Posted by Judith on 06 Jan 2009 | Tagged as: Boring stuff
Rain, then snow. Lots of it. My sister and brother-in-law are leaving tomorrow and had to come to stay the night at our house in case they got snowed in in Rupit. It was very pretty seeing the huge snow flakes outside the window, but we’re a bit fed up of bad weather, so the shine was taken off it a bit. Temperatures dipping more tomorrow.
Posted by Geoff on 05 Jan 2009 | Tagged as: Flying
Geoff writes: another flyable day at Santa Brigida. We arrived a little late, about 1.30pm, but the wind was on. Quite a few pilots were there - they’d just had a top to bottom, and were driving up again. I launched and got up, a few followed me off, the rest went to lunch. Not as good as yesterday, but some nice thermals. Overall it was probably flyable for a couple of hours. On my second flight, with just three of us in the air, we finally lost it and went down. Judith came to retrieve me (having flown herself a few times, and top landed); we drove back up, but it was clouding over and the wind was dropping, so we didn’t fly again.
Instead we went home and waited for the kings. In Spain they celebrate Reyes on the 5th of January. On this day the three wise men or Magi come and bring the presents for the kids (they don’t have Santa Claus here). Each village has its own kings and they enter the village on horseback in a procession with drums, fire and lots of pages. They throw sweets to the kids and everyone turns out to see the spectacle. We marched around the village with our kings but skipped the present giving.
A poor forecast for the next few days. Cold, and snow down to 300 metres. Britain is hogging all the high pressure days!
Posted by Geoff on 04 Jan 2009 | Tagged as: Flying
Geoff writes: a good forecast, and a good day at Santa Brigida. About ten pilots out, and flyable all afternoon. Some people had flown Puig d’Afrou in the morning, but they described their flight as a ’salto de gallina’ (a chicken jump).
At Santa Brigida it was a little breezy, which made the thermals broken, but an excellent day. No great height at all, 200 or 300 feet at most, but strong bouncy lift. Top landing was very difficult, since the lift always seemed to strengthen on approach. We flew several times. Visibility was excellent and it was nice to be flying in sunshine again.
Smoothed off, and got weaker, towards the end of the day. Judith was the last in the air.
As for the rest of the week, it was a good forecast, but now gradually getting worse!
Posted by Geoff on 03 Jan 2009 | Tagged as: Flying
Geoff writes: another lousy forecast, but the sun came out here, so off we went to Santa Brigida (we’re getting a bit bored going there, but very little chance of flying anywhere else). The closer we got, the cloudier it became. When we arrived, the cloud was very low, but it wasn’t quite clagged in. We drove up, found some other local pilots there. The wind seemed ok, so I set up, and clipped in, and it promptly dropped off. No chance of thermals, too cloudy. I stood on launch for a while, then the others decided to fly down (no chance of staying up) and go for lunch. Excellent - guaranteed to improve after they left. And about 30 minutes or so later, it picked up a little, and I eventually managed to get off, flew for a while (and radio’d the luncheon club to tell them I was above launch), and then top landed. Judith launched, eventually went down, and waited till they came back for a ride up. Meanwhile, I launched again, and top landed again. Hardly epic, but 25 minutes or so in total.
By the time they all got back up, the wind had dropped, and they just had top to bottoms. Going for lunch - especially in the short winter days - is always a mistake.
Posted by Judith on 02 Jan 2009 | Tagged as: Flying
Very unpromising forecast, but not raining, not howling, so just about acceptable.
We took a trip out to Santa Brigida and found a pilot from Berga already there. He took off and did an extended top to bottom. Geoff got his kit out and had a slightly longer flight, but nothing to write home about. I didn’t bother. I prefer to have longer flights than it takes you to walk back up the hill.
Posted by Judith on 01 Jan 2009 | Tagged as: Flying
Having failed to fly on the last day of the year, we wanted to start of the year on a more positive note. Forecast was much better so we went to Santa Brigida, where Tanz was already on launch. It was a little westerly, but he took off and managed to maintain for a while. Geoff got off second and top landed shortly after when it got scratchy. I got ready, but a big cloud came over from the back and blocked the sun for a while. When it came back out, I took off and soared around for 25 minutes, when all of us in the air went down. The wind was changing and I had to land in the alternative landing field which allows for a W/WNW landing.
I got a lift back up with Vincent and Roger, but it had gone north at the top. Vincent had brought Cava but no glasses, so we had to improvise. Roger was committed to doing the first flight of the year thing too and did a stunningly good forward tailwind launch, to applause all round. Vincent it off to Valle de Bravo tomorrow. Lucky devil!
Geoff’s comments: this is definitely the worst year for flying we have had since we’ve been here. Poor everywhere in Spain really, even in Algo. Still, the skiing is the best we’ve had in Spain.
Posted by Judith on 01 Jan 2009 | Tagged as: Walking
Folk round here have a thing about flying on the first and last day of the year. We managed to fly on the 1st January this year, so we were determined to fly the 31st December as well.
The forecast was identical to yesterday. Sunny southerlies and looking good on paper. I had my doubts though and thought it would be a complete repeat of Tuesday, and lo and behold, 11am the winds started. We went out to show willing, but on getting to Olot, we could see the duvet effect and it was howling, so we wrote the day off. We headed up towards Rupit and looked at the 500-odd trees that have come down along the road.
We bumped into the family in the village and had a snowball fight and a play in the local playground. Afterwards Geoff and I went for a walk along the river. We only had limited daylight left and we got trapped between two sets of fallen trees and had to shift them in order to get back, but it was a nice little adventure.
Then off to my parent’s for food, silly games and lashings of Cava. Happy New Year!
