Cumbria Soaring Club

Welcome to the Cumbria Soaring Club Website   The Home of Paragliding and Hang-Gliding in Cumbria!
March's Picture	Dave Ashcroft took this picture over Wastwater Screes on Friday 19 February 2010. Paul Clarke is the pilot and the view is looking to the head of Wasdale with Great Gable just to the left of the glider.
	Click on the picture for a better resolution photo. Got a good picture of flying in Cumbria? Get it to the webmaster and the best of the month goes here! An archive of previous pictures can be found here
Please read the Stop Press, News Section & Site Alerts sections before flying	Members - the last announcement was on 07/03/2010 at 18:50. Log onto the members only area for details

09/03/2010

NOTAM A NOTAM has been published for the Yorkshire Dales area, centred on Dodd fell, on 10 Mar. A fighter evasion exercise involving fast jet aircraft and helicopters will conduct high energy manoeuvres within area bounded by 5430N00200W (Gilmonby Moor - south of Bowes) - 5400N00200W (Embsay Moor nr Skipton) - 5430N00230W (Great Asby Scar - near Orton) - 5400N00230W (Baxton Fell - Trough of Bowland) - 5430N00200W (Gilmonby Moor) from surface to 15000ft.Times 10 Mar 0900 to 1300

01/03/2010

This month's photo gallery is on line here. We need your photos!

 

We are lucky to do our flying in one of the most beautiful areas of the U.K. and it is thanks to the goodwill of the farmers and other landowners, who allow us access to the hills and fells, that the CSC sites are open to all visiting pilots. The Club does not, at present, operate a 'Members Only' policy on any of its sites.

In order to maintain this situation, it is vital for all pilots to stick to the Site Rules. Please use our online Sites Guide for up to date information relating to access to Cumbria Soaring Club sites.

The Cumbria Soaring Club holds an annual event called the 'Lakes Charity Classic'. The aim of this gathering of pilots is to raise money for local charities and, in past years, we have donated substantial sums to; The Calvert Trust and 'Flyability; Mountain Rescue Teams based in and around the Lake District area; local village halls and other benevolent charities.

Although you don't have to be a member of the CSC to fly in our area, we welcome members from all parts of UK and abroad and we would appreciate your support. So join our Club and support flying in the area. The Club's annual fees are very low and the flying is fantastic. If you wish to join the Cumbria Soaring Club then please get in touch with the Club Contact or complete the Membership Application Form.

New Pilots

We want to help you make the transition from a student with a gleaming, new CP rating to flying in the Lakes and making your own decisions. During the flying season from April to October we run coaching days, generally on the 1st Saturday of the month - see the events page for details. Here, club coaches will introduce you to our sites and help you build confidence. This isn't training - it's the next step to becoming a competent pilot. Also you can join our forum - you don't have to be a member. Here you'll find people planning to fly in our area and lots of information about us.

It's a common misconception that the Lake District is "open" land and is owned by the National Park - it isn't! The Lakes is an area of mainly mountains and rough fell with the limited amount of flat valley space at a premium. The main crop is sheep, in particular the Herdwick sheep. This is the bottom end of the farming community. It's hard work and you don't find many rich farmers here. The Lake District Planning Board keeps a tight rein on development so that they can't just replace a wall with a barbed wire fence.

By and large the farmers are great folk. They're a bit wary of strangers but if you take the time to talk to them, you'll have a great time. Don't forget that their dominant crop is the annual lambing which just happens to coincide with the start of our main flying season. Lambing comes late to the Lakes with the high fell flocks lambing in April and May. Their second crop is the grass in the valley fields. So if a field looks long and lush then it's usually about to be cut. Don't land in it as that's the animal food supply for the winter.

