Trying, but failing, to fly
Archived posts from this Category
Sunday, 25th January 2009
Posted by Judith on 25 Jan 2009 | Tagged as: Trying, but failing, to fly
After the wind yesterday, it was eerily calm this morning. The forecast was for south winds, strongish, but not impossible. We set off for Santa Brigida to go flying, but as we got to Olot it was howling and west. We called Marc who confirmed that it was light in Angles, so we carried on. It’s not unusual to find it strong in Olot but flyable at Santa Brigida. When we got to Amer it was bending the trees double and Marc was nowhere to be seen!
We didn’t want to take the risk of driving to the coast where it would probably be even more windy, so we went up to the Susqueda dam. There is was really howling and it picked up whilst we were there to about 65 – 75mph. We’ve never seen whitecaps on a reservoir before. Whilst walking across the dam you would be stopped dead in your tracks when a gust came through. We were holding on to our glasses for fear that they would be blown over the railings.
On getting home, we found that the wind had been fine at the coast. Damn!
Wednesday, 7th January 2009
Posted by Judith on 07 Jan 2009 | Tagged as: Trying, but failing, to fly, Walking
We woke up to find a winter wonderland outside. We were going to go skiing today, but the forecast was for -11C at 2500m and with windchill they were saying it would be -20C. Too cold for a pair of wimpy fair weather skiers like us!
Instead we decided to go out flying. It was looking sunny with low cloud here, but cloudier in La Selva, which is where Santa Brigida is. Right enough, we got to Amer and it was cloudy, nearly no wind, with the odd waft from the north. The hill itself was clear of cloud, but as we procrastinated a little, cloud started to envelop it. It’s the first time ever that we have seen Santa Brigida clagged in.
We decided not to bother and went for a walk around Els Hostalets instead. We were hoping for a coffee next to a big log fire, but the bar was closed, so back home to work on the next conference. We open in two weeks. Yikes!
Tuesday, 30th December 2008
Posted by Judith on 30 Dec 2008 | Tagged as: Trying, but failing, to fly
The forecast for today was as bad as the last three days but there was blue sky when we woke up. Yipee! We did a quick phone around to check that we were not just under a blue hole. Turns out we weren’t. The forecast improved with the 11.30am update and the winds promised to be south, fluix to moderat (translation: anywhere from nil wind to howling, depending on where you are).
We set off to Santa Brigida but noticed the duvet effect on Puig Sacalm immediately. No matter, we carried on. Geoff hadn’t seen Olot since the storm and it was even worse than what I had seen yesterday. There were whole trees broken off half way up the trunk, and we saw two electricity pylons snapped in half. Scary stuff. So glad we were not here.
When we got to Santa Brigida, it was howling and NW. Go figure…?!
Thursday, 18th December 2008
Posted by Judith on 20 Dec 2008 | Tagged as: Trying, but failing, to fly
Geoff writes: went out to fly, but we were too late due to car problems. As we were driving there we could see people flying; when we arrived, it was very light, rapidly dropping off to nothing. Eventually, we gave up, went home, sorted out car problems, had Judith’s parents round for dinner, and our German juggler friend Nils arrived for a few days.
Saturday, 13th December 2008
Posted by Judith on 13 Dec 2008 | Tagged as: Trying, but failing, to fly
Forecast looked good for flying before the front came in. It was sunny when we woke up and forecast was for NW backing to SW later. Not too strong either. When we were getting ready we could see the trees moving on the ridge opposite the house, but no matter. What happens here doesn’t necessarily bear any relation to what’s happening 15 miles away. Roger called us and we agreed to meet at Santa Brigida at 1pm. We left a sunny Castellfollit, but in Olot is was really, really windy. We carried on, as this doesn’t mean it isn’t flyable…
Past Olot there was lots of low cloud and it looked horrible, but we’d brought lunch so carried on. We could see low cloud over the Puig Sacalm ridge, which curls over the top and which we unscientifically call the ‘duvet effect’. It’s usually a sign of very strong winds and it is rarely flyable when this condition occurs. At Santa Brigida it was howling. I opened the van door and it was pulled out of my hand, it was so windy. We waited for Roger and all had our lunch in his truck whilst looking at the photos of his month’s trip to Morocco, and then went home to paint the bathroom.
Massive wave bars on the way home and proper duvet over the ridges. Ho hum. Worse forecast for tomorrow.
Wednesday, 10th December 2008
Posted by Judith on 10 Dec 2008 | Tagged as: Trying, but failing, to fly
Bloody forecasters! The weather prediction for today was pretty bad. Cloudy in the morning, with snow in the afternoon coming down to 400m (that’s 50m above our house), possible thunderstorms and very strong winds at the coast and in the mountains. Perfect working weather.
The 8am update said the same. By 10am the sun started shining. The 11.30am weather update then predicted sunny weather, light winds in the interior and no precipitation! The ski resort web cams were showing beautiful sunshine. Arrrggghhh!
It was far too late to go skiing or walking, so we went flying instead, but there wasn’t enough wind to stay up. So we missed out on doing anything fun due to appallingly crap forecasting. How can they get it so wrong?
Friday, 28th November 2008
Posted by Geoff on 28 Nov 2008 | Tagged as: Trying, but failing, to fly
Geoff writes: Cloudy at first, but the sun came out and it turned into a really nice day. Vincent phoned to say it was south at Girona, so I duly set off for Santa Brigida (Judith away for a few days). On the way, I could see the duvet effect (our term) of the clouds on the hills (or small mountains, really) in the Val d’en Bas. The duvet effect is where the cloud spills over them, clingng to the top. I’m not exactly sure what causes this – it isn’t typical orographic cloud. Anyway, it’s always a bad sign, it usually means it is the wrong direction at Santa Brigida. And right on time, Vincent phoned again to say it was strong west at Santa Brigida. So I turned back.
Whilst Santa Brigida nearly always works, it is useless in a westerly. There is a westerly site, just to the north of Girona, but it was south there.
Lousy forecast for Saturday, much better for Sunday.