Judith’s blog

Geoff writes: Last day of the Piedrahita comp and Judith got to goal, so she is ecstatic (and, by now, probably more than a little drunk). She’ll no doubt be writing a full report Sunday or Monday, depending on her hangover tomorrow. They all fly back tomorrow night. I have no idea of the final results, but I’m pretty sure the Mynd guys she flew out with  - Kai Coleman, Mark Leavesley and Neil Roberts - were all high up in the results.

And in the UK, a wasted trip to the Gyrn, which was flyable right up untll the point we arrived, at which time the wind picked up and it started raining. Not quite wasted - a pint in the pub replaced the flying. Well done Ali on, I think, getting higher than anyone else on a training flight! (Apparently people did fly later on, after we’d left).

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Judith writes: The forecast was for stronger winds today but this wasn’t evident on launch early on, so we went up the hill. By the time everyone was up the wind was picking up. A 55km task was set to Avila, but many pilots were disgruntled about having to go over the pass in strong winds. After some discussion the task was cancelled. Lots of people flew and got very high, but the valley wind was increasing, so people didn’t stay up long, apart from one group who headed off to Avila in orbit.

I’m chilling out today and intend to go to the swimming pool with my book. I have to pass the bar to get there, so we’ll see…

Geoff writes: forecast was for rain in the morning, then clearing, west, with some south. And so it turned out. For hang glliders, it was flyable most of the afternoon and evening, and for paragliders, an hour or two early evening. The HGs had a great time. I flew both, but was out late because I was concentrating on some work, and missed the best of the hang gliding, only getting a few hundred ATO, rather than the cloudbase people had been getting to earlier. Paragliders wanting to submit flights for the league missed nothing! Still, a pleasant evening.

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Judith writes: Third task today. Lots of different weather forecasts, but stronger west wind today, so a 116km task to Segovia. I got off ok and thermalled along the ridge. The big promise I made myself was not to go anywhere until I was high and to be patient! It was hard work getting up and I scrabbled about at ridge height for ages working my way along trying to find lift. I got it just before the start point, climbed up and was on my way. I made it over the pass via a circuitous route and found a weak and drifty thermal on the other side. As I was drifting over a ridge I saw an open glider with the pilot lying down not moving. I radioed in to HQ to tell them the situation and then flew over to have a look to check if he was ok. Once I was circling lower the pilot stood up and waved at me. Damn!

You should get up and bundle up your wing immediately so this kind of situation doesn’t happen. I then had to go hunting for another thermal and got a weak climb, but I was then in the centre of the valley. My last ditch attempt was to fly to a black field and I hit the thermal very low (maybe 150 feet off the deck), but on turning in it, I stopped dead and sunk out. On the ground the wind was howling. 25km, so disappointed, but at least my attitude was better today and I made it over the pass!

Terrible retrieve. Geoff called me to chat about my flight and this meant I ran out of  credits, so after a 3km walk in the sun I then had to walk an extra 2km to a petrol station to get more credits to call the retrieve bus. Another lesson learnt.

Not much news of from the goal yet. Kai and Craig did 55km and Dave Thomson is in goal.

Geoff writes: there’s gratitude for you. I phone her and she complains about the cost!

Bit windy here today, ESE, supposed to be going south as the day went on. That didn’t really happen, and Corndon was the best bet, in retrospect (or maybe the Malverns?). But Dave Broughton did phone from Corndon to say it was a bit gusty, and he was on his own, so didn’t fly. I did some work, and was about to go to archery, when Martin Knight phoned to say it was flyable where he was, so off we went (I picked up Michaela on the way). In the end I had about 40 minutes or so of evening soaring as the front apporached, so a lot better than nothing.

Tomorrow looks distinctly possible on the Mynd. Change to get a westerly.

And apparently, yet again, the task was stopped in the hang gliding comp in Laragne, because of “extreme gusty conditions at goal”.

