July 2008
Monthly Archive
Wednesday, 30th July 2008
Judith 30 Jul 2008 | : Miscellaneous activities
Another miserable day. Great working weather though. I edited the podcast with Nicky, which is now available in the podcast section. She talks about competitions, tactics, characteristics of good comp pilots, etc.
Spent the rest of the day doing conference stuff…
Tuesday, 29th July 2008
Judith 29 Jul 2008 | : Miscellaneous activities
Windy, rainy day. We worked, then did a podcast with Nicky Moss on competition flying and then had a LMSC committee meeting. Ho hum.
Monday, 28th July 2008
Judith 28 Jul 2008 | : Miscellaneous activities
The forecast was for thunderstorms from lunch time onwards. We went to Corndon at 11am, but it was very hazy and we would not have been able to see what was above us had we gone XC. Given the forecast of worsening conditions, we canned the day and went to Church Stretton to watch the archery competition. There were 54 archers shooting in a long row, then a change over of another 54 before they collected their arrows. It was really interesting to watch different techniques of pull ups, etc. Arrows were flying off in very quick succession all along the field when Geoff turned around and said “You wouldn’t want to be a streaker at an archery comp!”.
The clouds were getting very big all afternoon and were very close together too, but we got a call later to say Martin K. had flown at Corndon and he said it was pretty horrible conditions. It started storming here at 6pm.
We later found out that someone flew just over 100km from the Malverns (where we had considered going) in this direction past Sarn to Carno, landing around 4.00pm. Oh well, I don’t think we would have wanted to be in the sky with such big clouds even if we had gone to the Malverns. We’d probably have launched, got in big lift, got scared and landed.
Sunday, 27th July 2008
The forecast was hot, sunny, light winds and variable direction. Nobody could really work out what was going to happen to the wind. Phil B. came up with the most sensible sounding plan, so we went to Bache on his advice. It was a good call. The wind was on and the sky looked epic.
We got ready and the birds promptly disappeared. We took it in turns to take off and slope land, and Graeme and James went to the bottom at one point. I was determined to wait until I got a good indicator and was rewarded for being roasted on launch by seeing two crows climbing out in a solid strong thermal. I abandoned my long-held belief of ‘never trust a crow’ and launched. The thermal got stronger and stronger and became a 4-up by the time I got to cloudbase at 4500′ AMSL. Steve L. followed me off the hill and climbed in the thermal too, but he went over the back much lower.
There was hardly any drift in the thermal at all, so I glided off towards another good looking cloud. It didn’t work. I flew to a ridge which did work and I got a very weak thermal which I worked for a while. Steve had found a much better thermal upwind from me and I edged my way back to him but never found the lift he got. There was a dark cloud just downwind from me, so I left the scrappy thermal I was in. Big mistake. No. 1 XC advice is never leave lift. I landed under a cloud street you normally dream about. 9km. I was so mad with myself that I didn’t bother hitching to the nearest village, as I didn’t trust myself to be polite to the people who would potentially give me a lift and I also thought I didn’t deserve the ride and did the two mile walk as a punishment for being such an idiot.
I was pleased with the climb out, but I feel I am not thermalling very well at the moment, and I am going through a bad decision making phase. I’m going to start looking for a new glider as well, so will start test flying again soon.
Phil B. flew over my head as I was walking. He connected with the cloud street and got to Adfa for 42km. Steve L. got 20km. I don’t think anyone else did much locally.
Saturday, 26th July 2008
Forecast was for light SW/WSW winds and we chose the Long Mynd. The sky looked good from first thing in the morning. It was surprisingly uncrowded when we got there. After getting ready there was a nice breeze and we launched and got up in thermals which seemed to peeter out at 1300′ ATO. This was a little short of cloudbase, so I decided to head back to the front. Geoff had similar problems getting above 1200′ and we think there was an inversion at that level, which we couldn’t punch through.
We both landed and the wind dropped to zero and a big blue hole developed for a couple of hours. Everyone sat around and then re-launched when the clouds drifted in again. Steve Nash was the first off and got a slow climb to cloudbase, which was now much higher. We could see a glider appearing in the distance, fly past the north end of the Mynd and carry on. It was Steve Parsons on his way from Elan Valley to Gnosall – 102km.
The climbs were painfully slow and I circled for ages in 0.7m/s. I was over Pole Cottage and decided to fly into wind to meet the next cloud to step up to cloudbase, but misjudged how far it was and missed the climb. I landed at Pole Cottage and got a lift from Geoff back to take-off. By then it was 5pm and the wind was dropping again.
Geoff’s comments: The sky was actually really good most of the day with some very nice clouds, apart from the couple of hours when it was just blue. But I don’t think either of us flew very well today. After the first flight, I hesitated a bit too much (the fundamental problem), spent too much time on the ground, and though I did fly another two or three times, never got high at all, whilst others did. My thermalling wasn’t that good either today, for some reason. Though very few people – maybe only one person? – went XC from the Mynd, it was plainly a good XC day, and Judith and I should have made a lot more of it. This is the first time for ages when we could have gone XC, but failed to do so – and it’s certainly cost us a few places in the League!
Friday, 25th July 2008
Judith 25 Jul 2008 | : Flying, Miscellaneous activities, Walking
The forecast today was for a muggy day with probable showers from lunch time. SE, turning more S. We went to Church Stretton to help set up for a big FITA archery competition shoot at the school field. We had to measure out shooting lines and I was angling for the line painting job, which I got, but which turned out to be far less glamorous than I thought. For some reason I had expected it to involve some kind of golf cart thing, rather than just pushing a wet bucket round the field and getting my boots white.
By lunch time the sky started to look doable, so we made our excuses and rushed back home. On the west side of the Mynd the sky looked rubbish! Grey, hazy and it looked like it might rain. Andrew D. called to say it was flyable on the Gyrn, but overcast, so we canned the flying and went for a walk instead. We walked from Snailbeach to the edge of the Stiperstones and back. Shame it was so hazy, as the views would have been lovely. It seemed very SW on the walk, and Andrew gave us an update to say it had turned W and then N at the Gyrn. Right enough, when we got home, someone was taking off from the Long Mynd. He got about 300′ ATO, so we sent out a 3jam and headed to the hill. It was way off to the S, but several people flew, although we didn’t bother. Too hungry!
Thursday, 24th July 2008
Judith 25 Jul 2008 | : Miscellaneous activities
It was pretty windy today, although also hot and sunny. We decided to clear the jungle also known as our garden. By lunch time there was a report of flyable conditions at Bache, but we were not sure about landing out in strong winds, so didn’t go. At 4pm it became flyable at the Gyrn, but we decided to hold out for an evening flight at Corndon instead. Wayne went up to Corndon to check out the conditions at about 6pm, but it was getting stronger as the evening progressed and at 7.30pm it was blowing 30mph.