The forecast was for a day that could be either epic or blown out, so it was about a 50/50 chance. I had a hair dressing appointment first thing and as I drove over the Long Mynd at 8.30am I was impressed to find Mark Hogan already flying. Ten/ten for effort! On my way back there were more pilots assembled, but it was cloudy and windy, so I headed home for coffee and second breakfast.

The wind soon picked up more and for a while there were only hang gliders (lots of them) and speed wings flying. About 2pm it seemed to be dropping and a paraglider had launched, so we headed out. The sky looked like you could go for miles…

On top it was still very windy and packed for a Monday. Geoff rigged the hang glider while Helen launched and went over the back. He had a nice flight, but at one point at trim on the HG was only going forwards at 13kmph, which isn’t much at all. Others took off, some went XC (voluntary and involuntary) and some landed reporting ‘interesting’ conditions. To be fair, a lot of people thought it was fine, but I don’t like strong winds, so stayed on the ground. By 5pm, Mick and I had written off the chance of an XC, so we decided to have a tandem flight. We still had to wait until 6.30pm until the gusty conditions subsided, but then had a lovely boat about, trying to make the most of the evening thermals and wave.

And then off to the pub as usual…

See photos of today.

See Glyn’s video of us flying today.

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