Judith's blog

Today was a day of superlatives for me. I did the shortest distance; I was fastest to the landing field, and I had the briefest flight. How cool am I?

We went to Berga and met up with Nicky and also Maria and Jorge who are visiting from Colombia. After a quick coffee, we headed up to the Segunda Maria, where it was very light. The sky was clear apart from some interesting high cloud. It seemed early and quite stable, so we waited a chatted for a while and eventually Geoff persuaded Nicky that she was the local and should launch first. She picked a fine time to go, with two vultures coming over us just after she took off, but the lift was so close to the ridge that it was impossible to turn. She slowly sunk out and the rest of us decided to wait it out some more. Ages after we thought she had landed, there she was again! Impressive tenacity.

While she was struggling, a local turned up and told us the day would be over by 4pm and it would be better to launch at 3pm, which is the height of the day. My argument that it’s been consistently better later was rebuffed with the assertion that that may be the case at Santa Brigida, but not in Berga.

I should have gone with my instinct and waited… as it was I launched and sank straight out. There were bubbles, but I couldn’t thermal as I was too close to the ridge/trees. Maria faired a little better, but also landed soon after taking off. Ten minutes later, Jorge did well to get up and flew across to the Primera Maria, where he climbed out. Geoff did well too, having a nice flight and then landing back at Espais.

We got a ride back up for the car and Geoff had another go, but by this time it was late, but he still had a good flight, eventually landing at the motocross field. Everyone had had to dash off, so we had our apres vol beer at the local reservoir.

See photos of today.

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More strong winds forecast for today, but we woke up to an eerie calm and no wind in our valley. Marc posted on the Parapent Girona list that he thought it would be flyable, and I agreed. High pressure and strong tramuntana winds are an excellent mix here and pretty much guaranteed to make for great conditions at Santa Brigida, despite it being a SE facing hill. We had far too much to do to be out for the whole day, so we headed out at 3pm and met Marc in the landing field. We got chatting about holidays and by a complete coincidence, he is going out to Lanzarote the same day as us. We’ve already fixed up dinner!

As we were getting ready, Joan and friends came and five of us had a pleasant (apart from the odd bump) thermal around.

I am having a launch crisis at the moment. I was having trouble identifying what the issue actually was, because one time I stumbled, the next I had the brake wrapped round the riser and braked the glider asymetrically, etc., i.e. there was always an excuse. But today I had an involuntary launch when trying to straighten out the wing and a gust came through. I managed to get away with it, but that’s how accidents happen or mid-airs occur. I sat down with Geoff later and we’ve identified that I am not being assertive enough with the wing, letting it fly me, not the other way round. So my crap stumbled launch probably wasn’t that I fluffed it because I tripped, but I tripped because I fluffed the launch. I’ve been launching really well all summer, so I don’t quite know how this has happened, but I need to sort it – otherwise I’ll break something. It’s funny how you go through phases when everything works well and you’re on top of your game and then one element suffers and it becomes the elephant in the room. Rather than launching fluidly, I have been tense, not wanting to fluff it and that’s not helped. But having someone to watch and help identify the issue is really essential. So I have some work to do…

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The forecast was for a cloudier day today and we woke up to grey skies. By 11am the sun was shining and we decided to give Bellmunt a chance. On a Saturday we assumed there would be loads of people there, but there were no cars in the normal parking place. Two pilots launched and did ok, so we headed up too. On top it was deserted, but the wind was on and it seemed very thermic – the sky was certainly getting better by the minute. I took off first and thermalled around for a bit, getting high-ish over the edge, but then losing it and going down. I found a broken thermal in the valley, but couldn’t work it and went down.

Meanwhile Geoff was debating if it would be more sensible to come down for me or just to fly and sort out the car later. Being the weekend, what’s the problem? Should be loads of people out! He had a similar flight to me, thermalling up to 700 feet above the take-off, flying around, working something in the valley much better than I did and then losing it and going down. By this time I was standing by the roadside hitching. Bearing in mind it’s a dead end road that only goes up the mountain to a monastery/restaurant, I thought it would be easy to get a ride back up. However, the few cars that did come by were locals who live on the hill and none of them were going back to the top. By the time it got to 4pm, I thought I’d better start the 2 hour walk back up and left Geoff hitching at the bottom.

My entertainment on the walk was to count squashed praying mantises. It would appear from my limited research that they love the hot tarmac and they stand side on to the traffic, as each one was squashed in the typical praying position. I did come across three live ones, including a male (never seen one of those before, so very exciting), which I harassed off the road and into safety. I was standing in the middle of the road poking one to get into the undergrowth when Geoff swung round the corner chauffeured by a local hunting for mushrooms.

I thought I’d never hear the end of his going on about his hitching prowess. I did point out that it wasn’t a fair contest, since not one of the cars that passed me was actually going where I was trying to go, but Geoff dismissed that, saying his secret weapon was his pilot sign. Apparently, without one everyone will just assume I am one of the many hookers you see on the main roads here, so I’ll never be successful at hitching. Of course you don’t see many prostitutes in the middle of nowhere, in sweaty t-shirts and jeans holding a radio and with a severe case of helmet hair, but I’ll take his word for it. Another great excuse to let him do the hitching while I sunbathe. Ha!

