Judith's blog

Spent the day showing Geoff my new party tricks like putting on my shoes and touching my toes. I also set up a new group SMS service for mid-week Mynders through 3jam. Hopefully we can send out SMS messages when it’s flyable which will be automatically sent to all members of the group. To join, email me at judithm@directlearn.co.uk

Looking forward to doing something more blog-worthy in the near future, like some XCs…

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Woke up this morning in remarkably little pain and am walking easily on crutches. I even managed to put on my socks unaided. I’m even more thrilled that I am missing nothing weather-wise…

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In hospital for a double arthroscopy on my knees. Thankfully they didn’t mix me up with the woman in the next bed and chopped off one of my toes. My knees are the size of small balloons so no flying for several days.

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We began to see people ground handling on the Long Mynd from about 2.30pm (we can see launch from our house), but it seemed very southerly. We managed to get our act together an hour later and got there to find it was indeed well off to the south and a little strong. Sam, Nigel and Martin had flown, but landed shortly before we arrived. We chewed the fat for a while, then went for a cup of tea in Sam’s van, until it seemed more on and a little less windy.

The keener of the pilots out today, Wayno, Chairman Dave, Nigel and David J-H, launched and went straight up. Wayne was on a hang glider, the others on PGs. By the time the rest of us were ready (only 10 minutes later) it was too windy to launch! Those in the air were doing fine, though sometimes seemed to have a little trouble penetrating, and sometimes it seemed a bit rough. They flew for an hour or more. We sat it out for two hours, but by 7.30pm it was still howling, so we canned the day. Geoff – wrongly expecting it to be light and off to the south – hadn’t bothered to take his hang glider – a big mistake!

Those who did fly reported strong thermals, loads of lift, but a little rough near the ridge. All of them pushed far out into the valley, where the lift still seemed good. Wayno flew three times and was in the air for hours.

Off to hospital tomorrow for an operation on both knees, so won’t be able to fly for a few days. But then the forecast is lousy anyway….

See photos of today.

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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.

See photos of today.

See video of Wayno’s launch.

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A relaxed day for us, cold, occasional rain, and windy …

Archery in the morning, I bought a new helmet, we did some DIY, Geoff attended a few sessions of an online conference, we played squash in the evening. Hopefully, Saturday will be flyable, at least for hang gliders.

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Howling with occasional showers. We played squash…

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