Judith's blog

We’re still catching up with work after spending the week dealing with a lot of the issues resulting from last weekend. Today we worked and saw friends of Hamish who came to collect his car.

In the evening we were invited to the Midland Gliding Club’s 75th anniversary dinner. People first started flying there in 1934 (for those who are too lazy to do the maths). The dinner was nice – they had decked out the hangar with candle-lit tables and parachutes were draped along the walls. Talking to the people was really interesting. It was a huge nostalgia trip for most people with friends seeing each other for the first time in years, swapping stories of daring flights and quick snogs in the hangar.

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It’s a cold, grey and windy weekend in August – it must be Farmer Phil’s festival! We didn’t buy tickets for the whole weekend this year because we are going to the Midland Gliding Club 75th anniversary dinner on Saturday night, so we would miss the highlight, which is the Bob Marley tribute band. We decided to go for the whole day on Friday, but this is the warm up day and most people don’t get there until Friday night.

We got to see the end of Alice Challiner, local artist who usually plays at the Bridges on a Monday, Nikki Rous and a young guy called Tom who was fantastic. We made a quick exit when the compere mistook us for the next act (what was he thinking?).

The main stage had Goayandi, a didgeridoo dance act from France, who were brilliant, but on too early in the afternoon. We switched back and forth between the stages but stupidly sat through the death obsessed band from Glastonbury before Never the Bride came on. What a voice the singer has! Finally, we had to wait 40 minutes while the Peatbog Faeries dealt with technical issues. I didn’t know if Celtic funk would work, but after the first number they had the place rocking. They wrong footed me a couple of times when I had to switch from jigging to swaying (not easy in wellies on a muddy field), so in the end I did what all the English do when Scottish or Irish music is played – jump up and down on the spot.

See photos of today.

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Rain and more rain. We went to a couple of the comp briefings, but then decided not to bother with the third as it was clear nothing was going to happen. The sky did brighten for the do we were having in the evening.

Dave, Sam, Wendy and Cris turned up early to help set up the marquee and Mark arrived soon after to rehearse the songs and get the music set up. Given that they were playing quite a few of the songs for the first time, they sounded excellent.

People started drifting in after 8.30pm but with a good forecast for Monday, people didn’t want to get too drunk! Cris Miles, Mark Leavesley and Dave Thomson did a great set and were then joined by Wendy Griffiths, who sang Blondie’s Heart of Glass brilliantly. Next up was Mike Hoppet, who rocked the place. Then lots of drinking and some late night silliness for the non-competitors and party die-hards.

It was an excellent evening, with around 50 people there, a lot of fun. Food, drink, music, reasonable weather – what more can you ask for!

We heard later that some people did make the trip to the coast, where they had some good flying.

See photos of today.

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Geoff writes: Last day of the Piedrahita comp and Judith got to goal, so she is ecstatic (and, by now, probably more than a little drunk). She’ll no doubt be writing a full report Sunday or Monday, depending on her hangover tomorrow. They all fly back tomorrow night. I have no idea of the final results, but I’m pretty sure the Mynd guys she flew out with  – Kai Coleman, Mark Leavesley and Neil Roberts – were all high up in the results.

And in the UK, a wasted trip to the Gyrn, which was flyable right up until the point we arrived, at which time the wind picked up and it started raining. Not quite wasted – a pint in the pub replaced the flying. Well done Ali on, I think, getting higher than anyone else on a training flight! (Apparently people did fly later on, after we’d left).

Judith writes: I got to goal!

Forecast was for more westerly winds but no over-development. I decided to take the second bus up. This means you have less time to get ready, but I needed some time on my own to chill out. I’ve chatted and socialised so much this week I felt I needed some downtime before the final flight.

I got up and ready fast. They called the same task as the previous day – a 56km race to Avila. I was pleased they let us do a short task, because psychologically it’s good to fly a task that seems achievable and it was within terrain that I had at least seen.

I launched mid field but conditions were scratchy and there were a lot of free flyers around, who made the thermalling interesting. One guy on an Omega 7 decided to soar the thermal in the middle of our gaggle, scattering us sporadically. I don’t usually shout at people in the air, but I used choice words in every language I speak.