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Geoff writes: as usual this summer, I made the wrong decision for the right reasons, going to Bache rather than the Gyrn (or the Peaks) because I thought it was going to rain there, at least at the Gyrn. Ended up on Bache on my own, and was thinking of just going to the Gyrn anyway - where they were flying - and Andy Johnson turned up, so I stayed (he’d been going to the Gyrn as well, and changed his mind). In the end, after various launches and short hops, I gave up and went home. Definitely the wrong place to be today.

Oh, and when Jonce was flying - whilst I was walking back up - a Hercules flew past him just behind Bache, baking as it went by. It obviously thought he was worth taking another look at, because Andy landed, and the Hercules came back right over launch, at most 200′ above.

Judith writes: The second task today… 125km race to goal, via the same turnpoint as the day before. The forecast was for windier conditions and possible storms. This put me in a less positive mood than the day before. I got the early bus and as I was getting ready the wind was picking up. A huge dust devil came through and I was getting nervous. Once the window opened, people lobbed off, but the gusty conditions made for ‘interesting’ take-offs and plenty of bounce once you pulled away from the ridge. I got off ok and decided that with the strength of the wind, it would be possible to soar along to the start and then get a thermal there to cross the pass. Whenever you assume something will happen, the chances are it won’t. I bimbled along the ridge and then got completely distracted from what I was doing by seeing a wall of gliders, which had been a disorganised rabble just suddenly turning and gliding like a huge wall away from me. The start was open, but the sight was so impressive, I forgot to thermal!

Once I got my act together again, I thermalled along, but it was really tricky and I got distracted a second time watching Kirsty being sucked down a gully. She hit so much sink, that I was sure she was going to hit a tree. She didn’t and found thermal in the valley. She fought hard to get back up, but landed in the end.

I decided to try what was described to us as the guaranteed trigger, but couldn’t cross a ridge, so landed near Villafranca in the same field as Cris Miles. We had a great afternoon, eating grapefruit and being generally silly. Turns out there were another few big names who bombed before the pass… Steve Ham included. What was excellent, was that Martin Dockerill did his first 100km flight today!

Dave Thomson went on a photo expedition and eventually decided to fly the task. He was at 3300m AMSL 13km out from goal and missed it by 7km - big headwind. Kai is leading amoungst the Brits after the second task.

The big incident to day was Nicky had to throw her chute, as she had a big collapse and a subsequent cascade. She got down ok in a corn field, but was dragged on landing. She is fine although a little bruised. Chute is re-packed and her wing has been checked, so she should be ok for tomorrow.

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Geoff writes: Judith is having trouble with her internet connection in Piedrahita, but will try and update the blog later from someone else’s computer. There was a 100k task today, the first of the comp, she did 30-odd km, but chose to land (as did others) because of the cloud development.

And in the UK, more hot humid weather, with occasional rain, and some strong winds. Work and archery was the agenda for today, though I did drive out early evening to Corndon just on the off-chance. But there was no-one else there I could see, and it started spitting again anyway as I arrived, and looked like it might start to rain harder. I gave up and went home.

There was also a task at the hang gliding comp in Laragne, but it was stopped part way through because of overdevelopment. Seems like everywhere is having the same weather pattern.

Judith writes: The first task today! Very exciting. I got the first bus up and got ready in a fairly relaxed fashion, which masked some of my nerves. With all the stories of ballistic thermals and rough conditions, I was very apprehensive. The task was a 100km race to goal via a turn point near Avila. Start was 7km from the take off with a start time of 1.30pm. I had promised myself that I wouldn’t be last off, and get in with an early gaggle. Despite the clouds, people were launching but struggling, so it seemed daft to go. We did some dancing on launch and then I decided it was about time I got ready. By the time I was ready to get off, I was the only one left. Ooops.

