Spring 2026 Expedition to Camphill
For the third time again for three years running now, CUGC revisited the Derbyshire and Lancashire Gliding Club, also known as Camphill airfield, over the week of 20-24 April 2026 for the Spring Expedition. The team this year comprised of Darren, Edgar, Suleman, and Thibaut, and also accompanied by CGC instructor Simon Smith.
Refer to the previous report (linked here) for details of Camphill’s geography; but in quick summary, the key point relevant to this year’s story is that Camphill has a really weird topology: steep ridges on the western and southern sides, and rolling valleys on the eastern and northern sides, with the main runway oriented north-south (parallel to the western ridge). There is also a short east-west runway, but it effectively points straight off the cliff edge: it is thus useful only on the good ridge days, when you can trust the ridge enough to yeet a glider off the edge!
The consequence of this strange topology, and limited runway layout, is that Camphill is able to operate effectively in three out of the four wind directions. On a northerly wind, the long north-south runway allows Camphill to operate like any other “flat” site, except just with more dramatic scenery (and a final approach over very much not-flat terrain). The same applies for southerly winds, with the added bonus of potentially some ridge lift off the southern ridge. And westerly winds are the good days, if the wind is sufficiently strong — for these are the days that the steep western ridge is all but guaranteed to work, and so it is feasible to simply winch gliders off the short east-west runway and hope that they catch the ridge lift.
But easterly winds: this is the one and only direction that Camphill cannot operate in. Attempting to winch eastwards on the short runway would only result in an extremely short flight onto the bottom of the valley, whereas attempting to winch northwards/southwards on the long runway would require braving extreme & gusty crosswinds.
And that, unfortunately, was the omen that plagued this year’s expedition.
We were originally planned to arrive at Camphill on Sunday (19 April) evening; however, random unfortunate circumstances — one person falling sick, another having last-minute deadlines, etc. — resulted in us delaying our departure. As such, we arrived at Camphill on Monday (20 April) afternoon instead, just enough for Suleman to catch a handful of training flights, before turning in for supper and a good rest.
The next day, we were greeted with a grim sight: a strong 15kts easterly wind. After some deliberation with the local instructors, we took all of the equipment out and set up for winch launching northwards on the long runway, hoping to be able to get away with crosswind launches; but the strong & gusty winds proved to be too dangerous, and so we packed up and retreated to the hangar. The rest of the day was spent flying in the simulator, where we recreated the day’s weather conditions and attempted to fly it (spoiler: it really was not easy to launch or land in the intended direction!).
We awoke on Wednesday morning, only to find exactly the same weather again. This time, we left all of the equipment alone in the hangar, and took a tractor out to do some test driving. Afterwards, we retreated back to the clubhouse for some warmth (and to do our respective works).
Finally, on Thursday, the weather started to look a little bit more promising: specifically, though the wind was dominantly still on an easterly, it had both reduced in strength and also swung slightly southerly. As such, we were able to cautiously start attempting to fly for real now, launching southwards off the long runway. Alas, by some conspiracy of poor fate, Simon fell quite ill (it turned out to be a bad cold) and had to return home; but the rest of us managed to catch a few sightseeing flights.
Friday (25 April) was the one and only good day of the week — with a somewhat south-easterly wind (much more south than Thursday’s direction), that meant that launches & landings were more benign, and more importantly the southern ridge was just barely working. With these conditions, Darren and Thibaut managed to catch a few soaring flights, with Thibaut in particular taking the K8 out for the longest flight of the day.
Sincere thanks to the members, instructors, and people of the Derbyshire and Lancashire Gliding Club for their wonderful hospitality!
Darren Lim
2025-26 CUGC Captain