May

1/5/2026   Semerwater (SE)

Most of J36 went to Whinfell, but it seemed too easterly, too strong and with a poor rasp. The other consideration was wave ... which was very evident as I drove over to Hawes. I stopped on the outskirts and could just see a glider (Paul Rowntree), not doing especially well, but staying up. It had been windy in Ingleton, very windy at Ribblehead, but OK in Hawes ... I didn't expect many at Semer so was surprised to see many vehicles parked, but only Paul airborne.

Initially I set up on the lower shoulder, before the wall (laziness) ... it had seemed just about OK there but the wind dropped further to quite light. I gave it 10 minutes then decided to get a bundled glider over the wall which went easier than expected. By this time four others had launched. It was still light (ish) but gliders were doing OK and obviously getting into the wave.  Geoff C arrived and after exchanging a few words he carried on to the main encampment and I launched.  Others I noted later were laid out on the very top.

By the time I had made only half a beat I was 150' up and the wind hit, it was strong and on the rough side. In the first 10 minutes my xctrack thought I'd lamded as it registered zero forward speed.  Other gilders were doing well, one especially must have been approaching 6000'.  I pushed forward in variable  lift, sometimes it felt OK, at other times wierd with the glider yawing and always on the verge of something nasty. However, despite being uncomfortable it never even batted a tip.  I guess I was the weak link.

Eventually, like others who were mostly above me, I headed for a big cloud that seemed a mix of thermal and wave. In front of Addleborough I hit a strong climb, now usually (a brave man would core this to the heavens) ... but it was both strong and rough so at 3'100 I decide to try for Nappa. I also had one other consideration ... on take off I noticed my vario was down to 10%  ... this was strange as I usually have everything topped up. Suddenly I had no vario. Anyway the Nappa  idea didn't last long as the wind seemed to have too much east so I then decided enough was enough and headed back .... at speed going west.   The sink was strong and persistent and there was no way to get back to the cars. Instead I tracked along the Cam road to a nice  landing in almost nil wind. Moments after landing Richard M called to check on me  .... a nice thought. Thanks Richard.

A sweaty, but pleasant walk back before meeting Geoff in the Creamery for coffee. Apparently just after I launched the wind increased to 30 - 40kph and all thoughts of aviation were abandoned.  I believe others landed down near Bainbridge.  Sitting outside the Creamery four gliders seemed to be doing OK on Stags, although it appeared windy.

4/5/2026 Mallerstang 

Rob James and I arrived at the Tailbridge parking after leaving a car in Hawes. There was already quite a gathering of NE pilots with more arriving.  There was no rush at this point with only a light wind and full cloud cover - so not that inspiring.  Rasp indicated we were on the edge of good to the west,but very cloudy to the east. That proved very accurate all day.

We three decided to walk onto Mallerstang ... with two others following a little later (Liam and ?). For once it seemed we didn't need to go to the top with the wind a nice 10mph and spot on.  Better still, the sun was starting to break through in patches over the valley and along Wild Boar.

The next two hours were nice flying, decent, occasionally hard edge thermals but base remained at about 3500' - although some managed over 4000' up the edges. I had a  goal downwind but it always looked a bit grim that way and still full cloud cover. I was occasionally tempted when at height with company but opted to stay playing along the ridge. 

Finally, as the two hour mark approached, and with my car in Hawes I set off along the slopes towards the Moorcock. Newton's Third Law then kicked in after my last good climb and heavy prolonged sink was my reward.   It's a fair way along shallow slopes and I gradually sank down them, following the contours at about 40'. It didn't look good. Then ...a saver, rough and quite broken, but it gained me 600'. I could have followed it, but it still felt low so I continued on to the Cotterside take off area.   The wind being a westerly was blowing along the valley, so the slope was the last place to be and I headed out into the valley, getting ever lower.  The Cotterside slope reared above me, the road only a few hundred feet below when something weak came along. Another low saver. After two rough turns Rob came on the radio ... but I was too busy to do more than a broken garble.  The climb got better, cleaner, and more consistent and took me to near Stags.  However, the total, grey cloud to the east seemed to offer nothing so, although still with height, I decided to land near Hawes for the ease of it.

