October 2010
Monthly Archive
Sunday, 31st October 2010
Geoff writes: we woke up to rain, but the forecast was improving, and whilst probably not flyable, it looked like it might be sunny later. So we decided to go for a walk to Cap Norfeu. This is a stunning headland, just north of Roses, with sea on both sides. When we arrived there, the sun was out, and it was warm – and hot walking around it! A 4km walk took us about two hours, with stops to look around hermits’ caves, and for a picnic.
We got back to the car, and drove to the nearest beach for sunbathing, timing it spectacularly badly, just as the sun went in. We stayed for a while, had a snooze, then drove to the top of the next hill, back into the sun – and realised the cloud we were under whilst on the beach was a growing cu-nim. So we were sat on the top of the hill, overlooking Roses, in the warm sun again – whilst behind us was a massive cu-nim, with thunder and lightning. A bit strange.
Next on the tourist itinerary was a dolmen, since Wayne had never seen one. 5000 year old tombs, there are loads of them round here. It’s just a giant cemetery….
And finally, down to the promenade at Roses, a walk along the beach, seeing some of the brilliant sand art, coffee and beer, and back home.
Where we celebrated the end of the summer PG XC League, and confirmed that Judith has won the prize for highest placed DHV1/2 (EN B) glider, coming 35th overall. A brilliant achievement!
Saturday, 30th October 2010
Judith 31 Oct 2010 | : Party, party, party..., Trying, but failing, to fly
It was a gloomy morning and we decided not to bother going flying, as it would be an action packed day and adding flying to all the other stuff we had to do would just make it a bit stressful. I went shopping (it’s a holiday weekend and all the shops are closed Sunday and Monday), and as I got to Olot, the sky started to clear. Having not flown yesterday, we thought we could fit a quick flutter in, so headed out to Santa Brigida. The wind in the villages on the way was mostly north (with a southerly forecast that’s not that usual), but as we got to Amer, we could see someone flying and getting good height. However, as we got to the foot of the hill we could see how far off to the west the wind was. He decided to come in to land and we had a chat. It had moved more and more west as he was in the air and he decided to come down. We considered it for a while and if we hadn’t had an appointment at the airport, we would have waited it out, but as it was we decided to go back home, dump our gliders, do some more work and then go to pick Wayne up.
I had it in my head that he was coming at 4.30pm. Turns out his flight arrived at 3pm, so I had a lot of grovelling to do to explain why we were two hours late. We went straight to the fiesta de St Narcis in Girona. The Saturday of the fiesta is one of my favourite nights of the year. We started the evening at the fair, first going on the Ala Delta (hang glider) ride, which was a mini-rollercoaster. It was just like the real thing (not!). Then we discovered a new ride that hasn’t been at the Girona fair before. It’s a chair-o-plane (the carousel with the swings on chains) that slowly went higher and higher. You got the sensation of the big wheel with the excitement of swinging round all at about 75m high. I don’t mind heights, but have to admit, I started pushing myself back in the seat. It all seemed a bit flimsy when we got high, and it was windy up there too. I would have been happier in my paragliding harness!
Next was a look round the other rides and food and then off to see the castellers (human towers). This year it was Salt v. Terassa, both in blue shirts. The first tower was a six level tower, with another one inside, which they left standing while they dismantled the outside one. I love watching castellers. It’s a show of bravery, organisation, co-operation and community spirit. To be able to build the towers you need people of all ages and strength. All have to trust each other and work as a huge team. The competitors all join in and support the base of the opposing team’s tower, assisting them to make it a success. I’m sure it’s excellent for community building, although somehow I can’t see it being adopted in the UK as part of the Big Society. The fourth tower the Terassa guys built collapsed as they got to the sixth level and the tiny child that goes up last had just got to the top. The collective gasp from the crowd is huge and it’s horrible to see the mess of arms and legs and seeing people carried out of the melee. Luckily nobody seemed badly injured, although a number had ice packs on necks, eyes and arms.
Next was the highlight of the evening… correfoc! In the UK hoodies are nearly illegal, but here they’re positively encouraged; so suitably kitted up with hats, hoodies and old jeans we plunged ourselves head first at the fire-wielding devils who swirl fireworks at head height and who chase you with fireworks, trying to make you jump and skip, so you don’t burn your shoes. It’s mayhem! This year they had home-made flame throwers which they fired over people’s heads at intervals.
At one point we got separated and by the time we had negotiated the crowd to get back together we were at the back with the more reluctant spectators. Getting forward was impossible for a while – we got into one of the narrowest streets in Girona and had to wait until the bottleneck cleared before we could progress to the grand finale. That’s when more of the craziness takes place, with devils wearing helmets with fire works attached and fire seeming to spray out of their heads. Globes of fireworks had been attached to zip lines and they flew over the crowd, showering us from above. Brilliant.
Halfway through the correfoc my SD card suffered a meltdown, so I have lost all my photos from yesterday evening, and I’m gutted. [Edit: Geoff, the techie genius, managed to find some recovery software and I have some of the photos back – unfortunately not the best ones from the fair.]
