Judith's blog

Saturday, 8th March 2008

Another epic forecast. After some deliberation we decided to go to Belmunt, near Torello. The sky was a brilliant blue as we were driving there. We crossed the Col de Bracons, and headed to the Plana de Vic. There was a strong wind blowing up to, and down from, the Col and I looked up at Puig Sacalm (the highest peak near Olot), hoping that today I would get the chance to fly over it.

We’ve been to Belmunt many times and never flown it, so I was determined to not have another wasted trip. There were already 7 people waiting and we all piled into a couple of cars for the drive up. Three hang-gliders had already set up and the first launched and went straight up. The first paragliders launched, but it was very turbulent with collapses and swinging around. I was having a nervous day and waited. Reports from the air were saying that it was strong, and a few pilots started drifting over the back.

I took off at 2.30pm when some cumulus started to form. Because I was having an unconfident day my pull-ups were a bit half-hearted, but on the third attempt I pulled myself together and launched well. I hit a strong thermal straight away and went straight up to 8461′ AMSL (4721’ATO).

Having never flown the site, I was unsure which route to take to fly back to Olot, but with Geoff relaying advice from Enric on the ground, I took the southerly route over the Col de Bracons. There were two layers of cloud forming and I was under a beautiful cloud in the higher layer, and clouds were forming under me as I went on the glide over the Col. A hang glider passed underneath me on the way back from an out and return and although I was really looking forward to seeing Puig Sacalm from high up, I never saw it as it was covered in cloud.

Once in the Val d’en Bas I decided to fly south towards Santa Brigida, but I encountered a headwind, so I turned round and headed north towards Olot. I thermalled and glided the whole length of the Val d’en Bas, and started to get ambitions to fly to Sant Joan de les Abadesses, but I was downed just outside Olot. Geoff had a nice flight, but sacrificed an XC flight to come and pick me up. He met me with a cold beer and a ham sandwich. A perfect day! A long held ambition fulfilled, I couldn’t stop smiling for a week.

Friday, 7th March 2008

Still windy, but we managed to fly at Santa Brigida again. Top landing was interesting in a strengthening wind and I sat hovering 5m over the landing for about 5 minutes before I could get the glider down.

Thursday, 6th March 2008

After the excitement of the previous flight, I decided I just wanted a nice floaty flight, relax, look around, that kind of thing. There was strong N wind everywhere (gales at the coast and in the Pyrenees), but at Santa Brigida it’s almost always flyable and hey presto – it was south, not too strong, seemed nice. Being mid-week, there were only three of us at the site. I launched first and promptly sank out. I was just making my approach about 100 feet above the landing, when I hit a little bitty thermal which got me back up for my lowest low save ever. Very satisfying.

I got back up to ridge height and hit lots of lovely lift so I went for a jaunt into the valley. I was all smug thinking I was off on a little XC when I hit convergence. Big lift. Real big lift. I was going up 7m/s, straight up, smack bang into somewhere I wasn’t supposed to be. I pulled on full big ears and was still going up 7m/s!

Running for it wasn’t an option because of the strong northerly wind everywhere outside the valley. Eventually I managed to get out of the lift and hit 8 m/s sink.

A couple of minutes (it felt like hours) later I was back over the landing field, but the wind had turned N and it was very turbulent, lots of collapses, and guess what… the only other guy in the air was landing at exactly the same time as me. More avoiding action!

Wednesday, 5th March 2008

Still not feeling 100%…

Tuesday, 4th March 2008

Still felt a little shaky and ill, so stayed at home.

Monday, 3rd March 2008

I had a relapse with bronchitis and needed to go to the doctor. The medic gave me something to help me breath more easily but within an hour I started shivering. 20 minutes later I looked as if I was in the advanced stages of Parkinson’s disease. Different bits of me were shaking at different speeds and in different directions. Within a few minutes I couldn’t feel my fingers or toes any more. It was very scary.

Back at the doctors they treated me for an allergic reaction to the medication and I recovered within 24 hours.

Sunday, 2nd March 2008

So the week that inspired all this musing started with a chest infection which turned into bronchitis. Sunday the 2/3/08 I felt better so we decided to go flying at Puig d’Afrou. The forecast was epic. The place was packed with pilots all keen to make the most of the day.

I was feeling better, but wanted a nice easy flight, nothing too turbulent. There was a huge inversion and the day turned out to be not turbulent enough. We were on the south launch and the wind turned progressively east. We waited til thermals were wafting up the face, but these were getting fewer and fewer as time passed.

A bit of breeze wafted up the hill and I took my chance to launch. Unfortunately, I launched into the tail end of the thermal and immediately sank. The sink I got was the same as the gradient of the slope so I hit a tree with my boots. This put me in a sink/tree oscillation…

I hit the second tree with my knees, the third with my thighs; by the fourth (up to hip level) I was getting a little worried!

I hit the fifth, and final, tree with my full body, but it never caught my lines, so I came out the other side unharmed – only to find myself below a ridge I needed to cross with nowhere to land other than trees if I didn’t make it. I got a smidgen of lift and crossed the ridge about 30 feet above the trees. I got some small thermals on the other side of the ridge, but nothing spectacular, so I decided to cut my losses and fly down, only to find someone landing exactly the same time as me and we had to take avoiding action.

I had a nice flight at Santa Brigida later…

See photos of today.

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