August 2010
Monthly Archive
Friday, 20th August 2010 (Spain)
Judith 21 Aug 2010 | : Competitions, Holiday
I’ve arrived in Ager for the first of two comps, back to back. I am a little apprehensive about doing one comp after the other, because at the moment it looks very, very flyable, so it’ll be full on for two weeks with little prospect of a day off. I’ve been a little nervous about these two particular comps, since both are in places renowned for big air. On the other hand, I don’t really know why I am particularly nervous. I know Ager well, having flown there a fair bit and having learnt to paraglide here. I have a nice safe wing and I can always land if I don’t like the conditions, since I am a clear also-ran, rather a serious competitor. The other nice thing is that with 35-odd competitors, the women’s comp isn’t going to be crowded, so it won’t be too busy in the gaggles.
My priority of these next few weeks is fun. I’m going to enjoy the holidays, hang out with the girls (and guys next week) and do some good flying too, I hope.
Geoff dropped me off this morning, bitterly regretting that he’s not coming with me when the forecast is so bad. In the seats on the plane next to me were some lovely young Welsh lads on a stag do. They had dressed the groom in a polyester matador outfit, which was going to be a) far too hot; b) somewhat tasteless given the amount of people injured in the bull rampage of yesterday; and worst of all c) incur the wrath of every Catalan who will think he is making a Spanish nationalist statement against the Catalan bullfighting ban. Let’s hope he gets gored by a passing bull before the Catalans get him.
We had some fun and games getting all our party assembled at the airport, with us all arriving at different times. Catherine from Switzerland had arrived at 8am. Kirsty and Ruth were already there, and I was supposed to be last and phoning for the retrieve at 1.30pm. We were short of Domenica and found her two and a half hours later in the other terminal, where it had taken her three hours to get back her paraglider her airline had lost the day before. Joanna arrived at 4pm from Venezuela via Frankfurt, having been upgraded to business class and then waited on hand and foot by Corinna Swiegerhausen (the German national HG champion), who works as cabin crew on Lufthansa.
We got to Ager some hours later and first things first… a cold beer and meeting up with Emma. Lots of people were flying and it would have been nice to go up, but we had to sort out the apartment (we didn’t get the one we booked in March), and were too hungry. So nice to see so many friends. Mike Cluer is here, as well as many women not seen in ages. Really nice to have big dinner with so many smiling girls.
Friday, 20th August 2010 (UK)
Geoff 20 Aug 2010 | : Competitions, Miscellaneous activities
Geoff writes: I took Judith to Bristol Airport this morning; she’s flying to Ager in Spain for the Women’s Paragliding Open, then to St Andre in France for the British Open. She is obviously devastated at being apart from me for two and a half weeks, but is consoling herself with the thought of lots of cheap alcohol, seeing old friends, hot sunny weather, and flying every day. Oh, and being chased by all the single male pilots who are flocking to Ager for the women’s comp.
After dropping her off, I decided a good substitute for Spain in summer was Weston-Super-Mare. I’ve driven past this UK holiday resort dozens of times in the last 30 years, but never been there, and I have a weakness for British seaside towns (I do like to be beside the seaside…). It’s actually quite a nice place, though it felt a bit like visiting the seaside in winter, rather than mid-August. It was very cloudy, no sun at all, with rain clouds in the distance. Strong winds. A great beach, but empty apart from one group of people who, very optimistically, were about to set up their beach blankets and hire their deck chairs.
The pier there burnt down a couple of years ago, but is being refurbished – the posters said it was due to open in Summer 2010, so they need to get a move on.
The promenade was literally a building site – they are redoing it, partly to make it nicer, but also to improve the sea defences – apparently the town is often flooded. But the noise and the disruption must be driving the local businesses crazy.
Still, there are some great advantages to the place – apart from the brilliant beach. There is every tribute band in Britain playing there at some point, including Abba (of course), Dusty Springfield, Billy Fury and Zee Zee Top. Or maybe the last two are the originals?
It’s also got its own version of the London Eye (which itself is just a jumped-up big wheel) called, imaginatively enough, The Wheel of Weston.
Cheap too – a bacon sandwich and a coffee right on the sea front for only £2.50. And lots of public toilets (something Britain is still the best in the world at, for our foreign readers).
The first hotel was built there in 1810. When the town is finally finished, it’ll be a great place to visit.
