July 2009
Monthly Archive
Friday, 24th July 2009
Judith 24 Jul 2009 | : Miscellaneous activities
It didn’t look promising for today and it started pouring from 9.30am. This was unfortunate, since Geoff’s family were coming to visit and what can you do in the rain?
We had tea, then lunch at the Castle Hotel in Bishop’s Castle. By this time it was windy, but the sky had cleared and it was a gorgeous day, so we headed for Snailbeach and the lead mines and then on to the Old School House tea room at the Bog (thanks for the tip Steve!).
When we got back, people had started hang gliding on the Mynd, so we went up for a look and a chat. Turned into a really nice evening…
Thursday, 23rd July 2009
Judith 23 Jul 2009 | : Archery
We had another attempt with archery today, although it wasn’t looking too good when we arrived at the club house. We met Wayne there and all had to shelter from the rain whilst having cups of tea and chocolate. It cleared up after a while and we were pretty lucky with the weather thereafter. A couple of spots here and there, but most of the showers seemed to be blown around us. Brenda and Jeff spent a lot of time coaching us today and I have finally made some progress with my release. It’s all in the wrist action…
At 3.15pm the skies opened again and we packed up and headed home. Once on the Mynd, we met Mr. Megakeen, Nigel, who had dodged the showers and had a couple of flights on his Ibex. Hats off to him for effort.
Wednesday, 22nd July 2009
Judith 23 Jul 2009 | : Boring stuff
Wind, rain… We were hoping to go and do some archery today, but the weather was so bad we didn’t bother.
I tried to do some work today, but I am constantly being distracted by the X-Alps and can’t seem to stop having a peek at the athlete’s diaries. Tom wasn’t disqualified, so that was a relief and Aidan was fourth at one point today. Chrigel Maurer is storming ahead and it’s impressive to watch.
Tuesday, 21st July 2009
Judith 21 Jul 2009 | : Miscellaneous activities
I was a bit sad last night when the circus rolled out of town and our friends went home and the weather today seemed quite fitting… lashings of rain and a howling gale. I decided to go for the full depression injection by looking at the BBC monthly forecast. Wish I hadn’t bothered.
The only thing inspiring to get out of bed for was to edit the podcast I recorded with Tony Spirling on paragliding and the mind last week. It’s up now on the podcast page. Fascinating stuff.
Monday, 20th July 2009
Geoff writes: we thought it was going to be SW and a bit strong, but as it turned out, it was a reasonable day. WSW, and strongish, but not too strong, not even for me on my 1/2 Hook. The comp set a 44k race to goal with a turnpoint at 18k. People launched fairly quickly once the window opened, and after flying around on the ridge for a while, eventually started to go over the back. I was one of the last to leave. Base was pretty low, around 4000′ or so, but the drift was reasonable. As usual, I took it slowly, and had no need to race since I wasn’t in the comp – a big advantage. Basically, it was a two thermal flight with a lot of drifting in ones and zeros. I went near the turnpoint, but probably didn’t go right over it – again, it didn’t matter since I wasn’t in the comp. In the end, I did 22.4k straight line, and 26k with my own turnpoints. I was disappointed when I landed, not least because I’d been heading to a better sky with more sun. And inevitably the sun came out on my landing field as I finished packing up. I was convinced most people had got a lot further than me. But as it happened I did ok. Most of the comp went down at their turnpoint, and the BP Cup round was won by Tony Spirling with around 21k, and the Open by Dave Gibbs with, I think, 34k or so. So in the end I was pleased, though because I wasn’t in the comp, I could make my own decisions, didn’t have to race, didn’t have to worry about comp turnpoints (and could make my own), so it was easier for me than for them.
It was a difficult day though, harder than it looked, and the thermals were few and far between.
Judith had launched before me, got 1700 ATO, but lost the thermal and came back to the ridge (with all the others in the same thermal). She didn’t quite make it back and top landed along the ridge. After an hour of messing around trying to find a suitable launch site, getting bracken out of lines, waiting for the wind to drop, she got off again – but then the wind went off to the south, and she got flushed along with a some others, and bottom landed.
See photos of today (including the prize giving).
Sunday, 19th July 2009
Judith 20 Jul 2009 | : Party, party, party...
Rain and more rain. We went to a couple of the comp briefings, but then decided not to bother with the third as it was clear nothing was going to happen. The sky did brighten for the do we were having in the evening.
Dave, Sam, Wendy and Cris turned up early to help set up the marquee and Mark arrived soon after to rehearse the songs and get the music set up. Given that they were playing quite a few of the songs for the first time, they sounded excellent.
People started drifting in after 8.30pm but with a good forecast for Monday, people didn’t want to get too drunk! Cris Miles, Mark Leavesley and Dave Thomson did a great set and were then joined by Wendy Griffiths, who sang Blondie’s Heart of Glass brilliantly. Next up was Mike Hoppet, who rocked the place. Then lots of drinking and some late night silliness for the non-competitors and party die-hards.
It was an excellent evening, with around 50 people there, a lot of fun. Food, drink, music, reasonable weather – what more can you ask for!
We heard later that some people did make the trip to the coast, where they had some good flying.
Saturday, 18th July 2009
Geoff writes: second day of the comp, and blown out. Briefed at 9.00, briefed at 11, briefed at 1 – at which point they decided to come to the Long Mynd anyway, since it was definitely westerly, and they were hopeful the wind would drop. It didn’t really, though late afternoon one or two launched, followed by some others, by which time the day had been canned (though a lot of pilots had given up before then). Then the wind picked up again, and people started having problems penetrating, and most landed.
On the other hand, I had a great time on the hang glider, getting around two hours (and it was flyable all day for hang gliders). Nicely thermic, I did get to base, at only 1800′ ATO. But it was easy to push forward a long way, and on my second flight one or two PGs also did.
Oddly, for a long time, I was the only hang glider there, then Max turned up and flew. Graeme rigged, but didn’t fly, it was a bit windy on launch. So on a nice, easy day for hang gliders, at the weekend, only two of us flew.
Some people not in the comp went to the coast, Harlech, and flew the dunes. We had thought about going to the coast, but decided to stay here, because I could fly the HG, and if it got taskable we didn’t want to miss an XC day on the PGs.