So

• All land in the Lakes is owned by someone
• Folk generally don't get too concerned about land above the intake wall, the highest wall on the fellside
• Valley land is valuable. Treat it with care and stick to the footpaths
• The walls have taken centuries to evolve. They take a lot of work to rebuild. Don't climb over them.
• Lambing time is the main time in the year when the farmer makes his money - don't fly if a site is closed
• There are some rare birds nesting in the Lakes - keep away from nesting sites

A couple more things to remember when flying here. First, most of the ground away from the valleys is rough. There aren't many sweeping carpets of grass. Be very careful in picking your landing site as a meeting with a rock doesn't help the complexion. Second, mobile phone coverage in the Lakes is poor. The planning board doesn't like the masts so there aren't many of them. Also, the fells tend to get in the way of a good signal. In most valleys away from the honeypots, you will not get a signal. You're unlikely to get a signal until above 1,000/1,500 ft and then only when you can see somewhere populated. If you intend to fly the high fells, make sure someone knows where you're going.

Last point on footpaths. If you use a OS 1:25,000 map then the green footpath lines can be a figment of the map draughtsman's imagination. Sometimes, they don't exist on the ground. The green track up Blencathra across Blease Fell is an example. Look for the black pecked lines that are barely visible - this is where the real track will be.

SITE ACCESS INFORMATION FOR PILOTS

USE OF CSC SITES

IT IS YOUR RESPONSIBILITY TO FIND OUT, AND THEN TO ABIDE BY, THE RULES AND RESTRICTIONS THAT APPLY TO A SITE - BEFORE YOU FLY!! . A FEW CSC SITES ARE SUBJECT TO MINOR RESTRICTIONS ON USE. BECAUSE THE SITUATION IS CHANGING ALL THE TIME WE PLEASE ASK THAT YOU CONTACT THE FARMER AND/OR THE SITES OFFICER PRIOR TO FLYING ANY SITE.

Information on Cumbria Soaring Club sites

The Cumbria Soaring Club Sites Guide is available on-line through the Sites Guide menu button on all pages. Please check the site regularly for updates.

Cumbria Soaring Club Sites Officers contact details:

Northern Sites Officer: Gordy Oliver 07830 281986

Southern Sites Officer: Andy Plimmer 07974 641924

If in any doubt about the status of a CSC site, please contact the Sites Officer before you fly. If you find any problems with a CSC site then please notify the Club Contact (e-mail or 01768 780297)

NOTAM FREEPHONE NUMBER: 0800 515544

RED ARROWS AND ROYAL FLIGHTS: 0500 354802

SITE WARNINGS

Only sites with active warnings are shown below. See the sites guide for details of all sites

RED - Site closed. Do not fly!

AMBER - Warning in place. Site can be flown but abide by warning

GREEN - site instructions revised recently

Site	Link	Alert Details
Barkin Fell		Take off at the very top of the hill. Alternatively, you can use the field to the left of the walk up path - there's a small group of trees in this field not far from the fell wall. NO SCRATCHING near to sheep and lambs - stay well away from all livestock.
Barton Fell		Please ensure you stay well away from the trekking ponies. DO NOT fly north of Aik Beck until after 5.00pm.
Bewaldeth		We're holding discussions with the farmer about the new Stewardship Grants Scheme being implimented on the land and its effect on our activities. Please do not fly until further notice.
Blease Fell		Please do not land below the fell wall unless you can land at Threlkeld football field. Only land there when it's not being used for a game.
Burnbank		Parking fee of £1 to be paid per person (not per car) to farmer and permission to fly granted before going onto the site.
Buttermere Moss		Please ensure the farmer at Wilkinsyke Farm is notified PRIOR to flying the site. He needs to be able to shut his dog away for safe keeping whilst we fly. Make sure you call in - if he's not there then leave a note!
Clough Head		Please ensure that if you use the bottom landing field that you pay £1 per pilot to the farmer at Hill Top Farm
Ellerside		Note that a 70 metre high wind monitoring mast has been erected in the out of bounds area to the north of take off. This is to gather information for a proposed wind farm. Location is SD 335730 481445 - as on planning application, not confirmed by site visit. The mast is reported to be quite slim.
Latrigg		Do NOT land in the fields at the foot of Latrigg. There are no negotiated landing fields at this time and wherever possible pilots should avoid landing in the bottom fields. Your choices are 1. Top Land 2. Slope land 3. Land at Fitz Park
Lowca		Try not to fly over the field to the south east of take off (shown on map with the 70 metre contour). Horses are kept in this field. If the horses seem agitated then try to keep away.
Swinside		DO NOT (under any circumstances) land in the fields below the wall
Walla Crags		SAFETY: This site lies in the path of the busiest military low flying corridor in the country. THIS SITE MUST BE NOTAM'd prior to ANY MID WEEK FLYING.(Tel: 0800 51 55 44 - SITE CODE 17.078 GRID REF: NY 277 214). WALLA CRAG IS NOW A NOTAM ONLY SITE (for ALL mid week flying). Any pilot who is known to have flown on Walla Crag 'mid-week' and has failed to carry out the correct NOTAM procedure WILL BE NAMED AND SHAMED. Continued abuse of the SITE RULES governing flying at Walla Crag WILL RESULT IN THE SITE BEING CLOSED and measures put in place to prevent future flying at the site.
Whinfell		HG site only- (NO PGs at any time)

