December 2009
Monthly Archive
Sunday, 6th December 2009
Judith 07 Dec 2009 | : Trying, but failing, to fly
The forecast said high cloud and moderate S wind. South is good for lots of sites. Moderate is bad for them all. For some reason, which I am yet to fathom (even after flying round here for 6 years), when it’s strong north it’s south at St Brigida and when it’s moderate south, it’s NW. Go figure! So at home there’s no wind, so we give it a go and go out flying. We see evidence of wind in the Val d’en Bas. On getting to the landing field, it’s howling. Gusts which shake the car and NW. We ate our sandwiches, read out books and then went home to work. You can’t win ’em all.
Saturday, 5th December 2009
The forecast promised much for today. Wall to wall sunshine and south wind. I had breakfast with my mum and the mountains around their village were glowing golden in the morning sun. By the time we finished our muesli, high cloud had come over and there was no sun at all. I drove home under gloomy skies but we decided to give the flying a go anyway.
We got to Santa Brigida to find a group of paragliders from Barcelona. They spend their weekends travelling around flying different sites and they were keen to learn about Santa Brigida and its potential. Also there was Enric from Maresme. So nice to see him!
Conditions got better as the day progressed. The sun came out, there was cumulus, but little wind. Geoff was first off, and squeaked in a top landing, on the small shelf just in front of launch. On his second flight he was the only one to get into a thermal and climbed to about 500′ ATO. I was desperate to launch too, but got caught up giving a site briefing, so missed my chance. Geoff got some lift as he came in to top land and this made him overshoot, and he went down. As I was driving down to get him Marc seriously skied out and went on a jolly along the east ridge. On getting back up I was rushing to get into the air, but found that someone had moved my gear and put a twist in my risers. Thankfully I noticed before I took off.
I launched and flew over to the east, and got some light lift close to the ridge. Far too close to be able to do a full turn, so S-ing was required. Unfortunately that was made a little difficult by people soaring, so I had to break right and fell out of the lift. I flew back to launch, getting lower all the time, and found more light lift, but was pushed out of that as well. Then I was pushed out of the ridge by someone overtaking me on the inside and edging me out more and more. I couldn’t turn because there was also someone following me. I was stuck flying further and further out. I had no choice but to fly out towards the landing field. Nearly brushing the trees, I found another small bubble, which I was determined to work, except that the only pilot still on the ridge saw me and decided he wanted a bit of the action. There was no way he could join my thermal properly (I was having to do one S for each full turn) so he just flew at me. By this time I was getting a little pissed off. I went into patient mode, knowing that most people get bored before I do, so I worked what lift I could and got above him and then worked it for all I was worth. He went down and I got back up, but couldn’t take the thermal much above the ridge, because there were more soarers about who had launched as they saw me getting up, so I just went and top landed. Most difficult low save I have ever done at Santa Brigida, so I was pretty pleased with myself. Ach, let’s be honest – I was smug as hell.
We had a rest and some sandwiches and the wind got lighter and lighter. People started to write off the day. That’s often a mistake at Santa Brigida, which is legendary for good evening conditions – restitution as the trees give up the heat they’ve collected throughout the day. All the Barcelona guys lobbed off and went straight down, until the final one maintained on the ridge. Time for some restitution. I re-launched at 4pm and easily got up to 360′ ATO, floating about in the evening light. Best bit of the day and everyone apart from Albert, Geoff and me missed it. Never say die, and all that…
Friday, 4th December 2009
Judith 05 Dec 2009 | : Miscellaneous activities
The weather wasn’t stunning today, so I left Geoff to struggle with the accounts some more, while I went up to Rupit to make Christmas biscuits and spend some quality time with my parents. By 4pm the whole house smelled like a German Christmas market – cinnammon, cloves and ginger. We made enough to feed the family and most of the village and then sat down to dinner, wine and games. My dad won them all, so nothing unusual there.
Thursday, 3rd December 2009
Skiiiiiing! First day of the snow season. Masella opened today and we went to collect our season passes and headed out into the white stuff. There’s only six kilometers open, but they’ve been desperate to open the resort before this weekend, which is a puente (bridge). In typical Spanish style, when there is a public holiday on a Thursday or Tuesday, they deem it not worth going into work in the in between day, so they make that a holiday as well. Tuesday is a holiday, so a long weekend all round. Hooray!
They’ve done a good job of making the most of what they have, so the runs that are open are pretty ones and we had a lovely day. We were a little cautious on the first run. By the second I got used to leaning forward again, by the third I was bending my knees to the required extent and by the fourth I was back to my old ways… if you can still see where you are going, you’re not going fast enough. Geoff managed only to fall over when he was trying to sit down in the coffee bar, so that was a result. Great fun all round.
On the way home we took a detour to the little village of Ventolá, which we’ve been meaning to go to for years. Great views and a nice place for a picnic and beer looking at the sunset.
Wednesday, 2nd December 2009
Another cracking day. We were hoping to go to Sant Pere de Rodes, but the forecast strong southerly wind put us off. Although the inland forecast was for more cloud, we headed to Santa Brigida. There were a few more locals today and we met up with Nani, Marc, Xevi and Oriol there. Erwan followed shortly after with Andy, Phil and Barney. It was sunny most of the day and nicely thermic. Everyone had a nice boat about, top landing sporadically for chats and breaks.
Erwan borrowed my glider, but I missed him stalling my wing. He’s a bit heavy on it and it was quite a sight, by all accounts. I was all for chasing him off the hill to do it again, but the lads had to go to the airport. We did lengthen my brake lines to see if it improves the glider handing. After saying our goodbyes to locals and foreigners, I flew again to test my brakes. I was all on my own and got into some sort of convergence/magic lift and could float out into the valley, climbing all the way and boat about without having to do anything but enjoy the views of the snow covered Pyrenees.
Today was the first time I wore all the clothes I usually wear when flying in the UK. Must be getting winter here…
Tuesday, 1st December 2009
Finally a nice flyable day. Crystal clear blue skies and nicely flyable all day at Santa Brigida. Only us there to start with and then Marc from Ribes arrived. A few minutes later three skydivers from Empuria Brava who have recently started to paraglide turned up. It’s ironic when you see skydivers flying paragliders without a parachute! Marc, Geoff and I all had a few flights and the wind was picking up, so we decided to call it a day and have a beer in the sunshine, when we heard a car coming up the hill. I idly looked around and saw Erwan with a guy who looked remarkably like Barney Woodhead. To my utter amazement, it was. Phil Colbert, Andy Talbot and Barney were visiting the Niviuk HQ and came out for a quick evening fly.
With the wind increasing, I thought they had missed their chance, but they all got off ok and flew until near nightfall. Smiles and beers all round. We’re keeping our fingers crossed for them to get another flight tomorrow before their departure.
Ten pilots there today – and nine of them foreigners!
Monday, 30th November 2009
Judith 01 Dec 2009 | : Miscellaneous activities
Another sunny and windy day. It’s been non-stop socialising for us since the conference finished. Rabbit and meatballs at Debi’s on Saturday, dinner with my folks Sunday and lunch with our friends Montse and Christian today. Might as well do something fun while Geoff struggles with the annual accounts…