Long Mynd 2005

Long Mynd 2005

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Long Mynd 2005

The thirty-first Enterprise was held at "Long Mynd", home of Midland Gliding Club from 9th to 16th July 2005 plus Sunday 17th - "Fly Home Day". What a week that was with nine flying days out of eight !!!

On this page:-

"New Converts" a report by Nick Gaunt

"What an Oustanding Week" a report from Jon Hall

Final Competition Results

Photos of Enterprise 2005

Have a closer look at the famous cake!

New Converts

We chose the Mynd for Enterprise this year because we wanted to explore pastures new and we did not want to be encumbered by air space restrictions. We also wanted a hill site and 'interesting' ! terrain to fly over.

There is always in Enterprise a certain 'Missionary Spirit' in that we want to make conversions to our way of thinking.

At the Mynd we certainly seem to have at least one convert and hopefully a whole group.

The aim of course is to get the maximum amount of distance and QUALITY flying out of the day rather than go for speed. You don't get the distance unless you go for a bit of speed and indeed the pilots who can fly the fastest came first in Enterprise this year - and indeed most years.

We did have fantastic weather for going over high ground with cloud base up to 7000 ft and that makes the hills seem relatively low! We who fly in the hills, know well that the cloud base does go up as the hills rise but equally it tends to go down the nearer the sea you get.

Into the Wave 5.6 Kt av. 3,500' 50 Kts

We did, I think, get rid of one prejudice and that was that there were no fields where the mountains are. There were many more than one tends to find in the high Pennines and certainly more than in many parts of Scotland AND they have hedges rather than stone walls!

We did have a token bit of wave and I like to think that it came where I thought it might when the task was set. The string of beads seems to have been very popular, and, interestingly, the clued up marked the thermals and used them again on the second and third even fourth run up and down getting progressively faster. This could be something for the rated comps to think about and perhaps make a slightly more 'spectator friendly' task. Again, can we be the generator of innovation once more!?

-- Nick Gaunt, Task Setter

What an Outstanding Week!

What an outstanding week! Competition Enterprise was promised good weather by Mynd chairman Charles Carter at the welcoming session on day one but little were we to know that we would produce 9 straight days of flying.

This year the Midland Gliding Club played host to pilots from all parts of the UK , one from New Zealand and one from France. There were 22 gliders entered with strong local participation. Several local pilots also flew hors concours.

several attempts were made to reach both the north and south coasts of Wales

Due to very good flying weather it was possible to set a variety of interesting daily tasks routed over the Midlands and Wales. A typical task was to visit a ring of bridges round the Long Mynd. By flying from the Long Mynd to Newtown, Welshpool, Montford Bridge, Atcham, Bridgnorth, Stourport, Ledbury or Hay on Wye then round the circle and back to the airfield it was possible to cover over 300kms. Several pilots completed the circle with Rory O'Conor going round one and a half times before returning to cover over 400kms. Also several attempts were made to reach both the north and south coasts of Wales. A handful of pilots made it to the Severn Estuary but no one made it to the north coast as well. There were also bonus points for reaching Snowdon.

Mynd Escarpement

As with all gliding events there were days when not everyone made it back to the airfield and they had to land in a farmer's field. Some of the more interesting land-outs saw Richard Billany on the top of Clee Hill and Sarah Platt beside Lake Bala. Airfields at Shobdon, Welshpool and RAF Shawbury also received some unexpected silent visitors.

The overall winner of the 8-day event was Phil King of Leamington Spa with Rory O'Conor of Yorkshire second and Justin Wills of New Zealand third. Jon Hall was the highest placed Mynd pilot at 8th. The Hill Aviation Services award for the best performance by young pilots went jointly to Sarah Platt of Craven Arms and Richard Billany of Burton-on-Trent, both Mynd pilots.

The total distance flown by all the gliders during the event was in excess of 30,000 kilometers.

-- Jon Hall, Competition Director

Final Results for Enterprise 2005 at Long Mynd

	PILOT	GLIDER	CALL SIGN	Si	Day 1	Day 2	Day 3	Day 4	Day 5	Day 6	Day 7	Day 8	TOTAL
1	Phil KING	LS8-18 15m	618	100	660	535	641	329	540	591	552	627	4,475
2	Rory O'CONOR	DG 800 B	SH	110	700	146	506	516	544	481	601	566	4,061
3	Justin WILLS	LS6	1	101	DNF	DNF	818	527	585	654	687	683	3,954
4	Nick GAUNT	LS7	A98	97	363	450	616	235	446	627	545	502	3,784
5	Andrew REID	Ventus BT 16.6	911	104	614	DNF	359	372	515	577	460	720	3,617
6	BRIGGS/ASHWORTH/WESTON/NICHOLS	Duo Discus	572	102	580	268	453	299	379	533	425	493	3,432
7	Mick WELLS / & Co.	ASH 25	BB	115	384	530	436	297	416	474	452	270	3,260
8	Jon HALL	LS4A	PZ	96	236	400	283	219	328	519	388	426	2,799
9	John STUART	K21	FWQ	85	363	321	357	82	474	414	354	376	2,742
10	D'ARCY/PLATT/ DANBURY	LS4	288	96	455	208	310	52	412	379	239	618	2,673
11	Dominic HAUGHTON	LS8 15m	Z19	100	503	380	89	128	DNF	395	552	521	2,568
12	Ralph BOWSFIELD	LS4	EMG	96	271	284	43	DNF	245	389	452	383	2,068
13	Chris NICHOLAS	LAK17a 15m-w	960	104	196	42	359	26	178	396	287	435	1,918
14	Gerry MARTIN / Mike ASHTON	Cirrus 17.7	272	94	323	238	242	83	213	108	496	163	1,867
15	Chris ELLIS / Richard BILLANY	Open Cirrus	18	94	235	DNF	257	286	56	300	320	365	1,820
16	David CROWSON	K21	JGJ	85	125	85	439	312	346	230	90	DNF	1,628
17	Bill LONGSTAFF	DG600 M 18	FM	107	DNF	DNF	213	140	410	302	516	DNF	1,580
18	Jon HART	Vega 15m	ECJ	97	503	359	92	45	DNF	482	DNF	DNF	1,481
19	John GOODALL	Kestrel 19	53	104	340	352	478	171	83	DNF	DNF	DNF	1,424
20	Martin HANDS	LS1	X5	88	DNF	371	303	60	DNF	DNF	DNF	DNF	734
21	Glyn MACARTHUR / Roland BAILEY	Vega 15m	DZM	97	227	59	109	0	DNF	0	DNF	DNF	395
22	David GUIBERT	Dart 15	BRD	76	14	99	DNF	22	DNF	0	0	0	135
	Andreas JELDEN	Std. Libelle	948	89	DNF	DNF	DNF	DNF	DNF	DNF	DNF	DNF	-
	Total distance flown:				3,528	2,912	3,858	2,340	2,900	3,796	3,321	2,506	25,161