We had coffee in Hawes and then I went home to become engrossed in *watching Jacob fight his way back through the Lakes, late and often low. It was truly inspired and determined flying. He made it back on his 60k FAI epic and thenturned back from Clough to land at Ambleside. It was well past 8pm and he'd been in the air for about 7 hrs!

* L24 is 100% better for watching live action with all the data  than PT

STILLS LINK

10/5/2026  Clough Head

Tom did the honours by driving James, Rob and myself to Clough.  It took away a lot of the retrieve pressure and worked out well ... except maybe for Tom. So thankyou Tom.

All my planning had been based on Barton, but Clough was actually the better place as it turned out. Some early birds had walked to the very top, when the wind was more N ... but every forecast had it backing more NW/W after 1pm ... it was also very light.  The timing tuned out to be spot on ... we no sooner arrived on the Knotts (to find many others ... mostly J36) then the wind started blowing nicely onto the face. 

I hastily put in another triangle ... nothing huge, just over to Barton then down to Seat Sandal and back.  The climb out was straight forward before tagging the cylinder out front then heading back onto the ridge.  All it took was one big climb wth James to 5,500' and we set off - Rob was ahead, initially high, but he rapidly became a dot in the folds below Place fell and sheep were looking down on him. Midway towards Barton James headed south ... I assumed he had a similar task to myself. Maybe not.

I tagged the cylinder with 5000' on the clock and set off towards High Street. It got a little more tricky here and some gliders were low (they looked low anyway) on the Patterdale ridges.  I flew forward, got under a cloud and a decent climb - it seemed quite rough in parts and it was cold at height.  Now a dilemma.

I try to stick to tasks, but often fail to do so .... a big failing I can't seem to shake off. My next TP was Seat Sandal, back on the main Helvellyn ridgeline. The thermals showed a northerly drift and I wasn't sure the main ridge would work ... or even which side. With hindsight and checking the topo I think it would have been OK. At this point Rob came on the radio saying he'd canned the task and was heading downwind - James was doing similar.

So .... I did too and the sky looked very good that way .... actually, in every way

Newtons Third Law then kicked in .... big strong climbs equal big sink too. Still, I was sure a climb would turn up. I flew towards the east side of Longsleddale and a rounded bump with a large flat top. I wasn't too far above the terrain and even scouted the valley for the best  way out - it's a long valley as the name implies. The climb arrived ... but boy was it rough!  It got better with height and still way above me was James ... then he was off downwind. It would be a lot easier with two so without taking it as high as possible and confident of another climb I hared off after him. He had the luxury of height ... I didn't which would be my undoing.

It was a long glide to the Howgills, then over the motorway. The sky now was 7/8 cloud and looked rather dead. A small weak thermal came along .... about five turns and a few hundred feet gained. I just wanted it to really come together but it never did and then died. On to Holme Knott ... it was in shade and because I fly it I knew it was quite small, shallow and needed some wind. Maybe the back of Winder would have been a lot better choice. I arrived just about the middle ridge ... flew along and note the one small tree for wind - nothing. And that was about it ... I dribbled off the south end to land near the main road. 

A very quick lift back to my car at Cowan Bridge then off to collect James from Malham tarm. He did really well and took the best climb of the day over the Magnet - to 6200' ... that gave him a nice long glide, but unfortunateky not the next climb which I guess would have got him to Skipton. Newton's 3rd Law strikes again.

Pints in the Mason with  a group of others. A Curates Egg sort of day.

LINK    Few ... it was a bit rough and I had almost no company

11/5/2026    Park Fell

I worked most of the day but managed to get out about 4:30.  It looked OK on Park so I walked up. I thought I was on my own until I spotted another glider about to launch just above my usual low launch. He took off, flew out and then down to land at the bottom. I think he was quite low airtime as the ridge was working really well ... he just didn't work it. 

Anyway, great sky despite it now being about 5:30 and an easy fly down to Ingleborough. The thermals were still working and still quite beefy under good clouds. Eventually I climbed to about 4500', then to whernside and headed back  over Blea Moor - a bit of a float around and landed by the Station Inn.

15/5/2026   Park Fell

A 10am windcheck suggested it was maybe too windy so we stood down until noon.  Puretrack showed Chris Kay flying, but that doesn't always translate into flyable. By the time Rob, James and I were  walking up he was long gone and the wind had dropped to nicely soarable from low down.

