Judith's blog

We went flying at Bache. The BPC crowd was there too, obviously. The forecast was for strongish winds, so we wanted to get there early. I was determined to get off before the launch window opened to avoid the crowds and to be high when the first gaggle set off.

I launched two minutes after the window opened and got pretty much straight to 1200′ ATO. It didn’t seem enough to cross the forest behind and everyone else was pushing back forward, so I did the same. I encountered a strong headwind and big sink so I went straight down. I only managed to squeak onto the moor to the right of the upper take-off. I was nearly in the gully, so a bit worrying.

It was a 25 minute walk back and then a 20 minute line untangle, by which time the sky looked rubbish. Geoff was flying and could have gone over the back, but would have had to go very low. Because it was so windy he had trouble penetrating at times and in the end he bottom landed, after a bumpy ride down.

I retrieved Kai, who had only gone 10km (along with about 40 others), and we went for a beer, etc. Prize giving was this evening, and John Stevenson is Long Mynd round winner and is currently overall winner too. Nationals start at the Mynd tomorrow. Forecast is lousy.

Geoff’s comments:

It was a pretty poor XC day. Comp goal was only 31k, Montgomery, but only one person made it. I didn’t go over the back, partly because it was windy, and I was worried about landing my PG in strong winds; also because it’s the boonies for a while from Bache, and the retrieves can take hours, as there is no mobile signal for miles. Bache is also difficult to get back to. In hindsight, it was the right decision – the majority of pilots did around 10k, not worth it at all – however, really I should have gone, because you never do know, until you go, what sort of day it really is. So I made the right decision for the wrong reasons (makes a change from making the wrong decision for the right reasons).

See photos of today.

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