Power Scale Soaring at The White Horse!

The weekend of the 21st / 22nd of August saw us travelling south to Wiltshire as an Association for the first time – Andy Meade reports from the historic Westbury White Horse slopes.

This meet had a great significance to me as I’d flown these hills all of my gliding career, going up them with my Dad when it was too windy for us to fly from our club power site at the nearby Keevil Airfield.  It meant a lot to me to be returning to these hills with my great friends of the PSSA – to show them where it all started for me, and what the south can offer pilots from the Association.

We had aimed to make a two day event of things but we had to cancel the Saturday event due to some really heavy rain and very variable wind conditions as the centre of a low pressure system passed to the north.  Sunday then, saw several pilots heading to the hills early in the morning with the forecast telling us we should be looking forward to north westerly winds with maybe a bit of drizzle later on.

I arrived on site just after Martin Pope and Phil Cooke, and to get a taster flight in quickly, Phil and I rigged a couple of smaller, lighter airframes for a chuck off into the gusts.  At this time, the wind wasn’t really “on” either of the main slopes  – that would be West for the White Horse slope itself, or North for the huge blunt edge facing out over the expansive plain before us.  The wind was just about on a small double hump on the corner between these slopes, so off we went to commit some aviation.

Phil’s Jet Provost and my Tempest worked the air well enough, but neither model really got fully “on step” – it was one of those times where the wind was there, but the lift was sadly missing.  We managed a few flat circuits each before landing cross-wind on the upper part of the humps.  So we had flown – sort of – but not with much authority, so we changed slopes.  Walking back around towards the car park, lots of grass was thrown into the air to test the wind direction, and we settled on giving the main White Horse Slope a go.  There is a fairly large bowl right alongside it, so any slight “off slope” direction of wind would channel into the corner and supply some lift for us to enjoy…hopefully!

A couple more tester flights ensued, and with a strengthening wind, we were away and enjoying it.  More pilots started to arrive, so we held a quick slope-side pilot’s brief in lovely sunny conditions that would stay with us the rest of the day, with the odd grey cloud scudding through above us.  Thankfully the aforementioned rain stayed away completely all day, so my warnings in the week for people to bring an emergency tarp sheet was not needed!

Brian Boucher and Bryan Tucker from the SCSA club had travelled down from the Stroud area to fly with us, Bryan bringing a lovely lightweight all-balsa Spitfire with him which was launched early on in these lighter conditions.  He seemed to be right at home very quickly as he worked the small Spit through an aerobatic routine, commenting on the smoothness of the lift. Other lighter models took advantage of the lift too, including Bob Jennings’ relatively new P-51B Mustang in Swiss colours, as well as Martin’s pretty little FW190 sporting a Jedelsky wing.  This was built from a free-plan from a magazine, modified slightly for slope-only use by Martin.  I really like the look of the Jedelsky type wings – they are quick to build quite strong, and once in the air one cannot really tell its all open structure underneath.

As the day progressed the wind direction varied slightly swinging more northerly at times which gave us better lift for some spells, worse at others.  As such, we had a good variety of aircraft being launched as conditions changed.  Bob Jennings flew his wonderfully tiger-striped Fouga Magister, the orange colours really popping against the greens of the hills.  Brian flew his small Jet Provost (from the Andy Blackburn plan) in the lighter lift, along with Martin’s lightweight Tucano.  Jez Billington enjoyed a good flight with his Aermacchi MB-339, cutting its path in between the paragliders who were very active at the time, and Martin Gay flew his often-seen foam MiG 15 too, putting on a great aerobatic display on this, his local flying slope!

Marcus Tomblin and Marc Clare-Panton arrived a little later in the day, Marc flying a small red Hunter with great aplomb. I’d flown (or at least tried to fly) a larger Flair Hunter on this slope 30 plus years before, and it never went as well as this.  Carving turns; steady, low flybys, fast rolling passes – it was very enjoyable to watch by pilots and bystanders alike.

Bob Jennings hoisted Phil Huddlestone’s super-sized Grumman Panther for a launch in the late afternoon air, and after a quick briefing from Phil on how best to launch this big beast, it was away.  At this time I think all other pilots had landed to let this big machine work the slope and give it room in case of lift emergencies, but we shouldn’t have worried – after the launch and a few test passes, Phil made the big cat sing with yet more stable, close passes, big aeros, and fast manoeuvres. A not often modelled subject on the slope, it really did make an attractive shape in the air.

Our esteemed gaffer Phil Cooke had travelled down with his son Harry, and it was great to see the two of them taking the student and teacher role with not only a Phase 6, but also with Phil’s beloved CFS Jet Provost.  I shared some air time with him and could see that Dad has nothing to worry about with Harry’s stick skills.  It was truly a family affair, as Phil’s (better looking) brother Ric popped over from Bristol on his motorbike, and managed to get a good few flights in on Phil’s aircraft too.  Not bad at all from Ric – I think it was 2 or 3 years since he last flew but was comfortable straight away again on the transmitter.

As the afternoon wore on and pilots bade their farewells, the air space freed up for some of the usual late-day PSS fun – fast tail chasing and almost-but-not-really synchronised aerobatics from a certain Jet Provost and Tempest, Phil and I trying our best to make it look seamless!

When we’d all had enough, and with some long journeys home in front of us, it was clear we’d all had a great time on the Westbury White Horse. We did have to share some airspace with paragliders and hang gliders, but with good slope pilot communication, we were able to steer clear when needed.  Hopefully we can add this venue to future event calendars, giving us more southerly located lovers of PSS a more local meet with the best flying mates you could ask for.

More photos captured at this event can be viewed HERE.