Tuesday, 16th June 2009
Posted by Geoff on 16 Jun 2009 at 09:54 pm | Tagged as: Flying
Geoff writes: good forecast, and wind somewhere between SE and SSW, so we spent a while deciding where to go, delayed further by a blocked drain which we noticed just before leaving, and had to fix. We were going to go to Bache, but heard it might be a bit too west there, so ended up going to Corndon, SE face. As we arrived, it seemed pretty good – great sky, and Ben Henson was already there, and there were clearly thermals around, James, Wendy and Graeme also arrived at the same time as we did (and Richard and Kai turned up later).
We set up, and Ben launched and started to climb. I followed him and also started to climb, when I realised I’d got my speed bar tangled up with my leg loops. Pretty stupid, and lousy pre-flight checking. I landed to fix it, and Ben climbed out and got away, for a fairly short XC – he was back quickly. But if I’d have gone too, maybe the two of us working together would have got us further.
And that was it for the next couple of hours. Lots of launches, up and down, but no great height. The wind picked up, some high cloud came in, and it got more soarable. Eventually something workable came through, and six of us got up in at at various points, but only Judith, I and Graeme went over the back, James, Kai and Rich flew back to the front. Judith had got away first and was on her own, Graeme and I were together, but he was lower.
It wasn’t working stunningly well. I sort of got a second thermal, but didn’t work it properly, and landed for a very short 8k. Judith managed to work her bit of sky better and got 15k. We were retrieved by Bevan – thanks!
At least we got away, but given the sky earlier, this was a really disappointing day. It’s a shame that more pilots don’t turn out when it’s on sites other than the Mynd, and that more don’t go XC. It was difficult (and Corndon, though a good XC site, is tricky at the best of times), but I’m sure had there been more people over the back (and on the front searching for the first thermal) better distances would have been done.
6 Responses to “Tuesday, 16th June 2009”
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Only a rough guess Geoff… but I think that lots of Pilots have to go to work during the week 😉
Steve D
Sadly Steve was right. I’m really busy trying to get ready to go on holiday, and really struggled to avoid glancing up at the sky – it was awesome. Winching would have been the best bet. The clouds were travelling in a differnt direction to the ground wind – what little there was – it was very much like the other week when I did a little triangle at the Malverns and Bryan Hindle did a massive one. Getting up was the problem, but then easy peasy.
I don’t agree, Steve. If the wind had been westerly, there would have been 30 or so pilots on the Mynd.
The forecasts I saw showed a light SW & reports I got from on-site were uninspiring so I went for a walk.(It was far to hot to go flying anyway!) Turns out I should have gone to the Gyrn.
Most of the pilots who would show up for a midweek ridge soaring day at the Mynd just don’t want to fly XC anyway – let alone from Corndon on a 50/50 day.
I’m with Graeme on this – had it been the Mynd, there’d have been loads of people out, mid week or not. Corndon, though, does put people off, with good reason, and it isn’t an easy site. To be honest, we also considered going to Bache, but decided not to because if you do go over the back, and there’s only you there, getting back to the car is a pain; and we also considered the Gyrn, and in retrospect, I think that would have been the better option.
Certainly, for XC, Corndon can be very, very good. For soaring, not going XC, the Gyrn is a better bet if there’s a lot of south in it, as there was yesterday.
Graeme, you are correct, however, LMSC has 250 members (I dont know the exact figure) and as you say 30 odd turn up mid week (a perentage of which are retired).
On a great sunny bank holiday westerly weekend, we all know hundreds turn up (visiting pilots included) this gives a better indication I think.
Anyhow – this isn’t a forum to discuss such matters so I’ll shuttup now 😉
See you soon.
Steve D