March 2009
Monthly Archive
Tuesday, 10th March 2009
We had a bit of a dilemma this morning… to go for a rest at the beach or to go flying. The forecast is good all week, but our mind was changed for us by the fact that a load of hang gliders were going to El Mont and it’s nice for Geoff to have the company when he’s flying the stiffy. We had the choice of meeting up with the PGs (11.30am) or the HGs (12.30pm). We chose the latter, with the hope that they would have a driver and because generally, El Mont is a late site.
I was feeling a little under the weather today and my enthusiasm level was low, which isn’t good for the site, which needs to be flown with a degree of confidence and a positive attitude. This is due to a number of factors – firstly, it is a tricky and committing launch. You take off from a hang gliding ramp, so you snatch and run. No hanging about to check if the wing is ok and flying. You run three paces, jump and hope to God the wing is flying. Going off to the side or fluffing it has you falling a few meters or has you in the trees. Secondly, it’s a tricky ridge where thermals can be booming off the rock face. They’re fairly predictable, but can be strong and turbulent. It was always my favourite hang gliding site in Europe and I loved flying it. Since starting to fly paragliders, I have developed a very different attitude to the site and I fly it a lot more cautiously – admittedly, maybe sometimes too cautiously.
We met up with the lads (Jordi, Rolf, Pedro) in the landing field and Patri and Marti came along to drive. When we got to the top the PGs (Joan, Jesus, Nani, Angel and Sergi) had nearly all launched and Joan and Jesus were cruising around cloudbase. I decided to not be a wimp as I wasn’t feeling that bad, and we did have a driver. I did a good launch and got straight up, lost it closing my harness and had to fly along to the guaranteed (but always rough) trigger at the cliffs. I got there low and knew if I hit a thermal coming off it it would be rough. I got the climb and got to 800’ATO, but drifted to the edge of the thermal and bang! Big asymetric. It wouldn’t come out on its own so I had to pump it whilst trying to maintain straight flight. No big drama, but I just wasn’t in the mood for it. I know the site well enough to know that there are much more gentle thermals out in the valley and I know pretty well where they trigger, so I headed to the ridge in the valley and headed into the gully. It worked and I slowly climbed back up but I eventually lost it, so decided to take some photos. As I was flying hands off, just bimbling around, I accidentally blundered back into the core; heard the vario squeal, let the camera drop, pulled the right brake and climbed 1200′. Just goes to show the glider does just fine without the idiot hanging under it.
I got back up to near launch height, but decided I didn’t want to take the thermal back onto the rough ridge, so flew out to the HG landing field (only the second time I have made it there on the PG). I topped up with another thermal and made it easily, landing right next to Geoff.
Geoff writes: The PGs were right, it was, for once, better earlier. Great clouds when we arrived, blued out by the time I launched. It’s been a few months since flying the HG, the wind in the landing field before we drove up was very switchy, and I was a little nervous about the landing. In the end, I had an excellent launch, and a good nil wind landing. Shame the flight was just a top to bottom. There were bubbles all the way, but I think a combination of unlucky timing in the air, and not being quite as current on the HG as usual, meant I didn’t make the most of them. But I was very pleased with the landing in tricky conditions.
Monday, 9th March 2009
The weather has been turning increasingly hot recently and we have been wondering how long the skiing season will last. On looking at the forecast for today, it was possibly going to be the coolest day of the week (10C at 1500m), and cloudy. It was overcast here when we got up.
We headed off to Masella as the higher runs are more easily accessible and we soon climbed out above the clouds into beautiful sunshine. It was hot in the mountains all day, and the snow was good high up, although slushy low down. We could see the clag in the valley all day and on driving back, descended into cloud again. It’s been cloudy here all day, so it was a good call to go skiing.
Sunday, 8th March 2009
The forecast was for hot and sunny weather, and light winds, all of which happened. We were going to go to Puig d’Afrou with Nicky, but she couldn’t make it, so we decided to go to Belmunt instead. We don’t often go there, because of the endless windy road to get there. We’ll go more when we return in Autumn, when the new tunnel is open, which will shave about 30 minutes off the journey.
There were no cumulus clouds on the way and when we got to the top there were two HG pilots, but not a PG soul around. We assessed the conditions for a while and it seemed good. As we were sitting in the sun, a couple of PG guys arrived and got ready. One launched and got low, but the two HGs launched and the three of them got high together. We got ready fast and I got off, flew to the end of the launch gully, hit a thermal and climbed to 1000′ ATO, where I hit the inversion layer. It was really rough. I flew off along the ridge, but hit loads of sink. I choose not to scratch too close to the trees and black rocks deliberately (unlike Geoff) and spotted three vultures in a thermal in the valley. I headed there only to clip the thermal and see them then fly off. Some more scratching had me down in the landing field, while Geoff’s ridge hugging did the trick and he got high.
