Judith's blog

Richard Westgate’s second Gradient record encampment has started and he called today as a potential record breaking day in our area. We were a bit dubious about the possible wind strength and suggested they go to Long Mountain. Once they established that the Long Mynd was howling, they came along with us. We met Ken Wilkinson and the BCC stragglers there, so there were plenty of markers around. The wind had been howling on the way, but as usual on Long Mountain, the wind was much lighter on take-off and while there were periods when it was top end, it was flyable.

Richard, Kai and Mark Jones got away as the first gaggle; Ben Friedland got away later and then it was a succession of dribblers going XC. The front appeared to be coming in early (unless it was a false front?) as the high cloud appeared above us. I took this as a sign to get on with it, but the climbs were slow and difficult and coupled with the strong wind, this meant it was necessary to leave the hill low. It took ages for me to get any usable height and I got a separate climb from the others but joined Ken, Paddy and Dave Thomas once over the back.

I was flying shockingly bad. I felt really rusty in the air, not having thermalled properly for seven weeks. I had endless trouble finding cores, and the others in the gaggle outclimbed me easily. I just couldn’t find a comfortable turning position. I minced along until I was decked over the other side of Wenlock Edge, and it was only due to the strong wind that I got that far. I never got higher than 3000′ AMSL! A lot of us were down in the same area, but Martin managed to connect with the good sky just ahead and carried on to do another 100km, scoring 130km and getting into the 100 Club. Well done.

There were four flights over 100km from Long Mountain, so it was a good call!

See photos of today.

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Geoff writes: A good forecast for today, but the weather turned out much worse than the forecast. How many times have I had to write that recently!

Forecast was NE, a nice breeze, cloudy early, but then rapidly getting very sunny, with reasonable thermal strengths. So, along with a lot of others, including the BCC, we went off to Corndon. It was cloudy, but we expected the sun to break through any minute. The BCC set a short task, only 25km, but that was partly because they wanted an early finish to do the prizegiving, and minimise the long retrieves. Kai set a goal to Tenby. I did the site briefing, stressing what a good XC site Corndon was.

And then we basically sat there for the next 4 or 5 hours, in almost no wind, and very little sun, chatting to people in the comp. Thermals coming through were rare, and very very weak. A few people had a go at different times, and the ones who did really well managed to scrape back on top. The others had to walk back up. Kai didn’t quite make Tenby – he went on a glide in front, and landed on the ridge next to the hang gliding bottom landing.

Eventually, Ali managed to scrape a thermal, and must have got a massive 400′ ATO, and glided off, to land at Church Stoke – less than the activating distance of 5km.

People gave up then, and started to fly down. A few people right at the end, including Judith and DaveT, managed a bit of ridge soaring, even occasionally getting slightly above launch, but that was it.

Of course, as we drove away, the cloud did finally clear and the sun came out, and the wind picked up – but far too late!

Amazingly, the BP Cup in Snowdonia did managed a respectable task of around 40km, I think, with a race from Berfydd to Criccieth, and a number of people making goal. So they have managed two tasks in two days, a lot better than the BCC here.

See photos of today.

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This was the best forecast for ages. RASP was giving it really, really good in this area and people were coming from far and wide to fly at the Long Mynd. It was due to pick up, so we got to the hill at 10.20am, just in time to see Kai push forward to Wentnor and then he and Ali Andrews headed over the back. My analysis of the day was that we should get in the air and stay there so we wouldn’t be on the ground when it blew out, and head over the back as soon as we got the height and the sky looked good. I didn’t think the thermals would be really well developed until after 11am, but it was useful to get a feel for the air. It took me a little while to get high enough to go over the back, but looking behind me was a big blue hole. Pushing to the south (and under the good clouds) would have lead me over the sail plane winch, so I flew forward and along the ridge, losing a lot of height in the process.

As I pushed out into the valley to get a climb I could see Geoff going up like a cork popped out of a champagne bottle. I flew right under him about 100′ below him and got nothing! We eventually got high enough to go, but left low, at about 1400′ ATO. We lost the thermal over the back of the Mynd and flew towards Wenlock Edge.

From the north end of the Long Mynd, we could see Mark Wilson flying over to us from base, so I followed him, thinking ‘great, he knows what he’s doing!’. When he started flying along, not under the cloud street, I did wonder, but it was only when he joined the thermal I found, that I realised it wasn’t Mark after all!

The thermal was broken in the very strong wind and we couldn’t work it properly. Geoff landed first, followed by me, Dan (on his first UK XC – well done!) and Karol. Geoff and I managed to get a lift with Graeme and Odette and headed back for another go, but it was too windy for us. Dave Thomas got away late in very windy conditions and managed to get to Bromsgrove (and chose to land there, at home), but most people either bombed at Wenlock Edge, the Clee Hills or just beyond. Barney managed to get to Worcester, leaving all his gaggle trailing behind.

Since it wasn’t flyable for us anymore, we went to do archery instead and it was raining when we drove back over the Long Mynd on the way home. Bit of a disappointing day, especially for those who’d driven a long way.

