Thursday, 8th October 2009
Posted by Judith on 09 Oct 2009 at 10:34 am | Tagged as: Flying
Forecast for today was good and we were going to head out to the Lawley but there was no wind and it seemed NNW. So off to Llangollen we went. As we got closer the sky looked better and better – just like a summer XC day. At Llangollen there was wind, so I stuck the ballast in the harness and took off. I’m still full of cold and as I got higher breathing in the cold air was really hurting my chest and I couldn’t pop my ears. It was also surprisingly rough in a kind of random way. Your wing seemed to be in different air to you. I don’t mind it a little rough, when you know it’s thermic or wavy, but just random swings and jerks I find a little disconcerting. I landed after 20 minutes just because I really needed to blow my nose and have a coughing fit that wouldn’t induce a stall.
A lounge around in the sun later, I took off again and a convergence line had set up which hoovered everyone up. Visibility was stunning and you could see for miles. I got cold and snotty again, but found it hard to get down. Really nice day and if I had felt any better I would have gone down the convergence line to see how far it extended. Still, a nice day and lots of smiling faces around.
Geoff writes: as Judith says, the first flight was surpisingly rough, in a different way than just ordinary thermal roughness. There was wave around over the back, and my guess is that the wave was causing some interference with the thermals. In the end, I got fed up and landed for a while. The second flight was completely different, much smoother. It was very easy to get high, harder to get down! I did consider going XC, and could easily have got to base and gone, but by that time it was getting a bit late in the day, and it was very cold high up, so I decided not to bother. Probably a mistake, given that it almost certainly was convergence and there was a nice line to go along.
2 Responses to “Thursday, 8th October 2009”
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The Mynd had no wind, but the Lawley was working well. Later in the afternoon I had a fly at the Wrekin. I had intended a simple top to bottom, but just above the landing field I hooked a thermal that took me up to around 500` ATO. This on the Ibex15!
Most forecasts the night before were giving N to NNW in the peaks(maybe blown out) so 1st port of call was the nick between Mam and Lords… and it was actualy on…Bradders???.
Got there in a rush with wally and a few others looking at the first gaggle on way(only did Calver)…GRRRR…Low base 3500+ and weak conditions, second gaggle(wally in it)…hmmmm.. nope,not for me again!..B…X eventualy got away in a glood climb with BarneyW,HelenG,MarkB,DaveB some time later AFTER the sky “re-opened” behind a big spread-out and managed 54km to the corner of nottingham thingyspace ;-).Not very far , bit of hard work(decision wise) but GOOD FUN AGAIN 🙂 almost mid october and it’s still cooking.
Glad you had a good time on LLAN..
Moral of the story…if you don’t try …you won’t get (talking bout moiself I iz)