Judith's blog

It was windy from the word go, so the North-South Cup guys went to the Mynd to have a speed gliding contest. Head-to-head, two pilots had to go 500m along the ridge and back. I think the South won again. We were going to go up the Mynd so Geoff could fly the hang glider, but the wind picked up and there was the odd bit of rain, so we just did party preparation. Thankfully Paul, Yaz, Mick, Hayley and Ellie turned up early and we set up the DJ booth and lighting rig. We were going to put up the LMSC marquee to protect the lights, but once there was a really heavy shower, we decided to rig up a tarpaulin that would stretch out from the garage towards the house. Once the PizzaVia van arrived we had to get the trailer up on the raised area and cut down half a tree. It was all fun, interspersed with (too weak!) tea.

Our last job was to cut up the remaining wood for the braziers and Malc Davies thankfully brought his chainsaw to do it. When he called to ask if he should bring anything for the party, he expected me to say sausage rolls, not a chainsaw!

People started arriving shortly before 8pm and the pizza queue swelled immediately. It was expected that people would arrive in dribs and drabs after flying, but with the weather being bad, people were sitting in the camp site waiting to come. Had we known, we would have called people to come early and give us a hand and start eating sooner too.

Once people started arriving, it was a great turnout with over 100 people there. Paul and Sam did a great job with the music and the braziers were well worth the effort, keeping the non-dancers warm. We had a North-South dance-off that I was supposed to be judging, but only three southerners (Viv, Phil and Frankie Coltman) took up the challenge and although I was going to eliminate anyone from below the Watford gap as a matter of principle, Phil told me not to dare! Frankie got a special award at the prize giving the next day for her efforts. Good on her, she’s only about 8!

After that it was all a blur of chatting, dancing (thanks particularly to Marra and Barney, and everybody else who endured being dragged onto the dance floor by me) and boozing. Even Geoff was up bopping (but only once).

Because a task briefing had been called for 8 am the next day, people drifted off at a sensible time, although some who’d watched the forecast (waste of time for Sunday), stayed and partied on into the small hours. By dawn there were only a few heavyweights left and before we knew it, the sun was shining and the pizza van guys needed help getting the trailer back down the ramps. After a preliminary tidy-up, I finally got to bed at 11 am.

It was a really great night. Thanks so much to everyone who came and helped make it such a blast. I was so busy enjoying myself I didn’t take a single photo. If anyone who was there has some, could I have a copy?

See Paul’s photos of tonight.

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Geoff writes: sunny, and windy, again. We had been intending to go away for a few days, but in the end we were too tired after a late night at the LMSC Bash, so we stayed in, did house jobs, then went to Wayne’s for an impromptu barbecue.
 
 
 
 
 
 

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Geoff writes: another sunny, windy day. A few house jobs, followed in the evening by the annual Long Mynd Soaring Club bash at the Powis Arms. As usual, a great event, with plenty of old and new LMSC members there. Lots of people got prizes, ranging from fun prizes, e.g. for the most sociable person on the hill, to more serious prizes related to flying achievements, to prizes for those who have contributed a lot to the club over the years. It’s always a nice evening out!

See photos of the Bash.
 
 
 

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The forecast was very contradictory today. Meteocat was forecasting for the holiday (talking the weather up), and promised sunshine during the afternoon. However, the synoptic promised a warm front during the day. Mike was keen to give it a try, and also wanted to pass on a glider to me, so we decided to give it a go. Plan A was to go to Sant Pere de Rodes, which was sunny in the morning, but an 11am look at the web cams showed grey cloud and not even a single shadow on the ground. No shadow = no thermals. El Mont had some low cloud sitting at its base, but we were confident it would burn off. Contrary to the forecast, there was blue sky from here to the high Pyrenees. Mike crossed the border from France (which was in fog), and said the coast was brightish. At that point the top of El Mont became visible, so we decided to go there.

As we drove up, it became increasingly cloudy and we drove through a layer of the stuff. On reaching the summit, the launch was clagged in, but over on the north side it was mostly clear, with the cloud lying beneath us. The mountains to the north were visible, with Canigó, at the base of which Mike lives, looking only a few km away.

It looked like it could clear, so a walk around, bit of weeding the launch and a pomegranate later, we were still waiting. At 2.30pm the wind was picking up, the cloud was getting thicker and we got hungry, so we decided to bin the day and have a sandwich in sunny Besalú. What we didn’t realise was that the cloud had filled in below us and far from being sunny, it had developed into a grey, murky day.

Mike’s never been to Besalú and we nearly got him to attempt the climb up to the high chairs on the wall, but then we chickened out and got him to stop. A nice sandwich later we said our farewells, hoping for a better day soon.

It’s Reyes Magos here today, so in the evening the three wise men came on horseback in a procession to our village, followed by a truck full of presents for the kids. It’s the Spanish Christmas, so all the kids go crazy. And actually it’s quite nice for the big kids too…

See photos of today.

