February 2009
Monthly Archive
Saturday, 28th February 2009
Judith 28 Feb 2009 | : Flying, Party, party, party...
Who stole the sunshine?
It was overcast today, but worse than predicted, so we canned the planned hang gliding and went to Santa Brigida instead. It was breezy there and we had a nice boat about with lots of other people there. A few weak thermals managed to slip through the gloom and there was ridge lift too. When the wind suddenly got stronger Geoff bottom landed and I drove down to do some ground handling. Need to work on those forward launches before Annecy!
We packed up at 5pm and headed to Olot for the carnival. It’s always a week later than elsewhere, but it being the last one in this area, they like to put on a bit of a show. Best floats this year were the King Kong float, which had a huge articulated gorilla, which could crouch down, beat his chest and pick up Jane, who would then scream ‘No, no!’. All controlled with hydraulics. Very impressive. The other highlight was the massive bear from The Golden Compass. All the floats have dancers (sometimes more than 120 people) doing routines. The Thriller float had a fake Michael Jackson (in red leather suit and white socks) doing the whole Thriller routine with an entourage of zombies.
The funniest float was the drunken Scots. Not only were they partial to showing off their bums, but their dance routine looked like the entire population of Inverness on acid.
Friday, 27th February 2009
The consensus today was to go to Sant Pere de Rodes, but on waking up the forecast had changed to north, with a moderate tramuntana wind north of the Cap de Begur. Nicky and I wanted to have a harness fiddling session, and Sant Pere de Rodes seemed far from guaranteed, so we decided to stay local.
The rush was off, so we went to the tree house in Argelaguer first. Merlin, the mad puppy, was so excited he was running around the maze like, well, a mad puppy. It’s changed again, and I was confident I could find dog-friendly routes through the place, only to be stumped by dead ends.
We headed out to Santa Brigida and after a spot of lunch I finally fitted the pod to my Impress harness (with a little help from the expert). I launched and couldn’t get into the harness at all. So a scoot round, top-land, quick adjust and off again. I managed to get into it by opening it with my hand, but by this time I had done a full 360 degree turn without looking where I was going. I did manage to practice a few times, but on top landing I got some more tips from Nicky on how to get in easier and also on how to improve my launches, so a very productive day in all. I like the pod and will get used to it pretty quickly. I now just need to sort out the new flight deck so I can see it easily!
Turns out that they had an excellent day at the coast, but I am pleased with what we did. It’ll give me a chance to learn more about the glider/harness before the season starts.
Thursday, 26th February 2009
Geoff writes: An excellent day’s flying. Nicky Moss came up from Barcelona, Mike Cluer came over from France. After a bit of thinking, and seeing from the local forum where people were going, we decided to go to Puig d’Afrou. In the end, 11 pilots turned up (and flew) – an unprecedented number for mid-week in February! Even Xiliu came over to say hello, though he couldn’t fly – he had to go back to make the gliders most of us fly here.
We drove up, and on launch it was very light and switchy, no clouds. After a little while, it seemed to get a better, some clear cycles coming through, and haze caps rather than proper clouds. There was also an inversion. I was the first to launch, and went straight up; so everyone else rushed to get ready. Eventually, everyone was in the air. The maximum allowable height there is 1500′ ATO, which was easy to get to. The thermals were very strong, and a bit rough, but not too much. Eventually, eight of us headed off towards Santa Brigida. Judith top landed there, and flew again for the rest of the afternoon. First time she’s made it all the way across, so she was really pleased.
I landed in the valley at Amer, and got a ride back with Xevi for the car, and then took Nicky and Mike back up to retrieve the cars – which took most of the rest of the afternoon. We got back to Santa Brigida, just as it was switching off; I had an extended top to bottom. It was a really good, very enjoyable day, and everybody had excellent flights.
Wednesday, 25th February 2009
Geoff writes: A near perfect day skiing today, at Masella. Cloudless blue sky, very warm in the sun, but excellent snow (though lower down it started to get a little slushy later on); and on the higher slopes, where we spent most of the day, it was very uncrowded indeed. There were a lot of beginners at Masella, but they were much lower down.
Our ski pass season ticket is for La Molina, but we get various free day passes for other resorts (hence the trip to Andorra last week), so it was nice to be able to go back to Masella and ski runs which haven’t been open in the past couple of years because of the lack of snow – all pistes are open this year.
And because we have a season ticket, and can go a lot, the skiing works out very cheap. The season ticket was 230 euros, by the end of the season we’ll have been at least 20 times, so it’s only a little over 10 euros a day – whereas a day pass is 38 euros, so we make a huge saving.