WINDER

The CSC requests that no pilots fly on this hill. We DO NOT have any permission to fly on this hill and, by ignoring this request, you will seriously put at risk our access to more important and valuable CSC sites both in the North and South Lakes areas.

CANP (NOTAM) Procedure

The CANP procedure (commonly referred to as a NOTAM, which it isn't) is a way of informing low flying military aircraft of where we will be flying. The technical definition is

A voluntary system whereby civil operators notify their intention to fly at low level (at or below 1,000 feet agl, when crop spraying or powerline inspecting for example), aimed at avoiding conflict with low flying military aircraft.

There are two linked systems for letting the military know where we will be flying on any given midweek (non English bank holiday) day.

Five hundred of the busiest flying sites in the UK have allocated Site Codes. You can find these by going to the site page and looking for the Site Code - for example, Barkin Fell is 17.053. On these sites it is possible to activate a temporary avoidance zone around the notified site (1nm diameter/1000ft agl) by contacting the Low Flying Booking Cell by 20:00 the day before (16:00 on Sun). (Later submissions will still be passed on to military pilots, but as a warning rather than creating a temporary avoidance zone.)

For all other sites the standard CANP (Civil Aircraft Notification Procedure) should be used if five or more gliders are likely to be operating. This does not establish an avoidance area but it does ensure that military pilots will be alerted to your presence. Because it can take up to four hours to get the information out to all the military pilots before they take off, the notification procedure should be started as soon as possible - ideally the evening before.

The Low Flying Booking Cell would prefer if we co-ordinate our activities so that we don't duplicate notifications. So if you intend to fly a site, take the following steps:

1. Log in to the CSC forum. Go to the Going Flying Section and see if anyone else has notified the site for the day and time that you intend to fly.
2. If the site has already been notified, you don't need to do anything.
3. Ring Freephone 0800 515544 (or Fax 0800 3892225 or E-mail cas-aslfoslfbcgroupmail@wittering.raf.mod.uk ). Provide the following details:

	Activity	State "Hanggliding or paragliding". If the site is one of those with a site code then state "Hang/paragliding Avoidance Area" here.
	Location	If the site is one of those with a site code then state that first. Then provide the site grid reference (2 letter 6 figure) and it's name. Quote the grid reference in the site guide as this is the recognised grid reference.
	Area of operation	With the notification system this is a maximum of 2nm radius. With the avoidance area system it is always 1nm diameter.
	Date/Time	Date and time flying will start/finish. They prefer a date in 10 October 2009 format (i.e. no day suffix and month in text) and times in 24 hour format
	Expected number of gliders
	Contact telephone number	Ideally a mobile that will work on the site
	Normal contact details	if different to above

4. You will be given a unique Reference Number to note. The Low Flying Booking Cell is manned Monday to Thursday 07:00 - 23:00 and Fri to Sun 07:00 -17:00. If you use the fax or E-mail contact out-of-hours you will be called back by phone with the Reference Number when the office is next manned and the associated notification has been passed to military pilots. You can only assume that you have avoidance/notification status once you have received this. If at any stage it becomes clear that the site won‘t be used after all you should cancel by calling 0800 515544, quoting the Reference Number and amending the details.
5. Go back to the CSC forum and record the notification in the Going Flying section. If you put the site name and the date you intend to fly in the subject, that will help.

