Lasham Logistics: A Pre-Briefing Briefing

First post! Celebrations.

Previous Icarus Cups have seen us providing scant information prior to the competition starting, which has led to some confusion on where to go and whom to find once you get there… And your author running around demanding to know whether you’ve signed your covid forms (readers may remember me looking EXTREMELY wired for much of the 2021 Icarus Cup, which I’d rather avoid in future).

I’ve put this raggedy guide together to mitigate confusion for future Icarus Cups, based on my own experiences. Afraid Sywell was before my time, though I’m sure much of this still applies.

Overview of Lasham Airfield

First up: The “Where”.

Lasham Airfield is located not far from Basingstoke, and is a ~20 minute drive from RAF Odiham, where the UK’s Chinooks call home. If you ever hear a WOKKA WOKKA noise in the sky, chances are it’s one of them. Or the Muppets, but this is much less likely.

Lasham gliding club is one one of the world’s busiest, and attracts a whole range of powered and unpowered aircraft from different times and places.

2Excel also maintain and fly airliners from here, which is why the airfield has such a beautifully smooth runway that human powered aircraft realistically need.

Let’s take a slightly closer look at the airfield.

Circled in green, we find the car park and clubhouse. Unfortunately the clubhouse had a nasty fire and has now closed – however clubhouse functions have now been moved to the Brown Elephant building, including the shockingly good restaurant. Nothing will land on you here.

Everywhere else: if you act the goat, you may cause an accident involving an aeroplane. If in ANY doubt about where is safe to be and what is safe to do, speak to the Lasham office.

If granted access to the wider airfield, you’ll find yourself on the peritrack (aka perimeter track, but nobody calls it that) – highlighted above in pink. This serves as a taxiway for powered aircraft, but is also how ground vehicles get around the airfield. If you’re moving around the airfield, DO NOT LEAVE THE PERITRACK. In fact, only leave the peritrack if you’ve reached your destination and need to turn off.

See how rough two of the three runways look? That’s because they’re disused, so you only need to worry about the nice-looking one.

Speaking of the runway – see the red arrows at the ends? Those are where the powered aircraft tend to come and go from. Since the peritrack is also a taxiway, it is crossed by both ends of the runway. Glider tugs will be trailing LONG trailing cables that can crack skulls with great dispatch. If you see a tug about to cross the peritrack to land, wait for it. When it crosses the threshold… wait a few seconds. You may hear some clinking and rattling as the tow line scrapes over the peritrack and possibly runway (sometimes they land on the grass).

If the big airliners didn’t already give it away, 2Excel is circled in yellow. Aircraft in service are regularly rolled out for testing, so move slowly and very carefully. You don’t want to be ingested by an engine or blown off the airfield or simply run over.

The marquee which served as the base for 2021 Icarus Cup is circled in lilac, right next to Black Hangar Studios – so called, because it’s… a hangar, painted black. In fact they came out to cheer on the SUHPA Lazarus during its test hops in 2021. Nice folks.

The marquee served to store our aircraft partly-rigged to save time in the mornings. We were allowed to camp in the vicinity, as long as we kept our sprawl limited along the fence line.

Turning off the peritrack onto the non-flying side, you should be at less risk of bumping into aircraft – however, as always, be cautious and keep your eyes open.

Where we’re sited year to year is wholly down to the Lasham authorities, so don’t just make a beeline here for 2022 Icarus Cups or onwards.

Day n-1: Infinite Prep Time

If you’re planning to come along to this Icarus Cup, please contact the BHPFC beforehand. We’ll brief you on the when/where/how. However, if we’re having a crap day, you can probably fall back on the below:

Day 1: Start!

If you’ve just turned up on site, you may find yourself asking: what now?

Basically: go straight to the Lasham office and introduce yourself as being with the BHPFC and there for the Icarus Cup. They’ll brief you on how to navigate the airfield safely, and give you some forms to sign. They will also facilitate camping, if you’re staying on site.

Once you’re all signed off and paid up, come and find… well for 2022 it will probably be Matt (hello!) or Hania. One of us should be in the Brown Elephant, surrounded by laptops and paperwork.

Day 2: …Start?

If you’re new to the airfield, can’t make Day 1 but still intend on attending, contact us beforehand and call one of us when you get there. Then still head to the Lasham office, sign the forms, and stay in the public areas until one of us finds you.

Flying Windows & Briefings

We fly at the sole discretion of the airfield authorities, and if they say we can’t fly between x and y times, we are back to the marquee and off the peritrack. We are also heavily limited by weather. As an example, Betterfly’s safe wind speed limit is treated as about 8mph – crucially, including gusts. Even light rain can weigh down our aircraft and spoil our aerodynamics. Thus, briefings before every flight window are critical.

Briefings get everyone on the same page re forecasts, time constraints, and any non-weather hazards (like the big airliners from 2Excel which do occasionally fly in and out at weird hours), and allows team leaders an opportunity to state their intentions and thus coordinate with the marshals beforehand. And sometimes it’s just a collective agreement that the weather is unlikely to cooperate and that everyone can actually get a proper night’s sleep. Anyone intending to be on the flight lines – including spectators – should be present for the preceding briefing.

We have two typical flight slots: the early mornings, and the much rarer evening slots. These are limited by weather and local air traffic. Keep in mind that HPAs only get to fly when nobody else is in the air.

Morning slots are 04:30-09:00. Briefings are typically called between 19:00-21:00 the night before (later when the weather is behaving unpredictably or is forecasted to be close to our flying limits). Morning slots can be extended or called short depending on other air traffic.

Evening slots vary heavily, but are typically 19:00 until called off due to failing light. Briefings are usually called at 17:00 to enable all aircraft to be fully rigged and standing by just off the peritrack. Usually the gliding club is out as late as possible, so evening flying windows are comparatively very rare – for instance, when the sky is overcast but the wind is calm.

The Rest of the Time

With our flying windows thus restricted, we tend to have a lot of free time. Much of this is spent on maintenance. Some days we have guest lectures. Sometimes the pilots organise group rides out in the gorgeous Hampshire countryside. Sometimes we put ourselves to the test on the simulators. If we haven’t gotten our act together and formally organised anything, members will sort themselves out. We like showing off, so if you’re new to the scene just look at an aircraft and someone will probably introduce it, then themselves.

2022 & Beyond: Future Icarus Cups

Some things to keep in mind in general:

• If you’re planning on flying, make sure you’re insured through the BHPA. No insurance = no flying.
• To repeat: the clubhouse is now closed due to the fire. The restaurant and club facilities have moved to the Brown Elephant. If memory serves, the office is opposite.
• Lasham is a ways out from anything other than Lasham village, so make sure you bring your own food and kit.
• It will really help if you bring a bike (with lights – ideally detachable to double as torches) and a high-vis vest. This will make aircraft operations and transport around the airfield much easier.
• If you’ve never been to an Icarus Cup before but intend to make this one – even if invited by one of the teams – contact us first. We can’t risk someone we don’t know wandering about on an active airfield.