Tuesday, 24th February 2009
The forecast was great and we headed out to Santa Brigida with great excitement. Clouds were good, it was south and there was a bunch of us there. Lluis launched first and sunk out, only to get a heroic low save which took him really, really high. We took off and flew out into the valley ahead. I was starting to think that I am not actually flying the glider very well, as I was having trouble centering the glider in the thermals. I decided that I would fly for at least an hour before top-landing, so pootled about trying to work out the thermals a little better.
Geoff and I went out to a cloud together and on the way back I managed to get a good thermal which I took to 2300′ ATO (about 300′ below cloud base). It’s the highest I’ve been over Santa Brigida. So off I headed towards Olot. It’s uphill all the way until you get into the Val d’en Bas, so you need to get a lot of height to try it.
I lost the thermal on the way to Les Planes des Hostoles and crossed the tree covered ridge in big sink. Unlike the last time I was in this valley, I managed to get on to the other side and dropped onto the hill before the castle. I forced myself to be patient and after 5 minutes soaring it found the thermal I was hoping for. As I was winding out, I saw Geoff in the distance. Unfortunately he didn’t have the height to make it over the ridge, so had to turn back to the last available landing field.
I got back up to 2200′ ATO and thermalled over St Feliu de Pallerols. Then it was decision time – along the road or cross the ridge into the Val d’en Bas. The road leads to high ridges and it was after 4pm by this time, so I chose the lower pass over the Rupit road. I cleared the ridge and then looked around for the next thermal source. The valley wind was strong and I found a thermal on the leeside of the ridge I had just crossed. I was low at this point and the thermal was not properly formed and being blown along the ground fast. I managed to hang on to it past Els Hostalets but was down by St Esteve d’en Bas. I was hugely pleased. Best height gain and longest flight from Santa Brigida to date. Not very far, but immensely satisfying.
And I got chatted up by a trucker. What is it about men and big rucksacks?
The track log is on our XC page (the first XC for 2009, so it’s a bit empty at the moment! Opens in a new window).
Geoff writes: it was a good day. I launched first, made it out to the cliff in front again. Went back, met up with Judith, went out front…. finally we left over the back, Judith first, me in a later thermal. I messed up the first thermal a little, and didn’t get to cloud base, so didn’t have enough height to get over a ridge a few kilometers behind, so had to land. But a lot of fun, and Judith flew really well.
Monday, 23rd February 2009
Geoff writes: As a change from flying and skiing, we decided to have a lazy day, and went to the beach, at Calella de Parafrugell. A beautiful, and very warm, day, where we just read, had lunch, drank beer, coffee, and paddled. In the sun, it was probably in the mid 20s, so it felt very nice! The weather has certainly improved in the last few weeks, after the indifferent winter.
It was probably flyable, and people did go to Santa Brigida, but driving back we did see some spectacular wave clouds.
Sunday, 22nd February 2009
Forecast was for tramuntana winds at the coast, but light inland. We could see wave bars forming in the mountains when we left home…
The Parapente Girona forum is starting to be used more, so lots of people arranged to go to Puig d’Afrou today. This was nice for us as we are getting increasingly bored of the same view when flying. There was a huge number of pilots already waiting in the car park when we got there, with more arriving after us. Shame it was windy. There is a wind phenomenon in La Cellera called the Col de Gri, where the cold air from the central depression flows down the rivers and reservoirs, and as it flows through the gorges it strengthens due to the venturi effect. When it flows out at El Pastoral it is very, very strong. Today was a classic example of this. We drove out of Amer where there was hardly any wind and 3km down the road it was howling. We all spent lots of time debating whether we should go up or just go to Santa Brigida, which was full of French pilots, as it’s been too windy in France for some days.
By 12pm the wind had died down and we went up. The sky was full of wave, but there was also a strong inversion, and Xiliu assured us that the inversion would cap the wind speed at an acceptable level. I launched fifth and had a nice boat about in weak thermals, getting above launch a couple of times. No one launched after me for ages, and I assumed the wind had changed. However, after I landed, everyone had got off successfully and was flying. By the time Geoff got off the sky had clouded over but he managed to maintain in even weaker thermals and he was the last to land.
Everyone but us went to lunch, but we could see people flying at Santa Brigida, so we headed there for a bit more air time. It was light, and busy, so I waited until everyone got flushed and then launched. With the ridge to myself it was easy to maintain and top land. It got even lighter and a couple of low airtimers went for a TTB. Jose flew out into the valley and went up. I followed and thermalled up 300 feet. The wind had turned NW in the bottom, but was still south on top, so a little convergence helped. I flew around all on my own for a bit and then landed completely the opposite way we normally land. Nice ending to the day.