3rd Round of the British Paragliding Cup 2004.

2 day Weekend.

Venue: Lake District, Cumbria, England.

BPCup website and contact details



For more info, see the British Paragliding Cup website: www.bpcup.co.uk

Or contact the BPCup organisation:

E-mail: [email protected]

Chairman - Richard Clarke
UK Tel: (H) 01672 514847
(M) 07811 178 082

Treasurer - Gary Jackson
UK Tel: (H) 01628 520573
(M) 07968 561322

Website - Simon Ford
UK Tel: (H) 01235 850157
(M) 07775 618015

Report by Simon Ford

Arriving at the outskirts of Torver on Friday it was easy to spot the base pub from the abundance of Airwave, Gin, Gradient, and Mac banners placed in the garden of the Church House Inn. A makeshift camp site in the field next to the friendly pub, a good selection of beers and a light wind forecast for the weekend made for a good start to this round of the BPCup.

The next morning, Cumbria Soaring Clubs Kitt Rudd, Andy Plimmer and Simon Raven did an excellent job on site selection and we headed off to Black Combe on the South Westerly edge of the Lakes. The forecast for the Saturday of low cloudbase with sun and showers proved accurate so we spent an hour sitting under canopies hiding from the light rain. Some undoubtedly wondered why we were there but once the rain stopped it seemed taskable, so no time was wasted in setting an open distance task with the start gate set at the summit of the hill about 2k downwind - a good choice by the CSC task setters as the slope from take off to the start was too shallow to simply ridge soar to it. Despite the wet ground there were plenty of thermals around and the sky soon filled with 40 plus pilots, something few expected to see a couple of hours earlier.

Throughout the day as rain showers came through cloudbase lowered and often covered the start gate summit, only to clear as quickly as it had arrived. A radio debate ensued as to whether to can the task or not, but as pilots were taking off safely in light winds and could easily maintain height in front of take off in good visibility, Meet Director Richard Clarke decided to keep the task active. About 10 or so pilots made the start gate just before the showers came in. Many headed off in different directions while some landed as the showers increased. Others, such as Gary Jackson and Bruce Clarke who hadn??

Results

1st Burkitt Rudd

2nd Carlo Borsattino

3rd Brian Steele