People flying on the Mynd.Having looked at several forecasts, it wasn’t obvious when the cloud would clear and if it would be too windy or not. One person had posted on the Beyond Extreme forum asking if anyone else was going flying today, so we thought not too many people would be out. Boy were we wrong. A HG and five PGs were already flying by 10am.

The BBC was spot on in that they predicted it would be cloudy until 4pm and it was. Geoff had an early flight, but it was picking up and I had forgotten my ballast, so popped home to get it. I flew but landed untidily in strong winds and broke a line (long, very boring story), so had to pop home again for the spare glider. Equipment issues were getting to be a bit of a theme today. By the time I got the Zoom clipped in and set up, the sky was nearly blue and the conditions were like those transitions periods you get when it gets sinky before the thermals establish themselves again.

Geoff and I launched and flew off to the right where people seemed to be getting up. It was hard going. Best climbs were between 0.8 – 1.2 m/s. At one point I got to 1030′ ATO and that was pretty high. The only person above me was Simon Gant, who was flying his Mac Envy really, really well. Cloudbase was only a few hundred feet higher and at one point I thought ‘stuff this… crap climbs, low cloudbase, might as well land and enjoy the sunshine.’ However, the climbs were plentiful and it was fun bobbing about with Simon, Geoff, Dennis and Nigel, although getting any higher than 1000′ was very hard work. Eventually at about 5pm, I managed to top up my height to get to baseĀ  and then thought I might as well go. You have to be in it to win it!

I flew along the cloud in not too much sink and learnt that what they say about the back of the Mynd low down is true. The wind does blow down. I only just managed to scrape half way up the ridge on Ragleth and soared it for one beat, convinced I was down. Then I saw two buzzards and climbed just above ridge height and then I managed to get a thermal that took me back to about 950′ ATO. Pleased as cheese, I carried on and got another very weak climb, which took me to Rushbury, near Wenlock Edge, where I went down at 10km. A couple of lovely young lads came to see if I was ok and helped me pack up and then pointed me to the nearest pub, where Geoff came to get me.

It may not seem like a long way, but it was really satisfying to get away, especially so late. And like one day last year, the only two people to get away at all from the Mynd were two women, Helen and myself. Away the lasses!