Judith's blog

Geoff writes: a poor forecast here, better further east, but it all depended on the timing of the front, which would switch off the XC potential. SW, and definitely no chance here. We did consider going to the Peaks, but spoke to Kai early on, and he said the front had already arrived at his place, only 40km or so from the Peaks, so we decided it was moving in too fast, and gave it a miss. A bad mistake, since most of the Derbyshire Soaring Club’s 500 or so members seem to have gone XC today, with numerous 100km+ flights. I don’t want to look at the League….

Instead, we messed around at home for a while, then went to watch the archery competition, arriving just as it finished for the day. More bad timing! We sat around at the field, had some tea, chatted to Martyn from Northumberland, another archer and pilot, and came home.

Judith wasn’t feeling that well, so I went on my own to the Bridges in the evening, where they were having an all day music festival, which was brilliant as ever. A real shame she couldn’t come.

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Everyone was keeping their fingers crossed for good weather today. The Long Mynd BBQ was on this evening and although it was west, it looked hang glidable, but too windy for the paragliders. I was spending the day with my family and it looked breezy from early morning, so I put the Pennine lads off from coming. As we were driving over the Long Mynd, Steve Nash was flying, and far from being blown out, it was actually quite light. However, the sky was completely overcast.

Joanna, Amir, Maya and I went to the Cardingmill valley to play in the stream and have a picnic and Geoff joined us. As we were sitting there, Steve passed over us, followed shortly by Kai. The sky wasn’t that good… Kai only got to the Lawley.

We spent the afternoon trying to dam the stream, fly kites, throw stones into the water (or at me, with some encouragement by Geoff!) and then we went to the playground in the park in Church Stretton. I thought it was just a couple of swings and slides, but it has a little adventure play area, two bike/skate board parks, football pitch, etc. Maya loved it. The best bit for the adults was a surf board ride, which had me in stitches.

Then off home to prepare for the BBQ. By the time we had come back over the Long Mynd it was nearly flyable for paragliders and an hour later there were tons of PGs high and enjoying themselves. When we arrived for the party at 7.30pm, the field was full of smiling faces. Richard had built this amazing BBQ, Paul had assembled a proper DJ stand for his decks and Ellie had done an amazing job of making a nice area for the party. The atmosphere was great and everyone seemed to be having a fantastic time. Pete and Ken brought a picnic table with candles, etc. and got dressed up for the occasion, and of course, once they hit the dance floor, that really got the party started.

We left at 1am, when the crazy dancing was still going on and I have a swollen knee from all the bopping. We should do this every weekend. It was just brilliant fun!

See photos of this afternoon.

See photos of the Long Mynd BBQ.

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Geoff writes: not really flyable, so we did some DIY house jobs, and in the morning had our first phone meeting for the online conference we are running in November. In the evening, Judith went to music night at the Bridges with Wayne. I didn’t bother going, we went last week and it wasn’t that brilliant – usually during term time for the students, it’s a bit less lively. So Judith got back around 1.00a.m., saying it was probably the best ever music night she had ever been to! Oh well…..

Judith writes: Yep, cracking night. There was the usual brilliant regulars of Thom Morcroft, Beth Prior and the excellent guy who sings ‘The King is Dead’; but we were also treated to Miles and Erica from The Wonder Stuff, Dave Sharpe (formerly of The Alarm) and a jazz combo from Holland who brought a full size double bass, which only just fitted under the low ceiling.

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Geoff writes: tonight was the night of the LMSC Big Bash, at the Powis Arms – food, prizes, beer, music and dancing. It seemed to go pretty well, and the 40 or 50 people there enjoyed it, I think. Ellie and Judith presented the prizes and awards, and a full list of these will be on the LMSC site shortly. A good night out!

Judith writes: Good fun and nice that despite the terrible weather lots of people turned up. We did ok for prizes too. I won highest placed female LMSC pilot in the national XC league and more importantly, LMSC coach of the year, as voted by the membership. Geoff got most votes for outstanding contribution to the club. We were both very touched!

See photos of the Bash.

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I must have looked at about 7 forecasts this morning and each said something different. The general trend was for W or maybe SW, but possibly SSW, with some predicting S. What I did know was that it would be light here. The MGC forecast was giving the day a 3 rating and RASP was giving good thermal strength, so we thought we were in for a good day. Our plan was to go up to the Long Mynd early to sort out the day fee stuff and then go to Elan Valley. At the Long Mynd it was WSW. Reports from the Peaks and N. Wales said it was blown out there and it was off to the W at Elan and Clatter, so we decided to stay at the Long Mynd (unless someone gave us a good report from somewhere else).

