Judith's blog

What a wind-up the forecast was! People were talking about east-going-west and more wind than predicted, but on looking this morning, I had my doubts about all of them and particularly wether RASP got it right on Snowdonia, so I decided the Malverns would be the place to be, rather than Corndon or the Gyrn.

We got there at 12 o’clock and the first people we bumped into were Sebastian Ospina, Alex and Wayne Seeley. It was also really nice to finally meet Charles Norwood. Great to catch up with everybody. 

It was only just getting properly flyable, but it looked like it could improve, so despite people getting some height over the hill we waited a while. Wayne slope landed, reporting he got 800′ ATO, so we were hoping (against the forecast), that the inversion would break like it did yesterday. Geoff launched before me and got up straight away. I got off in a good cycle and also got to 800′ a couple of times, but I was just bouncing up against the inversion and the sink in between the thermals was pretty bad, so I slope landed while I had the chance.

A few people went down and then one guy on an Axis Venus climbed up from the landing field, past launch, went along the ridge and managed to punch through the inversion at the south end of the ridge. We last saw him heading to Ledbury. He did really well and was the only person to go XC. After that it was only Alex and another pilot who got up and had good flights. Anyone low stayed low, slope landed, or went down. In the end Geoff gave it a go, followed by Nigel Brevitt, but both went down and this inspired a mass pack up and walk down.

It’s the first time I have ever actually flown the ridge at the Malverns – i.e. soared the ridge and landed on it. Every other time I have been fortunate to get off, up and away, so it was nice to actually look at the ridge and scenery around.

I gave up on the flying at 5pm, drove down to collect Geoff  and we decided to go to the British Camp iron age hill fort, which we have seen so many times from the air, but never actually walked up. Stunning place with amazing views.

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Geoff writes: a strongish forecast, but it seemed the place to be was Bache. Others thought so too, and there was a good turnout from the Long Mynd Soaring Club, and the Malverns Club too. When we arrived it was quite breezy. Paragliders flew early on, then it picked up a bit, it seemed quite rough, with some bad collapses (though Briggsy took it all in his stride), and the sky eventually was left to the two hang gliders, Jason and Tim, who had the best of it – it was very thermic then, with some good cumulus cloud development. It later dropped off slightly, and the PGs again took to the air. It was still breezy, and penetration was slow, but the lift seemed to be everywhere, and they all got some great heights (4000′ AMSL), and managed to push a long way forward. Not me and Judith though – we were amongst the last to take off, being a bit (overly) cautious in strong winds, having just got back from Spain, where we never fly in more than 14mph. But we still had a pleasant, if not spectacular, flight.

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The forecast for this morning was light, near non-existent, winds. There was some discrepancy over direction too, but we decided to go with the synoptic, and go to Llangollen. We decided to car share with Mark L. and got to catch up on all the gossip on the way. We were all expecting just to sit around in the sunshine most of the day, so we were amazed to see gliders high and happily soaring. A quick catch-up with Briggsy later, I got in the air. Martin had already been flying a while and said how strong the inversion was, and it was easy to get to 800′ ATO, but to get to 1000′ was a real struggle. Over the back it was completely blue and with only 1000′ it was clear we weren’t going anywhere.

I had a fun flight and then landed to have a comfort break. A few people had gone down to the bottom landing, so I decided I would go on a mercy mission and collect them. I got to the bottom junction to find Sprinty had beaten me to it! Once I got back to take-off, nobody was flying and the wind had turned completely east. We all sat around for another hour and then gave up. It was beer o’clock anyway.

I did twitter the flyability of the site, but didn’t realise that the text wasn’t sent until I switched the phone back on on the way home. Doh!

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The electricity board warned us a couple of days ago that they were going to switch off the power today between 8am – 11am and 4pm – 7pm. This complicated our departure plans and meant we had to plan our day a bit better. However, getting up at 7am to shower and hoover was scuppered by the over-indulgence in cava the night before. We loaded up the car and cleaned until the lights came back on, finished off and were on our way. The forecast for Millau was crap (Meteofrance said rain, Meteoblue said howling winds), so we didn’t rush to get there. However, as we got closer the cloud started clearing and we could see little evidence of wind. We have rotten luck flying in Millau every time we drive through, so we weren’t raising our hopes, but as we dropped down from the plateau into down, a paraglider launched. I wasn’t feeling very well, so Geoff was flying and we raced up the hill and got ready fast. Because it had only just started coming on, it was still weak (and there was very little wind), so Geoff and the other two pilots went nearly straight down. When I picked him up at the bottom, others had launched and conditions had improved a lot. People were soaring and thermalling up. We debated whether there was time to fly again, but at the end of the day, it just meant having to drive later at night, whereas we don’t often get the chance to fly at Millau, so I took Geoff up again.

He took off and got straight up. He was heading out over the town, but with it being nearly 7pm, it was time to land and get back on the road. Whether we’re coming or going, it’s essential to get past Paris before we sleep, and we kept driving until 3.30am, when we pulled into a service station to have a cramped three hour sleep in the front seats of the car before setting off again to catch the ferry in Dunkerque.

