Party, party, party…
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Saturday, 28th June 2008
Posted by Judith on 28 Jun 2008 | Tagged as: Flying, Party, party, party...
There was some discussion in the pub last night amongst the comp crowd whether it would be flyable today or not, and I thought not. It was windy at 7.30am and when we drove up to the Long Mynd with the hangie, the comp guys were coming down the hill towards us, having cancelled the day. So no tasks for the Nationals at all. Shame, after the good week last year.
We got to the top of the hill and it was howling. Too strong even for the HG. We went back down the hill and had coffee with Pat Dower and then did a couple of hours of gardening. By 4pm the wind was dropping and a HG launched. We drove back up and Geoff flew.
At night we went off to Newcastle-under-Lyme for Dave B.’s 40th birthday bash. Great do and nice to see old friends again. Haven’t seen Dave and Jenny for a couple of years, but it was just like old times!
Geoff’s comments: I flew the hang glider for about 30 minutes or so. It was actually flyable for HGs for much of the afternoon and evening, but earlier on it was quite strong. My flight wasn’t up to much, really I was just flying for the sake of flying, need the practice on the HG. There was no chance of XC, base very low, and sky indifferent. And I only got to about 500′ (though before I arrived, Wayne had got to 1000′ a few times). But for me, it was essentially ridge soaring. Some people found it rough, but I – even with my low tolerance for roughness – thought it was OK. I think maybe there was a bit of wave, and whether or not you found it rough depended very much on where you were on the ridge. Also, the wind was well off to the south, which doesn’t help at the Mynd.
As we left around 6.00 (to get ready for the drive to the party) Graeme started flying on his PG, since the wind seemed to be dropping. Possibly it will be flyable for PGs for the evening – though at the moment, just before we leave, I can’t see anybody flying.
Still, I flew, had a nice landing, so much, much, better than nothing!
Sunday, 22nd June 2008
Posted by Judith on 22 Jun 2008 | Tagged as: Party, party, party...
The Met Office issued a severe weather warning for strong winds today, and they were not wrong. The gusts from 5am made it impossible to sleep, as we got the feeling the tent would blow away any minute. We got up and packed it up as best we could, helped by Wayne and Michaela. As we drove around the festival site at 8.30am we could see the carnage the wind had caused. Wind flags were blown away, the staff marquee was a heap of poles and canvas and many of the catering tents hadn’t lasted the night.
We went home to collect the Gin windsock we had borrowed on Friday and headed back to the festival. We thought the trade tent was being dismantled early, but it actually transpired that the dance tent got blown into it, nearly causing death and destruction. Everyone was packing up their tents before more damage was caused.
We’re exhausted and are looking forward to a nice quiet night in – without beer!
Saturday, 21th June 2008
Posted by Judith on 22 Jun 2008 | Tagged as: Party, party, party...
We were all hungover this morning, but it didn’t matter. It was raining. It’s the first day of the BPC round at the Mynd, so bad weather was predictable.
We’ve not been roughing it camping, but have been going home for leisurely breakfasts and showers. Why not, when you only live 15minutes away? After a croissant and sushi breakfast, we headed back to the festival to see Jim Mallinson’s film about flying to a temple in the Himalayas which was very entertaining. After that it was Judy Leden’s talk on training swans to fly with a microlight. It was excellent and we hung on her every word.
After that it was home for a snooze, some tea and the glad rags. Geoff had an upset stomach so missed most of the fun. Michaela, Wayne and I partied the night away dancing till they turned the music off.
Friday, 20th June 2008
Posted by Judith on 22 Jun 2008 | Tagged as: Flying, Party, party, party...
The forecast was good. Very good, in fact. Geoff, Michaela and I went off to the Mynd. It was breezy from the word go and stayed that way the whole day.
Geoff rigged and flew his hangie, but was having trouble getting very high. In the afternoon it became clear that wave was setting up and Geoff reported rough conditions in the air. Some paragliders launched and there was a steady stream of people launching and gale hanging. Jay got high without ever doing a 360 degree turn, but he didn’t go cross country.
As the day progressed more and more people came out and the hill was full of people. At 6pm it was still gusty, but there were lots of people in the air who seemed to be penetrating ok, so I launched at 6.30pm. The light was lovely and staying up was no problem, so you would cruise around and enjoy the scenery. Geoff flew his PG too.
In the evening we headed back to the festival for more fun. The DJ in the music tent was a bit tame, so eight of us went into the dance tent where the DJ was playing really thumping hard beats. So hard it was nearly impossible to dance to, so we all just went a bit crazy, running around, jumping up and down, throwing shapes and generally acting our shoe sizes rather than our proper ages.
Thursday, 19th June 2008
Posted by Judith on 22 Jun 2008 | Tagged as: Archery, Party, party, party...
A windy but sunny day. Geoff and I went to do some archery for a couple of hours and then went home to complete some of the briefing notes for the Triple X festival. We got there in the evening and went to the staff briefing. This allowed us to get a good pitch in the festival field and we set up camp. The bands were warming up and sound checking and all the festival staff and helpers were letting their hair down before the big rush starts Friday. The atmosphere was really good, so we bopped away the evening.
Wednesday, 11th June 2008 – France
Posted by Judith on 12 Jun 2008 | Tagged as: Competitions, Flying, France, Party, party, party...
We had an elapsed time race over three turnpoints. The wind was north when we got to the site and a task was set to the south. First turnpoint was at the lower north launch, then Col St Jean, across to the highest point of the ridge just to the south of Chabre and then landing in Ribiers. To make the launch more manageable with 120 pilots they split the field and all 1 and 1-2 gliders had to go to the lower launch. 2 and 2-3 gliders could launch from the top or elect to the go to the lower launch too. The trade off for the extra hassle for the 1s and 1-2s was that you got the turn point without having to fly to it. I chose to drive to the turn point. This was based on a tactical decision. The sky was looking better to the west; I didn’t want to fly the extra 3 km there and back and I didn’t want to have the oncoming traffic of people launching from the north as well as the 2s and 2-3s who were having to fly there and back. This meant having to pack up my gear and obviously this interrupted my flow. When I got to the bottom N take off I realised I had left my flight deck and instruments behind. What a plonker! Wendy the retrieve driver took me back up and I raced back to launch. Because we were launching one at a time, this meant I was way down the queue, but the sky wasn’t working that well and there seemed less rush. Read more»
Saturday, 26th April 2008
Posted by Judith on 27 Apr 2008 | Tagged as: Flying, Party, party, party...
We went on a great Welsh tour trying to find somewhere to fly. We hooked up with Wayno and set off for Camlo, but bumped into Dave and Pat and decided to have a look at Shepherd’s Tump first because it was closer. It was howling. They decided to go for tea and we went to Camlo. It was even windier there. A cup of tea in Rhayader later we decided to give Bache a crack on the way home and hey presto, it was flyable for hangies.
It was SSW, but we found a bit of the ridge which pointed in the right direction. Launch was over a fence, which Wayne swooped over missing it by a couple of meters and Geoff cleared with more height. It was a mix of wave and thermals and they got to 1250 ATO and could have got higher if they had decided to drift over the back.
It was pretty rough, and I decided to keep the PG in the bag after seeing Wayne go weightless. Both flew for just under an hour and landed at the bottom.
In the evening we all went to Michaela’s bash to celebrate her, Wayno, Mark and Ellie’s birthdays. It was a great do, lots of people, oodles of food on the BBQ and the customary end of party kitchen session with lots of silliness after 1am.