Archery
Archived posts from this Category
Wednesday, 30th June 2010
Posted by Judith on 30 Jun 2010 | Tagged as: Archery, Flying, Work
We were wage slaves this morning and had a meeting. We pretended that we were in big demand by our clients, when all the phone calls that interrupted the proceedings were actually about flying. Ooops.
Once we were done with the meeting it was later than we thought, and certainly too late to go to the Peaks which, by my reading of the forecast, was where we should have been. We dithered for a while and were distracted by the HG comp, which had gone to the Long Mynd. Looking through the binoculars, you could kid yourself that it was a bit more on the hill, so we had a first look there. It was basically south, but they didn’t fancy the launching options (over the fence) in light wind at Clatter. We got a kind offer of being wind dummies for the comp, but the thought that if we had been lucky enough to get up in a thermal we would have been mobbed by 60 hang gliding vultures was way too scary, so we declined and hoofed over to Clatter.
We got there too late and the front out to the west was too close, mostly shutting the sky down. It was still thermic though. I launched first and got up to 850′ in a slow, smooth thermal, which petered out. Strongest lift I got was 1.1m/s, biggest sink I got was 2.2m/s. You get the idea…
It wasn’t enough to go XC with, but Martin got to base at 4500′, but the sky downwind didn’t look good, so he had a play and practice, just enjoying being in the air, looking at the scenery and staying high. At one point there were cumulus forming under him. How amazing.
Geoff and I both got highish again, but never enough even to consider going over the back. In the end, the wind picked up and we all had a good old fashioned soaring flight – something I have never done at Clatter! Geoff led the way to the ridge to the west and I got a completely new view of the place. Martin, Geoff and I landed back at the cars, while David McKenzie played in the buoyant air.
We really wanted to go to the HG comp prize giving, but missed it as we were driving back, so we went to do some evening archery instead. My new limbs (as in part of the bow) arrived yesterday and it was fantastic. Finally the right poundage! Chairman Tom lent me his allen keys and gauge, and I did the first bit of tuning. I tested the adjustment and got six golds. I’ve been struggling to get one an end (six arrows) this season, so it’s made a massive difference. Tom had me shooting at 80 yards at the end of the evening. Never thought I could reach that far.
So I was pretty happy this evening. Nice, relaxed flying and finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel with my archery. Good excuse for a few glasses of Cava! [not that she ever needs an excuse..]
Friday, 25th June 2010
Posted by Judith on 25 Jun 2010 | Tagged as: Archery, Trying, but failing, to fly
Have I mentioned I don’t like nil-wind days? Martin and Kai were off to the Wrekin, but we decided to have a look at the Long Mynd first. The cloud was developing a lot and the valley, which had been in sun all morning, was suddenly nearly completely shady and the wind, what there was of it, was south. We watched a sail plane take off, find nothing and land again after 5 minutes. The birds were all flapping and we were both feeling very lazy, so we took the easy option and went to archery.
By 1pm, the sail planes were still not doing much, so we decided to have another look at the Long Mynd on the way home, but by this time it was SE, so we went home to do the gardening, still watching the birds flapping.
We’ve been in a war of attrition with the rose bay willow herb I stupidly let grow last year (“Oh, look, pretty pink flowers!”). Little did I know I invited the seed of the devil into our place. Today we stepped up the ante and it was trench warfare. We dug up the whole flower bed to get rid of all the roots (one of which was longer than I am tall). Now we just have to get it out of the lawn without a mechanical digger. While we were covered in muck, Kai phoned to say he did a 50km triangle (152km with multipliers). He’s top of the league again. 707km in total and it’s only June. Blimey!
Monday, 21st June 2010
Posted by Geoff on 21 Jun 2010 | Tagged as: Archery
Geoff writes: we were quite optimistic about today, but it turned out to be blue, no cumulus at all, and more or less nil wind. What wind there was, was on the Long Mynd. We did some gardening, and watched Paul Loz have a few goes, but get nothing. Kai, however, turned up later on and did manage to get a good thermal, and climbed high, and set off on a triangle. He came towards our house, getting lower the closer he got. Judith decided to wave a blanket at him, which he saw, and shouted down. I wanted her to flash him, to distract him even more, but she – unsportingly – refused. However, we did find out later that he landed at Bishop’s Castle, so no triangle for him today. Clearly, there were thermals, but I don’t think – from Kai’s flight – that they were that good, or that close together.
