June 2008
Monthly Archive
Monday, 23rd June 2008
We went flying at the Long Mynd. The BPC got a task today. We went to the briefing early to help out with any Mynd info. As we left the house at 8.45am there were already people soaring on the ridge. We got up there after a leisurely second breakfast. The sky looked good, although there was some high cloud over the cumulus.
This was the BPC Cup, so there were a lot of pilots out. Goal was set to Droitwich, about 58k. Though not in the comp, Geoff and I decided to do the task. I went off some time after the launch window opened as there were definite thermic cycles. It took ages to get up, sometimes because people were just not thermalling in lift, other times because there wasn’t enough room or people would fly straight at you. When I did get up it was a huge thermal at the north end of the ridge that hoovered about 25 of us up at the same time. Geoff was in the same thermal and we saw people dashing off before us, but we both decided to be patient and got to cloud base before setting off on a glide.
There was little drift in the thermals, so we took another climb between the Mynd and Wenlock Edge. We glided off to the next thermal, where we met up with Phil B. We carried on to Brown Clee, where I fluffed the thermal. Geoff cored it and got high, but I scrabbled around and got very low. I wasn’t going to get into the Wedge of Failure (thanks Jocky!) so wasn’t going to just follow the guys in front, however high/far away they were. I thought I was going to land but got really determined, so I thought about where the thermal would be and flew low into the gully. It worked and I found a weak thermal, which I took low over the back, where it turned into a very agreeable 3m/s up. Read more »
Sunday, 22nd June 2008
Judith 22 Jun 2008 | : 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
Judith 22 Jun 2008 | : 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
Judith 22 Jun 2008 | : 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
Judith 22 Jun 2008 | : 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, 18th June 2008
Judith 18 Jun 2008 | : Boring stuff
Weather rubbish. Been doing lots and lots of work for the Triple-X festival… Looking forward to it starting so I can put my feet up and have some beers.
Tuesday, 17th June 2008
Judith 17 Jun 2008 | : Boring stuff
Windy, grey, then raining. We’ve got loads of work preparing for a huge conference we are running in November and I have lots of Long Mynd stuff to catch up on after France, so we worked all day. Yawn.