September 2010
Monthly Archive
Tuesday, 7th September 2010
Geoff writes: a wet day – very wet at times – giving us the opportunity to catch up on work.
Monday, 6th September 2010
Judith 07 Sep 2010 | : Boring stuff
It really did feel autumnal today and it was a bit of a shock to the system to wake up to grey skies and a howling gale, after two and a half weeks of heat, sunshine and light winds. I have a mountain of work to catch up on as well as the usual coming home stuff of washing and sorting. Geoff was pleased to have me back… first decent meal he’s had in weeks.
Sunday, 5th September 2010 (France)
Judith 06 Sep 2010 | : France, Holiday
I wasn’t too hung over after the party either! Time to say good-bye, only to meet loads of people back at the train station. I got there early, followed shortly after by Kirsty, Pat, Alex and Dave B. Kirsty was getting concerned that we wouldn’t all fit in, especially when Sarah, Barbara, Chris, Ruth and Mick turned up too with all their bags. The train is a single carriage, narrow gauge train with no space for luggage. Most people on it seem to be train enthusiasts who book their outings in advance.
On the way up, Steve Newcombe had been charged an extra fare for the seat for his paraglider, so we were prepared for hassle. The conductor nearly had a nervous breakdown when he pulled into St Andre station and saw all our bags and he started gesticulating wildly and talking in rapid-fire French. I think our determination to get on the train was evident, because he stood aside but told us no way we could leave any luggage in the aisles. We managed to pile everything between two rows of seats with Alex and Dave holding it in place and the people sitting either side glancing over their shoulders nervously every time we approached a bend. We had to stand or sit at the drivers knees for the first hour, but as the train got closer to Nice we all found seats. I would have loved to have taken photos of the stunning scenery, but my rucksack was stashed under a load of others bags and was inaccessible.
At Nice, Chris assured us that the airport bus was only down the road and then one block away, so we walked. He somewhat mis-sold us the trip. A sweaty 15 minutes later our funny looking group arrived at the main station – you need to appreciate that Alex, for example, was carrying two paragliders and looked like a Sherpa.
We ended up at the wrong terminal and then lost the marshalling team, so never got to say goodbye and thanks. Once we had checked in and got to the waiting area we were reunited with housemates David, Bren and Richard, so it was another round of good-byes. I’m not one to say no to hugs!
Back in Brum it was nice to see Geoff, but it was cold, dark and windy. We stopped off in a pub on the way home for dinner and to my utter amazement, they had their Christmas decorations up and all the staff were wearing shirts advertising their Christmas booking offers. Seems summer is really over.
Sunday, 5th September 2010 (UK)
Geoff writes: the day after the party, and no hangover. As forecast, it was far too windy to fly. I helped a bit with the clearing up, then went to the cafe in Edale for breakfast. Nice to chat with Viv and Phil Fouracre. Then went for a wander around the Peak District. I’d forgotten how incredibly crowded it can get. But still a stunning place.
Then picked up Judith from the airport in the evening. Nice to have her back in one piece!
Saturday, 4th September 2010 (France)
Judith 06 Sep 2010 | : Competitions, Flying, France
I decided to fly on the last day and the main objective was to enjoy it. The forecast was for windier conditions and an evening flight looked unlikely, so I went up in the first bus and got ready. As we were setting up, wave bars started forming in the distance and I decided that I would fly until they got closer and then I would go down. I didn’t fancy flying in mountains with lots of lenticulars around.
