Ladies day at Sta.Brigida

Instead of 'Todos los Santos' (all saints day) yesterday we celebrated 'todas las chicas' with a surprise girlie flying day at Sta.B. Judith, myself & Celine from Geneva had a great day floating about in lazy thermals outnumbering and outfloating the boys!
Usually either myself or Judith find ourselves outnumbered at least 8:1 by the chaps on launch so it was good to turn it around for a change. I arrived at midday to groundhandle the wing before making the test-flight- the 1st flight since I fully relined it. Its always a slightly nerve-racking feeling, that initial airbourne sensation and looking up to see that everything is still attached where it should be. Fortunately all the required bits of string stayed together & attached! A good thing too 'cos I have just 25 more days before going to la Palma for the Desafio and then the Tenerife final of Spanish Liga Nacional 2009.

When will the storms arrive?

Its been too hot to be in the house all week and too windy to go flying :-(
Up until today its been strong west and then today strong east-how does that happen overnight?
Temperatures have been in the 30-32 degrees range INSIDE the house but too hot to contemplate doing anything outside.
And today we are supposed to finally get some relief from it all....the storms are on their way :-)
Its been pretty unflyable today in Àger according to friends who went there for the weekend and is now bucketing it down. Fingers crossed the wet stuff we reach us here. I'm still waiting....

& now its.....stable & blowy!

Its not been a great week in terms of weather in Àger for the Britsh Hangdanglers. Only 2 tasks were run with the final task on Saturday cancelled in the air 'cos they found it all a bit bumpy! Bless'em the big jessies ;-) Go on Richard - do your worst :-0
From my perspective (& that of some of the local boys) it was a typical summer Àger day, not for the inexperienced or faint hearted with bullety thermals that you couldn't get round 360 in before you were spat out, but not dangerous conditions. Wendy and I flew again in the evening but just top-to-campsite flights with a distinct lack of lift under the inversion.
Talking of inversions, the fires that are burning near Tarragona have filled the sky under the inversion with enough smoke that it looked like a new mountain range had popped up overnight to the south! Thanks to Wendy for the photo. I have to buy a new camera as mine didn't survive the excitement of Piedrahita :-(
Its become very very hot, very stable and pretty windy now, so not nice flying. Yesterday was rough enough to cause the ktx2 some spontaneos acro on the way to Terradets, its not often you find them drinking in the bar in the late afternoon, but the early flight had convinced them to run bravely away and leave the skies for another day.
We had intended to fly today. Yesterdays forcast told of lessening winds and a stable layer that would keep a lid on overdevelopment, by this morning a different pattern had emerged with a 'molt elevat' risk of storms and 20knots of wind at take-off height. In the increasing humidity I packed up and ran away home for a few days while I get some work done and decide what playground to tackle next!

....still blowing!

The most amazing sky yesterday. Its hard to believe that it was blowing 80+km at 3000m. We are stuck on the ground again at the moment but hoping that the predicted wind doesn't materialise. I might get chance to test fly my wing later from the lower launch...heres hoping!

Blowing a hoolie

Spent yesterdays 'day off due to wind' relining my glider - 5 hours playing with 'dental floss' but it seems that all the knots are tied in the right places. Hopefully there will be a small window of opportunity to fly sometime over the next couple of days so that I can check that everything is good in the air.
Its blowing a gale again today and the forcast is pretty terrible ( if 38 degrees hot sunshine can ever be called terrible) for the last days of the competition. We keep checking all the forcasts we can find to try to find one we like!

Raining In Àger

Just getting the last guys checked in and the storms have reached us. Its pouring with rain now, we've been watching the weather march in from the west and east for the last 3 hours so theres no flying this evening. Hopefully it'll clear for tomorrow but its not looking too promising......
First results show the Russians in pole position

6 tasks flown in the Pre Europeans in what can only be described as average conditions for here - quite a bit of wind and pretty snotty climbs and bases around 2400-2800m. Its certainly not been classic Àger but shows what can be done here even when its not all totally splendid.
Jonny managed to stuff up the last task by bombing at 52km to let young Blay take the title with Martin Harri in 2nd & Carl Wallbank 3rd.
Its the British HG Championship this week, everything feels much more relaxed with only 60 alas on launch instead of 130.
Its also pretty cool seeing rigid wings competing here along with the flexy's...not that they look very flexible to my uninitiated eyes. They are all stiff & pointy in every direction as far as I can see! The cloud above launch at the start of the 1st task was 'interesting' a cumular-lenticular that kept forming & dissapating regularly.
The weather however looks like turning for the worst after tomorrow so I'd better get going up to fly before all goes to rats!