We went to archery late afternoon, and had a nice time. Driving back over the Mynd, it had come on a bit better, with a slightly stronger wind, and one or two people had managed some soaring. Not a great day though.
Saturday, 19th June 2010
Posted by Judith on 20 Jun 2010 | Tagged as: Archery, Trying, but failing, to fly
The wind played cat and mouse with us today. I was convinced it would be blown out and in our garden it was howling. I was looking forward to another day off, but a phone call from the DSC lot at Corndon, promising 7mph winds, had us scuttling off to fly. It was really windy next to the HG landing field, so we sat at the bottom and observed the conditions for a while. During that time the only person to have their glider out was dragged while trying to take off, so we called them to find out that the wind had dramatically increased to 25 – 30mph. So we tootled off to do some gardening. Graeme did phone to say it was flyable at Sarn, but I was in the middle of cutting the hedge and the wind seemed to be getting more gusty where we live, so we decided to go to archery instead. Graeme got 2000′ above, so maybe that was a mistake.
Archery was fun, although I am hopeless with a light club bow now, and managed to make myself look like a mega-numpty by setting up the bow wrongly and Trevor had to come and fix it for me mid-shoot. Our first BBQ later.
Tuesday, 8th June 2010 (UK)
Posted by Geoff on 08 Jun 2010 | Tagged as: Archery, Work
Geoff writes: more bad weather, more rain. The only interesting thing to happen this morning was a soaking German hiker knocking on the door to ask the way to Wentnor (a couple of miles up the road). I thought walking that far in the heavy rain was bad enough, but actually he was walking from Land’s End to John O’Groats – something like 1200 miles going the route hikers normally use. Very impressive.
It did stop raining later, and I managed to get some shooting in at the archery field, so not entirely a wasted day (and I did do some work too).
Friday, 4th June 2010 (UK)
Posted by Geoff on 04 Jun 2010 | Tagged as: Archery, Trying, but failing, to fly
Geoff writes: having made a big mistake yesterday not going to the Malverns, because it was forecast windy and going SE, I thought today – on the same forecast – I would go – which was also a big mistake, because this time it did go SE. As I arrived at the Malverns, someone was walking down saying it was too far south, and no-one else was there anyway. Following a detour via Castlemorton – no-one there either! – I went back to Corndon, under an improving sky, which boded very well for XCs off the SE face there. I arrived to see Graeme landing, and Dave Broughton was also there, about to launch.
Graeme did say, as I was walking over, that some rain showers were forecast, but I said no chance! A few minutes after arriving at launch, the epic sky over-developed, and there were some really big, black, clouds, threatening rain, or at least very nasty lift. After chatting a while under a worsening sky, I gave up, and went to archery – where it did, in fact, rain for a while.
Oh well, that’s two days in a row messed up through bad decisions. Really, I should have gone to Bache (SSE), early. Hopefully, I will get it right tomorrow at the Mynd – and that is likely to be the last chance for a while as rain is coming in.
Sunday, 30th May 2010
Posted by Geoff on 30 May 2010 | Tagged as: Archery
Geoff writes: very nice and sunny, but also very windy. We did a few jobs in the morning, including checking out our water supply (we strongly recommend that no-one ever gets a water meter – the cost of a leak will far, far outweigh any other savings you might make by having a meter).
We then went to archery to do some bow tuning for Judith – she has been pulling too much weight, and we wanted to reduce that if possible. It turns out it isn’t possible, so she’ll have to buy some new limbs (for the bow that is…). Archery is very complicated once you get beyond the basics. We spent a few hours there failing to tune it, then doing some shooting, Judith on a borrowed club bow.
We had put all the gliders in on the off-chance it might by flyable, and whilst it probably was OK for hang gliders (and Nigel on his speed wing) on the way out, when we returned via the Long Mynd, it was a bit northerly, and windier, so we didn’t bother.
Then back home, and one improvement to the blog, putting in the RSS feeds for the posts and comments, something we should have done ages ago, but, basically, I didn’t think to. So you can now subscribe to the blog, as well as the podcasts.