Flying
Archived posts from this Category
Saturday, 22nd January 2011
Posted by Judith on 22 Jan 2011 | Tagged as: Flying
Less windy today and the high pressure is getting closer… good Santa Brigida conditions. And so it was. We got there to find it packed. Nearly all the Niviuk staff seemed to be having a day out and were flying all sorts of different machines, as well as Dominique flying the new Niviuk proto harness. It looks like (and is probably as aerodynamic as) a kayak. Apparently you can sit up in it without creating as much drag as an open harness. It certainly seemed to carve through the air pretty smoothly.
It was a bit up and down at first and then, as usual, it just got better and better. By 2.30pm the thermals were well established, pleasant and took you through the inversion. It was cold up there though. We have a cold weather warning (cold by Spanish standards, anyway), and despite my seven layers and three gloves I got cold above 800′ ATO, so I stayed below that, although others headed up and around a triangle.
It was flyable all day, and it was a really sociable day with so many people out.
[10pm edit] Just heard from Oriol, they went to Bellmunt and got up to 2200m AMSL in thermals and then hit convergence. Some landed in Olot. Never thought that Bellmunt would work in north wind. Amazing. Spring has really started.
Saturday, 15th January 2011
Posted by Geoff on 15 Jan 2011 | Tagged as: Flying
Geoff writes: we’re in a period of high pressure with strong inversions – nice warm, sunny weather, blue skies, but bad for flying, too stable. We did consider canning the flying and just go for a walk, but we decided to do a bit of work in the morning, then go out early afternoon. The actual wind forecast was light southerlies, so in the end we decided to go to Santa Brigida, where it’s rarely not thermic, and if the wind is on, it works ok in ridge (dynamic) lift. In spite of being a SE face, Santa Brigida often doesn’t work in a southerly, because of the way the wind comes through the valley, but the forecast was so light we were sure it would be on. But, surprisingly, when we arrived it was both strong – blown out – and north west. Quite a few people were in the parking, looking a bit disconsolate.
We phoned Oriol who had gone to Bellmunt, and he said it seemed ok there, light winds, on the hill, though no-one was flying yet. So we promptly went there (having told the other pilots to go there too). Not a long drive, given the new tunnel, though driving there no-one was flying – but as we arrived at the bottom, people were starting to launch. Scratchy at first, it got better. Judith and I launched in quick succession (there was a queue, we had to wait to get off) and I had a nice, interesting flight. There were thermals, but weak, but there was also some ridge lift. It helped that there were half a dozen other pilots flying at the same time, indicating the lift. No-one got any great height, my best was around 450 feet ATO, and it got a bit bumpy higher up, but it was fun. Great views, and a nice change from Santa Brigida – and, to be honest, a much better day than we had expected.
Friday, 14th January 2011
Posted by Judith on 14 Jan 2011 | Tagged as: Beach, Flying
So the plan for today was to get up really early and get on the first lift at Masella, ski until lunch time and then drive across the valley to France and fly at Targasonne.
However, yesterday the top temperature at Masella was 16C, and today was supposed to be warmer. Mike wasn’t confident about the forecast being good for flying at Targasonne and I wasn’t feeling 100%. So we scrapped that plan and instead we went flying at Sant Pere de Rodes. Since it was my monthly day off flying, I was designated driver.
Matthias and Jesus had gone up the hill earlier and we met up with Mike and Oriol in Palau Saverdera. Once at the top, we could see the thick inversion below us. Matthias had launched and gone straight down, so we all waited around and then Jesus launched for an extended top-to-bottom. Mike flew next, but Oriol had to wait a while, as the wind started switching north and only thermals were bringing it on. He got off and had the longest flight of the day, working weak thermals under the inversion layer.
By this time it had switched north properly and Geoff walked across to the other launch and flew there, landing on the beach at Port de la Selva. I drove down to get him and we spent the rest of the afternoon sitting in the sun, looking at shoals of fish and being groomed by some shaggy dogs to be their playmates.
Tuesday, 11th January 2011
Posted by Geoff on 11 Jan 2011 | Tagged as: Flying
Geoff writes: tramuntana forecast, so, as usual, we planned a trip to Santa Brigida. It was dull and cloudy in the morning, and, according to Mike, raining very hard just accross the border in France (though not here). So we did a bit of work, then the sun came out, and off we went, meeting up at Santa Brigida with Roger. And it was very nicely flyable. Sunny, thermic, not rough, and easy to stay up.
