Geoff writes: Judith was at a family event today (and tomorrow) in Essex. I did consider going, but we have a big meeting Tuesday morning, and I need at least one full day of working before that, so didn’t go.

For the flying, it was good for hang gliders, bad for paragliders. I still would like to do a long PG flight for the league, so hoped it would be ok today, even though the forecast was fairly strong. Specifically, I hoped that, with a NW forecast, Long Mountain – which takes strong winds – would be ok. In the event, first thing it was west, so I went up to the Mynd, but it was too strong, and a bit off to the north. I, and a few others, then went to Long Mountain, where the wind strength was fine, but too far west. In fact, it never went NW at any point throughout the day. So we duly went back to the Mynd, where it was on, but still too strong, though dropping. It seemed like it would probably drop enough by around 4.00, for at least the chance of an XC. RASP in the morning had given it weak thermals, but the sky seemed a lot better than that, and some hang gliders had gone XC, so it was worth sticking with the PG.

Rather than drop off more, though, it picked up. It could have been wave influenced, with the wave going in and out of phase. Lulls, where it was easily launchable, then suddenly picking up again. In the end, around 5.30 or so, I did launch, and it was fine – until suddenly I started going up rapidly, and became stationary. I eventually, and very slowly, managed to push out and lose height, went back to land, and promptly got blown back, landing going backwards. And that was enough excitement for me for the day. And a lot of wave bars had appeared by then, in the distance.

For the hang gliders, in spite of earlier reports that they were in convergence above Cheltenham, it wasn’t quite that good. The furthest was 90 km or so (as far as I know), with others down at around 55km. But I would have been happy with either of those!

Judith writes: I drove down to Colchester to meet my parents, sis and family, at my cousin’s (gorgeous) house. From there we went to Upminster to celebrate my aunt and uncle’s 40th wedding anniversary. I haven’t seen some of my family for a few years and it was nice to catch up. Nice food and plenty of bubbly later we headed back to Colchester.

See photos of today.

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