October 2008
Monthly Archive
Friday, 10th October, 2008
Geoff’s comments: A beautiful hot day, lots of cumulus, some wind but not too much. And Judith was sick. So we (I) did some work, then we went out later to Santa Brigida. Late afternoon, it was still a bit gusty there; probably fine, but my first flight at Santa Brigida, I’m always a bit wimpy. Waited for Roger to arrive, hot from his out and return to Blackpool (he’s a Ryanair pilot). He launched first, as the wind was dropping and the thermal activity dying, and went straight down, more or less. I launched a bit later, and did much the same. I think we missed an epic day, but no doubt there’ll be plenty more – though not this weekend which has a poor forecast, though getting much better from Monday.
Thursday, 9th October 2008
Judith 09 Oct 2008 | : Boring stuff
Forecast was bad, but it never actually rained.
At lunchtime the sun came out and we did consider going out to fly, until we had a closer look at the conditions and realised that the wind was starting to pick up. We worked and then went across to the neighbours for cava and lamb cooked on an open fire. Yummy.
Wednesday, 8th October 2008
Judith 08 Oct 2008 | : Boring stuff
What a miserable day. We got the weather the UK had yesterday, as the cold front came south. Catalunya needs the rain, and you do well not to complain too loudly around here when it’s bad weather.
We worked and went for lunch. The conference is getting closer so it suits us to have some working weather.
Tuesday, 7th October 2008
Judith 07 Oct 2008 | : Miscellaneous activities
What’s this country coming to? More rubbish forecasting. It was supposed to be light and variable, but mostly south, which is good. We have not actually flown since we left the UK, so it seemed about time we got our feet off the ground. People were off to fly El Mont, but we decided to do some work first and then head out to Santa Brigida later.
I didn’t really pay much attention to what was happening outside the window, so it came as a bit of a shock to feel the wind once we got outside. We drove as far as Olot (where it was howling) and then phoned Marc to get a report of local conditions. He confirmed that it was equally windy there. It was too late to go to the beach, so we headed for the gorge at Sadernes, for late lunch and a swim.
The front has come in now and it has completely clouded over. Tomorrow it should be raining, so lots of work in store and still no flying!
Monday, 6th October 2008
Too many choices today. The weather was good for paragliding, hang gliding, going to the beach, walking… We’ve decided to do the activities which we won’t be able to do for much longer, so we went snorkeling. It was the perfect forecast for it: hot (26C), clear skies and a calm sea. We can fly all winter, but days like today for snorkeling are limited.
The snorkeling round here is excellent. You can see about 20 different types of fish within a few meters of the shore. There are shoals of fish to chase around and I was really hoping to see a squid, but no luck today. The rocks and vegetation are interesting as well, and today there was not one jelly-fish. We went in several times and I swam all around the bay. The water was warm once you were in and we didn’t really need the wet suits. Picnic in Roses to finish off the day.
Sunday, 5th October 2008
Judith 05 Oct 2008 | : Trying, but failing, to fly
We seem to be losing it a little with the forecast…
They predicted hot and sunny conditions with southerly winds on the Catalan forecast so we decided to hook up with Nicky and Tim again, and fly Puig d’Afrou in the morning, have lunch and then fly at Santa Brigida in the afternoon. It’s the standard plan for a weekend flying day round these parts. As we drove through Amer, there was no wind but as we got to La Cellera we could see the trees moving. There is a huge mound of earth and rubble in the landing field, but at least it was nice and calm. Nicky was being interviewed by an Irish radio station and they’d flown in a journalist specially, so she went off to Santa Brigida and we would meet her there later.
We had a coffee and by the time we went outside again it was gusty with a strong wind from the north west. Everyone else was equally clueless as to why this should be. We decided to check out the conditions at Santa Brigida (it’s not a magic mountain for nothing), but there it had aslo picked up and was howling. We all went to see Marc’s new house with a view of Puig d’Afrou and then went home to do some work, because stupidly we hadn’t thought a Plan B was necessary today and hadn’t packed our swimming suits, buckets and spades.
Off to dinner in Rupit tonight.
Saturday, 4th October 2008
Judith 04 Oct 2008 | : Trying, but failing, to fly
We got up early this morning to drive to Berga to hook up with Nicky to do some flying. Berga is another place where we have a checkered history. Lots of trips, little flying.
The landing field was full of paramotors and we realised that they had a comp on. We met Nicky and Tim, the honorary Icelander, and headed up the hill. The forecast was for south winds. Perfect. When we got out of the car if was blowing strong N. Hmmm… On launch the thermals were sometimes bringing it on, but most of the time it was decidedly off. Nicky knows the area really, really well and said it was very strange conditions. We decided to go for lunch when a series of dust devils came through (in October!).
As we were driving past the Primera Maria launch we decided to have a look, just so we could learn more about the area. Enric was there and it was lovely to see him. On the Primera Maria (only about 1km from the Segunda) it was smack on with no northerly wind. It was pretty sinky, but Tim launched and went up a little, but then had to bottom land. Enric launched a short while after, but struggled to maintain. After about 15 minutes he and another pilot got a thermal and crossed onto the higher ridge behind. We rushed to get our gliders ready but the guy in front of me couldn’t take off because of paramotors soaring back and forth in front of launch. Once he got off the wind picked up. Big style. 5mph to 25mph in 2 minutes. I backed off because the wind had also obviously picked up in the bottom landing field. Nicky and Tim came back to take off and reported strong N in the car park and very strong winds in the bottom. The paramotor task was a ‘stay in the air as long as you can’ task and two guys stuck it out for as long as they could. It provided us with a lot of entertainment, seeing them getting tossed about in the howling winds. In the end it became a strongest bladder competition instead.
It was a strange day indeed. We canned it at 4pm and headed down. We bumped into Enric later who said he had got 2600m AMSL (8530 feet).
We don’t really need to learn this lesson again, but you should never, ever go to a site and not get your wing out, as you won’t be ready when it does get good. On the other hand, I always get some ‘new site’ apprehension, especially when you get contradictory winds, dust devils and sudden picking up of the wind. I don’t regret not flying, and am quite glad I wasn’t in the air 5 minutes after I would have launched, but I should have got ready.
We drove home and found that there was an international festival of witches going on in St Joan les Fonts, the next village. We stopped and saw a procession of giant witches and devils as well as women and little cute child witches. There were loads of hippy stalls and even a stall where you could get your aura cleaned. I tried to persuade Geoff, but he reckons his aura might be a little frayed at the edges, but not in need of a spruce up yet!