Judith's blog

What a day! We went to Berga with Nicky and Mark. The forecast this morning was for high cloud, but Mark assured us that this wouldn’t come in until late on and it could be “ok, maybe even very good”. He wasn’t wrong. It was very, very good indeed. This is a long tale, so if you want to skip straight to Geoff’s views on the Artik 2 or look at the photos of today, just click on the [Read more] link below.

We went up to launch at Segunda Maria (which is a tricky launch – the wind around your knees is doing something different to the wind on your wing once it’s above you) and set a task: a triangle from launch, the Novena Maria, the monastery and back, in either direction. We decided to go to the monastery first, which is on the ridge behind, and I thought this was a good plan as you can then use the higher ridge to cruise back some of the way until you drop back down and then head along the lower ridge to the other turn point. There were cracking cumulus building above us, the first we have seen in a week, so we were all pretty keen to get in the air.

Nicky was first off and climbed straight out and headed for the monastery. Mark second, but scrabbled low before getting a good climb and then heading for Novena Maria. I went to launch, pulled up and the glider spun above me, putting a double twist in my lines, and I fell a little down the hill, cursing all the way, until Geoff rescued me by holding onto me before I slipped further. This didn’t bode well, but on my next attempt I got off perfectly using As and Cs and then got low. I thought, here we go… I blow a launch and then everyone skies out while I sit in the bottom landing like a numpty. So this made me really determined. I soared the ridge and took the first climb I got. It was very weak, but it was going up, and I stuck with it, going low over the back. I topped out at 1000′ ATO and dropped onto the back ridge below ridge height. I flew along the sheer rocks, heading for the gully which I was certain would work. It did and I hit a big climb which took me along the ridge to the first turn point and to 2700′ ATO.

I realised how much west there was when I was thermalling and decided that it would probably be pretty hard to get to the second turn point, which was some kilometers east of where I was. I headed back along the ridge, but it was slow going and whenever I topped up in a thermal I was nearly back where I started the glide. Once I was high I also had the chance to look at the route from above, and realised that going along the back ridge all the way to the Novena Maria wasn’t going to be possible without a lot of height or a lot of balls. I had neither and Nicky confirmed on the radio that I should head back to the front of the ridge and go along the lower ridge. I lost loads going back to the front and arrived back at launch with 400′ ATO. I decided that with the strengthening westerly it would be too hard going to complete the task, so changed it to do a little triangle.

I headed back to the Primera Maria and soared it for a little while and then got a strong thermal back up to very high and back to the monastery. I took some photos and then headed out to the valley and out towards the lake out in front of the landing. By this time it was 3.30pm and it seemed like there was restitution in the valley. Restitution or thermals, who knows, but I couldn’t get down. I flew back to the landing, got into a big thermal, which was just there wherever I turned and in the end I thought it would be rude not to 360. I flew back to the lake, climbing 1000′ in a straight line, then found some sink, did big ears, opened my harness for more drag and eventually managed to get down, just to relieve the face ache I was getting from smiling so much. Mark was the only one to complete the task, so well done that man. Beers in the landing field later, it was just a perfect day. Oh, and did I say, it was 23C?

Geoff writes: I didn’t have quite as spectacular a day as the other three, managing to time my first launch to just before the start of a massive sink cycle. After flying on the ridge for 10 minutes or so, and getting up a bit and down a bit, but not connecting with a good enough thermal to take me out, the sink kicked in in a big way, and very quickly I was landing – and would have done whatever glider I was flying. Getting a quick ride back up from someone else who had also been flushed by the sink, I flew again later, in a mixture of thermals and dynamic lift. So altogether, including Tuesday, I’ve had three flights on the Artik 2. I like it, it’s a very nice glider. It feels as safe as the Hook, but it definitely thermals better, in that I can turn more easily in thermals, and more steeply, and lose less height in the turns – and this is, of course, a major advantage when going XC. The penetration and sink rate are, as you would expect, much better than on the Hook. It was also pretty easy to launch. It comes up faster than the Hook, but it’s easy to brake it so it doesn’t overfly you, and easy to control it before launching. Overall, it seemed to me that it has the security and safety of the Hook – something very important to me in my flying – but it thermals much better, and with better glide and penetration.

See photos of today.

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