Flying
Archived posts from this Category
Monday, 7th February 2011
Posted by Geoff on 07 Feb 2011 | Tagged as: Flying
Geoff writes: because Judith didn’t fly yesterday, the plan was that I would drive for her at Sant Pere de Rodes, then we would go to the beach. It was a warm, sunny forecast. However, sometimes you get a band of cloud at the coast, and for a few miles inland, and that was what happened today. Beautifully sunny inland, we could see from the webcams that the coast at Roses had 100% cloud cover. So we went for the seond best option, to fly at Santa Brigida. We did fly, but it was rough, uncomfortable air, so we didn’t fly for long. We sat it out for a while, watching the trail bikes – a French team this time – practice in the quarry, but in the end gave up and came home.
Judith is trying to finish editing the most recent podcast before the conference begins on Wednesday. Editing always takes many hours of work, cutting out the repetitions and filler noises, improving the sound quality, reordering it, etc. Hopefully, it will be worth it!
Sunday, 6th February 2011
Posted by Geoff on 06 Feb 2011 | Tagged as: Flying
Geoff writes: today was the Aplec at Santa Brigida. This is a big party for the local town of Amer. Everyone goes up Santa Brigida, and eats a lot, drinks a lot, and dances. And all the paraglider pilots from miles around do the same, and fly too. This is a small ridge that can get crowded with less then ten gliders, on scratchy days. With 50 or 60, it is extremely crowded. So our plan was to go to fly somewhere else, then go there later on for the party, and, maybe, flying, if it was less crowded.
Judith was ill today, though, so she said she would drive for me and Nicky, so we went to El Mont – Nicky’s first time there. As well as the flying, we wanted to show her the spectacular views.
It was hot, light winds, and very stable. It’s a ramp launch, easy for a hang glider, technical for a PG. A hang glider launched first, and went down slowly, a bit longer than a top to bottom, but not that much more. I set up, and went straight off, and had a top to bottom. Very little happening in the air – though after I landed, I did see two birds thermalling. Nicky tried to get off later, but the wind went north, so wasn’t able to. By the time they drove down, it was too late to go to Santa Brigida to fly, and Judith was still ill, so we called it a day and went home.
Saturday, 5th February 2011
Posted by Geoff on 06 Feb 2011 | Tagged as: Flying
Geoff writes: a nice day at Bellmunt. It was the warmest day for a while, around 20C or so – hot in the sun. There were plenty of people out to fly, but the flying was hard work. There were thermals, but these were stopped from developing by two inversions, and almost no-one got above launch, though it was possible to stay up on the lower ridge. The problem was that there were a lot of people flying, and that made it pretty crowded. In the end, both Judith and I chose to land, having got fed up of dodging people. We had a cold beer in the hot sun with Marc and Lluis, then off home.
In the evening, Nicky arrived from France, on her way back home.
Friday, 4th February 2011
Posted by Geoff on 04 Feb 2011 | Tagged as: Flying
Geoff writes: warm (19C), sunny, thermic. There’s a big area of high pressure here, pushing all the bad weather north. We did some work in the morning, then went to Santa Brigida (mostly because we were short of time) and flew with Marc and Oriol. A nice, technical, Santa Brigida day, with lots of lift, and some big sink cycles. We got very low down during one of them. Three of us scratching and thermalling very close together, very close to the trees and to the rocks …. for one person it would have been tricky, for three it was much harder. Judith and I managed to scrape back up, Oriol had to bottom land, as did Marc later on when he went too far out in front and didn’t make it back high enough to scratch back up.
So we ended up on top, with the usual beer and sandwich, before taking Marc’s car down.
Wednesday, 26th January 2011
Posted by Geoff on 26 Jan 2011 | Tagged as: Flying
Geoff writes: we had considered going skiing today, because the forecast is getting much poorer towards the end of the week. But it improved slightly for tomorrow, so decided to go skiing tomorrow instead, and today walk, work or fly. Oriol suggest Bellmunt, so we did some work then met him and Dai (who in spite of his name is Catalan) at the bottom. It was very hazy, inverted, and very blue. We went up, sat around for a while, and then Judith launched first. She maintained, then quickly got up, and we all followed. A bit weak at first, it gradually got stronger, with some very strong thermals. It also got rougher.
Judith followed some birds into the valley, they flew off and she got a bit low, so went to land. The rest of us managed to get up again. After an hour or so, it was cold, it was getting bumpier, so I went to land too, followed by the others.
Good spring flying though. When Judith landed, she impressed one of the local residents, who was shocked to see a woman flying, the first time she had ever seen one.
We ended up with a nice beer in the bar, then back home for our club committee meeting tonight (which we attend via Skype).
Monday, 24th January 2011
Posted by Judith on 24 Jan 2011 | Tagged as: Flying
We were hoping for a change of scenery, but the north wind was still blowing strongly in France, so Ceret was out. Instead we agreed to meet Mike at Santa Brigida. We were late leaving home due to conference work and when getting close, could already see two gliders high up.
It was lighter than yesterday and the day before and Geoff and Mike nearly went down before they both got a low save and then both got over 1000 feet ATO. I mislaid a glove and had to unpack everything until I found it and then I nearly went down as well. I got a weak thermal that meant I had to do ovals, not circles, so as to avoid hitting the monastery, but I got up eventually. I climbed to about 800′ ATO and then played around until we all got low again. It took all my skill and perseverance to get back up, but I did. Very satisfying. I celebrated by top landing and having a rest.
Geoff flew again later and barely got above launch and it looked like it was just ridge lift. Geoff said as much when he top landed, but Mike and I then promptly got over 1000′ again and punched through the inversion. Geoff joined us and the three of us had a nice fly around before tea, biscuits, beer and cashews in the fading sunshine.
Sunday, 23rd January 2011
Posted by Judith on 23 Jan 2011 | Tagged as: Flying
After hearing how good it was at Bellmunt yesterday, we seriously considered going there today. Looking at the forecast though, we decided that today was different and that convergence was less likely and with less wind, the chances of it being really good would be less too. Some high cloud was also forecast, so we decided to go to Santa Brigida instead.
On driving past Puigsacalm (the highest peak near Olot), we could see three gliders climbing and assumed that they had flown from Bellmunt. We were kicking ourselves that we hadn’t set off earlier and given ourselves the chance of a lift share up Bellmunt, until I phoned Oriol to get a conditions report. Rather than flying to Puigsacalm, they had walked up it. It’s roughly 500m in height difference, so a long slog. We’ve known people to do it once with a normal paraglider, then they either purchase lightweight gear or go fly somewhere else. It seems Jesus, Aldric, Matthias, etc. are in training for the mini X-Alps trek they have planned for May, which goes from Batere (in the foothills of Canigo) to the sea.
We carried on to Santa Brigida, where the wind seemed light, but on. Nobody was flying, and we saw why once we got to the top. The wind sock on launch kept swinging in all directions. Geoff wanted to be first off, but waited until the conditions got a bit better. After a half hour wait, Xiliu went off first and got straight up. Everyone followed. Enric was the first to get mega high and he set off to St Helena, which he made easily. He didn’t leave himself enough margin to get back though, so bottom landed.
Marc meanwhile set off over the back, came back, flew to St Helena, across to Amer and back for an even bigger triangle than he did yesterday. He top landed back at his car full of beans. Geoff and I had several flights, getting high, then low, then high and generally playing around. For some reason I wasn’t super motivated today. Hoping to go somewhere different tomorrow, just for a different view.