I set off at 11:20 on the Monday of the flying week, 31st July 1995, having declared Norwich Rail Intersection (NWI) and the A6 bridge over the river north of Rushden (RUS). As I thought it was getting fairly late for a start I pushed fairly quickly off to the north in lift averaging about 2 knots, passing Sudbury and Lavenham on the left and arriving overhead Rattlesden at about 3000 feet. Visibility at this height was good and navigation no problem. The gaps between the clouds increased the further north-east I went, and the base rose between Great Ashfield and Tibenham until it was about 6000 feet, with lift of about 6 knots, well marked.
Unfortunately, it had become totally blue out to the north-east of Tibenham, and I seriously considered a return to Wormingford. There was, however, a small chance of getting around NWI, and I thought it worth a try, heading off into the sea air with a very smooth descent from 6000 feet at Tibenham, uninterrupted by thermals, down to 3000 feet at the turning point, which is a railway bridge over another railway line. I figured that I could not afford to waste time at this point as the vario was stuck on down, so I took two quick photos and headed west, thinking that if I could just keep off the ground I would drift with the easterly wind back into better weather.
As I drifted downwards heading west away from the TP I was also trying to creep up northwards to pick up any lift coming off Norwich. Norwich wasn't working, so another 1000 feet lost, and I was looking at fields thinking that not many had been cut up in Norfolk. However, overhead the little village of Hethersett, south-west of Norwich, the glider shook a little and a grubby little patch of zero sink turned into a full 8 knots that took me back to cloudbase by the time I passed Wymondham to the south.
From then on the problem was not one of staying up, but of navigating. As I went further inland, the visibility at cloudbase, which was ill-defined anyway, became so poor that I often had to switch on the turn-and-slip, and bore along in lift on a compass heading. Occasionally an airfield would pass by underneath, but it was not easy at times to work out which airfield. First Watton, which luckily I recognised from a previous flight out of Tibenham towards Swaffham (TP North Pickenham mast), then Methwold (or was it Feltwell?), and then out over the Fens, where the drainage channels are laid out in a deliberate attempt to confuse (it worked with me). I passed over what I assume was Ely, though I never did identify the cathedral, at about 7000 feet, flying above cloudbase between large cumulus, and I thought with some evidence of wave between the clouds, as there was often lift in the clear.
As I flew north of Warboys and Alconbury the lift became less reliable, and as I had not been in the area before I could not properly identify Peterborough Conington. It seemed as though it was a disused airfield, with very few buildings on it. Alconbury stood out well, and the A1 junctions helped to convince me that I was where I thought I was. Passing south of Molesworth confirmed this, and I had by this time identified Grafham Water to the south. The lakes around the north of the Rushden area were shining in the sun which was now in the south-west, and the only problem was that there were rather more of them than I had expected, and it was difficult to identify the actual TP. There was a lot of sink near the TP, so I flew a good few km past it to the west, and took two photographs which were to prove quite difficult to verify by the OOs as the features appeared so small.
At this point I was down to below 3000 feet, and had the prospect of fighting back into a strengthening easterly wind, but luckily there was an enormous cumulus pretty much on track towards Gransden Lodge. I drifted a little south over Bedford, and just south-west of St. Neots met a glider which may have come out of Gransden, though I did not recognise it. The lift was again fairly inconsistent towards Gransden, but I made it there at about 4000 feet, and looked down at gliders that seemed to be struggling at lower levels. I resolved to keep high from now on. Heading east over the Cambridge radio telescope the sky was opening out into well-spaced cumulus with 4 to 6 knots under each one. I flew directly over Wratting Common, south of Stradishall prison and over Clare. The sky was almost totally blue south-east of Clare, so I headed east towards Long Melford, and took a final climb to 4000 feet to the north-west of Sudbury.
There was virtually no lift from that point onwards, as I came out into the sea air for the second time in the flight. I passed Sudbury to the left at 3000 feet, and at 2500 feet abeam Assington mast I knew I could get back whatever. Gradually putting on the speed for the final glide, I crossed the runway at about 110 knots and 700 feet, landing two minutes later after 5 hours 34 minutes airborne. The task took 5 hours 19 minutes, and the handicapped distance worked out at 371 km, actual distance flown 316 km.
Apparently, this is the longest flight made by the B4, at least since Essex and Suffolk GC have owned it. Although there were one or two tricky moments during the flight I would say that there was nothing involved that any reasonably competent pilot could not have done. This flight completes my gold badge, both legs done in club gliders, the height in wave at Portmoak in the CUGC Astir CS77.