Judith's blog

Geoff writes: as forecast, cloud and light rain. Possibly not flyable in Lakes either, seemed to be wet there too.

So a less than stunning day….

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Geoff writes: I had to leave the Lakes today, to deal with some family stuff. It was windy, and a lot of cloud came in, but driving towards the motorway, I could see a lot of gliders flying Souther Fell.

So, a 400 mile round trip for one top to bottom. Oh well, there’s always tomorrow (oh, no there isn’t, the forecast is cloud and light rain at home).

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Geoff writes: last night I decided to go to the Lakes for the Lakes Charity Classic, and drove up part way to stay with Andy, continuing the trip this morning. We decided to go to Langdale, rather than Blease, which was where the comp was going, on the grounds that it was closer, and that it seemed it might be better conditions there. The carry up is massive, taking me well over an hour. And the conditions were very weak. Having said that, most people did get up, though some went down, including me, entirely due to my own indecision and incompetence, a feature of my flying this year. Andy and Barney got to the LCC base at Buttermere, about 15km, and said, when I met them later, it was pretty rough. Mike Cavanagh did a 155km triangle.

In a sense, it was good that I didn’t get away – though only 15km from the Langdales to Buttermere, it would be a 60 mile round trip to pick up the car. (I’m being positive here…).

Driving to Buttermere, it seemed that there were people flying everywhere, partly because the sea breeze had come in, making some more sites soarable. It’s quite possible I had the shortest flight of the day in the Lakes.

And at Corndon – maybe five miles down the road, instead of 200 – it was a good day, with David M doing his longest ever XC, 30km, and Steve Parsons doing 117km. Maybe, just maybe, it is finally starting to work down here.

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Geoff writes: the plan this morning was to get up early, check the forecast, probably go to the Peaks, and then on to the Lakes. It almost worked. I woke early, then read the paper, then phoned Andy, then packed, then set off for the Peaks. But ten miles later, on top of a hill where I could see a long way, there was just wall to wall cloud in the direction of the Peaks. I phoned Andy again, who confirmed that was what it was like in the Peaks. So, back to Bishops Castle for breakfast, and discusssions with Graeme and Dave. I checked out Sarn, but it was too far off, so, reluctantly, ended up at Corndon. By the time I got there, it was wall to wall cloud here too. Still we all went up and had a few goes. The cloud then started to break, and I had another go, promptly getting a massive frontal, asymetric, stall, back flip – or something like that. Anyway, it wasn’t nice. But it recovered, quicker than I did. I landed, then relaunched a bit later, straight into a much nicer thermal which took me away from Corndon – always a good thing to be.

Unfortunately, base was only 3200′ above sea level, around 1550 above take off. The drift was taking me into the big hills behind Sarn, towards Bache, and I just didn’t have the ground clearance for that with base so low. So I slightly cross winded it, getting to base again a couple of times, but in the end lost it and landed for a very short 15km. Still, better than nothing, and I was the only one to get away. As usual, a few minutes after I landed, there was a bird thermalling out of the field.

The retrieve was as always – the first lift was within five minutes, someone passed me, drove on, then turned round, and took me to Church Stoke. The second one was also within five minutes – they also passed me, turned round, and took me to White Grit – nowhere near where they were actually going, but I gave them lots of tourist information in recompense. Then I was walking the rest of the way, up Corndon, when Ellie drove down on her way home, picked me up, and took me back to the car at the top.

So, all in all, could have been a lot worse, not a bad day. But I’m not bothering with the tracklog.

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Geoff writes: it may be the first of June, but it’s still pretty cold. I thought today would be quite breezy, not an XC day, at least on the paraglider, so decided to do the walk we had planned for last week – the Berwyn Ridge Walk. Starting at the largest waterfall in Britain (depending on which bit of the internet you believe, it may or may not be the largest, but it’s still 240 feet – not bad) you walk up to Cadair Berwyn, on the top of the ridge, than back down. The views are stunning – the web site says: “to the east you will see the flat fertile land of Cheshire, to the south the Brecon Beacons and hills of South Wales, to the west the high mountains of Cadair Idris and the Rhinogs and to the north west you will see the three highest mountain ranges in North Wales, the Snowdon massif, The Glyders and The Carneddau”. Except it wasn’t quite that stunning today, since as I arrived at the top, the cloud came down, and cut off the views.

So a walk back down the ridge, to the tea room at the bottom of the waterfall – an amazing location for a tea room, with a perfect view of the waterfall. They even put out bird food on the fence posts at the tea room, so the birds come and sit right next to you as they (and you) eat.

So, although the weather wasn’t brilliant, definitely worth a trip back on a sunny day.

Driving back home, it was clear that it wasn’t as windy as I had expected, and in fact back at the Mynd there were at least three PGs in the air, plus Wayne setting up his hang glider, so off I went. The wind picked up though, and I couldn’t be bothered just gale hanging. It dropped off again around 8.00pm and most people got to fly, but by that time I’d given up and gone for some food.

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Geoff writes: an epic (in the true sense of the word) sky, bang on at the Mynd, but – of course – far too windy for paragliders. Hang gliders flew all afternoon, and I was considering taking mine out in the morning, except at one point it started pouring here, and there were some very big clouds around. However, as forecast, the sky did clear, which was when it turned into a really good XC sky, and, but for the wind, it would have been a good day for PGs. In the end, though, I decided to opt for archery. Driving back home late afternoon over the Mynd, it was even windier, though at the time of writing this, about 8.00pm, I can see one PG flying.

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Geoff writes: finally, a forecast where it might just be flyable. The forecast was light westerlies in the morning, cloudy, with some rain, and winds picking up later. By and large, that was true, but somewhat of an underestimation. There was a lot of rain in the morning, only stopping around 2.00pm or so. People started flying around 2.15 or so, and I went out shortly afterwards. It was nicely soarable, and surprisingly thermic, given how wet the ground was. It was easy to get high, and an XC was certainly possible, but base seemed low, and the clouds were still quite big. After an hour in the air, the wind seemed to be picking up, so I landed. The more the sky cleared, the windier it got, until everyone was on the ground, even the speed wings. The one hang glider which rigged, de-rigged without flying for some reason, though it was certainly OK for a hang glider.

And that was it really, no-one flew again since the wind never dropped off. Still, nice to fly a bit, at least.

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