September 2009
Monthly Archive
Wednesday, 9th of September 2009
Lots of decision making today. Originally we were heading off to Llangollen, but Mick confirmed it was blown out other than for the really keen. Then it was going to be the Lawley, but it was too far off to the north. Mark was flying at his place, but we didn’t know how to drive up and we were at the foot of Corndon anyway. We met Richard W. and Martin there and all got set up. The wind was fine when we arrived, but got progressively stronger, which meant we had to move down the hill to launch.
Martin launched first and got up, but I struggled to keep my footing in the heather and stumbled about trying to launch. I got off in the end and went with the first thermal which drifted me over the hill far too low, but I was committed as there was no way I was going to be able to make it back to the front. Predictably I lost it and ended up at Tuffins in Church Stoke. Knowing that Kai was on his way I asked him to perform a mercy mission and despite already being at the bottom gate, he turned round and came and got me. I was going to get another chance!
Meanwhile, Geoff was circling overhead on his way over the back.
We got back to launch, and saw Simon Bailie and then Graham Cummings cruising by from Llangollen. Kai launched first, but it was so scratchy he had to slope land half way down the hill and then work his way back up. Richard and Graeme launched too but slope landed, and I got off but was at the other side of the ridge when Kai got the thermal. I raced over but was in the tail end of it. It was weak and drifty, but in the end I got to near cloudbase over Mark’s place. I flew to the next cloud and stuck with it. An even better cloud was ahead, so I headed for that, but it didn’t work (so obviously not even better!). Kai was one cloud ahead and I headed for him. I was at 4300′ at the time, so plenty of height, but I chose a bad line and hit bad sink. I couldn’t make the cloud (and Kai’s climb), so started to look for ground triggers. I decided to fly to a little tree covered ridge with plowed fields below, which had working combine harvesters in it. Better still, there were six buzzards soaring the ridge, messing around. At this time my thinking was ‘Aha!’ (I found the trigger), ‘Ha ha!’ (I’m not going to go down), ‘Oh ho!’ (It doesn’t seem to be working), ‘Oh no!’ (I’m going to land!). And so I did, much to my amazement. Bloody buzzards.
Geoff got to Clun and I got to Newcastle on Clun and we both messed up what was clearly an epic day. Well done to Martin who’s pulled off another great flight.
Tuesday, 8th September 2009
Geoff writes: a wet and windy day, but we did get a lot of work done, which is good since the rest of the week looks quite nice – flyable probably, and if not flyable because it might be too windy, should still be warm and sunny. About time too.
Monday, 7th September 2009
It was sunny! It was light wind! It was flyable!
Shame we missed most of it. We have been waiting in for a delivery for the last three days. This wasn’t a problem whilst it was howling, but when the parcel still hadn’t arrived at 1pm, Geoff went a bit bananas and started hassling the delivery company. They did come in the end – at 2.20pm.
It had been looking good on the Long Mynd and I raced up at 1pm because I couldn’t bear looking at the sky any more but it was SSW, sometimes SW, there. I didn’t even finish unpacking my bag. Once we had the parcel and were free to live our lives again, we headed out to Clatter on a tip off from Mick. Once we got there it was clearly too late to go XC and the warm front was already coming in. Despite a descent breeze it was really scratchy with lots of slope landing required.
For me, it was just like flying on a ridge soaring day on St Brigida in Spain. Look for moving grass or trees and that’s where the lift is. Worked fine, but max height I got was 140′ and that was the best of the day. Not epic, but a lot of fun, and I do like a good scratch.
Sunday, 6th September 2009
Judith 07 Sep 2009 | : Boring stuff
Back to grey, windy and later wet weather. We had a day doing jobs, like mowing the jungle in the garden, updating web sites and finishing off the stripping in the hall way. For all those who have observed the mess I made in our house for the last month – you were all right. It was much faster with a bit of water and would have been a 10 minute job with a steamer. I’ll never hear the end of it from Geoff…
Saturday, 5th September 2009
Judith 06 Sep 2009 | : Flying, Party, party, party...
Windy, but dry. I had originally hoped to go to the Arran Open, but it was cancelled due to inclement weather. The DSC was having their annual bash in Edale, but there is no way it’s flyable there today, so we opted to stay local and headed up to the Long Mynd. Geoff flew the hangie and then it was time for Luke and Chris’ big BBQ in aid of the Air Ambulance Service. It was too windy for the marquee, so vans were placed like in a circle like a wagon train, which gave a little protection. Late on a few really keen ones flew PGs, but it was still a tad on the windy side for me.
Lots of people came to the party and in the run-up to the day, they managed to raise £1190 for the cause. This was supplemented with £580 in raffle ticket sales. We didn’t win a thing (we never do!) but Dave Jackson-Hobbs cleaned up, winning three lots including the top prize.
After that, lots of booze, food, silliness and dancing into the small hours. Thanks to Luke, Chris and Joyce – great event!
Friday, 4th September 2009
Judith 05 Sep 2009 | : Archery
It was actually nice enough to be out and about, so we went to do archery. It was pretty windy so where the arrows landed was a bit of a lottery, but that made it quite amusing.
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Thursday, 3rd September 2009
Geoff 03 Sep 2009 | : Miscellaneous activities, Work
Geoff writes: well, today’s weather was, guess what, wet and windy. However, incredibly, it just might be flyable at the weekend. Let’s hope so.
So we worked, both for the JISC conference in November, and the Supporting Deaf People conference in early 2010 (these conferences have a long lead-in).
And, more interestingly, we finally uploaded a few videos from the SIV course we did in April. The classic is Cris’s boat landing. Get the links from the bottom of the Resources page above (used to be called the Articles page, but we changed it to allow for more multi-media content).