I lobbed off, got straight into a thermal, got to cloudbase at 3000m and then glided off to the start gate, arriving there with two minutes to spare. Although it would be nice to be able to claim this was a stroke of pure genius, it was complete beginner’s luck. I got to the pass and caught up with John Stevenson, Adrian Thomas and Ruud. They got into a better climb and I searched around trying to find lift. The tree covered ridge wasn’t working for me and the others glided off. I was determined to be patient and not to get gaggle drag, so I stuck to my searching and didn’t follow them low over the pass. Having exhausted the north side of the pass and found nothing, I tried the quarry. I hit a really good thermal and climbed back to cloudbase before crossing. Once over the pass, I then had to decided which route to take - the flatter, more chance of convergence south side (which was in sun), the valley or the northerly side which has the higher ridges. I went with the sun and headed along the south side. Typically, as everyone had told me it was very sinky over the pass. I got to nearly 300 feet above the gound and was thinking that it was all very nice to get over the pass, but that was obviously it for me for the day. My last chance of lift was over some rising scrubby ground in sunshine, and I hit a horrible rough thermal which made my wing collapse all over the place. I stuck with it and got up again, being joined by a few others. Half way through the thermal I decided that I needed to shift a little and got into a better climb, back high. A cloud on my left was getting really big, and I radioed in to say that the sky was over developing. As I glided in the direction of Avila a street of cumulus was forming in front of us blocking our path. They were getting bigger and bigger and I was debating what to do. People were radioing from positions ahead on the course saying that they were being sucked into cloud and in strong climbs and having to spiral.

John Stevenson and I tried  to fly along the line to try to fly around the development, but it wasn’t possible. I chose to land rather than carrying on into a sky which I knew wasn’t nice to be under. I burned off a load of altitude and got down fine. One Dutch guy got sucked into the cloud and spent ages getting out.

On the retrieve bus, everyone’s first question was ‘Did you land by choice?’ just because we all wanted to confirm that our decision was correct. Further ahead in the course it was ok, although a cell developed near goal and one did develop near us too. It was raining when we drove back to Piedrahita.

Good decision to land, I think.

What did I learn today?

1) Don’t get gaggle drag - don’t follow people if you don’t understand their decision.

2) Learn to glide more efficiently.

3) Don’t suppose everyone knows more than you. Especially if you are at the back of the field.

4) Don’t expect to always launch and thermal straight up and get the perfect start!

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Geoff writes: windy and stormy in Piedrahita, so no task today. Might be better tomorrow. I blame Judith…

Also the hang gliding worlds task today in France, at Laragne, was canned.

And back in the UK, I was considering going out this morning, but it was very cloudy, and started raining. Eventually cleared up, but then windy. Malverns also seemed to be blown out, though they might have flown in the Peaks - Andy went out for a look anyway. I did some conference work.

We seem to be stuck with this weather pattern for the rest of this week.

Judith writes: Windy so no task. I had told Dave about the pre-historic Iron Age hill fort near Avila and he was keen to go, as were his house mates. I spent a lovely day with Dave, Mo, Tony and Naomi eating tapas and then spending four hours wandering around Ulaca. It’s a stunning place. Photos to follow.

Then off to a BBQ with the Northern Irish and Scottish lads.

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Geoff writes: hot weather, humid, lots of big clouds, but never did rain. I was going to go to the Malverns, but the forecast was for it to go south quite quickly. In the end, I went to the Gyrn. It was, kind of, flyable, but very much off to the east. Had a couple of flights, got flushed on the last one. It seemed to stay east a lot longer than I expected, and probably I’d have been better off at Bache or Corndon. Don’t know if anyone did anything there.

Judith writes: It was clear from the outset that it would be too windy/stormy today. I went to the briefing and Mark Hayman gave us a really good briefing about the area and safety. I headed back to bed straight after… I wasn’t just hung over, but I am having trouble sleeping. Not what you need at a comp.

By the afternoon I was feeling ok again, so went to Nicky’s house and hung out with the lads. The sky was looking more and more impresive so I hooked up with Dave Thomson and we went storm chasing. It was absolutely amazing. We were treated to double rainbows, columns of rain, lightening, the lot. We were in awe of the spectacle we were seeing. Whilst we were driving around, Dave showed me the main thermal sources in the area.

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