June 2010
Monthly Archive
Thursday, 24th June 2010
I really wanted a rest day today, so I was pleased when it was cloudy and then rained. I settled down to do some jobs, but then there were blue patches; then it looked epic and then the wind increased dramatically. This didn’t stop the hangies and the die-hard paragliders like Glyn, who spent some happy hours soaring the Long Mynd. As he says: “You can fly up to the limits of your glider.” I still think you need balls of steel to fly in the stuff he does.
I arranged to meet a new pilot late afternoon, but he was delayed in traffic, so we went up the hill so that Geoff could test his harness. It looked really nice in the air and we haven’t had an evening boat about on the Long Mynd for ages, so I got my kit out and had an hour soaring. It was like flying in Spain in the evening. Just like sitting in a warm bath, lying back, arms dangling, just steering by weight shift. So relaxing…
Andy did get through the traffic and turned up for a flight when conditions were perfect. I hope he enjoyed his flight. He certainly seemed happy when I picked him up from the landing field.
Wednesday, 23rd June 2010
Geoff writes: the Long Mynd again – and an uncrowded day, since, apparently, a lot of people were watching England play in the rounders world cup, or something like that.
Great sky, we launched, I had my lowest low save ever at the Long Mynd, then climbed out. And it was very, very rough – not just low down, but high up too. And broken. And there was wave behind, which explains the roughness. Eventually, we came back to the front, and all top landed – Dave, Martin, Judith and me. We decided to wait a while to see if it smoothed out a bit. After an hour or so we all relaunched, and climbed out – no wave over the back either. Around 1500′ we sort of lost it – I think we were thermalling a bit wide in our gaggle. Nigel, Martin and Dave turned back to the front, and I thought Judith had too, so wimpishly I followed them, until I heard Judith ask why we were going back. So I turned round again to join Judith in a new climb she had found downwind. Martin, a minute or two later, tried to follow, but was way too low and ended up landing on the Mynd, well back from launch.
Judith and I bimbled along for a while, then went for a glide to a massive cloud which should have had a mega thermal underneath it, but didn’t. I think it was starting to decay as we reached it. We struggled along for a bit more, and I got another thermal which took me up 1500′ or so, but I didn’t get back to base. Judith had landed, but I managed to continue a bit longer, landing on the Much Wenlock – Bridgnorth road, for about 27km (Judith did about 21km). As ever, there was more to be had in the day, and it’s a shame there weren’t more of us to search together. But an enjoyable flight, and an easy hitch back, so could have been a lot worse! It’s always worth going over the back. You never know where you will end up.
Tuesday, 22nd June 2010
Geoff writes: a day at the Long Mynd, though not nearly as good as we hoped. Light winds and blue. Kai did get up first, but having set a goal in Norway or somewhere, decided the day wasn’t good enough, came back and went home. One or two others got up, notably DaveT, but didn’t go XC. We weren’t in any huge rush, hoping the clouds would start to develop, and it get a bit easier. In the event, there were a few hours in the afternoon where almost nothing was happening – so little, in fact, that Judith went to sleep for an hour.
Late afternoon, the clouds did start to develop, and the wind came on a bit better, and it got easily soarable. Judith and I got away almost immediately, at about 5.15pm – no-one else left the hill – and had a short, but pleasant, XC, around 20km for each of us. She hitched back to the car. I hitched to the pub. A perfect end…
Monday, 21st June 2010
Geoff writes: we were quite optimistic about today, but it turned out to be blue, no cumulus at all, and more or less nil wind. What wind there was, was on the Long Mynd. We did some gardening, and watched Paul Loz have a few goes, but get nothing. Kai, however, turned up later on and did manage to get a good thermal, and climbed high, and set off on a triangle. He came towards our house, getting lower the closer he got. Judith decided to wave a blanket at him, which he saw, and shouted down. I wanted her to flash him, to distract him even more, but she – unsportingly – refused. However, we did find out later that he landed at Bishop’s Castle, so no triangle for him today. Clearly, there were thermals, but I don’t think – from Kai’s flight – that they were that good, or that close together.
We went to archery late afternoon, and had a nice time. Driving back over the Mynd, it had come on a bit better, with a slightly stronger wind, and one or two people had managed some soaring. Not a great day though.
Sunday, 20th June 2010
Judith 20 Jun 2010 | : Trying, but failing, to fly
Everyone was talking Llangollen today. There had been lots of conferring yesterday evening and it appeared that nearly every XC pilot in the north of England was going to be in attendance. As one person put it when they arrived on site: “It’s like a comp!”. Despite the forecast wind, Llangollen was completely dead and the sky didn’t look too promising. We waited around for things to improve, when out of nowhere the wind started gusting, just as Jean-Luc had predicted. Lots of people lobbed off, but it didn’t look very much fun in the air. Kai and a local pilot made an early dash over the back, but it was a long hard slog for all the subsequent lot to get over the back. Most landed at about 25 – 30km.
We decided to switch sites to get a better chance. Reports from Sarn and Corndon had it sounding not very good, so we looked at Long Mountain on the way. We were stalked round the field by some curious young cattle and spent ages guarding our gear from cow slobber. David McK launched first, but didn’t get very high. Wayne and Frank were off next, but it looked rough. This was confirmed when Frank shouted down “It’s horrible!”.
The wind just steadily dropped, so most of us elected to save ourselves the £5 fee and Geoff, Michaela, Wayne and I went off to the pub instead.
Saturday, 19th June 2010
Judith 20 Jun 2010 | : Archery, Trying, but failing, to fly
The wind played cat and mouse with us today. I was convinced it would be blown out and in our garden it was howling. I was looking forward to another day off, but a phone call from the DSC lot at Corndon, promising 7mph winds, had us scuttling off to fly. It was really windy next to the HG landing field, so we sat at the bottom and observed the conditions for a while. During that time the only person to have their glider out was dragged while trying to take off, so we called them to find out that the wind had dramatically increased to 25 – 30mph. So we tootled off to do some gardening. Graeme did phone to say it was flyable at Sarn, but I was in the middle of cutting the hedge and the wind seemed to be getting more gusty where we live, so we decided to go to archery instead. Graeme got 2000′ above, so maybe that was a mistake.
Archery was fun, although I am hopeless with a light club bow now, and managed to make myself look like a mega-numpty by setting up the bow wrongly and Trevor had to come and fix it for me mid-shoot. Our first BBQ later.
Friday, 18th June 2010
The forecast was for a cold front to bring cloud by lunchtime and rain later, so we had a well deserved and much needed rest day today. I worked out that in the previous 8 days, I flew 5 days, a total of 14 hours and 279km.
Mick called us from Llangollen to say he had got high and conditions were good on the ridge but less so over the back, but I wasn’t tempted. Instead we did some gardening until the rain started and I was feeling so lazy, I couldn’t be bothered to drive across to Stretton to do archery once it had cleared. I did manage to perk up enough to go out for a drink and catch-up with Michaela though.