Fixing Geoff's HG in the garden.Forecast was for sunshine and showers. Which is the forecaster’s cop out of the summer…

The forecast said it would pick up in the afternoon but unfortunately we had to fix Geoff’s radio in the morning. We raced out, but it was heavily overcast by the time we got to the Long Mynd. First person we bumped into was Helen Gant from the Peaks, trying to get away from the breeze up north. It was getting stronger as we set up, so I got 4kg of ballast and launched.

It was difficult to get high as the lift/drift ratio was pretty poor. You would turn and be straight over the back and then have to spend time pushing back upwind. I was penetrating ok but Geoff was getting increasingly worried about the increasing wind so he landed to see how things would work out. Mistake. Always best to be in the air, as often you land and then can’t get off again in the compression on the hill.

Within a couple of minutes of him landing I found a strong climb which took me up more vertically and I managed to get to 1200ATO without having to commit too low. I drifted over the back with it, with Helen joining the climb to come with me. I lost the climb half way over the Mynd, but was committed so I flew towards Ragleth and got another climb in the valley. Helen came to join me and we thermalled over towards Wenlock Edge. Helen glided off and found our third climb, and we were shouting at each other how nice it was to be flying together, etc. Actually, a lot of what we were shouting was “What?”, “I can’t hear you!”, “Say again…”, but it was nice to be chatting anyway.

Helen has a faster glider than me and she was ahead of me in the turn, so I was looking over my shoulder to see her. I got a big crick in my neck and vowed that if I found the next thermal I’d change turn direction just to even up the crick. We circled in zeros for what seemed like hours. Helen went off searching, whilst I stayed in half up, half down stuff and managed to fly about 1.5km further than her (if that). We should have landed together, really. We did 18km, landing somewhere between Wenlock Edge and Clee Hill.

She got the instant ride back to the ridge she is famous for, and I got a lift off a lovely guy who had had a bad day and wanted to do someone a good turn, so he drove past his house (2 minutes from where he picked me up) and drove me 15 miles to Church Stretton. Helen kindly set out to pick me up and she got to her original landing field as I was having tea with Rachael in the Beyond Extreme shop.

Too windy and off to the north when we got back up to launch, so we serviced Geoff’s HG instead. I was pleased with the flight today. It wasn’t easy. The lift was ‘wishy-washy’ as Helen said, and there was no sun on the ground, so given that, we did ok really.

Geoff: Yes, shouldn’t have landed, but was a bit worried about the wind picking up on my slow 1/2. In the end, after Judith left, I pulled myself together and flew for an hour or so. Most I could get was just over 1000′ – I maybe should have drifted with that, but it was taking me directly over the gliding club launch, and I was reluctant to do that. Then the wind picked up, and I managed to top land, going backwards rather fast.

Still, a fun day, I enjoyed the flying. But I ought to read my own XCs tips, and never land before I’ve gone XC …..

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