April 2010
Monthly Archive
Thursday, 22nd April 2010
Geoff 22 Apr 2010 | : Archery, Flying
Geoff writes: another frustrating day. Sunny, thermic and absolutely nil wind. When there was occasional wind, a couple of miles an hour, it was SW, or WSW. We weren’t going to bother going out, but in the end we went to the Mynd at lunchtime, thinking the sun would bring it on. But nothing doing, so back home to do some jobs. Later on we had another go, when it was a bit more west, and had a few hops, but still nothing. It was blueing out anyway. Finally, we canned it and went to archery, knowing that people had got very high at the Malverns, where it was east, and almost certainly done well in the Peaks, where it was west with a nice breeze. As usual, we seemed to be stuck in the middle.
Update: and the longest flight listed so far is 168.9km turnpoint flight by Jake Herbert, from Wether Fell in Yorkshire to the east coast. I’m sure there’ll be a lot more flights to come in.
Wednesday, 21st April 2010
Geoff writes: a good forecast for the day with strong thermals forecast everywhere. Went to Long Mountain to meet up with Martin, Mick and Dave. I was driving retrieve, since we had the LMSC AGM in the evening, and it wasn’t possible for us both to go XC – but in the end, neither of us did.
Long Mountain was a little off; Dave and Martin flew, and it was rough. Judith launched, and got lifted up, more or less completely out of control. It was very scary to watch. She got down OK, followed by the others, and we decided to try Leavesley’s hill, where the direction was better. We rushed off there at high speed, to find it not working that well when we arrived. People had a few goes but slope landed. Then Mark and Paul did get up, and gradually worked their way to just over 5000′, but none of the others got any height.
We finally left about 4.30, having given up the idea of XC, and went home prior to going to the AGM.
The AGM was fine, relatively short, nothing contentious.
We talked to a few people from other places, and it seemed unusually rough everywhere. Nevertheless, there were 32 XC flights for the day in the League, with two over 100km. As usual this year, nothing from our area.
Tuesday, 20th April 2010
Geoff 20 Apr 2010 | : Archery, Trying, but failing, to fly
Geoff writes: a nice sunny day. The forecast was for it to be a bit too windy to fly, so we spent the morning doing various jobs, including some stuff for the LMSC AGM tomorrow night; then decided to go to archery, but, since it didn’t seem anywhere near as windy as forecast, put the gliders in, on the basis that we were driving past the Long Mynd anyway.
When we arrived at the Long Mynd, it seemed fine, a bit off to the north, but not too much, and easily paraglidable. So we waited a few minutes to see what would happen, and it quickly went more north, and picked up slightly. Had it stayed on we almost certainly would have flown, though we heard that Long Mountain – a site which is usually fine in strong winds – was more or less blown out. I’m pretty sure, though, had we been at the Long Mynd earlier, when it was a bit more westerly, we would have flown.
So we went to archery, where as usual the people there were incredibly helpful, helping Judith set up her new bow properly, lending me a more powerful one, etc. So a very pleasant few hours. And we haven’t quite forgotten everything from last year.
The wind did continue to pick up, and lots of wave bars appeared, so we did the right thing by not hanging around the Long Mynd on the off-chance it would drop.
And tonight Michaela is coming for dinner.
Monday, 19th April 2010
Geoff 19 Apr 2010 | : Miscellaneous activities
Geoff writes: a flyable day, apparently, but we decided to stay in and catch up on some jobs, the main one of which was editing and uploading the latest podcast (see the post below this). The weather was actually better than we expected, no rain, occasional sun, but it was nice to have a rest – especially from Corndon – and do some stuff.
And tonight we go to music night at the Horseshoe Inn.
Podcast: Making the most of blue thermal days
Geoff 19 Apr 2010 | : Podcasts
Making the most of blue thermal days with Dave Thomas. Dave has been flying various aircraft since 1979 and has a huge amount of XC experience. He excels on blue thermal days and in this podcast he explains how they work and how to make the most of them. He uses a flight at the Malverns to illustrate his points. If you would like to see the terrain he describes, you can view Dave’s and my tracklogs from the day in Google Earth. Dave’s tracklog. Judith’s tracklog. 45mins
Download the podcast: http://www.judithmole.net/podcasts/blue_thermals.mp3
Subscribe to future podcasts: see the links on the right.
Please note: this, and all previous podcasts, are also available from the podcast page.
