Judith's blog

The forecast threatened storms from lunchtime, so Graeme had an early flight on the Mynd before it went too far south. Mick, Glyn and Martin decided to try Shepherd’s Tump, but the report came back of not very good flying and then getting drenched.

We decided to try to do some archery and driving across the Mynd, we could see extensive rain out to the west and east. We managed about 30 minutes of shooting when the heavens opened and we threw everything in the boot of the car and after another 20 minutes, we decided it probably wouldn’t stop raining for long enough spells to make it worthwhile, so we went home to work. I’ve been a bit lazy recently, but have a new resolution that I will do three things on my ‘to do’ list everyday, until they’re all done. So far so good. I also went to the gym for the first time in ages and forgot how much I enjoy the running. Might go again tomorrow when it rains again…

Geoff writes: Facebook hit 500 million users today. I’m not one of them.

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The weather was lovely this morning but due to deteriorate by lunchtime. Martin considered going to Clatter, but we thought it too windy, so went to do archery instead. By 2pm, we could finally see signs of the approaching front, so we headed home to do a bit of gardening before the serious rain started. I only got one side of the hedge cut and half the lawn mowed when the first drops of rain fell and I had to abandon my efforts.

Kai came round later to record a podcast on flying triangles, which I will edit in due course. Then off to music night at the Bridges…

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Geoff writes: Interesting day today, although probably for all the wrong reasons.

I was seriously considering going XC on the hang glider, because it was expected to be too windy for the PG, but there was a lot of cloud much of the day, and it was very windy on the Mynd, and clearly very rough from what some of the HG pilots who had flown, were saying. So we went to archery for a few hours, planning to come back for a late afternoon or evening flight.

Driving back over the Mynd, we saw an ambulance with flashing lights, and just past that a group of people packing up a hang glider well back from the usual landing. Not a good sign. We stopped to find out what had happened. The hang glider pilot had had an accidental chute deployment and had crashed. No damage to the glider, and minor injuries to him. He was checked by a doctor, and decided he didn’t want the ambulance, and was basically ok. But a very, very lucky escape.

We carried on to the parking, and sat and chatted with some others for a while – it still seemed windy. As we were chatting, a hang glider went over low on top landing approach, misjudged it, and landed on the parked cars, smashing a windscreen. Incredibly, again, there was no damage to the glider or pilot – and again, a very lucky escape. What was kind of sad though, was that the owner of the car with the smashed windscreen was the person who had the accidental deployment. Definitely not his day!

Whilst we’d been chatting, we heard the story of the policeman who drove onto the sailplane field last year (to introduce himself, he was new to the area) and managed to get in the way of a glider being towed off, and hit it with his car and wrote it (the glider) off. Then, bizarrely, blamed the gliding club for this, when he’d been driving across an airfield without notifying them first. Or, clearly, looking around him. Incredible. This is still not resolved apparently.

I did fly the HG in the end, not for long, as it switched off quite soon, but I did manage to fly and land without throwing my chute, hitting a car, or taking out a sailplane. A good result….

See photos of today.

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We woke up to leaden skies and too much wind. David and I are working on a new project trying to produce a weather web cast, so we were messing around with charts, sat pics, etc. most of the day. I looked at so much weather that when someone asked me what I thought the conditions would be on Sunday, I didn’t have a clue!

In the early evening we went out to check out the landing options at the Lawley, in case the comp needed to go there on Sunday. While we were there, we might as well do some archery, but on shooting my second arrow, the skies opened and we had to shelter from the rain for about half an hour. We did get to shoot for a while in the end. Then off to the pub for more chatting to friends…

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Down south was obviously the place to be today. We looked around for other places to travel to fly, but with a physio appointment at 9.30am, the options were limited. By the time I came home, the sky had clouded over and the wind was picking up, so we settled to a day of work. By 2pm there was a little rain, but the sky cleared again, so we went to do some archery. Church Stretton seemed to be in a small sunny hole, so it was all very pleasant.

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What an interesting day. We knew that Judy Leden and Chris Dawes were coming here with a camera crew from Blue Peter to film a peregrine falcon taking a lure from a flying hang glider, so we sauntered up to the Long Mynd early to have a nose around. We haven’t seen Chris and Judy for ages, so it was nice to catch up. Judy explained to us what they were hoping to do and how it all worked and we got to meet the peregrine, Lucy, who was the same bird which starred in the Ultimate Predator series. Judy was going to fly tandem with Joel, one of the Blue Peter presenters, and there would be cameras rigged up on the glider, as well as on the bird.

I thought that the day was going to be blown out for paragliders, but we found that it was flyable when we arrived and Dave B. was in the air. He wasn’t getting very high, but I got my kit out, only to find it had picked up too much once the sun came out. Geoff rigged the hang glider and had a nice flight – strong thermals, and not too rough higher up. Judy needed to be able to fly lower to be able to fly with the peregrine, and it got very windy and lifty, so she had to stand down the crew until later.

Meanwhile, Kai, Mick and Glyn had arrived. It occasionally gusted through to 26mph, but the sky was fantastic and you could see Kai was really wrestling with his desire to fly versus his concern for safety. In the end, Glyn and he talked themselves into it. Glyn got off fine, and then a few minutes later Kai got hoofed off his feet and disappeared over the back within minutes. Glyn flew for a while, but got blown back while trying to land and reported having some anxious moments in the air. Kai got to the Clee Hills and landed there in howling winds, somewhat regretting having taken off in the first place.

Geoff flew again, but said it was horribly rough, so he packed up and we went to archery. At 4pm a hoard of kids turned up, so we headed back up to the Long Mynd, to find that Judy and Joel made it into the air. They had done one shot of the peregrine taking the lure, and were hoping for another. They released the bird, but Judy was getting too high, so Lucy had to fly a long way to catch them. Instead of just taking the lure, she landed on the base bar and hitched a ride with them for a few minutes, before jumping off, taking the food with her. Should be stunning footage.

They landed elated, although Joel the presenter felt a little air sick. Really interesting to watch it all going on. It never did drop off enough by the time we wanted to go home. Oh, and we finally managed to present Stewart Toon with his trophy for ‘Best new LMSC HG pilot’ for 2009. Well done Stewart!

See photos of today.

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A nice day, but far too windy. We went to do archery and I am settling nicely into my new bow. I really like it. We were on our own, so could shoot at our own pace and after two hours that was plenty. We headed home via the supermarket to get some last minute supplies for the family visit. My sister, brother-in-law and little niece Maya arrived in the early evening and we had a nice dinner and chat. Maya is just lovely.

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