August 2009
Monthly Archive
Monday, 10th August 2009
Geoff writes: a wet and windy day, so we spent the day working, both on our own work and club stuff. The forecast for much of the rest of the week is quite good, with tomorrow probably being the Mynd but with a northerly component, a better direction for XC.
A lot of people have been searching for information on the accidents at the weekend. Dennis Wray, who was one of the two people who had the mid-air on Saturday, is in a stable condition, with no internal organs damaged, which is good news. However, he has multiple fractures, not just in his legs, and has a long way to go. He is likely to be hospital for a long time. (This information is from his wife, Carole).
H.H. Tsai (Hamish), who was the person injured on Friday, had back surgery on Sunday. This went well. Again, he is likely to be in hospital for some weeks.
Sunday, 9th August 2009
Geoff writes: we didn’t write about our flights yesterday because of the accident on the Mynd. However, we will write about them now, together with the report for today.
Saturday 8th August
Geoff: This was actually a very good XC day. I climbed out first, but base at that time was only about 3500′ ASL, too low to go really. I came back to the front, where Judith and Mark Leavesley were still low. We then got a climb more or less at the same time, and left the hill. Base was still low, but at least there were a few of us going. Mark was advising and guiding our BCC team (I wasn’t in it, but Judith was), so he hung around so we could all fly together. This worked really well – flying in a small gaggle, with one or two other people, meant we could work the thermals really well, and there were some gliders ahead of us as thermal markers. The sky was excellent, and there was plenty of lift, and it was, for most of the flight, reasonably smooth. Mostly Mark led out, once or twice I went first, but really it was a fairly easy day with clearly defined clouds to go for.
We did hesitate for a while about whether to track north or south, it wasn’t always clear which way the wind was. In the end we went north, and after passing Bridgnorth headed between the two ATZs of Cosford and Halfpenny Green. Base was steadily rising, and the sky suddenly, before Bridgnorth, seemed to look a lot better. For once, I felt I was flying reasonably well, both thermalling and decision making. Mark and Judith got relatively low at one point, but I followed a better track beneath the cloud street, and stayed high. We joined up again as I flew over to then whilst they were climbing up.
In the end, both Judith and I went down because we went on a glide too far, to a glider a few km ahead of us who was climbing. We got there too low to really work it, and landed near Pattingham, for around 48km. Mark reached the thermal much higher, and was able to work it better, and went on to do nearly 80km.
We were both really pleased with the flight, and it was nice to land in the same field. However, after landing, we phoned for a retrieve, and found out about the accident, which was obviously extremely upsetting.
We walked into the village, and went for a drink to the first place we found – Pattingham Working Mens Club. They were incredibly friendly, and we would strongly recommend going for a drink there if you land near Pattingham!
Judith writes: I used to always thermal left. If I was going right, I was just messing around and people would only join me in a thermal if I was going left, as this meant I actually meant business. However, my Aspen just doesn’t like thermalling left (it was torture for me to have to thermal left for four days in Piedrahita). I feel that I am falling out of the thermal, rather than circling positively like I do when turning right. So… I have spent seven and a half hours in the air in the last four days. Pretty much all of it was going in circles. Today something in my right shoulder just went ping in the second thermal and as the flight progressed it just got more and more painful. Each time I tried to turn left, it didn’t work well enough, or we were all going in a right hand thermal anyway, so I gritted my teeth and carried on. By the fourth thermal each turn was agony. It was such a good day, and I was enjoying flying with Geoff and Mark that I didn’t want to land, but in the end I couldn’t force myself to into the next thermal.
Flying with Mark was brilliant. He’s incredibly generous in the air and he waited for us at points to make sure we could carry on together. He also showed us just what an incredible thermaller he is. He’s offered people in the LMSC XC coaching/guiding and I don’t understand why people are not biting his hand off – it was a great learning experience as well as a giggle at cloudbase.
In the BCC, the Long Mynd team came third. Clive Davies flew his personal best from the Mynd to Bridgnorth – 33km. All our team members went XC, so a great result.
Sunday 9th August
The BCC was cancelled today, but people went to the Long Mynd to free fly. It was well off to the south, but the forecast was for it to come on later, as it eventually did. It was flyable off and on for a few hours, and the sky was epic. However, no-one got away (most people having left before it became flyable). I did get one strong climb but left it because I was tired, and not really in the right frame of mind. And it was rough. Probably a mistake. I was expecting it to continue working, and get smoother, but that really was the only chance to leave. I do think today was a good XC day, and we could have made more of it. But there’s always another day.