James was soon away, I followed within five minutes. I tagged my start cylinder, searched the sky for him but no sign. A look on the flarm page showed him at 5200' and almost 5k downwind already. My climb out came immediately. a good strong thermal to approaching 5 grand and I was crossing the flat moors towards Horton. The sky looked good and a second thermaL lifted me to 5400'. At this stage it looked straightforward, in fact the lift was so consistent and good I moved south to avoid being drawn into cloud.  Then things became more difficult.

The clouds seemed to stop working, the climbs became weak. Gradually I lost height and the ground was very much shaded out.  The odd bits of lift produced a few inconclusive turns before I continued on downwind. Low over Airton something better, quite weak where I could make full  turns in lift ... the odd promising bit, then it was gone.  That drifted me nearer Gargarve and a bus route. The height gain was minimal. I tracked along the canal aware it was windy and looking for a decent open landing area.  I selected a slightly in wind shadow place and put down to very little wind, Then it gusted and settled again as I packed. 

It would only have taken half a thermal to make my goal at Crosshills, under 3000' ceiling.  A nice canalside walk into Gargrave and a bus with James back to Ingleton - so an easy day out really.

24/5/2026  Windbank

I knew it was flyable, just not really xcable with a lowish inversion and a poor rasp - the former proved true (base at 3400' at best) ... rasp ? Well the thermals were there ... quite fiesty, not that organised, but they got you up when it counted.  I decided it was more a hike and fly day for the lazy -  I had a fairly heavy sack, it was warm and I didn't fancy much walking.  So ... I plugged in the new Kettlewell H&F that uses the ridge before crossing the valley to Buckden Pike with the Gt Whernside ridge on the way back. Paul Rowntree was about an hour and half ahead.

Rob, Alan and I arrived on top to find a number of pilots laying out, but not as busy as the parking would suggest.  Conditions looked excellent - aside from the base height. There was surprisingly no-one flying although it look perfect to me. We laid out and I took off as many others did around the same time.

Intending to do a h&f I'd set the logger running on leaving the car to tag the start cylinder. However, once airborne I decided to do a second air retag to cut the time down - a sound move had I finished as it would have knocked off a good 50 minutes.  I headed up the ridge, struggled with some of the tiring thermals, but eventually got over the back ridge and headed for the next TP ... the tigerprint tarns on Birks summit.  This proved really tricky. The TP is set well back and took four attempts via different approaches. When I did almost get to it on the fourth successful tag it looked like I may have to land and walk back to the main ridge ...I was low, out of wind and meeting a lot of turbulence which I took to have an element of rotor.  The wind was quite strong, with a lot of north rolling into the broad gully.

At this point I met a very rough, strong, get out of jail (or go to jail) thermal, after two fraught turns xctrack beeped and showed I'd actually tagged the cylinder.  I slowly edged my way out of  the back of the gully and onto the main ridge.  Back where I wanted to be but needing something to hoist me high enough to cross onto Buckden. (earlier Paul had found himself on the lower ridge above Buckden village and managed to find a really good climb straight up into the Buckden cylinder TP2 - it also allowed him the height to tag TP3 ).  I never found the climb I was happy with - or maybe had I been younger, fitter and braver I would have just gone for it. The other problem was the wind on the top ridge had the thermals tracking along it from the north.

In the end I simply flew back to take off where the thermals were nicer, but less strong so not going much beyond 2300'. In total I had 3hrs and 11 minures and sore arms, especially my right. Later Paul messaged to say although he'd flown back to Windbank he's opted out of the Gt Whernside TP's due to strong wind. 

I've come to the conclusion that the Windbank ridge, whlst a great ridge,  is more complex than it appears - or rather the conditions around it. Last year and the year before I've flown to the very north end,  over onto Horse Head, then Buckden and Gt Whernside.  The winds were either very strong, too south or even N and put me down - often in strange places.  I seem jinxed by it. Six attempts at an FAI yet only one success.

PHOTO LINK    Very few .... it was too rough to both thermal and film

30/5/2026    Windbank

Why fly to the seaside when a local FAI will garner almost the same points without the retrieve pain? Well ... that was my lazy thinking and I also had a long standing score to settle with this FAI.  The first time I attempted  it a few years back it was actually easy, since then the final part of the last leg has always done for me -  five times  .... close, but no cigar.

