Judith's blog

Breaking the British PG record distance with Richard Carter. The big ambition of 2011 was to break the 200km mark on a paraglider. Richard bypassed this distance on the 9th of August with a flight of 253.4km from Derbyshire to Essex. Here he describes this flight and other record breaking flights he’s done in the past. 50mins. (September 2011)

Download the podcast: http://www.judithmole.net/podcasts/richard_carter.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.

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Geoff writes: sadly, this is the last post on this blog – though the site will remain available indefinitely so people can still access the resources, the podcasts, etc.

For something which started out over three years ago as a private online diary, just to resolve arguments between Judith and me on how the weather was on such and such a day, it has grown a lot, and been huge fun for us to do. We always tried to give an honest account of the day (the flying, that is), and hope we achieved that. We also at some point decided to try to turn it into a useful resource for pilots, particularly with the podcasts (and later, webcasts) which have proved massively popular all over the world, with tens of thousands of downloads.  There are also various articles on flying, plus the site and comp live updates via a Twitter feed.

We have had a lot of support from people over the years, giving us feedback and encouraging messages, and, of course, lots of pilots were willing to share their time and expertise  in the podcasts – this has been much appreciated, by us, and by the thousands of readers of the blog. Together, we turned this into one of the best flying blogs around.

So, many thanks again, to all our readers and contributors. It wouldn’t have been the same without you.

Geoff.

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Geoff writes: there was a slim chance it would be flyable today, but I wasn’t that optimistic. There were a few people on the Mynd early on, but not sure if anyone even got off the ground. Wind was light, switchy, and clouds were big and growing, with rain in various places. Mid-afternoon, I decided to go and do some shooting, and drove over the Mynd, stopping to chat with Graeme, John and Lyn. At that point the wind was, for some reason, quite breezy and north. Big cunims off to the south, gradually (or maybe not so gradually) getting closer. In the end, I even gave up on the archery and settled for the excitement of going to the supermarket. A bit sad, when that’s the most exciting thing possible in a day….

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Geoff writes: basically, flyable all day at the Mynd. Much of the day it was top end for PGs, though there were nearly always some in the air. It was quite gusty most of the day, with a big variation in speed, typically between 8 and 23 mph.

When I got there it was pretty cold, so I sat around for a while and read in the car, before finally braving the cold and rigging the hang glider. I flew this for a short while, then landed as the wind was dropping. I waited a while before de-rigging and switching to the PG (hoping to go XC), just so that I wouldn’t be caught having de-rigged the HG, then the wind picking up again.

Eventually, I was sure the wind really had dropped, so I de-rigged. Getting to the front with the PG, the wind promptly picked up again…. However, I did fly the PG, and was shortly climbing out at about 5.30, but decided not to go, since the very slow moving rain cloud which had recently passed us by was still visible downwind, with a line of showers near to the Clees. So I flew around for a while, in the very wave-affected air, then landed and packed up.

It was flyable till dark though, so I think most people had a good time. As far as I know, only one PG and one HG went XC, the latter leaving very low. No idea how far they got.

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Geoff writes: cloudy, windy, wet at times.

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Geoff writes: well, yesterday was a great sky and nil wind. Today was a great sky and blown out. It actually started quite stormy, with some heavy showers, and windy. It began to clear a little from lunchtime, so I went to do some archery. By mid-afternoon, the showers had passed, and it was another great XC day, if only it hadn’t been howling.

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Geoff writes: the forecast wasn’t at all bad for the Mynd today, with sun, cumulus and light westerlies. I was optimistic for a decent XC day. However, as has been typical this year, this turned out to be nil wind nearly all day, with very, very weak cycles coming through, at very long intervals. And mostly off to the south. People did try it out, either going down (as I did once) or slope landing. No-one got more than a hundred feet or so, and most got much less than that. No-one got away.

I finally gave up on going XC at 6.00 pm. As I was leaving, about 6.20, the wind started, and it became soarable. By the time I got home, there were some gliders at around 1000′ ATO – but too late to go XC, even at this time of year. Looking at Wendy Windblows now (around 8.00 pm), it is 7 – 14 mph west. If only it had been that a few hours ago, instead of zero.

From Wendy, it seems likely that the Peaks was flyable all day with reasonable winds, and probably Llangollen too. As was Parlick, the Lakes, Wetherfell. And maybe even the Dyke.

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