Judith's blog

If agonising over where to go flying was a competitive sport, Geoff and I could be top class. So the forecast (as we understood it) was SE going S, SW in the evening. Possibly getting cloudy in the afternoon. Our options were Bache, the Wrekin or the Gyrn. So here was our reasoning:

The Wrekin: Kai made a convincing argument, but the proximity of Shawbury airspace would limit our downwind XC ability and just because he can fly round it or do a triangle on a comp wing doesn’t mean we can.

Bache: It’s a load of hassle getting the key and Steve Lowe said the sky was messy and it was SW and strongish at Kington.

The Gyrn: Mick reported that the sky hadn’t sorted itself out yet and the XC potential isn’t fantastic.

Steve had suggested Elan Valley and Piers confirmed it was off to the south a bit, but looking good. So we dismissed all the original options and plumped for Elan Valley. It was indeed looking good – all the way to Rhayader, where the sky started to look dark and ominous. We would have to get into the air and downwind fast to outrun it. Once on the hill the sky was no longer a problem though… the wind was 90 degrees off, so no flying anyway. Graeme and Dave B. also turned up and given the sky we had just driven through, we decided to switch sites and went to Camlo.

We’ve tried and failed to fly Camlo every time we’ve been there, mainly due to strong winds. This time, the winds were so light we didn’t think we could stay up and the sky downwind was good, but getting more threatening ahead. By the time we had our gliders out the wind had gone off and picked up. Graeme had a three minute flight where he didn’t get above the hill and then slope landed over the fence. Dave had to walk some paces down the hill to launch as the wind was still picking up and once in the air zoomed one way and crawled back the other before landing near the bottom of the hill and having to walk back up. At this point Graeme and Dave decided it was high time to tackle the daily crossword and we looked at the approaching rain and started packing up.

The sky was rubbish all the way to the Long Mynd, where it was looking great and the sail planes were having a lovely time. Kai probably had the nicest flight of all of us. Should have listened to him.

We went to archery instead.

See photos of today.

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Geoff writes: the original plan was to go to the Malverns again, assuming the forecast was still ok this morning. I woke up to a bit of cloud, and a not very stunning RASP, but eventually set out, though the sky was quickly getting worse. I drove a few miles south, and it got even worse – some quite big clouds, almost no sun, and worse further south, and over to the west. In the end I canned it and turned round. It was a lousy sky.

I have an increasingly bad feeling this was a terrible mistake! Within an hour or so, the sky had cleared, it was streeting, and looked an epic day. At the time of writing this post, 8.00pm, nothing yet is posted in the league. That either means no-one went XC, or at least didn’t do anything worth posting; or, much more likely I think, everyone went a long way and they aren’t back yet. This could well be the third 100km day in five days.

Still, I did do some shooting at the archery field….. not very accurately, since I was too busy looking at the streets above me, even at 5.30 pm.

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This was the best forecast for ages. RASP was giving it really, really good in this area and people were coming from far and wide to fly at the Long Mynd. It was due to pick up, so we got to the hill at 10.20am, just in time to see Kai push forward to Wentnor and then he and Ali Andrews headed over the back. My analysis of the day was that we should get in the air and stay there so we wouldn’t be on the ground when it blew out, and head over the back as soon as we got the height and the sky looked good. I didn’t think the thermals would be really well developed until after 11am, but it was useful to get a feel for the air. It took me a little while to get high enough to go over the back, but looking behind me was a big blue hole. Pushing to the south (and under the good clouds) would have lead me over the sail plane winch, so I flew forward and along the ridge, losing a lot of height in the process.

As I pushed out into the valley to get a climb I could see Geoff going up like a cork popped out of a champagne bottle. I flew right under him about 100′ below him and got nothing! We eventually got high enough to go, but left low, at about 1400′ ATO. We lost the thermal over the back of the Mynd and flew towards Wenlock Edge.

From the north end of the Long Mynd, we could see Mark Wilson flying over to us from base, so I followed him, thinking ‘great, he knows what he’s doing!’. When he started flying along, not under the cloud street, I did wonder, but it was only when he joined the thermal I found, that I realised it wasn’t Mark after all!

The thermal was broken in the very strong wind and we couldn’t work it properly. Geoff landed first, followed by me, Dan (on his first UK XC – well done!) and Karol. Geoff and I managed to get a lift with Graeme and Odette and headed back for another go, but it was too windy for us. Dave Thomas got away late in very windy conditions and managed to get to Bromsgrove (and chose to land there, at home), but most people either bombed at Wenlock Edge, the Clee Hills or just beyond. Barney managed to get to Worcester, leaving all his gaggle trailing behind.

Since it wasn’t flyable for us anymore, we went to do archery instead and it was raining when we drove back over the Long Mynd on the way home. Bit of a disappointing day, especially for those who’d driven a long way.

