perfect looking sky meant that there were no gripes from those at the back of the queue
By early afternoon the the sky was full of well formed cumulus, well spaced and with bases between 3000 & 4000ft.
Not really Rockpolishers weather at all
Steve Leslie was one of the first back, returning just before team captain finished the 1-day course and put his glider on line
to do his own flying
Dave Hallsworth was already downloading traces as I took off, so I couldn't afford to be away too long before starting scoring.
Taking off with the intention of flying the Intermediate task it wasn't 'til I got in the air that I remembered that the task
sheet was still in the car! (PPPPPP)
Just a quick whizz to Worcester & Broadway, then home to do the scoring.
Dave had downloaded most of the traces by the time I got back so it was a simple task to put the numbers into the
Rockpolishers scoring spreadsheet to get results.
As soon as results were available it was a dash down to Sainsburys to get sossies, a minimal amout of salad to ward off scurvy,
and a few pieces of raw chicken for those who were either feeling brave or reckoned they were having a lucky day.
The BBQ, fuelled by charcoal & alcohol, was enjoyed by a dozen or so visiting pilots & crew.
Results (All speeds handicapped):-
| Pundit |
| 1st |
Ralph Johnson |
Talgarth |
Ventus B |
78kph |
1000pts |
| 2nd |
Paul Gentil |
Aston Down |
SHK |
75.3kph |
976pts |
| 3rd |
Russ Francis / Ali Lees |
Nympsfield |
Duo Discus |
75.1kph |
974pts |
| |
| Intermediate |
| 1st |
James Fisher |
Mynd |
Ventus c |
81kph |
923pts |
| 2nd |
Mike Dodd |
Shobdon |
K6 |
70kph |
831pts |
| 3rd |
Eugene Lambert |
Aston Down |
Libelle |
62kph |
763pts |
| 5th |
Pete Bagnall |
Nympsfield |
Discus |
60kph |
745pts |
| |
| Novice |
| 1st |
Steve Leslie |
Nympsfield |
LS4 |
66kph |
723pts |
| 2nd |
Dave Thomas |
Usk |
Vega |
56kph |
662pts |
| 3rd |
Alex Rowlands |
Mynd |
Pegase |
49kph |
615pts |
Sunday Team
- Pundit - Kevin Neave (Reluctantly - and with good reason given my launch / finish ratio!)
- Intermediate - Pete Bagnall
- Novice - Steve Leslie
Weather looked pretty grim at briefing, and Sid was only forecasting a very narrow slot of soarable weather, so it looked
almost certain that we would scrub.
Given the poor forecast Tim set small tasks, and asked people to grid without much prospect of actually launching
- Pundit - N - WNW - SAN - N -- 112km
- Intermediate - N - SNO - N -- 72km
- Novice - N - BLA - N -- 58km
With no one likely to actually fly I wasn't that concerned when Russ said he couldn't fly and we would be without a Pundit
Still, they all gridded and I helped run the launchpoint for a bit while waiting for Tim to scrub
Then disaster!, the sky started to clear; Trevor took off in the Nimbus and soared, setting off for Lasham; and the Rockpolishers
grid started to look like launching
We now needed a Pundit. None of the other club members wanted to fly as Pundit so it was down to the team captain to take a
launch and attempt to fly the task.
So... Dash home; collect batteries & parachute (PPPPPP again); back to Nymps;
decide which Discus to fly, realise that the "One with the engine" doesn't have an engine; rig and pull the Discus on line
Actually taking a task sheet this time (I do occasionally learn from mistakes!) I took an Aerotow. An hour behind the rest of
the grid I couldn't afford the time to climb away from a winch lauch. Finding conditions locally less than wonderful I set off
towards Aston Down, expecting to land there, and assumed that all the others would be there already. A good climb over
Rodborough got me close to cloudbase and I set off again still not feeling too confident - now gliding towards a field instead
of an airfield. Another climb beyond Kemble meant I was once again gliding towards an airfield, this time Sandhill Farm
My last climb was just north of the Honda factory. A really good climb this time, about 5kts to cloudbase, and a long street
leading to the turn at Wantage. For the first time in the flight I started to feel thet the task might be on.
Running quickly to start with to increases separation between me and cloudbase, then slowing up to trickle along at around best
glide speed I got to Wantage without turning. The bad news was that there had been nothing to turn in.
I tried a different street on the way back, again rising air to slow my descent, but nothing in which to actually climb.
At Shrivenham there were a couple of gliders circling high up near cloudbase but I found nothing to get me away from Sandhill Farm.
In the meantime Steve Leslie had been round the novice task, winning the day and the novice class for the weekend.
Pete Bagnall had been round the intermediate task, twice, (Seems to be making a habit of it) to finish second on the day and
improving his position to third for the weekend.