Sunday, 18th April 2010
Geoff writes: not the best of days. We took a while deciding where to go, not least because the wind didn’t really seem to be doing what it was supposed to. We were expecting north, or NNE, and at one point decided to go to Llangollen. However, a phone call from Mark Leavesley made us decide to meet up with him (and Martin and Wayne) at the hill behind his house, which takes NNE. But when we arrived at the bottom it was SE there, and at Corndon, and at Llangollen (and apparently east at the Malverns) so we decided on Corndon, which was where the BCC was being held. Inevitably, shortly after we arrived at Corndon, we heard that Martin had got up from Leavesley’s, and in fact he flew over to Corndon just to show off! He managed a 43km FAI triangle – excellently done, especially since everyone else at Leavesley’s went down twice, and did nothing.
Corndon was its usual – crappy – self. Just launching into very, very weak thermals. At one point Dave Thomas did climb out, but (much to his regret) came back to the front to join in above a gaggle which was just beginning to climb out. Unfortunately, that fell apart at a few hundred feet – Judith was at the top of it with 400 ATO – and that really was it for the day, in spite of many attempts by various pilots. It got very cloudy, and the sun went in. Around 4.00pm, people started to give up, and pack up, or just fly down, though the sun had, unexpectedly, reappeared. Judith and I packed up too, which of course – when nearly everyone had gone – was when it finally switched on, and a couple of people climbed out, with Malcolm Davies getting to cloud base and landing, appropriately enough, at Leavesley’s hill. If only we had all waited, the BCC would have had a good task, but it really seemed like the day was over.
It was a really hard call today, but my guess is that in spite of that some good flights have been done. Just not where we were! Corndon can be a really good site, but is incredibly difficult too, and just does not work well as a soaring site during the day, so more often than not it is just launching into the hope of getting a thermal. Unfortunately, it is the only easterly we have round here, and so far this year it has been very poor.
…. and whilst proofing this post, I’ve just seen that Richard Bungay has posted a 118.7km FAI triangle from the Blorenge. Corndon was definitely not the place to be!
Saturday, 17th April 2010
Judith 18 Apr 2010 | : Flying, Party, party, party...
I must have looked at about 7 forecasts this morning and each said something different. The general trend was for W or maybe SW, but possibly SSW, with some predicting S. What I did know was that it would be light here. The MGC forecast was giving the day a 3 rating and RASP was giving good thermal strength, so we thought we were in for a good day. Our plan was to go up to the Long Mynd early to sort out the day fee stuff and then go to Elan Valley. At the Long Mynd it was WSW. Reports from the Peaks and N. Wales said it was blown out there and it was off to the W at Elan and Clatter, so we decided to stay at the Long Mynd (unless someone gave us a good report from somewhere else).
The BCC comp was at the Long Mynd and Dave J-H promised a good day. There was a thick, murky inversion layer out front and no cumulus, so we sat around in the sunshine for a few hours, while a couple of groups managed to get highish, two people going over the back and landing at Church Stretton. We eventually decided we were definitely not going to switch sites and got the gliders out. And then it was a sit and wait day. All the birds seemed to thermalling up at the north end of the ridge, out of our reach. A few people got up and cruised around a bit and a couple landed on top, the rest bottom landing. There were about four groups who got up during the day, and had reasonable flights (but no more XCs), the rest of us just sat and waited, or had a punt and went down.
Geoff did at one point launch and fly to a bird, got about 450’ATO, before top landing. Man of the day was DJH, who was having a day off from gravity. Malcolm Davies led the last gaggle into orbit at 5pm, which must have been the best thermal of the day.
It was a fine day for a few, but many people just got bored and demotivated. A lot of people like these kind of nil wind, get up or die days, but they’re not really for me. You end up sitting there, scanning the sky endlessly, getting hot and bothered and if you do manage to get off and thermal about 20 people descend on you like a pack of vultures. This is ok when it’s a ‘normal’ day at the Mynd and it’s pilots you know, but with a comp on and people desperate to get up it makes the whole thing a little less predicable (and by that I mean worrying). I like a bit of wind when you’re on a site what is such a tiny top to bottom and in retrospect I wish I’d canned the day earlier and cut my hedge.
We packed up just as the last thermal kicked off, but it was too south for many to actually get airborne, so I didn’t get it out of the bag again. We were rushing off to Newcastle under Lyme for our biannual Peaks reunion. It’s always nice to catch up with Dave, Jenny, Brian, Shirley, Milton, Sarah, James, etc. We even did some late night pottery!