Geoff writes: given the forecast, it was the right thing to do, get in the air early, and leave early. Judith and I left together, in a reasonable climb, which promptly died out as we were too far back to head to the front. We weren’t really bothered at that point – the climbs on the ridge had been quite strong, there were lots of nice clouds over the back, so we just drifted along expecting to get another climb. The only (small) one we got was when we were very low, and it was very difficult to stay with it, since the wind seemed to have picked up a lot, and we ended up landing, with a couple of others. The climbs over the back seemed relatively few and far between, in spite of the sky, and the lift when we did find it was weak – and other people said the same thing. Most people seemed to land somewhere between Wenlock Edge and Clee Hill, with just a very small number going further (as far as we know at this point). When Dave Thomas left the hill, much later, after we had got back, the wind was very, very top end, and most people weren’t bothering launching.

Two hang gliders left I think – Jeff Thornton getting to Ludlow, and another one, who left earlier, getting further I think.

Funny day really. Looking back on it, I don’t think we would have done anything different.

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Geoff writes: stunning XC sky, definitely a day for lots of paragliders doing 100km plus from the Long Mynd, except that for most of the day it was way too windy for them. I had a fun time on the hang glider.

Low down, it was fairly bumpy, with lots of very broken thermals. Every so often you would get a really strong thermal which overcame the met wind, and you screamed up. I didn’t bother going XC, but it was certainly possible, and easy to go on a hang glider. I’ve got a bit more nervous about landing out on the hang glider, having got used to the incredible easiness of landing out on a paraglider, where you can land it almost anywhere – whereas the hang glider, you need a nice flat field, preferably with no high crops in it and a clean approach.

One bit of excitement today was seeing a sailplane badly mess up his approach and crash by the road, fortunately with no injuries, except a written off glider. He was lucky there were no tourists around, and the two horses nearby weren’t spooked too much by it. It was quite dramatic.

After a couple of flights, and early evening, we decided not to bother waiting to fly the PGs, and went and did some shooting at the archery field.

Oh, and we were out a bit late today – a nearly four hour phone meeting for our next conference in the morning, which delayed us somewhat.

See photos of today.

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A bit of an action packed day. Actually not much action, but a lot of dashing about. We were going to do archery before the front came in, but it got cloudy early on, so we thought we would wait until the sunshine after the rain, except they changed the forecast and there wasn’t going to be any sun after all. We worked on various things, including me starting to re-format our books so they can be read on the new ebook readers. Kindles don’t accept PDF, so it’s a big HTML reformatting job.

Then off to Bishop’s Castle to do some errands and then up and a walk round Corndon to take photos for the next multimedia site guide. By the time we had got up there, it was sunny, but howling. Next archery, then a drink with John and Lyn to talk about committee stuff and then music night at the Bridges. Phew!

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Everyone was raving about the forecast in the run-up to today, since there was possibly some sunshine around. As the day got closer it was looking less promising, and I suspected a similar day to Sunday, with lots of cloud. The actual forecast was the catch-all “sunny intervals”. The actual weather was grey skies all day.

Our choice for the day was to go flying or go on holiday, so we decided to wait until lunchtime and see if it would develop into a flying day. I edited another webcast and Geoff did some work and the sky stayed cloudy, but then Kai called to say he had gone XC from the Wrekin and it was really thermic. So we got our stuff and rushed out. On the Long Mynd it was too far off, so we headed for the Lawley. Once we were over the top of the Long Mynd I still couldn’t see the ‘good sky’ Kai had talked about. It was wall-to-wall grey cloud, with only a very few embedded cumulus.

There didn’t seem to be much wind around, but since the Lawley gets blown out really easily, we assumed there would be plenty of breeze. Wrong. We walked up to the third pimple and it was still only 4mph and every bird within 2 miles was flapping. The fields below still haven’t been cut, so the landing options are limited, so in the end we conceded that it just wasn’t flyable and went off to archery instead.

Driving back over the Long Mynd we found Rich, Wayne and Ali and a strong westerly breeze. Rich said it was rough, so we just carried on home. Just not our day!

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Geoff writes: yet another windy day. OK for hang gliders a the Long Mynd, but not paragliders, unless you arrived very early in the morning, as some people apparently did. Rather than me fly my hang glider, we decided to have a day off, and went first to do some archery shooting, then to visit a National Trust house, Dudmaston Hall. This was really nice, with a few rooms of the house open – but most of them not – and some lovely grounds to walk in. It’s famous for its art collections, including some modern art (something we are less than excited about). It’s now owned by the National Trust, but the family still lives there, apparently.

There was also a demonstration of what happens when you combine coke and Mentos mints. The guy demonstrating it gave out instructions to all the kids there – which I’m sure will really please their parents when they try it in the living room.

You can also see a nice video (but crap music) of some guys that really took this seriously!

See photos of today.

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