November 2010
Monthly Archive
Friday, 12th November 2010
Judith 12 Nov 2010 | : Flying, Work
It’s all getting a bit hectic with us. We’re trying to get things scheduled for the few slots we have available in the next two weeks or things will be pushed past Christmas. We had to make my traumatologist appointment in person, and the only time my mum (Catalan – English interpreter/moral support) and I are here at the same time in the foreseeable future is the 19th November, so Geoff and I went off to make the appointment today. To make a long story short, I can’t be seen in a public hospital other than in an emergency, which makes sense… if I could, on an EHIC card, then health tourism would be the #1 reason for coming here. Other than the near non-stop sun, fantastic food, great flying, wild fiestas and lovely people, that is.
As we were already driving past Bellmunt, it made sense to go there to fly, although others had gone to Santa Brigida and Sant Pere de Rodes. It looked great. Vultures were thermalling and it was hot, with the forecast temperatures being 23C. Since we were on our own, I offered to drive for Geoff. I’m not sure what happened, maybe he launched in a bad cycle, but he sunk out quickly, and although he hit a good thermal in the valley, was down before I managed to drive down. We couldn’t decided wether it was best to drive back up for me to fly, or if we should go to Santa Brigida, where both of us could fly. A call to Oriol confirmed that we should go to Santa Brigida. We got there to see Sergi and Oriol high and rushed up, but by the time we got ready and off, it was a short flight. I top landed to have a chat with Sergi and Geoff flew until it got scratchy a little while later and he went down. It was probably ok again later, but we still had a lot of stuff to do, so headed back home via a few errands in Olot. And now more work… I have processed more than 90 bookings for our conferences since Tuesday, and they keep coming!
Thursday, 11th November 2010
Geoff 11 Nov 2010 | : Flying, Work
Geoff writes: a warm, sunny day, with light southerly winds. A good day for flying, but unfortunately Judith had to take her parents to the airport, and I had an online meeting I couldn’t miss (it’s getting increasingly difficult to fit in non-work stuff). The meeting went on for some time, so in the end we decided to meet up at our closest site, El Mont. As Judith arrived at the bottom, she saw a paraglider flying there, so it seemed like the right place to be. We’ve actually flown there loads of times, on hang gliders, but I’ve never flown a paraglider there before, though Judith has many times. The launch is a small ramp – very easy on a hang glider, and very hard on a paraglider. Judith got off perfectly, first time, but it took me two goes – light winds, pull up and then run like f….
It was quite thermic, and rough in places, and I had at least one large collapse, which was a bit surprising. There was wave about, though I don’t think that was the problem. The thermals were just strong and rough. We both flew out into the valley during our flights, and each picked up some less rough stuff, which kept us up for a while, before we went and landed near the village (and her parents’ car, which was our way to get back up the mountain).
Back on top, we had our apres vol beer looking at an amazing sky, and the sunset was pretty special too.
So an interesting day, if not quite epic!
Wednesday, 10th November 2010
Geoff writes: a cloudy day, with some sun. We were considering going out in the afternoon, but Judith went to the doctor to see about her coccyx, which has been paining her for months now. She tried to go in the UK, but there wasn’t enough time – the GP referred her to the hospital ‘urgently’ for an MRI scan, but it took months for her appointment to come up, and when it did, it was after we were leaving for Spain. Here, she went to the doctor, who said she needed x-rays, so then went immediately to the hospital, where she was x-rayed within 20 minutes; then back to the doctor. He has referred her to a specialist, but probably she will be able to get an appointment for that within a week or so.
I think – though I’m not sure – that the reason everything is so much faster in Spain is that there is a much higher ratio of doctors (and medical staff generally) to the general population, than there is in the UK. Anyway, medical treatment here is much, much faster than we would ever get in the UK.
So, we didn’t get to fly, but I did get to do a lot of work.
Tuesday, 9th November 2010
Geoff 10 Nov 2010 | : Trying, but failing, to fly, Work
Geoff writes: a beautiful day, warm and sunny. We did try to go and fly, meeting up with Oriol at El Mont, but decided the wind was too far west and it wasn’t worth the drive up a mountain which is higher than Snowdon. So we went and had a beer and sandwich in Besalu, then back to work. As it happens, it was probably flyable at Sant Pere de Rodes, but the closer we get to the conference, the less time we have for driving around on the off-chance. So, mainly, today was a work day. And the more work we can get done now, the more time we have for getting out in the next few days before we open next week.