Geoff writes: given the forecast, it was the right thing to do, get in the air early, and leave early. Judith and I left together, in a reasonable climb, which promptly died out as we were too far back to head to the front. We weren’t really bothered at that point – the climbs on the ridge had been quite strong, there were lots of nice clouds over the back, so we just drifted along expecting to get another climb. The only (small) one we got was when we were very low, and it was very difficult to stay with it, since the wind seemed to have picked up a lot, and we ended up landing, with a couple of others. The climbs over the back seemed relatively few and far between, in spite of the sky, and the lift when we did find it was weak – and other people said the same thing. Most people seemed to land somewhere between Wenlock Edge and Clee Hill, with just a very small number going further (as far as we know at this point). When Dave Thomas left the hill, much later, after we had got back, the wind was very, very top end, and most people weren’t bothering launching.

Two hang gliders left I think – Jeff Thornton getting to Ludlow, and another one, who left earlier, getting further I think.

Funny day really. Looking back on it, I don’t think we would have done anything different.

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Geoff writes: stunning XC sky, definitely a day for lots of paragliders doing 100km plus from the Long Mynd, except that for most of the day it was way too windy for them. I had a fun time on the hang glider.

Low down, it was fairly bumpy, with lots of very broken thermals. Every so often you would get a really strong thermal which overcame the met wind, and you screamed up. I didn’t bother going XC, but it was certainly possible, and easy to go on a hang glider. I’ve got a bit more nervous about landing out on the hang glider, having got used to the incredible easiness of landing out on a paraglider, where you can land it almost anywhere – whereas the hang glider, you need a nice flat field, preferably with no high crops in it and a clean approach.

One bit of excitement today was seeing a sailplane badly mess up his approach and crash by the road, fortunately with no injuries, except a written off glider. He was lucky there were no tourists around, and the two horses nearby weren’t spooked too much by it. It was quite dramatic.

After a couple of flights, and early evening, we decided not to bother waiting to fly the PGs, and went and did some shooting at the archery field.

Oh, and we were out a bit late today – a nearly four hour phone meeting for our next conference in the morning, which delayed us somewhat.

See photos of today.

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The forecast was finally for some sunny weather and we were getting quite excited about the flying prospects. As the day neared, all the forecasts, except RASP were saying sunshine, or ‘sunny intervals’. RASP was giving a significant area of cloud over Wales and our area, but I couldn’t find it replicated in other charts, so ignored it and went with the optimistic forecasts instead. We thought about going to the Peaks, but decided in the end that it would probably be fine here too, so didn’t bother.

I stayed at Ellie’s after the LMSC girls night out and we watched the morning forecast together and were a little surprised to see the BBC forecaster say “It’s a beautiful sunny start to the day in Wales”, when it was grey and completely overcast in Shrewsbury. I drove through a shower on the way home… Everyone at the Met Office is obviously based in London and sadly none of them have any mates in other parts of the country they can phone up and get them to check what’s happening outside their windows. It’s a bit poor when they say it’s one thing and you look at a sat pic and can see that it’s certainly not the case for most of the UK away from the south east.

It never did clear during the day and there was no wind to speak of until much later. People were pulling their gliders up at the Long Mynd, but didn’t start soaring until 3.30pm, which is when we stopped gardening and went up to fly. The sun did come out at about 6pm and it was a nice evening, with some gentle thermals and some ridge soaring. Conditions were better in the Peaks, but as usual, towing in middle England was the most successful. Will listen to RASP in future!

See photos of today.

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The forecast said sunshine and showers from lunch time, so we headed out at 11.30am, when the sky started to look more promising and people started to get high on the Mynd. It was overcast all day, but the showers were just one short period of a few spots and it was flyable all day. It was a struggle to get really high and I pushed out to start with and then went to both ends of the ridge, thinking I would extend any XC flight with a few turn points at the beginning of the flight. As I got higher I started to get bunged up again and it was playing havoc with my ears and balance, so my thermalling was a bit all over the place. After more than an hour in the air, I felt I needed to clear my sinuses and landed for an extended nose-blow.

Geoff, meanwhile, had got high and went over the back, landing at Craven Arms. He got a lift back with John and Lyn, who are pilots who also moved here from the Peaks, but have been too busy restoring a house to go out flying.

I spent the rest of the afternoon tandem flying with Mick. We had high hopes of going XC, but flat vario batteries (and lack of thermals) thwarted us. He managed to scratch back up to top land and change batteries, but our next attempt put us in the bottom landing and we gave up at that point. Next time…

See photos of today.

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Geoff writes: a cloudy and windy day with intermittent showers, it finally got a bit sunnier later on. On the Long Mynd, hang gliders were flying off and on, most of the day, so we eventually went out and I flew the hang glider in the early evening, landing because more rain was coming in. Then went to the Midland Gliding Club for a quick drink and chat with Jon, the gliding club chairman, to discuss a couple of safety-related issues around us sharing the ridge. Then off to the boozer to see the hang glider dudes, who were having a walk down memory lane, looking at old covers of club mags and Buster.

Not an epic day! No flights posted in the league for anywhere.

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