The personnel manning the Low Flying Booking Cell are a helpful bunch whose sole aim is keeping us all safe. If your flying situation doesn‘t exactly match the criteria above it is still worth giving them a call for advice - they might still be able to do something to help.

Airspace Considerations

As Cumbria is a long way from major airports, both civil and military, it's easy to think that we don't have to worry about controlled airspace. However, if you're planning to ride that magic thermal to over 9,000ft, you need to think controlled airspace. The main issue in Cumbria is military low flying but it is important to consider the dense air corridor above us.

Low Flying

Being a mountainous area, Cumbria gets a lot of low level traffic, mainly from the RAF but also from other NATO forces. Most aircraft will be transiting through Cumbria on their way to somewhere else, frequently from bases in Southern England to Scotland, or to the ranges at Spadeadam in Northumberland.

Normally, they will be flying in the valleys keeping well away from the ridge lines. If they fly over a ridge they may go partly inverted so that they don't lose sight of the ground. Tucano training aircraft may behave differently - these are the black turbo prop aircraft with straight wings In the early stages of training, student pilots will be flying straight legs between well defined visual waypoints, like Killington Reservoir. From a free flier's perspective these are the ones to watch out for, a) because they're flying over the hills instead of in the valleys and b) because most of their attention will be on flying the aircraft; the look-out may not be getting a lot of their time!

Cumbria lies in Low Flying Area 17 and standard low flying height in Cumbria is 250ft agl. Go here for a map of all low flying areas. The common route in Cumbria is up Windermere, over Dunmail Raise, Thirlmere and past Keswick, frequently going up the gap between Skiddaw and Blencathra. In the Southern Uplands of Scotland, low level flying can take place at 100ft agl. Aircraft can fly at up to around 420 kts which is around 7 miles a minute. Frequently you will hear them long before you can see them. Tucanos will fly slower at around 240 kts. As well as fast jets, you will see Hercules transport aircraft flying at low level and they make a pretty impressive sight when flying up Thirlmere. A Hercules will be trailing a very dynamic wake so keep well clear of their track for several minutes and watch out for the wake being blown downwind.

Most sorties are flown during weekdays. They do fly on weekday evenings and at night. Friday afternoons are generally quieter and there is no low flying at weekends.

Although you won't see fast jets at weekends, you will probably see the Search and Rescue helicopter flying round the Lakes. Sometimes they will be on an emergency, sometimes training with a local Mountain Rescue Team and sometimes they're having a look round. The good news is that they fly fairly slowly and make a lot of noise. You can usually hear them coming for some time.

There's very little you can do to keep out of their way. The best way is to make sure that you register your weekday flying through the CANP procedure which is detailed on the CSC forum. Bear in mind that it can take around 4 hours planning for a sortie and they may have started to walk out to their aircraft at least an hour before arriving in Cumbria. So get your call in early.

Danger Areas

A number of danger areas affect Cumbria

1. Warcop EG DG407 - This danger area covers an Army Training area on the Pennines to the south of Appleby. It's an extensive area of what could be a good South Westerly flying area. The height of the area is normally 10,000ft but it is occasionally increased (via NOTAM) to 13,500ft. In January 2009, the advertised opening times were Mon-Sat 0730-0200 Sun 0730-1300 in Winter and 1 hour earlier in Sunday. Unlike the RAF, the Army do work weekends as a lot of Territorial Army training takes place then. Watch out for this area if you're thinking of flying XC to the East coast.

2. Eskmeals EG DG406 - This danger area covers operations by the Eskmeals gun range. According to the Qinetiq web site, "This facility offers weapon and equipment proving trials over land at short-ranges (to 1.5km), and over the sea for long-ranges (to 49.0km) from 10 operational firing locations." Basically they fire shells out to sea to see if they work properly. You wouldn't want to extend your coast run from Silecroft when they're firing! As most of the operations are out to sea, this area doesn't really affect us. The height of the danger area is 50,000ft with occasional extensions to 80,000ft. Hours are Sep to March 0800-1700 (1 hr earlier on BST) and April to August 0700-1900.

