Below is the report by competition diredtor Mick Wells on the 2010 Competition Enterprise. The following 2 articles were published in S & G Vol 61 no.6 Dec 2010/Jan 2011 and are accounts of 2 Competition Enterprise first-timers from Lasham. David Masson who won the week and Adrian who won the John Cadman trophy for most enterprising flight of the week and the Blunt Nails trophy for best wooden ship performance. S&G Articles PDF 

Competition Enterprise came to Lasham for the first time in July this year.

We had a total of 26 entries 12 of which were Lasham based gliders.

We were blessed with good soaring weather for most of the time and had one (welcome!) scrubbed day mid week.

We flew 10,855 km on the first day and 11,306 km on the third day and did 45,569km total km. during the comp.

The km and hours totals are I believe a record for Enterprise.

As you may know this comp is based more on distance and themed turning points rather than speed, so no grid order, no start line or held starts and no finish line.

The winners are generally the ones that stay in the air the longest yet manage to get back to base.

Points are usually 1 point per Km and bonus points for rounding certain turn points (tp’s)and for landing back at Lasham.

Here is how it went:-

Day 1. East is East and West is West.

Task- Select one tp in group 1 along the line CHB,SAL,SHA,SHB,CRK,NHL, then via Didcot  to one tp in group 2 along a line from CAL,STS,STN,NMT,THE,TIB then back home via DID or another tp in group 1 etc.

Scoring 1pt per km, 20pts per turn point, 30 points for landing back at Lasham.

This turned out to be a fantastic day with 6 gliders exceeding 500km and 3 exceeded 600km.

Paul Kite, (the Task Setter) flew the furthest at 672km and 5 tps but did not win because Andrew Reid (the Scorer) did 651km in a lower handicap glider and did 8 tps. Paul ended up with 692 points but Andrew got 722 points. He had outwitted the task setter by realising the value of yo-yoing between the West and East turn points. Justin Wills with 651km and 6 tps was joint day winner with Andrew but the star of the day and special prize winner was the third place man Adrian Emck who flew 502km and rounded 4 tps in his K6E.

Day 2 was a total contrast with a windy and cloudy day.

Task- A local time limited cats cradle, go to as many of the following tps in three hours from take off- BAS,AND,RIV,MEM,MOT,GOR,THA,PTF. Scoring 1 point per km for down wind and cross wind legs and 1.5km for into wind legs. 10 points for BAS 20 points for West tps. 10 points for East tps and 30 points for getting back to Lasham.

The wind was quite a feature becoming 20/25kts and with a cloud base around 2500ft QFE making things challenging to say the least.

19 pilots flew a total of 1,606 km. and 9 got back. Justin Wills had the most points for the day at 257 having rounded 5 tps, and flown 178km but the bottle of wine winners were Dave McArthy and Sandy Hawkyard with 221 points and 4 tps rounded. We have a little rule in Enterprise that you can only win the daily bottle of wine once!

Day 3  Possibly the day of the year 2010.

Task- Visit your friends. Fly to as many gliding sites as you can with 1 point per km and 5 points per gliding site turned plus a bonus of 20 points for turning a previous Enterprise host club and 30 bonus points for getting back to Lasham. If you were brave enough there was the option of a cross channel task to two previous Enterprise host sites in France to go for!

Dave Masson found it difficult to decide just how good the weather was going to be with much showing of tephigraphs to allow us all to share his torment, although not sure just how well everyone was following!

The early top cover proved to be a red herring to the sceptics; it cleared and conditions boomed all day and over a bigger area than anticipated. Pundits exceeded 9 hrs; Justin Wills flew 723km but was outdone by David Masson achieving a mighty 786km and winning the day. Proving his task setting skills, Paul Kite visited the most gliding clubs, 17, covering 695Km. 6 pilots exceeded 500km. 9 including Adrian’s K6e were over 400km and 6 were over 300km.

It really was a superb day, several pilots rated it as the best day of the year, to one of the best known in the U/K! Enterprising pilots went in all directions, from Bembridge, Ringmer and Parham in the south to Long Mynd and Talgarth  to the west and Hus Bos to the north plus some went well into East Anglia.