Whilst I was flying, someone else turned up on a quad bike, Gerry Mayr. He is on his way – by quad bike! – from Germany to Dakar, and stopped off at Niviuk to pick up a glider. He managed to get a flight to try it out, then bottom landed. Gerry holds various world records for quad biking.
He has an amazing trailer, which includes a garage (his word) for a paramotor engine, a tent, cooker, solar panels for his computer….. and, no doubt, a kitchen sink. Hard to believe you can get so much into so little space. Though going downhill towing it behind the quad bike could be a bit of a nightmare – it’s pretty heavy. Great to meet him, and hopefully we’ll see him again on his way back.
Judith has spent the evening recording a podcast (our first for a while) with Steve Hudson of the Derbyshire Flying Centre. Still to be edited though, so will be publicised when it is ready.
Tuesday, 4th January 2011
Posted by Geoff on 04 Jan 2011 | Tagged as: Flying
Geoff writes: forecast was for it to get cloudier during the day, but they got the timing wrong, it started off cloudy, but then got sunnier. After a morning of work, we decided to give Santa Brigida a try. The wind machines were giving SE, and it seemed like a good bet. And the flying was very pleasant. A bit thermic, wind just right, but not mindless soaring, sometimes it would switch off and we had to work hard to stay up. It was just the two of us, since most of the mid week flyers seem to be less and less available – a shame really.
Anyway, it was a fun day, well worth the trip out. A bit cold – very cold actually – though the forecast for Friday is 19C. Which is great in one sense, but not that good for skiing, which we had planned to do then. We’ll see, will probably go anyway.
Sunday, 2nd January 2011
Posted by Judith on 02 Jan 2011 | Tagged as: Flying
A nice sunny day forecast and this promised good conditions at Santa Brigida for our first flight of the year. However, Johnny had also promised us that if he was going to do another base jump, he’d let us know so we could go and watch. Co-ordinating the flying with the watching turned into a bit of a headache, so we went to Santa Brigida first and Geoff flew and got a good thermal; Nicky and I got ready and predictably, as soon as we had the gliders unpacked and ready to clip in, Johnny’s phone call came. We’re usually the last to leave the site, so people were a little perplexed when we all started packing up our gear as fast as possible, without having flown, and then making some fairly crap excuse as to why we were going.
We grabbed Marc on the way past the landing field and headed off to the dam up the road to meet John and Johnny. It’s 135m high and enough for a 2 second jump, before the chute is released. The build up was pretty exciting, watching Johnny get ready and then waiting for all the tourists to disappear, so he could jump without anyone calling the cops. The jump was amazing.
Here’s the clean version of the video.
Here’s the video with commentary (don’t watch if you’re offended by swearing)
After resounding applause, we rushed back to Santa Brigida, leaving John to collect Johnny.
The conditions had mellowed a lot, but we still all got nice flights, although it did get a little crowded at times, with lots of others coming out for the first flight of the year. In the end, it was a really lovely day and a nice mix of excitement and chill out boating about. And we got to say good-bye to Nicky before she goes off to Colombia for a month tomorrow. Hope the flooding subsides!
Sunday, 19th December 2010
Posted by Geoff on 19 Dec 2010 | Tagged as: Flying
Geoff writes: it was a pretty bad forecast for today, but when we woke up it was sunny, and stayed that way for the rest of the day – and much warmer than recently, too. So we had another flyable day – nine out of the last ten days have been flyable here, mostly at Santa Brigida, but other sites have also worked on some of the days. Yesterday was so thermic, probably every site near here would have been good.
So today was still pretty thermic, but much less rough than yesterday. Amazingly, for a weekend, when we turned up at Santa Brigida we were the only ones there. A phone call brought Johnny out, and a couple of others turned up and flew very briefly. So pretty deserted really. Maybe everyone had been put off by the forecast. It was flyable until late afternoon, when it finally switched off.
And as for the forecast, at 8.00 am it was saying it was rubbish today. At 11.30am it changed completely, to say it was going to be sunny and warm. I guess whoever does the meteocat web site finally looked out of the window and realised what a piece of garbage the 8.00 forecast was.