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AND THEN SOMETHING WONDERFUL HAPPENED by Peter Allingham (April 2000) One thing I love about gliding is that you cannot predict what will happen on your flight. Even local soaring can give you special memories. Like sharing a thermal with a buzzard or a seagull. Climbing in or up the sides of clouds. Most clouds only let you gain a few hundred feet, on rare occasions more than a 1000ft. On one flight I gained 2000ft and could have got a lot more. It was a very good thermal day with a high cloud base. The first part of the flight was very average. After an aerotow I headed my Oly 2B north to my old home of Winterborne Whitechurch. I spent the next 20 minutes trying to find all the places I used to play. Then I noticed how easy it was to go towards Blandford. Lucky for me, over Blandford was a large cumulus, that gave me a climb of 4 knots. Whilst climbing I was trying to find my father’s block of flats. This was proving to be quite difficult, just as I found the elusive block of flats I hit cloudbase.
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The altimeter said that I was at 5500ft, this got me very excited over what I could do with all this height. I thought let’s try for the PARK [Bath, North Wilts, and N Dorset Gliding Club], but when I got to the north side of the cloud, about 10k ahead was a large cu-nim that had massive spread out from its top, completely covering the sky to the north. So I then looked east to go to Old Sarum but there was another cu-nim covering all the sky to the east. Looking west it was slightly better but the only blue sky was to the south where there were a few scrappy clouds. Further south there was a huge cu-nim completely covering the West Purbeck area. I could not believe how quickly these clouds formed. My thoughts of a cross-country flight changed to just seeing how long I could stay in the small area of sunshine. None of scrappy clouds gave any solid lift and I was soon close to the cu-nim, which covered the site and most of the Purbecks. Its cloudbase was at least 2000ft lower than I was and so dark below that I could not see the site, which was only a few kilometres away. The cloud was huge; I was flying along this giant wall of cloud that stretched at least 10,000ft above me. After flying west and then to the east along the cloud for 10 minutes gradually losing height and I was running out of ideas. Straight ahead a small cloud formed against the cloud wall and I found lift from it. Somehow this got round the corner and I was now heading south.
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was on another huge wall of cloud this time stretching south over the edge of
Poole Harbour and well out to sea. Only this side of the cloud gave 4 knots of
lift. I was soon back over 5000ft but looking at my map I could see that was
very close to entering Hurn CTA and that I was about in line with the main
runway. This got me worried; I had visions of a large aircraft bursting out of
the cloud near me. So I decided to fly along the cloud wall to the south. I only
started to lose height after I crossed Poole Harbour but I was still well above
the cloudbase. So I carried on south, quickly passing Corfe Castle, only at St
Albans Head I levelled with cloudbase at 4000ft. I was elated, a run of 15
Kilometre without having to turn in an Oly 2B. Then I realised how far I was
from Eyres Field, it was at least 20 kilometres away. Thinking I had no chance
to get back, I gritted my teeth and set off at best speed. Before I reached
halfway I knew I would make it and relaxed.
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It was a great flight, I only wished I had stayed on the cloud wall longer and seen how high I could have gone. Still after most flights I always think that should have gone further or higher. That’s what keeps me flying.
Peter Allingham
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