Àger - Pre European HG Championship

I've decamped to Àger this week for the PreEuropean HG Championships where I'm dealing with the website/results and generally loafing around in the sunshine.
Lots of big HG names are here, not that I recognise many of the faces! I've been walking around listening out for languages and accents to try to find out who's who and who I need to talk to in preperation for next weeks Britsh HG Open here.
Weather has been pretty average for the time of the year with some unusually strong easterleys but they have still managed to pull 4 tasks up to 130km out of the bag. Today looks like being the best day of the week so we are expecting a big one!
Little Jon D is climbing up the ranking after a task win yesterday, I was teasing him last night about having to fly all the tasks in comps at this level - he has always maintained that a comp should be won before the last day and has often not needed to even launch for the final task - times are changing and he is now chasing the even younger Blay for the title here!
The Àger 2010 website is : here
Check out Jamies Blog here - the post on Section 7 Dress Code has to be the funniest post of the competition - but I have to agree, these guys really like exposing underpants, there really should be stricter control of this kind of activity...speedos and Y-fronts are not a fashion accessory!

British Open Piedrahita

As usual I am truely crap at blogging when I'm competing. Theres not much excuse other that having to find a funcioning wifi connexion at the time I am finished flying / retrieving / recharging / eating / faffing!
Again 4 tasks from Piedrahita. The first days were windy and ideal for checking equipment, stretching lines etc before the battle began.
Task 1 : 100km+ task to somewhere north of Avila saw me close to getting sucked into the big black convergence in the Ambles valley about 32km on course. Thoroughly frightened after getting hoofed uncontrollably into the sky with big-big-ears and speedbar at the max, I nearly landed before Avila. A sudden revelation that I wasn't going to die just 200m from the ground saw me and the guys I was in a gaggle with scratching to recover some of the enormous height we had just 10 minutes previously tried to lose. Revelations are a common occurance in this game! Basically I had stuffed it up with the decision - not really a decision more a freezing of all mental processes - but the net result was that I was on the ground near Avila as the north wind picked up. A below average result for well below averagre decision making, so I guess its something else to file away and learn from.
Task 2 : another 100km+ task to some where north of Avila. After getting real low before start I thought 'stuff it' and decided to head home to land in the field next to our casa rural. Needless to say I hit the thermal of the day from the bullring on the way and found myself at cloudbase in front of the lead gaggle as they tried to cross the pass.100% luck, but I topped out just as start opened and cruised in over the entire field to pick off the best climbs just as they started to scrabble about at Casas del Puerto. I know I surprised a few guys as they crossed the pass to find a tiny red / black glider in front and above them. I LOVE these moments! The flying was amazing.. speed was real good I was in the 2nd or 3rd gaggle all the way to 85km out, 35km before goal. Then it ALL WENT WRONG! Getting low I was calling to the climb to take me up and away, problem was we were talking a different language.
After a few tight turns in a good climb my glider disappeared - the beginning of the end. A cascade of increasing proportions saw me wrapped up inside my wing struggling to find my reserve handle through the flapping cloth tightening around me. Needless to say I did find it and threw just 150m above the rapidly approaching ground. The wind on the ground was strong so I was dragged across a corn field ploughing, reaping and threshing all in one go! The glider protected me from most of the impact so after quite some time extricating myself from lines and wing I walked away unhurt and with minimal bruises. My angel was watching me again. Fortunately we seem to fly at the same speed!
Huge thanks to Dave Smart and Mike Coupe who called in the incident and landed to assist. A surprising end to a brilliant day - boy was I pissed not to be in goal!
Wagga & Mike helped me put back together all my bits later that evening - thanks guys I owe you, so I was ready to fly the following day.
Task 3 : 100km+ task to Segovia. My head felt fine (quite surprisingly) so I launched early but found myself scratching below launch with the best of them...Wagga, Kelly, Adam & me were having a team grovel. Perhaps it was going to be BBQ day after all!
Fortunately we all climbed out from far too low and the guys showed their form to make goal in good time. After 1 hour, parts of me were aching so much that I decided to call it a day, muscles were hurting in places that I didn't know I had. It hurt my ranking but the physical aches were more of an issue at the time.
Task 4 : 55km race to Avila.Goal at last, all be it with a bit too much excitement 4km out from Avila when I had another cascade and was close to chucking the washing again. During the cascade my reserve pins came loose so I was in danger of an involuntary deployment over goal just on the outskirts of Avila. The thought of being hung up on a crane or splattered on the Avila city walls wasn't appealing so after getting the cylinder I headed to open fields south of the city so that if what could go wrong did at least I would have reasonabley open ground to flop down into.It was a very uncomfortable 20 minutes as I tried to keep the glider stable through the strong thermals and high wind and dust devils but I landed very relieved without further incident.