Monday, 8th November 2010
Judith 08 Nov 2010 | : Boring stuff
What an interesting weather day today was. Not particularly here, where it was cloudy in the morning, then bright sunshine from lunchtime, but far too windy to even think about flying. But the synoptic was amazing. All of Europe, from Portugal to the Greek/Turkish border, had crap weather, with the exception of Sweden, where is was sunny and (I think) flyable. Must be some kind of freak occurrence, Sweden being the only flyable place on the whole continent in November.
And just to prove it, I had a peek at the satpic and indeed, there was a big blue hole punched by the high pressure over them, while the rest of Europe had disappeared under a blanket of cloud.
I’m very tempted to write to PGForum and ask the Swedes what it was like…
Sunday, 7th November 2010
A dank, grey, miserable day. The forecast rain held off until a thunderstorm started this evening, but it was so gloomy outside, I wouldn’t have wanted to go out anyway. We have tons of work to do and got on with quite a bit of it. We open the JISC conference to delegates in less than 10 days and have lots of the urgent background work to finish so that I can record all the walkthroughs and help files, which use the same screen recording software we use for the paragliding webcasts. I also need to start preparing for a joint presentation I am giving at the conference with James Clay. Live. Over the internet. To potentially 500 people. Gulp.
Saturday, 6th November 2010
Judith 07 Nov 2010 | : Flying, Party, party, party...
A bit of a hotch-potch of a day. The forecast was hot, sunny and light south or south-easterlies. Oriol suggested Sant Pere de Rodes or Bellmunt, with Santa Brigida as a backup. Problem was that there was fog at the coast. By 11am, Oriol thought it would burn off and we arranged to meet at Palau Saverdera, the meeting place for Sant Pere de Rodes, with Peter coming along too. Peter lives closest and he said it was still foggy at 11.30am but the top of the ridge was just becoming visible. We were driving along debating what to do when Rolf and Dolores, our hang gliding friends, passed us on their way to El Mont. We decided not to chance the coast and turned around to say ‘hi’ to the hangies, many of whom we haven’t seen in a year or more.
The wind in the bottom landing field felt stronger than it should and orographic cloud was sitting on the launch at times. The cloud seemed to be coming from the east and we were not sure it was the right place to be. Rolf and Jordi offered us a lift up, but this would mean we would be stuck at the top and if it wasn’t flyable for PGs, we would have to wait until all the hangies were rigged and off before we could get a lift down. Or, if it was initially windy, but we thought it would be better later, then we would have to leave the hill or risk being stranded at the top if it didn’t drop off. Either way, we decided to go to the “guaranteed” option of Santa Brigida.
We got there later than anticipated at about 1.15pm. Oriol had called us to say that it was off to the east, but someone was happily soaring, and as we drove up, Oriol was getting high. It was indeed off to the east on take-off and the other pilot was Albert, who had been flying for the last hour and a half. Oriol came to top land as he wanted to have a chat about his new Impress II harness and wanted to compare his set up with mine. Geoff launched and had a little fly, but came in after about 15 minutes, saying that the thermals were not yet fully formed and it was bumpy. Oriol had relaunched too and as he came along the ridge, the windsock swung round 180 degrees and he was now in rotor from the hill. Luckily he saw it and immediately flew out, spiraled down and landed fine. It stayed between 90 and 180 degrees off for the rest of the time we were there. Occasionally a thermal would bring the wind on again and Ferran, who had walked up, would get excited, but the flag at the bottom and that on the monastery would stay decidedly off.
This has happened to us once before, when the wind spontaneously changed. Although then the wind had been off to the west, I think the conditions when this is most likely to happen is when there is an element of east in the wind. Because of the way the valley winds work, Santa Brigida works best when there is strong north wind at the coast. When there is a westerly component, it can be very good too, and the ridge to the west doesn’t produce rotor unless it’s so windy it isn’t flyable anyway. But in an easterly wind, often the wind flows down the valley behind and then flows round the back of the hill. 
This isn’t an issue when the wind is weak – the thermals and warmth of the ground in front will overcome the backwind easily, but if the wind strengthens, then the valley wind enters as a NW wind. Not good, but at least we now have a clearer idea of how this can happen and we can avoid the hill when the wind is forecast east.
Geoff wanted to wait it out for a while, since I hadn’t flown, but even if the wind had come on again, I didn’t trust the conditions and eventually we gave up and went to the fair in Girona instead. St Narcis is a ten day festival, so we spent some hours looking round the rides, stalls, listening to a great funk/jazz band and having junk food. One thing though… why is it that wherever in the world you go to a fiesta, there’s always a pan pipe group? And why are they always dressed as native American Indians and always butcher Simon & Garfunkle’s ‘Sound of Silence’? Maybe they’re actually the same band, just persecuting us?