3. Spadeadam EG D510 - This danger area is tucked away in the north east extremity of Cumbria. You definitely don't want to go anywhere near here on a paraglider or a hang glider! According to the RAF website "RAF Spadeadam is the only facility in Europe where aircrews can practice manoeuvres and tactics against a variety of threats and targets that they face in contemporary warfare. This fascinating facility attracts aircraft from the RAF, Army, Navy and NATO Forces." So think very fast aircraft flying very low, surface to air missiles and pilotless aircraft. The height is 5,500ft with occasional notification to 18,000ft. Opening hours are Mon-Thu 0900-1700, Fri 0900-1600 (1 hr earlier in summer). Another reason for keeping away from here is that part of the site is run by Advantica who say on their web site "With over 20 years experience in studying gas cloud explosions, Advantica are world leaders in the field."

Restricted Areas

1. Sellafield EG R413 - A circle radius 2 nm centred on 54 25 05N 003 29 44W, height 2,200ft. This area covers the nuclear recycling facilities at Sellafield on the west coast, south of St Bees.

2. Barrow in Furness EG R445 - A circle radius 0.5nm centred on 54 06 35N 003 14 10W. Submarine works at Barrow.

Airfields

1. Carlisle - is located about 5nm ENE of Carlisle and is the largest airport in Cumbria. The web site is http://www.carlisleairport.co.uk. The main runway is 07/25 so most approaches will be made from the ENE. Carlisle Tower is on 123.6. Major development plans are proposed for the airport with expansion plans being approved by Carlisle City Council on 19/12/2008. The airport currently caters for business jets, general aviation and microlights. A number of training/air experience schools are located on the airport.

2. Kirkbride - is located in North cumbria to the North of Wigton. The web site is http://kirkbrideairfield.mysite.orange.co.uk/. The main runway 10/28 is so most approaches will come in from the east. The airfield caters for General Aviation, microlights and autogyros. The frequency is 124.4

3. Barrow/Walney - located 1nm to the west of Barrow-in-Furness on Walney island. The web site is http://www.walneyairfield.multiservers.com/. 3 runways are in use - 12/30, 06/24, 17/35. An Instrument landing System is provided for runway 35, i.e. to the North. The airfield is used by business aircraft, general aviation and gliding. Watch out for tugs climbing out with gliders.

4. Cark - is located on the southern end of the Cartmel peninsula in South Lakeland. The web site is http://www.skydivenorthwest.co.uk/. This airfield is the closest to any of our sites as aircraft on final approach will normally pass just to the north of Humphrey Head. The airfield is mainly used at weekends and parachutists are dropped from a variety of heights over or near the airfield.

Airways

An airway is a motorway in the sky. Airways traffic used to fly from VOR navigation beacon to VOR so a lot of the UK airways were aligned with those corridors. The standard width of an airway used to be 10 nautical miles, centred on the track from beacon to beacon. The initial shape of the airways over Cumbria was derived from the position of 3 of these VOR beacons. The 3 beacons that affect Cumbria are

• Pole Hill - north of Todmorden - 53° 44' 37"N 02° 06' 12"W
• Wallasey - on the Wirral, west of Birkenhead - 53° 23' 31"N 03° 08 04"W
• Dean Cross - east of Maryport - 54° 43' 20"N 03° 20' 26"W

Although the airway from Wallasey to Dean Cross hasn't changed much, the airway from Pole Hill to Dean Cross has expanded considerably, width-wise. Now, only the following areas in Cumbria are not under an airway

• West coast, north of Sellafield to south of Workington
• A small area of the east Furness peninsula
• The Pennine area, roughly east of the Settle to Carlisle railway

The western airway from Wallasey operates at weekends only and has a base of FL155. You're going to be hypoxic before you get to the base! The eastern airway is a lot more complicated.

• The lowest part is south east of J36 on the M6, i.e. Farleton Knott; this has a base at FL75. However the base is raised to FL125 from 0700 to 2000 (1 hour earlier in Summer). As you progress towards Lancashire and the Manchester control area, the base is steadily stepping down in height.
• The majority has a base of FL95, again raised to FL125 from 0700 to 2000 (1 hour earlier in Summer)
• Other smaller areas have a higher base which shouldn't normally affect us.

