May 2008
Monthly Archive
Saturday, 24th May 2008
Judith 25 May 2008 | : Miscellaneous activities
It’s bank holiday weekend so obviously the weather is pants. Howling winds… Highlight of the day was Michaela’s BBQ.
Friday, 23rd May 2008
The forecast wasn’t very good, and it looked overcast from the moment we woke up. By 10am it did look flyable at Corndon, so we went for a look. Graeme was already in the air, but he landed soon after to have a chat. The conditions were smooth though not very lifty. It was overcast and very, very hazy, so much so that you could barely see the valley behind the hill. It was also a little gusty. I couldn’t muster the enthusiasm to get my glider out of the bag. We’ve flown (or been at) Corndon so much recently that a bit of sitting around in the air just didn’t appeal. Graeme was more committed, and had another flight.
We went for a coffee with Graeme and then did the garden. It did get sunny for a spell in the afternoon, but the wind had picked up to the extent that it was blown out for HGs as well.
Geoff’s comments: the British Paragliding Cup competition is now on, which explains the lousy forecast for the next few days. They did in fact have a task today, from the Blorenge. 20k task, winner did 15k, base only 800′ above the Blorenge. So not a stunning day, but at least they flew. It’s likely to be the one and only task, though.
Thursday, 22nd May 2008
Judith 22 May 2008 | : Archery
It seemed breezy from the word go and the forecast also said rain and that the wind direction would change by lunchtime. Not very promising…
We decided to can the day and did some archery. Since we have come back my shooting has been rubbish. It was only yesterday that I realised that my left arm and shoulder muscles had got so weak that my draw wasn’t anywhere near as strong as it needs to be. I worked on a full pull today and got better, only to find that my release suffers as a result. I’m also grabbing the bow. So a big list of things to work on to improve. I started the training by going to the gym and tried to work on the required muscles. They feel like jelly tonight.
:o(
Wednesday, 21st May 2008
Judith 21 May 2008 | : Archery, Flying
It was windy when we woke up this morning, and it seemed to pick up as the morning went on. Certainly blown out for Corndon. We toyed with the idea of driving to the Malverns, but thought that it would be too windy there too. Instead we did some archery, gardening and some work.
By 6.30pm it seemed to be calming down and the forecast is rubbish for the next few days, so we thought it would be nice just to have an evening flight. We went to Corndon.
It was 7pm by the time we got there and had looked at the conditions and it seemed too late to let other people know, but we phoned Wayne, who lives close enough to get there in 15 minutes. I launched first and although it was windy, there was very little lift about. I scratched around the SE face and eventually managed to get over 150 feet ATO. Geoff reported that the wind was picking up on launch and I could feel it when I tried to push out into the valley. I was pinned for a while but then it dropped off again and Wayne and Geoff launched. Intermittently it was a little bouncy, but otherwise fine.
We all landed and Wayne and I had another go. I worked every little bit of lift I found and eventually got enough height to land back by the cars. By this time it was definitely beer o’clock, so we headed to Bishop’s Castle to the pub.
It turned out later that we made a big mistake… Malverns were flyable and lots of people did a good distance. Next time we’ll go on the off chance!
Tuesday, 20th May 2008
Judith 21 May 2008 | : Boring stuff
We were in Bristol for a meeting. On the drive there the sky was fantastic. Sunny, blue with little cumulus popping up everywhere. The plan was to go flying at the Malverns on the way home. We left Bristol at 3pm, but by the time we got to the Malverns it was light, off to the south and overcast. It didn’t seem worth the trouble to go up, so we carried on home.
We missed a good day. Lots of people flew XC from the Malverns around lunch time.
Monday, 19th May 2008
Surprise, surprise we went to Corndon. Is it ever not going to be east?
The forecast was good but lots of cloud from lunchtime, so an early day. We got there at 10.15am at the same time as James, Kai and Nigel. We all got ready quickly because the sky looked so good. There were three buzzards thermalling as we got ready, but then no birds for ages. Richard, Mick, Ellie and Jay also turned up.