The BCC comp was at the Long Mynd and Dave J-H promised a good day. There was a thick, murky inversion layer out front and no cumulus, so we sat around in the sunshine for a few hours, while a couple of groups managed to get highish, two people going over the back and landing at Church Stretton. We eventually decided we were definitely not going to switch sites and got the gliders out. And then it was a sit and wait day. All the birds seemed to thermalling up at the north end of the ridge, out of our reach. A few people got up and cruised around a bit and a couple landed on top, the rest bottom landing. There were about four groups who got up during the day, and had reasonable flights (but no more XCs), the rest of us just sat and waited, or had a punt and went down.

Geoff did at one point launch and fly to a bird, got about 450’ATO, before top landing. Man of the day was DJH, who was having a day off from gravity. Malcolm Davies led the last gaggle into orbit at 5pm, which must have been the best thermal of the day.

It was a fine day for a few, but many people just got bored and demotivated. A lot of people like these kind of nil wind, get up or die days, but they’re not really for me. You end up sitting there, scanning the sky endlessly, getting hot and bothered and if you do manage to get off and thermal about 20 people descend on you like a pack of vultures. This is ok when it’s a ‘normal’ day at the Mynd and it’s pilots you know, but with a comp on and people desperate to get up it makes the whole thing a little less predicable (and by that I mean worrying). I like a bit of wind when you’re on a site what is such a tiny top to bottom and in retrospect I wish I’d canned the day earlier and cut my hedge.

We packed up just as the last thermal kicked off, but it was too south for many to actually get airborne, so I didn’t get it out of the bag again. We were rushing off to Newcastle under Lyme for our biannual Peaks reunion. It’s always nice to catch up with Dave, Jenny, Brian, Shirley, Milton, Sarah, James, etc. We even did some late night pottery!

See photos of today.

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Geoff writes: one of the (sometimes few) advantages of coming back to the UK, is that we get to go to the live music nights at the Horseshoe Inn, Bridges, Rattlinghope. Every Monday there is a free open mic night, with a range of musicians, some playing for the first time, and some very experienced, and on Monday we went with Wayne and Andrew. On any given night, the quality ranges from OK, to absolutely brilliant, and last night was no exception. The nights are organised by Dirty Ray. Regular players include, amongst others, Beth Prior, Thom Morecroft, and Alice Challiner.

It really is extremely good (and free….) and well worth going along to if you are in the area. They also run lots of paid for gigs, and you can see the list of these on their website.

Other than that, a rubbish day for flying.

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Geoff writes: today was forecast northerly – not tramuntana, just a north wind. Sometimes Santa Brigida will work then, but often not. We thought it might be too strong for Sant Pere de Rodes, and our ideas of going to Ager were scuppered by the north wind, and the fact that the next two days’ forecast is poor here. So we decided to take a trip across the border to Ceret, which has a north and a south launch, and where the forecast was light northerlies. John and Johnny decided to come too, their first time flying in France.

After looking at the landing field, we went up – which took a bit longer than usual because the centre of Ceret was closed for a carnival.

The only other flyer was a guy doing tandems – no other pilots there at all, which was a bit surprising on a Saturday.  He had launched just before we got there, and gone more or less straight down.

The wind was nicely on, but there were no cumulus. I decided to launch anyway, and see if it was working. After sinking a few hundred feet, I connected with something, and then it just got better and better. The others rapidly launched, and we all flew around for a while – the thermals got stronger, and the higher you got, the rougher it was. Or, possibly, that was just because I was flying the Artik 2, which is certainly more dynamic than the Hook. It was nice to fly, and thermals really easily, turning very nicely into the lift. Whilst it was a lot more dynamic, it wasn’t anything to worry about, and I had a great flight. Lift everywhere, very easy to stay up.

Once we had all landed (through choice) we decided to go up again, hoping it would have smoothed off a little. In fact, it was more or less dead – very light on launch. John and Johnny flew, both getting nothing on the ridge, but light lift in the valley, low down, which they both worked really well, until they finally went down. Judith and I decided to drive down – it would be a long retrieve for the sake of an extended top to bottom.

After beers and food in the landing field, off to Ceret to see the end of the carnival. Some great floats and costumes.

All in all, a very pleasant day!

See photos of today.

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