Judith's blog

Flyable on the Mynd all day, but we didn’t go. Too many online/telephone meetings and work for the conferences and preparations for the departure. We’d normally be gone by this time (we haven’t been in the UK in October for years), and it’s strange to be here in our more work intense period of the year. Still, lots of work now means flying tomorrow and trips to the beach, Berga and Ager when we get back to Spain.

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Geoff writes: a fun and varied day, starting with lots of work for the various online conferences we are in the middle of organising. Then in the afternoon, we realised it was flyable, and loaded up the van with my hang glider and the paragliders, and the archery stuff. Drove to the Long Mynd, decided it was very wavy, and not really an XC day, so went to do some shooting – first time for a couple of weeks, and we need the practise. Then drove back over the Long Mynd and had a nice evening flight, going to both ends of the ridge in light wave. Great views, you could see the Malverns.

And finally, off to the Powis Arms in Lydbury North to speak to the landlord, Gerry, about various events the Long Mynd Soaring Club are running there. He is incredibly helpful, and very flyer-friendly!

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We really need to catch up with some work and jobs for going away, so although it was flyable in the morning, we ignored that fact and kept our heads down. It got breezy in the afternoon and flyable for hang gliders but I was feeling under the weather and decided to keep on working. By the evening though we needed to get out for some fresh air. We could see a glider layed out on the Long Mynd, but it was windy in our garden and there was a huge wave bar stretched across the sky. On phoning Rich, he said there was nil wind on top. He couldn’t see the wave bar – from below it just looked like cloud. I took a couple of pics just to show people what was going on from a distance and then we headed up the hill.

Two people flew, but by the time we got up there the wind had picked up again. You could see the wave bars setting up ahead and the sky in the distance was just amazing. You could see the clouds from above as if you were in an aeroplane. I don’t really trust wave on a paraglider, so am usually very cautious in those conditions, so decided against it. A guy on an XC2 flew later though cruising along the ridge in the sunset.

Lovely dinner with Michaela later and then excellent music night at the Bridges. So good, we booked another act for the party next year.

See photos of today.

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We all got up late, mainly because everyone seemed to have looked out of the window and decided to have another half an hour to rest our aching legs from the night before. It was cloudy, as usual.

We hoped that it would burn off like yesterday, so headed off to the Long Mynd at lunch time. It was packed! Most of the DSC seemed to be there and it was nice to see so many old friends, including John Stevenson. It was scratchy and someone would launch and stay up, so everyone else would get off, then it would get sinky and everyone would land. The birds were out in force, but that may have been because it was so gloomy that the rabbits thought it was evening and were out playing bait.

Dave decided to have another test flight of my Aspen, so I got a go on his glider, the very yummy Avax XC2. I like it. A lot. We set ourselves a task of getting a reasonably decent flight in the XC league and planned to do the Long Mynd ridge run and by the time we had done that the sun would be out and we would get high and fly to Craven Arms for tea and scones. I got a head start by launching first and bombing along the course on the XC2. The start was Black Knoll and I got there no problems at all. Passing back by the gliding club I passed Dave on his way south. It got a little tricky towards the north end but I followed some birds which turned out to be no help at all. There were about 12 buzzards (and a gaggle of crows) near Pole Cottage. Their plumage was still slightly grey and I think they were young, still finding their wings, so they were happy to fly close, mess about in sink as well as lift, and generally just fly about testing their muscles. It was amazing to fly with them, albeit briefly, because flying with them would have put me on the ground for sure, they were that random. So back to Black Knoll, flying over launch looking down over lots of upturned faces of people who didn’t take off (why?) and then back to Pole Cottage.

By the time I was at the finish of the ridge run (Black Knoll again) I had lapped Dave (I have to stress that this was all due to the glider, no way superior skill on my part!) and was trying to get high and stay high to wait for him. I was there with Liz, Andy, Brian, Simon and Pete Attley (and Pete Cook, but he fought it out, landed and I saw him walking back later). Despite our best efforts, the sky was 8/8 cloud cover and only very weak thermals, so we got lower and lower and decided to cut our losses and top land before we got flushed. The first question on Pete A.’s lips was ‘Have you got any food?’ So we pooled our resources, and it’s really interesting to see who carries what in their harness. I’ve never thought of flying with onion bhajis, but may change my view on that in the future. It had dropped off to nothing, but Pete offered to provide us with wine and cheese, but this would mean flying back to his car, getting the food and flying back, so we set him the challenge to do that while we waited for him. He’s always game and was up for it, but by the time conditions improved we all wanted to be in the air so we all flew back together.

