July 2008
Monthly Archive
Tuesday, 8th July 2008
Judith 09 Jul 2008 | : Archery, Party, party, party...
Rain in the morning, but then it cleared up. It was probably flyable for hang gliders, although very windy. We went to do some archery and had a really good session. There is a temporary airspace restriction due to the Fairford air tattoo, which this year affects the Long Mynd sites. At 2.05pm, we saw the first jets crossing the Church Stretton valley. These were followed by several more groups, some flying over the Lawley and Caer Caradoc. Impressive, but you wouldn’t want to be in the air at the time.
In the evening I went to Liverpool with Michaela to see Counting Crows. It was fantastic. Brilliant birthday present, thanks Mich!
Monday, 7th July 2008
Judith 07 Jul 2008 | : Boring stuff
More bad weather. I had a hospital appointment today to have the follow-up for my knees. Good news is that I am too old to have the medical condition they thought I had (i.e. I have grown out of it), so no more surgery. They fixed it all. Now I just need to build up the muscles around the joint, so it sits better and that’s it. Hooray!
Someone flew the Long Mynd this morning and then again this evening (may not have been the same person), but I am certain this evening it was a micro-wing. Forecast for this week is pretty shocking.
Sunday, 6th July 2008
Judith 06 Jul 2008 | : Boring stuff
Another dart board weather forecast. Too rainy to fly, walk or do archery, so we have been reduced to working. What’s this summer coming to?
Wayne did fly in the evening. He launched on the Long Mynd and stayed up for 3 minutes, when he got flushed as it was too far off to the south and light. Top marks for giving it a go though.
Saturday, 5th July 2008
Judith 05 Jul 2008 | : Boring stuff
The weather today was howling, hot, sunny, thunderstormy, then rain, rain, rain. By this evening it was like an autumn evening and you couldn’t believe it’s actually July.
We had a nice day in Gloucestershire with Geoff’s family.
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Friday, 4th July 2008
There was some dispute about the forecast today. The BBC said west, Metcheck and XC weather said SSE, the pressure charts said SW. It was all a bit confusing really. We settled on Bache after a bit of a phone-round. The usual suspects turned up and Michaela, Wayne, James and Graeme were all there.
It wasn’t brilliant when we got there but improved as we were flying. It was getting increasingly strong in the air and I tried to push out into the valley, but got low. The others were getting low as well, so I top landed and got my ballast. As I got my harness on again I was wondering if I had made a big mistake, but I found a lull and got off again. I got to 850′ ATO without turning and then got a thermal which took me, Graeme, James and Geoff up to base and over the back. We glided downwind and James headed off NE into the sunshine, but didn’t seem to find anything. Graeme went north into shaded ground and Geoff and I headed NNE to a ridge in sunshine which had knobbly ground in front of it. It worked and we both got a climb out, whilst Graeme landed. It was broken but we worked it and got back up. James meanwhile had found a good core and was thermalling over us. We got back up and then went on a glide to a ridge which was into wind. On the way I spotted Corndon ahead and we could see the Long Mynd in the distance. Read more »
Thursday, 3rd July 2008
It was pouring this morning, so I edited the podcasts, which are available here.
It started clearing out from 4pm and we went to do some archery. It’s club night on Thursdays and it was packed out, and it can take ages to shoot, so we about turned and went to fly instead. At 6pm it was still gusty but it dropped off enough for the hang gliders to fly. Wayne reported that it was rough low down but smoother higher up.
Richard C. got his acro wing out, but it was too windy for a normal glider to fly until 8.45pm, by which time we were too hungry and had decided to go home. Several PGs did fly in the end.