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So we fancied a bit of a change of scenery today and also wanted to fly with, and say goodbye to, Mike. We agreed to meet in Palau Saverdera to go up Sant Pere de Rodes, but before we left the house Oriol called to warn us of possible east wind. As we drove towards the coast, the nice cumulus of the mountains dissipated and there was only blue haze. When we also saw evidence of wind, we called Mathias, who confirmed that it would probably blow out, despite the forecast light winds. Mike was nearly there and confirmed it was windy, so we all diverted to El Mont.

It was light at the bottom when we arrived, but by the time Mike arrived it had picked up and we were not confident that the drive up wouldn’t be wasted. Oriol reported good conditions at Bellmunt, so off we went. Despite it being only about 50km as the crow flies from where Mike lives in France, it takes about 3 hours to drive and it’s always seemed too much hassle. We left Mike’s car at Castellfollit and when we got to Torelló, we could see Oriol high and others launching. We raced up and got ready quick. The sky was looking really excellent.

I launched first of our little group, got straight up, flew out of the front of the thermal, got an asymetric collapse and then wrestled the glider into the core and cruised to cloudbase. Mike soon climbed up to me. I was hoping to go to Olot and beyond, but I was in the wispies at 5800′, which isn’t enough to go, unless there is a nice cloudstreet to help you on the way. The clouds were coming over the back and there was too much of a gap to cross. Instead we flew out along the west side of the ridge.

Geoff meanwhile had got his lines tangled and was then rushing to get off and launched into a sink cycle and went down. Mike and I were high enough to ride the cycle out and got back up. Then it was easy. If you were high, you could fly around and every cloud worked. After a while I stopped trying. I flew out into the valley and over the landing field, got low, and then took a lazy thermal back to launch height, whilst taking photos of Mike.

We both chose to land in the end and at that point we discovered that everyone else had also taken their car up, assuming someone else had a retrieve car at the bottom. With four cars at the top, no cars at the bottom and at the prospect of at least an hours walk in 26C, we were all looking at each other trying to assess who was the fittest. Geoff was going to volunteer, but Jordi, a local to Torelló took pity on us, and borrowed his parent’s car to take us all back up. We owe him beer!

Mike, Geoff and I spent the remainder of the late afternoon sitting in the sunshine, chilling, until we realised the time and remembered all the things we have to do before Sunday.

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The forecast (yesterday) for today was an excellent day. Wall-to-wall sunshine and we were all getting quite excited about the flying prospects. Then we woke up and the sky was grey and it was raining! They did a hedge all bets update with sun-rain-snow-fog-NW-S possible anywhere in the NE. The synoptic only showed high pressure, so that gave us no further clues. Arrgghh. There was a collective shoulder shrug from our little mid-week group and then we waited to see what would happen. We briefly even considered going to Àger, but too much to do here (people to see, places to go). When it started clearing we settled on Bellmunt and Nicky came along to say good-bye. What we hadn’t spotted, until we drove up the road, were the massive wave bars all over the place. Hmmmm.

When we got to Torelló, Oriol gave us a big thumbs up for the conditions, while Geoff, Nicky and I did a collective eyebrow raise. Tomas also seemed unconcerned about the wave, saying it was way high and wouldn’t affect us. To be fair, he is a professional balloon pilot and spends a lot of time high, so must know a thing or two about these conditions.

Once up at the top, we could see the wave dissipating, but we still waited until after 3pm until we all took off. Conditions were very bouyant and you could easily get high, but cloudbase wasn’t high enough to easily get to Olot and the clouds there looked more ominous anyway. Nicky was the low save queen of the day, getting up from very low down twice and thermalling past the rest of us!

Nice day out, although sad to have to say farewell. It was good practice for later… We went for goodbye dinner at my parents and had to say cheerio to them and Debi too.

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Geoff writes: the forecast changed a lot overnight, in terms of wind direction, and so rather than go to El Mont, it seemed a better bet to go to Bellmunt, which we duly did with Nils and Mark, meeting up with Joan too. We went up, and there were already a few people flying and getting up, with some nice cloud development. I was the first to launch of our group, and it didn’t seem too rough, and there was plenty of lift. I was pretty determined to cross the pass to Olot, at least, if not go further. The problem was that cloudbase was only about 2500′ above take off, about 6200′ above sea level, and I wasn’t at all confident about making it over the pass – it’s a few kilometers to actually reach the pass, and if you don’t get something on the way, you’ll be below it, in some very inhospitable territory, with very few landing options other than trees. So after three attempts, getting to base each time, hoping that base would rise (but it didn’t) I gave up on that idea.

The clouds were getting bigger and more developed, and I eventually decided to go and land – Judith and Joan had already landed. It took me a while to get down, there was plenty of lift, but I managed to also find enough sink, and I got down ok. The overdevelopment continued rapidly, and an hour after I landed, whilst we were having our beer and sandwiches with Joan, there was no sun, but a lot of rain!

Great to see Nils again, and to meet Mark for the first time – both top class street performers, as you’ll see from their web sites if you click on their names!

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