Judith's blog

It started off a beautiful sunny morning, but the wind also started pretty much straight away. It was forecast to blow out here from mid-morning and reports from Sarn, Corndon and Llangollen confirmed it. The only option seemed to be Long Mountain, but there also seemed to be a little east in it, which isn’t good.

We sat in the garden with the wind howling around us and the cumulus popping off everywhere. It was a classic sky, so we set off for Long Mountain, not expecting to fly. We met Martin and Jay there and the wind was eerily light. Martin gave it a go first and it seemed a little rough and the thermals really broken. He top landed, having not really enjoyed his flight and we waited for the next person to test conditions. DJH obliged and the lift was better and he reported it a little smoother.

Geoff took off and got high, but lost the thermal, so had to come back through all the rough stuff at the back of the hill to try to have a reasonable walk back for another go. Martin meanwhile was up and away. I launched and got high, but found it very rough. You had to actively fly all the time to keep the glider above you. I pushed forward and got to 1200′ ATO, so plenty of height to go with, but a huge blue hole had developed between the hill and Corndon. It’s a 10km glide, so impossible unless you can get some lift on the way.

My heart wasn’t in it and I wasn’t up for the rough conditions, so I decided to land. Geoff had also re-launched and hated it, so he landed just before me. We have dinner guests tonight, so we decided not to bother and just went home. Royston and Angie arrived about 10 mins after us, so we had tea in the garden and beer in the Castle.

It seems it was a better day everywhere else – both north and south of here. And strange that it was so windy here and in the Peaks they were doing triangles.

Geoff writes: Martin landed near Clun, maybe 20km or so. In retrospect, seeing what was done in the rest of the country, both north and south of here, we should have gritted our teeth and tried harder! The sky undoubtedly, and suddenly, blued out just behind Long Mountain, and that was a problem. Had we tried to leave a bit early, we would have been ahead of that, and certainly could have been on for a long distance.

We did mess up yesterday, but conditions in our local area have been very, very poor so far this year. Hopefully, it will change soon.

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Today looked promising, until the wind started picking up. I hadn’t seen this on any forecasts, so was a bit stumped as to what to do. Andrew said it was 15mph (and picking up) at Llangollen and Viv found it was howling on the Long Mynd while driving to Stretton. It was getting windier in our garden too, so we opted for Corndon, just so that we could have the flexibility of wind change and it’s close enough to home to be able to can it and do something else.

It was much lighter on top of the hill than at the bottom (that’s normal), but the promised cumulus never materialised. Throughout the day the inversion just got stronger and stronger. We were on the edge of the front all day, but with few thermals. It was flyable pretty much all day if you took off, landed, took off, but it wasn’t until after 3pm that Mark Begg got highish and made a dash over the back. Viv then did the same half an hour later. The couple of times I got high enough to look over the back I couldn’t see anything to go for. Just more haze and high cloud!

Michaela turned up to do some ground handing and then had her first fight in 8 months. Grounds to celebrate…

Llangollen or Sarn were the place to be. Actually, Yorkshire or the Lakes were the place to be, but what’s new?

See photos of today.

See David McKenzie’s video of us thermalling today.

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Geoff writes: easterly forecast, so Malverns or Corndon. We thought both would probably work, but that the Malverns might be a bit easier, and a lot more thermal markers, i.e. other pilots. So off we went.

It was breezy when we arrived, but flyable. There were a lot of people, who spent a lot of time trying to get away, but it didn’t happen, with no significant height at all being achieved. One person did thermal back, and couldn’t get back to the front, but soon landed, at around 10km. After maybe a couple of hours, the wind dropped, and everyone landed, either top landing or bottom. At the same time, the cumulus did start to improve, and, when a few re-launched, and some got away low, I finally launched too. Bad timing though…. and I went down, along with a lot of other pilots. Some others did get away later on, but the maximum distance was probably in the 30s, with most people doing a lot less than that.

After Judith picked me up (she wasn’t flying today, she wasn’t very well), we went back to the car park to drop off some others, but I didn’t bother going up again, it was a bit late. Though it was flyable till dark, and, whilst sitting in the car park having a beer, at least one other person went.

Corndon wasn’t any better – some went XC, but less than 20km. Again, the north was the place to be with some good XCs done in the Lakes.

See photos of today.

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Geoff writes: another day, another crap XC day. In spite of an epic forecast with RASP and so on, it was inverted all day at Corndon, with people just doing short hops but getting nowhere. The best was probably Judith with a massive 500′ above launch. No-one got away. A very small number of cumulus did appear late on, but nowhere near the hill. To reassure anyone who has heard about the accident today, it appears the outcome will be just relatively minor injuries, as far as we know.