I flagged down a passing hang glider and got the car, retrieved Geoff after his flight, had lunch in the sun and we went back up so I could fly again. I assumed that at 4.30pm it would have smoothed off and there might be some restitution about, however, I launched, got to 900′ ATO and hit the inversion where it was bloody rough. It hadn’t changed a lot. Lots of active flying involved. After half an hour I decided to fly down – my heart wasn’t in it today.
Geoff writes: surprisingly rough and thermic. At ridge height the thermals were not well formed, just blobs coming off the rocks. Like Judith, I got to the inversion level and found it very rough, so stayed lower. No real chance of an XC. Finally, I had quite a big blowout, spun a little, lost some height, but it recovered nicely. But I decided to land. Too much excitement!
Saturday, 7th March 2009
Geoff writes: a much better forecast than yesterday, with lighter winds, so naturally it was a howling gale. Really, we got the winds today which were forecast yesterday, with gusts of 70kmph outside our house. We went to Santa Brigida anyway, with Dirk and Eva, and found lots of other people there. However, it really was windy.
Eventually, Erwan launched, much to our amazement, in very strong winds. But he was OK, and seemed to penetrate fine, so eventually he was followed by Marc, Dominique, and eventually me, Dirk and Judith, as the wind slowly dropped. Unfortunately, as it dropped it also went off to the east, so our flights were fairly short – I had about 20 minutes. Anyway, a much better forecast for tomorrow – hotter, lighter winds. Should be a really good XC day.
That’s killed it then.
Friday, 6th March 2009
Geoff writes: OK, forecast north 100kmph + in the mountains nearby, 8 – 10 on the Beaufort scale at the coast and very strong winds here – shaking the glass on the top floor – so what happens? An epic day at Santa Brigida. In fact, because it wasn’t a true tramontana (mistral), just a north wind, we thought it probably wouldn’t work even there, and wrote off the day, until Marc phoned to say he was walking up and it seemed OK. So we got in the van and rushed off. We still weren’t that confident, it was north almost until we got there. We met up with Dirk and Eva, on holiday from Germany, who had phoned us a few days ago to ask about flying. On top, it was more or less on, i.e south, and we flew. In fact, the day just got better and better, and towards the end some wave kicked in, with the result that Judith and I were able to fly well out beyond the ridge in front. It was super smooth. Dirk also had a couple of nice flights.
The Niviuk guys, Xiliu and Dominique, were also there, flying the new Artik 2, which looks pretty good. No doubt I’ll try it out soon.
A really excellent day!
Judith writes: It was a fantastic day. Stunning visibility and just a real unexpected bonus flight. What was also amazing was that Dirk and Eva had phoned us out of the blue after getting our number from a contact on a web site. Once we got chatting, it turned out they live 20km from where I grew up, Eva works in the school I went to and we have (non-flying) friends/acquaintances in common. What a small world!
Thursday, 5th March 2009
Geoff 05 Mar 2009 | : Boring stuff
Geoff writes: a nice day, but windy. We thought it might be OK for Santa Brigida, but in the end didn’t bother going out, it probably was too strong, so we just did bits of work.
In retrospect, we should have gone skiing – tomorrow is much sunnier, but even windier, and forecast in the ski resorts is 100k+, and up to 40cm of new snow, so definitely not worth going tomorrow – at that speed, lots of the lifts, and therefore pistes, will be closed.
So probably another working day. On the plus side, the weather is getting a lot better from tomorrow, and the winds should be dropping from Saturday. And from this weekend our season pass allows us to ski Saturdays and Sunday, rather than just Monday to Friday. Though whether or not we will go at weekend depends on how busy it is likely to be.
Wednesday, 4th March 2009
Geoff 04 Mar 2009 | : Boring stuff
Geoff writes: A poor forecast, cloudy and some rain. So we decided to stay in and do various jobs – working on an ebook we’re publishing from conference proceedings, preparing for our imminent trip back to the UK for spring/summer (via an SIV course in Annecy), and a few other bits and pieces. Possibly flyable tomorrow, and the weather improving a lot from Friday – very sunny, and much warmer. Not sure if we will ski again – it might be more surfing than skiing, if the snow really starts to melt. Though there is still over two metres at our local resort, skiing in slush isn’t that much fun.
The season seems to be starting in the UK, with some good XCs from the Mynd over the last few days. We’re excited about going back, and looking forward to improving our XC results over last year.