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25 July 2009
Mountbenger
Looks like our sacrifices to the weather deity of choice paid off as the Saturday turned out to be a cracker. Over 20 eager pilots made the meeting point in Ettrick Valley before travelling North to our chosen venue for the day, Mountbenger.
The earlybirds took to the sky to show that it was working well and the sky was beginning to open out, giving a hint of the excellent day it would turn out to be.
Following a consultation with the finest paragliding minds in the country 
Tommy and I then set about setting a task. Although aware that the day was shaping up to be a biggish distance day (as some proved), we focused on the core aim of the Nationals, to encourage pilots new to xc flying to push their experience envelope a little, and set an achievable for most task of 15k to Selkirk.
Our wind dummies were clearly showing the day was developing into an excellent xc day, so we decided to open the window early and leave it open late to encourage multiple attempts on the task.
Despite my dislike of delivering briefings, the deed was done, setting out the task, retrieve, safety and weather information with a minimum of fuss and thankfully a minimum of questions
Briefing over, 23 pilots then rushed to their wings like a ‘scramble’ signal had just come through from headquarters – as David said in his later email, I don’t remember setting the task as a race to goal but that seemed to be the way it was panning out.
Within 30 minutes of the briefing end, every pilot was in the air and heading for cloudbase in a weak but giant thermal, which seemed to cover the entire hill – great to see such an enormous gaggle in a Nationals round and an early sign that the day was going to be big on point scoring.
Likely due to the mass of pilots in the same climb, 10 out of 23 of those who signed to fly made goal in Selkirk – the field to the left of the brodge in the next photo, not the rugby practice fields to the right of the river which Kenny decided was goal for the day once he landed in it
For some excellent footage of the flight by Logan, why not check out his video at http://www.vimeo.com/5804827 looks great !
To be fair, it was by far the safer choice of landing area, as getting into the actual landing field could have proved a bit ropey – evidenced by those who flew over, recorded a tracklog above the field, then chose to land somewhere else. Obviously by this I mean myself though sadly my choice of landing spot wasn’t quite so good as I had to avoid a field with horses hiding under trees till the last minute, who in an attempt to steer clear of, I landed in a field with five foot thistles and a nice barbed fence to catch the glider – mmm
Someone who had a much better time of it was Dawid, the provider of every photograph on this page and, until Saturday, a goal virgin. I didn’y hear the *pop* myself but his smile through the rest of the day made it obvious he’d had a good one. Well done you !
With almost half of the field in goal and an interesting retrieve in Tommy’s land rover (some kind of record for pilots and gliders, using the Hilary method from the Aberdeen round, for those who remember it lol) we headed round to Cacrabank for a barbeque.
Following the devouring of food and a game of football (of which thankfully no photos have been passed on) where myself, Kenny (and latterly Dave Hutch) and a team of children roundly thumped a group of grown men
10-5, we all sat down for a small drinkie and light entertainment.
…and by light I mean light – Flaming Lanterns !!
…and the songs of David and Tommy
…then yakking late into the night by a blazing fire
So, to the good bit – the scores for the Borders round :-
Alistair Brown 1600
Rob Beattie 1600
Kenny Cooper 1600
Mike Jardine 1600
Dudley Kitching 1600
Johan Kritzinger 1600
George McGhee 1600
Dawid Szamocki 1600
David Thomson 1600
Robert Matthews 1500
Logan Nisbet 1300
Tommy Bryson 1100
Sean Figgitt 1100
Gordon Smyth 1100
Cliff Smith 600
Tina Wood 500
Dave Lyal 500
Derek Traynor 400
Tim Reader 100
Which means the overall result for the Nationals so far are :-
George McGhee 2700
Alistair Brown 1850
Gordon Smyth 1850
Logan Nisbet 1750
Rob Beattie 1600
Kenny Cooper 1600
Mike Jardine 1600
Dudley Kitching 1600
Johan Kritzinger 1600
Dawid Szamocki 1600
David Thomson 1600
Robert Matthews 1500
Sean Figgitt 1350
Tina Wood 1350
Tommy Bryson 1100
Ed Delves 1000
Mark Robson 900
Simon Lucas 600
Cliff Smith 600
Dave Lyal 500
Andy McGregor 500
Julian Robinson 500
Derek Traynor 400
Matt Church 250
Graeme Connolly 250
Scott Mather 250
Scott Rigg 250
Adrian Smith 250
Tom Kemp 250
Tim Reader 100
Sadly Sunday turned out to be not quite so good but I think a great day was had by all on Saturday – here’s hoping the next round at the Tinto BBQ
(8/9 August) is just as good – see you there !
George
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