Geoff writes: not the best of days. We took a while deciding where to go, not least because the wind didn’t really seem to be doing what it was supposed to. We were expecting north, or NNE, and at one point decided to go to Llangollen. However, a phone call from Mark Leavesley made us decide to meet up with him (and Martin and Wayne) at the hill behind his house, which takes NNE. But when we arrived at the bottom it was SE there, and at Corndon, and at Llangollen (and apparently east at the Malverns) so we decided on Corndon, which was where the BCC was being held. Inevitably, shortly after we arrived at Corndon, we heard that Martin had got up from Leavesley’s, and in fact he flew over to Corndon just to show off! He managed a 43km FAI triangle – excellently done, especially since everyone else at Leavesley’s went down twice, and did nothing.

Corndon was its usual – crappy – self. Just launching into very, very weak thermals. At one point Dave Thomas did climb out, but (much to his regret) came back to the front to join in above a gaggle which was just beginning to climb out. Unfortunately, that fell apart at a few hundred feet – Judith was at the top of it with 400 ATO – and that really was it for the day, in spite of many attempts by various pilots. It got very cloudy, and the sun went in. Around 4.00pm, people started to give up, and pack up, or just fly down, though the sun had, unexpectedly, reappeared. Judith and I packed up too, which of course – when nearly everyone had gone – was when it finally switched on, and a couple of people climbed out, with Malcolm Davies getting to cloud base and landing, appropriately enough, at Leavesley’s hill.  If only we had all waited, the BCC would have had a good task, but it really seemed like the day was over.

It was a really hard call today, but my guess is that in spite of that some good flights have been done. Just not where we were! Corndon can be a really good site, but is incredibly difficult too, and just does not work well as a soaring site during the day, so more often than not it is just launching into the hope of getting a thermal. Unfortunately, it is the only easterly we have round here, and so far this year it has been very poor.

…. and whilst proofing this post, I’ve just seen that Richard Bungay has posted a 118.7km FAI triangle from the Blorenge. Corndon was definitely not the place to be!

See photos of today.

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