Judith's blog

It poured when we woke up, but the forecast was for improving weather with an outside chance of flying as long as you waited long enough. Eddie and Bernard didn’t. They only sat on the Long Mynd for about three hours which was nowhere near the required stamina.

We worked this morning and then went out to do archery when it was only howling, but no longer raining. (If you’re sick of my moaning about the weather, think of poor Geoff, he gets this all day long!). Archery was good although I didn’t manage to perfect the techniques Brenda showed me last week. I know this because I have a big fat blister on my index finger.

Then back home over the Long Mynd but it was still too windy. At six o’clock Wayne called for us and we tootled back up the hill and rigged Geoff’s hang glider. It was way, way too windy for a PG but Gordon, Scott and James also came out to have a parawait. The hangies had a nice time of it and we were eventually rewarded for our patience with a nice flight at 8pm. Of course I had to end it by getting dragged through every piece of sheep shit on the Long Mynd. I smell like something at the bottom of our compost bin!

See photos of today.

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We had another attempt with archery today, although it wasn’t looking too good when we arrived at the club house. We met Wayne there and all had to shelter from the rain whilst having cups of tea and chocolate. It cleared up after a while and we were pretty lucky with the weather thereafter. A couple of spots here and there, but most of the showers seemed to be blown around us. Brenda and Jeff spent a lot of time coaching us today and I have finally made some progress with my release. It’s all in the wrist action…

At 3.15pm the skies opened again and we packed up and headed home. Once on the Mynd, we met Mr. Megakeen, Nigel, who had dodged the showers and had a couple of flights on his Ibex. Hats off to him for effort.

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This summer is shaping up pretty much like the last two… disappointing. The weather forecast was terrible as usual with wind, rain and thunderstorms forecast from lunchtime.

We sneaked out for some archery before the deluge, but only managed an hour before the rain set in. Unfortunately, they were having a Church Stretton v. Bishop’s Castle inter-school competition, which was somewhat spoilt by the damp. Not sure who won, being fair weather archers, we skedaddled as soon as it started spitting.

Meanwhile in the Peak District, where we assumed it would be blown out, Andy was on his way from Eyam to Tadcaster. 79km! Sadly, Mike Johnson had an accident on launch, and we wish him a speedy recovery.

Back home it was more work, bit of gardening and then watching the big storms come in. I went out to the flicks with Tammy in the evening and the cunims over the Long Mynd were amazing. Massive and glistening so brightly in the sun they made your eyes water.

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Geoff writes: wet and windy. Did some work, did some LMSC stuff, and did some archery. What more can you say?

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Geoff writes: Judith is having trouble with her internet connection in Piedrahita, but will try and update the blog later from someone else’s computer. There was a 100k task today, the first of the comp, she did 30-odd km, but chose to land (as did others) because of the cloud development.

And in the UK, more hot humid weather, with occasional rain, and some strong winds. Work and archery was the agenda for today, though I did drive out early evening to Corndon just on the off-chance. But there was no-one else there I could see, and it started spitting again anyway as I arrived, and looked like it might start to rain harder. I gave up and went home.

There was also a task at the hang gliding comp in Laragne, but it was stopped part way through because of overdevelopment. Seems like everywhere is having the same weather pattern.

Judith writes: The first task today! Very exciting. I got the first bus up and got ready in a fairly relaxed fashion, which masked some of my nerves. With all the stories of ballistic thermals and rough conditions, I was very apprehensive. The task was a 100km race to goal via a turn point near Avila. Start was 7km from the take off with a start time of 1.30pm. I had promised myself that I wouldn’t be last off, and get in with an early gaggle. Despite the clouds, people were launching but struggling, so it seemed daft to go. We did some dancing on launch and then I decided it was about time I got ready. By the time I was ready to get off, I was the only one left. Ooops.