Thursday, 19th August 2010
Judith 19 Aug 2010 | : Boring stuff
The forecast had a high level of uncertainty about when the front would come in today. I thought we would get a sunny morning at least, before the cloud came in, but it was grey and miserable from the start. We couldn’t go further north, since I need to be packed and on a plane tomorrow morning and I didn’t actually think it would be light enough there to be flyable. Turns out I was wrong and Barney and Phil did a couple of respectable XC flights in the Peaks.
Here it was windy, the Long Mynd was clagged in at lunch time and it started raining at 3pm. Looking at the forecast, I am glad I am off to Spain!
Wednesday, 18th August 2010
Judith 18 Aug 2010 | : Miscellaneous activities
A surprisingly gorgeous day, despite the forecast heavy rains. Geoff’s family came to see us and we all packed our rain jackets for the day out. We didn’t need them. I was over-dressed with a jumper. We sat out for lunch in Much Wenlock and then had a walk round, seeing the Guildhall, church and museum and indulging ourselves in yummy ice cream.
On coming back over the Long Mynd, hang gliders were rigging and although it was a bit top end, they were flying quite happily this evening.
Tuesday, 17th August 2010
Geoff writes: a day with a poor forecast, spent catching up on work. Actually, there was less rain than we expected, and it was certainly flyable at Long Mountain in the evening, if not during the day. But useful to catch up with work.
Monday, 16th August 2010
Richard Westgate’s second Gradient record encampment has started and he called today as a potential record breaking day in our area. We were a bit dubious about the possible wind strength and suggested they go to Long Mountain. Once they established that the Long Mynd was howling, they came along with us. We met Ken Wilkinson and the BCC stragglers there, so there were plenty of markers around. The wind had been howling on the way, but as usual on Long Mountain, the wind was much lighter on take-off and while there were periods when it was top end, it was flyable.
Richard, Kai and Mark Jones got away as the first gaggle; Ben Friedland got away later and then it was a succession of dribblers going XC. The front appeared to be coming in early (unless it was a false front?) as the high cloud appeared above us. I took this as a sign to get on with it, but the climbs were slow and difficult and coupled with the strong wind, this meant it was necessary to leave the hill low. It took ages for me to get any usable height and I got a separate climb from the others but joined Ken, Paddy and Dave Thomas once over the back.
I was flying shockingly bad. I felt really rusty in the air, not having thermalled properly for seven weeks. I had endless trouble finding cores, and the others in the gaggle outclimbed me easily. I just couldn’t find a comfortable turning position. I minced along until I was decked over the other side of Wenlock Edge, and it was only due to the strong wind that I got that far. I never got higher than 3000′ AMSL! A lot of us were down in the same area, but Martin managed to connect with the good sky just ahead and carried on to do another 100km, scoring 130km and getting into the 100 Club. Well done.
There were four flights over 100km from Long Mountain, so it was a good call!
Sunday, 15th August 2010
Geoff writes: A good forecast for today, but the weather turned out much worse than the forecast. How many times have I had to write that recently!
Forecast was NE, a nice breeze, cloudy early, but then rapidly getting very sunny, with reasonable thermal strengths. So, along with a lot of others, including the BCC, we went off to Corndon. It was cloudy, but we expected the sun to break through any minute. The BCC set a short task, only 25km, but that was partly because they wanted an early finish to do the prizegiving, and minimise the long retrieves. Kai set a goal to Tenby. I did the site briefing, stressing what a good XC site Corndon was.
And then we basically sat there for the next 4 or 5 hours, in almost no wind, and very little sun, chatting to people in the comp. Thermals coming through were rare, and very very weak. A few people had a go at different times, and the ones who did really well managed to scrape back on top. The others had to walk back up. Kai didn’t quite make Tenby – he went on a glide in front, and landed on the ridge next to the hang gliding bottom landing.
Eventually, Ali managed to scrape a thermal, and must have got a massive 400′ ATO, and glided off, to land at Church Stoke – less than the activating distance of 5km.
People gave up then, and started to fly down. A few people right at the end, including Judith and DaveT, managed a bit of ridge soaring, even occasionally getting slightly above launch, but that was it.
Of course, as we drove away, the cloud did finally clear and the sun came out, and the wind picked up – but far too late!
Amazingly, the BP Cup in Snowdonia did managed a respectable task of around 40km, I think, with a race from Berfydd to Criccieth, and a number of people making goal. So they have managed two tasks in two days, a lot better than the BCC here.