Under normal circumstances, we're unlikely to go into an airway over Cumbria. However, it's important to recognise that non-airways traffic, flying the same route, will normally fly using the VOR transmitters for navigation and will sit under the base of the airway. Therefore the VOR to VOR track under the airway will be an area of relatively high density traffic. Aircraft should be flying the quadrantal rule which will give you an idea of their heading

• Magnetic Track 000 to 089° - odd thousands of feet (FL 70, 90, 110 etc)
• Magnetic Track 090 to 179° - odd thousands + 500 ft (FL 75, 95, 115 etc)
• Magnetic Track 180 to 269° - even thousands of feet (FL 80, 100, 120 etc)
• Magnetic Track 270 to 359° - even thousands + 500 ft (FL 85, 105, 125 etc)

These aircraft are likely to have the VOR to VOR route programmed into their autopilot, so the pilots may be letting the autopilot do most of the work.

Key Data for Tuesday, 9 March 2010

Sun Rise :	06:41 GMT	Sun Set :	18:03 GMT
Moon Rise :	04:06 GMT	Moon Set :	11:08 GMT	Moon Phase :	37%	Waning

Moon times are always GMT due the difficulty of translating around midnight

Tidal predictions for Whitehaven can be found here  

Today's Metcheck Forecast for Ambleside

Links

Click on the Icon for the Link

	WEATHER STATIONS IN CUMBRIA
	Kirkby Stephen - On the roof of the station
	Ellenborough - on the outskirts of Maryport
	Keswick Schools Weather Stations - Mainly valley bound so may not give useful wind info
	Penrith - a lot of information! Unfortunately, it doesn't state exactly where it is
	St Bees - on the coast south of Whitehaven
	UK WEATHER STATIONS
	mylocalweather - The home site for local weather stations all over the UK
	OTHER WEATHER LINKS
	WeatherJack The font of all meteorological knowledge for free fliers! Lots of links and tutorials. The daily rating is now finished but still a good place to start
	Regional Atmospheric Soaring Prediction Weather forecasting for free fliers, including information on all the key parameters that keep us in the air. Quite complex but very thorough. The RASPTable is the simplest interface
	XC Weather 3 hour wind history and 5 day forecast on a clickable map. Also available for France, Germany, Italy and Spain
	BBC Good basic stuff from the Beeb. Watch the latest forecast on the mini viewer or follow the links for Keswick, Ambleside or Kendal. Click here for the BBC Cumbria page
	5 Day Synoptic Charts 5 days worth of synoptic charts on one page - from a Dutch site using UK Met Office data. Alternatively use this site to click through 5 days
	UK Met Office The link is for the North West England area. Follow links on the page for weather in other areas. Lake District page here
	Sandside Weather Nifty little site giving real time weather data from Sandside near Arnside (Kent Estuary) - SE Lakes
	Lorton Weather A similar site for Lorton in the NW Lakes
	Keswick Area Weather Realtime weather data from a group of schools in the Keswick area
	Lake District National Park 'Weatherline' 5 day forecast for the Lake District with links to the BBC 5 day forecast for Keswick and Windermere. In the winter, the CSC Treasurer trudges to the top of Helvellyn several times a week to bring you the Fell Top conditions
	Mountain Weather Information Service If you've seen the daily synopsis posted in various places in the Lake District, this is where you get it from. It appears to be a Scottish site but it also covers the Lake Distict, the Peak District and Snowdonia. The forecast is a pdf form
	Skylink Lots of weather information for the UK including real time data
	Weather Underground International weather information site
	WeatherOnline Weather site with many forecast charts including wind arrows for the United Kingdom
	BHPA Weather Links A link to the BHPA weather links page
	Roger Brugge's Weather A page on the Reading University site with a comprehensive list of weather sites
	Cloud Appreciation Society A web site and society dedicated to clouds. Lots of superb photos. The section on the Morning Glory cloud in Australia is especially recommended.