January 2009
Monthly Archive
Friday, 9th January 2009
Judith 09 Jan 2009 | : Boring stuff
Wet and miserable day. Sascha and Nils came back last night. They’re on their way from Algo to Freiburg, so we’re entertaining…
Thursday, 8th January 2009
We felt that we really should make the effort to go skiing, so we set the alarm early, got up at what seemed like the middle of the night, and looked at the forecast. -20C at 2500m…
We spent some time debating whether this would be fun or not and decided that those kinds of temperatures are actually more like a punishment. Instead, we worked and looked at the weather, which was lovely and sunny, but north wind. By 11am the temperature on the balcony finally went above zero and by 1pm it was giving south at Angles, so we rushed out. On the way there we saw cumulus forming, and we were keeping our fingers crossed for some wind.
It was light when we got to Santa Brigida, and Geoff took off and immediately got low. I was ready to drive down to get him when he hooked a thermal and got back up. A short time later he top landed and I had a go. I launched, sunk out and then got a big, smooth thermal by the monastery and got to 350′. I bimbled about for a bit and got lower and was going to top land, but then got some lift so stayed in the air. As always, when you should top land but don’t, you go down. Geoff collected me and drove me back up. Roger had arrived by this time and flew but went down. Geoff flew and went down, so I collected them for beers and another flight for Roger. Not an epic day, but at least we got to fly, which was unexpected.
To stop all the cold weather wimpery I have gone to Decathlon and bought the warmest skiing jacket they had. I might look like the Tango man, but hey, I don’t care!
Wednesday, 7th January 2009
Judith 07 Jan 2009 | : Trying, but failing, to fly, Walking
We woke up to find a winter wonderland outside. We were going to go skiing today, but the forecast was for -11C at 2500m and with windchill they were saying it would be -20C. Too cold for a pair of wimpy fair weather skiers like us!
Instead we decided to go out flying. It was looking sunny with low cloud here, but cloudier in La Selva, which is where Santa Brigida is. Right enough, we got to Amer and it was cloudy, nearly no wind, with the odd waft from the north. The hill itself was clear of cloud, but as we procrastinated a little, cloud started to envelop it. It’s the first time ever that we have seen Santa Brigida clagged in.
We decided not to bother and went for a walk around Els Hostalets instead. We were hoping for a coffee next to a big log fire, but the bar was closed, so back home to work on the next conference. We open in two weeks. Yikes!
Tuesday, 6th January 2009
Judith 06 Jan 2009 | : Boring stuff
Rain, then snow. Lots of it. My sister and brother-in-law are leaving tomorrow and had to come to stay the night at our house in case they got snowed in in Rupit. It was very pretty seeing the huge snow flakes outside the window, but we’re a bit fed up of bad weather, so the shine was taken off it a bit. Temperatures dipping more tomorrow.
Monday, 5th January 2009
Geoff writes: another flyable day at Santa Brigida. We arrived a little late, about 1.30pm, but the wind was on. Quite a few pilots were there – they’d just had a top to bottom, and were driving up again. I launched and got up, a few followed me off, the rest went to lunch. Not as good as yesterday, but some nice thermals. Overall it was probably flyable for a couple of hours. On my second flight, with just three of us in the air, we finally lost it and went down. Judith came to retrieve me (having flown herself a few times, and top landed); we drove back up, but it was clouding over and the wind was dropping, so we didn’t fly again.
Instead we went home and waited for the kings. In Spain they celebrate Reyes on the 5th of January. On this day the three wise men or Magi come and bring the presents for the kids (they don’t have Santa Claus here). Each village has its own kings and they enter the village on horseback in a procession with drums, fire and lots of pages. They throw sweets to the kids and everyone turns out to see the spectacle. We marched around the village with our kings but skipped the present giving.
A poor forecast for the next few days. Cold, and snow down to 300 metres. Britain is hogging all the high pressure days!
Sunday, 4th January 2009
Geoff writes: a good forecast, and a good day at Santa Brigida. About ten pilots out, and flyable all afternoon. Some people had flown Puig d’Afrou in the morning, but they described their flight as a ‘salto de gallina’ (a chicken jump).
At Santa Brigida it was a little breezy, which made the thermals broken, but an excellent day. No great height at all, 200 or 300 feet at most, but strong bouncy lift. Top landing was very difficult, since the lift always seemed to strengthen on approach. We flew several times. Visibility was excellent and it was nice to be flying in sunshine again.
Smoothed off, and got weaker, towards the end of the day. Judith was the last in the air.
As for the rest of the week, it was a good forecast, but now gradually getting worse!
Saturday, 3rd January 2009
Geoff writes: another lousy forecast, but the sun came out here, so off we went to Santa Brigida (we’re getting a bit bored going there, but very little chance of flying anywhere else). The closer we got, the cloudier it became. When we arrived, the cloud was very low, but it wasn’t quite clagged in. We drove up, found some other local pilots there. The wind seemed ok, so I set up, and clipped in, and it promptly dropped off. No chance of thermals, too cloudy. I stood on launch for a while, then the others decided to fly down (no chance of staying up) and go for lunch. Excellent – guaranteed to improve after they left. And about 30 minutes or so later, it picked up a little, and I eventually managed to get off, flew for a while (and radio’d the luncheon club to tell them I was above launch), and then top landed. Judith launched, eventually went down, and waited till they came back for a ride up. Meanwhile, I launched again, and top landed again. Hardly epic, but 25 minutes or so in total.
By the time they all got back up, the wind had dropped, and they just had top to bottoms. Going for lunch – especially in the short winter days – is always a mistake.