October 2009
Monthly Archive
Saturday, 10th October 2009
Geoff 11 Oct 2009 | : Trying, but failing, to fly
Geoff writes: Judith is on the club coach course organised by the LMSC. With thirty people, it’s full, and being held at the Powis Arms in Lydbury North – a great venue. I started packing and cleaning ready for the move to Spain, but when I saw hang gliders over the house, and paragliders flying too, I decided to go out with the PG for a quick flight. I’d already been phoned to be told there’d been one accident, but no damage done (probably). On arriving at the Mynd I was told of another, an accidental parachute deployment. As usual, the air ambulance came along with the road ambulance. The damage was only a dislocated shoulder, nothing serious.
In the end, I didn’t fly, mostly because the wind had picked up, and I didn’t want to wait around long enough to fly in the evening. In fact, we went back to the Powis Arms for dinner, and to meet the other people on the course; then off to the Inn on the Green for the party with the Polish pilots – who unfortunately had changed the venue at the last minute, and forgot to tell the LMSC – so no party for us, but a much earlier night than we expected.
Friday, 9th October 2009
Judith 09 Oct 2009 | : Boring stuff
More work, more packing, tidying and sorting.
Thursday, 8th October 2009
Forecast for today was good and we were going to head out to the Lawley but there was no wind and it seemed NNW. So off to Llangollen we went. As we got closer the sky looked better and better – just like a summer XC day. At Llangollen there was wind, so I stuck the ballast in the harness and took off. I’m still full of cold and as I got higher breathing in the cold air was really hurting my chest and I couldn’t pop my ears. It was also surprisingly rough in a kind of random way. Your wing seemed to be in different air to you. I don’t mind it a little rough, when you know it’s thermic or wavy, but just random swings and jerks I find a little disconcerting. I landed after 20 minutes just because I really needed to blow my nose and have a coughing fit that wouldn’t induce a stall.
A lounge around in the sun later, I took off again and a convergence line had set up which hoovered everyone up. Visibility was stunning and you could see for miles. I got cold and snotty again, but found it hard to get down. Really nice day and if I had felt any better I would have gone down the convergence line to see how far it extended. Still, a nice day and lots of smiling faces around.
Geoff writes: as Judith says, the first flight was surpisingly rough, in a different way than just ordinary thermal roughness. There was wave around over the back, and my guess is that the wave was causing some interference with the thermals. In the end, I got fed up and landed for a while. The second flight was completely different, much smoother. It was very easy to get high, harder to get down! I did consider going XC, and could easily have got to base and gone, but by that time it was getting a bit late in the day, and it was very cold high up, so I decided not to bother. Probably a mistake, given that it almost certainly was convergence and there was a nice line to go along.
Wednesday, 7th October 2009
Judith 07 Oct 2009 | : Boring stuff
Wish the forecasters would make their mind up. On Monday we thought today would be a washout, but they changed the forecast to say it would be good because the front came through last night. So today’s forecast yesterday was for sunshine, lightish NNE to NE breeze and acceptable thermal strength. The MGC forecast gave the day a 2/3 and I was going to pull myself together despite feeling pretty rubbish with the cold. No need, the last bit of sunshine we saw vanished about 10.30am and then it was cold, overcast grey skies. Martin did venture out to Corndon, and it was flyable, but we gave it a miss.
Tuesday, 6th October 2009
A thoroughly unpleasant day weather-wise. We worked, had meetings, sorted boxes and then went out to an LMSC committee meeting at James’ house. Still pouring outside but forecast for tomorrow is good, as long as the thermals don’t get dampened by the wet ground. We’ll see…
Monday, 5th October 2009
Judith 05 Oct 2009 | : Archery
On paper today should have been a fine day. ESE, lightish and increasingly sunny (that was my interpretation of the forecast anyway). Actually, it was overcast all day and nil wind. These are probably the worst conditions for Corndon, so at 2.30pm we wrote the day off and went to do archery. As soon as we left the sky cleared, but only for a short time and it soon clouded over again. Thursday is looking good though.
Sunday, 4th October 2009
Geoff writes: flyable all day at the Long Mynd. I started off on the paraglider, then moved to the hang glider, as it got a little stronger. A couple of nice flights on the HG, though at one point I thought it was getting rough (though by then there weren’t many PGs left in the air). I think it was a combination of thermals and some wave, trashing them a bit. Most I got was around 1500′ ATO, though I left a strong thermal at that height to come back to the front. We landed and went home relatively early, but the wind did drop later and the PGs began flying again.
Not sure how many went XC, maybe six or seven, possibly more. Neither I nor Judith (who was feeling a bit ill anyway) were expecting to go XC, which might have been a mistake in retrospect. Though probably had I been on the paraglider when people did leave the hill, I’d have been thinking of landing anyway because it would have been getting too windy for me. Anyway, Kai did around 80km to Uttoxeter, and Grouse 50km. Mark Leavesley landed at the Wrekin.
No hang gliders went XC – too much hassle!