See Wayne’s video of the correfoc.
Friday, 29th October 2010
Judith 29 Oct 2010 | : Miscellaneous activities
It was flyable early on today, but we had a job to do first… fix the satellite dish that was blown out of alignment in the storms of Monday. I’m not TV fan, and have resisted having the damn thing in the house, but Geoff’s very partial to watching the news. The only channel we could get after the storm was BBC News 24, but it turns out that Geoff is partial to more than just news, so it had to be fixed and that meant going on the roof. After our last little roof adventure, we approached this with some trepidation.
We live in a three story house, with a staggered roof that is 9m high on the street side. On the other side is a 10m drop onto the balcony and under that is a 100m cliff, so a long, long fall if you slip. When we had the house restored, the builders had to replace the roof and hated working here. I didn’t blame them.
Getting onto our roof, which has a big overhang, means climbing onto our little old lady neighbour’s roof and then stepping across. We were trying to sneak up there quietly, so she wouldn’t come out and complain. She’s a lovely lady, or at least we think she is, because generally we don’t have a clue what she’s saying. She’s from Andalucia, and apart from speaking Spanish with the equivalent of a Geordie accent, she also mumbles. My strategy for years has been to smile and nod and I am sure I’ve managed to offend her many times by making the wrong facial expression in response to some tragic story she’s been telling me at length. To be fair, we’re not the only ones… my parents also can’t understand her and neither can our other neighbours and they’re Catalans.
So we’re trying to quietly assemble a 8.5m ladder (no mean feat even when you don’t mind making noise), when our other neighbour pokes his head out of the window to see what’s going on. Since the road outside our house slopes, we had to find a way of stabilising the ladder, but alas, we had a clearout last week and threw all the old off-cuts of wood away. Our neighbour saw this as a challenge and mobilised the neighbourhood to get the right thickness of wedge for the job. Despite health and safety being a little known concept here, he insisted on checking it all out with a spirit level and helping me hold the ladder. He seemed to be enjoying himself immensely and would have stood there holding the ladder for hours if I hadn’t said that Geoff would be up there for a while.
The roof was still slippy from the dew, so Geoff was nervous and I could hear that in his voice from on the radio. He was initially just going to go up to do a temporary fix, but once there realised that, with a few tools, he could probably fix it permanently. Unfortunately, he hadn’t taken any tools with him, so we had to find a way to get a rope up to him without me having to climb the ladder. So off to the neighbour again, who climbed up to his attic and threw the rope across to Geoff and then he lowered it for me to fill rucksacks with spanners, etc. By this time the old lady next door had cottoned on that there was something interesting going on and I was a captive audience, since I couldn’t move far away, with Geoff being on the roof. Trouble was, I normally get about 10% of what she says, but without her teeth in, I get 0%. So I had two neighbours giving me advice/fretting about their roof in one ear and Geoff shouting instructions to me in the other. Arrgghh.
He fixed the alignment and then I heard the fateful message: “I’ve tightened everything, but that’s broken the u-bolt fixing the pole to the wall. You’ll have to go to Olot to get another while I wait, otherwise it will fall over and break the other fixing”. Two separate trips to Olot, lots of hauling up and down and endless unintelligible ear-bending later, Geoff was safely back on the ground! So much for sneaking up the roof.
Geoff had spent nearly three hours stuck on the roof and by this time it was too late to go flying as the wind had picked up. So a reward lunch in Besalu and then some more work. Front is going through tonight, so with any luck it will be nice tomorrow and the correfoc is on.
Thursday, 28th October 2010
Judith 28 Oct 2010 | : Flying, Work
We were going to work today. Definitely no going out. Far too much to do. Forecast was not great with high cloud predicted all day. So we got our heads down and and did some serious grafting. But then the sky started clearing and the sun was shining and it all looked rather lovely and far too nice a day to stay indoors. I’d done loads… maybe just a quick flight. Oh, go on…
El Mont is the mountain we can see from our house and it looked very inviting, so Geoff volunteered to drive for me, so I could have a quick flight and then we could come back and work some more before meeting our friend Debbi for dinner. El Mont is 1125m high (so higher than Snowdon), has a tarmac road to the top, and a restaurant/bar in a converted monastery next to the take-off. It’s all very civilised. Even a top to bottom takes 20 minutes, so it’s worth going up if you have limited time. In the depth of winter it’s usually just that, a fly down, but as it’s my favourite hang gliding site in Europe, I fancied going there.
When we got to the top at 4pm we bumped into Pedro, an old hang gliding friend of ours, who’s bought a little fold up motorbike to retrieve his car from the top. He says there are now so few hang glider pilots that he had no one to share lifts with any more and had to resort to finding a way to get back up the mountain under his own steam.
El Mont is a great site, but the take off is a hang gliding ramp and it was somewhat like aversion therapy for my recent launch numptiness. You have to do a good launch there – there is no choice. Aborting the launch means landing in the trees and risking an ankle. I did a good assertive launch and was off cleanly first time.
