Geoff taking off. (Thanks to Michaela Harwick for photo)I heard as many forecasts as people I talked to today. Everyone had a different view of what was going to happen. I thought it would be west and a reasonable wind. When we got to the Long Mynd it was SSW, occasionally SW and very, very light. The place was packed though.

We all sat around, poised in our harness for the big moment when that elusive thermal would come through. It took some hours, but at 2.20pm it finally happened and most of us lobbed off. It was like being in a comp when the window opens.

I got a climb out at the north end of the ridge after seeing Malcolm Davies and another pilot climbing. We got very high and I could see a great cloud over Caer Caradoc, so headed there. I was rewarded with a good climb. The others came over to me and we headed on a glide along a cloud street. As I was gliding in the general direction of Ironbridge I realised I wasn’t displaying airspace on my GPS. Arrgh! Lot of fiddling ensued whilst I tried to get it back. Once I was back on course, I was getting lower and I saw a fire in the distance. It didn’t work. Neither did the ploughed field with a line of trees behind it. I was too low to drop onto Wenlock Edge, so landed just under it, near Much Wenlock. Geoff flew over me 10 minutes later.

I got a ride back to Church Stretton with the lovely lady whose house I landed next to. It was only supposed to be a lift to the nearest main road, but we got chatting and before we knew it we were at the bottom of the Burway. The second car was Guy and Steve D., who took me back up to launch. I collected the car and went to collect Geoff from near Stafford.

Crouds over the Mynd. (Thanks to Michaela Harwick for photo)Geoff’s comments: As Judith said, it was well off the hill for some hours after we arrived; however, the forecast was WSW, and the clouds were WSW, so we decided to stick it out until the sun came out, making sure we were clipped in and ready. Sure enough, the sun came out, the wind came on and it got soarable. I launched, and left the hill in about ten minutes or less; in the same thermal as Judith, but lower and in a different core. We took more or less the same route, but she was ahead of me. She landed at Much Wenlock as I was gliding there, just ahead of the three others who were in the gaggle I’d left in. I got very low, but managed to find something and climbed back to base, about 4800′, not incredibly high. I was with the other three at that point, but left them to glide on under the street (and away from the cloud suck). I didn’t see them again, and don’t know where they got to. I got another thermal near Telford, but this time left it well before base, being worried about getting into cloud – the thermals were pretty strong at this point.

That was my mistake though, because I didn’t get anything else, and landed a few km south of Stafford. 56km in a straight line, 58km with turnpoints. It was about 4.45pm when I landed, and I was pleased to do 58km, but I think I was too cautious leaving my last climb – I should have taken it higher. I think 80 or 100km was on the cards, even at that late time; certainly another couple of thermals should have been possible, which would have taken me to the southerly part of the Peak District, to Ashbourne (the drift had improved a lot too). If you land before the day shuts off, you must have made a mistake somewhere, and that was mine! (Mind you, I nearly always land before the day shuts off…). Still, for me, it was a really good PG XC, and I’m very pleased with it.

4 Comments »