The Axis UK team did brilliantly and finished as Team Champions way ahead of any opposition - well done boys!
I managed 3rd in the chics category which was more than I expected after choosing to land on the 3rd task and a mediocre 80th (ish) in the overall.

After checking the symmetry of my glider we found that the right side lines had stretched from between 15mm in the centre to 45mm at the tips which explained why it had become a 'spiny death ship'. This effectively put me out of the Spanish Championship and unable to defend last years title...its kinda challenging to compete without a glider! New lines are on the way so I'll be putting lots of knots in bits of string sometime over the coming week here in Àger.

Lots of mistakes and many more leasons to learn from the week but i'm feeling good about it all. I'm ready to learn alot more about putting my wing into nonflying shapes and hope to take her out over the water soon to see what I can get wrong in a reasonably controlled environment.I never thought I'd say it but doing some aeros is starting to have an appeal!

Dmitry : remembering you

I've spent today with Galina Maslennikova, Dmitry's mum, at the exact place where Dmitry crashed and died one year ago (19th June)during World Cup in Castejon de Sos. Galina brought a memorial plaque over from Russia to place at the spot. Not quite as easy as it sounds since its a 45degree volcanic rock scree slope covered with brambles and holly oaks but the view looking out over the Panta de Escales is stunning. We watched eagles and vultures soar the rock faces above us and swam amongst the fishes in the clear lake below. Fly high Dmitry - there are few places so beautiful to spend the rest of time.

Liga Nacional - Lumbier

Just back from Navarra and I want to go back again - NOW!
2 tasks were flown from the South launch of Arangoiti and it will stick in my memory as probably the best place I have ever flown. For me it has everthing a flying site could possibly need - grassy launch, flats out front and for 50km + heading east, a lake to trigger thermals, hundreds of vultures and then the Pyrenees mountains, real big ones, not just little ridges and stuff. Some of the peaks are 3000m+.
We launched from the south facing rocky ridge that looks like it should work just like a ridge does - it doesn't! There was no point trying to soar it and little point trying to creep up it in small thermals as for some unfathomable reason it just doesn't work like that. Getting up was real easy by heading out towards the bluest blue lake I have ever seen and hooking into thermals marked by towering gaggles of vultures. The out & return section of the 1st task was the most challenging getting to the end of the ridge and running back to the antennas at launch before heading on course into the Pyrenees. Conditions were generally light so getting high wasn't easy but we bimbled along at under 2300m for most of the flight. Once into the mountains it was a little easier to get altitude but not greatly so. I was skimming over high grassy ridges a little too close for comfort a few times but managed to flop over into the next valley and out again right up to the last tp. It was late (19:30)and I just couldn't escape the highest pass so far with my lack of altitude so landed after 74km and 4 1/2 hours in the air. But boy did I land happy! It was truly an amazing flight through incredible scenery - the #1 flight of my life. Day 2 saw stronger conditions at launch that deteriorated into weaker conditions on course. Again a large number of pilots soared all the way to the ground in front of launch. Out in the flats things were working well up until my final glide. Everything was looking oh so good for the 12km glide into goal until it suddenly wasn't and the whole gaggle was on the ground 8km out :-(
Its a bizare experience to be in one of the best gaggles with guys who regularly win tasks outright and then find yourselves 'tractor-beamed'to the ground, kicking mud watching a squadron of 1/2 gliders fly over your heads 45 minutes later! The humbling side of paragliding!
I know I did the right thing staying with the gaggle against my own instincts. I was so tempted dart out into the flats to cruise in but it did make sense to max the glide and time by following the mountains. Sadly it just didn't work for us... this time!
It was one of the most fun and definitly one of the best organised competitions I have been to. After a full line stretch on day 1 my glider is going really well, I just need to adjust the speed-bar now before Piedrahita and then hopefully all equipment issues will be resolved.....hmmmmm, for sure I'll manage to generate some new ones though over the coming weeks ;-)

