July 2009
Monthly Archive
Monthly Archive
Judith 03 Jul 2009 | : Competitions, Flying, Trying, but failing, to fly
Judith writes: The forecast was for stronger winds today but this wasn’t evident on launch early on, so we went up the hill. By the time everyone was up the wind was picking up. A 55km task was set to Avila, but many pilots were disgruntled about having to go over the pass in strong winds. After some discussion the task was cancelled. Lots of people flew and got very high, but the valley wind was increasing, so people didn’t stay up long, apart from one group who headed off to Avila in orbit.
I’m chilling out today and intend to go to the swimming pool with my book. I have to pass the bar to get there, so we’ll see…
Geoff writes: forecast was for rain in the morning, then clearing, west, with some south. And so it turned out. For hang gliders, it was flyable most of the afternoon and evening, and for paragliders, an hour or two early evening. The HGs had a great time. I flew both, but was out late because I was concentrating on some work, and missed the best of the hang gliding, only getting a few hundred ATO, rather than the cloudbase people had been getting to earlier. Paragliders wanting to submit flights for the league missed nothing! Still, a pleasant evening.
Judith 02 Jul 2009 | : Competitions, Flying
Judith writes: Third task today. Lots of different weather forecasts, but stronger west wind today, so a 116km task to Segovia. I got off ok and thermalled along the ridge. The big promise I made myself was not to go anywhere until I was high and to be patient! It was hard work getting up and I scrabbled about at ridge height for ages working my way along trying to find lift. I got it just before the start point, climbed up and was on my way. I made it over the pass via a circuitous route and found a weak and drifty thermal on the other side. As I was drifting over a ridge I saw an open glider with the pilot lying down not moving. I radioed in to HQ to tell them the situation and then flew over to have a look to check if he was ok. Once I was circling lower the pilot stood up and waved at me. Damn!
You should get up and bundle up your wing immediately so this kind of situation doesn’t happen. I then had to go hunting for another thermal and got a weak climb, but I was then in the centre of the valley. My last ditch attempt was to fly to a black field and I hit the thermal very low (maybe 150 feet off the deck), but on turning in it, I stopped dead and sunk out. On the ground the wind was howling. 25km, so disappointed, but at least my attitude was better today and I made it over the pass!
Terrible retrieve. Geoff called me to chat about my flight and this meant I ran out of credits, so after a 3km walk in the sun I then had to walk an extra 2km to a petrol station to get more credits to call the retrieve bus. Another lesson learnt.
Not much news of from the goal yet. Kai and Craig did 55km and Dave Thomson is in goal.
Geoff writes: there’s gratitude for you. I phone her and she complains about the cost!
Bit windy here today, ESE, supposed to be going south as the day went on. That didn’t really happen, and Corndon was the best bet, in retrospect (or maybe the Malverns?). But Dave Broughton did phone from Corndon to say it was a bit gusty, and he was on his own, so didn’t fly. I did some work, and was about to go to archery, when Martin Knight phoned to say it was flyable where he was, so off we went (I picked up Michaela on the way). In the end I had about 40 minutes or so of evening soaring as the front approached, so a lot better than nothing.
Tomorrow looks distinctly possible on the Mynd. Change to get a westerly.
And apparently, yet again, the task was stopped in the hang gliding comp in Laragne, because of “extreme gusty conditions at goal”.
Geoff 01 Jul 2009 | : Competitions, Flying, Trying, but failing, to fly
Geoff writes: as usual this summer, I made the wrong decision for the right reasons, going to Bache rather than the Gyrn (or the Peaks) because I thought it was going to rain there, at least at the Gyrn. Ended up on Bache on my own, and was thinking of just going to the Gyrn anyway – where they were flying – and Andy Johnson turned up, so I stayed (he’d been going to the Gyrn as well, and changed his mind). In the end, after various launches and short hops, I gave up and went home. Definitely the wrong place to be today.
Oh, and when Jonce was flying – whilst I was walking back up – a Hercules flew past him just behind Bache, banking as it went by. It obviously thought he was worth taking another look at, because Andy landed, and the Hercules came back right over launch, at most 200′ above.
Judith writes: The second task today… 125km race to goal, via the same turnpoint as the day before. The forecast was for windier conditions and possible storms. This put me in a less positive mood than the day before. I got the early bus and as I was getting ready the wind was picking up. A huge dust devil came through and I was getting nervous. Once the window opened, people lobbed off, but the gusty conditions made for ‘interesting’ take-offs and plenty of bounce once you pulled away from the ridge. I got off ok and decided that with the strength of the wind, it would be possible to soar along to the start and then get a thermal there to cross the pass. Whenever you assume something will happen, the chances are it won’t. I bimbled along the ridge and then got completely distracted from what I was doing by seeing what had been a disorganised rabble just suddenly turning and gliding like a huge wall away from me. The start was open, but the sight was so impressive, I forgot to thermal!
Once I got my act together again, I thermalled along, but it was really tricky and I got distracted a second time watching Kirsty being sucked down a gully. She hit so much sink, that I was sure she was going to hit a tree. She didn’t and found a thermal in the valley. She fought hard to get back up, but landed in the end.
I decided to try what was described to us as the guaranteed trigger, but couldn’t cross a ridge, so landed near Villafranca in the same field as Cris Miles. We had a great afternoon, eating grapefruit and being generally silly. Turns out there were few big names who bombed before the pass… Steve Ham included. What was excellent, was that Martin Dockerill did his first 100km flight today!
Dave Thomson went on a photo expedition and eventually decided to fly the task. He was at 3300m AMSL 13km out from goal and missed it by 7km – big headwind. Kai is leading amongst the Brits after the second task.
The big incident to day was Nicky had to throw her chute, as she had a big collapse and a subsequent cascade. She got down ok in a corn field, but was dragged on landing. She is fine although a little bruised. Chute is re-packed and her wing has been checked, so she should be ok for tomorrow.