Saturday, 8th August 2009
Geoff writes: as many people will now know, there was a mid-air collision today at the Long Mynd during the British Clubs Challenge final, resulting in one fatality and one seriously injured pilot. There will, of course, be an offical inquiry, and at this stage the pilots’ names are not public. This is a tragic event for all concerned, and the second day of the BCC has been cancelled. As always, our thoughts are with their friends and family, and also our friends and co-pilots at the Long Mynd who had to deal with the aftermath of the event – a traumatic experience for all concerned.
Friday, 7th August 2009
Geoff writes: A good day at the Long Mynd for us, eventually. A great XC sky. Judith and I were probably the first to leave – which was a mistake, we went far too early. Base was only 3500′, and the thermals were scrappy and broken, in spite of the good clouds. We both bombed around Craven Arms, in different places. I managed to hitch a ride right back to launch, and rushed to relaunch – so much so that I didn’t look at what people were doing, and ended up almost immediately on my way to the bottom landing. So rather than go down, I decided to slope land, very low down, in bracken which turned out to be taller than me. The glider overflew me, and was in a real mess. I stuffed it in the bag and walked back up, then spent about 45 minutes untangling the lines. I was extremely unhappy at this point!
By the time I was ready to launch again, Judith was back, in the air, and leaving for her second XC. She got to Bridgnorth. I got away pretty fast, and was on my own for all my flight. The drift was towards the north, rather than to the south as it was the first flight – not a good direction, airspace is always an issue.
I got low a couple of times, but the conditions were far better, and base was around 5100. I got to Bridgnorth, then tracked north to avoid the airspace. In retrospect, I should just have flown between the two ATZs (or over them, which might have been possible at one point), especially as the wind had changed back, and now had a northerly component, which I didn’t really realise until too late. The tracking to the north put me down in the end, for 42km with turnpoints. OK, but not brilliant, and a lot of people went further, including Dave Thomas who landed near Rugeley for 82km (his second personal best in three days); and Andy Wallace and Liz Sampson who did in the 90s.
Still, the way I’ve been flying recently, this was a good result. The fundamental mistake was leaving too early; a bit later would have seen base higher, and a track to the south, which is easier (though Dave went north for his 82km. so it was possible!).
Judith writes: I knew it was a mistake to go early, but it seemed like we’d get more of the day and the sky looked good. Hmmm. Katie was an angel and picked me up and this allowed me to have another go. I got off and straight up and away. Just over the A49 I got very low and I was kicking myself for my impatience. I was convinced I had got a second chance and blew it by dashing off and I would have to land in the same field as earlier. I went on glide to a brown field and promised whoever could make it happen that if I got a third chance at the day I would be more patient, honest. Whoever can make it happen was listening. I got the thermal and was on my way.
I was having real trouble staying in the thermal – which ever way I extended my circle it would disappear. My usual trouble is falling out of the back of it, so I pushed upwind more. Didn’t work. The wind earlier was WNW and it was forecast to become more northerly as the day went on, so I pushed more that way. Didn’t work. In the end I realised I wasn’t drifting enough downwind with the thermal and the wind had turned W/WSW, so once I got my brain to accept not what the BBC told me, but what I could feel and see, it all went a lot more smoothly.
I got a big climb to near cloudbase over Wenlock Edge and then another near Brown Clee, but I was heading to Brigdnorth and airspace. The clouds were good that way, so I went with it. I got low over the back of Brown Clee and climbed back up with a buzzard. He was all over the shop. Pleasingly, he seemed pretty confused about the direction the thermal was going as well. If it’s tricky for the experts, I can be forgiven for finding it hard.
The buzzard and I both lost/blundered out of the thermal and I headed off to a ridge/brown field. I was low by this time, only about 200 feet above the ground. I was thinking this was it for the day when I hit a horrible, horrible thermal. It decided to play chicken with me and it won. After two very big surges, each followed by 50% asymmetric collapses I cut and run. I know some people revel in this kind of stuff, fight it out, get back to cloud base and dine out on the story for the rest of their days – but not me. I was way too low for comfort and given the choice between that and being on the ground, I can live with landing at 31km.
