Monday, 17th May 2010
Posted by Geoff on 17 May 2010 at 06:49 pm | Tagged as: Flying
Geoff writes: another good day at the Long Mynd, with plenty of people going XC. However, today most of the flights were relatively short (as far as I know), with one exception (see below).
The wind was WNW, a bit gusty at first (but it got lighter throughout the day), with a great sky. Judith and I left together (after she did some stunning scratching to avoid going down) and were joined by another glider. And David Thomson, down from Scotland, had already left just a few minutes before us. We climbed out to base very nicely, in quite a strong thermal, topped up a bit further on, then went on a glide, where we found more or less nothing. David landed before Wenlock Edge; I landed just beyond; and Judith slightly further. Kai overflew her after she’d landed, but only got to Cleobury Mortimer, with the other person who left with us, so it seems it wasn’t that good at that point. We rushed to get back to the hill for another go, but it still took us a couple of hours to get back. In the meantime, Dave Thomas had left.
We launched again, and David and I left again, separately. I bombed even closer to the Long Mynd, at Craven Arms, and David landed just after Ludlow. A few others went at different times too, including Jazzy Jeff on his hang glider, and Roy Dade who landed near Ludlow for his first XC, but as far as I know nearly all flights were quite short, with the exception of Dave Thomas who landed at Tewkesbury – a brilliant flight. So the potential was there, but it was certainly a harder day than the previous two. Also, since the wind got lighter throughout the day, triangles were possible, and at least one was done, by Dave Jackson-Hobbs.
My flying might not be that brilliant at the moment, but my hitching is – in fact, it’s so good, I don’t even need to use my thumb or my glider pilot sign. After my second flight I was standing on the pavement phoning Judith, not bothering to hitch, when a couple pulled up and offered me a lift right back to launch – they weren’t going there, but they’d seen me hitching after my first XC today, and recognised me, so decided to give me a lift this time. Wonderful! And a nice end to what was, for me, a pleasant day, in spite of not going very far at all.
Tracklogs up as usual, on XC flights page.
3 Responses to “Monday, 17th May 2010”
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Geoff- whats your secret when it comes to hitching??? I spent almost an hour on the side of the A49 with my thumb out on Saturday! Not one single car stopped for me dispite my attempts to look as non threatning as possible, my cloak of invisibility seemed to be working overtime!!!! I figured out at an average of 10 cars a minute that over 500 cars passed me!!!!
Ended up having to get the bus and even that was late!!
Thumb safe!
W.
Glad I wasn’t flying Sunday if it was that rough. Today had me thinking I’d lose the wing a few times. Usually around 3000ft, I found it often difficult to go beyond – especially on a very long section near the Teme Valley – maybe a sheer layer as the XCT kept changing it’s mind on the wind direction. The thermals had very little movement – at one time the windspeed was down to 3kph. Every time I got low the sunny ploughed fields did the trick – except for my last chance which didn’t work at 300ft. I should have headed towards the Cotswolds rather than trying a town as that hadn’t worked. The Malvern boys were only just ahead of me flying from Worcestershire beacon into the Cotswolds, maybe half an hour ahead, if only I’d known I would have pushed on in that direction.
Wayne – it’s no secret… pure animal magnetism.