As the only pilot to land out I undid all Russ' good work on Day 1, dropping Nymps to last place in Pundit class for the weekend
Results :-
| Pundit |
| 1st |
Phil King |
Shobdon |
LS6 |
82kph |
642pts |
| 2nd |
Chris Cole |
Usk |
Pegase |
72kph |
589pts |
| 3rd |
Paul Gentil |
Aston Down |
SHK |
65kph |
555pts |
| 6th |
Kevin Neave |
Nympsfield |
Discus |
70km |
124pts |
| |
| Intermediate |
| 1st |
James Fisher |
Mynd |
Ventus c |
85kph |
400pts |
| 2nd |
Pete Bagnall |
Nympsfield |
Discus |
74kph |
364pts |
| 3rd |
Mike Dodd |
Shobdon |
K6 |
69kph |
345pts |
| |
| Novice |
| 1st |
Steve Leslie |
Nympsfield |
LS4 |
75kph |
400pts |
| 2nd |
Alex Rowlands |
Mynd |
Pegase |
17km |
31pts |
| Weekend Results |
| Pundit |
| 1st |
Talgarth |
1559pts |
| 2nd |
Aston Down |
1545pts |
| 3rd |
Shobdon |
1498pts |
| 6th |
Nympsfield |
1098pts |
| |
| Intermediate |
| 1st |
Long Mynd |
1323pts |
| 2nd |
Shobdon |
1176pts |
| 3rd |
Nympsfield |
1109pts |
| |
| Novice |
| 1st |
Nympsfield |
1123pts |
| 2nd |
Usk |
662pts |
| 3rd |
Long Mynd |
646pts |
| |
| Overall after 2 rounds |
| 1st |
Nympsfield |
24 Rockpolishers pts |
| 2nd |
Long Mynd |
20 Rockpolishers pts |
| 3rd |
Usk |
18 Rockpolishers pts |
4th |
Talgarth |
17 Rockpolishers pts |
5th |
Shobdon |
16 Rockpolishers pts |
6th |
Aston Down |
9 Rockpolishers pts |
The Mynd failed to capitalise on my failings as Pundit and have only clawed back a single point for the weekend.
It's pretty close for 3rd, 4th, 5th with Aston Down bringing up the rear, not having sent a team to Talgarth
Talgarth - 29/30 May
Saturday
Team
- Pundit - James Ewence
- Intermediate - Kevin Neave
- Novice - Jon Sanders
Saturday dawned wet & windy, and was scrubbed before we towed over to Wales
Sunday
Team
- Pundit - Pete Bagnall - Discus
- Intermediate - Pete Bagnall (No that's not a typo - see below)
- Novice - Jon Sanders - ASW20
Sunday was much better and started with an early morning de-rig of Jon's ASW20
We had been hoping that Mark Parker would be able to borrow Jon Meyer's Libelle so set off for Talgarth without a Pundit
Relatively short tasks were set, no maximum start height was given so we hatched a plan for Pete to fly the Intermediate task,
then make a start in Pundit.
At least then we'd beat the teams who hadn't sent along a full team.
In practice Pete climbed to 8500ft and following Andy D's advice "A Discus has two speeds - 80kts & best glide if you're desparate" set off on task
(Presumably for us mere mortals the Discus has a third speed - 50mph in the trailer coming home from the field!)
Having been round once Pete knew where the good bits were, climbed up to 9500 this time, & set off again as Pundit, going round even faster to win both classes
In the Novice class Jon, being a traditionalist, abandoned any form of electronics in the cockpit and only took a logger 'cos we didn't tell him it was there
Considering that wave is far too modern Jon did the task in Thermal, luring the Talgarth novice into a field (so much for local knowledge) and went round the task using a "Map"
Being the only pilot to go round the tasks without climbing to the stratosphere before starting meant that Jon finished third for the day
A great time was had by all pilots & crew
Rockpolishers
The interclub league is a friendly competition intended to introduce novice pilots to flying cross country,
and to encourage more experienced pilots to fly further & faster.
Our league consists of six teams:
- BGGC (Nympsfield)
- Midland (Long Mynd)
- Cotswold (Aston Down)
- South Wales (Usk)
- Black Mountains (Talgarth)
- Herefordshire (Shobdon),
....all sites on or near ridges hence "Rockpolishers".
Each year there are four rounds, normally held between May and the end of July, with Shobdon & one of the five others foregoing "home advantage".
(Although if the last few years are anything to go by perhaps we should not set any dates & just fly the one or two good summer weekends, with little or no notice).
The interclub team consists of three pilots:-
- Novice: Anyone with Bronze & XC endorsement, or preferably Silver C, who has not competed in a regionals, or flown a 300k
- Intermediate: anyone who has not flown a Nationals, or a 500k
- Pundit: Anyone
The scoring is handicapped so you don't need the latest state of the art supership, although flying glass probably increases your chance of getting round.
Tasks are set for each class on the Saturday & Sunday, occasionally Monday on Bank Holidays, and each class / each day is scored using 1000pt scoring.
At the end of the weekend the 1000pt scores are added up to give a "weekend" score, the winning club in each class getting 6 points, second 5points & so on.
At the end of the final round the weekend scores are all added up to find the winning club, who will then go on
to represent the Rockpolishers league at the interclub final (Normally held around the end of Aug)
Rockpolishers is a friendly & very sociable comp, a chance to fly from a different site and meet strange new people.
Gone are the death or glory days of sending novices off to a certain landout.
These days it's only an "almost certain" landout!
I'm not sure if the novices are better than I was (most likely), the
Gliders are better, the weather (unlikely) or the task setters kinder!
Rockpolishers 2011 --
Here's hoping for even better weather in 2011
Kevin Neave
(kevin.neave@kneave.freeserve.co.uk)
Updated :
15:46 on Monday 26th of July 2010
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