We bimbled around never getting much height and slope-landing when necessary, when we saw Nigel in orbit (how did he get there without any of us seeing him?). James and Richard were already in the air and Kai and I launched as fast as possible in pursuit. They all got in it, I didn’t. I headed back to the ridge and landed, resigned to the fact that this would be a replay of Sunday, where everything would go wrong.
Geoff launched shortly after us and was maintaining on the east face; he started circling and Jay and I joined him. We all got to 3500 ATO and were on our merry way. I was lower than the other two until we got to near cloudbase. I was going over the ‘Be Patient’ mantra in my head the whole time, trying to maximise the lift and not rush off on glides whilst there was still lift to be had. We went on a glide after Montgomery and Geoff got low, but found a low save, which Jay and I dashed over to. We all got high again (but not back to base) and got another scratchy climb near Newtown. It was bitty and none of us got into it very well. Geoff and I went on a glide and Jay held back to maintain his height, which was the clever decision. Geoff glided to the ground and I managed to drop onto a ridge with a quarry and a big bowl. The bowl worked and I got a broken thermal which took me over the ridge, but I had to land behind it, near Llandinam.
It turned out Geoff, Graeme, Richard, James and I all landed very near each other. Well done to Jay, who seems to have won the day.
Geoff’s comments: Corndon is a difficult site, mostly because it is pretty poor in ridge lift (dynamic lift). Because it’s more cone-shaped than ridge-shaped, it doesn’t really lift that well during the day, even when windy. Essentially, it’s a thermal site, and the trick is to keep launching, slope land if necessary, until you get a thermal. It’s a place to leave as fast as possible! Particularly difficult for hang gliders, since they only get the one shot and can’t slope land if they are going down. But can be good for PGs – just be in the air as much as possible, watch out for birds, or other gliders going up. Generally, though, the Malverns or Pandy would be a better bet, especially for low airtimers who want to build up their hours (though often you seem to be able to get nice evening flights). On the other hand, it does take a few directions, from N through to SE, so it does have some advantages!
On today’s flight, Judith was right, and patience was the key (as always, really) – and, of course, why Judith and I eventually landed whilst Jay managed to keep on going into a much better sky. We shouldn’t have rushed off on a glide, and should have stayed with what we had till we got back to base. That would have changed a good flight into an excellent one! Still, given the day, we are both quite pleased with what we did, and nice to fly together.
Sunday, 18th May 2008
Forecast was for a breezy day, so we hooked up with Wayne to go hang gliding at Corndon. When we got there Nigel and Phil B. were already there, along with two hang glider pilots. Surprisingly, it was paraglidable and soon everyone and their uncle turned up.
I got ready, but was having one of those everything-goes-wrong days. I got dragged on my first launch and then got my lines full of bracken. I managed to sort it out, got back in the harness, the leading edge rolled over and the lines got full of bracken again. In the middle of all this, Neil R., James D. and Phil B. got high and went over the back and I still wasn’t off the ground. Arrggg!
My loud and repeated swearing and foot stamping alerted Malcolm who kindly came over and helped me get the glider untangled and I finally managed to launch. Geoff was thermalling above me and I managed to get into the tail end of it, but then lost it at 600′ ATO and had to come back to the front. Geoff could have gone over the back with it, but elected to come back to the front as well. We only made it to behind the cars and landed in the middle of piles of sheep shit, so our gliders now have a nice brown splotchy motif. Very Laurence Llewellyn-Bowen.
It carried on in this vein; I tried to re-launch, got my foot caught in my speed bar, fell flat on my face; tried again, got two lines caught in the velcro of my PTT; calmed down, tried again, stumbled over a rock… It all got very slapstick in the end.
During the centre of the day it became very scratchy. You would get up between 10 and a few hundred feet and 5 minutes later be on the deck again. James D. managed to go XC a second time, but otherwise there was little height to be had.
At 5pm, after lots of flights I did get a thermal which took me to 800′ ATO, but it wasn’t worth going XC with. It got stronger and easier later, but with all my mishaps today I thought I was doing well to walk away unscathed, so bowed out for the day.