I lobbed off, got straight into a thermal, got to cloudbase at 3000m and then glided off to the start gate, arriving there with two minutes to spare. Although it would be nice to be able to claim this was a stroke of pure genius, it was complete beginner’s luck. I got to the pass and caught up with John Stevenson, Adrian Thomas and Ruud. They got into a better climb and I searched around trying to find lift. The tree covered ridge wasn’t working for me and the others glided off. I was determined to be patient and not to get gaggle drag, so I stuck to my searching and didn’t follow them low over the pass. Having exhausted the north side of the pass and found nothing, I tried the quarry. I hit a really good thermal and climbed back to cloudbase before crossing. Once over the pass, I then had to decided which route to take – the flatter, more chance of convergence south side (which was in sun), the valley or the northerly side which has the higher ridges. I went with the sun and headed along the south side. Typically, as everyone had told me it was very sinky over the pass. I got to nearly 300 feet above the gound and was thinking that it was all very nice to get over the pass, but that was obviously it for me for the day. My last chance of lift was over some rising scrubby ground in sunshine, and I hit a horrible rough thermal which made my wing collapse all over the place. I stuck with it and got up again, being joined by a few others. Half way through the thermal I decided that I needed to shift a little and got into a better climb, back high. A cloud on my left was getting really big, and I radioed in to say that the sky was over developing. As I glided in the direction of Avila a street of cumulus was forming in front of us blocking our path. They were getting bigger and bigger and I was debating what to do. People were radioing from positions ahead on the course saying that they were being sucked into cloud and in strong climbs and having to spiral.

John Stevenson and I tried  to fly along the line to try to fly around the development, but it wasn’t possible. I chose to land rather than carrying on into a sky which I knew wasn’t nice to be under. I burned off a load of altitude and got down fine. One Dutch guy got sucked into the cloud and spent ages getting out.

On the retrieve bus, everyone’s first question was ‘Did you land by choice?’ just because we all wanted to confirm that our decision was correct. Further ahead in the course it was ok, although a cell developed near goal and one did develop near us too. It was raining when we drove back to Piedrahita.

Good decision to land, I think.

What did I learn today?

1) Don’t get gaggle drag – don’t follow people if you don’t understand their decision.

2) Learn to glide more efficiently.

3) Don’t suppose everyone knows more than you. Especially if you are at the back of the field.

4) Don’t expect to always launch and thermal straight up and get the perfect start!

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Another breezy day with weird clouds. We canned the flying pretty early on and worked and went to archery. Then back home to pack.

I am off to Piedrahita tomorrow morning for the British Open. It’s my first big comp and I have to admit, I am pretty nervous. I entered the comp because I have been working on my flying generally, to try to improve my XC skills. It seemed to make sense to have a goal to work towards to help me to do this in a more structured way. So last November I decided to wait and see where the venues for the Opens were and if one of them appealed to me I would see if I could get an entry. I am not doing the full series, only the Spanish round.

Spain is the obvious choice for a place to go and I have flown Piedrahita unsuccessfully in the past (it was April – the snow had only just cleared from take-off), so I thought it would be good to give it another go. I didn’t fancy the other rounds and for me this is just a way of dipping in my toes, to see if it’s for me.

I am under no illusion as to how well I will do. If I come in the top 75% I will be thrilled. Basically, my ambition is not to come last. So what do I hope to get out of it?

1) I want see if comps are for me. I went to the Chabre Open, but we only flew three tasks, each of which was cancelled after I was only part way round. I am an ambitious person, but not very competitive, so I’m not really sure if I will enjoy comps and if I have the killer instinct (probably not). However, I seemed to have a different attitude to flying at the comp last year and it will be interesting to see how I feel when in this one.

2) I want to fly abroad in the summer and see how that goes. Before France last year, I had never flown a paraglider abroad in summer. It all seemed a lot safer on a hang glider. However, it wasn’t so bad last year. I’ve been working towards this comp by flying in the Pyrenees and pre-Pyrenees in spring time, which was pretty rock’n’roll at times. I also did the SIV course to get more confidence on the wing,  so we’ll see how I cope in the rough stuff.

3) I’d like to land each day and feel that I learnt something. I have a de-brief buddy lined up and I hope to talk though each flight with Dave to talk about how I did, where I made mistakes, etc.

4) And most importantly, enjoy the food, friends and the sunshine!

Wish me luck…

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The weather forecast seemed to deteriorate for today, with lots of cloud and it only clearing towards the evening. We did some work this morning and then we went out to do archery in the afternoon. On crossing over the Mynd we were not sure if we made a mistake not taking the gliders, but there were only little patches of sun with a lot of cloud and cloudbase looked to be about 2700′ AMSL, so not promising conditions.

Archery was good, although I had to spend some time fixing my arrows (I lost a nock off one and the fletchings off three others. Ooops).

As we drove back we could see rain in Wales. Not sure if it was flyable (and good) at Llangollen, but you don’t need to fly every day…

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