Dave, meanwhile, had passed us, followed a bird and flew off the end of the south end of the ridge to land a Plowden. I went to get him, so he wouldn’t miss the wine and cheese. Turned out we both missed it! What we didn’t miss was Ali and Sally having a really nice evening flight. Ali got high and top landed and it was great to hear her whooping with joy as we drove off.

See photos of today.

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Lots of doom and gloom as the morning was cloudy and there was no wind. Eventually, people started flying at the Long Mynd and actually getting high at Black Knoll. We headed out and the place was packed, as you would expect on a good Saturday. Dave and I checked my line lengths to try to diagnose my left hand thermalling issue and he test flew it, but no obvious turns. As he took off the sky brightened significantly and it turned into a glorious sunny day.

Andy was one of the first off and pushed out to Norbury but didn’t make it quite back to the ridge. All of us launched and had to slope land and as the day blued out if became less apparent where we should go – either a triangle or over the back. Mercifully this decision was easy for me – I never got the height to do either.

It seemed obvious not to stick to the area of the ridge in front of launch (where all the fields are green) but to head to Black Knoll, where dark fields where being plowed. Right enough, there were loads of thermals to play with and Andy, Dave and I had the place to ourselves (other than Mark’s students). Lovely afternoon.

In the evening we went to a great ska/jazz do at the Three Tuns for a bop and beer.

See photos of today.

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Geoff writes: not the day we expected, but fun nevertheless. We thought it was going to be relatively light winds, cloudy at first but then clearing, and probably a good XC day. In the event, it was flyable for PGs in the morning, then began to pick up, and from about 1.30 or so, became too strong for PGs, and stayed that way for the rest of the day (apart from one or two hardy folk at the end of the day). Judith went home to do some work, rather than sit around waiting for it to drop. The sun came out for a short time, but it quickly clouded over again, to give complete cloud cover from mid afternoon on.

Whilst it wasn’t flyable for paragliders, it was fine for hang gliders, so I flew my Laminar. Nothing epic; I got about 1300′ ATO, stayed high most of my flight. Base was around 1800 ATO according to Jason, so hardly worth going with, given the cloud cover. Some weak thermals, quite buoyant really. I did enjoy the flight, just over an hour. I landed then for a rest, was going to fly again, but, again, it was so cold, I just packed up.

Tonight, the pub with Brian, Andy and Dave, who have driven down from the Peaks and Scotland and are staying with us hoping for a good XC day. We’ll see tomorrow!

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Geoff writes: managed to get a lot of flying today at the Long Mynd, though it was not quite the day we expected. Most of the day it was very cloudy, almost no sun, and very cold! People were flying from early on; we went out about lunchtime, having done some work first, and the wind promptly dropped to almost nothing, and no sun meant no thermals to speak of. Judith did launch after we’d been there a while, when I saw some birds thermalling, and managed to get 7 or 800′ ATO. No-one followed her off though, until it had gone through.

Then an hour or so later, it started to get better. The wind picked up a little, there was enough to ridge soar whilst connecting with the weak thermals, and it became easy to stay up. As it got better, people spread out away from launch, which was helpful in avoiding too many gliders turning in too small a space in too many directions.

Later, it started to wave, not incredibly strongly, but enough to give plenty of lift, making it easy to stay around 800′ ATO, and push out a little. There possibly had been some weak wave much of the day, just kind of hidden by all the cloud. Over the rest of the day, the wind picked up, and I had trouble top landing, going slightly backwards until I managed to push out in front again, then top landed successfully a few minutes later. Eventually, it became too strong for PGs, and the skies were left to the hang gliders.

Judith also had great fun doing a tandem with Nigel Lasseter.

So, not the XC day we hoped for, but fun soaring, and, at least earlier on, a good day to practise light wind flying and soaring.

See photos of today.

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