The task was designed to keep us away from the wind and we had to go into wind to a start cylinder 3.5km away, then 20km north and zigzag a bit then back to the HQ. I took off 20 minutes after the window opened and spent the next 40 minutes getting high and trying to push forward. I headed out over the ridge in front but failed to clear it and had to head back to the launch ridge. It was turbulent in the lee, so I resolved to get a lot more height before my second attempt. I got a strong thermal and got to 2300m and cleared the ridge easily, although not without a little kicking. I lost a lot of height getting to the start, but managed to drop back onto the ridge, climb up and get back to the launch ridge to start making my way to the first turn point. I ridge soared to the end of the ridge, while Calvo called the conditions level 2 (caution). Adrian Thomas and Wagga had been calling 2 or 3 for a while, so I decided then that the task would soon be cancelled and I didn’t fancy being in the bottom of a windy valley or having to wait for a retrieve bus, so I about turned and headed back to St Andre. The task was cancelled 10 minutes after I landed.
The ironic thing was that I didn’t actually find it that rough or scary. I was flying around thinking that if this was how the other days had been, I shouldn’t have been so wimpy and just got on with the flying. However, when others landed they said it was the worst day of the lot, really turbulent and nasty (others reported nasty conditions further along the course line, so I think I didn’t fly far enough to get into the really rough stuff). It just goes to show how important not just your attitude is to a day, but also your feeling. You can be really up for a task and accept roughness, or be worried about the conditions and feel the turbulence as really threatening. Since I wasn’t bothered about the task, I flew as far as I wanted and as far as I enjoyed it and when faced with a bunch of valleys I didn’t think it was sensible to be in, I made the choice to fly away, so had a nice flight.
The flight (and stunning views) did make up for some of my negative views of the place and it’s clearly a great place to fly, but I’m not sure I’ll be back in a hurry for an all out racing comp – at least not without going there to do some free flying first. There are rumours of the Nats going back there next year and I think that would be a shame. For one thing I don’t think it’s good to go to the same venue in consecutive years and for another, given that nearly 10% of the competitors had incidents, it might be good to have a more relaxed venue to attract a wider field of competitiors – the Nats are not just for the big boys after all.
Prize giving was fun and great to see Kirsty second overall in serial class, and local boy Neil Roberts second in the champs. And of course well done to Craig and Wagga as well.
The dancing went on into the small hours. And I had the great honour to be told to f*** off by Bob Drury who was the DJ. Apparently he doesn’t do requests!
See photos of today’s flying and prize giving.
Geoff writes: the final score – ten reserve deployments, one power line landing, and at least two tree landings. And another incident I don’t know of – the competition organisers said there were 14 incidents in total. There were about 146 pilots, so about 10% of the pilots had serious incidents. That seems quite a high risk to me. Maybe it’s a reflection of the venue, maybe it’s the type of gliders people fly. Flying is always going to have an element of danger, there will always be accidents, and people don’t have to fly, they choose to do so, it’s their decision. But for me personally, a 10% chance of an accident like this is way, way too high!
Saturday, 4th September 2010 (UK)
Geoff 06 Sep 2010 | : Flying, Party, party, party...
Geoff writes: I decided to go to the Peak District – partly because I thought the flying would be better there, and partly because it was the Derbyshire Soaring Club’s summer party on Saturday evening. It was a good call. The wind was SSE – no chance of a significant XC flight in that direction from the Peaks, because of airspace, but then it wasn’t really an XC day. It was, though, a lot of fun, doing the ridge from Rushup down to Lose Hill. It’s not quite as mindless as just doing the Mynd ridge run, you have to work a little bit more, not least to get around Mam Tor. And there were plenty of thermals, in spite of the cloudy sky.
The evening party was excellent, and I caught up with a lot of people I hadn’t seen for some years. Makes a change for me to have to do the talking. I usually leave that up to Judith.
Friday, 3rd September 2010 (France)
Judith 06 Sep 2010 | : Competitions, France, Holiday
I decided to have the day off today, and get away from the crowds. I have been surrounded by people for two weeks and fancied a bit of solitude. After a lie in I did some work and then the went for a leisurely lunch on my own and was snoozing at the river when the race leaders came in. It was a nail biting race between Luc Armant and Neil Roberts, and Neil won. I was going to go for an evening flight, but ended up just driving for Emma and Mark Begg, who is here on holiday.