Judith's blog

Geoff writes: An interesting day at the Long Mynd. One of those days when it’s off to the South, nil wind, an epic sky everywhere with great clouds – except over the Long Mynd. All day, it was people just launching into thermals – or trying to. I had six attempts before I got away, slope landing four times. Basically, there were two good cycles. We missed the first, because we were too hesitant. A few people got up in that, including Steve Nash and Richard Chaffe – the former doing a big out and return, and the latter having a great flight but not quite managing the triangle he was looking for, landing, I think, near Bishop’s Castle.

Finally, late afternoon, there seemed to be a cycle where a couple of people launched and climbed, just to the right of launch, following some birds. I launched, Judith followed me, and it was a nice strong thermal – slow at first, but getting better – to base at just under 6000′ ASL. Almost no drift. We considered an out and return, but decided to go for distance – always more satisfying for us! We flew separately for most of the way, but made exactly the same mistake – heading to a cloud we thought was OK, but in fact it was decaying – but by the time we realised that we were in a shaded part of the ground, no sun, and couldn’t make the sunny bits. I landed first, and Judith followed me about 15 minutes later, into the same field.

Only 20k or so (see tracklogs on the XC pages) but a fun flight, and nice to land together, and a great retrieve from Wayne! Our first flight back in the UK, and a nice start to the season.

The lessons for today? Have patience. When it’s light and variable, watch out for the signs, like birds, and keep trying it out by launching and slope landing. Eventually, you’ll probably connect and get high. And once you’re up, in a sky looking like it did today, it’s easy to stay high.

Judith writes: How interesting what different perspectives you can have on a day.

We got to the Long Mynd and said hello to lots of people we hadn’t seen for six months, and then went to get ready. At around 12.30pm, the first person to stay up was James and I followed him off, thermalling up to a few hundred feet up. As I was turning, I realised that I hadn’t turned my radio on, and my harness was still badly adjusted, so when the thermal seemed to peter out, I top landed. Geoff was running along the fence, shouting into his radio (which I didn’t hear) and apparently I had a knot in my lines, which I knew nothing about.

All fixed, I stood, sat and generally pootled about with everyone else for a few hours, watched Steve Nash go and come, etc. Geoff launched in pursuit of a bird, but nothing was going, but Luke was going to the bottom landing to pick others up, and there was space for me, so I got a free try at the sky. It didn’t work and I went straight down.

Quick lift back up and after some water (thanks, Katie) and a quick coffee (thanks, Wayne), I could see Malcolm climbing, so raced back to the front. As I was walking over, I could see two buzzards and a sailplane climbing, so shouted to Geoff to launch. He did and went up and I followed him about three minutes or so later. Luke had launched after Geoff and it was nice to see he got his reward for being a retrieve angel by getting a good flight, while others sat on the deck.

I climbed up with Geoff, Phil B, Luke, a visiting pilot on a Venus II and a guy on a Hornet. We were later joined by Malc and deserted by a few others. I left the thermal at one point to close my pod, but then rejoined it to climb with the others. It was a massive thermal with lots of cores.

Geoff was in a hurry, and glided off before me with Malc, but with little wind I promised myself that I wouldn’t rush. This would be a perfect day to practice being patient. From 5700 feet (or so) I went on a glide and nearly didn’t make it over Wenlock Edge. I was determined not to bomb there. Having landed just over the edge too many times, I was determined not to leave with so much height only to bomb in the same place. By this time Geoff was well ahead and I thought I had lost him. I was on my own…

I got another thermal, but it was under the edge of a good cloud, but not working that well. I bimbled about and then saw five seagulls to the south of me. I couldn’t reach them, so waited in zeros until they came closer to me, and I headed to them. Boom… we all climbed up together and I left the climb when I knew I could get a good glide line under the cloud.

Each time I got to 4500′ ASL it got so cold that I started shaking, so much so that the whole harness and lines were shaking too. My teeth were chattering so loudly they were competing with the vario. Near Brown Clee I got sight of Geoff again.

Wayne radioed to say he would retrieve us, so I reported our position and went on a glide. Geoff landed shortly after, and the cloud street I was heading for was decaying. I flew to the cloud ahead, but it didn’t work, so I did the romantic thing and landed in the same field as Geoff.

Speediest retrieve ever by Wayne, we were in the pub shortly after. Cheers, mate!

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