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Geoff writes: given the light easterly forecast, we decided to go to the Malverns, even though RASP wasn’t giving it very good down there. It was blue when we set out, but there was a soarable breeze on the hill quite early (according to Luke); a little stronger than we expected, but fine. When we approached it, people were flying, but by the time we walked up, most were on the ground. It was cycling, though there was still a breeze. We – and many others – waited around for an hour or two, though people were flying, but not getting away. In retrospect, we should have launched soon after arriving, and not waited on the ground, but waited in the air. As it was, it died off, both the wind and the thermals, even though the sky was getting better and better, with plenty of clouds. So there was a long period with no-one launching, then the occasional cycle of people launching and going down. Judith had a brave attempt at flying to some swifts, but also bottom landed.

It then seemed to get slightly better, with a few people maintaining and even climbing. Just as Judith got back to launch, I took off, probably into the end of the cyle. I struggled a while, sinking overall, and finally headed to the landing field, where, about 550′ below launch, I got a great low save which took me up to base. My climb out from the landing field encouraged others to launch too, but though they got high, most went back to the front. There was very little drift, the sky was getting worse – lots of cloud, little sun – but I went anyway. I did get another thermal, after my first climb and glide, but didn’t get a third. Sink was so strong between thermals, and drift non-existent, that even with two good thermals, I still did less than 10km, and landed in the same field as Wayne Buckland.

We packed up, walked to the road end of the field, and climbed the fence – no gate. As we were climbing over, Gwyn was driving past. He stopped his car – he’d been flying at Corndon with Mark Leavesley – and took me right back to the car park. Definitely the fastest retrieve I have ever had, and what a coincidence!

So, a really excellent low save, and a really excellent retrieve. That makes up for the crappy flight in between!

As far as I know, not many people went XC from the Malverns, and most flights were small, though Neil Furmidge flew to Clee Hills – maybe 60 km? – an excellent flight.

Judith writes: And I had a pleasant flight later, easily getting to the inversion layer at 1900′ ATO, where it got really rough. I considered going over the back, but I couldn’t see anything… it was so hazy, I couldn’t make out clouds or much ground, so was a bit stumped as to where to fly to. Instead I went out front and then flew over to the British Camp hill fort, which we walked up exactly a week ago. It looks even more impressive from above.

See photos of today.

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Geoff writes: there’s a golden rule for flying Long Mynd area sites in nil, or very light, winds. Don’t.

If it’s very light easterly, go to the Malverns. If it’s very light, or nil, westerly, go to Bradwell. We kind of lost sight of the bigger picture last night, having decided to go to listen to a band in Bishop’s Castle, so getting distracted. And, to be fair, the forecasts weren’t that stunningly accurate today. Waking up, a bit late this morning, it was clear it was going to be very, very light westerlies all day; whereas in the Peaks, it was s bit stronger, and, had we not been late up, would definitely have been my choice (though it’s always hard – drive three miles to the Long Mynd, or drive 90 miles to Bradwell). RASP was poor here, and in the Peaks, but really, being able to ridge soar in poor conditions whilst waiting for a thermal to come through is infinitely better than waiting, in poor conditions, for some bird to indicate a weak thermal, then launching into that. Which was what we spent most of the day doing at the Long Mynd.

The sky was quite good when we arrived, but rapidly clouded over, with no sun on launch for hours (though at the south end of the ridge, the training school tandems had a much better time – what a different three or four kilometres makes). Mostly, we just launched, scratched, and landed. Later on, it did get a bit better, with Martin doing the best, and getting pretty high, maybe a couple of thousand feet, around 4.30 or so. Judith also managed to get to the south end and back. But that was it. Other than Martin – and that was quite late given the sky – no chance of XC.

Whereas in the Peaks, loads of people went XC, with the best at the moment over 80km. It really is about time it started working down here – it has been an atrocious season so far for XCs in the Long Mynd area.

See photos of today.

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Geoff writes: the forecast was windy for the Long Mynd, and that’s how it turned out. Great sky, strong thermals, but too windy for PGs. However, there were a lot of hang gliders there, and, not having flown the HG all winter, I was determined to go too. However, I didn’t have any intention of going XC (just in case it dropped early enough to go on the PG, stupid really), so we ambled out relatively late. As we arrived, we saw three HGs going over the back, and there were probably others before and after. Inevitably, I was a bit nervous, but did a fine launch, flew for over an hour, and had a good landing in the strong winds. The thermals were very strong, but not particularly rough, base was pretty high (though I left before base) and with the drift I’m sure the HGs who did go, went a long way. If we find out how far, I’ll append it to this post.

My thermalling on the HG was rusty, and I ache a lot from keeping my head up – paragliders are much easy, physically, to fly, and do have the huge advantage that you can see the clouds all the time, without doing neck contortions. I’m certain that does give them an advantage when flying XC.

It was nice to see so many hang gliders out, not seen so many for years, outside a competition.

So I enjoyed the flying; just a shame it didn’t drop off enough (until quite late, by which time we had gone) for Judith to fly on the paraglider.

Update: it is rumoured that Carl Wallbank did 190 km on the hang glider from the Long Mynd. For paragliders, the south was the place to be today (because it was so windy further north) with Liddington being the site, good in strong winds, with the best from there so far being Jim Mallinson, 126 km, landing at the coast at Worthing.

See photos of today.

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