The June 2024 event was a massive success with 122 pilots taking to the skies of the Lake District. Pilots from dozens of clubs across the UK and California, Iran, South Africa and New Zealand took part to help raise £6000 that has been donated to 12 deserving Cumbrian groups. These groups serve disabled youth and adults, mental health clients, elderly folk, scouts, school DofE youngsters and the visually impaired.

See the Successful Applicants Tab for details of recipients of LCC funds.

Dozens of people contributed to the smooth and safe running of the event and the club is very grateful for their efforts.

Our sponsors were overwhelmingly generous and provided an amazing selection of prizes and an eye-watering haul of raffle prizes. A very special thanks goes to:

• Steve Giles - Sick and the Wrong
• Patrick Holmes - U.K. Airsports
• Mike Cavanagh - Ozone
• Gus McKendrick - Salewa
• Paul Abbott - Grasmere Distillery
• Claude Spoor - Neo
• SupAir
• Skywalk
• Advance
• Niviuk
• Pete Bland Sports
• The North Face
• Percy & Reed
• Stuart Holden - Stramongate Press
• James Harper (competitor donation)

Congratulations to the podium pilots!

	A Comp	B Comp	X-Lakes Hardcore	X-Lakes Academy	Joe Medium Trophy
1st	Gary Stenhouse	Simon Rand	Keith (Bud) Paterson	Paul Rowntree	Ben Bowler
2nd	Paul Winterbottom	Martin Horsman	Jacob Aubrey	Lucy Scott	Dave Spooner
3rd	John Oliver	Graham Knox	James Whitmore	Oli Beswick

The coaching group of 17 had a brilliant LCC with their coaches Mike Harper and Richard Sewell. There were too many special mentions awarded at the prize giving to mention! Well done to all who braved the punchy conditions.

Now a club event, the X-Lakes hike & fly participation was bigger than ever. A total of 1167 Wainwrights were tagged by 34 pilots over 2 days in the Hardcore race.

Club member Bud Paterson retained his X-Lakes Hardcore title bagging 75 Wainwrights which also positioned him to be crowned the 2024 Tri-nations Hike & Fly champion.

The Academy race was hotly contested and a total of 195 Wainwrights were tagged by 13 pilots in the 1-day race.

See this newspaper report for more photos and details (and the article in Skywings that is due out in the August 2024 edition).

Check out the club’s NEW Instagram account for more photos and stories

@cumbria_soaring_club

2025 dates are 19-22 June (Thursday arrival, comp day Friday-Saturday, free fly/depart Sunday).

See you next year!

Baz Roberts, CSC Chairman & LCC Director
Richard Bungy, Flight Director
John Westall, X-Lakes Director

For 2024, the club invited applications for funds up to a maximum grant of £500 from groups and organisations for whom that amount of money (or less) will make an immediate IMPACT within their community. The following organisations were successful. Click on the orgnisation title for a link to their web site.

Organisation and Location	Purpose/ Main Activities/ "Client Group"	How funds wil be used	Award
Outdoor Mobility 6 sites across the Lakes	Enables countryside disabled access through off road scooter hire	Purchase of 10 off road scooter rain covers	£279.50
Thirlmere Recreation Hall Thirlmere	Community hall	To replace rotten main gates to secure the perimeter and car park	£500.00
1st Hensingham Scouts Whitehaven	Supports 100 boys & girls - 14 years	Replace camping cookware in 5 patrol cook boxes & create a 6th box	£500.00
Duke of Edinburgh scheme, Queen Elizabeth School Kirkby Lonsdale	180 participants per year across bronze, silver & gold awards	To replace ageing expedition basecamp tent	£500
Growing Well Egremont, Tebay, Kendal	Horticultural enterprise mental health intervention charity for adults 16+	PPE (boots, gloves, t-shirt) for 12 clients	£480.00
Brendrigg Trust Old Hutton	Specialises in delivering high quality activity courses for disabled and disadvantaged people	Purchase of 2 specialist (paragliding) harnesses for climbing & zipwire	£750.00
Carers Support Kendal, South Lakes	Support to unpaid carers of all ages	Young carers activity holiday programme	£500.00
Hearts of Gold Whitehaven	Supports people struggling financially & emotionally	Discretionary funds	£500.00
Upper Eden Daycare & Social Club Soulby Village Hall	Elderly daycare & social setting	Purchase of an interactive games table	£500.00
Lifesteps / Friends Club Lads & Girls Club, Kendal	18+ learning differences & disabilities	Music Trust, Penrith music therapy outing 29 July for 15 members	£450.00
Vision of Adventure Kendal	Adventure activities for visually impaired adults	Hike & dip weekend for 6 visually impaired clients with 6 guides	£500.00
Blackwell Sailing Windermere	Disabled sailing charity	Towards volunteer training	£500.00
		TOTAL	£5,959.50

    You can download a copy of this list by clicking the Acrobat icon.

Lakes Charity Classic 2024

As the event drew near, the disastrous UK weather we have been having was forecast to continue; this appeared to dissuade some pilots from attending the event. Clearly, no-one had told them about the Grasmere microclimate! As we got nearer, the forecasts continued to improve; it was just the wind strength that was going to be a problem. Setup day on Thursday saw many pilots free flying from Alcock Tarn above the Grasmere base.

It was very clear on the Friday morning that flying was not going to be possible and tasking even less so. A walking task was set for both the A and B comps to allow pilots to learn the basics of programming and following tasks in their instruments. This proved valuable for many and highlighted the shortcomings of flight instruments and software at dealing with slow speed walking tasks.

Saturday saw winds dropping and both the A and B comps headed up to Alcock Tarn to brief with the option of pilots moving to Heron Pike to launch. Jocky and Ben set the A comp task to start above Grasmere then up to Helvellyn before heading off to goal at Appleby, 41.7km in total.

Richard set a similar start to the B comp out over Grasmere so the village had a great view of all the pilots starting in the same area above the showground. The task then ran up the ridge to the same Helvellyn turnpoint before doubling back to Seat Sandal. It then ran back up the ridge to almost Clough Head before heading back to Goal at the Grasmere Sports Field, 29.7km.

About a dozen pilots in each comp made it to their respective goals, but despite the practice in the walking task, a few still suffered problems with their flight instruments or failed to follow the task correctly so missed out on scoring. Clearly, more walking tasks are needed on non-flyable days!

The pilots that landed out on task or at Appleby were soon retrieved and everyone was back at base in good time for the party and prize giving after watching many of the X-Lakes pilots fly or run back to the showground.

A Competition Results

B Competition Results