Marra has a fly before the window opens.The arctic June weather continues. We had pretty much written off today, what with a forecast of howling gales and plenty of rain. However, Nigel Rue insisted on the Beyond Extreme forum that it would be flyable on the Long Mynd today and he was right. People started flying about 9am, so we sent out a 3jam. I sent out an update about 5 minutes later reporting the drizzle which had just started. It was going to be that kind of day…

We got to the Mynd in time for the comp briefing. Most people had gone home and only 29 people signed to fly the task. They set a 31km task to Morville, with a turn point at Black Knoll and then on to Wenlock Edge, so basically two ridge runs with two gaps to cross. Seemed like a good plan.

Calvo was hoping to be able to have a second task later if the sky cleared up. The window was going to open super fast to get everyone on course to allow for the second round in the afternoon and we all got our gear out and I signed to free fly the task. We could see rain pushing in to the south end of the ridge (the turn point) so the launch window was postponed. James D. flew tandem with an Ozzie relative, and Marra had a little fly too. It was off to the south and getting a little breezy by this point.

Twenty minutes later the window opened and most pilots took off, but a lot of people didn’t seem to go anywhere very fast. WSW or SW can be deceptive on the Mynd. It seems less windy on the ground than it is in the air and the airflow is cleaner on launch than in the bowls. You can also get rotor in the gully by the road coming up the the front of the hill. This is what happened to a few people who pushed along from launch low. Several had collapses and the task was stopped within 5 minutes of the window opening. A rebrief was organised for 2pm, with a view of going to Clatter if the sky improved and the wind dropped.

We went off to Church Stretton to do some archery. We shot about 60 arrows and were getting nicely warmed up when the rain started. Ho hum. We packed up and went to the briefing, not intending to trail out to Clatter ourselves. They binned the day at 2.15pm, and it has been raining off an on ever since, and it’s still windy.

Last day of the comp tomorrow, so the weather should improve soon.

See photos of today.

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