Posted by Geoff on 11 Feb 2011 | Tagged as: Work
Geoff writes: not a lot to say, second day of the conference, so stuck in all day…. except for a short time when we managed to pop out for a sandwich in the sun at the cafe opposite our cliff, where all the tourists go to take photos.
Posted by Geoff on 09 Feb 2011 | Tagged as: Work
Geoff writes: the first day of our Supporting Deaf People conference. Over 280 participants, 17 countries, 24 hours a day, around 500 posts so far. Like all our online conferences, it is going to be very busy. Judith leads on this one, so she is permanently glued to the computer, getting RSI, eye strain, etc. So it’s just a day of work for us.
But we did look at the web cams occasionally. Another sunny forecast, but the cloud/fog from the coast crept in this far, and it was cloudy all day, though just a couple of km further inland, it was clear. Would have been a good skiing day.
Posted by Geoff on 08 Feb 2011 | Tagged as: Skiing
Geoff writes: last day before the conference opens tomorrow, at which point we will be glued to the computers for the next four days. So we took a few hours off to go skiing with Debi. It was a beautiful, sunny day, and the snow was excellent, at least in the morning, until the sun got quite hot. Having tried to persuade Judith to ski carefully – a broken leg the day before the conference would be a bad thing – I got a bit carried away, and skied faster than I usually do. At one point I was passing a group of beginners who were taking up most of the piste, and I decided to go behind the snow cannon to avoid them. This was a mistake, since there was a shelf of snow behind it, meaning I did a very unexpected jump. I almost made it, landing back on both skis, but then lost it, and had a spectacular fall, losing both skis, but fortunately not hurting myself (or the skis).
Later on, we took a less well used piste, and there I did manage to damage my skis, going over some stones, and putting some deep gashes in them. I could still ski on them, but they didn’t turn as easily, so we’ve had to leave them to be fixed – something I hate doing, they always seem to come back worse.
As we were having sandwiches in the car park, we could see people thermalling up at Targasonne on the other side of the valley. Any other day, we would have been able to go over and fly too, but today we had to get back for the conference (and to do some publicity for the latest podcast on wave flying).
Posted by Geoff on 08 Feb 2011 | Tagged as: Podcasts
Flying in wave with Steve Hudson of the Derbyshire Flying Centre. Wave is a fairly common weather condition in the UK and can provide excellent and exhilarating flying, but it can also be scary if you don’t know how it works. While hang gliders have a lot of knowledge and experience of it, many paraglider pilots are unsure of flying in wave. In this podcast, Steve aims to explain how to assess conditions, get down, fly safe and have fun! 52 minutes. (February 2011)
Download the podcast: http://www.judithmole.net/podcasts/flying_in_wave.mp3
Subscribe to future podcasts: see the links on the right.
Please note: this, and all previous podcasts, are also available from the podcast page.
Posted by Geoff on 07 Feb 2011 | Tagged as: Flying
Geoff writes: because Judith didn’t fly yesterday, the plan was that I would drive for her at Sant Pere de Rodes, then we would go to the beach. It was a warm, sunny forecast. However, sometimes you get a band of cloud at the coast, and for a few miles inland, and that was what happened today. Beautifully sunny inland, we could see from the webcams that the coast at Roses had 100% cloud cover. So we went for the seond best option, to fly at Santa Brigida. We did fly, but it was rough, uncomfortable air, so we didn’t fly for long. We sat it out for a while, watching the trail bikes – a French team this time – practice in the quarry, but in the end gave up and came home.
Judith is trying to finish editing the most recent podcast before the conference begins on Wednesday. Editing always takes many hours of work, cutting out the repetitions and filler noises, improving the sound quality, reordering it, etc. Hopefully, it will be worth it!
Posted by Geoff on 06 Feb 2011 | Tagged as: Flying
Geoff writes: today was the Aplec at Santa Brigida. This is a big party for the local town of Amer. Everyone goes up Santa Brigida, and eats a lot, drinks a lot, and dances. And all the paraglider pilots from miles around do the same, and fly too. This is a small ridge that can get crowded with less then ten gliders, on scratchy days. With 50 or 60, it is extremely crowded. So our plan was to go to fly somewhere else, then go there later on for the party, and, maybe, flying, if it was less crowded.
Judith was ill today, though, so she said she would drive for me and Nicky, so we went to El Mont – Nicky’s first time there. As well as the flying, we wanted to show her the spectacular views.
It was hot, light winds, and very stable. It’s a ramp launch, easy for a hang glider, technical for a PG. A hang glider launched first, and went down slowly, a bit longer than a top to bottom, but not that much more. I set up, and went straight off, and had a top to bottom. Very little happening in the air – though after I landed, I did see two birds thermalling. Nicky tried to get off later, but the wind went north, so wasn’t able to. By the time they drove down, it was too late to go to Santa Brigida to fly, and Judith was still ill, so we called it a day and went home.
Posted by Geoff on 06 Feb 2011 | Tagged as: Flying
Geoff writes: a nice day at Bellmunt. It was the warmest day for a while, around 20C or so – hot in the sun. There were plenty of people out to fly, but the flying was hard work. There were thermals, but these were stopped from developing by two inversions, and almost no-one got above launch, though it was possible to stay up on the lower ridge. The problem was that there were a lot of people flying, and that made it pretty crowded. In the end, both Judith and I chose to land, having got fed up of dodging people. We had a cold beer in the hot sun with Marc and Lluis, then off home.
In the evening, Nicky arrived from France, on her way back home.