No one tried the cross channel task but in retrospect it could have been on.

Total distance for the day was 11,303km

Day 4 Tuesday 6^th July.

Task. String of Pearls from coast to coast. Fly to Membury then up and down a SW/NE line with various nominated tps worth 20points, 1 point per km and an extra bonus of 30 points for going out to sea SW and 50points out to sea NE.

Originally Tuesday was expected to be even better than Monday!! But of course life does not work out like that and it would have been pretty impossible to beat Monday.

Unlike Monday the day started well but as predicted high cloud came in and limited the lift a bit, then the wind became more of a factor. The furthest west reached was Sherbourne but more did better to the east with Ely being the furthest point turned. No one made it to the coast.

Justin Wills achieved 655km, David Masson 602km and Paul Kite 558km. 3 more pilots exceeded 400km and 8 exceeded 300km.

David had the most points but remembering Enterprise rules, the Day Winner bottle went to Paul Kite.

Wed 7^th July was a welcome scrub day.

Day 5 Thursday 8^th July

Task- How big can you go? Fly a pilot selected triangular route with listed optional tps, fly round the triangle either way, can reverse direction once. Scored on km flown and 10 points per tps rounded.

It is very difficult to believe a weather forecaster telling us of 300k or 500k flights when outside there is rain! But David Masson was adamant that conditions would get good. Sure enough by midday the cold front had moved on and cumulus clouds started to appear. Those that launched early were soon back on the ground but eventually conditions improved and most competitors got away.

The day did not live up to expectations with broken thermals and strong sink plus a thick band of top cover cutting off the route to Birdlip. Most people remained south of Oxford yo yoing between tps but some brave souls did press on further north with one reaching Hus Bos. Simon Marriot and Graham McAndrew in the Nimbus 4dm managed 330km to win the day, next was Justin at 253km, plus 7 other pilots exceeding 200km.

Simon’s account of ‘how I did it’as he collected the day winner prize proved very entertaining, particularly the mention of spotting 2 Asda lorries on the M4 when very low and deciding to follow them as they would provide sufficient lift to keep their Nimbus 4 in the air!

Day 6 Friday 9^th July.

Task – Blue or Cu. Assigned area task. Go to any point in area 1  (30km radius of HUN) then any point in area 2 (50km radius of GRW) then any point in area 3 (30km radius of HUN) again. Scored at 1 pt per km and 20pts per recorded point in each radius

David Masson suggested that the day may be blue but there may be some cu further north which is why an assigned area task was set. Pilots could expand or reduce the size of their task depending on how they coped with the conditions.

David flew the greatest distance at 408km, 3 others exceeded 300km, 12 pilots exceeded 200km. The very worthy winner of the day winners prize went to Adrian Emck having flow 260km in his K6E

Day 7 Saturday 10^th July

Task- Time limited Blue or Cu? Two. Assigned area task similar to Fridays task but with 70km radius of EYE as area 2. Scoring the same as on Friday but with a cut off time of 17.00 local.

Conditions were forecast to be similar to the previous day but maybe more challenging. The number of land outs proved the point. Adrian Emck caused some excitement when control entered his land out coordinates onto the land out locater programme on the computer, it showed his location as being surrounded by water! He had managed to land on an island in the Thames south of Abingdon. Thankfully the retrieve went ok as there was a bridge to the island.

Justin with 377km, David with 370km, and the Marriot Nimbus 4DM with 369km were very close. But the day winner prize went to the Ed Smallbone and Son having flown 291km in their Janus. Ed persuaded his son to give an impressive ‘how we did it’ speech at the prize giving party in the evening.

The main trophy winners were-

The Enterprise Challenge Trophy for the overall winner of Enterprise  David Masson

The John Cadman Trophy for the most enterprising flight in the comp  Adrian Emck

The Blunt Nails Trophy for the best performance in a below 100 handicap glider Adrian Emck

The Enterprise Turbo Trophy for the most enterprising soaring flight after using the engine for a technical out landing Tony Moulang

Thanks to all at Lasham who helped to make this such a successful comp. Several of our visitors took time out to tell me how much they had enjoyed it and appreciated the friendly welcome that they had.

Mick Wells.

 Final Scores