Pedro had said how good the thermals had been earlier, but once I was off there was a solid inversion and the thermals were capped under it. You’d get a bit of lift, but it was too small to turn in. After a few minutes of trying along the top of the ridge, I spotted two birds on the perma-thermal trigger point over the rocks in front. It did kick off when I got there, but it was rough and broken and I didn’t hang around. Instead I headed to the gentle thermal trigger in the gulley in front of the quarry, but it wasn’t to be and I had a nice smooth ride into the valley for a landing in Maia. Not epic flying, but a pleasant way to have a break from work and nice to see the familiar scenery of our extended valley. Geoff came in time to help me pack up and then it was back to work…
Wednesday, 27th October 2010
Today was a day of superlatives for me. I did the shortest distance; I was fastest to the landing field, and I had the briefest flight. How cool am I?
We went to Berga and met up with Nicky and also Maria and Jorge who are visiting from Colombia. After a quick coffee, we headed up to the Segunda Maria, where it was very light. The sky was clear apart from some interesting high cloud. It seemed early and quite stable, so we waited a chatted for a while and eventually Geoff persuaded Nicky that she was the local and should launch first. She picked a fine time to go, with two vultures coming over us just after she took off, but the lift was so close to the ridge that it was impossible to turn. She slowly sunk out and the rest of us decided to wait it out some more. Ages after we thought she had landed, there she was again! Impressive tenacity.
While she was struggling, a local turned up and told us the day would be over by 4pm and it would be better to launch at 3pm, which is the height of the day. My argument that it’s been consistently better later was rebuffed with the assertion that that may be the case at Santa Brigida, but not in Berga.
I should have gone with my instinct and waited… as it was I launched and sank straight out. There were bubbles, but I couldn’t thermal as I was too close to the ridge/trees. Maria faired a little better, but also landed soon after taking off. Ten minutes later, Jorge did well to get up and flew across to the Primera Maria, where he climbed out. Geoff did well too, having a nice flight and then landing back at Espais.
We got a ride back up for the car and Geoff had another go, but by this time it was late, but he still had a good flight, eventually landing at the motocross field. Everyone had had to dash off, so we had our apres vol beer at the local reservoir.
Tuesday, 26th October 2010
Judith 26 Oct 2010 | : Flying, Work
More strong winds forecast for today, but we woke up to an eerie calm and no wind in our valley. Marc posted on the Parapent Girona list that he thought it would be flyable, and I agreed. High pressure and strong tramuntana winds are an excellent mix here and pretty much guaranteed to make for great conditions at Santa Brigida, despite it being a SE facing hill. We had far too much to do to be out for the whole day, so we headed out at 3pm and met Marc in the landing field. We got chatting about holidays and by a complete coincidence, he is going out to Lanzarote the same day as us. We’ve already fixed up dinner!
As we were getting ready, Joan and friends came and five of us had a pleasant (apart from the odd bump) thermal around.
I am having a launch crisis at the moment. I was having trouble identifying what the issue actually was, because one time I stumbled, the next I had the brake wrapped round the riser and braked the glider asymetrically, etc., i.e. there was always an excuse. But today I had an involuntary launch when trying to straighten out the wing and a gust came through. I managed to get away with it, but that’s how accidents happen or mid-airs occur. I sat down with Geoff later and we’ve identified that I am not being assertive enough with the wing, letting it fly me, not the other way round. So my crap stumbled launch probably wasn’t that I fluffed it because I tripped, but I tripped because I fluffed the launch. I’ve been launching really well all summer, so I don’t quite know how this has happened, but I need to sort it – otherwise I’ll break something. It’s funny how you go through phases when everything works well and you’re on top of your game and then one element suffers and it becomes the elephant in the room. Rather than launching fluidly, I have been tense, not wanting to fluff it and that’s not helped. But having someone to watch and help identify the issue is really essential. So I have some work to do…
Monday, 25th October 2010
It’s windy here, really windy. There were pretty strong gusts in the night, but that was just the warm up to today’s wind. I had a walk around the cliff to take it all in and the trees and bushes are a swirling, writhing mass. On checking the updated forecast, they have renewed the weather warning and it’s worse. For tonight they are now predicting winds of up 45m/s at the coast – that’s a staggering 162km/h or 101mph. And they’re not exaggerating. The maximum recorded gust at Port Bou so far has been 41.3m/s (149km/h or 92mph). In Olot, just up the road from us, the maximum gust today has been 20.1m/s (72km/h or 45mph). I looked up the Beaufort scale and above 32.7m/s it’s officially hurricane force winds. We’re only getting storm force 9 here, thankfully! Saying that, we just had a gust that made all the windows shake and I just heard something smash outside.
The noise outside is wild, so we will see what the night brings. To take our mind off the weather we went to Olot to check out cheap package tour in Lanzarote, but unfortunately (for travel agents) it’s cheaper to book on the internet, so our post-conference treat is all paid for. One week flying in the Canaries, from the end of November. Can’t wait.