The flying Finn

Jukka, the Axis importer from Finland is in Barcelona for a few days so given a forcast of sunshine and south wind we went to Berga. As we arrived at the Espais landing field Ivan was just launching from Primera Maria on the tandem so we did a very quick site brief and headed straight up to 2ª Maria. The guys were already high above 1ª, unusual for the time of day.
I launched at about 1pm, climbed straight out drifting back in an unusually, for Berga, smooth round thermal (I even said that over the radio - should have kept my trap shut!) to 1600m and hit the shear of a strong northerly (where had that come from??!). Jukka was soaring the rocks at launch so I pushed back forwards to wait for him and mooched about above launch and out front while he found a climb. Climbing out again from the east nose of 2ª was rough and strong as the wind had picked up considerably on launch. As I drifted slightly back over the trees I was hoofed up and backwards by one of the strongest thermal/gust (?) cycles I have ever experienced. I had no directional control at all, it was just like being a dandelion in the breeze, the glider wasn't collapsing at all but it was impossible to turn as no amount of weight shift or brake was making any difference to where I was being pushed / pulled / blown. It took a few minutes of bewilderment before I realised that I wasn't going to make it back to launch and I was being taken in the direction of the forested gulley between the 2 launches.. not a warm & fuzzy place at that height and with that strength of wind. Hands-up I recorded 14km backwards but by standing on tiptoe on bar I managed to eventually get myself positioned above fields and fighting repeated collapses from the rotor of the trees in front ended up arriving in my 3rd field of choice! Jukka, pinned in the wind out front couldn't quite understand why I'd 'chosen' to top land !
The thermals had become so strong (it was constant 30-35 kph) that for the next 3 hours there wasn't a single lull between cycles as Jukka sat in the wind soaring through thermals in 300m beats at 2ª! He had joked that soaring is like meditation, by the time he was able to land I reckon he'll have been a fully fledged buddhist!

The 'Sofa' snake

We regularly find all manner of amphibian life hiding in dark corners of the house trying to escape the clutches of Merlin as he trawls through the garden looking for beasties to play with.
Last week the shower tray was overnight resting place for a small toad, Salamaders are regularly seen to disappear behind the curtains but its the first time I've had to deal with a foot long reptile!
Merlin was becoming very anxious about something beneath the sofa, so fully expecting to find a tail-less lizard of some variety I bravely went to investigate. My surprise was pretty vocal when on pulling back the sofa I found a snake wriggling away in side-winder fashion. I have to admit that I wasn't cool, calm or collected, in fact I squealed like a girl!
It wasn't a happy snake - I wasn't too happy either!
We couldn't leave it in the house, imagine going to sleep knowing theres a snake inside the room! So armed with a large plastic crate with a lid and the broom I persuaded it into captivity and then onto the rocks behind the shed.
I'm sure it wasn't one of the venomous varieties and would only give you a nasty suck at worst but "SNAKES - under the sofa!!!" Its not a good look.
After some research today I reckon it was a Macroprotodon cucullatus cucullatus - the false smooth snake. They eat salamaders and grasshoppers and kill by constriction not venom so I don't think there was too much danger. It possibly could have constricted my big toe but not much more, and so long as it was my left one that wouldn't be too much of a loss!

Storm watching

Its just become very very unstable across the whole of Catalunya.Cu-nimbs were marching in from the frontera from 11am and by 4pm pretty much soaking everything in their path. Its been quite a sight to stand on the top of the hill above the house and see the horizon completely filled from West to East with towering anvils. Even though they are starting 150km to the north its impressive to watch their progress and development as they track South. Its not something that I've seen before this early in the year..lets hope its a temporary phenomena.
Jukka, the Finnish Axis dealer is arriving on Tuesday so we will hopefully manage a quick flutter between the downpours in Berga.

Àger : not as 'awesome' as predicted!

You just know that when people start raving how 'epic' a week is going to be that it just won't happen!
Last weeks forecast for Àger was looking pretty special with light southerlys but as it approached the direction changed slightly towards the west and strengthened such that I didn't bother heading over until Thursday, and with slightly less optimism for a really good day, but still the potential for it to be good.
As we arrived on launch the thermals were starting to drag up the face, it had been over the back all morning. Jordi & I managed to reach Terradets gorge fighting strong broken cores but failing to get higher than the shear layer with the Northerly at 1700m so it wasn't to be an XC day. The climbs were strong and scrappy but the sink was persistent! We both managed to fight the increasing west wind to get back to the landing at camping by diving into sheltered gulleys to find climbs and then battling through the wobbliness where the thermals poked their tops into the wind. All in all it was pretty exciting! In the valley there was lift everywhere as the gusts scooped up warm air hiding in all the small crevices and gulleys, none of it was particularly useable but it made getting down to land a prolonged event.
By late evening, conditions had become light and fluffy with much less wind. I had an easy climb out from in front of launch and then glided over to Port D'Ager to fly the final leg of a triangle I had been attempting earlier. Not the intended way to complete the triangle but I enjoyed a different view into the flats towards Balaguer!
Friday was even windier from the West. The Jordi's flying tandems were struggling to penetrate and bouncing around the sky in a most disjointed manner, vertically up, parked and then vertically down.
In true 'Mad dogs & Englishwomen' style after a midday walk with Merlin up to St Alis to see what the wind was doing on top (it was northerly)we headed to walk in the Mont Rebei gorge and then to Canyelles lake to chill out and splash around.