April 2010
Monthly Archive
Thursday, 29th April 2010
Judith 30 Apr 2010 | : Boring stuff
We thought about doing some local tourist things today, but the promised rain put us off. We got a phone call early on to say it was sunny/bright near Welshpool and were amazed to look out of the window and find someone happily soaring the Mynd, despite the SW wind. It was tempting to have a go ourselves, but we pulled ourselves together and did one of the jobs we have been putting off for ages… shopping.
On the way to Shrewsbury at 11am it started spitting and it carried on raining with greater or lesser intensity all day. We actually had quite a productive day. The remaining prizes for the Bash are bought, we’ve looked at cars, phones and ebook readers, and I even got some clothes and a month’s worth of groceries. Then home to lie down with a cold compress – it always takes me a few hours to recover from a shopping trip.
Wednesday, 28th April 2010
The good weather spell of the last 3 weeks seems finally to have broken.
It seems like ages since we had a day in (I realise it was actually Sunday). Although we have been here for more than three weeks, we have been doing so much rushing around that I feel we have only just started settling in. So today was a day for jobs – club, domestic and paid work.
Tuesday, 27th April 2010
Judith 27 Apr 2010 | : Trying, but failing, to fly
I thought the day would be fantastic and I also thought it would be SW or SSW. Mick, Glyn, Martin and Geoff and I met in Newtown with a view to going to Clatter. It was supposed to be cloudy in the morning, but clearing and light winds until the afternoon. When we got there it was 8/8 cirrus, but nice cloud streets were extending in front, over and behind us. It was, however, off to the south. So we waited and the cumulus dispersed, leaving only the grey cirrus and not a patch of sun for miles. Mick had a couple of hops, but it wasn’t possible to stay up. So we waited.
We tried to follow the advice given in this month’s Skywings and work towards our parawaiting certificates, but the boys got bored, so I got out my emergency anti-boredom kit. I’ve been lugging it around Europe for 2 years and never used it, but today the mini-kite came out of the bottom of my harness. Martin flew it and Mick got to have the fun of untangling the knots after.
The sun came out and wave started to set up so we did some cloud appreciation. When we got bored of that, we played categories. The wind kept picking up and gusting through, so at 3pm we decided to can it and go to a tea room. Glyn was being the sensible one today. While the high cloud was around, he deemed the conditions ‘not very good’. When the wave set up, he thought ‘it probably wasn’t going to be very nice’. He usually thrives in these conditions, so we were a little shocked he didn’t get his wing out. So just as we had all finished packing up, the wind came more on and Glyn decided to give it a go after all. He proved his theory… it wasn’t very nice in the air. Tea room time. The cafe in Caersws makes the best cream teas ever, so we indulged ourselves in afternoon tea and cake and scones. And when we emerged some time later the sky was still full of wave.
Off out tonight to celebrate Michaela’s birthday.
Monday, 26th April 2010
The forecast was for a day that could be either epic or blown out, so it was about a 50/50 chance. I had a hair dressing appointment first thing and as I drove over the Long Mynd at 8.30am I was impressed to find Mark Hogan already flying. Ten/ten for effort! On my way back there were more pilots assembled, but it was cloudy and windy, so I headed home for coffee and second breakfast.
The wind soon picked up more and for a while there were only hang gliders (lots of them) and speed wings flying. About 2pm it seemed to be dropping and a paraglider had launched, so we headed out. The sky looked like you could go for miles…
On top it was still very windy and packed for a Monday. Geoff rigged the hang glider while Helen launched and went over the back. He had a nice flight, but at one point at trim on the HG was only going forwards at 13kmph, which isn’t much at all. Others took off, some went XC (voluntary and involuntary) and some landed reporting ‘interesting’ conditions. To be fair, a lot of people thought it was fine, but I don’t like strong winds, so stayed on the ground. By 5pm, Mick and I had written off the chance of an XC, so we decided to have a tandem flight. We still had to wait until 6.30pm until the gusty conditions subsided, but then had a lovely boat about, trying to make the most of the evening thermals and wave.
And then off to the pub as usual…
See Glyn’s video of us flying today.
Sunday, 25th April 2010
Geoff 25 Apr 2010 | : Boring stuff
Geoff writes: forecast showery and windy at times, we decided to make this a working day. As it happens I did see one paraglider – maybe a speed wing – groundhandling on the Mynd; don’t know if they flew, but there were quite a few showers at times. We had a productive day in the office instead.
But many congratulations to Dave Thomas, who did do 33km from Much Marcle, a Malverns site. And at the time of writing this, late on Sunday evening, the only flight entered for today.