Tom, Rob, John and I rocked up to a busy take off ... with only the odd glider flying. Too windy? Too far off to the west?  Too hazy blue? Well ... it seemed fine so we set up. At this point gliders started taking off ... and were even starting to get high.  All was good.

Others had their plans, but I seemed the only one attempting an FAI ... so it became a very lonesome  flight after the first 5k's and it was mostly tough going.  I got fairly high  tagged the start off to the south end of the hill and set off back north. At first lots of gliders, then very few  beyond Arncliffe. Whilst I could find climbs they tended to be rather broken, a bit rough and getting above 3000' was a struggled.  I pushed on however with a 'shit or bust' attitude and getting lower ... at Litton I turned back. A glider was struggling low and eventually landed ... but he had tried to thermal something  before doing so. I searched the same place, low on the bottom slopes, found something weak and  trickled slowly higher as the thermal strengthened, until I was back over 3000' and ready for a second attempt at pushing north. 

This time I had a little more height,  that soon wound down, but I  had faith things would turn up. Odd climbs came along, that gave a handful of turns then faded - for the most part I was trying to work the terrain unsure where the actually wind was pulling from.  So it bacame a bump here, a small ripple there and I kept progressing to Foxup. Now quite low and seeming very closer to some mountain bikers who stopped for a watch - I found  a fair climb (where I had some years before with Tom) ... this gave me enough to carry on, tag  TP2 and start back.  

Going back wasn't too bad, but again it was low, working the terrain more than any thermals. Approaching Moss Top  along came the best thermal of the day and in just the right place for a direct transition to Buckden Pike.   At 4300' I set off across the valley with a tailwind. I'd expected this to be a relaxing glide and an easy tag of TP3. It didn't prove that way.

It was always going to be a bit sinky due to the terrain and Newtons Third  Law - but it was bad and went on  ... and on. I figured the slopes leading up to Buckden would  work so speed bar down and plough on.  I also thought it worth using the video which up until then had been overtaken by just staying up or handling the rodeo thermals. That was the final time I used it due to the workload being too high.

I made Buckden Pike at summit height, but the TP was a bit further back and I couldn't tag it by about 100m and get back to the shallow front slope. Plan B became head south to a better face, steeper and more into wind, gain height and then go back for the tag. This worked OK ...I took a thermal to 3300' and went back and tagged TP3. The problem now became the wind .... well off to the S and fresh enough to slow progress. I only just made it back to my thermal bowl above the gully. Only the final leg to do ... the killer leg.

There's something weird happens to the wind up Littondale and Wharfedale ... it's something I've noticed everytime.  It tends to want to blow down Littondale and up Wharfedale and the latter is the stronger flow.  The result is both slow progress into wind, slopes that don't soar, only gully sides and the thermals weaken. 

Several times I tried to find a way south .... first the higher route along an out of wind slope. I'd seen a glider try to soar it earlier and then be forced to land. It didn't work and I tuned back low back to my gully bowl.  Some soaring followed then a small climb. When that petered out it was Plan C. So I headed directly for the front slopes near Kettlewell, losing height and with never a blip. I was low! The tree line was close. Out front two birds started climbing so as they knew better they became my focus and maybe a get out of jail.  The first jolt and surge was good and I turned to find nothing ... but it gave me 100'. A second turn could find nothing either. With the extra height I crossed Kettlewell ... just able to make the tree'd slopes  - the lowest slopes. Unfortunately the wind was, as expected, running along them - all I needed was less than 2k of ridge soaring to make goal. All I got was sink and before the trees grabbed me I headed out and landed.

All very frustrating, over 2hr 40 mins in the air and a lot of really intense work to keep progressing .... and yet again  1.8k short. You tend to replay the bits you might have done differently. The last gasp thermal at Kettlewell; been more patient in that high bowl and waited for a better climb; track south at height with a better chance of bunping into something. Maybe it comes down to a lack of patience at the end with a goal in sight.

But the flying was good, intense at times, quite technical and the sun shone. Later Tom treated me to a consolation beer in the Bluebell.