August 2009
Monthly Archive
Monthly Archive
Judith 03 Aug 2009 | : Boring stuff
Back to poor weather… Windy and a bit rainy. We thought about going to archery in the middle of the day, but only got as far as the front door. It was a bit cold, and grey and miserable and we’re wimps. Back to the warmth of the office and lots of work.
Flying-wise, August has had a 100% success rate so far! We have been debating the forecast with people up and down the country for days, but decided to stay here as the Long Mynd looked as good a bet as any – ok, the front might come in here early, but at least it wouldn’t be blown out. We got up the hill reasonably early and it was already cloudy, a little windy and jam packed full of pilots.
I spent ages and ages on the ridge. I went down the south end because it looked better there and was in good company with Mark Leavesley, Steve Nash, Martin Knight, David Birch and Steve Parsons. We flew around and tried to get up, but nothing was going. I never got above 2000′. After an hour and a bit I really needed to land for a look behind the bracken, and I had started to write off the day in my mind. Just as I was thinking this, the sun came out and I finally got a decent climb. The gaggles above launch had been a disorganised rabble, so I stayed at the edge of the climb until those not serious about climbing or going over the back had left the climb and I then joined the fray. Martin was in the climb, but went back to the front, but Gordon Purdy, Trias and I stuck with it. We went over the back low, but once committed, we couldn’t get back to the front anyway.
We lost the thermal one by one and Trias went on a glide to the south; Gordon and I headed NE. I got to Caer Caradoc high, but had to fly the length of it to get another climb. It was too weak to work, so I headed to the Lawley, where I met up with Gordon. It’s a NW facing ridge and the wind was WSW so the face wasn’t going to work, so I headed to the highest point and hoped for a thermal. Read more »
I’ve been looking at July and have come up with some stats. Everyone knows it was a poor month, and this doesn’t apply to any areas apart from here and it’s worth noting that we don’t go in for desperation flying, but we only flew paragliders seven times and hang gliders three times. 19 days were a complete write-off for flying, due to wind and rain. We only went xc four times and Geoff only tried and failed to fly twice (it was that clear cut when it wasn’t flyable). This is shockingly poor for summer.
In contrast, in February, we flew paragliders 13 days, skied six days, went to the beach twice, tried and failed to fly twice and only lost 5 days completely to the weather. Roll on winter…
Geoff writes: we did eventually fly today. The forecast was a front clearing at some point in the day, after dumping lots of rainĀ – early would mean a good day, possible XC; late would mean just ridge soaring. In the end it was late, of course. We drove up the Long Mynd about 3.30, as it was clearing. Light winds, so I didn’t take the hang glider. People were flying but struggling to stay up. We went to the front, unpacked, trying to avoid all the wet sheep shit. I clipped in, at which point the wind abruptly picked up, a lot, and that was it for the next four hours. The only person flying was Wayne, who had taken his hang glider. I could have gone home and got mine, but I was sulking. In the end, we did go home, and did bits and pieces for an hour, going out again just before 7.00, when it was dropping. Had a pleasant evening flight on the PG for an hour or so, at which point it started picking up again, wave probably, and I landed. Others who didn’t land in time, landed backwards.
Still, overall, a pleasant end to the day.