Saturday, 24th April 2010
The forecast looked really good today, with the MGC guys giving the day a 3-4. There was a chance of it getting blown out in the afternoon, so we met up with Kai, Mike and Andy early on and headed to Bache. There were wave bars everywhere on the way there and significant high cirrus too. What was fine was the wind strength. It was quite sinky to start with (a few of us had to walk back up the hill after failing to get up), but conditions improved. Mark L. and Kai could have got away at one point, but chose not to.
On my second flight I got lower than I ever have without bottom landing, and I had to scratch my way back up. After the ribbing I had on the hill for going down yesterday, there was no way I was going to do that again a second day running. There was a little bubble of lift that seemed like a thermal but it needed to release from the hill. I worked and worked it, until it popped off, and let me climb back up above launch. Kai joined the thermal, but when he stopped circling, I dived for the top landing. I was very pleased indeed to be back up.
I had a break, chatting to Andy and Kai when the conditions finally got good and everyone had great flights, Richard Worley heading out front and Mark L. headed way off to the west, but everyone chose to stay local and not go over the back. I was being lazy and Kai was spaced out from being jet lagged after arriving from Australia the day before. He wasn’t going to fly again, but we agreed to try and do something interesting, with me coming up with the task once in the air. It seemed windier in the air and my first plan was to go west to the big knob, until I decided that there might be a big venturi effect in the gap. I got a bit of a kicking above the gully to the west, so decided to fly to the other end of the ridge to the east and then think about plans again. Everyone seemed to have landed except Steve Lowe, and as I headed to the gully to the east, I got a strongish thermal. Kai came in above me and we climbed up. I lost it at 880′ ATO, but had let myself drift too far over the trees. I turned back but was going backwards and losing height! Time to cut and run, although I wouldn’t normally ever have considered going over the back at that altitude. I lost more height on the glide across the valley, but picked up the thermal (which Kai was helpfully marking above me) again and successfully crossed the next ridge. Oh, well, might as well go XC then…
We picked up another thermal in the next valley, but I was having trouble centering and felt I wasn’t thermalling well. I saw some birds climbing over the village of Llangunllo and headed there, but couldn’t make the most of the broken lift. I checked out the wind direction and landed next to the river about 500 yards outside the village. Kai came and landed with me to make the retrieve easier. Once we looked at a map, we could see that we were only one ridge short of the valley where his sister lives and had I had the prospect of tea and cake as an incentive, I would have made the effort with the thermal and tried to fly there.
There’s no mobile signal in the valley, the pub’s been closed for years and you need a card (obtainable in Knighton!) to use the public phone. However, the lovely gentleman who is refurbishing the pub let me use their phone (and gave me a tour of the place). It will be opening in 2 months and it will make bombing behind Bache a far more pleasurable experience.
Geoff writes: I was going to fly again, before going off to pick up Judith and Kai, and was on launch ready to go, but the wind picked up suddenly, and stayed very strong. The people still in the air had some problems getting down, especially Luke, who used big ears till just above the ground, then let go to land, so popped up again, then big ears, then let go…. this went on for a while before he finally got down. I was glad I hadn’t flown again, if we’d gone XC and landing in the valleys in that strength, might have been a problem.
Friday, 23rd April 2010
Geoff writes: SW, so we went off to Clatter with a whole bunch of people, including Martin, Mark, Glyn and Mick. We launched almost as soon as we got there – Mick and Glyn launched first, and got high, so Martin and I rushed to get off. It was a perfect Clatter day – i.e. launch, and climb out immediately, no wasted time on the ridge. It was a bit rough in places, but the clouds started to develop nicely, and we were able to fly from cloud to cloud, without losing much height. In the end, we got a bit over-confident and went on a long glide between clouds, expecting something to pop up on the way – as had happened previously during the flight. And it did pop up, but only after we had glided to the ground! Patience, patience, patience! We should have stuck with the cloud we were with until we saw something forming a bit closer.
Still, 47km, so not too bad, especially after the difficult couple of weeks we’ve had here, compared with the rest of the country!
Graeme and James – who arrived after us – also went XC, though I’m not sure how far they got. Judith, unfortunately, didn’t manage to get away.
And the retrieve was another master class in hitching. We got a ride from Oswestry right back to the Long Mynd launch (we thought it had gone west) from Ben, who lives in Norbury just down the road from us (and who we didn’t know before today). Brilliant retrieve.
Only thing was, we then had to drive back to Clatter later to pick up Martin’s car ….. Still, no-one’s perfect!
See Glyn’s video of our flying today.