See photos of today.

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It was south today, so the chances were it would work at all the local southerly sites. We had a phone round to check what others thought and dismissed Berga and Bellmunt and narrowed it down to Sant Pere de Rodes and El Mont. Geoff likes to be beside the seaside… so Sant Pere de Rodes it was. We met Mike, Oriol, Johnny and Enric in Palau Saverdera and then headed up the hill. The clouds only seemed to be marginally above the hill and seemed to be coming from the east, but Oriol convinced us that it would be great by the time we had carried up.

The wind was on, so we got off as soon as we could and conditions were excellent. The clouds were all working and I thought for the first time that it might actually be possible to get to the beach. This has been an ambition of ours for years, but it’s normally a summer thing and in the depths of winter there’s not a chance.

We all got high, but Johnny and Enric chose to land in the official landing field, Oriol flew all over the place but had to get back home early and Geoff flew to a cloud that didn’t work. Mike and I headed off to Roses. I had sussed that the clouds worked when you were high and close to them, but it was difficult to thermal up when you were low. I stayed high until there was another cloud to go for and then I progressed. When I got close to Roses, I wasn’t sure I could actually make it onto the beach and there’s nowhere to land in Roses, other than the monument and I wasn’t sure it wasn’t closed for the siesta and I didn’t want to be locked in for the afternoon. I headed for the final cloud and it worked and I got to the beach with far too much height. A little flying over the sea and snapping photos later I landed to a round of applause from all the people sitting at the bar I landed in front of. I had a tourist to help me get the sand out of my wing and then Mike turned up. He had landed short, but only had a 10 minute walk to meet me. We had a nice beachside beer before Geoff came to pick us up.

Great day and another long held ambition achieved.

See photos of today.

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So the plan for today was to go to Sant Pere de Rodes. The forecast had the tramuntana weakening, and it could be good for the north side. In the event, the strong north wind continued and it was supposed to cloud over in the early afternoon. A few people said they were going to Santa Brigida, but we’ve got a new policy of not flying Santa Brigida three days in a row, so we don’t get bored of the place too soon, and we settled down to a day’s work. By 2pm the cumulus looked really good and it’s better to make hay while the sun shines, we’d regret it if the weather turns bad again, too nice to sit inside, etc.

Oriol phoned us on our way out and told us the cloud streets were epic and it was a good XC day, so we put our foot down. We met Nani in the car park, as Oriol launched for his second flight and got high. We drove up, but by the time we got ready, the lift wasn’t as good. It was still very thermic and I flew for a short while, but it seemed to be getting weaker and then less chance to go over the back, so I landed when Roger arrived, so I could say hello to him. I flew again, but my heart wasn’t in it really. Too tired and we have flown Santa Brigida three days running now. I know I shouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth and should be grateful for such a hugely reliable winter site, but I am looking forward to flying somewhere else tomorrow.

See photos of today.

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Geoff writes: another warm, sunny day, with Tramuntana winds, which means, of course, Santa Brigida. We went out fairly late. In the morning, we finally finished the RHADS webcast – about the airspace restrictions and negotiated corridors when flying in certain directions from the Peak District. We also did another few hours work for the JISC conference, which could, quite possibly, be our biggest yet. It is certainly turning out to be one of the most complex.

Then, finally, off to Santa Brigida. It was really nice to meet another friend from here, Enric, who we haven’t seen since last spring. Johnny and Alistair were also out, as was Peter, a new pilot, who lives near here. Plus two French people we had never seen before. So, mostly foreigners, and one Catalan!

The thermals weren’t quite as strong as yesterday, but still there, and it was very easy to stay up, and get reasonably high. As usual, when the thermals died, there was still plenty of dynamic lift, and Judith had the last flight of the day mostly hands off. I drove down, and we all had a pleasant beer together in the landing field.

Another fun day.

Oh, I almost forgot. Judith reminded me it’s our anniversary (of our first date). It’s really just a one night stand that has dragged on for 5475 nights….. we were going to go to the local restaurant for a meal, but got back here and found it now closes on Tuesdays. So it’s a (special) night in!

See photos of today.

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Geoff writes: a morning of work (the conference is rapidly getting closer!) then out to fly. Very warm and sunny, windy at the coast, probably windy inland, windy in France – the wind was the Tramuntana, though, so a great day to go to Santa Brigida. And so it turned out, flyable there probably until dark. Lumpy thermals when we arrived, but got better later on; then the evening was pleasant ridge soaring, though by then we had had enough and decided to go home.

We met a few old friends, quite a few locals out for a change (given that it is Monday), though most of them launched in one of the few sink cycles. Also saw one of our old hang gliding friends, who also now flies PGs. And Johnny brought Alistair, a sky diving friend, who also flies wing suits and speed gliders. Obviously crazy! He’d done a lot of ground handling of paragliders, and today waited until the thermals had mostly gone, and then had his first paragliding flight – and did incredibly well, once he remembered he was paragliding and not sky diving. Even managed to top land twice.

So, all in all, a very enjoyable day.

See photos of today.

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