August 2009
Monthly Archive
Monday, 17th August 2009
Geoff writes: a flyable day, but not XC-able. Too strong at first for paragliders, I flew the hang glider for an hour or so, then landed and flew the PG in the evening when it dropped off. No great heights to be had, in spite of a reasonable sky – maybe a bit of wave was messing up the thermals, but I was surprised not to get higher. But a pleasant afternoon and evening, nevertheless.
Well done to Ali for making it to Black Knoll on her first soaring flight after getting her CP.
Some gliding club people wandered over for a chat. As often happens, they are amazed that we carry instruments, go XC, get high enough to throw a parachute…. but nice guys, and we’ll definitely get them to buy us a drink one night in the club.
Judith didn’t come out, still suffering from yesterday’s cold – as am I now.
Sunday, 16th August 2009
Judith 16 Aug 2009 | : Boring stuff
We should have been going up the hill to have a go on the sail plane simulator at the Midland Gliding Club, but both Geoff and I seem to be coming down with a cold. This meant we did something we only do a couple of times a year… pretty much nothing. People did fly today, first on hang gliders and later on on paragliders, but we just didn’t have the energy or inclination.
Saturday, 15th August 2009
Judith 16 Aug 2009 | : Party, party, party..., Work
We’re still catching up with work after spending the week dealing with a lot of the issues resulting from last weekend. Today we worked and saw friends of Hamish who came to collect his car.
In the evening we were invited to the Midland Gliding Club’s 75th anniversary dinner. People first started flying there in 1934 (for those who are too lazy to do the maths). The dinner was nice – they had decked out the hangar with candle-lit tables and parachutes were draped along the walls. Talking to the people was really interesting. It was a huge nostalgia trip for most people with friends seeing each other for the first time in years, swapping stories of daring flights and quick snogs in the hangar.
Friday, 14th August 2009
Judith 15 Aug 2009 | : Party, party, party...
It’s a cold, grey and windy weekend in August – it must be Farmer Phil’s festival! We didn’t buy tickets for the whole weekend this year because we are going to the Midland Gliding Club 75th anniversary dinner on Saturday night, so we would miss the highlight, which is the Bob Marley tribute band. We decided to go for the whole day on Friday, but this is the warm up day and most people don’t get there until Friday night.
We got to see the end of Alice Challiner, local artist who usually plays at the Bridges on a Monday, Nikki Rous and a young guy called Tom who was fantastic. We made a quick exit when the compere mistook us for the next act (what was he thinking?).
The main stage had Goayandi, a didgeridoo dance act from France, who were brilliant, but on too early in the afternoon. We switched back and forth between the stages but stupidly sat through the death obsessed band from Glastonbury before Never the Bride came on. What a voice the singer has! Finally, we had to wait 40 minutes while the Peatbog Faeries dealt with technical issues. I didn’t know if Celtic funk would work, but after the first number they had the place rocking. They wrong footed me a couple of times when I had to switch from jigging to swaying (not easy in wellies on a muddy field), so in the end I did what all the English do when Scottish or Irish music is played – jump up and down on the spot.
Thursday, 13th August 2009
Geoff 14 Aug 2009 | : Archery, Trying, but failing, to fly
Geoff writes: a fairly messed up day for us. Light NW promised, going westerly later the day. Really, we wanted to go to Llangollen, but were very late out because we were being interviewed by the BHPA about the accident at the weekend. By the time this was done it was early afternoon, and on (sort of) at the Mynd, but very light winds and very cloudy. Almost no thermals coming through. At one point Jay and Richard did launch, got up in a very rough thermal, with lots of northerly drift, lost it, and landed. And then it went NE. And that was the end of the day for us. Though the sky did get a bit better. We finally gave up and went and did some archery.
We were a bit pushed for time too, because we had an LMSC committee meeting in the evening, which had a lot to discuss, and which we could not possibly miss. A full turnout, and a very productive meeting.
So, the flying was rubbish at the Mynd; poor in the Peaks where it was cloudy; nice soaring but no XC at Llangollen. In fact, no XCs posted anywhere in the country at the time of writing this, Friday morning.
Wednesday, 12th August 2009
Geoff writes: wet and cloudy (though as I write this a hang glider has just launched at the Long Mynd) so it was a working day.
Judith spent most of the day editing the latest podcast with Tom Payne, on his experiences in the X-Alps – the follow up to the podcast we released a while ago about his preparation for the competition. As always, well worth listening to! Go to the podcast page (link at top of this page) to view it.
Tuesday, 11th August 2009
Geoff writes: just shows you shouldn’t get too excited about a day. I thought it was going to be a really good day, as obviously did the Derbyshire Soaring Club and the Pennines Club, who both came down in force. In the event, it started off ok, with nice cumulus development on most sides of the Long Mynd, though not above it. We all flew a bit, then most of us landed, presumably, like me, waiting for it to get a bit better, and the clouds start popping off above. They did a bit, but then the wind began a steady rise, and the sky began to blue out. Most people relaunched, though not me (the increasing wind bothered me), a few went over the back in dribs and drabs, but didn’t seem very high, and were flying into the blue, rather than to clouds. In spite of that they did some good flights – Grouse did 31km, Nigel Prior did 72. Be interesting to see how far others got.
Eventually, and predictably given the type of day it turned out to be, the big lenticulars started appearing.
Hang gliders flew most of the day; I hadn’t taken mine confidently expecting to be doing a long XC on the paraglider. In the end, we gave up and went home, and I was too annoyed with the day to be bothered going out again with the HG.
And Judith is now recording another podcast, this time with Tom Payne, on his experiences in the X-Alps, following up the podcast about his preparation for the event. There are now around four podcasts recorded, but not yet edited, and these will be released over the next few weeks, depending on how bad the weather is.