June 2008
Monthly Archive
Wednesday, 11th June 2008 – France
Judith 12 Jun 2008 | : 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 »
Wednesday, 11th June, 2008 – UK
Geoff 11 Jun 2008 | : Archery, Flying
I didn’t intend to go flying, but saw people doing well at the Mynd just after 11, so sent out a 3jam. I still wasn’t going to go, but as I was driving past to go shooting (archery) it seemed pretty good. I only had the PG in the car, so got ready, and clipped in – and the wind promptly picked up to a bit beyond where I’m happy on a PG. People in the air were still flying (and one went xc), but it was low 20s mph on launch, so I didn’t get off. Those flying landed (some going backwards), the wind didn’t drop, so I went off to shoot, and had a pleasant hour there.
On the way back, the wind had dropped, but gone very north, so I gave it up and came home. I should have had the HG with me, the two there, Nick and Pete, flew for some hours – but then I wasn’t really intending to fly.
Oh, and HAPPY BIRTHDAY JUDITH!
Tuesday, 10th June 2008 – UK
Basically, I went to the wrong place. Forecast was NW, there were people at the Mynd, and I went there. Epic sky, reasonable wind strength, but it never worked at the Mynd – at one point for about 15 minutes there were 3 PGs in the air, but that didn’t last long (apologies for the premature 3jam!). That was largely it. It gradually went more northerly over the day.
Llan Fawr was working according to the 3jam messages, and I’m pretty sure, in hindsight, that the Lawley would have been fine too. I did go there later, to meet Helen who’d driven down from the blown out Peaks, but it was then waving, and the wind was picking up. We finally gave up and Helen went back to the Peaks, and I went home.
A good XC day missed.
Tuesday, 10th June 2008 – France
Judith 10 Jun 2008 | : Competitions, Flying, France
We got up early, but missed our chance to get a place in the mini-busses. I ended up having to go on the coach, which takes you to the bottom of the hill, by the gorge. You then have to wait whilst the mini-busses come back down to collect you. I was on the second last bus up. We could see on the drive up that the sky was overdeveloping and that the task, if we would get one would be cancelled soon after the task opened. Speed was the essence. I got to take-off shortly before the briefing, not even having time to open out my glider and check it over. You have 20 minutes after the briefing, so I was very rushed to get ready and didn’t have time to relax and think about the task before having to launch. Because we all knew the widow was short, everyone launched quickly, so much so that they had to close the launch window so there wouldn’t be any accidents.
The task was an elapsed time race over 2 turnpoints. Chabre to St Genie (the volcano), Upaix and then back to the camp site. Read more »
Monday, 9th June – France
Geoff 10 Jun 2008 | : Competitions, Flying, France
The weather forecast was ok for the morning, but it was due to storm at lunchtime. Ruth and I got up early to get a good place in the minibus queue. We were up on launch early and got ourselves organised. I have learnt loads about programming my GPS, and am just about mastering the comp routes. From the development to the east we knew there would not be a big window to fly the task and we were briefed on the level system. Level 1: good conditions; level 2: caution; level 3: task is stopped. The task was a 29km elapsed time around 3 turnpoints. We had to fly west along the ridge to the first turn point at 4km, the fly to Orpierre, then to St Genie (the volcano), then home to the campsite landing.
I launched reasonably early but struggled to get a good climb. Eventually I got a thermal over launch as another pilot got a core close to me. Everyone else chose his core, which suited me fine. All those who chose him didn’t get up and when I got to the top of my climb I flew across to him and we climbed up to near base together. I was singing nah-nah-nah-nah-nah to those who chose him. Ha! I set of on the the glide to the first turn point but decided to fly very conservatively. There were people struggeling on the ridge and I didn’t want to be one of them, so I topped up in thermals on the way. Gillian was with me on the glide along, but left me for dust on her Sigma 6. I bagged the second turn point high and glided towards Orpierre. I topped up in the valley and could see the development over Orpierre getting big. A couple of pilots were getting high ahead of me and I could see that I would be able to take a good glide to the turnpoint and beyond. I would be in lift all the way and be at cloudbase as I left the area on the glide to the next turnpoint. Unfortunately, the task was cancelled as I hit the second turnpoint, so I didn’t get a chance to try out my strategic gliding. Read more »
Monday, 9th June – UK
Excellent day in the UK. Very light at first on the Mynd, so I sat around for a while. People were just launching into not much, and going down or slope landing. Finally got a bit better, and I launched. Was on the ridge for half an hour or so, then finally got away. Got to base with the first thermal, around 4700′ ASL. Leaving the ridge, I was on my own, but it wasn’t too difficult a day. Drift was very slow, but the clouds were nicely spaced, and every one worked. The further away from the Mynd, though, the fewer clouds there were, and I finally went on a glide too far and was down at Bridgnorth, after three hours and 35k – but I was very pleased with that. Hitched back – three rides, longest wait 10 minutes, right back to launch with Simon, a PG pilot on his way to fly after work.
Back at launch, the wind had picked up, everyone was flying and having a great time – and it was flyable till around 8.15 pm. I didn’t fly again, went home, had a beer in the garden watching them, and now am going out for a quick beer with Wayne and Michaela. They twisted my arm….
And, incredibly, they have managed to fly in Laragne, for the first time. The task was stopped part way through, presumably because of cloud development, but at least they flew. No doubt Judith will post something shortly.
Sunday, 8th June 2008 – France
Judith 08 Jun 2008 | : Competitions, Flying
It rained yesteray, but Ruth and I have been adopted by the lovely Scottish lads, and they took us to St Vincent. When we got there it was still raining. We entertained ourselves with an olive stone spitting contest – distance was won by George and accuracy we couldn’t score because we were all so crap. Next came car park boules. In the rain…
We all traipsed off to Decathlon next and boy, did I not realise how lads can shop! We had to drag them out to the store!
Today the weather started off bad. Rain and low cloud. Jocky and Dave called an opimistic task and we went to Sederon. It was low cloud there, but a report of sun back at Chabre. We all drove back there, and it ws looking good, but cloud was developing fast. We went to the upper take off, only to be told move back to the lower north. When we got there, there was a huge storm developing and we were told the task was going to be a practise task only – launch if you want. We could only get off one at a time and a free flyer blocked the launch for 20 minutes by not launching in perfect conditions. The huge queue behind her didn’t lynch her when the launch window was closed due to the storm getting too close, which was surprising in the circumstances.
I didn’t fly. Tomorrow there is a chance of flying in the morning, then the forecast looks poor again. We’ll see. Our team jackets are causing a big stir. Someone asked us where beyond extreme was. I’m not sure myself, but hope I don’t find out flying tomorrow!
:o)