I found it hard going and wasn’t thermalling very well at all. In each task we have been required to thermal left until the start gate and I struggle with this turn direction – my glider likes to go right. Lots of people were in racing mode today and as soon as the race started people dashed off to the pass, some very low. I decided to fly conservatively and not cross until I was high. I got low and struggled along with Ian Miskin and Julian Robinson. Whilst scrabbling around, I started to think how I would feel at the end of comp party if people asked me how I had done and I had to say that I bombed at the pass, and how disappointing that would be. On the other hand, if I could say I got to goal I would be unbelievably happy. This gave me the boost to really try harder.

We all got climbs in different places and I took the ‘Scottish route’, to the right over the high stuff. I was at about 2400m at that point and only got some rough stuff when I hit the inversion. I hung around high until I could see someone starting to circle on the other side of the pass, crossed and flew straight to them. We got up again in weak stuff and headed for the bend in the road, where we were joined by a guy on a Niviuk glider. The three of us worked weak lift and I was convinced that we should push on to the little dark bits of rising ground behind the village where I landed on the first day. I left them and it worked for me… I got a good solid climb and they joined me.

I promised myself that I wouldn’t go on daft glides low, and the wind strength was increasing, so I was quite happy to drift along the valley in weakish lift. It was just like flying a UK XC, except the view was more beige than green. Once I got to within sight of Avila, I was at 2700m and tried to decide when to start my glide into goal. I don’t have a fancy glide angle calculator on my GPS and was too worried about hitting sink/headwind, so I started my glide in at 3km. By comparison, Adrian Thomas started his at 25km. I got to the end of speed section at 2500m and then into goal about the same height. This isn’t smart competition flying, but all I wanted was to get into goal – time taken was of no importance to me. It showed… I was last in out of 89!

I was so happy and overwhelmed when I crossed the line I burst into tears, then laughed my head off and then remembered that I hadn’t taken a single photo on the flight. I snapped happily and then went to burn off my altitude. It took ages – there was a lot of lift about. It was windy too, so it was rough coming down, but I landed fine, kissed the ground and demanded goal hugs from Mark Trigg and Malcolm Davies. On getting on the retrieve bus, Martin was there, as was Ruth and Pat, Folkert from Holland and lots of other friends.

I also got my PB in terms of distance, so I was smiling so much my face hurt.

There was a prize giving in the evening, but not a party as such. I bumped into Nani and Xiliu, but didn’t get a chance to have drinks with them because they headed off to bed in readiness for their first task in the Spanish champs which started on Sunday. I boogied the night away at the Panera bar and got to bed at 5.30am. Great day.

See photos of today.

[All Judith’s task track logs now available on XC pages, see our XC flights].

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Wind, lots of it. It was a glorious hot day, with an epic sky, but way, way too much breeze. We worked, did archery, where I pulled a muscle in my shoulder because I didn’t warm up properly, and then we went out to Bishop’s Castle to see Mike Hoppet’s band. They were excellent. As it was open mic night, Mark L. played as well. Nice bit of drumming!

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Happy Birthday, Michaela!

Rubbish forecast and it was raining from the moment we woke up. Our DIY efforts are going well…

At some point it was actually a bit brighter, but there were big showers and hail at about half hour intervals all day, so it didn’t even seem worth going to do archery. Off out tonight to celebrate Michaela’s birthday.

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Happy Birthday, Wayne!

Weather turned out better than expected, so after various appointments in the morning, we headed out to Clatter, where Martin said the wind was on and 8 – 14mph. On getting there, it had picked up and Martin confirmed it was rough in the air. The high cloud was established and any cumulus very far away.

We sat around chewing the fat for a while, and Martin gave it another go once the wind dropped again. It looked pretty bouncy and 10 minutes later the wind was strong again, so we decided not to bother. Mark the vet flew his HG, but I’m not sure if he managed to get away at all.

We met up with Martin in Caersws (SP?), in one of the best tearooms ever, for scones with jam and cream and then headed off to Bishop’s Castle to celebrate Wayne getting older.

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