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Geoff writes: the last day of the year, but, sadly, not flyable (unless you’re really desperate, in which case maybe we could have found somewhere). Also, whilst Judith was slowly recovering, I was slowly getting worse. So we spent most of the day working. Nicky came up late afternoon for New Year’s Eve, so we went for a walk to Besalu, her first time there, then celebrated New Year with food and too much cava.

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We’re catering for 15 tonight, so I thought I’d better make a start with pastry cases, etc. in the morning. By the time I was ready to go, it was too late to contact the HG pilots to see about sharing lifts up El Mont, so we decided to go to Santa Brigida instead.

There seemed to be wind on the way, but when we got there it was too light to stay up. There was also a lot of cloud around. Geoff gave it a go anyway and promptly went down. He got a lift back up with Enric and Marc. By the time they were back it had picked up a lot and had become quite gusty, but the sky was also breaking up and the sun was starting to poke through. Marc did mention that he thought it would be very unstable and that any sunshine on the ground would trigger a thermal. The temperatures where certainly cold, but you could feel it rise as soon as the sun hit you.

Once we got in the air, it was very thermic indeed. I got a consistent 3m/s to 800′ ATO and then pulled out… too cold for me, despite my six layers. It was possible to get much higher and I watched Marc core a real screamer. He was rocketing up. On the ground, the wind was getting stronger and stronger. Geoff and I both had several goes at top landing, but were unsuccessful. It was too windy to go far behind the trees and anywhere near the edge had you shooting up again, and it was rough near the edge too. After four goes and nearly and hour in the air, my hands were frozen and I decided to bottom land with everyone else. Apart from the cold, the conditions were really spring-like. El Mont would have been a good choice too. The hang gliders had a great hour and a half in strong thermic conditions.

Party in the evening went well, with friends, neighbours and parents coming. And the food was a success too.

See photos of today.

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A bit of a hotch-potch of a day. The forecast was hot, sunny and light south or south-easterlies. Oriol suggested Sant Pere de Rodes or Bellmunt, with Santa Brigida as a backup. Problem was that there was fog at the coast. By 11am, Oriol thought it would burn off and we arranged to meet at Palau Saverdera, the meeting place for Sant Pere de Rodes, with Peter coming along too. Peter lives closest and he said it was still foggy at 11.30am but the top of the ridge was just becoming visible. We were driving along debating what to do when Rolf and Dolores, our hang gliding friends, passed us on their way to El Mont. We decided not to chance the coast and turned around to say ‘hi’ to the hangies, many of whom we haven’t seen in a year or more.

The wind in the bottom landing field felt stronger than it should and orographic cloud was sitting on the launch at times. The cloud seemed to be coming from the east and we were not sure it was the right place to be. Rolf and Jordi offered us a lift up, but this would mean we would be stuck at the top and if it wasn’t flyable for PGs, we would have to wait until all the hangies were rigged and off before we could get a lift down. Or, if it was initially windy, but we thought it would be better later, then we would have to leave the hill or risk being stranded at the top if it didn’t drop off. Either way, we decided to go to the “guaranteed” option of Santa Brigida.

We got there later than anticipated at about 1.15pm. Oriol had called us to say that it was off to the east, but someone was happily soaring, and as we drove up, Oriol was getting high. It was indeed off to the east on take-off and the other pilot was Albert, who had been flying for the last hour and a half. Oriol came to top land as he wanted to have a chat about his new Impress II harness and wanted to compare his set up with mine. Geoff launched and had a little fly, but came in after about 15 minutes, saying that the thermals were not yet fully formed and it was bumpy. Oriol had relaunched too and as he came along the ridge, the windsock swung round 180 degrees and he was now in rotor from the hill. Luckily he saw it and immediately flew out, spiraled down and landed fine. It stayed between 90 and 180 degrees off for the rest of the time we were there. Occasionally a thermal would bring the wind on again and Ferran, who had walked up, would get excited, but the flag at the bottom and that on the monastery would stay decidedly off.

This has happened to us once before, when the wind spontaneously changed. Although then the wind had been off to the west, I think the conditions when this is most likely to happen is when there is an element of east in the wind. Because of the way the valley winds work, Santa Brigida works best when there is strong north wind at the coast. When there is a westerly component, it can be very good too, and the ridge to the west doesn’t produce rotor unless it’s so windy it isn’t flyable anyway. But in an easterly wind, often the wind flows down the valley behind and then flows round the back of the hill. This isn’t an issue when the wind is weak – the thermals and warmth of the ground in front will overcome the backwind easily, but if the wind strengthens, then the valley wind enters as a NW wind. Not good, but at least we now have a clearer idea of how this can happen and we can avoid the hill when the wind is forecast east.

Geoff wanted to wait it out for a while, since I hadn’t flown, but even if the wind had come on again, I didn’t trust the conditions and eventually we gave up and went to the fair in Girona instead. St Narcis is a ten day festival, so we spent some hours looking round the rides, stalls, listening to a great funk/jazz band and having junk food. One thing though… why is it that wherever in the world you go to a fiesta, there’s always a pan pipe group? And why are they always dressed as native American Indians and always butcher Simon & Garfunkle’s ‘Sound of Silence’? Maybe they’re actually the same band, just persecuting us?

See photos of today.

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