Next to the place where I landed was a house and mother and three kids came out to see me. I did a ‘show and tell’ with my kit and all the kids got to sit in my harness, play with my vario, GPS and radio until it got to the time when Ali was picking me up, when I had to frantically rush around the field chasing excited children to get my equipment back. I think it’s all back in the bag, although I might find a stray child in there tomorrow as well. Oops.
Thursday, 6th August 2009
Geoff writes: nowhere near as good a day as was forecast. We were expecting very light winds, but thermic most of the day. In the event, the high cloud came over very early, killing the thermic activity, presumably the approaching front coming in before it was expected. A small number of people got high early on, but there was nothing really to go for, and they landed relatively soon back at the Mynd. Others, including us, tried a few times, but there was nothing really working. About 3.00pm, we gave up, came home and did some work.
Judith writes: What was an event today was that my two worlds collided. I had seen a guy, Mark Smith, posting on the DSC forum, and he came and introduced himself today on the Mynd. I had no idea that he was the same Mark Smith, sign language interpreter, who I know from the e-Newsli list and who was at our last Supporting Deaf People conference. There’s not many people who belong to both our small communities (flying and the deaf world, that is).
And I met Griff at last, after ages. Interesting what can happen when it isn’t actually flyable!
Wednesday, 5th August 2009
Judith writes: The forecast was for SW but it was windy from the word go and we were less than optimistic about the flying prospects. At one point we were debating whether it was actually worth going out at all. Clatter is very wind affected, so if it’s blowing at home, the chances are it will be howling at Clatter. We decided to go have a look just on the off chance. It was windy all the way there but to our amazement, the wind was fine at Clatter, just too far off to the south. We got ready and waited but once the wind came on it got far too windy.
Martin Knight and Dave Thomas turned up too and the wind started lulling at times. Collectively we decided that it was probably ok once we were in the air. Geoff went first and nearly went down and we all scratched and scrabbled around for half an hour getting weak climbs which drifted you over the back too quickly. I was getting less optimistic about getting away, although the sky looked like you had to try to stay low.
At one point I pushed forward to try to get a thermal, only to turn round see the three little monkeys had climbed up without me! I got into the sink from their thermal and thought, ‘this is it – they’re off and I have to drive retrieve for them because I have landed in the bottom field’. I got very low and then hit a lovely strong thermal and climbed up and level with them in no time. I drifted towards them, so we were all together by the time we got to cloudbase.
The clouds were weird, there were different layers, so we were above some, beneath others. It was really magical. We stayed under the cloud for a while, drifting in and out of the lift. Geoff lost the lift and went down for a very disappointing 22km. (He’s very annoyed.)
The rest of us carried on. We could see Middletown and Rodney’s Pillar clearly ahead and I made it my first target. It took another hour of patient circling to get there! At one point Martin got really low and then his GPS batteries failed, but he managed to change them and then climbed back up to Dave and me. We got a good climb near Oswestry and were at base, but high cirrus was chasing us and we needed to push forward. At this point my GPS was indicating low batteries and I panicked. I had no idea how long the batteries would last, so I went for a rummage in my flight deck trying to get out my spares without dropping my phone or purse and killing a pedestrian 4000′ below me. Because I was flying randomly, hands off and looking at my flight deck rather than where I was going and sinking like mad, it took me away from the cloud street. I tried to find another thermal, but was unsuccessful. I landed between Whittington and Ellesmere, for 53km. I have been just short of 50km a few times and I have wanted to crack that distance for such a long time that I was so happy when I landed, despite being a little annoyed about my GPS. Dave made it to beyond Ellesmere and Martin got another thermal and he got to Wrenbury, near Nantwich for 81km! Fantastic flight and PBs for all three of us. It’s worth noting too that he flew from Powys, through Shropshire and into Cheshire.
Geoff had hitched back to Church Stoke where we’d left our other car, so was able to pick us all up really fast. We had dinner in the pub Martin landed next to and then drove back to Clatter to collect the cars. We got home at 11.30pm completely exhausted.
It was certainly my most memorable XC. The clouds, views and flying with the guys really made it special.
Tuesday, 4th August 2009
Geoff 05 Aug 2009 | : Boring stuff
Wet and windy. Worked, and did a podcast with Kelly Farina. Three podcasts now to be edited and made public over the next few weeks.